Hornby Steam locos with DCC in tender

[the fuzzler]

Whilst I appluad this move on Hornby 's part as an easy way to fit DCC to their steam loco's, is this the best solution ?

 

I've got a Clan, and notice that the Standard 4 has the same arangement - and expect the Brit to have it too.

 

The thing is, I really strugled to connect the plug into the tender. The wire appears to be just a little too short. Now that I've finally got the plug in the socket, it doesn't want to come out, and so it is now permanently coupled.

 

but wait ! I can't put this back into the box, as the polystyrene packaging is formed to keep the tender a long way away from the loco. Again, if we just had a little more cable to play with....

 

I've since cut some of this away, and the think is now back in the box, still coupled. Do Hornby expect us to plug/unplug the connection everytime I get the think out of the box ?

 

I also don't want to think about the long term reliability of the flimsy cable.

 

Or is it just me ?

[Oldddudders]

While the tender and its link may appear to be a pain, it is certainly the only place you could put a sound system. For that reason alone - be grateful! Sound will eventually stop being a cottage industry in the UK, unit price will drop, ESU will lose their monopoly, and more modellers will expect to be using it. When I recently tried to add a very ordinary silent decoder to the Hornby T9 I was amazed at how little effective space there is in the tender, and had to rip the socket out and hardwire the thing. The issue of fragility of the coupling is a good reason for leaving the loco on the layout, although I have Bachmann HO steam locos that are now approaching 10 years old - and they have two plug/sockets! I've also come down to earth with a bump on the Hornby M7. I bought a DCC-fitted version, but the decoder is idiot, fails to respond to either programming or harsh language, and is stuck in reverse at half-speed! It is very, very small, there is no extra space, so I have had to order something of similar size. Getting sound into a tank engine is going to be a challenge.

[Chameleon]

I think the moan is more about the box design not allowing the tender to stay coupled to the loco. It is certainly short sightedness to have a loco that is DCC ready when the box clearly isn't.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

... I've got a Clan, and .. struggled to connect the plug into the tender. The wire appears to be just a little too short. ...

You might care to let Hornby know that there is barely sufficient slack. The Britannias I have (socket in loco, two pin connector to tender) have rather more slack than desireable, and to keep the wires off the track it was necessary to hitch them up in some way. Winding them carefully once around the drawbar achieved this. Sounds to me that Hornby may have told the factory to somewhat decrease the length of the wires, and they have gone a little farther in that direction than desireable. Gripping the plug with a pair of needle nose pliers has disengaged it without risk to the wires - so far.

 

... Whilst I applaud this move on Hornby 's part as an easy way to fit DCC to their steam loco's, is this the best solution ? ...

Definitely preferable to trying to get a well detailed loco body off a well detailed chassis in order to fit a decoder. It is the detail of the execution which needs refinement I feel.

[Butler Henderson]

Hornby really need review their packaging, its not just tender jumper cables that stop a model going back without being unconnected but also often no space is made for detail on add parts unless the packaging is chopped about. As my T9 will spend more time in its box than on a layout I intend to chop the packaging down and reassemble the shortened main parts with strengthening dowels in order that the loco and tender can remain permantely cabled together.

[Butler Henderson]

Definitely preferable to trying to get a well detailed loco body off a well detailed chassis in order to fit a decoder.

Thats another area where Hornby need to seriously review their methods. The whole idea of screw and slot tab is fine for a simple lump of plastic but is quite ridiculous with highly deatiled locos. They got the 8F right, two screws and no slot tab but taht so far seems to have been a one off. With the horribly brittle plastic that Sanda Kan use slot tabs are simply asking for a model to be damaged, although I have also noted that many parts simply fall off due to a lack of factory glue.