ColinB

It was Saturday so they wouldn't be there. Anyway something like that, they might have to ask a few people. I didn't even know they were making them for their coaches. I don't remember reading anything about it in their catalogue. I have ordered a new Maunsell dining car which supposedly comes with them, so I will see how they compare to the other make.

I mailed Hornby, so I will see what they say.

Actually James I had exactly the same problem, with a Duchess though. I tried everything to fix it. In the end the only thing that seemed to make sense was a suggestion by 96RAF. The decoder was drawing too much current so the sound shut down. In the end I came to the conclusion it was something to do with the motor in that loco as that was the only thing I didn't change. I even tried different TTS decoders in the same loco and got the same effect. So what I suggest is, if you have another loco that takes an 8 pin decoder put it in there and see if it works ok. Eventually with mine I fitted a full blown Zimo sound decoder, which worked perfectly and moved the TTS decoder to one of my other locos where it also works perfectly. I should have changed the motor to see if that was the fault but in the end I gave up.

It is probably the brushes, quite an easy fix. If it is the armature then you can get second hand ones or you might be able to get a rewound one. You need to explain how it doesn't work. You even see second motor driven tenders come up on EBay second hand.

No, not yet, I thought someone on here might know.

I was reading the Hornby Magazine and I noticed on the new Maunsell coach they include magnetic couplings. Does anyone know if Hornby intend selling them in separate packs?

The PC to device is software supplied by DigiKejis. I suppose I like it because I can control lots of trains within the program. Really simple to use. The Roco software is a free app that runs on any phone. I must admit I didn't find any of the software clunky to me, it seemed perfectly logical, very similar to the stuff I used to write. I have never used Railmaster in anger, I loaded it onto my PC and could never get it to run properly. It reminded me of some of the packages I used for CAD in the 1990s. I suppose I should have persevered but seeing all the posts on here about it, perhaps not. I suppose it is what you are used to, I really like the DigiKejis front end, there are some issues like it is possible to have two "popup" submenus with the same loco number (it should give you an error) but other than that I think it is great. As to the New Zealand guy's video, it told me all I wanted to know, my only criticism and with the the DigiKejis instructions is they don't highlight that you must have the device connected to your PC via WiFi as well as USB to get the WiFi with the smart device to work.

I see no issue with a manufacturer increasing the price if they can, but if the product is overpriced in the first place, all they are doing is removing the market for it. As to making the buyer wait several months for it that is not a good formula to work with. I assume the Elite uses SMD devices plus probably a very old PIC processor, I know from my experience to set up a pick and place machine for placing and soldering SMD devices needs a reasonable production run, then we have the issue of if they can still get the processor if it is that old.

Ok, the reason I thought it was a bad decision is that compared to its competitors the price is extremely high, so if you want to sell them you need to make sure your Dealers have stock, before the buyer starts looking around and notices how expensive it is. It is a very old device, I used to make this sort of development equipment and to me it looks extremely dated, bit like something I designed in the 1990s. It should be cheaper now to when it came out, that is how pricing on electronic stuff works, I don't subscribe to the view that you just increase the price because you can. That is the surest way to bankruptcy, if something has been improved then yes pay more, I doubt you would pay over £200 for a ringfield based tender drive loco if Hornby still made them. That is why they constantly upgrade phones, it gives them a reason to charge more. I paid £190 for my digikeijs, admittedly I needed a PC to run it but most people have one of them, the only thing the Elite has over it is the easy programming menus, but there again that is just part of the software which could easily be added to it. I must admit I haven't ventured into programming mode on the digikeijs, as at the moment I still use the Elite, but it is brilliant for running the locos on the track. I don't know if Hornby are looking at this but using a dumb device that does the DCC but talks WiFi with a Phone, Pad or PC is the way forward, similar to their Railmaster setup, but with a much simpler menu for the person that just wants to run and program trains rather than setting up a system.

I suspect Hornby get these made in batches to get the price down, so that might be the reason. The Elite is not cheap so in my view a very bad decision.

Hornby have to put DCC on their locos or else I doubt they would sell that many. I get the opinion that it is a bit of an afterthought as many of the sockets are positioned such that it is difficult to make a decoder fit. Why they have stuck with the 8 pin variety for so long defeats me especially when many of their diesel and modern electric locos already have a large PCB to drive the lights. They did venture into 21 pin years ago and their solution was very neat. If you could get those pcbs at a reasonable price (you can't get them anyway) they would be a great retrofit, on something like a Duchess even with the socket in the tender it is a tight fit because of the huge amount of wire you have to find a place for. I must admit the Plux18 socket has given me issues even on factory fit options where it doesn't connect properly. On one of my Bachmann factory fitted sound options I had to clean all the connections with alcohol to get the decoder to work reliably, so I could see why Hornby would want to give them a miss.

I was round the National Railway Museum in York and I noticed that they did a souvenir plank wagon. The thing that really surprised me was they were only £15.00, substantially cheaper than the souvenir wagons I have bought from other preserved railways. It is also a nice wagon, ok it doesn't have sprung buffers but for the price a really nice wagon. Obviously Dapol are seizing on an opportunity as all the wagons are made by them, perhaps being in Wales they are more flexible in getting things made.

Video is you want the dr5000, I think that is the only one they do. Cost is about £190.

I bought a DigiKeijs system for under £200. Admittedly you need a PC, but I already had an old laptop. As long as you have WiFi to the PC then you can run the Z21 app on you phone or tablet to talk to it. There is a really good video on YouTube by A New Zealander.

I must admit in my case, I took an alternative route. Whatever Hornby have in the pipeline would have to be incredibly good for me to even consider it. I am surprised though that Hornby haven't just updated the processors, it used to take about a couple of days to a week to change processor and considering a new type would be cheaper than the old one it would be a cost saving. Trouble is Hornby have virtually priced themselves out of the market. Unfortunately for them their competitors didn't increase their prices by as much as they did. It doesn't help when a major reviewer keeps buying discount new locos with duff motors.

I just get the opinion that Hornby once had a decent software engineer that developed all the DCC equipment.They have left or retired, so all that happens is that bug fixes are implemented. Seen it happen with many of old projects when someone moved departments or in the final case retired. As I said previously the Elite and Select were developed years ago, so probably difficult to do major enhancements (micro memory size) so Hornby do as little changes as possible. Then there is what we used to call the "kerplunk" effect where you add code to software which you think you understand but don't, so the whole lot just crashes, so you stick to easy fixes. That probably explains why RM doesn't get updated. Hornby are more focused on making locos, so I doubt upgrades to their DCC controllers are a priority. I find the Elite is really useful for its easy menus in the programming mode, but once you get to the running of the locos, it is a bit dated and given the latest price very expensive for what it is.

I use miniature toggle switches as they take up less space, but buy a decent one. I have had ones that just disintegrate when you press them. Generally avoid the really cheap ones.

Yes that is how I do it, you can break your layout into sections using isolated track joiners. What I also do is put an isolated piece of track in each point outlet driven by a relay, so that if the train approaches the point and it is not set to that track, the loco stops.

Shame this wasn't posted yesterday, I was at the Keithley and Howarth Railway where they had the model in the shop. It is of no interest to me so I didn't bother picking one up to look at it.

Does anyone know when Pennine models moved? Went on my annual holiday and stopped off in Howarth for the Keithly and Worth Railway and noticed it is no longer there. Even the Keithly and Worth Railway Model Shop has slimmed down their stock.

That is exactly why I replaced all my 4 pin connectors with 6 pin ones. So sorry to be blunt but you have two choices stick to the Hornby 4 pin or rewire the loco to 6 pin. Wiring to 6 pin means you have a much larger choice of decoders, even sound ones, as far as I know nobody makes a 4 pin sound decoder. I personally think that the current limit for a Hornby decoder is marginal for the motor that they fit into their 0-6-0 locos, some of those motors draw more than the 500 mAmp limit. If you can't rewire it then accept that you will only be able to use Hornby 4 pin decoders. I only use Hornby decoders on brand new, modern locos.

I know this is not much help but when you fix please let us know how you did it. I must admit my Elite always works ok, occasionally if left on for a long time it does start doing funny things. My Elite though is at the latest level and I don't tend to use it on my main layout. I use it mainly for programming and testing.

Oh sorry 96RAF, I didn't realise that, I must admit the only Hornby decoders I have are the 8 pin type. I have got to admit my experience with Hornby 4-pin decoders is not good and I think it was you that mentioned that there were a lot of faults with them initially. I must admit I converted all my Hornby 4 pin sockets to 6 pin as it gives a wider choice of decoders. Surprisingly the 6 pin socket has a smaller footprint than the 4 pin. I think when I last looked the Hornby 4 pin decoder was a lot more expensive than the 8 pin and even a 6 pin Zimo.

Yes, Sam of Sam's Trains did I really good review of the issues with his one. The fix he eventually applied, basically a Bachmann motor with a 3 D printed adaptor actually made the loco better. He should start selling them as upgrade kits. Trouble is more and more I am getting the opinion that Hornby is more interested in the detail of the model rather than whether it runs reliably. The least they could do as a company is provide a cheap source of fully tested replacement motors. All these faults are not doing their reputation any good at all.

It is interesting about the pantograph, I have not looked at it so don't know much about it. I recently bought one of those ones that the Chinese sell on EBay, really nice metal based item. I bought it as I thought it is useful if any of mine break. So seeing as they get their locos made in China you would think that they might approach the firm that sells the ones on EBay to design a decent one for their models. That is the sensible way of "outsourcing", you use a firms product if it is better than what you can make.