Baldy

52 minutes ago, Nova Scotian said:

Disappointed to have missed out on the 50 quid sales of these a couple/few years ago - getting very into industrial shunters and would be willing to take a punt and play around at that price!

 

Ebay shows 80 quid starting for most second hand now. There's a retailer with some new kicking around, at the same price.

I would just keep watching eBay. Most second hand auction ones were going for around the £50 to £60 mark when I sold a couple recently.  

Many thanks Hibelroad (a very familiar road to me).  Thanks very much for the reply and you have prompted me to change my location profile as I have now moved to Cambridge. Good to understand that this bit is hand made and I will have to try making contact with a local club down here. 

Hi.  A layout I was kindly given uses Maygib point motor to change points. I am a complete novice on point motors but have a problem with one in that the connector arm between the pivot on the motor and the pin that goes up into the point has snapped.  Photo below (left hand side, wire from pivot broken in two).   I don’t know what the connector is called or how I get a replacement.  My soldering and practical skills are not up to making a replacement and I haven’t been able to identify replacement parts on a web search.  Could anyone provide me with some advice on getting a replacement?

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

 

Link not working.

 

CJI.

That’s an eBay link from 2015.  I have included shop website link in my post earlier today. 

Another recommendation.  I have just received a painted wagon load for the Oxford Pilchard and think it is excellent.  Shop can be found on this website https://makeyourmarkmodels.com/store

(Pilchard load not listed but quick email will sort). 

3 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

He is Non-Executive Chairman - in other words he has no longer has direct responsibility for the running of the company.   But he chairs the the board of Directors which can no doubt make strategic decisions and decide on matters of overall policy where these are not delegated to the Chief Executive.  

 

As things stand at present the new CEO is making various strategic decisions and senior personnel changes including the departure of the two senior managers (called Directors but not board members) who were appointed by Lyndon Davies.  One of those who has now left previously - prior to his arrival at Hornby - managed Oxford Rail for Lyndon Davies.  

 

Oxford Diecast and Oxford Rail are - as has been mentioned above - wholly owned by Hornby but are not listed by the company as separate operating subsidiaries however Oxford Diecast submitted separate accounts last year and Oliver Raeburn was appointed as a Director this year joining Lyndon Davies and Kirsty Gould.  Presumably  this year it is now included in Hornby's overall accounts but it appears not to be managed as a separate brand and thus the same goes for Oxford Rail  (the same applies applies to H&M of course which is also wholly owned by Hornby but does not have separate accounts and is not a separate part of the brand structure).

 

So presumably someone somewhere within Hornby manages Oxford Rail and logically (to me at any rate) it would be managed from within the model railway brand management.

 

Note 11 of accounts has Oxford Diecast as a trading sub. 

There is a Commander panel mount controller on eBay that I have been watching for a while whilst reading this thread. Link below if it works.  Reading some of the comments above, I was thinking it wouldn’t have the asbestos panel, but looking at eBay photos I am not so sure as it does look to have panel with wire wound round it. Could anyone say if it does look to have the asbestos part?  Thanks. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266320961055?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=UeQFN0tfSCS&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=&widget_ver=artemis&media=EMAIL

4 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

They’ve used the same board in both? The fact that you had to change the cv means when you put it on dc it now reverses the voltage. I guess you should be able to solve it if you reverse the pickup wires off the bogie and leave the cv as reversed. 

Many thanks. I will have a look at trying to do this. 

DCC question if anyone can help: I have just fitted DCC to one of the Hornby LNER Azuma models using two DCC chips.  All works fine on DCC but on DC I now get the same lights on on both ends (e.g both have front, or rear, lights on at same time). I can understand this as you have to program one chip to be in reverse (CV 29) to have lights working correctly on DCC, but is there anyway to get DCC set up to have front and rear lights operating correctly under both DCC and DC operation?  (As the second DCC chip is only to control lights, I used a really old chip.  I am wondering if newer chips would behave differently somehow on DC but not sure how that would really work.)

Called in this morning. Really good selection of layouts, all very interesting and a well organised show. Certainly worth a visit.  Thanks to organisers, exhibitors and traders. 

Tim. Could you post another couple of photos? I think the loose wire is red (maybe wrong as I am slightly colour blind). If so, and wire is coming from decoder, I think it is the right hand track connection which maybe should be soldered to top right hand pin (opposite pin labelled as number 1). However your final photos seems to show black wire having two wire connections to pin below. I am not sure why black (or red) would need two wires soldered to pins but additional photos may help. Could you show a photos looking where other end of black wire goes if there is a second wire from pin other than black wire to decoder. Would also be useful to see a close up of the black wire to pins, and pins right next to it to see if red wire is soldered to any of pins. I am not a dcc expert but it may help me or someone with more knowledge. 

Reverse the decoder around. The wiring on the some of the Brighton Belles is incorrect. Reversing the decoder should fix it.

Best I can suggest is buy full loco from scograil (99.95 and free postage) and then sell on loco after taking out tts chip. Cheapest price I have seen. Note, I think the non tts loco has the 8 pin plug in at the front of the loco but the tts version dcc bits are all in the tender.

CV 29 is the cv to switch to run with dc. You will need someone with a dcc system to do this. As detailed above, a local model shop with a dcc set up should know how to do it or, alternatively if you state where you live, you may get a forum member nearby you who could check out loco. It should be fixable. Best of luck.

Hi. I am not an NCE powercab user but do have a few tts sound chips. I have found that, even though sometimes my dcc system can't read the chip, I can reset the address on programming track and then run the loco on the new address as normal. Another fix that sometimes works is to move chip into another loco just for programming and then move it back. However, as above post, access to sounds above cv6 should not require any programming - I haven't had that problem with any tts chip.

Possible suggestion that I have found worked with the same issue when trying to address the odd tts chip. Rather than just putting 67 in and loco not being recognised, I found I had to write 067 to get the number recorded on the chip. (Using railmaster, which I think is great and so will give it a plug here, but others will disagree, and was only required on a couple of tts chips, others had no problem taking a new address withour the need for the zero to be specifically input at start.) Once I had got number changed, the loco can then be called up as normal with just the reference of 67. Worth giving it a go if others have same problem.

I unfortunately can confirm above post that Hornby have stopped giving vouchers. My 31110 loco has finally succumbed to expanding chassis although I managed to spot it before the body incurred any damage. I did send the chassis back to Hornby who confirmed mazak rot but weren't able to offer a replacement chassis or any voucher. However, I have always had excellent support from Hornby whenever I have needed help in the past, and have no complaint against Hornby here - my class 31 was certainly a good 8 years old and I can't think of any other industry that would honour a warranty 7 years out of date. I am now on the look out for a spare chassis and, if I can find one, look forward to transferring the motor and all the electrical bits onto a replacement. May not be very advanced modelling but is something I will enjoy having a go at.

John. I for one would be very sorry to see it go but can absolutely understand your decision giving the cost commitment. I have used the site many times and found it extremely useful. I would certainly have suffered more breakages and damages if I hadn't had your OO installation guides. Thank you very much for having continued with the website for so long.

Just a quick post to praise Hattons once again. Ordered one of the absolute bargain class 128 DPUs late last week. Super quick delivery as always. One sandbox was missing and Hattons managed to find a replacement and send through within a day. I have to say, I have always found there service to be excellent despite the high volume of customers/orders they must have.

Had a nice surprise Thursday this week when my replacement P2 with tts sound was delivered from Hornby by uk mail (the original order delivered in January having been sent back as it has a large crack in body) . Hornby had indicated a replacement wouldn't be available until September. No update from Hornby since but uk mail started messaging me on the Thursday saying they would be delivering that day. Anyway, have now had a chance to give it a good run and am delighted with it. I was initially put off by volume with sound clearly coming from tender and juddering running, but, having run in and played with acceleration and deceleration settings, plus reduced accelerating/coasting sounds to setting 2, I think it is a great model. It isn't as good as my legomanbiffo class 67s or the 37 I purchased from Paul C, but for the price it is really good. I do run my trains for enjoyment (play value) rather than worrying too much about accuracy, but if you wondering about getting one, I would say go for it. Thanks Hornby.

I fitted a dcc concepts direct plug chip with capacitor to mine last night. Bit concerned fitting it given worries over bits falling off but the fittings went very well with access being good. Would encourage people to fit a chip if your wavering, as it now runs even better, with lights bright either end as required. Mine has had no running problems as yet - fingers crossed it stays the same as I still think it is a great model.

Well mine has just arrived and it is superb. 47996 'heavily' weathered. Similiar small issues as already mentioned (filler cap, some bits out of alignment, front light not working, very high coupling) but this is one great model. I was worried when I looked at picture of the weathering on hattons website earlier this week but it looks great in the flesh. I am very happy.