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Post #005 Hornby Customer service, Multiple Model Shops, and a new wagon

Jongudmund

Entry posted by Jongudmund

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While looking through the components of the train set I realised there was a discrepancy between the outside box, which said it should have included some extra power clips, and the contents. There were no power clips.

 

I emailed Hornby through their web contact form one evening and got an email back the next morning apologising and saying they would send the clips, which arrived a couple of days later. Reading some of the comments on RM Web, there seem to be plenty of people who knock Hornby, but I thought this was very good customer service from them. No quibbles, just sending the missing bits out.

 

The leaflet that came with the train set mentions these little clips that pop into the points on the DCC trainset to keep everything live. As I've bought some bonus extension kits, I realised the other points didn't have the clips, so I went looking for them. I tried Hobbycraft initially as I thought they might have been in the clearance sale along with everything else, but they weren't. I then tried the ModelZone concession in WH Smiths as they seem to have everything else Hornby. But no clips. I stopped in the new Hamleys and looked in their Hornby area. Guess what, no clips. Then I tried the Ian Allan bookshop where the lady at least knew what I was talking about, but told me they "must have sold out." Finally, as I left the city centre I went into the Antics model shop, which has a bit of train stuff at the back. They had the clips! It was only the fifth shop I'd tried. Admittedly, I'd probably got them first go if I had gone to one of the dedicated model railway shops outside the city centre, but it seemed strange that some of these places that sell the DCC sets don't sell the bits you need to expand your layout and keep it DCC.

 

Anyway - these are the bits in a poor resolution phone camera picture:

blogentry-13501-0-86140300-1409769260.jpg

 

A few posts back I listed the rolling stock you got in the set and said how annoying it was that you couldn't build up a rake of them. Well, there's a shop in the city centre that sells second hand railway stuff and imagine my surprise when I saw the four wagons from my DCC set sitting in one of their glass cabinets. I mulled over whether I wanted to get doubles of the wagons, and decided later that the plain box van would probably be a useful addition.

 

The golden rule when you see something for sale second hand is to buy it and risk regretting it later. On this occasion I ignored the golden rule and the box van had been bought by someone else. However, I made up for it by buying a second Breedon and Cloud Hill open wagon. So, at least I've got two of those. Box vans are fairly generic anyway so I'm sure I can pick up some that look close enough.

blogentry-13501-0-43988400-1409769501_thumb.jpg

 

I don't really want them rolling around empty so I'm going to have to find out what a load of lime will look like and mock something up. If you can save me the effort of researching it, please leave a comment ;)

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buffalo

The wagons may belong to a lime works but that doesn't necessarily mean they were used to transport lime. They are more likely to be used for incoming coal supplies for the lime kilns or, in this case, outgoing limestone from the associated quarries.

 

Another possibility is 'agricultural lime' used to improve acidic soils. This was usually crushed limestone rather than real lime and so might be transported in open wagons. A fine pale creamy ballast would do for this, but don't fill the wagons as, like other stone, it would be more dense than coal.

 

Real lime, quicklime and hydrated lime, produced in lime kilns are rather unpleasant substances that might be produced in various sizes from a fine powder up to large lumps but it needs to be kept dry, especially quicklime. If transported in opens it would need to sheeted and is more likely to bagged and transported in vans.

 

Nick

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Steam_Julie

I think the problem is that your phone lacks a macro function. On a real camera this allows close-up photography.

 

Julie

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Jongudmund

Hi Nick - thanks for that. I guess I just assumed the wagons would be used to transport stuff out rather than stuff in. You make a good point there.

 

Hi Julie - yeah, if I'd been a bit more sensible I would have gone and got the camera, but on my phone screen the photos looked OK. It was only when I swapped them onto the computer that I realised they looked awful. I will try and do better photos next time.

 

Thanks, both, for the comments :)

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