ColinB

Thanks Ruffnut Thorston thar explains the surround on the LMS of the tender, they probably thought that was the easy way to cover the BR logo. Also thanks for the much larger information. Keithley and Worth are not going to complain it is all money to them and if it helps keep it running, nor am I.

My latest acquisition is the old Triang Pedigree wagons. I bought the new Hornby one and then found the old Triang ones weren't that bad. Considering you can get them for about £6.00, off EBay they are really good value. I swapped the wheels to Dapol modern ones and I managed to buy 5 for the price of the new Hornby one, admittedly that didn't include postage. I did hear someone comment that the colour is wrong on the new Hornby one, I know it is different from the Triang ones.

My Accurascale 55 does actually go round my track ok, it does derail on one set of points but they have always been problematic and I can bypass them on the other parallel track. I wouldn't have said my track is that good, but it does have large seeping radii and Peco medium radius points. It does sound good, yes I bought the sound one as the package wasn't much more than a new Hornby class 87 without the sound.

I got the answer I was after. Sam of Sam's Trains got given one for free from the makers of the Film. It appears the livery is as the film, but is not LMS livery for the tender, the Hornby loco is left hand drive whereas in the film the loco is right hand drive. As he got it for free he didn't do a review.

I was scanning the RMweb contributions and someone was complaining that the LNER Coronation coaches had got pushed back to 2023, so I thought I would check the Hornby shop. Virtually everything in the 2022 catalogue has got moved to 2023, some to winter 2023-24. It does seem a bit extreme, so really Hornby need not bother with a 2023 catalogue. Funny I was reading an article today that was saying the automotive industry is moving a lot of things back to the Midlands, because without products they can't make any money. So they are taking the hit on cost so they can at least produce something.

If it is a small loco get them converted to 6 pin, having a 4 pin socket means you are limited to Hornby decoders. Not a good idea to hard wire the decoder as firstly if you ever sell the loco you have to sell it as DCC fitted, which seems to be a smaller market and you won't get anymore for the fact you are adding in a £20 decoder to the sale. Secondly if you ever want to check where it is a loco fault or decoder fault, you have lost the ability to easily check by simply removing the decoder and replacing it with a DC header.

You might be better off going for a slightly newer one. Reading the web it says this is still tender driven, so I assume it has more detailed valve gear, that the early China ones have. The later ones have the motor in the loco and mechanically are very sound. The trouble with tender driven locos is that quite often the loco slides rather than moving on its wheels if there are pickup or valve gear issues.

I imagine Hornby puts a time limit on all its jobs, so if the drivers are broken and it takes too long to fix them or the device is out of production, then the unit is scrap. I spent ages fixing someone's loco but because I do it for fun. If I charged for the labour, it would be cheaper to buy a new one, even at Hornby's new prices. I assume Lendons probably uses someone that can spend more time on the units. The moral is if you can't fix it yourself, use Lendons, he is a small business and could do with the custom.

Out of interest did the lettering scheme on the Hornby "Railway Children" Loco ever exist? The LMS on the tender looks completely wrong. Does the loco in the film look exactly the same?

Don't touch that small circlip, which is probably a star washer. The only safe way to get those off is by cutting. The axle just clips in. To get the motor out, I use a thin bladed screwdriver at the back. When I converted mine to DCC I put the socket at the back there is just enough room. With a socket it means you can remove the decoder when decide to take it apart. Funny I sold my DCC converted motors on EBay as I found a way to put the later chassis in the loco body, I was surprised not many people were that interested.

It might be that this is the first time it has been taken apart. On a lot of my new locos, the paint acts like glue. I can't remember if you pull backwards or forwards on this one to release the body. I have been known to go round the base with a thin blade to release the paint.

I am not so sure about the difference in current draw will be insignificant the displays are different and I imagine the Elite has far more electronics in it, either way it sounds like a there is very little the person who started the post originally, can fix. I suspect a return to Hornby or some else who can fix it.

I am assuming you know that F1 turns the sound on and off as you have other sound locos, so if that is the case then either the loudspeaker is not connected properly or there is a fault with the unit.

I am assuming you know that F1 turns the sound on and off as you have other sound locos, so if that is the case then either the loudspeaker is not connected properly or there is a fault with the unit.

I am assuming you know that F1 turns the sound on and off as you have other sound locos, so if that is the case then either the loudspeaker is not connected properly or there is a fault with the unit.

Ok, reading you post again those voltages are reasonable. The programing output only pulses when you program something so unless you are using a peak hold meter, that voltage means nothing. Even the track output means not a lot as it is a sophisticated waveform not easy measure with the multimeter on AC. It could be that the drive to track has issues, if so I doubt there is a lot you can do. As to the Select and Elite working on the same power supply, I doubt the Select draws anywhere near the current of an Elite. Perhaps you have lost an return wire somewhere inside the unit by it becoming detached.

I just checked mine again, generally Topcat you are right as the front tab is smaller but if you lever from the front there are lots of plastic bits as you lever that will break. I did mine from the back and yes I did it with a small flat bladed screwdriver. Yes there is a gap, well on mine there is, it is the same motor on all 3 of my original 4-4-0 locos. When you put it back Topcat is right, put the front in first then the back. I let the originator decide which is the best way.

I am sure when I did mine it was from the back, not the front.

The Elite uses a separate power supply to power it, it could be that. It could be breaking down on high loads, so there is enough power to drive the display but not enough to drive the locos at full speed.

Well it should be either m2 or m2.5, looking at mine m2. Virtually all screws on a Hornby loco that are not self tappers are m2.0 or m2.5. Bachmann seem to go for m1.6 on a lot of their steam locos.

Accuscale Deltic loco. Rails had some left over.

It depends on a lot of things. If the DCC only bit is set CV29 (I think that is the number) then it won't. I found the Elite sets this when you decide to renumber your loco. If you keep it at default of 3 then it should. If it is a TTS decoder then it won't run at all on DC. The other thing to be careful of, if it is an old HM or equivalent controller (ie) not a modern type then the regulation on these is not very good and it tends to blow up the decoder. If it is a new Hornby one or equivalent that is totally electronic then no issue. I have been known to test DCC loco this way on DC.

Yes AndyMac you have hit the nail exactly on the head. I used to develop stuff like this, admittedly it was CAN on vehicle networks, but very similar. Yes the menus the display, all that we used to do 20 to 30 years ago. That is why I went for the DigiKeijs a pod that works with a PC more the way things work now, which you can also control with your phone or pad.

Well if it is the earlier version like mine power is fed to each coach by a connector on the coupling. So basically the loco picks up the power and feeds it to each coach in a cascade.

I don't think it is a demo version, most systems have a warning box that gets displayed. Either way I get the idea of how it works.