Chuff34006

Hi, I have a Hornby R2917 2810 fitted with an ESU V4 sound decoder. It has run very well since purchase, but on a recent run it appeared to be stuttering as if it was seizing up. I took it off the train load and ran it in reverse which was even worse it was almost kangarooing with the body appearing to go up and down! I lubricated the wheels and linkage and it made no difference. I then took the body off gave the gearing a good clean and relubricated it with appropriate grease. With the motor out I ran the chassis up and down the track and the wheels etc., all turned with little resistance. I reassembled the locomotive it ran forward then stopped I moved it on the track and put it in reverse and it would not do one full turn of the wheels! Any ideas gratefully received

Help, I have two S15 fitted with Zimo MX649R decoders with YouChoos speakers. The first one I fitted runs without any problems. The second one kangarooed until I removed capacitor C1 on the decoder plug board. I thought great, but I still had problems. The locomotive did not always start there was no sound nothing. I only had to touch the locomotive and it was away, this fault is intermittent sometimes the locomotive stops and still works correctly othertimes it does not. Any help appreciated I have cleaned all the wheels, contact including the pickup to loco two pin connection, cleaned out an abundance of oil [there from Hornby as supplied], tried a different locomotive tender combination and the fault stayed with the original tender and new locomotive combination! I cannot find any trace of a short with a multimeter with decoder removed checking from the 8 pin socket to wheels/body. I have also tried all different setting on the Zimo decoder for CV9, CV56, CV57 and CV58 to no effect. any assisitance gratefully received

I have purchased a Dapol 43xx 4S-043-004S and it runs very well. The sound work well with the two speakers and I have no complaints apart from the fact that three of the buffers were lose in the box! after an initial exclamation I managed to fit all three back as they are just a push fit. I would like to know who produced the sound file as I would like to use it for a none sound fitted 43xx that I have. Any ideas would be appreciated

I received my Rails 4S-010-012S A1X 32650 with sound on November the 19th I set it up a couple of days latter it was set up on the ESU ECoS DCC programming track and everything worked. I even set up some random sounds. It was not that great at running and cleaning the wheels helped a little. It got to the point it would start and stop without needing the “hand of God” to make it move. Yippee I thought one that actually works OK. Unfortunately that has not lasted even a week it now either does not start to move after it has stopped or stops early when it slows down. I di think of replacing the pickups only to find out at present you cannot get spare parts from the usual Dapol spares supplier who has none and does not know if they will get any. I have cleaned the wheel running surfaces and backs of the wheels as well as I can without disassembling it! I have cleaned the track where it stops with a track rubber and a liquid cleaner (track Magic). I then cleaned all the track it made no difference I did think it had something to do with stopping on curves but that was soon proved wrong as it is equally unreliable on straight track. I have run several other locomotives over the same track without any problems of starting stopping running these have been Hornby L&Y 0-4-0 (three of them), Hattons P class 0-6-0 (three of them) and a number of larger locomotives M7s, Schools, WC&BB numerous all with no problems just to prove to myself there is no track problem. I real am at a loss as to why I have had so many problems with the Rails/Dapol A1X Terrier locomotives that’s four out of four that have been faulty! I have asked Rails for a refund for this locomotive as it just does not work as it should do and I am awaiting their reply. I don't want an expensive static display. I just hope the Rails Gas Turbine I have on order will be more reliable!.

Hello, I received my latest Rails/Dapol 4S-010-003S Terrier a LB&SC 751 with sound on Friday. Tested it on Saturday and guess what it went bang! I put it on my programming track switch the sound on and it worked set up the whistles they worked and the coal shovelling worked whoopie I thought unfortunately this was short lived. I decided to see if the locomotive moved so set the ECoS controller to forward opened the throttle less than a full turn of the wheels and it stopped with a crackling noise! Sound failed and it would not move, repositioned it on the track and it would not move. Picked it up and there was a smell of burnt electrical components. I thought Oh ****!!!!! So it is on it's way back for a refund . The quality control on these is absolutley terrible. That is three out of four of the terriers have failed. I have not had any other locomotive with this poor quality, I cannot remember a Hornby, Bachmann or anyone elses locomotive I have failing like this.

I am not having much luck with my Rails/Dapol 4S-010-006 A1X Terrier. It was running well until yesterday when it stopped moving and smoke came out of it. No it does not have a smoke generator it was electrical smoke. I quickly shut off the power and removed it from the track. It still runs in Analogue mode witha strong smell of burnt wiring. I tested the decoder in my ESU decoder tester and it produced all the sounds and runs the motor in bothe directions. I will be returning this Terrier to Rails my faith in its quality is somewhat low at present.

Received my non-sound fitted 4S-010-006 yesterday to replace the problamatic sound fitted one which I returned to Rails. All the return refund probelm are now sorted. I fitted the Zimo MX659N18 decoder I purchased of YouChoose, putting the body back on was a bit more of a challenge it look a lot of wiggling then it suddenly fitted. Unlike the previous one this one ran fine straight out of the box. I use Tillig track and it went through the double slips and point without any hesitation. Starts and stops with no problem. The motor sounded a bit noisy at first, a bit of tweaking of the motor control CVs in the Zimo decoder and it became quieter. Set up the chuff rate for the YouChoose sound I was using and away it went. You don't get a large volume from this setup due to the small size of the cube speaker. The sound is good and I have yet to setup/tweak the random sounds. Now it not only looks good but runs very well! Only query why no coal in the coal bunker! I will have to put some real coal in as per my other locomotives. I have two more on order and wonder how they will perform when they arrive (in time for Christmas?)

I have purchased a Rails/Dapol Terrier with sound. My locomotive did not want to start by itself it needed a bit of assistance. I cleaned the wheels and it still would not start nor slow run everytime it stopped it would not restart. I am well used to Zimo sound decoders and this is not one of their characteristics. As my other small locomotives all work on the same lengths of track I returned it to Rails on the 14th they told me there was not a replacement available I asked for a refund to which they agreed and to order a non-sound version. They then seven days later told me it was waiting to be tested! I clearly told Rails I did not want it back. Despite emails saying they will refund so far nothing has happened and my trust in them is almost exhausted. This not refunding promptly is a stupid approach as I have over the past 4 year purchased over £4,000 worth of models from them and I will probably cancel everything else I have on order. The Terrier looks great but I don't want a static display item costing £239 plus postage. So be warned after sales is everything.