Hornby quality control

[6412]

Is it me or does other people have problems with Hornby quality control. I’ve just purchased a Hornby large prairie, all fine with running in then suddenly it derailed, investigation showed that the problem was that the screw holding the front bogie had worked loose and become detached from the lock body. Now got to find the missing screw on the layout and hopefully attach it properly but my point is that this should not have happened in the first place and is due to poor quality control!

[YesTor]

17 minutes ago, 6412 said:

investigation showed that the problem was that the screw holding the front bogie had worked loose and become detached from the lock body.

 

Screws do become loose - fact.  It's perfectly possible that it may have left the factory perfect and then worked loose during transit.  Some of those screws that retain bogies in place aren't meant to be fully tightened anyway, so some 'give' is generally required - some models come not tightened enough (and as you have found can be prone to working loose), whereas I've had models where the screws are slightly too tight and the bogie can barely rotate. 

 

In short, how loose is 'too loose', and how tight is 'too tight'...  a bit of a no-win in many cases really.  If any model comes with screw-in bogie frames I generally check to see if the screws are fixed securely enough, whilst still allowing sufficient 'play' prior to running. 

 

Hope that helps...

 

Best

Al

Edited August 19, 2020 by YesTor

[Ian Hargrave]

Yes a chronic problem of which most of us at some time or another will have been made painfully aware . But do we really need to start another separate thread for this ? Try posting on the Prairie thread which is the appropriate place for it......lots of niggles there