RBE

There will be a small amount of side play but there shouldn't be very much. Are the bogie side frames correctly seated or is there a gap between them underneath?

Yep that's exactly it. Thanks for sharing your fix with us. 👍

The sound chips are configured to run on DC as well as DCC.

I can find out what ESU recommend however you could also do a visual check through the access port with the body off just to see if the cover looks to be correctly in place.

Update for all with gear issues. It looks like after testing a fraction of the locos were packaged but not always correctly positioned on the cradle before screwing down, this pivots the bogie unduly under the pressure of the screws and appears to have popped the worm cover (part 31 below) off of the offending bogie causing this issue. It's an easy fix but one that requires in the first instance to take the body off and attempt to clip the cover back on though the access holes in the side of the chassis block (69 below). Whilst easy it can be fiddly and if it proves a problem the tower can be accessed by removing the circuit board above and clipping the cover back on. We can understand if you do not want to do that and instead prefer the retailer or ourselves to do the work but in the first instance doing the job yourself is the fastest route to resolve the issue.

Have you got a sound version? The second fan should kick in once the loco has been under load for a while at slightly higher revs to simulate the engine and turbos getting hot. It's worked fan on all the ones we tested so should work on yours.

Good idea with the screws. We will see what we can do moving forward.

Yeah one of the reasons we didn't bother with illuminated dials was that our consultant driver said not to bother as you couldn't see them in the cab let alone from outside it!! 🤣

We have set up the 56 as a driver experience, and as such the driver turns the lights on and off on the real one so does on the model. You are right we can't please everyone and for sure we have made decisions based on how we want the loco to drive (having an ex driver as a consultant on this) which may not line up with what you (the customers) are used to. In real life the cab light is rarely used so having it going on and off every time you stop is a very odd request.

it's not really redundant because it's hard to play a nice horn tone when you only have one momentary button available. The latching ones have to go on then off so a quick two tone sounds bad.

Haha yes I agree, I was just clarifying for others reading.

The loco is better for not having all wheel drive as it allows all wheels to stay in contact withe the track for road holding, and pick-up. Having the centre axle powered give no benefit and in fact hinders performance sometimes because of it. I am planning a video explaining all this as some point so I'll post links to that when I have had 5 mins to put it together!

We are currently assessing how best to provide these. We obviously want customers to be able to buy both the chip and speaker at the same time so we are looking into how to make this work commercially.

I do have the functions etc of what does what on the chip. I have also told you that the only things that need to be momentary are the horns and brake really, and the door slam if you want that. Not everyone can program that with their controllers though so F2 as the brake or two tone horn made sense as we knew that could only ever be momentary on F2 on the prodigy. Everything else is workable latched if necessary. If you want to make it momentary and can do then that's an operator choice. As for double functions such as F2, that was basically due to having more operational scope than the 30 functions allowed, we were also adamant that the most used functions should be in the top 10 functions to allow the most amount of people access to them. The 56 is all about the driver experience and that has meant that we have set it up as we wanted it rather than follow other manufacturers set ups. Personally I don't like manual stuff such as notching and manual brake, but others do, we get that. In that regard we simply allowed for a manual mode giving notching and brake by having F25 on and a standard normal mode with automatic engine sounds and braking when F25 is off.

This issue with sourcing alternative decoders is whether the functions are set up on the decoder to control the functions on the loco correctly. The Loksounds that we will do will be set up properly with a list of functions. No reason that you can't do the same at home if you have equipment that can program functions on the decoder.

The issue is that the lighting set up has lights on various aux inputs which obviously can be assigned their functions differently inside the chip rather than the loco depending on the decoder. Without using a correctly set up decoder the functions selectable will be limited to basic defaults.

We recommend a custom programmed lokpilot. Richard at Road and Rails is currently working on one I believe and so are we.

Glad that you like it. Can I ask what you changed the cab lights to as we went pretty dim already, you should have seen them on the first iteration of the file! You needed Oppenheimer's goggles to drive it 🤣. No issue doing so of course.

That's all well and good but every controller doesn't have the ability to choose. My Prodigy for instance only has momentary on F2 so that's that. All of the sounds except the horns and brake should be latching really though. The compressor works automatically anyway but can be put on constant using the function, the manual flange squeal will do it's thing whilever it's engaged but it's not a constant screech so works well as a latched function and is also loco speed dependent as to what sounds it plays, it plays none over a certain speed as well. To be honest though we just assumed that people would set up their equipment as they see fit after playing with how the sounds worked.

Thanks Garry, this is exactly why we do what we do. We want our customers to feel delighted and happy that they have the model in their hands. No better thanks for us.

Well the Cavalex versions grilles are blue because the prototype ones are blue. So actually two thing wrong with the Hornby one not a tit for tat. 🤷

They have them, we delivered them personally.

Different numbers, if you buy all of the red cradle packs from both retailers you will have a full 36 wagon rake with unique decoration on every wagon.

What surprised you about the panel?

Yes that's it. We also include a manual flange squeal function as well though (F7) so that you never miss a good squeal opportunity!