james_nelmes

With the Ringfield armature it's worth having a look, as they can often be repaired. The commonest fault is the solder joints fail and go open circuit. The Ringfield is wired as a "Star" so underneath the commutator, you will find a joint where the three winding ends are soldered together. The other end of each wire is then soldered to a tab on the edge of each copper plate on the commutator. The commonest fault I have come across is these joints on the edge of the plate fail, but can be easily repaired by positioning the end of the wire back onto the tab and using a soldering iron to remake the joint. I bought a bag of about 30 of these off e-bay a few years back, which were all open circuit on a winding and got 25 working again, and almost all were exactly this problem. Repaired a few more since then with the same issue.

I would like a Deltic TTS sound chip plus a DMU TTS.

It was marked as dispatched on the 29th so it looks like they've come in on Sunday to shift the backlog - thank you Hornby.

Mine on way too.

I spoke to them last week. The locos are due to arrive in September, but they have a large number to ship out, so they will do that in conjunction with their normal business demand and it might take a few days (slip into October) to get the last few out.

I recently had mine upgraded to 1.6 and it was £15. Process is: Ring the hornby number and select repairs - option 2 (I think). They will give you a reference number and the address to send it to. Post it to them - make sure it is adequately insured in the postage method (and tracked) and quote the ref number on the parcel. Put in a cover letter with address, e-mail, and phone numbers etc. They will upgrade it and then call you to collect payment. They then send it DPD back to you as part of the cost.

Went to the Hornby stand at ModelRail Scotland yesterday and they told me they are currently in the process of updating all of their warehouse stock to 1.6. Once this is done, they will put out a notice/message for existing Select owners to upgrade to 1.6. They said they expect this to be in the next few weeks but they may have to manage the demand to ensure their other activities are not overwhelmed by the expected large demand.

The Select is a basic controller and for me the ability to change CVs is the biggest missing element. For many people starting on the road of digital, it is ideal and not too expensive. The cost of upgrade does include delivery back and is not making Hornby alot of mooney when their labour costs etc are taken into account. The ability to run through the e-link with the new cable is also a definate plus.

It's older locomotives that suffer from this mainly of the wren / Triang-Hornby era up to 1975. I have had occaisional problems with ringfield motors which have been fixed with a remag, but these tend to keep their magnetic field quite well. I've not come across a modern motor which suffers from this but it could do. Symptoms of weak motors are poor pulling performance and the armatures tend to get hot and can burn out. If you run a motor and it smells like it's getting hot, there may be a problem. As I said above, you can remove the body and use an app to measure the magnetic field. Alternately you can place a small screwdriver on the magnet and you should feel reasonable resistance pulling it off. If there feels to be little resistance, the magnet is probably weak. Some people buy 'super neo' magnets to replacethe originals and they do give a really strong field. I have read posts which say this puts a strain on the motor and damages it in the long term. I bought a remagnetiser off ebay and so remag my motors myself and this does work. There are lots of reasons why models stop randomly and almost certainly not the magnet. Could be dirt on the pickups, dirt on the track, odd pickups not contacting the wheels or losing contact on bends. If it's happening in the same place on the layout it's a track / pickup thing. If it's random, a service should help (lubrication and pickup cleaning).

I have one of the kits mentioned above and it works really well. A bit expensive if you are only doing a few so it might be worth contacting one of the motor refurbishers out there and ask them for a quote to remag your motors. I use an app on my iphone called MMF-Meter. If I get a reading which exceeds the limit of 1000 micro Tesla the motor is generally ok, if not I remag. You can also (and I have) remag ringfield motors and X03/4. The key is making sure you line up your magnets with the remagnetising field. Also make sure they go back in the right way (X03/4) or the loco runs backwards.

I would like: Class 40 Class 25 Class 37 Class 47 I agree that everyone would win and could be a valuable new line for Hornby.