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Fitted a 21 pin one to a Dapol Class 73 South West Trains and an 8 pin one to a Hornby Sir Francis Drake Nelson class (S15 profile) Only had trouble with getting the sound file to load and work but a few attempts and all ok. Replaced the hornby supplied speaker in the Nelson class with a Rails Exclusive 8 ohm Baby Boomer which fitted the tender chassis better with a little fetling of the metalwork. Both sound great and i intend to purchase at least 20 more decoders to satisfy my needs. just hope the sound files continue to roll out.

Just use the power supply from the HMDC6000 direct to thge track and not through the HMDC6000 system. It is 15v at 1 amp. Perfect for the job!!!!! Mine powers my Loco Clinic which has HMDC6000 or a Roco DCC system to power multiple gauge rolling roads.

I have 2 Bachmann Class 20s running nose together on on hardwired HMDC7000 chips using the same address. Just go to CV29 on the back loco and select reverse running, (Bit 1) Sounds are identical and slightly off beat to give a surreal slight echo. Volume is awesome though as your getting twice the noise.

Well I received mine last Wednesday and took it to my friends for it's inaugural running session. it ran faultlessly for 1.5 hours in each direction. Now all run in it will receive a TTS sound chip and some decent speakers. I use a bass unit for the deeper notes and a higher frequency unit to bring out the higher frequencies. My only gripe is that Hornby are lax with their pacaging as this is the second model from them with postal damage. This time it was a minor crease to the top of the carton and retail packaging. last year my H Class turned up totally crushed, I couldn't even remove the model from the packageing. It was replaced by Hornby without problems and the replacement was perfect. Hornby,,,,, can you pack locos in bigger boxes with a bunch of foam chips to fill the voids, Hattons do this and I've had no damage ever from them! Nevertheless,,,onwards and upwards

To correct an earlier comment, the OO Live Steam Club is totally free to join and all knowledge, practcal wisdom and now, video tutorials are free to members. We support members with an online shop sporting a good range of running and maintenance spares and now we can supply re-engineered vital parts from cast and turned brass. Many of the original components were made from Mazak which with time along with wear and tear have started failing on a regular basis As a concept originally designed and engineered in Britain by Richard Hallam and mass marketed by Hornby it met all the requirements of a Steam nut! Not necessarily the rest of the rail loving model world though. It's funny how it continually attracts a huge happy throng at shows. We even have die hard visitors returning on day 2 to run and tinker with their locos. So they have paid 2 show entrance fees to come and play trains on one layout of many at the show. That's dedication!!

Well said Ken,!! The Hornby Live steam Models are very much alive and well as we constantly support the over 600 active OO Live Steam Club members around the globe!! We (The OO Live Steam Club) are always received well at shows and recently at the London MEE one visitor was so impressed he went on ebay staight away and bought one whilst observing and experiencing the marvel that they are. Most of our members were of the original disgruntled and disparing variety who parted with there hard earned cash for what seemed a complete lemon! Now they have mastered the 'correct' modus operandi they are completely smitten and go on to builld modified and re-bodied varieties like your good self,, you could say, proper minature steam modelling by enthusiastic engineers!! We have got to know the locos so well now that we can pinpoint a fault with surprising accuracy and have the spares and experience to solve the issues. Hornby to remake them????? I doubt it very much in the current climate (although Simon K loved them!) but when we have worn out the 14,000 odd locos made we will want some more for sure!! 😆

I have just modified my 8211 ( bought for £47 by removing the track section completely and installing 4 more sets of rollers as Hornby are selling them at a£9.99 a pair. My his gives me a fully rollered rolling road for another 40 quid. No need for a length of track to support rollers. The wiring is connected to an EC3 connector which in turn connects to my source, either Live steam, DCC, DC.