ColinB

Often slow is a bit of an understatement. To be quite honest Hermes for normal post rather priority with a Retailer like Next is about 4 days from when you get a mail from Hermes to say they have got it. Generally the mail from Hornby is to say they have put it in Goods Outward, that does not mean Hermes have collected it which could take another day. The good thing about Hermes though, as long as they don't lose it, is you can see on their website exactly where it is which is quite good. Round where I live, the Couriers are women and they are super careful and reliable, so that is a real plus point.

Yes Hornby are incredibly slow, trouble is we get spoilt by Amazon. Most model railway retailers deliver within two days, I think they realise that if you get your item quickly it means you will order from then next time especially if all retailers charge the same. I must admit unless they are much more expensive, that is normally my criteria for ordering off a particular retailer. In the case of Hornby, it is the case, you only order from them direct unless you have to, although sometimes for parts they are sometimes cheaper. I think they have also changed their delivery company recently, I think DPD must charge too much as quite a number of firms have changed to Hermes.

Well the favourite is the sound chip has died. Easy thing to do is remove the sound chip and see if it works on DC. If it has died after 10 minutes, it seems a bit unusual but if it is a TTS decoder then not a surprise. The other thing to check is the capacitor across the motor they sometimes go short circuit taking the decoder with it. If it is a TTS decoder it is guaranteed for a year so either return it to who you bought it off or Hornby.

I think it gets worse than that, although certain coaches are say LMS, it may be that they were not built at the time the loco was running. Similarly I imagine there are certain BR coaches you shouldn't run with a loco having either the early or late roundel. I suppose you have to look at the date the coaches were introduced and the locos time frame, or just not bother, life is too short.

No it is none of those. Yes I know the centre one is thinner with no shoulder as it holds on the valve gear, unless it is an original West Country or Merchant navy then it is one with a very long shoulder. There are also thin ones for holding on the speedo or pump, but that is reflected in the wheel having an insert as is the case with the centre wheels. These are thin shouldered ones that only seem to be used on the Railroad Tornado, they don't even seem to use them on the Railroad Mallard. It is not even the difference between metric and imperial, I have some of the old imperial ones, they are totally different. I assume some designer thought they might save some money. I have the Bon Accord and a Tornado locos that use the same chassis, which seems to also use the singular con rod, 3 pole motor and small diameter con rod screws. I don't know if the latest Railroad Mallard is the same, most of the earlier Railroad A4s I have, use the old chassis with slightly "chunkier" valve gear.

Has anyone any idea why Hornby use different diameter and obviously different thread con rod screws? I recently changed the conrods on my Tornado to A4 ones as the A4 ones are in two pieces as opposed to the single length used on the Tornado, giving the loco a better ride. When I was fitting the conrods I suddenly realised that the screws were different, although the heads are the same size. I know some of you will see it as knocking Hornby but why? It can't be a "cost save" as they don't make enough of them, plus you have the complication of sourcing two types which negates any cost save. It just seems weird as it means you have to keep several different types as spares.

Sadly over 200, I didn't realise I had so many until I listed them in a spreadsheet. Trouble is I like fixing them so some of them are wrecks that I fixed or made from parts. As to carriages and wagons probably nowhere near this number, I have never counted them. Some of them though are from 30 years ago.

Thanks 96RAF, fortunately I don't need any. I wonder how they keep getting them? I fixed all my locos the last time they had them which wasn't that long ago.

I must admit I never check the "chuff" rate, I suppose I should do it with my Zimo sound modules to see if they get it right. I know on LokSound decoders there is a CV to do it. In my case as long as it makes a noise and the whistle is correct I am not that bothered. I assume to do it properly you would need a 2D map of chuff speed against motor back emf, but that would be so dependant on the motor that it would probably need changing.

Sorry edit isn't working for me. Previous post should read Pendelino Motors rather than just Pendelino.

I don't know if this any use to anyone but I thought I would just share some information. I wanted to change the 3 pole motors in my Tornado, Duke of Gloucester, P2 and Railroad Mallard. I found a Pendelino motor fits perfectly. You have to remove the worm drive and flywheel off your old motor to put on the new one, but it fits perfectly. Also I was having issues with my Tornado derailing on points and uneven track. I suddenly realised that the Tornado has one long con rod, as opposed to split ones as used on virtually all the other pacific locos. So I ordered a set of A4 con rods and replaced the long one with the split arrangement. Problem solved, I suspect that the solid conrod doesn't allow the centre wheel to move slightly, which was causing the issue. The quality control on Pendelino is also rubbish, out of four units two were jammed. The wire clip holding the magnets in, was not fixed properly causing the armature to jam. Fortunately I managed to fix them both.

I build a lot of locos from bits or buy damaged locos and fix them, so I like to have a proper box to keep them in. Trouble is at the moment the only choice is EBay, some people charge up to £30.00 for a box. I must admit that is well outside my price range. I set a maximum of £12.00 because on top of that there is normally the same post and packing as if you had bought a loco in a box. I like them in boxes as it is far harder to damage them, although some of the Hornby polystyrene ones can damage the loco.

I think the chuff interval is not covered by a simple reprogramming. We have been here before. I get the opinion Hornby consider TTS is meant for a market where nobody notices that much, which is further endorsed by the fact that Hornby only factory fit it to models in the Railroad range.

Interesting episode last night. Of interest to me was the TTS decoders, so it appears it is as I said ages ago that they are all the same they just program them with the necessary loco sounds. The thing I didn't realise was that the sound system was separate to the main decoder but that makes sense. I am sure the three of them trying to diagnose the issue was just for the cameras, even so it was still enlightening.

The gears arrived this morning. I can now see why they are about half the size of the normal ones Hornby use. That explains it all, I suppose I will have to order the proper motor when someone has stock. So if Sam wants to ever try that speed trick again, there is no need to raise the voltage. Just fit one of these motors.

Great thanks 37Lover for clearing that up. Of course in reality given current actual release dates, it could be anytime. Funny though on some locos they do actually release when they say they will.

I was interested in the Hornby A1 in Black, I didn't want to pre order it so I checked on the Bure Valley website. It is listed as arriving in Winter 2021. Anyway I thought I would check on the Hornby website, amazingly the date has got pushed back to Winter 2022. So that is one for the new catalogue.

Can you not just buy a new magnet for the motor. That is what I did with my Wrenn locos. If it is an X03 or X04 the magnet can be replaced.

Great, thank you for the information. I have ordered a spare set of Princess gears so that I can compare them. It looks like I will have to wait for the a proper motor to turn up, the cheap Chinese ones I have got don't drive the loco fast enough.

Does anyone know if Hornby changed the gearing on the new tooled Princess model. I wanted a new motor for my Duchess loco, all the normal spares outlets were out of stock but Peters Spares were doing the Princess motor. I had to remove the flywheel and put my own worm gear on but it fitted perfectly and is was substantially cheaper than the proper Duchess motor. I ran the Duchess on my layout and it goes like a rocket. I run a DCC setup and normally my locos run at about 70%, this one I get the same speed at about 35%. Now I have lots of old Princess locos and the gearing is the same as a Duchess on those. I have never taken my new model one apart to check whether the gearing is the same, or did I just get supplied a fast motor by accident.

Have you checked Peters Spares, he had ones for Fowler/Stanier tank locos. Then there is always EBay.

I can see the logic in the production runs, what I can't understand is why they don't have stocks of NEM pockets and couplings. I don't know if my locos are unusual but they are always losing NEM pockets, by them simply dropping out. Similarly valve gear nuts are also an issue, fortunately just lately none have unscrewed themselves, but they do and then drop around the layout, again they don't do replacements without buying the complete con rods or valve gear. Next years preorders should be interesting, after this years issues, unless it is something I am absolutely desperate for I will just wait for it to come out and take my chance. I was interested in a Clan class loco, decided not to preorder and surprisingly got a brand new one for cheaper than the preorder price. I suppose the only thing I would like is one of those locos with steam, but will they be around next year? Of course then the dilemma of whether to order from Hornby, knowing if you really want it that is the only way plus if they raise their prices again by 10%, it will be the same price as the discounters.

I didn't even know that they restocked items, I thought once they had done a production run that was it. As for new models being late, well that is nothing new, even though Covid and Shipping delays have made it much worse. I was trying to work out how many items from this years catalogue that weren't in last years one, they had actually delivered. I can think of only one the Clan class, but I am sure there are others.

I have tried the working lamps from DCC Concepts and YouChoos. This is a personal opinion, but unless they have improved them, the DCC concepts ones were incredibly small and on lengths of fine wire not much wider than a human hair. The YouChoos ones were much easier to fit being a bit bigger and having easier wire to work with. As for DCC, most modern locos usually explain how to fit the decoder in the instructions.

samfieldhouse I agree with you entirely I was thinking exactly that after the program. Once you start dealing in DCC with sound decoders and controllers it becomes a relative complex hobby. We all know if you put more volts on a motor it will go faster, it is just how long before it blows up that is the unknown factor. Even wiring up a straight DC layout has its issues, especially with points and isolating sections. I watched that Brooklands program, as I say I watched a guy trying to work out which spanner to use on a vintage motorcycle, anyone who repairs classic motobikes knows that the only problem area for spanners is around 1969 to 1970 when the industry was changing over from whitworth to AF. Trouble is some people think it makes good television. Watching the program it appears there is very little cross fertilisation between different designers which probably explains why a good mechanical feature on one loco design doesn't seem to get implemented on the others. I still can't believe that they don't use a standard motor between models. Yes I know they won't always fit, but in many cases with a bit of effort they could make it so, it would probably also increase reliability.