ColinB

Thanks for the info Bulliedboy, I was about to ask the question.

Yes atom3624 I would agree. The one Jenny KIrk tested had a DCC function that gave more chuffs of smoke the faster the train moved and moved off, I think if I remember the Zimo decoder already has this although it doesn't work that well with normal smoke units because of the heating lag. TTS decoders as far as I know currently don't support this mode.

I would agree with you XJR1300, I find that that don't often list the features such as lights etc. If you look at the new smoke fitted locos, very little detail. They have got a bit better in the last couple of years at least having a symbol about the lights, but again no real detail. As to the photos, some of their items in the catalogue are what I refer to as "vapour wear", they don't actually exist, they are in the process of designing them. If it works they will sell you one many months/years later or quietly drop drop it if it doesn't. If you look up the 9F in the 2021 catalogue there are no photos of the model. I gather there are some photos of the pre production versions available but that was only a couple of weeks ago. With a lot of the other models they are rehashes of existing models so on CAD either a recolouring exercise of change of nameplate/numbers exercise. Rails used to be good they used to take the Hornby data and put it into a common format with other companies products but as they no longer do Hornby products that service has gone. When I worked in the motor industry we used to try all different combinations of vehicles, many of which I have driven as prototypes, but we never announced it as a product until we had a "job 1" date.

Yes I suspect they will. If you watch Jenny Kirk's video on the one their competitor makes their's works a lot better on DCC as you can control it better. Even with the smoke units, I found wiring them to a DCC function improved them a lot. In answer to your question though, it looks like they will work on DC as in the text it mentions a TTS decoder upgrade.

Of they go again, class 66, Terrier, Prairie, 4 and 6 wheels coaches, are Hornby so devoid of ideas that they have to copy someone else? There are plenty enough models that they could make, they could even make the ones promised in 2021 and 2020 catalogues, without having to copy someone else. I did wonder when I saw their new releases. So they blast a load of their limited resources just to get it out before their competitor and generally it is not as good.

I ordered a couple of the steam generator and a Hornby Dublo loco. I doubt we will see the steam generator locos until 2023, the Hornby Dublo one I suspect will be late this year as they seem to pull out all the stops on those ones. It is probably as they are a much higher profit item. I only order ones on the Hornby website that might run out or will be so delayed that it negates any price rises.

I ordered a couple of the steam generator and a Hornby Dublo loco. I doubt we will see the steam generator locos until 2023, the Hornby Dublo one I suspect will be late this year as they seem to pull out all the stops on those ones. It is probably as they are a much higher profit item. I only order ones on the Hornby website that might run out or will be so delayed that it negates any price rises.

An interesting point was I was lead to believe that to make it work you needed DCC, but it appears they are supplied without DCC as there is a reference to buying the TTS decoder.

It will be interesting to see when it gets delivered. We know when it is supposed to be, but who knows. There are three of them with steam generators.

I tried loads of things. In the end I found Peco track rubbers were the best. I had a tunnel that I had an issue with, bought the Woodland Scenics kit but that didn't work that well. In the end I glued another Peco Track rubber on a length of wood and did it that way. Since then I found just a daily run keeps it clean.

Is this a joke? I think you will find enough reviews to say it isn't unless they are written by Simon.

Sadly Simmo099 that is what you have to do if you really want the product, order it from Hornby. Sad for the local Retailer but hopefully eventually Hornby will get the message. I must admit though I doubt there is much room for further price rises, but as most of their Locos run one to two years late, probably not a bad idea. The P2 Prince of Wales was in the 2020 catalogue, I think my original order was with Hattons but we all know what happened to Hattons, it got transferred to Hornby about 9 months ago, which although I didn't know it at the time means I might get it 20% cheaper. Given all the nasty things Hornby have been up to lately I would not be surprised if they bin that promise. I must admit I am fascinated as what Hornby will announce as a next product, seeing as they have not fulfilled much of last years. Perhaps some new Hornby Dublo products or possibly a loco fitted with steam or even a new class 43 with the new couplings. Then of course probably a repaint or renumbering of existing locos.

Well Fazy its Hornby's fault because they outsourced their production to China. Outsourcing your production to China is not an issue, loads do it, but they didn't do it sensibly by going into partnership with a company (you have to do that in China) which would guarantee production. No from what I gather they go on the open market for production, great if there is a glut, terrible if there is a limited resource as there is at the moment. We know they move it around as when they do, we get a bad batch of Locos. Now I noticed Dapol make their wagons in Wales, their wagons are substantially cheaper than Hornby's but more importantly if Dapol has supply issues getting locos from China, it has a product to sell. Hornby sort, of with their Airfix kits but definitely not with their railway products. As to the cost of Gas, China runs mainly on Australian coal.

It is Hornby's fault, lack of forward thinking, outsourcing only works when there is a glut of services. As to the gas, one of the reasons for that is the fact that many countries are chasing a finite supply. I don't want to get into politics but countries are trying to reduce their carbon footprint so coal is out, renewables don't generate enough power so everyone goes for gas as it is relatively clean. I can live without my hobby, I doubt I can without gas, so it doesn't really matter what gas costs you are going to need it. As to the second hand market, I regularly build locos out of bits and yes I have noticed some of the parts go up in price, but as a regular watcher of EBay I also notice those Dealers with the high prices still have the parts several months later. Most people have a budget which is all they will spend unless it is special.

Yes, but if your price is too high, you won't sell your product. I am surprised you could get a 555 for 1 pence, they were significantly more expensive than that when I bought them. Even at 22 pence I find that quite cheap. Either way it doesn't matter, if you raise your prices where your customer cannot afford your product anymore, the effect is the same.

@The son of Triangman 20% in six months? I get 10%, then there is the point "will there be a market left at those new prices", even Rails "specials" are cheaper. Long term we will see.

I know Bulleidboy, I suspect though the cancelled orders are with Retailers rather than Hornby. I do wonder though how long it is before Hornby stops honouring the price being the difference in price when pre ordered and now it is so large. At 10% we know from Retailer discounts that is not an issue to them, but now on say the P2 Prince of Wales I pre ordered, that will be 20% which will be a lot of money.

Yes XJR1300 I agree, not so sure about Bachmann dropping their prices, they might see it as an opportunity to get more profit, but to be quite honest I don't think the market is out there. I also agree about Hornby, still uses the 8 pin socket where other manufacturers are going over to better methods that make fitting easier. I managed to accidentally drop my Bachmann 9F tender on the tiled kitchen floor, I was amazed when I picked it up nothing was broken, a push in piece had fell off but that went back. The average Hornby loco breaks getting it in or out of the packing. Perhaps if they stopped listening to RMWeb and made their locos for reliability rather than exceptional detail (that seems to fall off) they might get somewhere.

I think we established long ago the increased cost is nothing to do with VAT, mainly rhe price of materials, shipping and increased labour costs in China. Of course due to Covid, more remote working. Add into this major mess ups with the A2/3 models and the Hush Hush models. Hornby according to last years results lost money again and they are not making enough models at the moment to make a suitable profit. So they have decided to increase the prices hoping that it will magically improve their revenue. They are doing all the things for a company with difficulties, outsourcing fundamentals at the detriment of their product. Hopefully 2022 will be a better year for them, all they can hope for is that Bachmann put up their prices.

From my experience of Elite DCC, power gets fed to the track as soon as the welcome screen disappears as normally if you have a short on the track that is when the error occurs. So I assume the DCC must be working. It sounds like, get Hornby to sort it out. I can think of loads of things it could be but nothing you can fix yourself. The email option with Hornby takes about a week at least, I have been complaining about it for ages. So it sounds like a phone call.

So from you latest description you can power the Elite up and and it goes to the main screen. It is only when you touch the dial you get issues. So what happens if you don't touch the dial for lets say 2 minutes.

I have seen it where I used to work if a manager gets it in his head China is cheaper, in our case it was India, they will go literally to the ends of the earth to the detriment of the company to keep up the pretence. Probably everyone knows this as I post it quite often, but for people that don't know, Amazon has flash sales on some Hornby items. I bought several Hornby large locos last summer at prices cheaper than anyone, the bad new is they only do it for a day on a single item, so you have to keep looking on their site. Someone did say they lower it for so many sales so once they got those it goes up again.

XJR1300 Bure Valley is also another nice place to deal with, plus all their profits go to supporting the preserved railway and they test the loco before sending it to you. So if you do have to pay ridiculous prices, let someone do something good with the money. There are many more. Once you have done the search on EBay do a Google search, you will be amazed what pops up, sometimes savings of over £50.00. Hereford Models are very good too, they don't seem to alter their prices to the new stock prices, so if it is an old loco you will get it at the price they originally put it on the shelf for.

Just to clarify I will agree the LaisDCC decoders work fine actually better that a lot more expensive ones I have used, it is just I normally use Zimo, I find they are a lot better with dirty track. I have a large layout so track cleaning will always be an issue. On all my DMUs or anywhere where I want just lighting I use the LaidDCC ones as they used to be about £10 each.

There are several ways you can do this. I would not do as someone who posts a video on the web did recently, cut off the socket and rewire it, then announce to the whole world how wonderful he was via a YouTube video, he just devalued his loco by £40.00. I am surprised you cannot get a blanking plug, I have a bag full of them. I get one every time I add a socket. If you are able to solder, buy yourself an eight pin header, which is an electronics part you should be able to get on EBay and wire together pins 1 and 8, and pin 4 and 5 which surprisingly are next to each other, of course if it is an 8 pin socket. If it is anything else you really do need a DC blanking plug. Alternatively if it is an 8 pin socket, get some suitable copper wire, make 2 "U" shaped pieces out of it. Push one into socket pins 1 and 8 the other into pins 4 and 5. I wouldn't cannibalise the decoder you might want to use it in the future plus if it works it is worth at least £10.00 or more.