ColinB

I know they could but actually making any of them do PWM DC, isn't that difficult. New menu, <DC> <DCC> plus the two output lines need ability to switch zero volts. You already have an encoder to set the speed. As I say not that difficult, but as I said probably not worth the effort and you could only control one loco.

Thanks Chrissaf for the information. I suppose if they had wanted to they could have made the Select or Elite dual purpose, as you could with any DCC controller, the output stage is effectively controlled by software. So you could probably make the output stage either give DCC or Pulse Width Modulated DC, but it is a lot of complication for really no gain. I can see why they didn't.

Ok, I know nothing about the Select controller, but from my information you cannot put an analog motor on a DCC system. All it does is buzz and eventually burn out the motor. So I am not surprised it is not moving, perhaps someone can enlighten me.

It is not that difficult to convert a ringfield to DCC, I was just saying what you could do, you don't have to. A DCC ready Flying Scotsman is going to cost considerably more than the loco you have. Even worn out DCC ready locos on EBay go for more than you paid. I have just converted about 10 of my old ringfield based locos. It really is not that difficult.

The guy in Leeds usually posts within a day. I think the iphone speakers sound better than than the sugar cube. I have a combination of sugar cube and iphone in all my locos. Iphone ones because they are thinner tend to fit better in Hornby tenders where they have modellelled the coal bunker properly, but have reduced the space in the tender significantly.

I have so many issue with traction tyres of my old ringfield based locos and on my Pendelino. They get old and lose traction then you get a horrible squealling noise. The other issue I suspect, is the same one I get with my classic bikes, rubber just doesn't last that long now. On the bikes its shreds after 2 years on the locos it goes hard and stops working. On my Hornby Morning Star it will run for twenty minutes, then the tyres seem to start slipping getting the dreaded squealling noise (no it is not the motor, I checked) and they were new ones.

There is a better way than using the nylon screw. Trouble is with nylon you are trying to screw a parallel thread screw into a "self tapped hole", the nylon screw is in danger of shearing off. If you buy some 4mm M3 laptop screws (off EBay) use them, they are not long enough to touch the chassis. On mine I did tap out the securing holes in the plastic at the same time, to do a better job. As for the loco, if you dispense with the connection between loco and tender using the pin and replace the electrical bin with a two pin plug and socket, on these it is quite easy to make the loco pickup on both sets of wheels in the loco. If you really want to go mad, you can convert it to a 5 pole motor for less than £20, Peters Spares has all the parts if you search. Mine run really well now.

For £56.00 it has got to be the ringfield based one, unless you gor a really good bargain. Assuming it is, there are loads of things you can do, I have just converted two of my Ringfield based Flying Scotsmen to DCC. There is enough room at the back of the tender to put a socket and the DCC decoder. I don't know if it is an early or reasonably late ringfield, if it is an early one you might want to modify it so it picks up on the both sets of loco wheels, a lot of the early ones only pickup on one set of loco wheels and use the tender to get the other.

I said they were weird, glad to know you got it going. Probably one of its settings got corrupted, funny though it works with the other controller.

@RAF96 I nearly thought it was true until I read a bit further down. I did try one of my locos with factory fitted TTS and speaker and surprisingly it sounded OK. I normally have to buy a speaker when I purchase a Zimo sound decoder, so it is not an issue buying one for the TTS. The only problem, I have got is this pile of Hornby speakers, that it seems a shame to throw away. Oh I forgot, are they that much cheaper in China? They also seem to take over a month to come.

I am sure Going Spare is right, I remember I had to order the two different types. Lima ones are totally different to Hornby ones.

Yes, the valve gear is not available as a spare part, also beware of the speedo drive if you take the body off, you need to remove the link to the valve gear before you separate the body from the chassis. The other thing is, is it a new one with fixed pony truck or the old one with moveable pony truck. I watched my Britannia lift its front bogie going over a piece of uneven track, it sort of pivoted on the front two large wheels, could it be that the track is not absolutely flat.

There is a guy that advertises on EBay for different size iphone speakers, he does two sizes, he is in Leeds. They are 8 ohms, I use them in all my TTS and Zimo decoder applications, unless it doesn't fit. They are particularly good in Bachmanns as they fit in the top. They are really thin so they fit in many places that others won't. I think the sound quality is really good. I will add I have nothing to do with his company, I just like the product. I think it is him on YouTube that has a video comparing speakers, it is really informative. I think he charges about £5=00 plus p and p which is not excessive.

But did you try to run it on the PA2 programme track? Perhaps a reset will fix it, I did have to do that once to a LaisDCC decoder when it stopped working for no apparent reason. If it is the same as a LaisDCC write 4 to cv8 and cv30.

I don't think you have an issue with the DC locos, they should be designed to work in heat, lets face it they must export to hot countries. The big issue seems to be DCC decoders. This is purely my experience, others may have better experiences. If it is hot a lot of DCC decoders especially TTS seem to have difficulty getting rid of the heat generated by their devices, in my HST case the loco was happily doing loops and just died. Normally, it is something I have done wrong but in this case it just stopped and suddenly became a short circuit. The other issue is if the loco stalls, like gets stuck on a point or the valve gear gets stuck, then the DCC decoder is having to source probably twice its normal current, so you get a lot of generated heat within the module, which it cannot dissapate, so again the decoder dies. Some are better than others, Zimo seem quite good, I have not had one die on me, but some of the others are extremely poor. TTS seem particularly bad but then they are bigger circuits, so generate more heat. Shrink wrap is good at protecting the module, but makes it more difficult for the module to dissipate heat. So yes if it is hot, be careful.

It has got to be something different with the signal that the decoder is receiving. It may be that the Select has a slightly more rounded edge to the signal so the decoder has difficulties interpreting it or the voltage is not big enough. It is obviously not recognising the Select signal. As I said previously, the LaisDCC, which I gather is the same as TCS does have difficulties with poor signals, I have even had them going backwards instead of forward. Two things to try, do as Fishmanoz suggests and remove any capacitors across the motor and check that you are not feeding the Select signal through one of those power clips with built in suppresion. The other thing is to try it on a length of small track and see if it makes a difference. This is a long shot, but check all those soldered joints, perhaps one of them is not a good joint and it is adding extra capacitance or resistance. Are the joints shiny (good) or crystalline (possible bad joint). Have you measured the AC voltage fed by both systems to see if they are different, does one have a higher voltage? I suppose the final thing is, are you confident the Select is working properly (ie) tried it on another loco.

All my Zimo ones work on DC, so what suppliers don't? So far all my DCC decoders do as well, even the Hatton's ones, and they are all recent purchases. As for the Urban Myth, I was repeating what you told me when my King DCC decoder suddenly took off on its own and yes I did inform Rails that there was an issue with DCC TTS fitted locos, over a year ago. This must be at least the third post where someone has bought a DCC TTS fitted decoder and found their loco does not work on DC, so it must be a common issue. The trouble is with software, people update it, but forget to modify the paperwork, in this case the instructions. Returning perfectly good locos is not good for business and the customer, you and I foot the bill eventually. They should put a supplimentary sheet in each TTS fitted loco saying it will not work on DC or at least educate their Dealers. I am very lucky I understand all this stuff in great detail, but also know enough to realise there are an awful lot of people out there that aren't. So I think they need all the help they can get. I was just trying to help the guy.

Oh, in that case I have used them in the LaisDCC form. The only issue I have noticed is that they are not very good if the DCC signal is not perfect. Could it be that the Prodigy puts out a higher signal than the Select. I have a lot of 21 pin LaisDCC decoders and they work with my Elite and Fleishmann.

This is why you fir ta socket, it means you can easily change the decoder. What are TCS decoders, I don't think I have seen them. It should work, unless there is an issue with the decoder reading the DCC signal.

My Schools class loco R 3194 has lost the piece of plastic that holds the front bogie on, it goes behind the bogie retaining plate to hold it on. Looking on one of my other Schools Class Locos it looks like a piece of PVC tubing pushed onto it. Any idea what it is, so I can make a replace. Front bogies for this loco have for a long time been unobtainable, so I need to fix it.

No, I don't think Rails can easily recycle the decoder, all mine have been bubble wrapped. The only one that wasn't was the one where they told me that they would test it before they would send a replacement.

Yes, I know that the Hornby Dunblo is a rebuild, that is what the video shows how they did it it. Yes the Triang one used the resistance wire that heated up and expanded and then the springs pulled the gates. It is a shame the track spacing is completely wrong for me, as it might have been worth having a go. Triang did some really good things, their earlier turntable was much superior to the Hornby one, looks like the real thing but was so noisy, but a rebuild with new motors and it would be great.

Hornby tend to turn off DC compatibility with their DCC TTS decoder fitted locos. They did exactly the same with my Lord Nelson. Just before I was about to send it back, I remembered I bought a DCC controller a year previous, tried it and surprise, surprise it worked. I did mention to Rails that there should be something in the box to say that it wouldn't work on DC, but obviously Hornby deemed it not necessary. Hornby get the fault not found locos back, so if they can afford to do that then good on them. Unfortunately, what you have got to do is either, get someone with a DCC controller, to enable DC control or take the tender apart and replace the TTS decoder with a DC header. Hornby have an issue with DC enabled on their TTS decoders, where they tend to fly off on DCC. Rather than fix it like other manufacturers they just switch it off.

I really like the Hornby Dublo system. I used to have one of those Triang ones, it is still in the loft. Trouble is it was operated by resistance wire, and the gates were always getting stuck. The wire eventually broke. If you used the same principle as Triang for the mechanism, but replaced the resistance wire with one of those DCC slow acting point motors, I think it might work.

@Will Hay the ones on EBay are the power car ones. Would you believe there are 4 different types in a Pendolino. You can easily get the power car ones, but not the others.