ColinB

The difference between EBay and say a swapmeet, is EBay is an auction site, so basically the item sells for whatever someone wants to pay. As far as my experience is with EBay if the item doesn't sell then it just gets relisted without any cost to the Seller. At a swapmeet the Dealer has to cover their expenses for the day so they are more likely to lower their prices to sell stuff. I have noticed on second hand classic motorbike parts, originally on EBay they were reasonably cheap, then they were listed for extortionate prices, so everyone went back to buying stuff at autojumbles. The advantage of railway parts are they are small and relatively cheap to ship. If you follow stuff on EBay you will notice certain parts don't sell, some I have seen relisted for about 2 years, same as that stall at Kempton Park autojumble that has had the same stuff on it for the last 5 years, yes that one is mega expensive. Yes occasionally you will catch someone out but that is not a recipe for repeat business. As to Hornby, I doubt it really wants to sell direct, it might think so at the moment but generally it is too much hassle. I used to work for the Ford Motor Company and I once asked why we didn't sell direct to the public, I got the answer that it would be too expensive to support. We used to do fleet sales but that is worth the hassle. So Hornby will continue to sell direct but it needs its retailers, even if it doesn't realise it at the moment. Even now I have managed to pick up stuff for quite reasonable costs it is just knowing what the part is worth and limiting your bids to that value. I have been "outbid" on loco chassis where the final selling price is more that buying the complete loco in a box. Everyone should watch "Bangers and Cash" on the "Yesterday" channel and notice that one week cars sell for large prices, the next week they sell for nowhere near as much. The same works for EBay is just the market is so much bigger, but if of course the prices get ridiculous then the market will no longer exist as people won't bother looking.

I don't find that so surprising about Hornby even if it was the Daily Mail. We know they had big issues with the W1, then you have Covid flaring up again in China, then the shortage of containers, so no big surprise. Then there is the fact that they don't release a lot these days.

I suspect it is as someone said early decoder that has ageing issues. I had a brand new decoder that did exactly that, which was traced down to an issue with the connections. Admittedly it was a Next18 type connector but it could be still bad connections. Could it be one of those crimped connectors has gone slightly open circuit.

I think the big issue is there is not that much railway stuff out there. Hornby is not making that much of which a lot is overpriced meaning there is a huge surge to secondhand. I agree there are a lot of scammers out there but with EBay I have always accepted there is risk. Whenever I sell stuff I charge, whatever Royal Mail charge me for postage which for First Class signed for is £4.85. I use recycled packaging from the locos and stuff I have bought previously. Some of the prices do surprise me, there are a couple on there that charge ridiculous prices, but according to their feedback some people buy off them, although for the parts I am interested in they don't seem to move them. The big thing that does surprise me is that some people pay more for used items where if they used Google quite often you can get it new for less. I suppose the difference is I am worried about getting bad feedback so I meticulously test all the locos I sell as I don't want them back and I don't sell stuff that I won't buy. I have a load of tender bottoms left over from where I have put the decoder in a Hornby loco in the tender, trouble is for what I think they are worth the postage makes them too expensive.

I did wonder about the renumber as the numbers on the cab are slightly bigger than the one on the left. I must admit I thought experimental blue was different again. I have a Flying Scotsman in that colour in experimental blue. To me it looks more like RAF blue.The sun bleached sounds the most realistic answer that would explain that the windows have gone opaque. I am never going to find a tender top to match that.

As you can see from my photo, the colours are totally different. The one on the left is the original R2341 the one on the right is the body I bought off EBay. I suppose someone could have repainted it but they did a really good job as all the lining is in the right place.

Well Fazy as I said in the original post I do have the original R2341 in its original box and it is the right green. This new body I would have said is the same body type but it is a totally different colour. I wondered if Hornby did a set with it included. I will take some photos, but the trouble with photos is that they don't always show the true colour.

I recently bought a Hornby A3 "Windsor Lad" loco body off EBay, it was really cheap and as the chassis get sold quite cheaply, it is a cheap way of creating a loco, eventually I was going to rename it. Anyway I won the body bought a chassis and this morning a tender arrived which I also bought off EBay. When I put them together I noticed the loco is a totally different colour to the tender. For me to notice (I am colour blind) it must be quite obvious. Anyway I already have a Windsor Lad from another purchase, except this was bought complete in the box. The complete one matches the new tender in colour. So my question is did Hornby make a batch in an experimental colour, I would say this colour has a blueish grey tinge, although still green. The loco body is the latest motor in loco type as it fits the new chassis, so I suppose it was originally R2341 but why the different colour?

I must admit I find it sad that people "break" decent locos to get spare parts. It also happens in the classic motorbike arena. Trouble is if lets say you have a loco that has broken some part that you can't get anymore then possibly the only way forward is to "break" it to gain some value from the parts. Sadly a lot of locos are worth more in bits than they are together. I build a lot of locos from parts and quite often when I have finished I think I could have bought that cheaper as a complete item. I must admit I have 4 EM2s I bought off EBay when they were relatively cheap. Two I kept as original, two I converted to a class 66 power bogie and updated the pickups on the non powered bogie. I also added lights and DCC control to that same two, so I still have all the motor parts I removed. The converted ones run really well.

Sorry Stubaggieboy what is distasteful about this thread? Initially there was one concerned person about his welfare to ask others as to what had happened to him. So how can many people being concerned about the welfare of another human being being distasteful? EDIT: Personal comment deleted. R-

I do remember the motor fit was extremely tight. As I had opened it up to fit DCC I decided to move the DCC socket to the tender, because I knew trying to fit the decoder in the loco mean probably a wire would get trapped. When you get it out, if it is tight buy some of that super thin insulating tape. I think on mine Hornby had used the normal PVC stuff which was half the issue with the tight fit. Surprisingly just changing the tape and careful routing of the wires made it much easier to put together.

Further to my previous post it appears Accuscale are doing a whole range of them, unfortunately not in black though. If you pre ordered it with Hornby then no issue but if you are buying it from a retailer the Accuscale one is cheaper. Of course these are also on preorder so I don't when they will arrive.

Looking at the post that says he is unwell and most of the railway sold, sadly it sounds like he is not going to get better. What a shame, I did like watching his videos i learn a lot about old models and why things are as they are.

So Howbi what is untrue, I have been getting mails from Rails about someone releasing a Deltic, I must admit I wasn't that interested so I didn't take much notice. So far Hornby has frequently rushed through products to beat the competition, Praire, 4/6 wheel coaches. They would have done it with the Titfield Thunderbolt but got caught out with the licensing agreements. Each one of those rushed through products takes up resource that could be better used elsewhere.

I double checked mine once I had found it. Slotted screw under the front bogie and phillips type screw ay back of cab in the centre. I think on this one the motor fit is tight especially if someone has used insulating tape on the motor. You might have to wobble it about to release it, by releasing the screws and moving the chassis within the body to get it out.

I remember taking mine apart. I think it has a screw at the front and a screw at the bottom of the cab, actually at the bottom of the cab not underneath, opposite the tender.

I think while watching the North Yorkshire Moors Railway program, Piglet their workshop foreman mentioned that it was a lot cheaper to send them by road.

That is so good.

Surprised about the Deltic, isn't some other company about to release one? That is normally the script for Hornby to pull out all the stops to beat their competitor with an inferior product. Obviously they don't see that as a major money spinner.

There was a big fanfare on Evening Star it was even on the front cover of the catalogue, still not been released. Then there is the Prince of Wales P2, that was on their programme on the Yesterday channel. I think they are slowly working their way through them, I took delivery of Lemberg the Black A3 a couple of weeks ago, that was in the 2021 catalogue.

Actually if you want the flickering firebox Peters Spares does the part, I think it is about £4.00, so to Hornby less than 50p. It is useful on locos with DCC as it illuminates if there is DCC power on the tracks, so when you are trying to work out why the loco won't run, it is an easy indication of power on the tracks.

I think you are missing the point. Take for instance the Hornby Black 5, most railway modellers probably already have one and given the new price why would anyone want to buy one. As the Hornby marketing strategy is targeting mature modellers with spare income (they are probably the only ones left that can afford the new model). So what you do is add features to persuade the collector to bin their old model and buy the new one. Car manufacturers have been doing it for years. I can see the point in dumping a tender driven loco to a loco driven one, but after that the choice gets a bit hazy. Take for instance the new tooled Evening Star, will it be substantially better than the old loco driven one, but by announcing it as a retooled version people will buy it, even if they have the old one.

I forgot to mention, check that they are in properly, it is possible that the bottom isn't in the locating sheath.

I find this post a bit interesting in the fact that this is an old tender drive loco. In its original form the pickups are the axles of the loco and the tender, connected together by the drawbar. It might be on this model rather than using the axles it is using the sword type pickups a carry over from when the chassis used a X04 motor. I think on my early one it did use them, on the later ones it used the axles. Now the part you are referring to are the sword type pickups which it might be using instead of the axles on the loco. Either way Lendons had stocks of them last time I looked. You will have to solder them together. The old Britannia uses the same part.