ColinB

If Hornby had packed the item then they could have some defence, but seeing as Hornby "outsourced" the packing and shipping they are fully responsible. Firstly if the loco was packed properly then there would be not so many issues, secondly the Shipping agent chose the Shipping company, and it is well known if you want your product broken then chose Hermes or Yodel. Add to that poor packing and you have a formula for failure. Ok most model railway people will moan but still keep buying from Hornby, but it is not a very good way to grow your business. I keep reading about oh it is Sam, but generally if he is being sensible he is very good. He highlights the good bits and identifies the issues, if he says a loco is good it generally is. I have bought many locos from his recommendation and so far he has been right. I think we will forget his displays for the Hornby program but as we are beginning to realise the rest of it was fiction, if he can make some money why not.

After watching Sams Video I thought I would check mine. He is absolutely right about the front bogie and definitely there is a sizeable gap between the bogie wheels and the track. The really amazing thing with mine is it runs perfectly ok at the moment with my track, a 16 by 8 foot loop with lots of points and a double slip. The double slip normally derails most locos, so weird isn't it, not a very good design but it appears to work.

Amazingly mine arrived in a satisfactory state. I keep looking at it to see if anything is wrong. I was extremely lucky though as the packing was minimal. I ran it on DC up and down a metre of track then put in a spare P2 TTS decoder and it happily did several circuits of my layout. The only downside is it is too detailed, I am frightened of knocking something off when it runs on my railway. I even managed to knock the front steps off putting back in its packaging and I was ever so careful. Fortunately it glued back on. I like the loco, it is a shame that a bad decision by Hornby management has probably removed all the good feeling that their program created.

I keep meaning to have a closer look at my locos. Surprisingly some of the pickups on other models seem very similar. I agree with 96RAF once they get broken even if you fix them they are never quite the same. I bought the latest pickups for a Duchess as AC spares had them, they are so nice like all the newer models they connect via plungers so the pickups come off with their plastic holder in one piece. Surprisingly they also fit the earlier Duchess, you have to remove the sanders as on an old Duchess they touch the rails.

There is space because I fitted it to mine. You need to buy a different speaker though. If I remember rightly on mine there is space above the rear wheels to fit a square speaker. I am sure I must have bought it from YouChoos, I think the decoder fits in front of the motor. It is a shame about 3 weeks ago I took mine apart to change the motor to a 5 pole one (Pendolino one if you are interested) and I remember I didn't move it to the tender as I do with a lot of mine. If I get time I will have another look.

That is amazing, I have the earlier set that had the tender driven motor. So that means the water tender is worth more that the complete set. I recently converted the loco to loco drive and removed the motor from the tender. I know it is sacrilege, but it was a very cheap way to get the Flying Scotsman with two tenders.

I just heard Rails have finally got stocks of the Caledonian, I ordered mine in 2018, so that is about 3 years. Fortunately there aren't any locos I am desperate for, so I don't intend doing anymore preordering. It is something special with Model Railway manufacturers, although at the moment if you wanted a new car, that would come a close second.

I agree with you 96RAF there has got to be an easier way to fit DCC. Another issue is that quite often even though you take out the screws and pull forward or back the tender top doesn't always release. I don't know if the printing is tacky when they put it together but it is like it held on by glue. On Merchant Navy locos the water control handle pings off. I have got to admit this one was one of the easier ones I have had to fit. I can't see Hornby changing though, I get the opinion that they are more interested in the detail rather than the practicality. Sounds like that could be a very expensive packing mistake on Hornby's part. From previous posts I remember reading Hornby don't make spare bodies, so be interesting what their solution is.

I thought I would get mine out again to double check there was no damage and notice one of the front steps had got knocked off putting it back in the packing. I glued it back on, these thing are so delicate. Looking at mine the deflectors look to be part of the body, so does that mean if they are cracked, you need to change the body?

I didn't mention their name, but I did used to buy stuff off of them before the pandemic, at that time they were pretty competitive. Then the Hornby Dublo Duchess of Atholl came along where they were charging £600, at that point I decided not to deal with them again. Then after Hornby bought in their new terms and conditions I noticed they no longer did the 10% discount other retailers did and anything that was in short supply had its price hiked.

I notice our friends from a slot car firm are charging well over the odds, £299 instead of £220. Perhaps I take it all back, it was worth preordering it. It is a nice loco but I wouldn't pay that much.

I don't know if the rebuilt West Country ones would fit. Peters Spares still have those.

Yes Mr Luigi, my sentiments exactly.

I have found with the electrofrogs especially on the ones I bought recently, those removable links that you supposed to push out to insulate the frog become disconnected all on their own so you are forced to use the frog switching feature. Also I found sometimes the trailing wheel on a loco will short across the point occasionally if you don't switch the frog.

Either way it doesn't matter you have fixed it now.

I have had decoders go short circuit but you can normally smell the burning. Having said that I did have a LokSound decoder where one of the input diodes had gone short circuit without the decoder smoking. First thing I usually do is replace the decoder with a DC header and check the loco runs perfectly ok on DC. As 96RAF says it might simply be a short across the wheels. If after all this the loco is ok, before you put a new decoder in check that there isn't something blowing them up. It is a Jinty, if it is the same as mine it has a 4 way socket for a Hornby 4 way decoder, I know my one went so it would only run on DC and I have seen other posts about issues with them, so it could be just be that the decoder has died.

Yes 96RAF unless he has changed he sells the single core wire wrapping type, I emailed when I first saw it. He might have changed though it was a while ago.

Thanks Chrissaf. I did find it eventually by searching their site.

The issue I have had is a lot of people that advertise DCC wire, sell the PTFE coated wire. Although it is quite thin, it is difficult to strip even though I know how to and is not very flexible, mostly all of the wire advertised is this. Then other people sell "wire wrapping" wire ever so thin with a single core as Chrissaf says not a good idea. YouChoos do quite good wire the only issue is it is a bit too thin, but it is multistrand. I have been using the wire that comes with some Hornby DCC sockets if they are wired. I did raise a topic about it ages ago where Chrissaf kindly told me the right size. Trying to search for it on the RS or Farnell websites is a nightmare, their search engines don't work that well. I will do a search on Wickness Model Shop to see if theirs is any better, I don't use a lot so cost is not so much of an issue if it is the right stuff.

So the display module and back board didn't contain any capacitors. In that case I stand corrected.

I started in the 1980s, over the years my late wife used to buy me ones for Christmas. When I retired I decided to get back into the railway, so I bought a lot more. I must admit I tend to buy ones I like. I seem to have a lot of A4s, Duchess and Bullied West Countries etc. When Bachmann started making really good diesels I tended to buy them, class 37, 47 and 66s. My layout is mainly 60s although one station is Goathland, another an LNER country station and the third one mainly Southern with Sheffield Park buildings, because they in different parts of the layout they don't look that out of place. So I try and be as detailed on the scenery so it looks reasonablely realistic. Of course in the old days if something was ridiculously cheap then I tended to buy it, now I think "do I really need it".``

That spike should be taken out by the input capacitor. It could be a dodgy electrolytic. several years ago there was a bad batch of capacitors that was coming out of China. The reason a lot of PC were failing. Of course it could be a dry joint, "lead free" is renowned for it. Glad you have fixed it though.

Well it wasn't until I catalogued them I found out I have close to 270, I do though have a layout. Obviously I cannot use them all at once, I just buy ones I like plus I fix quite a lot from wrecks on EBay.

Well for the moment it has a P2 in it. After Christmas perhaps I will go for a YouChoos one, they do sound good. The good news is though, a really easy fit even using one of those Road and Rails speakers.

Well they both have 3 cylinders, have no idea about the whistles.