ColinB

I have a Zimo decoder in my Schools loco and I agree, it is the whistle that is the big issue, they seem to be unique to a particular loco.

Looking at the first 5 minutes of Sam's video, the old Hornby controller he is comparing it against is also pwm. Unless it has different internals it is exactly the same one as I got with my Pendolino and it is PWM. I know because I had issues geting train lighting to work and looked at it on an oscilloscope. PWM is much better for driving DC motors and is much easier to generate using a digital device, hence why they use it.

It is the PWM they use, in my locos it is more like a growl. The only consolation is the locos run better. If you to go technical, the frequency of the PWM is too low.

The old bodies were BA thread, the new ones are either self tappers or metric threads.

4-4-0 loco have to have them, because of the traction tyres on the loco wheels. From my experience without tender pickups these locos wouldn't work at all.

I have a Schools Class Brighton loco driven loco. The intermediate gear is held in by two pieces of very small plastic with incredibly small screws. Unfortunately on mine, one of them is broken. When I look at the Service Sheet 330C there is no mention of these and no part number. Does anyone know where I will find the part number and more importantly do I actually need them, I imagine the intermediate gear is held in via the motor worm drive pressure on it.

I am no expert at this, but is it fair to say that most if not all Railroad type locos do not have pickups in the tender. I bought a Railroad Tornedo and another A1 and that didn't, although I think my Crosti 9F has. Unfortunately it does not seem to be the thing that Hornby list in their catalogue, or have I missed it.

I would take out the decoder, replace it with a blanking header, and sell the decoder on EBay the header with wires is worth about a £1=00. Don't rewire the decoder header, it is not worth the effort just buy a blanking header. It is a shame we cannot swap addresses I literally have about 50, from all the models I have converted. Try and see if the decoder works on DC, it might, don't use an H &M or older controller as these tend to damage them. Actually, if you are not worried about the decoder try it on DC as it is, unless it has been programmed with a different id, or the DC option disabled it should work. If it doesn't then fit the blanking plug.

Yes, i have done the same, some people genuinely don't know, but then others are trying to pull a fast one. Quite othen Skaledate northen stations come up, they are listed as Goathland station, because that fetches more, I even bought one at the North York Moors model shop wrongly labelled and you would have thought they would know, it is on their line. It wasn't until I saw the original I realised.

I don't know if I am allowed to put it on this site but I converted about 10 of my tender driven locos to 5 pole, using the units Peters Spares is selling at the moment, and a mismatch of parts from the same supplier and that popular auction site. So in the next month or two (when the virus hopefully dies down a bit), I will be probably be selling my old DCC converted Ringfield motors on that same popular auction site.

When I was converting my old tender driven locos to DCC, the diggest issues I had were old traction tyres, the small pinion falling off, the loco wheels and valve gear locking up (really big issue) and of coarse the back to back wheel spacing on the bogies. The ringfield bit was really easy, but I suppose each to their own.

I have just converted about 10 of my old tender driven locos. First thing to do is get rid of that connection using the loco to tender pin. I use the Hornby 4 way plug and socket and put the decoder in the loco. I also make the loco pick up on both sets of loco wheels, either your flying scotsman picks up power from the insulated wheels (early 1980s type) or there are locations in the plastic to put "sword type" pickup in. You will be amazed at the difference. Don't use Hornby or Hattons decoders, they cannot cope with the stall current of the ringfield, they should according to the data but they don't (blew two up when the loco stopped at a point). I use Zimo, about £4=00 more expensive than Hornby's cheapest price, but tons better. The Hymek should be better, but again you have the issue that it is not picking up on the avaible wheels, don't bother with the driving wheels as they have traction tyres and really don't give much.

I have bought a few things on EBay that were not exactly as described. The thing I tend to do, is think is it worth what I paid for it? Sometimes we think we are getting a good deal only to be dissapointed. I bought a Stanier tank engine bottom half (I wanted the pickups), no body, only to find when it arrived that it was just a combination of worn out spares cobbled to gether to look good in the photo. More importantly there were no pickups. Trouble is you don't want to ask because the other buyers see the response and it pushes the price up.To me, I only sell stuff I would be happy with, bad feedback can completely destroy any chance of selling anything else. As to the Fowler bottom half, fortunately the chassis was ok so I built another one with the cheap Chinese motor and made my own pickups from other parts supplied as spares by Hornby. It is always a big risk buying locos with sound units, as you never know if the electronics has issues. Just look at the posts on this site and you can see many unexplained issues with sound units. Generally, unless it is new, pay not much more than what you think the loco on its own is worth, if the sound unit or DCC decoder works then it is a bonus.

I have also found old ones go hard and then don't work anymore. The other thing that was a big issue with mine was the small driving pinion on the end of the motor shaft became loose. It appears from my experience, that they are a push on once option. So if you take it off to get the motor armature out, expect to replace it.

I have just been fixing old Hornby Flying Scotsman locos. If it is a tender driven loco then do the following if not ignore it all. Are you sure it was the drve wheels, the ones second axle in on the tender from the loco flop anyway, it is so it can negotiate tight bends. The first and third are driving axles. Generally it is traction tyres that cause the issue. Anyway if go to Peters Spares and search for Ringfield you will see all you need. You want the large ringfield wheels for a 3 pole motor. I would buy the traction tyres off Peter as there are some old neoprene ones on EBay that are useless. The other thing to check is that the fixing clip has not come loose and the tender is only driving on one axle rather than two. Hope it helps.

Without being accused about diverting the thread, I assume controlling a point via an accesory module is really only any use if you have front end program such as Railmaster to do it. Otherwise on something like an Elite it is just too many keystrokes.

Thanks Chrissaf, what I now need to do is take a Hornby one or one of those I got off EBay appart and see if the socket pins are the same. I might be lucky, I still have the plug body, so although fiddly, it would be a very cheap repair.

Zimo sound decoders do the same, limited sound on DC. Both ESU Loksound and Zimo decoders are substantially more expensive than TTS decoders, so obviously do more. Really to get the best out of sound you have to go DCC. He is lucky it runs on DC a lot of TTS decoders don't.

Perhaps the original sound unit died and the owner decided to replace it with the cheaper option, I don't know if ESU do the same deal as Zimo for replacing broken units. Then later on someone gets it and assumes it is standard. I suppose the more burning issue is why does the sound not work. From my experience second hand locos are a minefield. Sometimes you get a good deal, occasionally you get a lemon. Why it is it when you complain, it is always "I am selling it for a mate" which immediately fills you full of suspicion.

I am no expert on this, my mate is but I don't want the 2 hour lecture. The advantage of the sugar cube is that it has its own acoustic chamber, so it can stand alone. I think the iphone is a horn type so again needs no acoustic chamber. Still looking for those cheap speakers.

I didn't know they were that cheap in China, for that price it is worth risking. It sounds like the loco motors, I got 6 for about £14.00 and they work ok (getting the worm gear is a bit of an issue).

I thought that if you exceeded the function output current on a R8249 it dies. You should really change the bulbs to leds, they are a lot cheaper than decoders. Hopefully, you used a socket, if you did, take out the decoder and put 12 volts across the pins associated with the blue and white wires. I am wondering if Vref (the blue wire) is not a high enough voltage. If you really want to use bulbs, use a Hattons, or Zimo that have a higher current limit.

I was looking throught my box of bits and I found some pickups that could be soldered to match the loco with the decent pickups on the front bogie. They are now run a lot better, the one thing that I have noticed is on all my 3 locos the drawbar is too short, on the layout it stops the tender sitting properly, causing the loco to derail, have wheel spin and derail. Fortunately I had one for a king which is slightly longer, surprisingly it fixed all the issues. The tender sort of gets jammed under the cab running board with the short drawbar.

Thanks Chrissaf. I am fixing someone elses loco, it appears they didn't take your advice and use the tool or the screwdrivers. I checked on my Bachmann 4F loco and it appears they use the same on that model as well, so hopefully it is constant throughout the range.

Yes, contacted Bachmann a couple of days ago. I was waiting for their reply, it takes a bit longer since Covid. It was just in case they didn't have one. I suspect it is the same manufacturer as the one for Hornby, but like you I cannot find one on the web.