DEROB

Well now that you mention the water scoop being fitted the wrong way round I had a look at mine and yep, I missed it. Mine too will only scoop water when travelling in reverse. A careful removal - it didn't take much as it wasn't even glued in, it was just luckily holding on because of the tight fit of the rectangular lug into the hole on the tender base. It's now properly glued in the right way round. I did not initially notice that mine was not fitted with a reversing rod either. So having filled all the gaps which shouldn't be there with modelling filler putty, refitted the cabside doors so they are vertical and not a mile out of perpendicular, refitted the water scoop the right way round; all I need is a front drivers' sanding pipe and a reversing rod and my 175 quid brand new loco will be as it should have been when it left the factory. I was going to get myself A2/2 Thane of Fife too but I shan't bother now as I'll wait until later in the year by which time Hornby might have their act together. I hope the A2/3 is a bit better as I'm about to purchase A2/3 Steady Aim.

Having just received my new much awaited R3830 Thompson A2/2 rebuilt Gresley P2 60501 Cock O' The North, I opened the package with much anticipation. Having read the bad reviews on this new run of locomotives which have resulted seemingly from poor Quality Control; the first thing I looked for was a gap between the cab and the firebox. Fortunately my example did not suffer from this seemingly common assembly fault nor were the details on the running plate fitted askew as is also common. So all well and good. BUT the crew cab side doors were fitted 'on the piste' so to speak so I carefully removed them with a scalpel and tweezers and re-fitted them as they should have been during assembly at the factory - correctly. So onwards. The front locomotive lifting webs above the buffer beam running plate fitted with large gaps so daylight visible between the lifting webs and the running plate so out with the putty filler and satin black Humbrol (ON A BRAND NEW ALMOST 200 QUID LOCOMOTIVE?????). Next - On turning the locomotive over and placing it carefully in my foam locomotive 'upside down' holder. Oh deary me. One of the main driver sanding pipes is missing from the front drivers. ALSO my locomotive is not fitted with a reversing rod so I need one of them too. Proceeding I then fitted a DCC decoder. I've emailed Hornby for the sanding pipe and missing reversing rod but have not heard back and I don't want to return the loco as, after the work I've done on it I now have a decent locomotive albeit having paid just under 200 quid I wouldn't have expected to undertake a mini-modelling project to correct what should have been undertaken properly during manufacture. I'm waiting for my A2/3 Steady Aim and A2/3 Edward Thompson and am hoping that I won't be as disappointed as I am in the A2/2.

I use Laisdcc 6-pin, 8-pin, 21-pin and Next18 decoders with Prodigy Advance2 and have no problems at all. Just got to know you way around the Laisdcc CV Table and no problems. Their user instructions which are downloadable are not in the best English though. They remind me of the old joke when the Chinese waiter asked the customer if he liked his steak and the customer replied, "It was rubbery", to which the Chinese waiter replied, "I'm grad ru riked it." Back EMF CVs are different to a lot of mainstream but you can get better info from TCS as Laisdcc decoders are basically a Hong-Kong 'knock-off' of TCS decoders. TCS were, or maybe still are, pursuing litigation against Laisdcc. The Select is not the best of DCC controllers as it is very basic and doesn't let you do much with CVs.

I decided to run some preserved locomotives so I've just got hold of a new/old stock R3191 8P Duke of Gloucester Special Edition and boy oh boy what a disappointment this model is. Back to the 1970s, in fact back to Rovex - molded handrails on the tender, molded smokebox door dart, no sprung buffers, no brass bearings for the drivers, one piece driver con-rods. Will have to get the scalpel out and calve the tender handrails off and calve the smokebox door dart off. All in all, given the price of this loco, the product is shocking.

Extensive discussion on RM Web forum about the same thing under the topic ‘...FS without the ski-jump...’ in the Hornby section.

Isn't it about time one of the r-t-r manufacturers started thinking about the Thompson pacifics? Many modellers model Eastern Region and the r-t-r manufacturers just keep regurgitating the same old, same old, in different guises - re-liveried and renumbered. Eastern Region modellers are crying out for Thompson pacifics but to no avail. A Thompson A2/3 would be a start. Or how about even a limited edition Thompson A1/1? Whilst many think Thompson's rebuild of 4470 Great Northern was an abomination it was actually a very efficient locomotive. It just gets tedious looking at next year's offerings and then a deflated expectation when it is just another reliveried A4, or a reliveried A3 or A1. Yawn Yawn Yawn. For goodness sakes let's have some Thompson Pacifics.