ColinB

Actually we seem to go around and around in circles on this one. I just think that Hornby are pricing themselves out of the market. Yes we can all complain about the prices but the thing is if they really are appealing to over 65s then they have an issue. Yes of course these people generally have spare cash to buy the locos but the problem is they will only buy the obscure ones, as they probably have virtually all the other models in the catalogue collected over the years. Now I really like my new retooled Evening Star, but to be quite honest when it is on the track it looks virtually the same as the old railroad one.

Does anyone know why the Arriva Wales Mk3 Buffet car has a different arrangement of windows to all the current Mk3 Buffets that Hornby does. On the kitchen side there are 4 large windows, one small elongated window and 3 normal elongated window. On virtually all the other Mk 3 Buffet cars that I can find they have 3 large windows and 5 normal elongated windows. I am trying to source another buffet car to fit my second hand Arriva one that someone has butchered and I would like some new windows and bogies. So the easy option is to buy a second hand not so rare one and swap the bits over.

Thanks Rog(RJ).

Here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304775763105?hash=item46f60d14a1:g:NNgAAOSwzfNjyVZh&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwFHwo0xawo%2Fx58CJDH1as%2F5V0Jn7lkEfv2vx9OhlfESzswK4HmTvHjpPZAKFmmslRHaAY4ihVlmOdO6XI5RIY1iMQH5k4XtOnk9FtsGn6Z2oi2Ge2uDO3oULWhWoegXao6pHvWL5L8Xsvj0yK%2BQdwM4x5wXgT50qqTDZdPJAXPmhWT9EDhW9cWCoq7qYhu163dNifLJ6BWeAhOsrHhJU5AoQZlf9uncRVhmpNbSwQIrvSl%2Bvf%2BXyNfMtUHAuLntO5w%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8TBzMbwYQ or do a search on EBay for X8199 L5714 Hornby Spare Brass Worm Gear

There was someone on EBay that was selling the gears a couple of months ago when I needed one. I am not sure whether they are still doing them. It is a pure waste to have to buy a new set of wheels just for that gear.

I shouldn't worry to much Daedalus I too get a lot of aggro off certain people.

The opinion I get with HD models is Hornby seem to think they are for collectors and are not so careful with them. Most of the retailers don't test them because they think the same. Does the detail pack that comes with Lemberg not have them? If it does them ask for one of those.

To be honest I used to watch a lot of Jenny Kirk's reviews until she did one on the Hush Hush, the original version. After she had said what a good loco it was, and my one had a big issue with the front bogie being too high, she lost all credibility with me. Dear old Barry said the same, then much later when the fixed one came out, informed us that he sold the original as it was so bad. At least Sam pointed out that there were issues, over dramatically, but he was right. I suspect on all subsequent versions they fixed that front bogie, my rebuilt ones have no such issues and Hornby tell me that they all use the same chassis although they may well have done a tweak (been there done it). As to the devices burning out, well seeing as the Android app is not available yet perhaps most are like mine, sitting in a loco waiting for the app to magically appear. How long is it now?

Actually AndyMac you are sort of right in a funny sort of way, as to the British worker some are good some are terrible, I have seen both. I have also seen how the average German works, virtually no difference, if anything probably worse. On the other hand I have seen many a manager bleed a company dry or couldn't be bothered to sort something out. I have worked for a small company where buying the Directors a top of the range company car took precedence over buying decent development equipment. The issue that Hornby has is that is slowly pricing itself out of its business, yes perhaps people shouldn't expect something for nothing on the other hand, Hornby quality is not that great. I am sure TT100 was meant to drum up more business as in OO there is a saturated market and they are just too expensive. It didn't help upsetting all their Retailers, as we see with Rails they can always find something else to sell.

Ok I hear this over and over again high detailed models that cost that much to produce. In some respects yes, if you take a modern Hornby steam loco that has been retooled then perhaps that is the case. Now if you look at some of the other rereleased models in the range. I recently bought the class 87 City of Glasgow, retail price over £200. I will admit it has a new PCB inside but other than that not much different to the previous model, then if you compare it to say the Accurascale class 92, there is no comparison. The Accurascale model is cheaper and better. If you do the same comparison with the new Dapol class 59, you get the same. Over the years we have got better at design anyone that has done a course in engineering drawing will know how long it takes to design something old style, compared to that CAD is a doddle. I know from my field in the old days a PCB used to take weeks to design, now you can do it in a day and with 3 D printing prototype it is much quicker. So in many ways you are devaluing all those guys at Triang all those years ago. Hornby's issue is it doesn't have the numbers so for small batches everything is expensive. So of course every time they raise the price especially at this moment in time those numbers reduce even further. A couple of years ago Hornby would quickly sell out of new models, have a look round now, you can still get them long after the release date. Trouble is high prices mean smaller market, most people that buy them probably already have most models so unless you get new blood into the market you will die. I have at least 3 Flying Scotsman locos, so why would I want an HD one, especially when it is about £40 more expensive than the corresponding A4.

Really naive, isn't that how most industries work? Mine definitely did. What do you think a program manager does, makes sure every thing comes together at the right time, what do you think all these program management tools are used for? As for decoders try fitting the Next 18 one into any tank loco or an EFE class 143. I give up with chaps on YouTube, this decoder is substantially bigger than most sound decoders I buy and I buy a lot. Have you not watched Sam's video where he struggled to fit one in a tank engine. Even the 21 pin one is bigger plus the connector at the bottom causes issues, surprisingly with Hornby Steam Locos. Perhaps the guy should study the YouChoos website or the Road and Rails one. Zimo make one that I use, is probably half the size of the Hornby offering.

I wonder if they are 3 d printing them, if you can. Otherwise I have no idea. I fitted then to a couple of my wheel sets that I had replaced with new wheels, because that initially was the only way to get the gear. I just thought it was good that someone sold them.

I think it is also the same as one of the intermediate gears for the Duchess. I have some spare where a guy was selling some on EBay I will check against my Duchess spare wheels. I will see if I can find where I got them from. I found them and amazingly the edit button on this website has suddenly started working. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334272173750

I am sure it runs ok, the Dapol class 59 has pickups on all wheels so the chances of it not are miniscule. The sound quality will be different though.

Actually Moccasin you are wrong, I received my decoder and none of the Apps worked not even the Apple one. It was so bad that the QR Code pointed me to a YouTube video by Sam explaining how to use it ( I was surprised after all the grief he gives Hornby ) and then the totally wrong App. After about a day Hornby after some communication from 96RAFremoved the link to the wrong App, it shouldn't have been there anyway. After a couple of days the Apple App worked, then we got the official response from Hornby that the Apple App worked but the Android App was still being appraised by Google. So Hornby were not up front about the situation they only started doing things once they realised the decoders arrived too early. I know I can return the decoder that is not the point, there is the cost and the pain of actually sending it back. My point is it shouldn't happen and I don't think I am alone. I doubt they intended doing it but they did. I should thank your lucky stars that Google is not German, we wouldn't see the App for another 6 months. Done it, been there.

That is really good. You would be amazed at how many locos I buy that either don't run or run badly on DC only to find that there is DCC decoder in them. I was thinking of ordering one of those brass pinions but don't think I will now. There was someone on EBay selling the wheel pinion, Hornby use the same one on a lot of their models. I think it is the same as the old rebuilt Merchant Navy and Flying Scotsman.

NigC, 96RAF is right so F0 stays the same. In the Dapol instructions where it says F1 use F21, similarly F2 use F22, F3 use F23 and F4 use F24. Now on some decoders the last two functions don't always have proper drivers but I assume the Hornby one does, so F22 and F23 might not work. I have two of these locos one with factory fit decoder to drive the smoke unit and the other one I fitted a LokSound decoder. So I know the lights work with a different decoder.

As to dBerriff you are right, I think because they were part of the development team, there can be nothing wrong. Currently there seems to be an awful lot wrong, I dread to think what will happen when the multiple Android users start to access it. As they used to say on "Who wants to be a Millionaire", "the questions are only easy if you know the answer".

I agree any business needs to generate income but there are ways of doing it. Hornby have released this with a great fanfare then a lot of users have found it doesn't work for them. Now I am sure I am not the only one but is really annoyed me. Ok I have a decoder that some day will work on Bluetooth but at the moment I could have bought any old TTS decoder at £30 less and got the same result. You are right the average user is not interested in the software development process, just if it works. Trouble is on this site many people throw away their normal consumer hat because it is Hornby, and they prey on that.

It is just a thought your loft eves are not insulated with solid Celotex, like I have just had to do with my extension I am building. If so the Celotex is foil backed, so you could get a Faraday cage. There is also some other insulation that is foil based that could do the same.

I doubt it is a Faraday cage, it could be the loop is acting as an aerial and disturbing the data. You could try it on a metre of track in the loft.

Ok, educate me what does OTA stand for?

I had a TTS in my class 43, heat shrinked. One hot sunny day in the loft running quite happily doing laps of my railway when it suddenly died. It wasn't the first either. Since then I have loosely covered them with heatshrink and have had no issues. Perhaps I was just unlucky but in their original instructions Hornby advised against doing it, whereas all the Zimo 8 pin decoders come covered in heatshrink. They have recently stopped doing it mainly because it causes issues if you want to add wires not because of any other issue.

So what did you do with the City of Albans tender as I imagine you must have used the original tender top to match the colour. As you said the tenders have pickups I assume you used a later tender bottom.

That might explain why some people are having issues. Interesting as TTS had this sort of issue. Other manufacturers heat shrink their devices to reduce the danger of their parts touching the chassis of the loco and dying, but if you were to heat shrink a TTS decoder it generally overheats and dies. The only thing I can say is make sure that there is a means for the heat to escape.