A question of quality

[Decom]

I've noticed many brand new locomotives of similar types vary wildly in price. I can see that some of the price goes towards the asthetic of the train, some on how new the design is, however does any of it go towards quality and longevity of the motor? I'm on a bit of a budget so I am personally fine missing out on a bit of asthetic and going for an older design for a much lower price but if it means it will break quiker/ have trouble with it then that might change things. If there are any other differences that i havent considered (very much a newbie here) then I would also be interested in knowing that too. 

[LCDR]

 Hornby's  RailRoad range is aimed at people who want to model on a budget. The level of detail may be slightly less but the quality of build is up to Hornby's usual high standard. The motor may be slightly lower in performance but is no way significantly inferior, and should give many houts of excellent service. In some ways they may be considered more robust with less to fall off and get lost!

 

Generally the models are made from tooling superceded from the main range or in some cases taken over from Lima, but good nevertheless.

[Jimbo1707820979]

Hi Decom.  Many of the 50+ years old Triang, Lima, Hornby et al. locos are still running beautifully so this is part of the answer to your query. Locos bought at Very inflated prices will not necessarily give you more enjoyment - and you would be doubly aggrieved if you had trouble with them. So prudent buying is the way to go.

[The son of Triangman]

Whilst levels of detail have risen it is also worth considering that most of today's models have cheapo non-servicable disposable motors that have to be replaced when the brushes wear out, the older motors were fully repairable.  So longevity can be limited by the brush life of the motor on today's models (typical brush life is 100 to 150 hours on most of today's motors regardless of maker, after that your motor is on borrowed time). Spares availablity isn't great either and spare loco bodies are like hens teeth unless they are slight seconds or split from locos on ebay.  This applies to most of the makes out there.

 

Railroad is Hornby's affordable detailed range of models so are more robust, the models are mainly from old moulds.  The main range are superdetail models that are fragile and more of a display or exhibition layout standard model.  Both Hornby ranges are made in China, and quality control at times has been dodgy with poor soldering on wires, wonky plastic driving wheels and mazak rot due to poor quality alloy metal being used, however the build quality has improved a lot over the last few years and it is very rare to get a duff'un.  Build quality control issues affect all the makers that have production in places like China.

 

Of all the overseas makers out there Hornby is top of the bunch beating the others by miles.

[New man]

I have read this forum for some time but only just registered for this, the only forum for which I have ever registered so I hope this will demonstrate my strength of feeling on the subject of Hornby quality.

I must take issue with your comments about Hornby’s improving quality. During the last ten months I have had more than ten new Hornby locos pass through my hands of which only one was from the Railroad range. I describe it this way rather than purchased because all but one ( not Railroad) was damaged or faulty out of the box and had to be returned for refund, replacement or repair. In addition I purchased a new Select Controller direct from Hornby to ensure I had the latest firmware and this too was faulty out of the box and was returned, simarlarly TTS decoders. I will not detail the faults as I do not wish to divert attention from the point I am trying to make.

The service I have received from the Technical people at Hersden has been second to none and they have done everything to meet my expectations and resolve any issues very promptly. They demonstrate great loyalty to the brand and have my sympathy because they seem to be in the front line when addressing the poor quality product emanating from the manufacturing sites. They too have to deal with retailers and one told me that he returned ten locos this year nine of which were Hornby.

From my experience Horby have real quality issues and in my opinion  the fault lies at the top. In an earlier post somebody stated that Hornby do not listen but I think it is worse than that and executive management are uninterested. To demonstrate, following my recent experience I sent an e mail to Hornby’s CEO. I did not complain but expressed concern about the quality issues I and others were having. NOTHING, I do not know what response I was expecting but an acknowledgement would have been polite and this simple failure has led me to the conclusion above.

My Hornby locos with TTS are now, for the moment, great in all respect and I am satisfied ( Thank you Hersden) however, I returned to the hobby for my Grandson and I have to inspect/run every purchase to ensure it is ok before I “surprise” him.  Furthermore, buying a new loco should be an exciting prospect but I actually dread the process because of the aggravation that I anticipate. I have also stopped involving my Grandson at this stage because of the dissapointment he has had consistently. Everything on our layout is Hornby but I am not sure my loyalty is worthy of Hornby’s CEO in fact if it was not for John, Andy and the team at Hersden I would already been buying Bachmann and Helyan. 

To conclude, my experience demonstrates Hornby Quality has room for significant improvement and senior Management appear to be satisfied with addressing the symptoms by dumping on Hersden rather than addressing the cause. Buy Hornby loco’s and be prepared for disappointment becausein my opinion getting a “duff’un” remains a significant risk.

[2e0dtoeric]

New Man - either you have been EXTREMELY unlucky - or you are doing something wrong, to have so many failures!

Are/were you buying brand new from a proper shop, or used/new from E-bay, etc?

If from a shop, your first action is to take it back, and point out the fault. It's not Hornby's fault, they cannot inspect and test every item before it is shipped out to the retailers - and if they did, it then cannot be sold as NEW, because it has been used!

[walkingthedog]

I have 104 loco and the only fault I have had is the occasional loose buffer. The majority of these locos have arrived by post.