Hornby king

[Silver Sidelines]

Hi Pete

 

My King has now run much more than 15 minutes with a LokSound Micro - so against all Hornby QA odds it is possible.

Out of curiosity, which decoder did you fit? (... After fifteen minutes or so of running I got the same short you have described...

You can listen to the sound project from Kevin at Coastal DCC pushing my Camtruck on analogue DC

 

Ray

Edited March 1, 2017 by Silver Sidelines

[BWsTrains]

Out of curiosity, which decoder did you fit? (The thread had dived off on a "sound" tangent and I am a bit lost!)

 

I have two of the new generation Hornby Kings, both were fitted and worked well with my favoured Bachmann 36-553 decoder. As these were my most expensive locomotive purchases ever I decided to push on and fit a Loksound decoder to one as my first flirtation with steam sound. After fifteen minutes or so of running I got the same short you have described. Putting the 36-553 back in revealed that all was still well with the locomotive and track.

 

There was no obvious damage to the Loksound decoder; this was returned to the retailer who replaced it without question.

 

Pete.

This seems odd when you consider that Olivia's Trains supply Hornby King's (and many other Classes) with Olivia's Sound coupled with an ESU V4 (=Loksound I think) as a standard offering. (disclaimer - I have no connection with them at all, it's just a good example to cite)

 

Not sure if related to your issue but I was getting a short in my first purchased King once a Std DCC chip was inserted - my supplier traced this to poor wiring in the loco (see #937).   

[MatthewCarty]

Has anyone had any problems with the these locos derailing on Hornby set track points? Mine derails even at quite slow speeds, it is the bogie that causes the problem. (Back to backs are all correct)

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

The bogie derails? Is this on all such points or only some, or few, or one example, likewise both routes, or only curved, only left or right or both directions, facing or trailing only or both directions? If it is only on one point, then inspect for damage on the point, if on two or three look for common factors in their locations.

 

What happens if you unhitch the tender drawbar so it is dragged along by the wires alone (slowly!). A tender slightly fouling the back of a loco can limit the flexibility of the loco to take the curve and that in turn can cause the bogie to come off

 

What actually happens in the derailment? Do you see a wheelset - or both - stop turning before it happens, or lift off the track slightly, or does the bogie frame turn a little or tilt over before derailment?

 

I have various Hornby models with a leading bogie, and far and away the most common fault has been the small screw attached subframe (with the guide slot in which the bogie pivot locates) incorrectly positioned so that it constrains the bogie as it attempts to track the curve.

[JSpencer]

First suspect for me are wheel back to backs. Then check the and track leading into are perfectly flat and level.

[MatthewCarty]

Thanks for all the replies, it seems it was the bracket which was bent slightly out of shape. Having tweaked it slightly, the loco now runs beautifully through all the points! (Although I think some of my points may not be exactly flat, as my base boards seem to be bowing, giving some peak like joins )

[Ian Hargrave]

Thanks for all the replies, it seems it was the bracket which was bent slightly out of shape. Having tweaked it slightly, the loco now runs beautifully through all the points! (Although I think some of my points may not be exactly flat, as my base boards seem to be bowing, giving some peak like joins )

 

Baseboard joins.....an endless source of derailments

[Silver Sidelines]

After some months of procrastination I have added a post to my Blog with some observations and comparisons of Hornby's TTS sound with Coastal DCC's sound.

Ray

[george stein]

Lots of useful info.  I have the King James II and while the DCC 8 pin receiver is in the engine, I can't figure out where to put a (sugar cube?) speaker as the tender lacks the typical 28mm speaker slot.  Any suggestions & advice much appreciated.  Oddly, also, the tender is fitted with pickups on all six wheels.  Does it transmit current through the drawbar?  No wires between engine & tender.  Help. It's a confusing model.

[Hilux5972]

Lots of useful info. I have the King James II and while the DCC 8 pin receiver is in the engine, I can't figure out where to put a (sugar cube?) speaker as the tender lacks the typical 28mm speaker slot. Any suggestions & advice much appreciated. Oddly, also, the tender is fitted with pickups on all six wheels. Does it transmit current through the drawbar? No wires between engine & tender. Help. It's a confusing model.

It's obviously one of the older Kings then, as the new models, code R3330 onwards, all have the DCC Socket in the tender. The underside of the drawbar on the older model had a brass sheet that connected to the pickups on the tender. If you can afford to, I would sell that and upgrade to the new one. Some people have reported running issues but I have had 3 perfect runners, and still no issues.

 

Regards, Hilux

[JSpencer]

Lots of useful info.  I have the King James II and while the DCC 8 pin receiver is in the engine, I can't figure out where to put a (sugar cube?) speaker as the tender lacks the typical 28mm speaker slot.  Any suggestions & advice much appreciated.  Oddly, also, the tender is fitted with pickups on all six wheels.  Does it transmit current through the drawbar?  No wires between engine & tender.  Help. It's a confusing model.

 

Alternatively you could fit the chip in the loco, run a pair of really thin wires from the sound points, out from under the back of the cab and into the tender. You will need to drill holes so it enters the tender.

You may not need to drill additional holes for sound to escape if there are already holes where the top of the wheels stick through the chassis.

 

Fix the 28mm speaker facing down to the tender top below the water tank via blue tack, remove a tender weight if it gets in the way.

 

I will be doing such an operation to a Bachmann A1.

Edited April 12, 2017 by JSpencer

[coachmann]

If you have a sound chip that delivers a deep exhaust such as the Locoman 'King', then the 28mm round speaker will suffice. Most 'tinny-sound' chips need a large bass speaker or one of the large cubes. The small sugar cubes should be avoided unless there is lack of space. Also worth wiring in a stay-alive.

[Ventnor]

Hello everyone

 

I recently purchased a blue King (R3410), I ran it in over the weekend and noticed a very pronounced "cogging" of the motor at very low speed causing a juddering motion, all other speed ranges are fine. I have run it for 2 hours in each direction with no improvement. I had a similar problem with one of my Hornby Adams Radials but solved the problem by simply slightly loosening the motor keeper plate screw. I've tried this with the King but with no improvement. My layout is DC and all of my other locos work fine. 

 

Anybody else had this problem and if so what could it be? It's a great model apart from this.

 

Thanks.

[Ian Hargrave]

Hello everyone

 

I recently purchased a blue King (R3410), I ran it in over the weekend and noticed a very pronounced "cogging" of the motor at very low speed causing a juddering motion, all other speed ranges are fine. I have run it for 2 hours in each direction with no improvement. I had a similar problem with one of my Hornby Adams Radials but solved the problem by simply slightly loosening the motor keeper plate screw. I've tried this with the King but with no improvement. My layout is DC and all of my other locos work fine. 

 

Anybody else had this problem and if so what could it be? It's a great model apart from this.

 

Thanks.

Could be another case of split gears.

[coachmann]

Hello everyone

 

I recently purchased a blue King (R3410), I ran it in over the weekend and noticed a very pronounced "cogging" of the motor at very low speed causing a juddering motion, all other speed ranges are fine. I have run it for 2 hours in each direction with no improvement. I had a similar problem with one of my Hornby Adams Radials but solved the problem by simply slightly loosening the motor keeper plate screw. I've tried this with the King but with no improvement. My layout is DC and all of my other locos work fine. 

 

Anybody else had this problem and if so what could it be? It's a great model apart from this.

 

Thanks.

I had two Kings and both had a pronounced cogging when setting off slowly. We are not lone seeing as other members have also mentioned it too. It is really visible on DCC because Zimo decoders have such fine control of mechanisms. To me it is one chassis that would have benefited from a flywheel as on the Hall.

Edited April 28, 2017 by coachmann

[TerrySVR]

Just received King from Rails fitted with tats, can't programme loco as cannot read cv appears any ideas?

 

Terry

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

What CV's are you trying to programme? When the TTS product was fairly new I looked at the Hornby pdf file, and the decoder offers no access to essential CV's like CV's 2, 5 and 6 : which ended my interest, so didn't read any further...

[Hilux5972]

Just received King from Rails fitted with tats, can't programme loco as cannot read cv appears any ideas?

 

Terry

The TTS decoders are so cheap because they removevthe ability to change a lot of cv values. You should still be able to do the basic job of volume change and address change though. If you can't then I would suggest a return to the shop.

[BWsTrains]

Just received King from Rails fitted with tats, can't programme loco as cannot read cv appears any ideas?

 

Terry

Sounds like a faulty Chip to me, I reprogrammed several CVs on mine. According to the pamphlet that came with your King, many CVs are addressable including CV1, 3, 4, 10, CV150-4 for Motor control so I don't describe the available CVs as only basic. Notably CV 2,5 and 6 are not available but my King runs just fine as it was.

 

Others might know if using CVs 150-54 is another way to get similar effects as adjusting CVs 2, 5 and 6? 

[coachmann]

The TTS Sound chip will not allow the most basic task of synchronizing the exhaust with the driving wheel revolutions (4-beats per rev). In other words, it's a toy.

[BR(W)]

The TTS Sound chip will not allow the most basic task of synchronizing the exhaust with the driving wheel revolutions (4-beats per rev). In other words, it's a toy.

 

Bit like paying cards pegged to the seat stays of our bicycles, then!

 

Cheers,

 

BR(W).

[BWsTrains]

The TTS Sound chip will not allow the most basic task of synchronizing the exhaust with the driving wheel revolutions (4-beats per rev). In other words, it's a toy.

Agreed! And why not? They have their place.

 

I'm just a boy with his toys and my grandchildren (male and female 3-8) also love them and are already well on the path to careful and constructive railway modelling, my keen assistants. A quest for authenticity has it's place if you have the $$$ and the desire. The pure pleasure of the smiles on my grandchildrens' faces when their King chuffs out of the station is priceless to me, matched beats or not. And when our era has moved on, surely its a credible goal to have furthered our hobby through them?

 

Colin

[JSpencer]

The TTS Sound chip will not allow the most basic task of synchronizing the exhaust with the driving wheel revolutions (4-beats per rev). In other words, it's a toy.

Agree, I did not mind this on a P2 which will rarely run on a BR layout, but my TTS King really does look out of sync, maybe one chuff per wheel revolution (though it varies somewhat up the speed range).

The icing on the cake would be either Hornby to have them pretty close by default (Oxfordrail managed to synchronise their sound chips on their radials, I,m most impressed with the job they did there) or some basic CVs to allow us to approach a proper chuff rate.

 

I have a TTS Merchant Navy coming soon, so I hope they are a lot closer to synchronising the chuff rate than they did with the King.

 

Edit: this was while pulling 1 Bachmann Horse box, 4 Bachmann Mk 1s and 4 Bullieds. 1 to 2 chuffs per wheel revolution and it showed.

Edited June 6, 2017 by JSpencer

[B15nac]

Has anyone heard an any updates on R3535 King Richard III it's due for release this month but I cant seem to find it on the Hornby website

 

Kind regards Neil

[gwrrob]

6022 King Edward 2 on the down CRE.

 

 

 

 

Edit. Well spotted, should be the third.  

Edited November 13, 2017 by gwrrob