ColinB

I did wonder about that and whether the previous model had a better one. Looking at it, it looks like it is virtually the same as the Fowler 4P Tank one and that has the latest NEM pocket. Even for a cynic like me, I honestly don't think Hornby meant to do it, was it a new guy that looked up the out of date Service Sheet? I assume it has the modern tender arrangement with the decoder in the tender. I am not even sure I would want it if it was greatly reduced. Anyway I bought the previous model off EBay. Perhaps SK had to go, he would never have signed that off.

Well if you use the Pecket PCB that takes a 6 pin DCC decoder it takes up even less space and when you sell the loco you can easily convert it back to DC by just inserting a header. I do that with a lot of my locos where space is tight. It also only has 4 connections.

I know from a thread I started on RMWeb. I thought the price was a bit expensive before I even knew about the moulded smokebox door. I knew my really old one didn't have it so I found out what the last versions they sold were, they were R3564 and R3565 and they definitely didn't have it. It has to be a mistake on their part. I was looking up the Service sheet to see what the part numbers were for the decoder in tender, tender, but there is only one service sheet which is years out of data. Fortunately it is the same as a Black 5.

Thanks, I did wonder.

I was trying to find the latest Service Sheet for the 8F, that references R3564. The only one I can find is 261d on both the New Modellers and Hornby sites. Service sheet 261d refences the older models before they added the decoder to the tender. Any idea if Hornby posted a later one?

Oh that one is easy to answer. Do you spend all day on Facebook, do you believe everything you read on Social Media? The majority of people under 40 it appears do. So yes nobody under 18 is allowed on the site (is that a new rule, I am sure before it was parents permission) but there is an awful lot of people between 18 and 40. As to the badges as I said earlier I take no notice who has what and should hope other people do as well. A lot of business looks for good communicators, unfortunately when they are doing that, they very rarely analyse whether what is said has any value. If Hornby want badges then who cares, bit like being in the Scouts seeing if you can fill your arm with them.

I was about to say the same. I do find them amusing though.

They probably can, it all comes down to the specification you gave them. The administrator of RMWeb seems to be a bit of an aggressive character, that knows what he wants so perhaps that is the difference. Even with RMWeb it took a little while to find my way around. This new software is ok, there are are a few issues with the checkboxes for the forums, if you uncheck them all, I would expect it to display nothing but it does. Not a big thing. The other one for me on the old system it displayed all the topics on one screen with the last contributor with date at the side so it was easy to see if any of the topics had been updated. I think the new one gives you a list as you go in, of updated topics but not so easy to scan quickly. It works, as to the badges well it is one of those things that ill informed managers like to see, not much use really. Look at the positives, you don't get a ton of adverts like RMWeb.

I know I got one yesterday. Sadly just accept it, eventually they will get fed up with their new toy. I think the idea is so you will look at the site more often.

That is not too difficult. Fortunately the later bottom plate with pickups from the later ones fit and I think they are still available. Alternatively just wire to both pickups directly. Remember to file down the chassis pick up pin on the underside of the chassis. You can either take out the weight in the smokebox to make room or wire to the tender. Gets rid of that horrible tender connection but you have to file a hole on the underside of the tender to fit the 4 pin socket. That is if you want to do properly. To be honest you can still run with the live chassis, the motor is isolated so it will still work but getting rid of the live chassis will make it run better.

Do not use a 4 pin decoder, go for a 6 or 8 pin, that way you have more variety in the choice of decoders. I am assuming the Merchant Navy is the rebuilt type as it is old. You might have difficulty fitting it all into the loco body. On my old ones I put the decoder in the tender and connected it to the loco via a 4 way connector as in Hornby's later locos. If the loco doesn't have a decoder fitted it will buzz on DCC, just like putting on an AC source and as someone said eventually burn out.

It is probably the 15 minute window. The time is measured from when you entered the first post to the end of the edit.

It doesn't matter, it appears that posts are limited to a window of 15 minutes from when you posted them. Unfortunately, when you decide to edit the post within 15 minutes it lets you do the edit but the timer is still working from the time of the original post. So as you edit the offending item, the timer times out and won't let you put it back. As I said to one of the administrators it would be helpful if gave a "pop up" error message. The logic is all screwy, it should stop the timer when you decide to edit and start it again from zero, then time out after a predefined time. This is where it does differ from RMWEB.

I suspect that is what happened. I did try looking at the source to check timings, I could find it for one of the posts but not the other. I must admit if the Edit option works, then I assume that it will load it back.

I think it was less than that. I posted the post, then noticed the Service Sheet they were referencing. 10 minutes at the most. Even so, would it not be an idea to have a pop up error that tells the user the reason? In the old system where it didn't like a word it highlighted it. Thank you for telling me though.

Its done. As this post is getting so much attention I thought it was a good place to put it.

Members 4.1k Posted 1 hour ago I think you might have a bug on the Edit function. Went to edit my post and it wouldn't save it. In the end I had to post the new edited version as a separate post. Couldn't see anything that was wrong with the new text.

I must admit I am at a loss why they would Ship them like that but perhaps they just fall off in transit. As to the diagram if you go to the New Modellers Site they list all the Service Sheets in a more logical order than on the Hornby site. If you can't find one for the Railroad A1/A3, try the Tornado which is similar, although there are differences with the chassis and valve gear cylinders.

I think you have a bug on the Edit function. Went to edit my post and it wouldn't save it. In the end I had to post the new edited version as a separate post.

I hear so many stories of this happening with Amazon on other things. This is what you have I suspect, its part number is X6873. It doesn't have a spring and a washer it is just a stepped bolt screwing into a nut loosely retained in the bogie. You can see it in the photo. If you have the bolt (the difficult bit to source) you may have lost the nut as it falls out the bogie if the the stepped bolt isn't screwed in. The nut is M2 type and I think it is what is called a reduced head, meaning its hex shape is smaller than it should be. The special detailed A1 bogie has what you are talking about but the bolt head is in the bogie and the nut and washer are above the slot in the bogie bracket. Effectively the bolt is upside down in relation to your one. If you want to add a spring and washer I would look for suitable ones on EBay. That is what I do.

I read this again, the other forum just dumped the badges not the package, I don't even know if they used this one. It was a Webpage forum for a totally different subject. I assume the badges are an "add on" that comes with most packages.

As far as I know I said there were more steps which I thought were unnecessary but I also said it was faster. I did make a derogatory comment but that got caned. Since then I can't remember rubbishing it, just pointing out that the badges were unnecessary for a serious forum which I am sure this is, it appears I am not the only one. As I keep saying it is ok, I even stated that I was happy with the text. So what is your issue? As to the other site that used badges that was for another one of my hobbies which is of no interest here. I use RMWeb a lot because generally they answer my questions and I find as long as I avoid the actual price of locos I get less grief. I have been working and developing software for most of my life, so I can generally work with any sort of web interface, but as I said this one is ok. I must admit I wouldn't have used check boxes, clicking on the title is a better interface as per RMWeb, but someone probably thought it was a good idea.

Perhaps it is because I have a desktop with a decent screen, the text is readable for me and that is without my glasses on.

I didn't rubbish this platform, actually I think it is ok. I was replying to the automatic issuing of badges, if you had read the posts properly you would have noticed. Now perhaps I am missing something but last time I used it about 2 hours ago RMWeb wasn't issuing badges. The only issue I have with the new forum is it updates too quickly when you tick the subject identifier , General, DCC or HM7000 and it updates without the normal flashing of the screen to indicate it has done it. There again now I know it does it, no issue. As to RMWeb, yes same package but obviously configured differently.

Impressive, when is delivery scheduled for?