Hornby 2022 - Dublo range inc A4

[Johan DC]

What surprises me is the popularity of the Railroad+ TXS loco's. They seem to sell out quite quickly. 

[jonnyuk]

2 hours ago, Johan DC said:

What surprises me is the popularity of the Railroad+ TXS loco's. They seem to sell out quite quickly. 

why, they are great value. railroad + liveries are really good, and TXS is outstanding value. no other company does budget stuff, they are all chasing the premium market, so good on Hornby. someone had the class 55 TXS on a test track at my local shop on Tuesday, from 2 ft back and with the sound blasting it looked and sounded really good, i almost bought one but realised i can get it allot cheaper else where.

[shunny]

Last minute delivery in Scoonie hobbies today when I was in of Dwight D Eisenhower that's just made my Xmas😁

[Black 5 Bear]

16 hours ago, shunny said:

Last minute delivery in Scoonie hobbies today when I was in of Dwight D Eisenhower that's just made my Xmas😁

Excellent news!

The BR green versions do look stunning.

Waiting for my pre-ordered Union of South Africa and Dwight D to appear in the NY.

Enjoy!

Edited December 24, 2023 by Black 5 Bear

[Bulleidboy100]

This arrived yesterday - very well packaged and nothing fell off or was loose in the box.

 

[Black 5 Bear]

1 hour ago, Bulleidboy100 said:

This arrived yesterday - very well packaged and nothing fell off or was loose in the box.

 

Absolutely exquisite! 👌

[Standards_in_OO]

1 hour ago, Bulleidboy100 said:

This arrived yesterday - very well packaged and nothing fell off or was loose in the box.

 

Looks amazing. Can’t wait for mine to arrive now 

[Bulleidboy100]

............. and to think I'm a Merchant Navy man😂

[Black 5 Bear]

Can anyone please confirm whether these new HD A4's are 21 pin or the old 8 pin DCC compatible?

[TomScrut]

2 minutes ago, Black 5 Bear said:

Can anyone please confirm whether these new HD A4's are 21 pin or the old 8 pin DCC compatible?

 

My SNG is 21 pin. Haven't checked Mallard (as I don't intend running that (like NRM with the real the real thing). Photo just because I have one of it.

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by TomScrut
Cropped pic

[GraemeWatson]

1 hour ago, Black 5 Bear said:

Can anyone please confirm whether these new HD A4's are 21 pin or the old 8 pin DCC compatible?

 

My Hornby Dublo Sir Nigel Gresley and Gannet models were both 21 pin. 

[GraemeWatson]

On 29/03/2023 at 21:24, Dominion said:

I was just investigating the new tender connection set up. 
Mine is working fine, I was just exploring in case I want to couple them more closely in future. 

 

Unfortunately my tender on Sir Nigel Gresley did not like being uncoupled...

One of the contacts must have been adherent in some way, and snapped it in half.

[cctransuk]

55 minutes ago, GraemeWatson said:

 

Unfortunately my tender on Sir Nigel Gresley did not like being uncoupled...

One of the contacts must have been adherent in some way, and snapped it in half.

 

The broken part will reattach very easily with a touch of the soldering iron.

 

CJI.

[micklner]

Contact Hornby and ask for a new one. You will end up with a non working mess if soldered.

[GraemeWatson]

1 minute ago, micklner said:

Contact Hornby and ask for a new one. You will end up with a non working mess if soldered.

I agree.

These contacts are VERY small.

I'm pretty competent at soldering, but there isn't a lot of space here and I suspect one false move will melt the plastic.

[cctransuk]

1 hour ago, micklner said:

Contact Hornby and ask for a new one. You will end up with a non working mess if soldered.

 

Mick,

 

You clearly have no faith - if we don't try, we don't learn.

 

..... or is that the future - chuck it in the bin and try another? (That's what will ultimately happen to the - marginally  - broken model).

 

I know - customer rights and all that - but what skills are being lost in the meantime?

 

Ultimately, we have to find a way to continue our hobby without the waste that minor defects generate.

 

I don't know the solution, but gashing models which are 99% OK is not it.

 

CJI.

[micklner]

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

 

Mick,

 

You clearly have no faith - if we don't try, we don't learn.

 

..... or is that the future - chuck it in the bin and try another? (That's what will ultimately happen to the - marginally  - broken model).

 

I know - customer rights and all that - but what skills are being lost in the meantime?

 

Ultimately, we have to find a way to continue our hobby without the waste that minor defects generate.

 

I don't know the solution, but gashing models which are 99% OK is not it.

 

CJI.

You obviously havent looked at the photo of the broken part very well. Before your actually write poor advice on a post , not a unusual occurence for you.

 

The part has failed on the "raised bridge shape" for this too work it needs to be flexible to slide into the gap to make the electrical contact. If you soldered that broken joint the solder would lock it rigid, and it would be impossible for the piece to then close at all. All flexibilty would have gone.

The only solution is a new connector, or make a complete new part if it is viable. Even then you have to micro soldering on the new part and hope it works.

 

It would be much better for  Hornby to stop selling poor qualaity/designed  items in the first place.

[adb968008]

I’d argue its a warranty repair myself.

its not unreasonable to expect a coupling to uncouple.

Edited December 26, 2023 by adb968008

[cctransuk]

49 minutes ago, micklner said:

You obviously havent looked at the photo of the broken part very well. Before your actually write poor advice on a post , not a unusual occurence for you.

 

The part has failed on the "raised bridge shape" for this too work it needs to be flexible to slide into the gap to make the electrical contact. If you soldered that broken joint the solder would lock it rigid, and it would be impossible for the piece to then close at all. All flexibilty would have gone.

The only solution is a new connector, or make a complete new part if it is viable. Even then you have to micro soldering on the new part and hope it works.

 

It would be much better for  Hornby to stop selling poor qualaity/designed  items in the first place.

 

What I see - and my eyes may deceive me - is a series of contacts, bent into a shallow 'V', in order to make contact with a series of flat(?) contacts on the matching half of the connector. The shallow 'V' contact is intended, I surmise, to flex and allow it to slide over the matching contact plate.

 

As such, it matters little if the actual bend - or in this case soldered break - becomes locally rigid, provided that the bulk of the contact strip remains flexible. Indeed, I note that the connecting wires are soldered to the contact strips in the immediate vicinity of the break.

 

I accept that a novice at soldering would find the task of repairing this model very onerous - even impossible.

 

My point, however, is that we cannot continue to consign models with minor defects such as this to the scrap bin. The model in question is eminently repairable by a moderately experienced modeller, and a way for that to happen will have to be found - sooner rather than later.

 

As to the cause of the problem; it is not for me to speculate - manufacturing defect or heavy handling at some point; who knows?

 

Please don't be your often offensive self, Mick - I stated that the defect was repairable; which it is by someone with the necessary skills. I did NOT suggest that the owner necessarily had such skills.

 

Bottom line - I was concerned that a perfectly viable model would be binned.

 

CJI.

 

 

[adb968008]

51 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

 

 

 

 

Bottom line - I was concerned that a perfectly viable model would be binned.

 

I’d probably short cut myself, remove the baseplate, make a new contact, solder to the wire, install it and refit the baseplate.

 

however its really down to whom should be doing it, the owner or Hornby.

Edited December 26, 2023 by adb968008

[MikeParkin65]

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

 

What I see - and my eyes may deceive me - is a series of contacts, bent into a shallow 'V', in order to make contact with a series of flat(?) contacts on the matching half of the connector. The shallow 'V' contact is intended, I surmise, to flex and allow it to slide over the matching contact plate.

 

As such, it matters little if the actual bend - or in this case soldered break - becomes locally rigid, provided that the bulk of the contact strip remains flexible. Indeed, I note that the connecting wires are soldered to the contact strips in the immediate vicinity of the break.

 

I accept that a novice at soldering would find the task of repairing this model very onerous - even impossible.

 

My point, however, is that we cannot continue to consign models with minor defects such as this to the scrap bin. The model in question is eminently repairable by a moderately experienced modeller, and a way for that to happen will have to be found - sooner rather than later.

 

As to the cause of the problem; it is not for me to speculate - manufacturing defect or heavy handling at some point; who knows?

 

Please don't be your often offensive self, Mick - I stated that the defect was repairable; which it is by someone with the necessary skills. I did NOT suggest that the owner necessarily had such skills.

 

Bottom line - I was concerned that a perfectly viable model would be binned.

 

CJI.

 

 

I'm not sure these models do get binned. If the owner returns it either to the supplier or Hornby direct for replacement the 'broken' example will either end up as spares, find its way back onto the market as damaged repairable or otherwise be disposed of by the trade. I've bought a number of such models recently via ebay for various projects. The original buyer of a new model deserves a mint product and if they can't for whatever reason fix a substandard example that is fine for the rest of us - it encourages the manufacturer to consider aspects of their product design and quality assurance thereby improving standards and provides spares and 'damage repairables' for the rest of us.

[GraemeWatson]

I can assure that the model is NOT getting binned. I can also assure that there was no heavy handedness in handling it.

 

One should reasonably expect the tender and loco to separate as per the manual.

 

This was done on a flat surface and teasing apart gently. The metal contact that broke, has sheared from the point it was bent at manufacturing. There should have been no way for this to happen, unless it was adherent to the "male" end.

 

By posting my picture, it is as much as a cautious warning for fellow new Dublo owners that this "can" happen as it is opportunity to look for a solution.

 

It would be most irritating for one, let alone more than one of a set of great gathering engines to experience this.

 

I've contacted Hornby, I will provide an update when I hear back from them. I am quite competent at replacing the part should it be provided.

 

As an aside, I had expected this new type of electrical connection to be an improvement over the original "devil's plug" which was hard to remove in order to put the loco back in the box, and the more recent devil's plug with permanent drawbar. On balance, I think I prefer the plug and drawbar...

 

The learning point for me, is that should I try to fit a decoder into one of these in the future, I probably won't try to uncouple it (which defeats the point of what they tried to achieve here).

Edited December 27, 2023 by GraemeWatson

[Johan DC]

I have decoupled all three of the tenders of the loco's with new couplings a couple of times (for the moment only one has a decoder) to run in and do rounds under the christmas tree. Not a single hickup, goes very easy. It's very unfortunate that the quality of some isn't the best, but IMHO it's far ahead of the plug and bar. Even with using the special tool, quite often I had to fix loose wires. 

[Dominion]

Like Johan DC I have disconnected and reconnected the tenders on 4 of this type a few times without incident so hopefully most are ok.

I do however prefer the previous version as it was easy to make a replacement drawbar for closer coupling. I have not figured out an easy way to do that on these yet. 

[MikeParkin65]

4 hours ago, Dominion said:

Like Johan DC I have disconnected and reconnected the tenders on 4 of this type a few times without incident so hopefully most are ok.

I do however prefer the previous version as it was easy to make a replacement drawbar for closer coupling. I have not figured out an easy way to do that on these yet. 

The Accurascale version of the cam tender coupling is the best I have seen so far. Both the Hornby and Bachmann versions (on the V2) of the same seem to adopt an unnecessarily wide 'short' setting that negates the supposed advantage for close coupling cams are designed to give. The Accurascale user notes do say however that uncoupling the loco and tender isnt intended to be a regular activity.