ColinB

You really have worried me with that report of the loco stripping gears.

After watching the Hornby program especially the episode about Winston Churchill's funeral wagon, you do wonder if everything is being designed just to meet the requirements of someone in the model railway press. Simon did mention which magazine but I must admit I didn't listen much.

It would not be that great a surprise, but generally Hornby don't schedule that far ahead, normally it just happens. So I suspect a misprint, but in reality the date printed is more likely.

I have done a number of these on locos that I bought years ago when they first came out. You need to machine away the metal around the motor contacts as normally the two halves of the chassis would normally push up against these with spring contacts. Just remove enough metal to allow you to solder a wire on each motor terminal and then insulate it. What I also did was use a six pin socket for the DCC decoder, there is enough space at the back of the loco for it to fit. Somehow you need to attach wires to the two halves of the chassis, I used solder tags that fitted onto the existing screws that connect the two halves of the chassis together. By using a six pin socket it means you can fit either a DCC decoder or just a DC header. The advantage of this is when you complete putting it back together you can test it on DC to check you got the conversion right and check you have the necessary isolation between chassis halves and motor. Once happy fit the decoder, I used a £20 6 pin Zimo one, most of the other normal ones don't seem to handle the current, these do. Hope this helps, I have converted these and a number of A4s, the setup is basically the same.

Thanks dh2807 that was interesting, if you read the reviews on the web other than Sam's they think it is wonderful. Mind you, having watched many of the other reviews by these same people, I do wonder if they really know what they are doing. Mine is fine other than the travel on the front bogie, which looking at it suggests it can't be fixed easily. If it was a £70.00 second hand one I might be tempted but not on a £200+ one.

The other thing with all of these scams, if say in the case of the PO, did you give them your Email address. Generally the answer is no so you should know it is a scam.

Surely F1 switching the sound on or off? I must admit on my older LokSound decoders I don't get any sound until the loco moves which is totally different to my Zimo ones which make noises all the time. So by Firmware you mean the file you load to get the sounds.

I hope you get it going, but just in case you don't, LokSound do a replacement option for about £30 if you send them your old one. I found out when I had a broken v3.5 which unfortunately they don't do the same service for. It may be when you updated the firmware, the firmware was not suited to your device. You could try upgrading your firmware again, it may be the device is stuck in the bootloader (the software that controls the upgrade). If not contact LokSound they should have a way to recover it. I didn't even know you could update the firmware on these. I used to write software to upgrade automotive modules, I could write a book on all the issues you can get. I doubt it is anything you have done, the firmware upgrade should be tolerant of wrong key presses, the only thing you must not do is remove the power while you are upgrading the firmware.

I agree 37 lover, if I was going to do it again I would go for the fibreboard over plywood instead of MDF, only because it is lighter.

Yes, I have had tons of issues with front bogies on A1/A3s especially over points, which Flying Scotsman is it? I cured it on my Tornado by replacing the front bogie with the latest A4 part (Idid swap the wheels so I got the right colour). It might also be an idea to check the back to back measurement on the bogie wheels, this also can cause issues.

Hornby also has an issue with the front bogie on this model, there is no enough travel. When I looked at mine I thought what is Sam on about, there is about 6 mm of travel, then I noticed the travel is below the level of the front wheels. So when the loco is on the track the travel is at the end stop. Ok if you have completely level track, but even if you have there are always points that have slightly raised bits. Mine has been known to get stuck with all wheels running. I looked at the mounting point for the bogie thinking I will bend it up, sadly it looks to be a moulded plastic piece which I suppose you could do something with but I am not brave enough. Fortunately, I doubt many of these locos will see a real layout so I suppose lucky for Hornby. I fix a lot of my locos generally adding springs to front bogies to stop them derailing, one of the first things I check is that the travel on the vertical motion is not pushing the front wheel off the track, don't they.

My layout was made about 30 years ago with fibre board, it was the thing at the time, good bit easy to cut holes in for under the point motors and push Peco long track pins into. Bad points degrades over time in the form of sagging, needs supporting with a wooden structure, absorbs water. If I had made a better supporting structure at the time I think the sagging would be minimal. MDF and chipboard difficult to machine if you use under point point motors, virtually impossible to push track pins into. MDF is much better than chipboard. Plywood light but again difficult to machine, cannot push or hammer Peco track pins into without bending, over time layers can lift. I just recently put an extension to my layout I used 6 mm plywood base supported on a wooden framework, on the top where the track runs I used 12 mm Fibre board which gives quieter running and I can push track pins into. I know I am going to gravel it eventually but for the initial laying of the track you need the track pins to keep it in place. Finally with all of these is weight, my layout is strung between the rafters of the loft, so I didn't want to use a very heavy material.

Sam said it was CCL logistics, name rings a bell. If as a company you decide to dispense with your retail outlets, then you have to make sure you can fulfil the customer's needs. I bought loads from Hattons and Rails, I now deal with TMC, Bure Valley and Derails for most of my Hornby locos. if Hornby don't sort out their Shipping soon, I suspect we will be buying our locos at bargain prices from Hattons as people cancel their orders. I was lucky my loco arrived unscathed, I bought it from Hornby as when I preordered it they were the only ones taking orders. I get upset when an EBay seller uses Hermes, I quite happily will pay extra for Royal Mail, so I was very disgusted when I found Hornby a supposedly reputable Seller using them.

Unless Hornby are completely clueless, which I hope they are not, I suspect that they have sent a rocket to the logistics company. Damaged Hush Hush locos are severely damaging their business, a very expensive repair, lucky for them "Watchdog" is still not prime viewing. So hopefully things should improve. I wonder who made that decision, Montana, Simon or someone else?

I would go and look at YouChoos range of Zimo decoders. I have nothing to do with YouChoos but I use a lot of their Zimo decoders as they are very competitive. For the Hornby Terrier where space was limited Zimo does a really small decoder. It is expensive at £34, but the Gaugemaster ones aren't cheap.Fortunately their site gives all the dimensions of their decoders.

Yes, that seems to be the case. I have not noticed it on any my others although I did have a weight on a West Country that suffered from it, the loco seems alright. The really worrying bit is you pay serious money for an unused one on EBay and you might get that. With both of mine that had issues it showed itself by the motor not engaging properly with the drive. Something else we have the Chinese to thank for.

@DarkRedCape I know that they have the moulds to make many as after a wait of a couple of years they reproduce the same model with a few changes. The big issue is they do not control production, so they will have to schedule a remake of those bodies. The production facility may not easily be able to fit that into the schedule, then there is the point "who owns the moulds" Hornby have been on a cost reduction trip just lately so they may not. It is not a case of popping next door and getting a guy to make you 50 replacements, it is purchase orders, production schedules, shipping from China. Not an easy task especially when you have several customers that want their model fixed now.

Some of the late 60's/70's Amal carburettors suffered from it, mainly from using too cheap a material. Surprisingly the earlier ones didn't. On my Royal Scot chassis, motor holder (two parts) both suffered from it, so I assume the parts were made at the same time. If you look on EBay there is a Seller selling raw chassis with it ( just look at the ends with broken off tabs). Looking at all the posts I just thought it it was limited to Royal Scot/Patriot locos as you see lots of posts about it, so you can imagine my surprise when I found it on a Princess Royal.

Well I hope I spelt it correctly, there are lots of posts about it. From what I can gather it is am imbalance in the lead mixture used in the diecast. You get a chemical reaction that make the casting brittle so it cracks and bits fall off. This is the second loco I bought that had it, the first was a Royal Scot that I bought as a non running. On mine it always seems to rot the most around the motor area although I do have some loco weights that have suffered the same. I think Hornby had sorted it on their Margate models, it appears to have resurfaced when they used the Chinese manufacturers. We know from the children's toy scandal of lead in the paint how the Chinese love their lead. I just posted the subject to help anybody identify it, usually because the loco runs badly. That loco was made by the previous management so I am not blaming the current Hornby. The only thing I wish is that they would sell off spare new chassis, so it would be easier to fix the issue.

We all know about Hermes, it is general knowledge. If you are going to send something via Hermes, usually because you want to save some money, you need to pack it really well and assume that it will get thrown against a brick wall. Sam's video shows packing by Derails, you could probably throw that at a wall and it would survive. Funny all the excess packaging probably negates your postage savings. Hornby are to blame for outsourcing the job to a firm that seems to know nothing about packing. Interestingly I notice more of the "on line" stores are reverting to Royal Mail so that must say something. From Hornby's point of view that was a very expensive mistake. Any other model you replace the smoke deflectors or tender base, but on this one the smoke deflectors are the body, the tender is unique. As has been stated many times Hornby generally only makes enough parts for the production run, hence why you can never buy spare bodies, so I really do wonder how they are going to resolve the situation.

This a photo of Mazak rot for anyone that is interested. I bought this supposedly never used loco and found this. Fortunately I have now bought a replacement chassis. I only noticed as I had the usual fault motor does engage with gears properly. You will also notice the chassis is becoming like a bananna.

Problem is 96RAF Hornby have "outsourced" all their warehousing, so choice of Courier is entirely decided by their chosen firm. Lets be honest if they chose Royal Mail or DPD the firm that is running the warehouse facility would not make any profit. The only way an "outsourced" firm can do it cheaper than your own people is either your warehousing was terrible (which I doubt it was) or the new firm employs people on a substantially lower wage. We know from recent events that really cheap labour does not exist since we exited the EU so they will be students or very temporary labour. We used to outsource cleaning in our office, over the years our office got dirtier and dirtier, just before I retired they were not even changing bin bags.

Another interesting fact that none of the reviewers have commented on is the DCC socket. On most of the newer Hornby locos I have bought they have the X9084T pcb, on the W1 they have used the older version. The advantage of the later T version is that it has a double sided pcb with plated through holes which means soldering is much easier and quicker as the pcb is better quality, but on the W1 it is the much older one where it is harder to solder to and much easier to solder tracks between the 8 pin socket pads. Is it because the T version is more expensive or was it because the production firm had a load left over from a previous job? I notice from my electronics background and I am generally making sure that the pcb is wired correctly before putting a decoder in. If you are going to use an 8 pin socket then the least you could do, is use a decent one.

@Dark Red Cape I have two of them , I will check. I also did some more testing on the W1. Ok my track is not even around some of the points, mainly where I have double slips, at anything above 30% setting with 4 coaches no problem, below that I actually had the loco with all 6 wheels spinning not going anywhere. The only other locos that have this issue with my layout are the Oxford Radial and some of my old Ringfield based tender driven ones, which I sold this week. Generally all my A4s, Duchess (with improved front bogie) and Princess Royals don't have an issue. It is because the front bogie's travel is wrong. It looks like R3999 is the later version Hornby released, I have R3854 and R3711, I noticed R3999 is the same price as the W1, needless to say I paid substantially less for my ones. Looking at the W1, the hanger for the front bogie looks to be solid, whereas on the Duchess, Princess and A3/A4 the bogie is supported on a metal arm that can be adjusted slightly. Not that I have tried but it doesn't look like you can do this with the W1. It should have its height reduced by about 3mm, that would allow the bogie to move up. I like the loco so I am not sending it back, but it is worth knowing these things.

I can only relate my experience. I have one and the detail is great, as for performance there are better locos that Hornby have made of late, the Princess Royal and Merchant Navy locos being much more superior. As to YouTube yes there are lots, trouble is there are so many that send you to sleep. Not that it is that important but the Princess Royal has a flickering firebox and even with the price rise, is cheaper.