letterspider

Some advice needed My powered trailer has developed a fault with the directional lighting - at first the red light wouldn't come on so I did a chip reset and the white light works as should but the red light is always on. I tried resetting the chip and using other reliable decoders but the problem remains Any ideas please?

If you bought them on eBay - put in a request for refund because item is faulty They will respond pretty quickly to that

Does anyone want to sell a dummy NDM coach?

Were you able to find better glazing for the Trix chassis?

Sory to hear you are having problems, check that the wheels on both bogies are powered. Some NDM have had the cardan shaft disconnect to one of the bogies (this was the case with mine) You get rough running sounds and lack of power.

My 7 car set has gone back The NDM could not reliably get around corners and over pointwork by itself, it had a plethora of minor problems with the wheels offset, too wide and too much lateral play. Because of that the wheels don't pull the bogie around which is necessary to get the tilt and that, together with lack of weight meant that the bogies would lift and derail. In the end that convinced me a replacement would not solve the problem, as well as the fact that one of the pantographs keep falling apart. and unfortunately the NDM working reliably is vital to the whole set

A nice choice as I am sure a professional respray would be difficult to produce the sweep of the curved edges of the white panel on the cab front. The cost of the this DCC ready loco is getting close to the SNCB sound fitted collectors edition - which now seems a good price. I wish I had one!

An update on the derailing problem while getting the wheels to 14.5mm - it was very easy - the axles are all quite loose on my model - you can pull the wheels off with minimal effort and also the driving cog - and that was the first problem one of my gears was misaligned on the axle - so that allowed almost no lateral play of the wheels - fixed that Still had derailments but fewer then looked more closely at the wheelsets and could see not all the driving gears were on the same position on the axle - so wheels would be slightly offset on parallel track with a slight lateral turn of the bogie. Sorted that out - still some derailments so after more close observation - this time running the NDM by itself - eventually noticed the wheels on the front bogie are lifted slightly. The NDM I think is just not heavy enough - it is about half as light as the motor car on my APT E This is way too many faults need fixing from new and then you have to worry about how many others will develop going forward. It is going back in the box and back to Hornby

Thanks for all the help on here. After adjusting the wheels the running improved but there were still derailments.

I wonder if a lot of the NDM failed in testing and they had to replace them with the single cars? That might explain the lack of supply and the delays.

Yes it is unacceptable my problems have mounted up Drive shaft disconnected Internal wiring not soldered Floppy pantograph which falls apart Back to backs too wide £500

Hi measured 14.9 to 15mm on all wheels So how can I carefully adjust this? Do I have to remove wheels from bogies or use a special tool?

What should the back to backs be on the wheels?

Is anyone else having a problem with their motor car derailing over points. The bogies jump when running toe to heel - conseuqntly I can't go more than 50% speed before there is a derailment My trackwork is PECO Code 100 and nothing else has problems running over it

Still not tried the APT on my inclines - it works well at about 50% and any faster than that and it derails over points, as pointed out earlier it is when a wheel drops at the frog.

That sounds similar to the problem I had - see post 955. Are the wheels only moving on one bogie? One of the drive shafts may be disconnected

Okay - Hornby you owe me back an hour of my life, everything seems to be back together again and working properly. The pantograph was okay as the insulators are part of the bogie support and so the pantograph assembly is supposed to be separate from it - I guess the glue was less effective on mine when put together. The pantograph must have been a nightmare to assemble at the factory. So everything is now running smoothly and quietly on flat second radius track with 8 cars - I have to say I am impressed at how the motor car doesn't derail the leading the coaches; I'm not sure about my inclines - will be testing that later. Finally I have to say, if you don't have a magnetic screwdriver - you are going to find reassembly challenging.

Received my 7 car set today - really impressed with first impressions (wasn't thinking about the cost while I unpacked it) I have a DCC circuit so to insert 3 chips was a pain because there is 0.000 space in there once you have to force the wiring loom in. My retailer tested the power car before it was sent out and it ran fine on its own but once the trains were assembled (and those clip couplings are not easy to put together) horrible noises started coming from the motor car. After testing it was found one bogie was not receiving any torque. So then disassembly had to begin and found one of the coupling shafts was disconnected - and I have to say re-insertion was NOT easy. I also found the suppressor was not soldered together -only held together by shrink wrap, okay not a big deal until it comes lose and falls into the movement. I also saw the body clips were broken on on side - I am not that hand fisted so I assume during assembly. Also The pantograph broke all too easily during disassembly at the connection between base and insulators. This would all be unsolvable by a customer who did not know what is going on and how to fix it. I guess I just was unlucky with this purchase - we shall see how it all goes when reassembled and run in I want to go and have a cup of tea now but I better get it assembled before I lose all the screws....

Capacitor moved and passengers added. The tables have holes beneath them so you don't have to cut off the legs of your passengers

This is a good technique - its amazing how super glue seems to crack and flake off However the plastic does become brittle and I have had a Vitrains body shell split right down the middle just from the handling of it while removing it from the freezer!

Take a look at the pantographs on the Accurascale Class 92 or the Bachmann 90 - a good quality and precise pantograph can be done in metal but my guess is it would add £10 - 20 to the motor car. Mind you after upwards of £400 you are not going to quibble over £10-20 provided you smile every time you look at your model?

I have just received an 86/6 in Freightliner green The TDM cables are moulded but to my eye are very fine and precisely painted - only the modeller demanding the highest levels of precision could, or would want to correct them and the same applies to the pantograph. Evidence of a lot of thought of the fine details by the designers to make a really pleasing product, I can understand why they have sold out. This was a big gamble to take against Hornby and hopefully Heljan will think about the 82 , 83 and 84 as well as the Class 86 in Network Rail livery

I would recommend snipping the legs of the capacitor half way and soldering the link wire to the stumps. That way you don't risk too much heat getting onto the lighting board and damaging the fragile tracks and components Just received my APT 7 car today and disappointed that a pantograph is already broken in the box! After a very long wait and price increases - I do not dare find out how much further trouble there will be with this model - at over £500 I hoped for better. I am going to send this back to the retailer because I think Hornby need to get the message via their balance sheet that they need to listen to customer issues, have a deep rethink about the the poor quailty of most of their pantographs; and the cam couplings on their locos and...... It is bizarre they went to the trouble to create a prestige model and then to do something so ham fisted.

Here is how it looks on and off the layout

White 2mm tower LEDs 3V were sourced and painted black all over except the ends. At each corner 4 diagonal holes were drilled with a 2mm bit and after widening the hole slightly I was able to glue the LEDs in place. For this project I decide upon inserting a coin cell battery operated by a simple pin switch in the end of the coach