BritInVanCA

@96RAF thanks for your patience as ever. The reason I ask is that I felt rather admonished in the past when I said the list only recommended Hornby products. I understand why they would only guarantee Hornby products but once again it limits options for international customers. I recently ask Hornby about supplying different power supplies for the TT120 sets. First they said just select it at checkout. Then they corrected that instruction to say buy a travel adapter as they can’t supply compatible adapters I can’t even see these on the Hornby website using P9303 as an example

This subject came up again so I just wanted to confirm my assumed misunderstanding of the document. The P93nn power adapters are a 3rd party standard (not Hornby proprietary) that can be obtained from other suppliers and would be considered acceptable and would not void warranty?

I pre-order from a retailer who will combine shipping. They don’t offer free shipping internationally but at least one shipment makes it efficient. Given up on Hornby

So now Little Wicket also did an YouTube review. Similar problems with connecting rods and the electrical connection. He did persevere and got it running on DCC in the end. Perhaps “ultimate” means ultimately it will work if you keep trying!

That’s a very good question and one I ponder often. My starting point was steam but nothing “famous” I.e. no Mallard and no Flying Scotsman. I think I have some perverse pleasure when people who don’t follow the hobby say “oh there’s the Flying Scotsman!” And I get to correct them. Nerdy I know. After buying Falcon I settled into era 4. Now my only rule exception was the era 5 08 that I could still cancel if the J50 comes first. I really need a shunter! if some locomotives are slow to arrive I might still throw my rule out the window. It’s more like a guideline as Captain Jack Sparrow would say

I find it interesting they have put such specific dates in the magazine after previous issues suffered from many missed dates due to the lag between submitting articles for copy and final publication. Is that not an issue now that the magazine is electronic? If so I think it’s a benefit if we get more accurate dates.

Do we really think these date’s should be relied upon? I tend to go with the “it will happen when it happens philosophy”. Do these dates actually flip the status when they are hit or are they just used to determine the season displayed on the page. I suspect the latter

@dBerriff I’m running a Select as stated above so no using long address. It’s not that

I still find it flaky but the app control is way better than the interface on my Select. Two main things that annoy me - Things will suddenly start misbehaving. For example I haven’t used DCC control for a few months but just for fun I try it. One loco moves but no sound and the other loco won’t respond at all I’m not going to bother trying to solve it right now because I don’t want to spend a couple of hours being frustrated - The reset frequency and time on Bluetooth. Freshly cleaned track that has no problems on DC still causes a decoder reset sometimes on a straight piece of track. A reset takes 30 seconds so makes for very intermittent running. Doesn’t happen very often but perhaps once every 10 circuits. A stay alive has solved it in one locomotive even though many people say this shouldn’t be needed in a TT120 A4 Do I like it, yes. Am I totally satisfied, no. Am I willing to give it time to improve, yes.

I’m not sure if the timing of compiling this publication will change now that it’s electronic only but previously by the time it was in our hands all the information was known and the dates were inaccurate. The articles about personalities, layouts and how to were somewhat fun but I’m sure they are reassessing the value of this advertising medium.

@Deem sure. Although I maybe get in trouble for promoting another manufacturer 😆 I bought mine in 2022 so I think they are about £150 at the retailers now

Although I could justify a 9F on my layout I don’t think I’ll see one until 2026. Hornby said the sequence of future locomotives will be more driven by perceived demand than a set sequence. I would suspect they’ll take a number of models through CAD and possibly 3D printing but hold off on tooling until they see demand. I remember my 1970s tender driven Evening Star was lovely but a little picky about curves. With the 2-10-0 configuration it might be quite the challenge in TT120. Obviously all speculation of an amateur observer. Personally I’d like to see more small/medium stream locomotives for these industrial layouts and local passenger services.

You mean on the HM:DCC app when you first try to link the decoder. i.e. the app sees it but it fails on the link? That does sound like a decoder issue unless it isn't seated correctly in the board. I see you said you had multiple decoders. Do some work in the same loco and some do not? Also points to a decoder issue.

Selfishly I hope they don't focus too much on modern image. I know they need to catch up and grab those modelers but I have no interest in non-steam. I never saw steam in service but my modelling has always been steam probably influenced by my father. I did order the era 5 08 in a moment of weakness when no steam shunter seemed imminent but that is it. I'm not cancelling it because I still think it might come out first.

@dBerriff well actually what I sometimes see here is a tendency to assume user error as a starting point. I understand that the moderators and beta testers see a lot of user issues so it’s easy to jump to conclusions but sometimes the attitude is a little frustrating. Patience is the key for all of us.

I’ve had one failure. Pre installed HM7000 in a TT120 Night Hawk running on a Hornby Select powered layout. I can’t imagine what I could have done to cause a user error. It ran happily for months and then went hot and caused a short. The loco was fine on DC with a blanking plate. I have no complaints because Hornby just replaced it but they didn’t suggest what the problem might be. I agree that people should read supplied operating instructions but these are intended to be consumer level products. If you’re operating with recommended equipment any failure is the manufacturer’s responsibility

@Chris1970 there is a lot of help available here but you’ll have to be more specific. Have you tried the troubleshooting guide referenced in the pinned post at the top of this page? Are they all the same type of decoder and do you have inconsistent results from the same locomotive? What does “doesn’t work” mean? No connectivity, no sound, no movement, etc.

My Dapol Manor is a dream. It also has a metal boiler and cost less than half the price

@SMR248 what’s wrong with the footbridge apart from it being very expensive? I bought one a while ago. I haven’t build the station yet so it’s not on the layout but I took it out quickly to look at it and it seemed fine. I’m still waiting for my new buildings. Is Hornby playing silly buggers with retailers again. Rails have them in stock but TMC says they still haven’t got theirs.

Sam has reviewed another one (please resist the Sam bashing). It was better but still had loose crank pins and a slight loco to tender connection issue which he seemed to solve with cleaning (even though it was new). They certainly don’t seem to be fault free

@Tim Allen I wasn’t expecting you to know. It was more a question to the hive mind. Thanks for the pictures BTW

Someone of Facebook was saying the tender should have a ladder on the rear. Doesn’t bother me as I’m getting an era 4 model and I’m not a rivet counter but I know there is a lot of prototype knowledge here. quote “artist illustration left off the tender rear chassis steps, the streamlined Duchess locos had tenders like that, as they had a ladder fixed to the rear of the tender. Later when the streamlining was removed from the locos, the tender sides were cut back, but they retained the ladders and did not need the steps! Atholl had an ordinary tender and should have rear cjassis steps.”

@96RAF you mean my 16 year old Select isn’t going to last forever! It’s already outlasted 2 iMacs!

Agreed. Double track needs height and width modifications. Single track just height. The thing is I can get Metcalfe kits in Canada unlike all these one person enterprises doing 3D printing and laser cuts.

I just got a marketing email from Hornby listing items that are “last chance to buy” and one is the Elite. Are they discontinuing this controller? Is something replacing it?