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Petition to Hornby


RDS

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Moderator message: I did not post this original message, my tag appears against it as I moved the post here on the old forum as a moderator task.

I've noticed while browsing on a Partition website that somebody that somebody started a partition to Hornby to bring back the Live steam range, what are you thoughts on this?

https://www.change.org/Bringbackhornbylivesteam

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  • 1 month later...

Only 5 signed up.

Is that a reflection of the power of that particular petition site or the actual demand for live steam in 00 scale?

It seems to me the best the best evidence of a market is the second hand price of existing models. If they are "unused" or "as new" (that is most of them) or shown to be working well they can command mouth wateringly high prices.

But why put them back into production when there are 10,000 or so already out there lying dormant in "as new" condition? Most owners gave up after just one or 2 steamings. 

All Hornby has to do is "recall" and re-issue them charging the owner a fee to do it.

Minimal actual work would be needed (PAT test, clean the electrical connections. change the cylinder seals) but crucially REPLACE THE DISASTROUSLY WRONG INSTRUCTION MANUAL that is still in the box ready to doom the new owner to the same crash after crash fate that original purchaser suffered.

Hornby repairs an undeserved bad reputation, makes some money and thousands of new users discover the absolute joy of actually DRIVING a model that behaves just like real steam locomotive. FAR more fun that computer controlled simulation.

Then someone decides it's worth going into production again....

  

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Live steam as it was is dead.   It was a premium product, at the moment with brexit making it's mark and covid around most people are just trying to survive, after covid things will be bad economically.  Hornby wisely are concentrating on what will sell mainstream and make a profit.  Live steam had a big flaw not being 12V which meant seperate track if you wanted to run it on a 12V layout, beginners found it hard to control as well.

 

Live steam might return one day, but not as it was.

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  • 2 months later...

I would like to say I was given a Live Steam Set by my late wife who subsequently died of cancer, so I have not put it up for sale on eBay. I occasionally get it out and play with it. It is quite a lot of fun, but I am bound to say the loco gets extremely hot. You are provided with a pair of insulating gloves to pick it up with. The controller and transformer are both made of metal and are very heavy and take up a lot of space. The loco has an electric motor that moves a lever to release steam from the boiler in the tender into the cylinder block. Although it does work, the regulator is very difficult to control and all you can really do it set it going around and watch it. If there is to be a petition to Hornby for another Live Steam introduction, then it needs to be a petition for a better design. I think it would be better if the loco was tender driven by an electric motor and the boiler was filled with water which was then expelled through the cylinder block and chimney as steam, but not under great pressure. In that way, it could be DCC fitted in the tender and completely controllable.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So many people including Bexhill Donkey have completely missed the point about the fun of Hornby Live Steam and regard it/treat it as a 'novelty'.

They can be forgiven if that view is based on a casual glance or a bit of experience with the track in the set. (And don't forget most owners 'bit of experience' is "run once" if ebay descriptions are anything to go by).

The reality is that the way it behaves (warts and all!) is SO LIKE THE REAL THING that it is an absolute joy given the challenge of operating it:

clap reversing slowly and accurately onto your coaches

clap starting a heavy train smoothly without excessive wheel-slip or acceleration

clap bringing it slowly round a curve toward the station

clap stopping EXACTLY at the right point in the station

clap negotiating a gradient at a realistic speed BUT....

clap... getting the power off in time to stop it racing downhill

clap then doing it all again with a DIFFERENT loco

clap and again with an inefficient loco - where the seals are leaking..

But there is one big drawback to being able to operate it like the real thing - you need a lot of space! If you owned a REAL A4 Pacific you would never get the best out of it by running it round a football field. You probably need 8' x 14' MINIMUM to start appreciating Live Steam.

So if it was to come back it could be marketed as a garden railway ideally with a track bed system based on dropping in 3' track lengths (straight and curved with a very large radius) into a substantial ballasted double track roadbed where each section joins with substantial power-passing male/female connectors. It would need clip-on height adjustable supports to even out natural undulations.

It could be left outside for long periods but quickly dismantled for mowing the lawn or the worst of the winter.

Maybe that modular track idea would help the whole model railway market... but that's another thread.

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  • 2 months later...

Like my live steam bought one when it first came out i use mine on a normal model rail i just kept one rail not connected to any other rail, Hornby's instruction book was no good even the the CD useless if any one interested there is a 00 live steam group on the net they will teach you, but yep Hornby should start doing it again but bring the cost down

DaveA

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  • 6 months later...

Hello Bexhill Donkey.

Don't ever sell it!! I will recommend though that you get a 'Live-Drive' unit from the OO LS Club - not sure if they are still available off the shelf, but it's what you need. With this unit, I have the confidence, and actually do, bring LS Trains into a terminus station, where I'm able to stop, where planned +/- two inches each way.

I would fill the loco and service it's needs, switch it on, operate it and enjoy it until the water starts to run low (experience has taught me when this is) and then bring it into the terminus and switch off, allowing it to cool. From there, through a complicated isolation track / switches (which I do not recommend). I could then bring in a DCC shunter / loco to take the coaches to the coach yard, or out on the next train, and by that time with a cup of tea included, the LS train was cool enough to handle / fill / turn around ready for the next trip.

I'v not been on this website for some time and it looks like the ability to load video may have gone away (or someone please advise me differently). I will eventually load them onto a youtube channel because it really is outstanding to see these models running, when they are running as they were always intended.


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"I've not been on this website for some time and it looks like the ability to load video may have gone away (or someone please advise me differently)."

There has never been the ability to embed a video directly into a post on this forum. It has always and still is a function that requires a URL link to an off site video hosting service such as YouTube etc.

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