Grafarman

On sprung buffers and wheel scrapes: I have a small O gauge roundy on which the proprietary stuff has sprung buffers; however, my clumsy attempts to build wagon kits has resulted in an equal number of rolling stock items with no, or limited, sprung buffers (still working on it!). However, in actual use, unless I accidently allow the train to 'run on' and compress into the buffer stop, the stock isn't heavy enough to stand still and have another item push up against it, thus compressing the buffers. Unless each item of stock has actual working brakes, or is tight up against a buffer stop, the sprung buffers don't function in the same way as in real life, so become somewhat superfluous. The only advantage I've found is in negotiating tight curves, when an additional few mm 'give' is useful... Those who practise prototypical close coupling will obviously find sprung buffers useful, but I would guess that doesn't relate to the majority. When modelling OO, I amassed a number of the new Hornby Mk1's in various liveries, and found that a number of them had wheels which scraped badly on the underside of the coach, particularly when travelling over less-than-perfectly-flat track, due to the bogie being too tightly placed under the coach. This led to an increased inertia which brought several trains almost to a standstill. Having contacted the company I was sent a packet of washers to fit between the bogies and the underside of the coach, which should have fixed the problem; however, I found that the centre pivot was too short to allow the washer to be inserted without completely tightening up the bogie. The problem remains unresolved, Hornby stating that 'it doesn't do it on the ones we tested' despite my sending some representative coaches back to them for analysis. It seems that any fix the modeller can make is on them, and a few squeaks, scrapes and other noises are within acceptable tolerances. That's not being negative towards Hornby; I've since bought a number of other items which have been fine, and I look forward to some TT:120 items as and when funds allow. Just reflecting on my own experience and commenting that such 'issues' are not uncommon in any scale... (Interestingly, I noticed that in the current 'Hornby: a model world' TV series, their test track is properly nailed down on a board with no inclines and almost perfectly flat track; maybe that's why their testing produces few perceived faults...) David

Yes indeed; I was just musing on it and wondered if it was an accurate median... David

Erm, ok, so apart from one criteria that's me described pretty accurately... anyone else identify with this.. ?! David

All done @AY Mod; apologies if my comments at the bottom take up more room than the survey itself...!! David

Just a heads up; The Easterner set is currently labelled 'Unavailable' so no more pre-orders for the time being, but The Scotsman set is still accepting pre-orders... David

My house was built in '98 and I had to convert the garage (not cheap!) to get a useable railway room 16'x7'. A number of similar houses around here are mixed occupancy which means although some are owned outright, housing associations own the others and tenants have little say in changing/converting rooms. These people are not 'poor' (there are plenty of other, genuinely 'poor' people in town who I regularly see at food banks and in 'warm space' buildings) so I would imagine these might be the ones Hornby had in mind - small space + enough disposable income to fund a hobby = TT:120 ! David

I think it's a bit poor that they tag each day as 'Reveal Offer' which raises hope for a bargain something-or-other, as eg Rails and Digitrains are doing, only to find it's actually a lottery-style competition entry based on a person's social media presence and/or current Club membership, which is not the same thing at all IMO. Bit disappointed... David

Indeed... however, the operator at Hornby - on the dedicated TT line - said no-one should know about the delay yet as they - meaning themself - hadn't been notified officially and this was the first they'd become aware of it... David

Spoke to Hornby this afternoon asking about The Easterner set and was told that, on their screen, the two main sets are 'due Feb 23'; everything else is after that... David

I too received my club pack today, and have to say the old 'new, shiny train set' urges began to be felt, along with thoughts along the lines of 'how big's the dining room table?' 'it's much cheaper than O' and 'well, it can easily be put away between running sessions' and so on and so forth... not that any excuse/reasoning is ever needed for these things! Soooo... 'Go hard or go home' as they say; pre-order for the A4 set going in tomorrow... David

Late to the party as usual, but have signed up and am now enjoying the site without the 'interruptions' which have kept me away for a while. Thanks @AY Mod for setting it up. David

And so, to the Grand Finale... A picture of a blurry iPad with 'Merry Christmas from Hornby' written underneath... I tried to click on the picture but it's just that: a picture... Ah well, Happy Christmas folks; see you next year! David

Yep, Instagram again today...remember when they did Advent Calendars with actual offers behind the doors, like half-price P2's or 3 for 2 wagons...?! I remember checking the page for early access, and the scramble for limited availability models... Ah well, will keep checking, but as I've entered every competition Hornby has listed for the last 10 years or so with no result so far, I'm not overly convinced of a good result!! David

For what it's worth, I got rid of mine and reverted to good old Gaugemaster controllers as I found it difficult to get the 'feel' of control using the touch-sliders, preferring the hands-on 'analogue' feel of a physical dial...I have a few inclines which need subtle adjustments to increase/decrease power depending on the loco and load, and this proved almost impossible on the touchscreen. I also found it really annoying to have to pair the controller with my tablet every time I started it up; I just don't like leaving everything, including the tablet, switched on and live for days/weeks at a time between running sessions. The sounds began to irritate me from about day 3 so they got switched off! Conclusion for me: good basic idea, but poor 'feel' quality which doesn't improve on/replace a handheld controller with a physical dial/slider and direction switches! David

Thanks all; I have sent off for a bundle as Dave John suggested - they have the resistor wired in, so it makes things a lot easier! When they arrive I'll connect them up in various ways to see what can be done. I still don't understand the maths, or physics, and glaze over at equations and laws, but hopefully good old trial and error will suffice! David

Thank you; that's great, I'll go and have a search... David

Erm, ok will do... Thank you David

Thank you for your response. Unfortunately, I don't understand how I discern the 'forward voltage' and 'current of led' from looking at the LEDs for sale (eg on Ebay or similar). Typing 'LED Calculator' into Google brought up - you guessed it - loads of press-button calculators with LED readouts! I did find one link though: https://ledcalculator.net/ but it's asking me for 'voltage drop' and 'rating' in mA's, whatever that is, so I can't do the sums required...not that I would understand the outcome unless it gave me a link to the LEDs and resistors I need. I don't want to buy anything until I know what to buy...I just thought you buy 12v LEDs, plug them in to a 12v controller, and that's it, like wiring normal bulbs...clearly there's much more to it! David

I'm putting together a small O gauge 1960's BLT, using standard DC, and thought it would be good to illuminate the buildings and station lamps etc. I've never done any lighting before, so would appreciate a simple approach if possible. I am about assemble the Peco station lamps LK-759 which have a tube cut out up the middle to fit an LED; this is my starting point. I have 4 station lamps and 6 buildings, inluding signal box, waiting room, engine shed etc, so need 10 to 12 LEDs. From doing searches around the intraweb and on here, and watching some technical vids on the 'Tube, I think I need to know: Which LEDs do I buy, ie what voltage and which size? Which resistors do I buy (if needed)? What do I use to power them? How do I wire them up? I have an old Hornby 12v controller which I can use as a DC power supply, if that's any good? I'm handy with a soldering iron, but have read it's best to buy the pre-wired LEDs - is that right? If someone could point me to a specific link - 'go here, buy these, assemble this way' - that would be hugely appreciated, as I don't understand the whole voltage/resistor/amps thing! Thank you! David

I called Hornby about this and was told it was fine to leave the HM6000 on 24/7, and the reconnection part of the App was designed around this premise. I dunno, I guess my TV/Box remains on permanently so why not this unit, but I always feel apprehensive about leaving electrical items on when I'm not in the room, so for now I do the re-setup described above...it only takes a couple of minutes, after all... David

Wow! Small scale construction at its best...The placeholder building looks better than some of my finished ones... Have to keep reminding myself that it's 2mm... David

HM6000 arrived this morning, and all good so far. Took about 5 minutes to set up; I left off the inertia settings for the time being, and found it to be smooth and responsive. The 'brake/stop' feature is nice and makes it easy to reduce speed and stop on point without precision slider control. No problem with power consistency across my garage-sized layout; in fact it seemed slightly better in that respect than my old Gaugemaster. The sounds are a bit gimmicky as noted previously, but I kept them at low volume and that way they created a useful and unobtrusive background noise. In case anyone is worried about whether their device is up to spec, I'm using an old Samsung S2 tablet which runs Android 7, and so far it's handling it quite easily, and the slider response is 'grabby' and not super-smooth which gives a good feel when operating. Good fun and nice control; looking forward to eventual sound and feature updates. David

Thank you for this; my trains are limited (by choice) to loco & 7 coaches, so unlikely to draw that much power, in which case your suggestion is a good one... The 1amp supply is currently £18 at Hattons so I'll go with that and see what happens. Many thanks David

Help Please! Just pre-ordered mine from Hattons as they seem to be the cheapest option! Question - should I go for the 1amp or 4amp power supply? Anyone used the 4amp yet? I wasn't sure what the difference is supposed to be so I rang Hornby; they said the 4amp is for large layouts where there might be a need for a stronger signal, but for my garage-sized roundy layout 1amp should suffice, but they couldn't say for sure. (They also said that the 4amp would power O gauge locos but I'm not sure it's a good idea as the feedback circuitry might damage them...any thoughts?) Hattons said they won't exchange power supplies once used, so I really need to know before buying! Thank you David

Many thanks; I was hoping for more 'oomph' from the built-in CDU but I may have to stay with my old one for now. I guess the output conundrum will have to wait for a proper bench test with different locos to verify its suitability; interestingly I rang Hornby technical dept. with the same question and they couldn't tell me the output amperage so couldn't help! I'll order one and give it a trial run; my OO roundy layout should benefit from the easier controls...(and I can't wait to hear the buit-in 'sounds' ) David