ColinB

Ford Motor Company had a sort of one. It was driven by sales, so if a certain model was desirable the Dealer had to sell so many models of say a start car like a bog standard Fiesta to get issued with the more desirable ones like an XR2 or XR3 to sell. I don't know if it has changed. I imagine a lot of businesses run that model, it stops in the case of a Dealer only selling the highly desirable models (with more profit) over the less profitable "cooking cars". Hornby's model is just crazy, but there again a lot of things Hornby does amazes me. I think the issue is Hornby/Triang was once a big company so has continued with all the bad habits a large company has (so many sales so minor issues not a problem), forgetting that as a small/medium company those methods are not applicable anymore.

My one had the "STOP" button broken, I fixed it with a cocktail stick, mailed Hornby and got a new "STOP" button. I think I paid about £100 for it, plus two accessory modules and a copy of RailMaster. I use it for programming locos and testing them out on a metre of track if I have fixed them or added a DCC decoder. For my main layout I used to use a Fleishmann which I got super cheap as it had no power supply and leads, but now I use a Digikeijs system. Both the Fleishmann Twin Track and the Digikeijs are great for running multiple locos, the Elite is a pain if you have two or more locos you want to control. Trouble is the Elite looks like it could control two locos but in reality it is not so easy. As to Hattons, Hornby have sort of cut them off so I doubt if they will bend over backwards to sell their products.

I keep saying it I will say it again. You cannot compare the price of an Elite against a loco, if it wasn't made by a toy company, it would either have been improved substantially to match improvements in electronics to justify its higher price or be a lot cheaper because all the components are now dirt cheap. I paid over £400 for my first computer and that was very cheap as it was a recon. I bought a Dell latitude laptop reconed for use with my Digikeijs which was £80. I think a new one is much less than my original computer. If you go and look at the Zimo decoders, yes they have gone up in price but they have also changed the specification. With an Elite you are paying an exceptionally high price for late 1990s/early 2000 technology. Trouble is they are so highly priced they don't sell enough of them to justify reinvesting in an upgraded version.

Unfortunately Deem you are learning like I did. I blew up several decoders and TTS trying to squeeze them into loco bodies. There are two many wires to get trapped. That is why where possible I try and fit a later tender base so I can update the loco so that the decoder is in the tender, sadly with this one I think the later tender base (if you can get one) won't fit the earlier tender top. I also found you have to be very careful sleeving Hornby decoders, because they need air over them to cool. So it has to be a loose fitting sleeve. Fortunately Hornby give you that no faults guarantee for the first year, so get a returns number off Hornby and return it.

It could be that in reality there won't be anymore, at the new price it is very expensive. The thing I do like about the Elite is the easy menus for programming, Hornby did get that right, although they did mess up with the rotary encoder and the press to enter (it gets it wrong a lot). For running trains on a layout there are better options. I have replaced my Elite with a Digikeijs which is great for multiple trains, although it does have a number of faults mainly to do with software. It could be that as Hattons is very low down the Hornby Tier system that they will never get any, even if they were available, hence why they cancelled your order.

Well it is out of production at the moment, so I suppose not that big a lie. Question is will they ever make anymore. I imagine the processors inside them are obsolete by now.

I have just put a LaisDCC 21 pin one in my Elizabeth 2 and it works perfectly. The 21 pin LaisDCC always did seem to work better than the 8 pin for some reason.

Well Yelrow according to some people on this site, they would be happy to pay it. Personally I am not, I would have thought something nearer the Hornby Dublo Sir Nigel Gresley price would be more realistic. Hornby Dublos, I assumed were developed for collectors, hence my comment of watering down the market by making too many different versions. I haven't really analysed my Evening Star but I gather that it has a diecast boiler, so you are really paying all the extra because it is an HD model. I have 3 of the previous HD models, I bought them to replace my Wrenns, but they were considerably cheaper than the current prices. When it comes to it though, on your layout you really wouldn't notice the difference.

I received my one today, carefully pulled it out of the "ice pack" and a buffer fell off immediately. Good to see Hornby haven't lost their touch. Nice loco though. Interestingly the packaging from Hornby for this model is nowhere the standard for the Hornby 9F Evening Star. Surprising seeing as it was significantly more than the Evening Star.

You have been lucky Yelrow, perhaps it is something to do with the points layout. I watched mine go round my layout sometimes it derailed sometimes not, but it was obvious that the front bogie was bouncing all over the place. Now if it was just mine I would happy to own up and say it is my trackwork but then I watched a YouTube video by Barrie Davis saying exactly the same thing, he used a washer to add weight. He was running Hornby standard track, I run Peco Streamline with medium and large radius points, so it is not the trackwork. 96RAF unless they have changed the design, I think there isn't a spring, if there had been one, that would have been the first thing I changed. It may be that disturbing the body has released the bogie so it moves a lot more. Just black tack a lump of metal, like a washer to the front bogie and see if it improves. If it doesn't then you can easily remove it.

This one comes up a lot. Generally the reason is there is not enough weight over the front bogie so it bounces around and eventually derails. What I did with mine was add a sliver of phosphor bronze weight glued on top of the bogie.

@Aussie Fred, I think last time it happened to me they emailed me to contact them with new details.

I agree with you DarkRedCape but sadly it is not going to happen. Next year is the Flying Scotsman's centenary so they need to do something special which is what they have done. My criticism is why four versions, it dilutes the selling opportunity especially as they are so expensive. I doubt we will see the one with steam until 2024 so I can understand why they want to produce another one but it does imply not joined up thinking. I don't know if they will have their 21 pin TTS decoders by then, if so it might have made the package more palatable if it included one.

I don't know if this is much use to people, but I wondered why all the Royal Scots I buy have broken generally have bent or broken valve gear. On my Royal Scot where I had recently changed the rotting chassis for a new one I found that the valve gear kept getting jammed. Anyway I eventually tracked it to the fact the valve gear is not supported properly. Now it may be that because I used second hand parts the slot the valve support fits into was slightly bigger than the valve gear boss, but as the train moves the valve gear can drop causing it to cause all sorts of issues and jam. Now I could have superglued them in but a simpler solution was to just support them from the top using wire, in my case garden plant wire. It works a dream.

A Zimo was £20, it is now £24 so even now it is £10 cheaper. I don't know if I am unusual but I just want it to run the train and switch on the lights. I like the Zimo range because they have a maximum current range of 0.8 amps which is good enough to even run ringfield motors, those motors that go in the Hornby 0-6-0s and split chassis Bachmann locos. Virtually every other decoder I have tried has issues with those motors and I have tried lots.

I run all my 21 pin locos on 21 pin Zimo decoders, perhaps Sapphire decoders did more, but it my case I would never have used the features. So as the Sapphire is substantially more expensive than the Zimo, I imagine that is why Hornby no longer sells them. The only down side is at the moment nobody has any stocks.

Thank you for the information, I didn't know Hornby were returning some production to the UK. It is only Airfix models at the moment but that is a positive sign. It says they will be using a firm in Sussex which I assume is the same company that they are dealing with for another product. They featured them on the Hornby program on the Yesterday channel. Good news though.

It is a bit weird, even weirder that they are producing four. They are producing these at the same time as marketing the one with steam, then there are the Railroad models. I assume they are targeted at the collector. I could afford it but I would much rather have the Sir Nigel Gresley and it is cheaper.

I think JJ they will rush that one through, perhaps that is another reason for the inflated price.

What I do is compare the price with a similar type loco as I did in my earlier post. It is £40 dearer than the Hornby Dublo Sir Nigel Gresley. Now it may be that Hornby are having to pay a Royalty to the NRM hence the higher price. I know that the Battle of Britain Winston Churchill is a lot more expensive than the other Battle of Britain locos again because of the NRM connection. It is silly comparing prices today against wages and then doing the same for 50 years ago, as if you did it with a TV or any electronics you would see how silly that comparison was. What you should be doing is comparing the price with other manufactures equivalent models to get a better idea. So lets say a diecast body is an extra £50, then using the latest high detail Hornby loco Evening Star as a datum which is £253 then the model should cost about £300 add on license fee of £20 to NRM and it is £320. Trouble is with the earlier HD models there weren't many so they were more desirable, but with these there are 4 versions. I bought 3 of the original HD models which were £265 each, for this model that is £100 more.

One thing I found with ringfield motors when I was repairing them is it is critical where the rolled up magnet sits in its housing. Then there are all the other things like pickups making sure they are in contact with the wheels. If it is an early 1980s one it uses the axles of the wheels as pickups, so sometimes oil solidified oil can cause issues.

Having searched again they are coming up as "out of stock" so I must have got one of the last.

I quite like the smoke deflectors fitted to the Duchess class and the Royal Scots, but I must admit I am not very keen on those fitted to the Flying Scotsman. A couple of the A3s had the full smoke deflector, they look much better.

I just did a search on platinum loco.

I relented, after all I said about them, I ordered one. Yes, I will keep mine and run it.