Hornby Spares - B17 Tender

[flyingfox4475]

I went to the London Model railway show at Alexander Palace on Saturday and spoke to a very kind chap on the stand and following my question about spares. He told me to speak to Customer service dept. I had explained I thought you had to go to your dealer. He said no they should have spares at Hornby. So today I rang up Hornby Customer Service dept and waited a good half  hour on the phone in  a que. They when i was answered I explain I wanted a spare part for my B17 tender. I was told we dont carry spares for loco's you may be able to get one from another customer who has had to replace there's. I was not surprised by the response of this reply. However, I am now going to have to wait till the 2016 B17 arrives in the shops. So I can get 2 of them so I can replace the part on my loco. This means it was a wast to money when i bought my B17 Sandringham. As I am now going to have to buy an extra Loco to get the spare part. This and just having paid Hornby £25 to repair the same loco with new valve gear which has broken. It took 3 month to get the loco repaired. Then they missed this missing part on the tender.

I have lost faith in Hornby and will think twice about future purchases. Over £150 per loco this is too much. I think I will keep my older hornby item as they are much more reliable than the last couple of loco I have bought. The D16 tender is falling apart, my L1 tank pick ups on the training truck chatch on the catch rails on the points. The A3 Book Law is missing a detail on the boiler and side steps fell off. When you try to get them replaced I find Hornby have sold out or don't do the spare parts.    It is not very good to say the least. Imagen If you buy a new car from Ford and find when you take the car in for a service and it needs a spare part they tell you sorry we don't do spare part you will have to buy another one!

[JeremiahBunyan]

Sorry to hear you had such an experience. I had the same with Bachmann (only worse). However I don't think comparing model trains to cars is the right thing. Compare it to something of similar characteristics. Apples and oranges (elephants)...

 

And FWIW, I always thought that there are many other selected dealers who repair Hornby models too. Remember at the same time you cannot expect Hornby to have a spares of every single item at every single moment in time.

[poliss]

Is it the R.2920 from 2011? All the spares shops seem to be out of stock for parts.

 

Be different if it was made in Germany JBM. German companies have to have all spares in stock for 6 years.

[flyingfox4475]

I was only using cars as an example of what we would not expect from a car company. We should not accept from hornby. I fully understand that you can't keep spares for everything. But the point I was trying to make was Hornby do not carry spares for current models from there catalogue. They also not alone in this bluebox are just the same.  They said wait till new chassis comes out. But it won't fit your body. So again a much loved loco bits thedust. The new model will always be a higher price. It is just a way to sell more models. 

[Huwsie]

Is it the R.2920 from 2011? All the spares shops seem to be out of stock for parts.

 

Be different if it was made in Germany JBM. German companies have to have all spares in stock for 6 years.

Not wanting to defend Hornby here because my service requests were not the best service, but if it was made in Germany, yes the spares would be available - but then you also need to consider paying Fleischmann prices up front.

From my experiences I consider that Hornby make a good product which is commensurate to the product pricing.

As for bits falling off - where are these bits going? Yes, I have bits fall off as well - more often than not found aside the track somewhere, and from there I put them all in one place near my engine shed, then when I'm doing some work on the loco and I notice bits missing.... they are usually in that pile by the shed and easily re-attached with some glue.

 

 

[flyingfox4475]

My B17 is R2920 from 2011. 

[flyingfox4475]

Yes they usually fall close to the track. In this case I did reglue to the loco and then it fell off again but have looked everywhere it has disappeared totally. I have checked my box of bits that fall off to see if it was put in there to no avail.

[poliss]

I never mentioned Fleischmann. They are made in Romania afaik. I was thinking more of the budget brand, Piko.

[VESPA]

Flying Fox, what is your missing part? Sometimes the cottage industries make parts that MAY be suitable.eg steps

[96RAF]

... and then it fell off again but have looked everywhere it has disappeared totally. I have checked my box of bits that fall off to see if it was put in there to no avail.

That's not good enough FF - the 'look after my lost parts fairy' didn't find it and put it in your box for you.

Take away her magic wand until she learns to do stuff properly.

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Spares was a strong point for Tri-ang Railways, and Tri-ang Hornby....They even had spare parts lists available!

 

It all went to pot with China production. It seems that only a set number of models is made.

 

(This seems to be the case for all manufacturers!)

 

Any that fail Quality Checking, or are returned as faulty (consumer based quality control?) are then broken for spares.

 

East Kent Models, Peter's Spares, (and others...) also have some parts supplies.

 

Some rely on sourcing from Hornby, some break models themselves for parts....

 

Today's limited, or non-stock-holding, means that the heady days of the Tri-ang Railways Service Dealer have gone, along with a lot of 1950s, and 1960s things! 😉

[flyingfox4475]

The parts I am after the water filler lid from the tender.

[walkingthedog]

Is that all. I'm pretty sure somebody makes a white metal version. Worth searching for one. Have you considered making one out of plasticard or something similar. I made something similar once out of the top of a drawing pin. 

 

Try this for a start. Not sure it's the correct scale, just showing what's about. 

 

http://www.barrettsteammodels.co.uk/castings%202015.pdf

[Huwsie]

Sarahagain -

You make a very valid point about Triang Hornby spares. I remember the days when I used to write to Hornby in Margate with a list of what I needed, and a few weeks later a package would arrive in the post with everything I had requested.

There is however a significant differnce since then in all aspects, but mainly if you compare for example a Triang Hornby Class 37 to a modern day Class 37, the latter is an assembly of vastly more parts than the Triang version.

Working from memory, the power bogie of the Triang Class 37 was assembled from a dozen or so part numbers, most of which were common with models right acroos their then current range. There's no comparison with the models of today in terms of the number of mechanical and cosmetic parts used in the assembly modern models.

[Fazy]

Try Alan Gibson.  

Southeasten fincast.

Or wizard models

 

For white matel possible brass parts

Or make one you're self out of plastic card or Brass sheet. 

 

Ten minutes some black paint jobs a good un

[walkingthedog]

When you said a spare part I thought you meant something important so the tender could be used. Hornby or anybody else are hardly likely to have spare water filler covers. These small items are what keeps the cottage industries going and long should they do so.