ColinB

Looking at the setup Hornby have for testing their locos on their program on the Yesterday channel, I can begin to understand why the newer models negotiate points better. Than is some evil test track, perhaps they didn't have that setup before. Looking at their staff, they all seem relatively young, so perhaps more open to change.

I have got to admit on all the "retooled" models I don't have these issues, it seems to be be all the older designed ones when the present management wasn't in place. In fact on both the Duchess and Princess Elizabeth you can see where Hornby have improved things, like as I said a better designed front bogie, better pickups. So I have to applaud the improvements they have made. The models I refer to are mainly the Railroad models and older Chinese made ones which I usually get secondhand probably because they had these faults. The post was to help out people that have issues, which as I said doesn't seem to happen with the newer "retooled" models. The only shame is that Hornby don't always sell the improved parts as spares.

I thought I had posted an answer to this, but I cannot find it, so my apologies if you have read the post before. On my P2 I added an extra sliver of phosphor bronze to the front bogie by gluing it on, this seemed to fix the issue. On the older Duchesses with the motor in the loco, I found replacing the front bogie with the later type fixes it. You seem to not be able to get the later type as a spare so I bought the one from the princess Elizabeth and straightened the bend in it, they are basically the same part just the mounting bracket is bent differently. On my Tornado I found issues with the front bogie which were fixed by using the A1 type with a spring, I also found that using split conrods instead of that long one piece one fixed the issue as well.

Hornby tried doing that on their 1980's models like Stowe. I bought about 3 of them, but when I look at the bodies on all 3 of them they are all slightly distorted. Not as bad though as Stowe, where the reflective tape fell off. Sadly the oil makes the tape not stick any more. I think a better solution is to pot it in a die cast chassis where there is metal to disperse the heat. That was an old Hornby Princess loco, there is no way all that would fit into the latest Princess with the sloped coal bunker, it is pretty difficult to get the TTS decoder and speaker to fit.

I did exactly this to my one. For the bogie containing the ringfield motor it is not really worth adding an extra pickup as the rubber traction tyres mean that you would very rarely pick up any current from the wheels. The best solution is to add extra pickups to the dummy bogie. Originally you could buy a dual pickup that attached to the bogie, but you cannot get these any more. What you can buy though is one for a class 90 electric loco. I bought one of these and shortened the length. It actually clips onto the bogie to easy to install. What I also did with mine was fit a later 5 pole ringfield motor which does have pickups on both sets of wheels, although because of the traction tyres it only really picks up on that side when the loco goes round a bend.

Had a mail from Hornby this morning to say mine had arrived at the warehouse.

Well there is Woodcock in apple green but I haven't seen one of those on EBay. You could also consider one in wartime black, I think they look different.

Yes, I agree about Sam, I like his reviews but when he does silly things like that it puts me off taking him seriously. He has obviously not heard of losing your reputation by doing something silly. I am sure in the terms of the producers he is good television material, young and dynamic. As to the program the thing that surprised me was the smoke unit, I have fitted them to my locos in the past, they never smoked like that. Thing he didn't mention is the heat distortion to the body and the oily residue it leaves everywhere, nice layout though although I have seen it in many Hornby videos.

From what you say and that it was originally working it sounds like the decoder has issues. If there is a capacitor across the motor you could try removing it and seeing if it makes a difference. From what you are describing and that you have checked all the normal things, it is a return decoder to Hornby to see what they say. From what I have learn what is in these devices it sounds like the motor driver part of the decoder is failing once it has to drive current which means there is nothing you can do. I must admit I have had all sorts of failures with TTS decoders but this is a new one on me. I suppose the other thing you could check is the 8 pin DCC socket, make sure none of the individual sockets are loose. The DC headers have slightly larger diameter pins than the decoder ones, so sometimes if your 8 pin socket has issues it fails on DCC, but not on DC.

I don't remember mine having this sort of issue. On some Hornby locos they got the motor and pick up connections wrong, but I don't remember this being one of them. I know I had an issue with a Schools loco, but that was a really old one.

Thanks 96RSF for the information that is a shame, I already have Seagull and Capercaillie but I can rename one to Peregrine.

Does anyone know which A4s in Garter Blue with valances had twin chimneys or funnels. I have managed to build a couple of Railroad A4 mallards from bits and have done a few improvements like pickups in the tender and a 5 pole motor, plus a few cosmetic changes (glazed windows, real coal in tender). I already have a decent A4 mallard, so I thought about getting these two renamed. Now I know Mallard had a double chimney, so did Peregrine, but what others did? Reading the data on the web most of them went to a double chimney eventually, but it seems this was after BR took them over.

I have used them, as others have mentioned they are a capacitor circuit that is used along with a DCC decoder. The plus point is they are really good with 0-6-0 tank locos on points where the loco may not pick up the power properly because it is sitting on the frog, so it keeps the power on the decoder long enough for it to reach the next part of the track where there is a better connection. The down side to them is that they make reprogramming DCC decoders difficult, because the programming voltage is not on the rails long enough to charge the capacitor. I use the YouChoos special circuit, which I am sure I could probably make but it is a small pcb that is easy to fit.

I tend to look at the EBay bid prices. So if an item is listed and people bid on it (not "buy it now") looking at the final price it sells for is a good guide. There are a lot of people, some I suspect are Dealers, that put inflated prices on items that no sensible person would pay, which gives an unrealistic value of an item. Second hand track doesn't fetch much, I avoid it like the plague. Most modern peco track age hardens and disintegrates when you try to use it, I think old Hornby stuff is a bit better at not "age hardening".

For the Thompson I used the A1/A3 TTS decoder, I don't know it is correct. I did post on this forum for some help but nobody offered any advice. As for the Schools, I don't know, my one has a Zimo that I inherited with a second hand loco.

I think I did read from someone that putting a resistor across the terminals that feed the motor works. I have no idea of the value but something under 100 ohms I suspect might work.

That choice of decoder by Hornby always surprises me. I would have thought that they would have it made for the normal 9F rather than the Crosti, as there are some 9Fs that are still running. Also the regular 9F has been a mainstay for Hornby over the years in the form of Evening Star. It must have been more difficult to get a recording of the Crosti. I have been wondering what the difference in sound would be between the Crosti and regular 9F to use in my Evening Star and freight loco. I know the exhaust is different, but there again there are single and double funnel funnels so that must make a difference as well. I assume the whistles must be the same between variants.

I must admit as I use EBay for selling stuff so I know how much postage costs. The thing that does annoy me is when someone sells me something on EBay they say it has been posted but don't actually do until two days later. The thing is, previous to Covid I would happily pay more for Royal Mail postage as around here they were so good, sadly after Covid they have not been so reliable.

6 pin decoders are used extensively for N gauge so basically you will always be able to get them. Hornby from what I gather are the only people that make 4 pin decoders. As to the extra two pins they are used for front and rear lighting. I have used 6 pin sockets on all my split chassis Bachmann locos where I wanted a socket but the 8 pin one was too big. If you hadn't noticed by now, I tend to use Zimo decoders mostly and their 6 pin one has a higher current rating than the Hornby ones. One of my Hornby locos came with the 4 pin arrangement, I didn't want to make a separate DC adapter for it, so it was easier to just change the loco end to accept a six pin decoder and put a new decoder on the Hornby decoder.

I would agree DPD are usually very good, Hermes very variable dependant of the courier. As I say the women round here that do it are very good. I have even had Royal Mail leave parcels on my front door, Covid being the normal excuse.

You don't have to send the decoders back. Chrissaf, he had already said he wanted sockets so he could wire them into the loco, so that indicates to me a level of wiring ability. As to to the Hornby decoders you just cut off the 4 pin plugs and replace them with a 6 pin one. I did exactly that. It just means two of the pins are not populated. I saw in the earlier post that is what you had written. The other advantage of the 6 pin is that there are readily available 6 pin DC headers if you want to convert back to DC.

If you are going to all the trouble to add a socket to the loco why not wire it to 6 pin. It is quite easy to convert the 4 pin Hornby decoders to 6 pin. It then means you can use any 6 pin decoder in your loco. They even make sound decoders that work on 6 pin. I did that to a Hornby Pannier that had a 4 pin decoder. I think you will also find 6 pin decoders are cheaper than the 4 pin versions.

Oh yes I forgot about that, yes I ordered a replacement motor and it came in a huge box.

You are right about the boxes, but it has to be an extra special model that someone is looking for. Trouble is if you want a lot of money for a loco in a box, EBay is not the place as generally all Sellers tell you in the text that it is in superb condition, so very few people believe them. Generally the immaculate locos that command high prices sit there for weeks. If it is rare then that is where you seem to get the high prices, then if there are exactly more than two people that want it, like any auction. Before I found the Heljan EM2s, I bought the Triang versions, generally when they were selling for sensible prices. Mine came with boxes and cost between £60 and £80. There is a guy on EBay that wants £30.00 for a Hornby Falcon A4 box, it has been there for a least the last two months.

I am wondering if we are looking at the wrong model, doing it to the "Railroad" model would make more sense, there is a bigger market out there and more room inside the loco. We know that of late Hornby only seems to like to add sound to "Railroad" models. I wonder about the sounds, I assume the TTS decoders have a memory limit, as they have nowhere near the capability of say a Zimo or LokSound, so there must be a limit on what you can do with them. The upsite down model was ridiculous, but you have to applaud the work she put into it, Sadly looking at the previews we have more of that to come from "Sams Trains".