Lost Interest

[PJ_model_trains]

 

Either way... it doesn't really matter. LD will will be here soon so those who are patient will be OK but those who have grown to be 'tired of waiting' should hold on and maybe be thankful that Hornby are sticking to their guns and doing things right.

Hi AC,

Could you please define 'soon'? Is that a shorter or similar 'soon' to the one in the Railmaster manual published over two years ago?  

 

Coming Soon... Hornby have a different dictionary I think.

 

Putting this aside they have, I think, managed the LD situation badly.

 

Creating interest then a long period of silence is doing them no good at all.

 

Other companies are working on other ways of doing this, meanwhile Hornby remain in total silence. Fishy says they are possibly just waiting for the right time, in the past he said, why wait for the patent, get the system into the market as soon as possible. Both options have their own arguement, meanwhile Hornby deflate their customers, leave us in silence and phaff about till another company comes out with another way of doing something... then they will panick.

 

Soon or coming soon that is the question, that has been their statement for up to two years. Everyone knows technology is constantly advancing... LD could be out of date by the time it is launched because other companies have found other ways to do the same.

 

Just my thoughts on this issue.

[dynax]

i've had my own LD system for years, no problems to speak of, it tells me where any loco is at any given time on my layout, it lets me know when it approaches stations, points, signals, crossings, it even lets me know if a loco has derailed,

[RB51]

The only problem I have is I can't figure out how to make mine warn me about imminent collisions! R-

[PJ_model_trains]

The only problem I have is I can't figure out how to make mine warn me about imminent collisions! R-

 

You need LD Roger --- LOL   ;o)

[RB51]

Finding my blessed glasses would be a good start PJ. R-

[Michael_A]

i've had my own LD system for years, no problems to speak of, it tells me where any loco is at any given time on my layout, it lets me know when it approaches stations, points, signals, crossings, it even lets me know if a loco has derailed,

But it doesn't tell RailMaster so you can't relaibly run programme sequences (for those of who that want to)

[PJ_model_trains]

Finding my blessed glasses would be a good start PJ. R-

 

Hi Roger

and I thought I heard you singing... something like...

'I can't see clearly now my train has gone'

[Graskie]

Back on form, PJ? Nice to hear from you again.

[PJ_model_trains]

i've had my own LD system for years, no problems to speak of, it tells me where any loco is at any given time on my layout, it lets me know when it approaches stations, points, signals, crossings, it even lets me know if a loco has derailed,

But it doesn't tell RailMaster so you can't relaibly run programme sequences (for those of who that want to)

 

 

I think this is where Hornby feel they have the key to play on time. They know how many RM users they have and they are making LD to work with RM, keeping customers in the Hornby system.

 

No one would blame them for that but, it doesn't excuse them for building people's hopes up, 12 to 24 months early, adding snippets in RM early in the year to give us a taste, then leaving us in total silence.

 

They probably included the items for LD in RM for several reasons, firstly to give us a taste of what is coming, secondly as it could give them ideas they hadn't thought of, thirdly it could hilight problems they had not considered and also to encourage RM users of what is coming during a time when they had other issues. Keep us interested. Or those were some of their possible intentions and time has run on as they fault find, add additional items and test, test, test RM and LD on their system. It is easy for time to run on when fault finding and testing, they probably haven't realised.

 

Adam can you chase for an update it is months since we heard anything about Loco Detection. Thanks.

[RB51]

'I can't see clearly now my train has gone'

Sharp as ever PJ - good to see you're back on form. R-

[walkingthedog]

I think they're very wise to keep quiet. If they give so much as a hint about availability they're hounded to the end of the world.

 

I can't see clearly now my train has gone.........that really is very good. 

[PJ_model_trains]

I think they're very wise to keep quiet. If they give so much as a hint about availability they're hounded to the end of the world.

 

I can't see clearly now my train has gone.........that really is very good. 

 

Hi WTD

 

I partly agree with you, but...

 

The issue is... don't mention it in the first place and you don't build peoples hopes up.

 

Once an issue is raised or made public, hopes have been raised, interest has been created, they should accept they must keep the interest going and in doing so they should have accepted the time scale. 

[walkingthedog]

I've always said that the likes of Hornby and Bachmann should only announce anything when it's about to be dispatched to the shops. A lot of people on here could then spend all their time trying to guess what's coming. Or they could announce that 30 of the following 75 locos will be made in the next 5 years but not say which ones. 

[Augustus Caesar]

 My main points were, 1) Loco detection, (or train detection as others call it because it doesn't just detect locos), is already widely available and B) I don't believe Hornby not releasing it yet has anything to do with patents.

 

I live only a few feet away from the wall. I used to play on Turret 7b when I were a nipper. :D

I got your point re the LD but the patents thing could be a goer or a non goer... only Hornby know where they are with that so we can leave that one there as it is pure guesswork on our part at this point in time.

 

Turret 7b... I know it very well and my last visit was a couple of years back when my brother and I did a round trip of 42 miles on our bikes and took that in on the outward journey along the Wall and to the two forts past Benwell (Condercum as you will know). Have a look at my site about Hadrian's Wall... incomplete but still very extensive...

hadrians-wall.info

I keep adding it to it now and again but it will be massive when done fully.

[Augustus Caesar]

I've always said that the likes of Hornby and Bachmann should only announce anything when it's about to be dispatched to the shops. A lot of people on here could then spend all their time trying to guess what's coming. Or they could announce that 30 of the following 75 locos will be made in the next 5 years but not say which ones. 

Yeah, and we could save our pennies for a forthcoming loco and actually SPEND it instead of waiting for something 'coming soon' and building up a huge cache of notes and coins in anticipation of a product promised but not seen. Doing the latter means we miss the recently released stuff coz we needs the doh for our LD or something... lol

[PJ_model_trains]

I've always said that the likes of Hornby and Bachmann should only announce anything when it's about to be dispatched to the shops. A lot of people on here could then spend all their time trying to guess what's coming. Or they could announce that 30 of the following 75 locos will be made in the next 5 years but not say which ones. 

Yeah, and we could save our pennies for a forthcoming loco and actually SPEND it instead of waiting for something 'coming soon' and building up a huge cache of notes and coins in anticipation of a product promised but not seen. Doing the latter means we miss the recently released stuff coz we needs the doh for our LD or something... lol

 

We could even save Gold Bars. ;o)

[PJ_model_trains]

And the reasons in either direction continue to go round and round!

 

Encrypt that and LD might arrive first ;o)

 

I am sure Hornby commented on LD at the start to create interest and test response. I am also sure when they included it in RM they did so to see what we came up with to help them make LD better when launched.

 

The above have to be good, so as I see it, the only issues are, lack of communication by Hornby and the overall time it is taking to launch the system, 12 to 24 months since first mentioning it is a long time. Hornby created the interest, they want us to remain interested, the least they could do is keep us informed. They could argue they have nothing to tell us but, taking time into consideration and that they started the interest it can be argued as good business practice to keep interested customers informed. An update with no date is better than no update at all, it shows they care about their customers and want to keep us interested.

 

Just my thoughts on Hornby's handling of the situation.

 

[37lover]

PJ,

Glad to hear from you. We've strayed off topic a bit but I think there are many that share your thoughts, certainly me. Very disappointed! I hope Adam passes on some of the comments.

[walkingthedog]

Don't forget that it was just about ready when they had what SK called a eureka moment that changed everything. 

[Michael_A]

I'm really surprised Hornby aren't commenting, they usually jump in very quickly if they feel they or their products are being criticised ;)

 

Let's try this approach and see if they respond.

 

What about misrepresentation? What about customers being misled into buying RailMaster in the belief that loco detection is coming?

 

Let's see what happens now... :)

[PJ_model_trains]

PJ,

Glad to hear from you. We've strayed off topic a bit but I think there are many that share your thoughts, certainly me. Very disappointed! I hope Adam passes on some of the comments.

 

Hi 37

 

Glad to show my face it has been a hard period but we all get them at times. Having lost two family members my wife and myself have to get ourselves right now, we are both worse than last year. I have an electric bed coming early September as I am struggling to get out of bed now. Not going into all the details here, at least if I can get up I can do bits of things and 'play trains' 

 

At present my layout is stood on end, (no man jokes guys) one of my daughters is up from Poole with the grandchildren, once they have gone back I can get someone to lay it down again and I can have another play, as we say ;o)

 

We might have an update from HRMS by the end of August, that will be good. I do hope signal sequence issues etc are all sorted. 

 

I am certain HRMS will reply regarding LD, I contacted Adam and pointed him to the latest discussions.

 

PJ

[PJ_model_trains]

Don't forget that it was just about ready when they had what SK called a eureka moment that changed everything. 

 

'A Eureka Moment'

Blimey WTD is it that long ago?

No it is longer than that!!!

Coming soon seems to be their favourite words.

What does that mean? Coming Soon!

[PJ_model_trains]

I'm really surprised Hornby aren't commenting, they usually jump in very quickly if they feel they or their products are being criticised ;)

 

Let's try this approach and see if they respond.

 

What about misrepresentation? What about customers being misled into buying RailMaster in the belief that loco detection is coming?

 

Let's see what happens now... :)

 

Hi Michael

They couldn't be done for misrepresentation on the basis of LD is coming, it is coming, sometime.

But 'Coming soon' is another issue

I wonder what they would do if they ordered say, a nice new car, something they really liked, something really wanted, something that would help them in their hobby (driving), and the supplier said initially 'Coming Soon' but then never updated them and a year later it had not arrived. 

[PJ_model_trains]

And the topic is 'Lost Interest'

 

I know I have had a lot to contend with this year but have to admin when it comes to LD, I am close to Lost Interest. 

 

Have all the promises and issues caused me to lose interest totally, no, but it has gone a long way towards it. If it was launched last year, when we all got exited by the words, 'coming soon', I would have spent £400 plus on LD straight away. Will I now, doubtful. Two things have changed my decision with purchasing LD, one is the signal sequence issue, available November 2013, now August 2015, 21 months and they are still not working as they should. That is a long time, I purchased a large amount of signals, straight away, in good faith, yet they are not working correctly and we have not had an RM update since March and that was after chasing an update from HRMS. I will not buy LD until I see it working and we don't have a forum full of complaints and issues.

 

Sadly, Hornby have not done themselves any favours, in fact from where I sit it appears to me they have done themselves a lot of harm.

 

[walkingthedog]

Let's get this into perspective chaps. It's a gadget for playing trains. If this is all you have to worry about then lucky you. 

 

Just imagine if that car arrived early and turned out to be a load of rubbish because they hadn't ironed out some unforeseen problems. What would you prefer, something that worked better than you expected or something that spent most of its time being repaired?