Sir TophamHatt

I had this problem with two of mine too! Swapped to Zimos and everything works fine; a lot more reliable. To be fair on Hattons, they simply asked for a return and refunded the money.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=14T19nho0c1xBZmfF49WzVTGJuyGL3u1a I'm hoping that link will work properly. It's a 50MB video of a train that I have that smokes and sparks a little. Sorry I couldn't get the video any lower in size :/ While I know very little about motors, and I plan to replace this with a cd tray motor if suitable, would be a good learning curve. I know it's clearly not a happy motor. DC train. Old. I guess there is a little oil/grease (despite me giving it a good clean!) on the brushes (little metal bullets with springs?) or the... er... spinny thing inside the motor (the commutator?). I know the brushes are a little sticky, so this may be the problem; although I did clean them as best I could. Upgrading this with a new motor, DCC and LEDs will be my biggest project to date.

Thanks. A bit afraid of gluing the desk in as I know when I put the body back on, I'd push the desk out again. Funny as when it's in, it looks fine from the outside, but clearly the pins don't reach properly. On the up, if it worked yesterday, I'd have left it without a driver! Will take a look at the springs and see where they go, then just look to bypass that whole mechanism. Whoever decided that was a good idea?

Thanks

So I have a problem with my HST lights. The "new" Hornby HST version comes in two revisions for the lights. Earlier versions have a spring contact that fits under the desk. Later versions have a plug that fits to the board. Peters Spares do a replacement for the earlier version: https://www.petersspares.com/Hornby-x9871-class-43-hst-125-light-boardcab-assembly-power-car.ir My desk is loose. I can try and fit it back but every time I refit the body, it pushes the desk so the springs can't contact the little copper plates. I could glue the desk in place but I suspect it'll break off again. So was thinking, is it possible for me to solder a bit of wire to the copper plate and then solder it to the springs? Would that work? Thanks

Just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has given me food for thought over this. It works!

So, finally getting round to this. Looks like the bulb bodies ARE connected to the grey weight chassis. So I guess I need to use the blue return wire?

Just to bring this to a conclusion, I ended up sending the decoders back (Hattons did accept them fine, no questions asked). Fitted a couple of Zimo and both locos work fine at low speed, no stalling. Thanks

Businesses seem to panic if there's a down turn in profits. So many think they must sell more than last year and that's what keeps them successful. But then pressure from shareholders and all that. Maybe getting rid of them would sort out a lot. I personally don't understand it. You have good years and bad years. If you're constantly going down, that's a problem but thinking you must make more money every year and something is wrong. Just like Apple selling a phone that costs something like $238 to make for over $1000! That's greed and nothing more. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Following on from this topic... Finally got round to being able to get this loco sorted. Does it matter which way round the LED is wired? IE: should I connect the shorter end to the resistor or the longer end?

I agree, but still quite like them. It's people though. They screw the notes up, fold them, then get annoyed when they go all weird. Going back to paper won't cure that problem (that happened with paper, but it wasn't as obvious). Getting a better purse/wallet and learning to put money in a little neater than stuffing it in any old way will. It's a bit of a moot point when the forger has used it though. After that, whether it's real or not, it's being used as £10. It's only the end user that misses out. For example, I opened a bag of 10ps once from the bank. It had an American quarter in it. I spent that as a 10p and it was accepted (I don't think they realised though). So that led me to think perhaps we should just accept quarters over here as 10p. Much like the old shillings were accepted as 5p/10p for a while. Still makes me giggle when I see people rubbing one note for a good 10/15 seconds, that is clearly one note, just to make sure it's one note!

It more or less means the same thing right? Unless it's used as part of a sentance: The car park is filling up nicely (makes me think people are parking nicely). The car park is nicely filling up (makes me think the car park is filling up somewhat quickly). Can anyone explain when you should use one or the other, or if it really doesn't matter? Are there any other oddities that you hear that, on reflection, aren't quite right?

I often scoff at how railways are constantly paying out for delays, yet planes get a much bigger time limit before having to pay out. So why do roads get a free ride? Say you're delayed because of animals on the road, should you be able to claim from the highways agency for a delay? The highways could then claim from the farmer if it's their fence. Or if you're delayed because an Eddie Stobart lorry is on fire. Could you claim money back from them because they caused a delay? It would be chaos, but could it work after all the planning and implimentation?

Out of interest, is this processed foods, or a plain piece of chicken? I think many people are under the impression different shops order different things. For some grocery items, yes, but many are given by the supplier. For example Corn Flakes. El-Cheapo, Own Brand, Branded. You'll find the el-cheapo and own brand are the same whether you buy them from Asda, Sainsburys, Morrisons or Tesco. No they aren't I hear you cry! So that means Asda, Sainsburys, Tesco, Morrisons all have their own factory pumping out this cereal. But what about Shreddies? Or Weetabix? That's 12 factories just for those cereals alone. What about bread? Certain cakes? Jelly? Milk? Hot chocolate? Milkshake? Orange juice cartons? Choclate sweets? Coffee? Tea? There aren't that many factories in the UK producing foods The supplier will say to Asda et al they have a budget product and a more expensive product. So no matter what supermarket you buy it at, it's the same. Aldi and Lidl are different though as their fake Cadburys (Dairy Fine?) IS different. To be fair on them, the Blackcurrant hi-juice tastes like Ribena. Ergo, if it's tasteless at one supermarket, it should be at another too. I wonder whether this is also the effect of psychology. For example I know people who buy Asda own brand butter (proper butter usually near the milk) because "it's better" even though it has EXACTLY the same ingredients as the smart price version. I don't have a photo right now but will add the one I took in due course. Although even more interestingly reading from the first few posts is that people assumed Asda and Sainsburys would start closing stores left right and centre, when they've said the supermarkets cater for different people (snobs and not-snobs?) and thus they'd keep both. AND that Walmart is keeping their stake (40%) in Asda. I'd suggest it's more the laziness of people. I order most things from Amazon instead of going to a store to find it. For groceries, click and collect. I can order one day, collect the next day free at an off-peak time on my way home from work. I suspect within 10 years there will be slightly less supermarkets but more warehouses that the home delivery people fill up their vans and head out.

Interestingly there was an interview on BBC Radio Leicester a while back about cows milking themselves. A cerain sound was played to "call" the cows in, but the machines fix and milk the cow all by itself.

If the loco has been built DCC ready, should I still remove them? Swapping the chip in a Pannier to a Zimo so not sure if I should or not. Maybe I'll test before and take it out if it's not great.

You won't initially But there's plenty of sites that document the changes in an easy-to-read manner. The short story is that there isn't much change.

Might be better to say something constructive... like why you think that. Sorry for the neg. Surely adding insulation in between the joists in the roof doesn't mean you're going to use it as a habitable room? I have plans to board my loft properly, light it properly, insulate it properly, but I can't put any better stairs in than the ladder I have. It won't be a habitable room, just somewhere that I can use to store things easily rather than the shambles it's turned into. Would I think about informing the council? No. Will the council care? Probably not. But I understand from an external persons point of view, I'd be effectively turning it into a potential room. This is where H&S strays into madness. It's mad times we live in! Yet in another thread, people don't seem that bothered that their rooms went from 4C/5C up to 20C-25C in summer. Sorry I can't find the thread now A difficult one. A great looking workshop. I'd change the bulbs so they were daylight rather than warm white :/ Also, how are you hanging the A4 (?) pictures on the wall?

This is it for me. Got a cheap set from Amazon but they're so much better than trying to use an oversized screwdriver for a tiny screw!

Badly home made painted locos. Don't get me wrong, having home made stuff is great and I don't want to dumb anyone down but when a straight line is wobblier than a drunk person walking home, it doesn't look like it should.

What are the cameras? They should come with some sort of software. Depends also how computer literate you are. Some software, such as VLC could pick up the stream from the webcam and display it live without recording anything. Others are specifically to record. You could even use Skype for viewing a webcam feed. Windows 10 may come with an app that allows you to see the feed too. With Windows Snap, you can open 4 windows for the 4 webcams and "snap" them to each corner to have a quad view on one monitor.

I posted similar question when I was first starting. My current model isn't anything special and every so often, I'll loose interest as it isn't as big as I want. You've given youself some plans but only you can decide what you want. Think about the trains that are available and that you want. When you have that list, it'll show you the dates of your model. In contrast, I run all sorts from 4MT and Pannier tanks to Class 170s and HSTs.

Do you have a link for these? I guess they don't do so well in dark tunnels? I only have one set of two locos the same - two HSTs. One is called 125 and 1252. I can't remember which one is which! But then I'm not really interested in having two of a certain loco so it wouldn't affect me. I usually use the first 4 numbers of the loco though as numbers 1-11 are reserved for the Thomas trains. Saying that now though, I can't remember what I numbered "Emily"!

If you want any support, I did this with a Class 08. Bought the Hornby 08 but needed a decoder. It would have cost about £20-£25 for one but found a website selling the sound decoders for about £40. The seller suggested I take advantage of their fitting service (at extra cost), but I declined as I could fit it myself easily. Turns out it was a bit of a dodgy decoder and the seller said they wouldn't accept a return (and I should have used their fitting service). Hornby gave me a couple of settings to try and I reseated the decoder - now everything works fine. If you're happy with the sounds, it can be a cheaper way than buying a DCC Sound loco outright. Seen Richard's videos with the new speakers, of which I plan to upgrade mine in the near future.

An apology that the person probably won't mean? No point. I used to come across so many people that "demmanded an apology", even though it wasn't going to change their mood or make things any better. Thus I would often think that there was no point. It's just empty. Or is it that it makes the person feel big? Or are they more interested in demeaning the person who is apologising? If the latter, who is worse then? I'm not on anyones side though. I generally find Royal Mail pretty good. But wish the parcel delivery man would learn to leave parcels in my safe place rather than giving them to a neighbour. The normal letters and small items postman is great. Nearly all others leave parcels. Just the van man doesn't, which is rather annoying. But it's like many companies. They're pretty good when they're working, but if something goes wrong, the company seems to be the worst at dealing with the problem.