ColinB

Similar thing happened around here, no post for 4 days. I had a pile of wood delivered on Tuesday morning when it was particularly bad, when I said to the guy didn't think you would come, he said we always deliver. I have also had deliveries from all the other major firms. I used to sing the praises of Royal Mail but so far I have had a Peters Spares parcel that took two months to arrive, EBay ones normally a week plus. Talk about a plan to destroy your business.

This model was released last year so did you buy it second hand or have you only just got round to opening the box?

Thanks Going Spare, interesting that they didn't announce it until now when they supposedly designed the locos last January. Lets just hope it is as good as the Dapol one and not as bad as the Bachmann one.

I was watching an update by Sam of Sam's Trains last night. I finally got the answer to the question I have asking this forum for about a year. If appears Hornby are about to change the 4 pin loco to tender connection and replace it with a pcb option as per the latest Dapol locos. Using this method they can increase the number of connections between loco and tender and hence drive the smoke unit from the tender. It appears it will be first trialled on the new commemorative Flying Scotsman locos.

I doubt they will give you a date. I asked the same question on coach magnetic couplers as a spare part and got told no firm date, just sometime in the future.

Yodel has got to be the worst. I am doing some building work so there is a skip on my drive. I went out this afternoon to walk to the shop and get some milk, as I went past the skip I noticed a big parcel behind it. The guy couldn't be bothered to even knock the door. Normally I would have stayed in all day as it is cold, it was just luck I noticed it.

I know with Royal Mail my local delivery office is brilliant, but after talking to my local postman his boss has a lot of organisational issues (seems useless at scheduling). The issues seem to occur in the network, similarly Evrie. My local Evrie courier is brilliant but again the support system is rubbish. I must admit DPD are always good so I find it surprising you are having issues.

That is unusual I would probably rate DPD as one of the best delivery services, but as with all services it is reliant on the individual that delivers. I am having lots of issues with Royal Mail at the moment taking undue time delivering railway parts I order. Once upon a time it was next day, now it appears it could be up to a week. One package from Peters Spares took 2 months (they obviously lost that one and refound it). I have a class 59 from Rails which I imagine they sent Royal Mail/Parcel Force which would normally come in a day, but it looks like Friday due to them being on strike. So basically I think all the delivery firms have lots of issues at the moment made worse by the fact that they can't cope with the extra traffic caused by Royal Mail being unreliable. I suppose the good bit might be if it really gets unreliable people might actually return to buying it from shops. Oh I forgot to mention Royal Mail haven't delivered for the last two days, obviously health and safety, although Evrie did, as did the Builders Merchant that delivered a load of wood for the roof to my extension. So we won't have had mail for 4 days once the strike is over, happy days.

It is probably a bit late but on my layout I split the layout into sections by using insulated rail joiners then use a double pole switch to enable power to each section. It is a carry over from when my layout was DC. The advantage is it is easy to isolate sections and find where the fault is. I use DCC and my layout is 16 ft by 8 ft and I have no issues with power loss, so unless your layout is huge I suspect you have a fault in your wiring.

Yes 96RAF I had forgotten about that. They have released the Hornby Dublo Duchess, I got a phone call from Bure Valley on Saturday asking if I still wanted it and to take payment. So they have released some models this year but nowhere near what was promised in last years and this years catalogue. The thing that is really annoying to me is I slate Hornby about their business model, but generally their models they produce run brilliantly on my layout so they do get that right. Similarly the carriages do the same whereas a lot of the others derail a lot (the Genesis ones on my layout are terrible). I honestly don't know why they don't copy Dapol, make the goods wagons in the UK, most of theirs are relatively simple, so it gives them a reliable income.

It depends DarkRedCape, we know they designed it, it was an article on the Hornby program. Perhaps it is as AndyMac says they don't have the capital to get it made. If the SS one gets released in the Spring (admittedly I doubt the timescale) which I assume will include a DCC Ready and DCC sound fitted, so why release the other one. I will be annoyed because I ordered it at the price two years ago, but who knows with Hornby. Perhaps "stitching" up their customers as well as their retailers is a step too far.

If Hornby's timings are to be believed it does seem hardly worth releasing the original one that was due two years ago. The SS one is due Spring 2023.

Going Spare it is stamped on the chassis and Peters Spares sell them. Now I assume that it would cost too much to modify the casting so that is why it carries the same part number or moulding number. There again I assume that removing the rear sprung fitting would necessitate a new casting but perhaps the change was covered by not machining the chassis. As a very experienced Professional Engineer, I spend a considerable time checking the gears etc. to check that the replacement parts that I recommend do actually fit. I know from my experience in my company most people generally use an existing part if it is available rather than design a new one, hence why I spend a lot of my time working out which parts Hornby have reused. Sometimes Hornby do use a motor that looks absolutely the same as another motor but they must they change the number of turns on the armature. A new Princess motor (from latest version) runs considerably faster than an old one, but then when I bought a set of gears and it it immediately became obvious why.

Hornby part numbering is rubbish anyway. Quite often parts are interchangeable but have different part numbers. Someone asked me recently if a Royal Scot loco was the same as the more popular X4026 motor. As I was repairing a Royal Scot at the time I checked, yes exactly the same but a different part number and half the price. The 0-6-0 chassis used in Jintys and Thomas the Tank, they all have the same part number but are different if the back wheels are sprung or not. So it is a lucky dip, fortunately most are not that expensive so you can take a gamble as I do with most motors.

Yes Tony57 it does but they are out of stock so you just replace the motor. When I was converting my old Lima diesel locos and my Hornby class 90 to the latest Hornby spec that is what I was forced to do.

My cheap one off EBay ( £15.00 ) is a Zimo, no wonder it works so well. The guy that was selling them didn't know what they were, hence the price. So by a fluke I got exactly what I wanted, shame he sold all four.

Happy ending fitted a cheap one off EBay and it works wonderfully. Guy who sold it didn't know what make but I suspect Bachmann. I will do a Manufacturers Id check and find out what it is. It ran happily for about an hour. The only thing that could have made the ESU fail was that the motor connection was awfully close to the chassis with a bit blob of solder (new loco nothing to do with me), so I rewired it. I doubt though that it was that that made it fail but I suppose if the motor moved in motion it could happen.

I would try x9674, it seems like it is fitted to a range of models and New Modellers have them in stock. Compare the photo with you current one.

If you are any good at fixing things it is probably the spring clip inside the motor that holds the magnets apart that has fallen off. You can fix them, I have done so on Pendolino motors which have a habit of doing it.

Well Hornby are advertising it on their site for £329, it is no wonder Hattons wouldn't honour the original price. Mind you I was in the Lego shop yesterday, Hornby's prices seem bargain basement compared to those of Lego (a Lego Eiffel Tower at £500).

Unfortunately today it overheated and died without any input from me. It just suddenly stopped and then the "tell tale" smell. It was just doing loops around my layout so obviously not so good overall. It is not rated at 1.5 Amps, that may well be its peak but not the normal running current. I really wish Zimo would get their act together I have had no failures on them and I use an awful lot.

Better still Lendons have them in stock for a cheaper price. They are labelled as Princess but I am 90% sure they will fit (I compared it with the ones fitted to my Duchess loco). I think he has missed out the Coronation in Princess.

No, but I found one that will fit X7320 and New Modellers have 6 of them.

Deem, try looking for Coronation valve gear when you do a search, it is the same loco but sometimes people don't realise. Yes, you are dead right they are really hard to come by, I have been down that road with the Royal Scot valve gear. Just keep looking, occasionally they do come up.

As a final finale to this topic, I bought a 6 pin ESU device and I can confirm that it works with my OO gauge Bachmann tank loco, the AE Model one I bought earlier doesn't and I suspect is more for an N gauge loco. No criticism of the AE decoder I am only highlighting the issue in case someone like me tries to use it in an OO gauge loco. As it is blister packed it might be an issue getting your money back. Generally I use Zimo ones as I like them and they are a lot cheaper, but currently they are an out of stock item.