I'm not going to replace my previous versions, I just don't think its worth over £200. It needs reworking (lights and tender coupling) to make it into a state where it is a marginal improvement over it's predecessor.
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Steve, its good to see you praising some of the benefits of DCC. Hearing sound on this layout will be amazing. Is it too early to ask if you have any exhibitions planned?
Most systems have their own forums on which you can ask questions and lots of people are helpful with answers, Digitrains and NCE are two of which I know of.
Like most things in life, people get to hear of horror stories far more than successes.
2.0 litre goes like a train, the 1.8, well lets just say steer clear.
Low mileage <60k 2.0 NC is well worth £5k if body is sound, so if reasonable mileage 2.0 is worth £3k as the engine should be good for 200k miles
Sounds like the power pack is what's commonly referred to as a "stay alive" which is basically a capacitor which will keep the loco running for a few seconds when power supply is interrupted. it can be replaced by other makes or can we dispensed with if you have live frog points and evenly laid track work.
I would try it without first and see if it is necessary to replace in your case.
If that is the case there is no excuse, for that sort of RRP they should have made new tooling, after all, even the last release from years ago would now be fully amortised.
Let's face it, Hornby are in the game to maximise the profit for shareholders and not producing beautifully accurate models. They are continuing to trade off the Hornby name which will sell a sub-standard model to a lot punters who don't know any better.
Wow, now I've said it!