Hornby 50 lights questions

Mine flickers too, it must be poor pickups perhaps. Then again all that circuitry inside (have you looked inside?) must do something, all those transistors and stuff. I wonder if it would be better on DCC, perhaps that will give it a smoother steady DC supply. Of course the DCC socket on the 50 is wrong and it won't work as built.

OK now I have checked, illuminating the headcode will be simple, using either the Hornby board or a DIY one, the headcode box is a clear plastic section correctly shaped on the inside to collect the light and beam it through. However you will have to replace the black and white front with one of the aftermarket headcodes. Hornby have painted the front of the clear plastic black all over then printed the white dots on top, result the white dots are more opaque than the black. The paint and dots come off nicely with meths on a cotton bud leaving a clean plastic face to fix the headcode of your choice onto. Keith

Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

No, its on my 'to do' list, they must have told the factory that these don't light up so they left out the appropriate circuit board. Download the parts list from the hornby website, the missing board is item no. 17 - X9253. It may also be required to swap item 18 for item 16 but I won't know that till I get the parts. Contact your dealer to see if he can get the bits from Hornby, it will be a lot easier than making up your own since they come with spring contacts to allow for taking the shell off. It may also be neccessary to drill out the headcode box, I haven't checked yet but will soon.

I think you will have to live with that, or eliminate the dead spots causing it, or change to DCC. Hornby have a capacitor on the light control board to reduce flicker on the lights that are supposed to be on, but they have a sensitive trigger to turn them on at low voltage, if the motor circuit is broken this trigger sees reverse polarity from the back emf and will turn the light on. Of coure even the rear lights should only come on when its running light engine. It would have been better with the headcode illuminated and not the rear lights!

Keith

Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

I had flickering lights on my 50035 until I cleaned the track - no problems at all now. The track didn't look that dirty and the loco's performance was fine, the rubber showed there was a fine coating of muck and once that was removed the lights have been fine.

Glad that your loco stays on the track, I've had to relay some of my rails recently, 'cos the 50 towing Bachy Mk1s kept falling off - part of it I think is down to the rails shrinking in the cold and opening up the gaps.

It's those naffing traction tyres, I'm sure!

John.

I have cleaned my track and that cured the problem!!!! It was probably about due!

Adrian

Thanks Keith.

Who sells the headcode blinds?

Thanks again. I'll ask at Transport Models (Preston) - my local shop.

Ben

I've found that the supplied tension-lock coupling is a little low for my stock...you????

and

I haven't tried these, not sure if they are designed to be lit from the rear.

And Formil Model Engineering (John Lythgoe)

12 Oak Tree Close Bedale N Yorks DL8 1UG tel: 01677 424 686 e-mail: snipped-for-privacy@clara.co.uk headcode panels

which are specifically designed to be back lit, and the range includes designs for specific locos and services so you do need to get a list from him.

Keith Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

Yes, a little bit - was having trouble getting it to stay coupled to some bachmann wagons last night while running track testing trains* after a bit of 'tamping'. Not entirely sure what to do about it...

• usually bachy 25s top and tailing a rake of assorted stock that likes to fall off the track unless its spot on, mixture of bachy mk1s, intermodals and short wheelbase four wheel wagons.

"Ben" wrote

I'd suggest trying to pack the couplingup a little using thin card or paper in the coupler socket.

John.

Replace everything with Kadees.......

Yes. They left the circuit board for the headcode box out, you need to get one as a spare part. Keith

Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

I'm planning to use Kadees within my multiple unit fleet, how I get on with them may have some bearing on what I do (if anything) with the rest of my stock.

I guess I can't have Kadees and bufferbeam detailing, unless I just have a coupler on one end and pipes etc on the other.

Depends on what height you set your Kadees. If set at UK prototype height you have to set them in the buffer beam, and modify the beam accordingly. If set at the standard H0 height they sit under most buffer beams and you will just need to leave off the coupling chain and any pipe that interferes with the swing of the coupler, which will depend on your curves and whether you body mount or bogie mount the couplers.

I tested my 50 on a US layout by putting a KD 20 into the NEM socket as supplied, it came out the H0 height. I'll have to remount the coupler to get it to 4mm scale height. Keith Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

I forgot to add that my 50 only falls off the track under one circumstance, and thats navigating a Hornby curved l/h turnout in the fiddle yard; coming off the scenic part of the layout into the yard taking the left turn through the pointwork into the second of two storage roads accessed from that track. It'll run through fine if travelling from storage road to the layout

I think thats simply because the check rails for the crossing nose are ineffective with finer profile wheels.

Doesn't matter too much as trains would only run that way if working 'wrong line' but I like to have my track so it can be traversed in all directions without incident.

I shimmed the check rails of ny Hornby curved points with .02" x .08" (0.5mm x 2mm) Evergreen styrene strips. Wedge in place with cardboard strips, glue with liquid poly, trim level when dry and paint with Humbrol 85 Coal Black. I also glued .01" (.025mm) strip in the bottom of the frog groove to support the finer flanges (same with Peco points).

Hi Keith,

I've got some 2nd radius stuff in my fiddle yard area, which I assume would make body-mounting the couplers impractical and bogie mounting would mean I couldn't have the detail on as the swing of the coupler would hit any dangling pipe. Ah well.

The rest of the layout has some fairly tight corners on, but then its only a 9ft square room so its to be expected. Maybe when I get my own house with big loft space... :o)

Thanks for the advice, most appreciated