Rallymatt

Oh dear

From your understanding of soldering I have no doubt you will be absolutely fine with fishplates, my soldering iron is a gas powered one we used to have in a service van for event support…. Not ideal but a few burnt fingers later……. However I chose to solder to rails simply because the fishplates to rail link is always the weak link, I used Peco flexi track and points so most flexi track runs are quite long, just my logic

I found Peco rails and fishplates responded to a quick flash over with a fine file. I soldered all my dropper wires directly to rails, experimented with fishplates but rails were a lot easier to handle

Great idea to repurpose Christmas lights!

I’d never heard of a track mat until returning to get into TT 😳 To me it was carpet… then Sundela ( ask an old person) then plywood

@mcr22 that’s interesting, what is the slow running like say up to about half throttle? I have bought some Gaugemaster decoders before the rush, My Piko BR130 runs fine but could be smoother on lower speed steps (I’m being hyper critical) the plan is the Gaugemaster decoder will move to the A4 when she lands and the factory fancy all sound… costs as much as the loco… decoder should arrive from Piko in Jan. just wondering how the A4 will run on the £20 chip?

Where has Hornby said they are raising the price on TT120? I stand to be corrected but haven’t they always honoured prices on preorders? I understand you want to pay by instalments but that’s offered in the shop too, if you haven’t actually ordered a set you could be waiting a long time if the early indications on popularity are anything to go by The days of large volumes of unsold stock in warehouses have gone, dynamic ordering and production is what keeps prices down and companies in business PS, I did get the movie reference!😁

@ Ray & Gavin….. I incurred the displeasure of the mods using a Bramley Apple to give scale to the signal box, I’m not risking more candles! 😳 The windows are fantastically detailed and crying out for a bit of Smokey grime and a typically yellow dim light inside. Few in the inside bay and an single one in the office.. I bought a load of warm white surface mount leds and selection of resistors 3k, 5k for pennies on Amazon, and wire into a separate switched sub loom. No batteries 😁 I am so impressed with the resin buildings so far I have gone mad (again) bought Dent Station and water tower…. I hoped these would be as good as the OO resin buildings and they absolutely are.

The Tillig and Hornby/Arnold couplings are identical in assembly. You will need to pull the plastic shank part from the NEM Pocket, grip and firm pull then you can assemble as per diagram, refit and the hook will be locked into correct position

@Ben J, when you say you have broken one, have you actually broken something critical off? This coupler system so simple there are only 2 parts to the catch mechanism. If the little metal hook has popped out, it’s easy (but fiddly) to pop back in place. I will look out my Tillig diagram that shows how it assembled

Images of goods shed, as Hornby haven’t been overly thorough with details of these superb buildings! inside you can see there is some scope for extra detailing, build an office, install lighting, build a loading platform (hence why I would like to open up at least one of the shed doors. Maybe add some drain pipes, certainly some weathering to enhance the fine moulded detail (please note the candle in the background is just a candle in the background and is not fruit for scale before anyone finds it a struggle 🤣)

It’s not really a supply issue but a lack of order issue. Production always has a lead time in everything and it’s sound practice to match production to physical orders.

My Goods shed landed today and it’s a really great model building. Some great detail. Opening shed doors would be really nice (like on the OO shed) Does anyone have any experience of cutting resin buildings and how they fare?

Encouraging to hear of great customer service.

Hopefully that’s so far out it should be a bit easier to see where the fault is. Looks like it’s come unclipped from the track the KK arm runs in

Have to say my test Piko BR130 runs smoothly at very low speed on DC and on DCC it’s a little less smooth with the Back EMF at CV65, if I take it all out it’s smooth as silk running but inertia is lost. It’s a £20 Gaugemaster Next18 decoder onto a Plux16 adapter. I have the factory sound decoder on order (Jan delivery hopefully) I have recently heard that some decoders are less smooth with Back EMF. In my previous DCC modelling period I exclusively used Lenz decoders with no issues. The Gaugemaster decoder will be used on the A4 when that arrives and I will see how that fairs, if I’m not happy I will try a Lenz Next18 decoder.

I’d start with some basic servicing, most mechanical devices don’t like being not used. Dry bearings would cause the issues you are having but it’s important to clean the bearing surfaces first and add just a tiny amount of the correct lubricant. Hornby are pretty good with their maintenance sheets, or drop the support guys an email for one. If that’s not something you are confident with then as previously mentioned pop along to a service agent and pay them to do this for you.

I’m sure Hornby will be keeping the actual figures quite close to their chests for a while at least but I’d hazard a guess they will have sold around 3000 sets, 828 in first batch of Scotsman to arrive, there is another batch due soon and then the Easterner which I get inkling may have been more popular that Scotsman simply because it was slightly cheaper but mainly because it’s a BR liveried loco and would suit a wider audience. Of course it’s all pure speculation but really hope this flies for them and becomes the dominant scale across Europe.

A tale of two signal boxes! The lovely resin Hornby box arrived yesterday, just as I was finishing building a InTheGreenWood laser plywood kit of an older GNR box. few pics to show comparisons, the kit is very nice to build, quite well detailed but instructions are challenging and it’s quite fiddly in places to assemble and paint. Excellent value £8 including free post!!! Is certainly pocket money price and any aspiring modellers can have a go but patience and research will be helpful. I painted the supplied lever frames and the boards inside, fitted glazing (DCC Concepts decoder box cut up) added a warm white LED and a quick gentle weathering with some Humbrol weathering powders. I have added a floor to the Hornby box (to prevent light bleed downstairs) fitted a warm white LED and done a bit of weathering to tone down the ‘new’ look. I have a feeling I may be tempted to do some more detailing inside the Hornby box, make some lever frames etc, it deserves it, lovely model,

I tried all the re-installing business but their server is having some sort of melt down. My delivery today was fine because I was in but the tech behind the company in my experience is total junk. I have recently paid for Amazon delivery with Hattons, for me it was flawless but my Amazon deliveries are always fine. Excluding the issues with industrial action, DPD are currently my worst delivery experience purely on their lack of technical ability. I must admit I would pay extra to use a different courier service

@SMR248….. hmmmm yes some of the very wordy books on deadbeat location are quite hard to digest….I like the ones with lots of pictures 😁 very good place to get references from for attempting to create a the model version we are happy with. @taunmarc88, modelling a heritage railway has proved very popular as you have scope to do anything! But ultimately it’s your world so it’s your rules. East Coast has got first dibs in TT120, years ago in my first modelling phase I was so disappointed my HST was a WCML one when the real ones I watched scream past at full chat were ECML! (1980’s Hornby was West coast and Southern biased) I’m sure the launch models were chosen with commercial value in mind and as things develop more stock for other regions, eras and size of locos will appear.

@Fishmanoz, sorry that means I have got the wrong end of the stick completely! In which case it’s an unusual move and I feel your frustration even more!

Couplers and coupling things…. I would expect Arnold to retain and expand its TT offerings reflecting German prototypes and depending on the level of impact Hornby TT120 possibly see other Hornby brands launch their own TT120 models, using the identity of each to reflect Home market, ie Lima/Rivarossi Italian, Jouef for French outline etc etc but underneath uses common components etc to effect economies of scale. When starting with a clean sheet and a level of designed in standardisation it becomes much more viable. The core reasoning for TT120 is equally valid in European homes as in UK. I did consider splicing Dapol easi shunts onto the spare Arnold coupling shanks I now have… the Tillig ones work so well I have shelved that idea for when I have way too much time on my hands….. Topic preserved nicely there I think 😂

My understanding is that SMS are concessionaires under an agreement that predates TT 120. If Hornby tried direct sales in Australia they would be in clear breach of contract, by law Hornby can only have 1 customer in Australia, SMS and they have the rights to dictate what happens along the supply chain to the customer. The issue is with SMS if they are making excessive price increases although they would probably argue they are not. Ultimately they are having to bear the cost of managing TT120 like Hornby do across the RoW. This does give some insight into how distributer/retailer margins and costs affect the end user price and how direct sales are a bonus to RoW customers. An exclusive deal was probably hammered out when things looked very different.

Ahhhh deliveries… Our Post service is generally excellent in Chester le Street and my village and the local drop off service at the village post office works brilliantly. DPD however is the one I have had most problems with, it’s their appalling tech. I downloaded their App to make delivery choices for an impending Hornby TT120 delivery, it’s terrible and doesn’t connect to their system. After an hour I gave up and deleted the app. Obviously I missed the driver and was unable to give alternatives. So it’s delivered to a collect in person store in town, which is a little newsagents/sweet shop that opens less than my brother’s wallet! As I write this I am actually expecting a DPD Hornby TT120 delivery ….anytime now 😁 And it was perfect, thanks Ricardo