Hornby Spares

[7013]

Let me apologise if this is in the wrong place. I am looking for the Valve Gear set for the rebuilt Merchant Navy, I have tried Hornby and all the usual stockists of Hornby Spares but am unable to find the set Which is X8848. My last resort is the pages of RMweb. If anyone knows of or has a spare set I would happily purchase it. I could repair the set that one side got mangled in the wheels, but I would rather put a replacement set in and repair the damaged set at my leisure.

Thank you in advance.

[Horsetan]

These haven't been produced by Hornby for at least two years now. Rarer than hen's teeth. No current prospect of new supplies being made.

 

Best bet is to look for a complete MN non-runner chassis on eBay and strip it. That's what I had to do to repair another.

[Peter Beckett]

I did a quick google check and Peter's Spares is listed has having a set for 12.64 GBP

 

Peter

 

(No relation)

[Horsetan]

....Peter's Spares is listed has having a set for 12.64 GBP

 

When I called them, they said that they hadn't had any stock for ages and didn't know when these would be available again!

[Ian Abel]

When I called them, they said that they hadn't had any stock for ages and didn't know when these would be available again!

Yep - asked there as I've been looking for one of these myself for over a year! By comparison, Hens teeth are abundant!

Also tried for the "broken MN as spares" and they aren't particularly easy to come by for a sensible price. The most likely thing to do is just buy another MN at the lowest price you can find, and renumber/rename if you have a particular one you are wanting/needing. This is twice as difficult from here (US based) as many of the eBay offerings won't ship here, AND I have to consider/add the shipping cost to the equation.

 

The last one I obtained was a US eBay sale of the "Royal Wessex" set that I won for a steal, $132 (about 90 quid) brand new never unpacked, as no-one else seemed to bid on it!

Doubt I'll ever get that lucky again. The MN I was hoping to "repair" is just a bin item far as I'm concerned <sigh>. I'm thinking of parting it out on eBay  probably with the tender, chassis and BOX (har har) sold separately, I can manage to get almost what a full MN is worth

Edited May 26, 2016 by Ian Abel

[toboldlygo]

Let me apologise if this is in the wrong place. I am looking for the Valve Gear set for the rebuilt Merchant Navy, I have tried Hornby and all the usual stockists of Hornby Spares but am unable to find the set Which is X8848. My last resort is the pages of RMweb. If anyone knows of or has a spare set I would happily purchase it. I could repair the set that one side got mangled in the wheels, but I would rather put a replacement set in and repair the damaged set at my leisure.

Thank you in advance.

What particular part are you looking for from that set?

[7013]

It is the eccentric crank that connects the eccentric crank rod to the middle drivers, 

[toboldlygo]

It is the eccentric crank that connects the eccentric crank rod to the middle drivers, 

 

This part by any chance?

 

[7013]

That is it! where the eccentric rod connects to the eccentric crank sheared through (my fault entirely when doing some maintenance and over tightening the nut that fixes it to the con rods. Is that just a picture for illustration or one you have spare?

[toboldlygo]

That is it! where the eccentric rod connects to the eccentric crank sheared through (my fault entirely when doing some maintenance and over tightening the nut that fixes it to the con rods. Is that just a picture for illustration or one you have spare?

 

That's a spare, I thought I had one lurking around

[7013]

Would you sell it to me? If so PM me and we can arrange a sale...Thanks

Edited May 26, 2016 by 7013

[Intercity125]

Hopefully a happy ending to this..........

[toboldlygo]

Hopefully a happy ending to this..........

 

 

Depends what kind of happy ending you refer too  

[BruceV]

I have 3 Merchant Navy's belonging to friends that require replacement valve gear.   I have Phoned Hornby quite a few times about these parts and their total disregard to customer service.   All they keep saying is that these parts MAY be available on the next release of the MN and have I tried Hornby dealers for spares.

I have also made enquires with Hornby for replacement chassis for the current version of the HST Power cars.   They do no hold this item and suggested that I try Peters Spares etc.   Where does Peters Spares get their stock of spares from?  Hornby.   I get the feeling of being sent around in circles.

 

IMHO Hornby's attitude is if its broke buy a new one.   New HST power car pack, depending on which one, costs anything from £150 to £260 and these are DCC ready versions.

[Kelly]

I have 3 Merchant Navy's belonging to friends that require replacement valve gear.   I have Phoned Hornby quite a few times about these parts and their total disregard to customer service.   All they keep saying is that these parts MAY be available on the next release of the MN and have I tried Hornby dealers for spares.

I have also made enquires with Hornby for replacement chassis for the current version of the HST Power cars.   They do no hold this item and suggested that I try Peters Spares etc.   Where does Peters Spares get their stock of spares from?  Hornby.   I get the feeling of being sent around in circles.

 

IMHO Hornby's attitude is if its broke buy a new one.   New HST power car pack, depending on which one, costs anything from £150 to £260 and these are DCC ready versions.

 

Sadly this somewhat mirrors modern society in terms of consumer electronics, white goods, computers and mobile phones. They're virtually throw away items now  sadly, so the days of self repairing a vast number of items is a thing of the past. Perhaps model railways are going the same way with how manufacturing is handled in China.

 

It doesn't sadly help the OP though. Perhaps theres a market for making a small etch for such parts?

[farren]

Sadly this somewhat mirrors modern society in terms of consumer electronics, white goods, computers and mobile phones. They're virtually throw away items now  sadly, so the days of self repairing a vast number of items is a thing of the past. Perhaps model railways are going the same way with how manufacturing is handled in China.

 

I don't think it is quite got that bad yet.

 

Having to be careful with the pennies as everyone nowadays.i have bought a few models of late in need of parts. A WD a compound both of which Bachmann have supplied me with parts needed. And today I've just received a email from Bachmann for the following. Gears. motor, Dcc bord cylinders valve gear tender coupler. Toltal cost of model plus parts will bring the cost of a jubilee to £55. So it can be done. However Hornby just doesn't seem to be able to make its mind. To hold stock or not. and prices seem to be higher than maybe needed. Ie valve gear with cylinders £12for jubilee. Hornby rebuilt scot more than twice that and no cylinders.

 

[Nimbus]

So it can be done. However Hornby just doesn't seem to be able to make its mind. To hold stock or not. 

With Hornby's logistics now outsourced, and themselves relocated to an office complex, they are now presumably constrained to operate despatches in 'box shifter' mode.

 

The Nim.

Edited June 1, 2016 by Nimbus

[adb968008]

Imagine if Hornby held stock, for every spare part for every model ever made...

There not enough storage space in The South East, let alone Margate.

 

Then consider storage fees, retrieval and handling fees... Then predicting the demand for it...

 

Back in the standardisation days where UK made models were all standardised and scale inaccurate parts this was a possibility, but to have every model bespoke tooled and stocked from China is barely possible at a realistic price.

[farren]

Ok I take your points. But I still get parts from Bachmann. Yes some are reclaimed from failed models. But some where new sealed in there bags. And has I understand it, Bachmann are pretty much the same as Hornby. With research and design/auto cad here, For out side design. Well internal design is done in China alone with everything else.

[Horsetan]

I have 3 Merchant Navy's belonging to friends that require replacement valve gear.   I have Phoned Hornby quite a few times about these parts and their total disregard to customer service.   All they keep saying is that these parts MAY be available on the next release of the MN .....

The other problem is that there may not be another run of MNs for a very long time. Same thing has happened with the Hornby BR "6" Clan - hardly ever turns up on eBay, and nobody knows if there will ever be another batch produced.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Horsetan

[TheSignalEngineer]

I needed some Hornby parts (not MN) so I bought a scrapper where I could see what I needed was OK. Stripped it and sold all the good bits for a profit so I got my bits for the labour of breaking it down.

[BruceV]

A few months back on the infamous web auction site was a new but incomplete set of valve gear for a Hornby MN.   It sold for £23.99.   Also on the same auction site there has been complete DCC MN chassis ready to drop a body shell on.   These have increased in price by £10 in this year alone.

 

 

Imagine if Hornby held stock, for every spare part for every model ever made...
There not enough storage space in The South East, let alone Margate.

Then consider storage fees, retrieval and handling fees... Then predicting the demand for it...

Back in the standardisation days where UK made models were all standardised and scale inaccurate parts this was a possibility, but to have every model bespoke tooled and stocked from China is barely possible at a realistic price.

 

Hornby haven't even got spares for some of their current models.   Not only that but on a couple of their service sheets, the part numbers are wrong.

[DougN]

BruceV your absolutely right. I have a J15 that needs some parts but when contacted Hornby a number of times via email then phone, then phone again, then email again. The individual tried to help but ended up just saying they don't have any spares. I even asked if their were any returned DOA loco's as the parts I needed were the tender... The comment was I'll keep an eye out. Now 4 months later still nothing. I did try Peters spares who were very helpful but they didn't have the spares.

 

I know this is left field I thought that manufacturers were required to offer some back up. I know larger manufacturers have to provide warranty support ( this doesn't help me though) but if Hornby see that the customer support needs to be out sourced to retailers like Peter spares why not make the spares available direct to them from china? I don't know about UK retail laws but here in Australia there is a requirement of some support to be provided. I guess Hornby could be on collision course with retailers and laws to support their product!

 

In the end I have purchased another J15 in the major discounting now in the mean time I wait for another SOS on eBay to turn up so I can get my spares. Sad thing is I really like the J15 and the whole experience has not been as smooth as it once was.

[Horsetan]

Imagine if Hornby held stock, for every spare part for every model ever made...

There not enough storage space in The South East, let alone Margate.

 

Then consider storage fees, retrieval and handling fees... Then predicting the demand for it...

 

Back in the standardisation days where UK made models were all standardised and scale inaccurate parts this was a possibility....

 

They did indeed do this at the Margate factory, and back then you could obtain practically every single part down to the last screw.

 

The Chinese sea change that RTR has gone through means that "manufacturers" now are really not much more than glorified wholesale importers / distributors and, to a certain extent (and especially once designs have been finalised), they have to dance to the tune of their Chinese contractors' production techniques. That unfortunately means minimal spares or, as I learnt with Heljan, a batch of spares coinciding with a run of models, but that's yer lot until whenever the next run is....which could be years away.

 

It seems to me that there is a side-effect of the much finer RTR standards, and that is the rise of the butterfingered modeller owner, which leads to wrecked models which then get flogged for spares - often fetching prices far in excess of the value of the leftover parts. The other side-effect are eBay traders who have made it their speciality to buy in complete models and then break them down profitably into their major component parts - body, mechanism, tender, etc.

 

It sort of works out in the end.

[HOTTODDY]

I have a dead MN chassis requiring just (!) a drive gear.The original one split causing an annoying jerk and ticking sound. Its with a friend who has tried in vain to find a replacement gear. Several months on and no luck so far. I don't suppose the same gear is used in other Hornby locos, unless you know differently?

 

Tod