ColinB

I tend to use Zimo decoders the £20.00 variety, plus TTS decoders if they exist for that model. In the A1/A3s I have the TTS decoders which surprisingly work ok (if you read my other posts, I seem to have a lot of issues with TTS). I have tried a variety of normal DCC decoders and found the Zimo ones were the best for my needs, I also found that they were more tolerant of dirty track and have a higher maximum current load. For the front spring I bought a rear or front bogie spring for an old tender driven loco. The other day I was searching for a spring for my loco driven Princess Elizabeth front bogie(the model before the current one) and I found someone on EBay doing them. You might have to get them from China they seem to do the best selection, but they seem to be OK, although I think my last ones were from somewhere in Wales.

I have just tried my Bon Accord A3, which was a Railroad version fitted with the A1/A3 TTS and it runs smoothly at a really slow speed and above, by slow speed I mean virtually a crawl. Trouble is if Hornby have been swapping motors then mine could be from a different batch and a good one.

Yes, I tried that first. It seems to be a powerup issue, generally every 3rd or 4th time it works. I suspect one of those capacitors is not working properly, but who knows. It is also pretty distorted, but it could have always been like that, when you have two of them going, one drowns out the other. The thing that really concerns me is it was working ok when I last used it about 2 months ago, that is why I have been checking all my other ones. Anyway, raised it with Hornby when I gave them a gentle reminder that I was still waiting for the loco one to be fixed (they gave me a return number in June, but told me to wait).It is probably that lead free solder, it is renowned for having bad joints, I know Ford had a ton of issues when they first used it in Focus instrument clusters.

Try a different make of decoder, that seems to make a big difference. The other thing I found with Railroad versions is that they don't always have tender pickups. On my Tornedo I added pickups to the tender. I must admit I have a couple of Railroad A3s and I have never noticed this issue, they are both running with TTS decoders. The only issue I did have was the front bogie derailing which I cured with a spring.

I seem to be always saying this but when I converted mine to DCC I connected loco and tender together with a two way lead and connectors. It made them work an awful lot better.

I know nobody is going to be ablt to fix this but I thought I would put a post in just in case someone else has the same issue. I have a HST TTS decoder that was fitted to my HST dummy loco. All it is doing is supplying sound and lights. The loco TTS decoder failed on a hot day in the summer and I have been waiting for the mail from Hornby to send it back for repair. Anyway I haven't run the HST much since then. So I got it out on Friday and noticed the dummy had suddenly lost its sound, still does the lights. So I did the normal things checked speaker, changed speaker, rewired header, rewired speaker. So today I decided to have a play on the tester. Would you believe it, initially no sound at all, if I turn off the DCC and then then it back on (pressing the error key on an Elite), one in 3 or so goes the sound works. Turn off the DCC and turn it on, sound disappears. Do it several times and occasionally the sound starts working and continues to work as long as I don't touch the "Error" key. Obviously this is not right and it is going to be going on a holiday to sunny Margate or Canterbury, probably when I get the mail to send its friend back. As it is on the tester I also checked that having no motor could cause an issue, but the motor works perfectly OK.

Yes when I read it the second time, I gathered that but he did mention something about pre installation so I assumed it was fitted in another loco. Yes, a decoder tester is a good idea, I have one and it is great for testing and occasional fixing of decoders. As I say I suspect it has gone "overcurrent", I found my ringfield based locos had a habit of killing Hornby decoders, not always at first but eventually generally once they hit a point or went round a bend. Even my HST that has a 5 pole pole motor killed the TTS on a hot day.

I hate to say it but they sound like the symptoms of a dead TTS decoder. What you need to do is backtrack and fit to the original loco it worked with and see if it still works. You say City of Nottingham Duchess loco, I am not an expert, but from the ones I have seen on EBay this is a tender driven loco with a Ringfield motor. The ringfield motors current can draw more current than the the TTS maximum current so that may be the issue. If it has been damaged return it to Hornby under their "no fault" guarantee. I recently bought a cheap decoder off EBay made in Taiwan, it had current limit on the motor drive, so if they can do it on a cheap £16.00 decoder, I think it is about time Hornby sorted it out on theirs.

I get the opinion that Peco's direction is code 75, so any enhancements to code 100 track seem not to happen. If you look at their code 100 long crossing, you will see what I mean it has been the same since the 80's and it has so much plastic in the frog area that most trains stall. They improved it substantially on their code 75 track but did they retrofit it to theit code 100 track, no. I agree with the previous contributer concrete sleepers did seem to only occur on straight lengths of track, and even now the railway line where I live has the "up" track with concrete sleepers whereas the "down" track has wooden ones. It is probably that when they fit any new track they use concrete sleepers.

There seems to a lot of issues with TTS. My most recent one TTS in dummy HST 125, working perfectly ok when I last used it, suddenly no sound. So I did the usual, checked speaker connections etc, etc, did a ton of tests in tester. Suddenly it started working, until I switched the DCC on and off (didn't even touch the loco), this is on top of one that every so often would lose its sound. I have got to the point now where I am checking all my locos with them in. There is either something very suspect about the way they set things in their software or some very suspect hardware. I use them because they are good value for the money, but I am beginning to think is it worth it? The one that kept losing sound seem to be an interaction with the loco motor, replaced it with an expensive Zimo one, put the original TTS in another loco and it worked ok, but who knows what will happen in a couple of months time. The annoying thing is when they work they sound ok. Sorry don't agree with the short circuit explanation, that would be the power side of the decoder, the electronics within the decoder should handle that. The only issue you might get is multiple resets on the decoder micro which if not programmed properly could put it in an undefined state.I assume what he is refering to is, if the decoder has "on board" memory and is writing to it when it gets a reset, but it should only be reading from it in run mode. I will read what he has to say though.

Rails of Sheffield were doing some, I am not sure if they are the same. https://railsofsheffield.com/bundles/21/lot-of-5-rails-replacement-boxes

The thing to do first is apply power between the brass pin on the tender and the wheels which don't have the traction tyres. That should at least tell you whether the power to the drive is getting there.

Oh that is OK Chrissaf, I figured out that must be why. It has done it before but previously I have noticed it and corrected it. Thank you though for pointing it out, I fully understand that if someone has to review it it going to take time, so no problem. As I say it was just I couldn't understand where it was disappearing to, I have had instances where the web page has had issues and you are never sure it has accepted it.

This is really wacky, a post that disappeared on Friday night has just appeared. In my case the said H & M controller is in the bin, once I found it contained asbestos which was near a moving part (the voltage adjust). I assume that is why probably around the 1980's they got redesigned, I think that was when the asbestos regs got bought it.

Great thank you LMSFan72. I will do some more checking now i know what I am looking for, it will be a lot easier. Yes, all the other lights work, it is just the ones in the headcode, which as you say are in the body. It is a pain because I can't test them with the body off.

I sold a load of my old stuff on EBay and got very reasonable prices. You have to be willing to photograph each item and list them, but it is definitely worth it. An easy way to find their value is to search for the same item on EBay.

Yes, I have done both. In my case I also upgraded the tender motor on both to 5 pole. I did it the opposite way to a modern Hornby loco, the DCC socket is in the loco and the loco and tender are connected by the same 4 way connector. I also added extra pickups in the loco so it picks up power from both wheels (the Flying Scotsman already has the slots for sword type pickups). So you will need to insulate the motor so it is no longer connected to the track. When you have done the conversion don't use a Hornby decoder it is not up to the job, look around for one with about 800 milliamp continuous current drive. I use Zimo ones, for me they are the only ones that haven't blown up due to excess current. Hope that helps.

I am no expert on the Select but from what I gather the control knob is a potentiometer as opposed to the Elite that has a rotary encoder. Perhaps the potentiometer is coming to the end of its life. In the old days the symptoms you describe are the same as you would get with the volume control on a audio unit (they are all digital now so you don't get the same issues). I know the way the select reads the potentiometer is probably different but it is still a potentiometer with a carbon track.

Yes, all my lights work except the top lights. The easy option is to take the 12 pin out of the DC version and put it into the DCC version to see if the top lights suddenly work and do likewise with the DCC decoder, it was just easier if someone knew what the 4 pin connector did. I hate taking these things apart, you breathe on them too heavy and something falls off. I have to fit a DCC decoder to the DC one so I will do it then.

I have just bought a secondhand class 50. I notice it has the normal DCC 8 pin socket plus a 4 pin socket alongside it. On the one I bought it was already fitted with a DCC decoder and there is nothing in the 4 pin socket. On another one I have just bought which is currently set at dc there is combined 8 and 4 pin header in the two sockets. I have also noticed the top lights work on the DC version, but not on the DCC version. Before I start pulling things apart to find the fault, does anyone know what the 4 pin socket actually does and should there be something in there when running DCC. I have downloaded the maintenance sheet and it does not even mention the 4 pin connector, just a 21 pin and a 8 pin.

The reason a lot of people don't see it is that once you login you don't get it. So if you don't "login" it sort of randomly appears. I gather what most other websites do is ask the question once then write to a "cookie" on your machine, so that next time you access the site it looks at the cookie and decides not to do the "pop up". Sadly it appears the Hornby Site doesn't do this, like it doesn't check spelling or English in the Forum posts. I could say something cryptic but I know the Hornby lovers will get upset. Another good example of "Outsourcing".

Thanks Going Spare for that information. I am not surprised, in my old job I quickly realised that once you "Outsourced" your production you lost virtually all control even minor chages attracted a premium, we even noticed the effect it had with cleaning of the offices. That probably also explains the shortfalls in new products, people not getting a product when they did an advanced order. Sadly short term it saves money, long term it appears a very good road to disaster as many firms are beginning to notice.

Thanks Rana Temporia that is the sensible type of answer I like to see. I agree with you entirely, I must admit I was surprised when I saw the asbestos, but then I thought back to my early days in electronics and that is how you made a high wattage resistor. You just wound some resistance wire around an asbestos core. Thankfully I only did it once. I am sure if you made a decent series regulator it would probably work as well, trouble is commercial ones are made to a price.

Seeing as you keep going on about it, I took mine apart. I don't know what all the fuss is about, it is a transformer feeding a multiplate bridge rectifier, the sort that were on car alternators in the 1980's feeding a rheostat. The bridge rectifier is incredibly large for a 1 amp supply. From what I remember of my old Triang controller nothing that different. To make it work with modern locos you would at least have to put something like a 2200 uF capacitor across the output of the bridge rectifier. I don't know why you would want half wave rectification, but I can see the other switch changes the value of the rheostat. Typical 1960's design. Mine must be a bit later as it has a sticker on the front saying it is double insulated, I don't think that was popular until the 1970's. Just as a comparison, this gives the same output on one channel as my Hornby PWM one, except the Hornby one if about an eight of the size and yes my Hornby one runs my Wrenns ok. Oh and it appears to contain asbestos, the rheostat is wound round an asbestos core. My wife died of asbestos even though she never touched it in her life, so I think I know where that is going.

Where has my post gone and why then do you persistantly argue with me. Electrical Engineering is something I know an awful lot about, but then that is you.