ColinB

I must admit I didn't dig too deeply but when I pulled up the HM7000 it looked to have the menu for setting up a track diagram. Track diagrams don't interest me that much so I didn't dig any further. To be honest my first impression of the HM7000 was that it was trying to replicate Railmaster. There again I have only used Railmaster once just to see what it was like, the same could be said for HM7000. I generally only use DCC for controlling locos and my turntable, points are still controlled by an array of switches. I assume if you treat the HM7000 decoders as DCC only, then they will work with Railmaster.

It could be the decoder, I was testing one of my locos with a Lenz Gold decoder and it went extremely slow, replaced with a TTS decoder and the difference was amazing. The Lenz was second hand and came with a broken loco so it could well be damaged.

With mine it is the 2 way double slip that does it. I had quite a bit of success when I loosened off the screw holding it on. I must admit I have given up for the moment. The issue is probably not altogether Hornby's fault. The model has pretty large wheels as it copies the prototype with four pairs in line, very close together, that seems to be one of issues going round bends. I compared it with my Evening Star the latest type but its wheels are smaller and the unflanged wheel in the middle as per prototype helps a lot. I need to sort that bit of my railway out so I will try and level it out and see if it improves things. I have checked all the things atom3624 has suggested but I normally do that if a loco has issues. I might try black tacking a small weight to it.

I have had issues with some decoders where you cannot change the CV values. The ones I have had issues with are Gaugemaster and DCC Concepts. Sometimes it is because they have "stay alive" but other times I could not work out why. In the end I just used them for testing locos, after I had rewired them. Surprisingly LaisDCC give me the least issues, they suffer from DC "run away" but compared to a lot of others I have used they aren't that bad. I found Imperiums work best in Dapol locos, they seem to be a bit jerky at low speeds on steam locos. Hornby and Zimo seem to give me the least issues.

No, it is part of the bogie. I got fed up with it last night. My track is not perfect so that is a lot of the issue. I did manage to get it to work reliable by loosening the bogie screw so the bogie hung down a lot more. I don't know what thread they used to hold the bogie on, but it is smaller than M2 so none of my longer stepped bolts fit.

I think occasionally the spring on the bogie gets stuck against the chassis as it turns. I taped my one up with thin tape and the derailing disappeared.

I have taken the front bogie off and it does have a bit of a spring. Comparing it with the one on Evening Star I think it might be something the do with travel, there is twice as much travel on the Evening Star. I will keep you posted as to how I fix it.

I owe this guy a huge debt of gratitude. When mine arrived I tested it on my metre length of test track on DC then fitted a Zimo sound decoder, thought no more of it as all the new locos I have bought have behaved themselves and I have been busy fixing my house. Anyway after reading this post I thought I would test my one out, surprise surprise it derails in exactly the same places the Railroad did. Yes my track is not entirely level but the new build Evening Star has no issues and it has the same type of front bogie. So it looks like on my brand new loco I am going to have to add a weight to the front bogie. Obviously Hornby never tested it on a Peco double slip but then why would they, they don't make them. Sad other than that, it is a nice loco. I did a quick check it is the same as the Railroad one it doesn't have a spring or any weight. As Sam says, yes my layout has issues but all my other locos run fine on it.

On my Railroad one I added a bit of extra weight to the front bogie.

I know 96RAF I wondered that after I had written the reply.

It may be you are using the wrong decoders from what you are describing it seems like the motors are taking too much current. Old locos can take up to 0.8 amps which is well above the maximum output of Hornby normal decoders or TTS decoders. The HM7000 according to the specification is supposed to source up to an amp but I have not been brave enough to test it. You don't mention which make of decoders you are using which might be a help. I did a load of tests when I converted all my own old locos from the 1980s and found many of the decoders failed even though the current was within the decoder specifications (I suspect that they were being overly optimistic). In the end I found that the Zimo decoders worked perfectly and I don't have any interest in the company. The ones Jenny Kirk advertise also seem to do exactly what they say on the packet. So in short you can easily convert all locos to DCC it is just getting the right decoder.

A cottage industries costs should be higher as they don't have the buying power, now I know Hornby aren't that big now but I imagine they buy considerably more parts than a smaller outfit. Even going to the bank for a loan will be considerably easier. That is how it generally works in virtually all industries. Anyway if you guys are happy, who am I to complain. As I say both Sam and Charlie are just stating the obvious.

The reason Sam thinks Hornby's prices are too high is because he does what I do, looks at the competition. He uses Accurascale, both make detailed models, both use contract manufacturing in China, yet the price of a Accurascale class 92 is about £40 to £50 cheaper than Hornby's class 87. The real joke is for that cheaper price you get electrically controlled pantographs which have got to cost more. You can do the same with Dapol comparing their locos with Hornby, again substantially cheaper and often better. Charlie made a comment which he is entitled to do. I don't know where TT120 is going but he is allowed his view, to me there isn't enough out there and what happens when they go wrong. N gauge took years to take on, given Hornby's interest in new projects seems rather short who knows? When did they do a major upgrade to the Elite, that has got to be late 90s technology. Just for information, I criticise Hornby a lot but I also buy an awful lot of their models, generally because I preordered them several years ago at a very much cheaper price. I bought the latest class 87 and was horrified that it didn't even have sophisticated lighting which is standard on a new Bachmann, Accurascale or Dapol mode and I think the price was virtually £220. Given that they redesigned the PCB for the new HM7000 they could have improved the lighting at the same time. The new P2s are good, again I bought mine on preorder but the current price is about the same as a sound fitted Manor from Accurascale. So make up your own opinion?

Just watched the video what is the issue, it is just what a lot of us think. Yes, you don't pay for pre orders but all he was saying is be wary, meaning sending items back. Show their balance sheet to anyone and they would come to same conclusion, the clear out of old faces endorses that. Hornby though is a bit like the Morgan Motor Company the normal rules of business don't seem to apply. Hornby though isn't only a model railways there are many strings to their bow.

When the voltage on those 4 capacitors is 0.7 above the decoder voltage which is derived from the track, then the 1N4001 diode conducts and powers the decoder from the stored voltage in the capacitors.

The reason there are 4 capacitors in series is because you can't get one with the right value and voltage rating. The zenor sets the voltage at the Zener value, looking at it, 15 volts. The resistor is the resistor that limits the charging current. The 1N4001 is the feed to the circuit when the voltage on the decoder drops below the value of the zener minus 0.7 the forward drop across the 1N4001 when it conducts. If you think the circuit is robbing current then increase the resistor value all it will do is take longer to charge up the time constant being R *C, the value of the resistor multiplied by the value of the capacitor. Yes, you don't need four capacitors you can use a lower value in a higher voltage rating. The second circuit is just a variation on the same theme where the transistor is an emitter follower charging the capacitors at constant current.

I think you are all getting confused with the later loco driven ones. I had one of these that I modified with extra pickups and I connected loco and tender together with a two pin JST lead and socket. I think if I remember the loco body clips on as was the case with the early tender driven A4s. Unfortunately I replaced my then Duke of Sutherland with an equivalent Bachmann model. What I do if I get really stuck is see if there are any chassis on EBay and bodies on EBay and see if you can see the fittings that hold it together. You could try mailing Peters Spares as he sells secondhand ones.

Yes Bulliedboy that is the right one, also very watchable as the guy made it interesting.

Thanks Bulliedboy found the video, really worth the watch.

From what happens with OO, Hornby occasionally release spare parts to Spares retailers, from one spares Retailer I got the opinion that it is an "ad hoc" process. For someone like me who repairs locos it seems a weird system. Generally it seems that if there are parts left over from say a production run they sell them off as spare parts but sometimes it can take quite a while for them to appear. Peters Spares sells new spares if they are used, the website will say so. I sometimes complain about the postage but anyone that has sent something lately will find that they are reasonable. It is a pain if you order something for about £2.50 and then get stung for £5.00 post and packing, but he does post for next day rather than a week later as with some people on EBay. For OO I must admit I use other sources as everyone goes to Peters Spares so he always runs out.

You are missing the point 96RAF part of his YouTube reviews is he buys the loco with his own money and does a review. That is the way you are supposed to do a review. We have been through this before, once you start getting favours from Manufacturers it taints your view. Even in my old job if a Supplier takes you out to lunch you feel very guilty if you have to say something nasty about their product. TT100 is still in its infancy, you guys like it so that is great, OO has been around longer than I have been on this earth. TT will only take off when other manufacturers join the party. I notice already there are moans about Hornby hiking the price which they will do, seeing as the majority of the cost of a model railway is the design and manufacture, which will be roughly the same be it OO or TT. Sam is allowed his opinion last time I looked we still live in a democracy, it is entirely up to you whether you watch his channel or not.

The 8 ohm determines the current that the output can source, so if you use a 4 ohm you get double the current. In the case of TTS or HM7000 this is enough to blow it up. The more expensive decoders can use 4 ohm speakers but to be honest I find 8 ohm ones work perfectly well and the output stage might last a bit longer. If the sound decoder passes more current it means its output drivers have to get rid of the extra heat generated. The very early LokSound decoders used a 100 ohm speaker so if you put an 8 ohm on one of those, you would definitely fry it, as you are passing over 10 times the current. So then you come to all the different types of speakers which the sound is dependant on enclosure type and lots of other things. Richard of Road and Rails did a really good YouTube video identifying all the speakers he sells and how good each sounds. I tend to use either his low profile bass speakers or the Iphone ones he sells.

I watched that video, well I assume it was the same one. On the subject of TT100 he said he didn't know how good the sales were going good or bad, but found it surprising that they had released them to about 6 retailers. He only found out by reading an obscure news article. He then asked if anyone knew anymore and who the other Retailers were. So did we both watch the same video? Reading the TT100 posts on this forum there do seem to be a number of issues but perhaps they are just the 5% that always have issues.

Yes you can easily install a DCC decoder in them the only issue is if you do the stall test the high stall current. When I measured mine they were above 0.5 amps the max for a Hornby decoder. I use a 6 pin adapter and a Zimo decoder. The mechanism on mine is still rubbish, "in line resistors" to slow it down rather than redesign the gearing, but they are meant as low entry units so I can forgive them for that. I assume the Pecketts have a much better mechanism. I must admit other than the ones I bought in the past I avoid Hornby 0-4-0s like the plague.

It sound like as someone mentioned earlier a bad tender connection. Now the next question is "is it the new type tender connection or the old one"? The old one is the four wires that terminate in a small white connector on the tender. If it is the old one it could be the connector is not pressed home fully in the socket, I have even had it happen on new ones. So the loco will work with sound because of the tender pickups, but the connection to the motor is not made. If it is the new type I haven't got a clue. As 96RAF said try it with a DC header to check that the loco is working properly.