ColinB

@Bulliedboy the Flying Scotsman was pre production as we all know as it wasn't painted. We also know from the web just before they released it that the wheel weights were it the wrong position even at that late stage. I was just surprised that when Simon was showing it off he didn't notice, I just assumed they messed up the wheels between pre production and production. I must admit I never realised they were opposite to the con rod position but when you think about it, it is obvious. There is also the point that I don't design model trains. I suspect the wires being round the wrong way was done for the cameras as is a lot of it. If Pete Waterman is correct about 3 D printing those buildings will warp in a couple of years time. Constructive criticism is useful, if you can't take criticism don't make anything.

I did wonder why the loco was sliding along, Hornby stopped making tender driver locos years ago, so where did they find that one. That was the thing I hated about tender driven locos and it took a lot of effort to fix the issue once it started to occur. The thing that did surprise me was Simon showing off his new TT Flying Scotsman to the National Railway Museum with the wheel weights in the wrong place. Did nobody not notice until they started making them?

Actually if it wasn't Hornby it probably would have gone bust, some of those loses would have taken very many companies down. People will buy Hornby because it is Hornby but their market is getting smaller, most model railway enthusiasts are getting quite old. You can see that by their focus on new outlets, TT and Hornby Dublo range. When the Duchess of Atholl came out in Hornby Dublo they were sold out immediately, there are still are City of Lichfield HD models still available and that was released before Christmas. The limited edition Queens Jubilee loco only had so much interest as sadly she died, previous to that I am sure Hornby were having issues moving them. Only time will tell, they come up with ideas like their new "Bluetooth System" but if you have to wait two years for it, then people won't bother. It should have been available with the release of the new catalogue. As to the cost of locos, I ordered the new class 87 off Hornby (old release with new paint job). I pre ordered it off TMC so its cost will be substantially more than when I ordered it. At recommended retail it is only £40 cheaper than the Accurascale sound fitted class 92 loco, which also has working pantographs rather than a chap plastic one. Considering a Loksound sound decoder is about £100 plus, it shows how expensive that class 87 will be. I am tempted to cancel the pre order since it has been a long time coming, but that would be unfair to TMC.

Well Fazy you can have your opinion I will have mine. Hornby products are priced about 10% too high compared to all the other manufacturers. With that second 10% price hike, I think they assumed all the other manufacturers would follow, which they didn't. Trouble is for last two years they have not made enough new products. I had a request from TMC yesterday for payment for a carriage, I couldn't remember ordering it, until I realised I ordered it in January 2022. As to the 150 parts, does a Dapol Manor not have a similar amount? Another one to compare is a Hornby class 87, Bachmann class 90 and Accurascale type 92, similar styles but very differing prices. As for Ford when they release a new model, they don't put up the price of of all the other models, that is done when they have a general price rise and yes they are still making all those other models.

To me it looks like the conrod wheel adaptor or whatever you call it, has pushed out at the back. I think as someone else says you just need to push it back. I add a bit of superglue on it before I push it back but make sure it locates properly. Surely your valve gear would have not tightened up correctly? If that doesn't work, they it might be necessary to get another set of wheels. I find on most of the second hand locos I buy, one has pushed out at the back.

So 96RAF why is their shop closing? Unless I have misread it, it says it will be loosing its physical shop.

You have got to be kidding SteveM6, I spent many years in the motor industry and product design I probably know more than most people about cost price and retail price. So when Ford produces a new model, generally it is more expensive than the old model to cover the cost of new tooling and design effort but they don't increase the price of the older model. Now if they decide to do a global price rise then it applies to all models, but they definitely don't expect the customer to pay the same price for the retooled model as the old one. If you price your older stock too high you don't sell it as it is no different to the older stuff that is available second hand or "new old stock" and it appears I am probably right as the older models generally have decent discounts. At the end of the day the Customer decides whether your price is right. Just go and count the parts on a Dapol steam loco like the Manor and then go do the same on a Hornby Patriot/Royal Scot. Then compare the retail prices.

The Hornby group does not only consist of railways although the only part of their group I deal with is the railways part. I think their last round of price rises had a bit of a negative effect, I don't know if other people do as I do but I compare their product with other makes that are available. So some of their locos are similar prices to Bachmann, but like in the case of the Bachmann class 90, they add extra features (electrically operated pantographs) for the money, so effectively they are cheaper. Both Hornby and Bachmann are guilty of "hiking" up the price of old models, you can justify over £200 for a new tooled model but you cannot do the same with a model design that is basically 20 years. Sam whether you like him or not, frequently highlights this. Then of course you have Dapol and Accurascale that are producing decent models at affordable prices, although Accurascale rolling stock is quite expensive compared to Hornby's, but there again it is in a different league for detail. I bought the Hornby latest version of Evening Star and I must admit I cannot fault it, it runs well is reliable and probably worth the money I paid for it, but then I have bought other Hornby new locos and have been not so impressed.

I just bought the two wire JST connectors off EBay. Generally they come with plug and socket attached to leads. Similar to what Hornby use on their latest locos, but they use the 4 pin version with a socket mounted on a PCB.

Well there is another one, £2804.77 for a R30001 Princess Margaret Rose. Is it a misprint?

Normally on most locos normal lights are F0 and cab lights are F1. As Jenny Kirk will tell you cab lights are a bit like the interior light in a car, only switched on when stationary so a good idea to have it on a different function. In fact on a lot of the new locos the cab lights go out once the loco starts to move. This is an old loco hence why I can see it being on F0 although if I remember rightly, on the class 71 the cab lights are on F1. Either way now I know.

I notice a lot of the new items are listed as Summer 2023, there is no way they will meet that timescale.

Having got a response from Hornby, it appears it works on Function F0, not F1. The other thing that I found out by myself is that the switch on the underside must be set to N (night time running). Normally the cab lights are on a separate function to the main lights, but I suppose this is an old design so I suppose that is the reason.

I think Hattons had a spat with Hornby when they were told that they would not be getting access to new models and having to mail all their customers that they could not meet their preoders. I dread to think how many customers they lost over that.

I hate to say this but to be quite honest I doubt most people are too interested in the wows of an EBay Seller, it you are like me I just get rid of stuff that I no longer require. I list them for what I consider is a reasonable value with the postage set at what Royal Mail charges me. If it goes for way above what I thought it was worth, I will send it Special Delivery for my own safety, plus I have made enough profit. Generally I get the price that I think the item is worth, both for train parts and classic motorcycle parts I sell. If they don't sell I keep them and try again a few weeks later. It is after all an auction which a quick look at any episode of "Bangers and Cash" shows that the price the buyer will pay depends on basically if more than one person wants the item. Sometimes the item will sell for less if it is returned to the auction after a couple of weeks, that is the way auctions work. To be quite honest without mentioning names, I am not interested in their woes, I have issue with many of their posts but as I don't wanted to get banned, lets leave it at that. I hope they are not the Seller with the curtains.

Most of the locos I have sold have been old Lima ones or tender driven Hornby ones. I start them at what I think is the going rate which when I sold them was £25 to £30. Some I got some surprises, one going for over £50, but generally they sold for a little over the minimum. The only one I really "screwed up" on was a Lima class 60 which I accidentally listed as DCC fitted instead of DCC ready (I still don't know how I managed to do it). Sadly it only sold for £25 which after the Buyer informed me of my mistake gave only a profit of £5.00 as I had to send him a £20 decoder. I convert most of my locos to DCC but I found nobody was willing to pay extra for the fact the loco was converted, especially as if you got a specialist to do it, it would cost you £30.

I don't know what the fuss is about, yes we had seen the response about EBay customers before, I think by now we all know the pitfalls of EBay. I too have sold locos on EBay and had below the starting price offers, my usual reaction is why is someone being so st*pid to offer below my starting price but then that is human nature, I have seen people at autojumbles try and knock down a genuinely low price. I usually just send a negative response and make sure next time I tick the "no offers" box. As to Deem, I am glad he highlighted this, ok if you have enough money to pay for it and aren't cared, then that is life, that is why rare paintings fetch a fortune. On the other hand that is what adds fire to inflation as more people ask for more. Sometimes as in the case of a certain manufacturers price rises, it puts their product substantially above that of its competitors and finds it more difficult to move their stock. It will be interesting to see if he ever moves it. I must admit I am guilty of it. I recently saw a Hornby new type class 37 chassis for sale at a highly inflated price. Hornby don't seem to sell this as a spare and I needed to finish off my Lima class 37 conversion, having bought all the new type bogies and "bodged" my old Lima chassis. So I moaned but paid it, as I have been waiting one two years for one to appear. So yes if you really want it you will pay the price.

I would hope that a spare part sourced by Hornby doesn't have the same fault. The thing about design is that you are supposed to learn from your mistakes. Peter's Spares also does Royal Scot chassis replacements and these seem ok. I know from my experiences with Rebuilt Royal Scot/Patriots that it is only certain named locos that seem to have the fault (just do a scan of EBay), others don't, so I suppose Hornby used a different manufacturer for those. So hopefully the spare part ones are from the last batch which they should have fixed.

No I don't know if it is possible to remap them using CVs, I just remember which one has what, which is easy to do between TTS and Zimo or Loksound, just listen to the sound. I avoid changing any CVs as if you do a reset on the decoder all the changes disappear.

It seems to me the only advantage of logging in and pre ordering the items is to get them at a fixed price. Given that Hornby are not shifting models like they did for a while, there seems to be spare items around. I pre ordered the Hornby Dublo City of Lichfield and I notice they are still ones available, previously they would have sold out in the first week of release. There again perhaps my duff one was not the only one. The ones with steam are probably the ones that might sell out, but we won't see the original ones for another year. Given how their competitors are adding features quickly, I wouldn't be surprised if one of their competitors gets there first anyway, probably cheaper and better. This year we will get Flying Scotsman, they have to release this one on time, although again most modellers already have more than one already. Other than that they have models to catch up with and then there is TT.

Yes you are absolutely right, all the issues I noticed. One you did miss is if the loco is on the track it shoots off as you power up the Elite, as if it remembers its settings from when you last shut it down. Zimo has even more different settings, like if you go for the active option F2 is the brake although its horn is of a fixed duration. I have locos with all three types and with LokSound and Zimo their commands differ dependent on who did the sound file. The bigger issues that are surfacing are some of the sound files are becoming more intelligent, like the Fell loco has different engines so you have to remember the function to engage the bigger engine to get it to move properly. Then on Loksound there is the brake function, if you apply it you have to remember to remove it, or else you loco will not move.

Probably bankrupt stock off a Retailer that went "legs up".

Well unless I am doing something seriously wrong, on none of my three class 87s do the cab lights work, although the wiring and spring connectors are there to give you the impression it should do. Looking at the wiring on the fitted cab lights on one set of leds the wiring is the wrong way round so that is one issue. I will check with Hornby in the morning.

It is normally F1 as F2 is the flying lead, there is something weird going on with this one, it was supposedly never used but the wiring looks suspicious, as the soldered joints look like they have been done with leaded solder, so I wonder if it is a rework by Hornby. Fortunately I have another class 87 with the same mechanism but different colour, so I will do a back to back comparison. I have tried all combinations lighting on/off, directional. Thanks to the information I have now found pin 1 so at least I can identify the Vref and F1 pins.

P-Henny I must admit I forgot about the pickups having defined pins. I am so used to the pin not mattering on the ones I wire up that I forgot this is a production one so the wiring should be correct. Great thank you for telling me, I honestly never thought about. As the wiring, on this one I get the opinion that the cab lights never worked properly but I am slowly getting there. Yes this one has those labels but I am looking for how the cab lighting is enabled so there should be a connection to the function 1 output which there isn't. Unless of course it is not meant to work on this model.