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I am not defending Dave Jones, he started a business that has ultimately failed, well the world is littered with failed dreams, and lets face it most people thought DJs venture was a breath of fresh air, especially at a time when Hornby were going through its woes. I am intrigued by the amount of posters who 'always knew he was dodgy' and 'the warning signs were there'. Being wise after the event is not clever, if these same people knew so much why didnt they ring the alarm bells years ago? I remember a time when DJ was with Dapol he was lauded for his communication and frankness with modellers, but it would appear he was just being big headed and self promoting. I only ever bought one of DJs models and it runs perfectly, as good as any other model I have and better than many. It is a sad day when a business fails, especially a model railway business, and it is easy to point out DJs business flaws, but character assasination is unbecoming when a person is down, especially by the majority who do not even know him. Berate his business venture but leave the man alone.

Have managed to read through twenty pages, and it all be coming a bit repetitive now.

This is indeed sad news, Dave Jones has always been passionate about model railways, he was a founder member of the Banbury club to which I belong. Lets not forget that when he was with Dapol he had a superb relationship with modellers and often consulted them on new models. His venture into DJModels promised much, there were always doubts as to whether he could produce all that was promised, and indeed he cancelled some models because they were announced and were quicker to the market than his. I bought a CL71 and aside from the well documented slow top speed (never an issue for me as I tend to run mine on freight) it is a pretty good model. Sadly the writing was on the wall some time ago and it transpired that Daves business accumen was not up to his enthusiasm. It is unfortunate that many people who, like me thought Dave was a breath of fresh air have lost money and are now bitter. I did not crowdfund (and never will) so I have no financial loss, I also think it is sad that people use this bad news to turn the knife. I am sure Dave is feeling pretty sick at present and instead of berating his efforts we should be supporting him as a community and hope that his talents are not lost to this hobby. OK he may not run his own company again but he would be an asset to any manufacturer if his pre DJModels track record is taken into account. Lets not get carried away with the villification and remeber there is a pretty broken man at the moment.

They were Peaks that ran Cornish China Clay traffic usually between Burngullow and Severn tunnel junction. John Vaughan’s book ‘An illustrated History of West Country China Clay Trains’ has photos of all the Peaks I mention plus a real Pot Pourri of of rolling stock formations.

Well, there will be plenty of choice for China Clay traffic, 45015/16/20/51/60*/64/68/69/72/74/75/78 45107 46001/2/27 ( for the future) * Sherwood Forrester All had twin central marker lights.

I have fitted Kadees into the NEM socket to mine they are fine, no droop like some

Yes I would definitely buy a D1000 in Desert Sand, preferably plain end as I went around Swindon and saw ‘Enterprise’ almost complete in that form, but could easily live with yellow ends

I fitted a Zimo MX638D, directional lights work fine, however cab lights only work in one cab. Question? If I convert my decoder to an MX638C will that solve the only one cab light working? I am not going to lose any sleep if it does not because I rarely if ever switch cab lights on.

Have just ran my D603 in on DC (30 mins each direction) ran faultlessly. Inserted decoder, again runs like a dream, ran it with my normal five coach load, again no problems. Will probably sound chip it in the future, but for now enjoying a superb loco.

I suspect they will be good for much much longer, and given Kernows excellent track record in customer care if anything did go wrong after six months they would give good service.

Also, I always run my locos in minimum of 30 mins each way on DC light engine to bed everything in.

I suppose when it comes down to it the manufacturer is irrelevant as long as it’s a good model. The few issues discussed (and mostly resolved) on here reflect a tiny percentage of those sold and that are running perfectly. Of course if you are someone who does have an issue that necessitates replacement or fixing it is disappointing. My issue with D601 was a decoder tuning issue which was easily resolved, a few have not been quite as fortunate. This however should not detract from what has been an eagerly awaited and hugely successful model. Well done Kernow for sticking with the project despite the setbacks early on.

Satisfying day spent at Railex, absolutely blown away by New Kensal Green and few others, great staff always ready to chat. If I had to make an observation I would have liked to have seen a modern image layout or two.

Kernow packaging has been the same for all the stock I have had over the last few years, I don’t think Bachmann have made all their models.

Received ‘Conquest’ today. This was ordered by my late great friend Rod Maguire. Sadly he never saw it come to fruition. Whatever siding, platform or shed you are looking from Rod I can assure you it was worth the wait old friend.

It is interesting how much talk there is about the changing appearance of the 66. Throughout railway history locomotives had tweaks to their appearance (although rarely such apparently frequent and random paint/vinyl changes). This really should not be too much of a problem as the Hattons model will depict a loco at a period in its career. Class 37s and 47s have undergone a myriad of changes both to appearance and tweaks. I suppose it only becomes a problem if the modeller wants the latest incarnation of a particular loco, the great thing for people like me who are not overly concerned if an appearance changes is that when I travel by rail I am likely to see all manner of 66 appearances, however that said I mainly see old EWS and Freightliner vinyled locos.

Senseless vandalism, the perpetrators will hopefully regret their actions. So sorry for all those who have seen years of work, their business etc. ruined. The model railway community are behind you.

The coreless motor in the D6xx Warships appears to work for the most part faultlessly, certainly better than the DJM coreless motor in the Cl71. DJM was ousted from this project at an early stage, I presume it was Kernows decision to continue with it as they could have changed it. Took my Ark Royal to our club test track today and ran it for 2+ hours with six Bachmann Mk1s ( I rarely run more than six in a rake anyway) on at scale speeds of 80/90 mph. It ran beautifully with full sounds and lights, no sign of overheating, tripping out etc. I for one am a very happy person.

I read somewhere in the thread that the fuse could be swapped for one of a higher amperage. Assuming the supplied fuse is 1 amp what would be the next one up and where would you purchase from?

Yes Metadyneman I agree slagged was a bit strong.I hold Kernow in the highest regard. Sometimes these things get out of hand when there is a problem. Yes running a loco with 8-9 on for an hour is not normal practice for most running sessions.My locos tend to run with around six coaches for 15-20 minutes, freight tends to be 20-30 wagons running over a bit longer. So far I have run my Ark Royal for around an hour non stop on DC, on DCC. I have run it for 10-15 minutes with six coaches . I am awaiting ‘Conquest’ which I am sure will be every bit as good as Ark Royal.

Very nice Richard, the background note is a little deeper than mine. It is a really good sound.

I also think there should be a bit of perspective on this in that of the hundreds of locos that have gone out only a few have had problems. However when the problem occurs with one that you have purchased it is disappointing. As I have said before changing the CVs and tuning my decoder to the motor has produced a model that runs faultlessly thus far and shows no sign of current overload. I like the idea of perhaps bridging the two fuse terminals without removing the fuse, this could be reversed if needed, or if the loco had to be returned to Kernow. Kernow are one of the best independents and have fantastic customer service, it is not their fault this problem occurred and they are working to sort it out. So I would say let’s not get into slagging Kernow off, let’s try and support them to rectify the problem locos by giving them as much info as possible.

Paul, I have a Loksound V5 in mine and had to tune it to the coreless motor, now everything works superbly without the snipping. Hopefully Kernow will be able to send you the CV settings for the Zimo which will hopefully cure the problem without having to have the snip!

Paul, if you read back over the last few pages starting at page66 you will see another loco with the same problem. Under the decoder is what looks like a capacitor but is in fact an overload fuse that cuts the power if there is too much power draw. It would appear that it is a tad sensitive when locos are drawing quite a lot of current and shuts things down until it cools down. Some people have snipped the fuse out and bridged the gap with a small piece of wire. You have to bridge the gap to complete the circuit. This apparently cures the problem but it is wise to activate overload protection on your decoder, It has been suggested that you can wire in the next size up fuse as an alternative. Hope this helps, reading the last few pages will clarify everything.

I think I get the drift of post above? Much as I am tempted to snip the little fuse join the gap and activate overload protection on my chip, as Ark Royal is working perfectly at present and has shown no further signs of problems, I will leave well alone.