Sir Topham Hatt

We all know how important it is to all of us when we we spend all our spare time and money, often more, on our favourite hobby, that the few suppliers we rely on to sell us good quality products and support services. Yeah, you guessed it, l was recently less than impressed with our 'pals' at Bachmann. Those that remember me might recall my epic build thread reflecting my love of Blue Pullmans that was based on complete rebuilds of Triang types to become 6 and 8 coach accurate midland and western types, using DCC and then sound. This preceded the Bachmann models which, as soon as l could afford one, l purchased. This was about 6 years ago. Last week l stumbled across a deal Rails were doing on a Bachmann Midland Pullman 'Special Collectors Edition'. It arrived by courier and, it has to be said, fair took my breath away. It included a number of special extras and the usual bits bags of detailing parts, including below the buffer beam horn sets and lamp disks. It was at this point that l realised these detail parts had been missing from my previously purchased full yellow ended 6 car set. How did l miss that! Not to worry. Bachmann's phone number was to hand and a quick call would surely resolve the matter, even though they might ask me for postage? They didn't. The service department wanted me to (re)purchase the tiny plastic mouldings which came in two plastic bags for £10 per bag plus £5 postage. £25 in all. A long conversation followed which escalated through two futher service department and customer services staff after which it was escalated internally to management which resulted in a phone call back where a member of their team stood firm. £25 or nothing for 20 pence worth plastic sent by royal mail. I have now sourced the parts from other suppliers for coppers and Bachmann have lost a long loyal customer who has spent thousand s of pounds on their products over the years. Now to me that demonstrates incredible incompetence on their part. Had they asked for a pound or two l would happily have paid despite the problem of missing parts being 100% their fault (yes, l know, if l had studied their paperwork l might have noticed at the time) and that, by the way, was their excuse. It was out of warranty. So, what do you think? Was l expecting too much or was Bachmann's response perfectly reasonable? How would you have felt if it were you? Remember, nothing broke or wore out, it was simply missing!

Some good Hornby news so worth posting. This week Hornby emailed a short list of items on sale and these included a couple of LNER Thompson O1 at under £94. I have been searching for just that model for a few weeks as a donor chassis to fit below my German armoured locomotive, currently in build so l snatched on up there an then. Flushed with success l went for their offered free standard post option and paid. I then spent the rest of the day worrying about how the model would spend days laying exposed in Royal Mail sorting office yards so called Hornby the next morning. The experience couldn't have been more pleasant. I was advised that my item had already been picked and would be picked up by a courier the next day when l would get another email to keep me in the picture. I did, and at 9.30 the very next morning, today, PDP delivered the item safe and sound. Now that's really great service. Firstly, Hornby somehow guessed l was in desperate need of an O1. They then emailed me to tell me they had a few and nearly halved it's sale price. They then send it free post to arrive just three days later. Oh, and it works great! Way to go Hornby. Happy 2023 to all of you.

At least it looks like this new system can run on the same layout (tracks) as a DCC system so nothing becomes redundant. I've been looking for a control interface to operate servos and sounds much as l do with my radio controlled tanks so that my collection of OO railguns can operate recoil, smoke, flashes, loading and firing sounds, gun elevation etc. I was going to use RC to do this as all interfaces are fairly open for user configuration (unlike DCC cards) but Gaugemaster promise more. Here's hoping.

Not posted here for around 10years or so but having received my pre-ordered W1 from Hornby via Hermes l too heard rattles from within the packaging. It turned out to to be both left and right side front steps, not a glue failure but snapped mounting tabs, and the tender draw bar screw and a the front of the tender chassis where it had fractured around the draw bar screw. This all sounds familiar! It is the British Enterprise version. Given Hornby tell us the name plate, though produced, was never actually fitted, what did the print the name plate on the loco AND provide separate plates, removing your choice! l called Hornby tech support who agreed they have problems with the W1, gave me a case number and return address. They then advised that they had a special team dealing with the problem but couldn't it me through to them. They have no spare locos or spares so repairs could take some time - bang goes Xmas presents then! I figured that l could probably repair the broken parts as well as Hornby and somewhat quicker so did just that. Crazy! My design engineer background tells me that the use of a self tapping screw into a fine molding that will be stressed by pulling a rake load and by twisting on handling just doesn't work. For those with 'gooduns' you might consider bonding a thin brass plate around the hole in the frame. As for the steps, a thin right angle bracket cut from lexan bonded behind the steps would help.

Puzzling, since if the connections from the wheels and the motor have been proved by your DC test the decoder would appear to be faulty, but you know that that's not the case. I noticed mine had suppression type components sat just below the speaker holder and wondered about removal of these but l left them in place and the loco runs very smoothly with the DCCconcepts decoder l fitted. I did note that the red boiler lining on my LNER version was a little clumsy by current standards, looking rather like a rather glossy decal. However, I'll tone them down with a little matt varnish. The cab detail is outstanding - such a shame the crew and cab sides will hide it! Overall, a very nice model and a great, free delivery service from Hornby.

Yes, you are quite right, they didn't but since I don't model this era I was happy with the mk2s in the right livery - they look fine to the not so critical eye and at under a tenner each new from a toy fair they are somewhat cheaper - but yes, not right! Now, who w onas it that bet a shiny penny you wouldn't find the Hornby Railroad Virgin set now. There have been two on e-bay since that post, both used and not cheap at £69.99 for the cheaper pair. However, a little bit of Googling helped..... when you Google search, something most people tend to do is read the first page or two then give up. 5 pages back revealed a NEW Hornby RR pack for £69.99 with free post at Bolton Model Centre. One click or so later and the rather nice Lima based Virgin shells are now spare and my Blue/yellow Lima shells slipped straight on the DCC ready chassis. Like all the Hornby remotored Lima models, they run very smoothly (I fitted a DCCconcepts 8 pin direct fit) and it pulls the same 8 car rake my Lima chassis pulled, very quietly too. It's very easy to see why Hornby chose not to release their Railroad class 43 set again - it would have halved the sales of their Super detailed £200+ model! The moral to this brief tale is simple - if someone made it then there's bound to be one snuggled up in a storeroom somewhere still new and unsold. Look for model shops rather than dedicated model railway shops that everyone phones first, and don't give up? The other moral is, keep to the era(s) you normally model. Why? Because it's all to easy to start to get into yet another one. Anyone seen any bargain new mk3s? Doh!

The HST is just out of my modelling era but I do like the original blue/yellow liveries and I already had a rake of Airfix blue/grey coaches which match both the Lima and Hornby power cars. So when I spotted a pair of Lima 43s in that livery last week I bid for them, despite it being described as a non-runner, and got the pair for £14. The paitwork was great and the fault turned out to be a dry solder joint! I removed the motor and stripped it down, cleaned the commutator and replaced the brushes and springs (spare bits box) then lubricated all moving parts. The motor was refitted and a DCC Concepts decoder was wired in. The whole job took barely an hour. Result - as expected, whith the budget overhaul it runs like a dream, is as quiet as any of my newer locos and happily pulls the 8 car set withjust the one motor with no problem on mild inclines. Like said above, the Lima loco is as good to look at as any, compares well with Hornby's new model. The Lima pancake is nothin like the old Hornby one - it is easily dismantled and the 'pancake' armature is far thicker so it performs far better. The gear design is inherently quieter too. If yours is noisy, check the brushes and gears as both are able to make noise if left unloved. If the motor lacks power and you've given it a once over, try changing the magnet as these can loose their power over years - and most Limas are now a bit aged! The Hornby railroad range that uses the old Lima shells are, in my experience, all good value and, yes, they don't seem to have changed the shells at all so the Horby RR chassis should fit, but I'm sure someone here cn confirm that. All a lot cheaper than a new Hornby set at over £200 so if you are on a budget, worth a try first? As for the Blackbeetle bogies, I use just two (plus 2 unmotored pickup ones) to power my 8 car Blue Pullman. They are slightly noisier than my reconditioned Lima 43 and they are not as fast but I'm not looking to run a scale 90mph, let alone 125! My 14x12' layout doesn't allow such reckless driving.......!

The ballast in the tender (25gms of car wheel balance weights) has improved the tender ride. If you can get the tender pickups then they will assist pickup if you are experiencing pickup problems but the 4 drive wheels span a set of points and I've not had any problems on my old, cheap run of 2nd hand Hornby test track, a real test! You'll need to wire them to the loco pickup wires, a bit of a run but Hornby have allowed for this. I've picked out some of the valve gear (the parts that appear to be unpainted) in gunmetel grey and then black washed them. They look better for it but, like the hand rail colours, I expect these changed over time. Does anyone have access to any colour photos of this loo? The motor saga - like someone wondered above, a suitable Mashima or similar would be good news for us, but more expense. On the basis of all the upgrades some of us here have done, a more expensive 'proper' detailed version with a decent can, hand rails etc would have been a better option but then we wouldn't all be having this fun would we??

Dominiom - was it you that Peters spares spoke to me of, a customer in Canada? If so, they would like your feedback when the 5 pole is fitted. The can itself is easy to open, just two weak looking tabs, but to pull it apart you will need to remove the worm and if that's as difficult as the flywheel to get off then it could be a problem. I have a pinion puller for slot cars but their shafts are fatter. The suggestion of dropping the can to weaken the magnets is worth a try though - a trick I'd forgotten all about, thanks. Yes, it will weaken the torque of the motor but I'm not planning to pull a rake of more than 4/5 coaches on my layout and the new 'weaker' motor pulls 6 or more with ease. BTW, I think Peter's spares sells spare P2 cans for around £7-8 +p&p with pinion/fly wheel attached so replacement costs are low when they wear out. A 'King' motor was about £11 I think. Today's mini project? Having double checked the back to back on the P2 tender it still bobs around so I thin I'll try a little ballast!

Hi all, not new here but I've been distracted by other hobbies for the past ten years! I've been following this very useful thread for some weeks and may be able to assist some of you who have experienced problems. Firstly, availability. Some time go I asked Hornby, via their website, to notify me when the P2 detailed loco arrived. They e-mailed me some months later on a Friday a couple of week ago, I went onto their site on the Saturday and it arrived on the Tuesday, just before the shops got their supply. Okay, I paid the full £120 but I got one no trouble. Worth noting maybe? 'Got one no trouble'? Well, like others I found a few probelms. It arrived with a broken front buffer head when the non-sprung plastic buffer hadn't been fully inserted into it's hole in the buffer beam and had no doubt snapped in the post. I rang Hornby. "Sorry, we've no spares for the P2, send it back and we'll refund you". No, I'd waited long enough so a quick hunt through my bit's box(s) revealed a pair of matching suitable spares. No spares at Hornby though! I then set about fitting a decoder - no DC at home but it appeared to run fine on a nearly dud PP9! First up was a DCCConcepts 4 function with harness decoder but the loco behaved more like a kangaroo when starting/stopping! As the Prodigy was slowly advanced through positions 1-3 of 128 it would suddenly leap forward a few inches then stop, pause and repeat the performance. The same applied when stopping. I tried playing with the start voltage, BEMF settings but to no avail. Okay, maybe t's the decoder? I fitted one of th new Hattons 8 pin 4 function direct fit models, great value at £13 and made by DCC Concepts but with a Hattons shrink wrap at a fraction of the price (as I believe are are all Hattons decoders)! No change, except that there were now no wires to put up with - btw, the cable run to and from beneath the rear cab exists only to accommodate a TV suppressor so can be cat out and just the two motor wires cut short to the motor tags, which incidentally were reversed wired on my can so that was corrected too. I removed the underside plate and all appeared to be free moving (and that included more than 50% of the screw that shouldn't be free moving - suggest you check all of yours) and anyway the loco seemed to run freely once it had got moving above speed setting 4, still slow. No, it seemed like the motor might be at fault. I kept reading the forums in hope of a solution and, frustrated, put in a call to Hornby for an explanation - I mean, they must be aware of the problem! Unfortunately, as I expect you know, you can't always get past the telephone receptionist but left a full technical message for her to pass to the service team 'who would ring me back'. In the mean time I called Peter's spares - a mine of help and info every time. Yes, they had both spare P2 motors, common to a couple of other Hornby locos apparently, and also the 5 pole 'king' motor which they thought might fit but were awaiting customer feedback to confirm this (this has been covered in posts above). The next day, this morning in fact, the postie arrived with a box from Hornby and in it was a replacement P2 motor with flywheel, pinion and wires fitted. There had been no return call and there was no paperwork in the box which suggests to me that Hornby are indeed aware of the problem and have maybe agreed a policy to send a replacement to any one who calls with problems? I don't actually know as when I called Hornby no one was available but, if this is the case, why don't they post this on a few forums so their customers don't suffer unnecessarily? So, out with the old and in with the new...... while I held both in my hands I compared them by turning the armature over. The new one was very free moving with very little magnetic pull whereas the 'old' one was free in it's bearings but the armature/magnet pull was far more apparent. After dismantling the motor mount (upper chassis casting) and fitting the new can - make sure you gently pull the spare front cables straight so they can travel freely through the lower chassis casting when opening the clamp and then pull it gently upwards when refitting the upper chassis so they don't get caught between the two parts - and then tried it on the track. Perfection! The out of the bag motor ran so smoothly that it would start with the start voltage set at only 1, the lowest setting of all my well used 100+ locos! At speed setting one it started very smoothly, moving forwards so slowly that you could barely see it moving at all. Same in reverse. It's still not the quietest loco I have but certainly one of the best movers. So what advice can I offer? I guess that if you are still suffering a similar problem you call Hornby and ask for a replacement standard P2 motor and keep doing so until you get a goodun. BTW, I've let Peter's spares know the full story and they plan to check their stock for any 'sticky' examples. Other problems? Well, I had expected better detailing. The art work is fantastic, even withe the rear tender lining being too high but I had expected 'proper' hand rails rather that molded ones, however well printed they are. The Hornby website loco description refers under 'special features' the super detailed tender. The tender detailing reminds me of an old 1980's A3 motorised tender. Are they supposed to be tender water valves on the front of the wrongly coloured tender! Still, at least it allowed us modellers to use some of our almost redundant skills again - fitting of extra hand rails etc! BTW, the after market etched name plates look so much better than the plates supplied - even the printed plates looked better! Okay, grumble over and I don't want my first post for 10 years to appear too grumpy but I hope my experiences help others and, all in all, I'm now delighted with my latest aquisition and, despite the economical downward trend applied by Hornby for this loco and their apparent quality control problems, they did do their best to quickly rectify the issues once notified. Don't worry Hornby, I'll be back (or is that a threat? ;¬) Good to be back, John