New Hornby DCC system

Aw heck only 254 loco addresses. If I continue with the same rate of annual purchase of about 10 per year, wish to use them on the same system either at the same time or so frequently I dont want the hassle of changing addresses... am going to have to upgrade in 20 years time ! Just consider thats 20 years at £90, so £4.50 per year, just for DCC control.

Where am I going to store 250 locos (bound to miss 4 numbers for various reasons).

The moment I saw "heads-up" I knew were into the realms of fantasy. Then theres "Xpressnet compatible apparently.". So isnt it ? Is this too far fetched ? Or is it a good feature, and we dont want anyone to realise .. erm ...its a good feature ?

Nope, thank you John, but I think I'll keep away from that group.

Cheers, Simon

"simon" wrote

I don't think it's about the number of addresses, just that the Hornby unit appears not to be NMRA or industry compliant (or whatever the correct word is).

John.

In message , John Turner writes

That's not what it says on the Hornby web site:

Hornby Digital Command Control Features: ... Designed to be NMRA compatible

"Jane Sullivan" wrote

Compatible and compliant do not have the same meaning.

John.

Quite often compatible means the manufacturer has tested it and in the most important functions it works as required. Compliance however often means the standards authority has tested it - for a suitable fee - and they think in the most important functions it works as required.

Unless the information that there are specific features missing, or incorrectly implemented, is given, I think its unfair to suggest it isnt a good product.

I still say at that price from a manufacturer I trust (from personal experience) then I want one. Would like to hear other views though.

cheers, Simon

There you go John. It's made by _Hornby_ so it has to be good! :o)

(kim)

"simon" wrote

Interesting that you use the expression 'from a manufacturer I trust', bearing in mind that Hornby are not manufacturers any more. I'm not quite sure how you'd describe them these days.

From personal, day-to-day experience of selling and handling products which bear their name, I'm not certain I'd be happy to use the expression 'trust' - certainly some of the items being sold today are flimsy to say the least, and not suitable for certain parts of the market at which they must be aimed.

No current loco (except those sold in train sets) with Walschaerts valve gear are suitable for handling by young children or anyone unable to exercise extreme care. We perhaps see two or three of these models each month where the valve gear has become entangled with itself and as a result the loco has become totally unusable without a major rebuild. Hornby are aware there is a problem, but I've seen no attempt at strengthening this aspect of their more recent models. That doesn't imply product 'trust' in my opinion.

John.

John,

Yes I would agree with that sentiment. The Hornby interpretation of Walschaerts is indeed a bit light weight. It looks very good but as John says the stability of the slidebars in particular is marginal. Combine that with some very sloppy assembly of eccentric rod and expansion link and you have a recipe for disaster. I have two Black 5s, and one of them did actually mangle itself without any warning. Being a kit designer and manufacturer I have the knowledge and bits to correct this problem but your average punter is not going to able to do this. I'm actually looking at doing a replacement set of all this dodgy gear in material about twice as thick (which is nearer scale anyway). I'll let you know how I get on. Meanwhile keep your fingers away from the gear!!!

Alistair Wright '5522' Models

I know what you mean. The Hornby Gordon may be relatively crude by current standards, but it does survive a few dives off the layout.

Mark Thornton

Gordon The Flying Engine? I don't remember reading that Rev Awdry book when I was a child. :)

Fred X

The NMRA standards only apply to the protocol between the command station and decoders not the features of either of these. So to be compliant a system should be able to control any other make of DCC compliant decoders. Whether the system can address 4096, 254 or 99 loco addresses is a feature of the system and not an NMRA standard. It's up to manufacturers if they want to design their system to be able to send all the messages that can be sent to or from decoders and obviously the more features you have the more money you have to pay and the more complexity you get.

Chris

One of the disadvantages of chipping it for DCC is that head on collisions become possible. ;-)

Mark

Didnt say that. They produce some good products and some not so good, but I've never caught them fibbing. Whenever I've bought something duff theyve always dealt with it without quibble - not all manufacturers are like that. Simon

True, suppose was lazy, but designers, distributer, marketer gets complex and theres a tendency to make up words.

But I dont sell their products, I just play with them. So if I can handle them without too many problems and can fix them when they do go wrong then I feel I can stick by my original statement. However, my son has been 'helping' me play since he was 4 and hasnt caused any damage to a model - the rest of the house and surrounding countryside has suffered though.

Simon

. I'm actually looking at

Any chance of bits for Mainline ones as well ?

Simon

Lighten up Simon. Didn't yiu notice the smiley? :o)

The point I was trying to make was that most consumers do indeed "trust" Hornby due to its name and its past history.

(kim)

Mark Thornton wrote :-

"No current loco (except those sold in train sets) with Walschaerts valve gear are suitable for handling by young children or anyone unable to exercise extreme care. We perhaps see two or three of these models each month where the valve gear has become entangled with itself"

John Turner wrote :-

"I know what you mean. The Hornby Gordon may be relatively crude by current standards, but it does survive a few dives off the layout."

My main 'complaint' with Hornby these days is that they mostly produce models not toys ! I remember my old Dublo train took a few 'glides' off the dinning table without damage, most modern loco's would require the vacuum to pick up.

I don't know what the 'average' pocket money a pre teen gets these days but how long would it take to save up to buy a DCC 'Gordon' ? All our son is concerned about is that a loco runs and 'looks the part'.

If we can afford it this Christmas we hope to get our son the R1075 Mixed Goods DCC set which should run straight from the box. So the Hornby "Select" unit can 'only' address 59 loco's ...... but I would need to spend well over =A33000 to fill it's capacity.

If you ever watch "Thomas And Friends" on TV, they have quite a lot of spectacular crashes, and even the odd dive off the dock.

(I watch it with my 2-year-old grandson.)

Sorry, did try, hence use of 'fibbing'.

I think the name of Hornby is a double edged sword. Yes it conjures up images of the wonderful old days of proper playing with toys in a confortable atmosphere. the reality being my father was always working down t' pit and track + trains all over the carpet was a nuisance to my mother. so it was lay track, get train running, not able to do anything else so bored now. Put it away till next year and off to chapel.... The opposite is the idea that they only produce toy trains so we can dismiss them.

So wanted to get across that my opinion of the current company is based on an unemotional evaluation of their current offerings and service. I use the same criteria to evaluate Bachmann (hence feel they are arragont ....s).

However I havent heard any negative facts about the new Hornby DCC system as yet.

Cheers, Simon