Tight Spots

"Ian J." wrote

It's unlikely to improve with running, and is indicative of one (or more wheelsets) which are slightly out of quarter.

This should have been picked up by the retailer who sold you the model - assuming of course they tested the loco at the point of sale.

John.

I gather it wasn't test run, so I'm going to have to take it back I think.

Ian J.

In message , John Turner writes

Shouldn't Hornby themselves have picked it up when they test-ran the loco?

"Jane Sullivan" wrote

You've not been paying attention Jane - see discussion elsewhere regarding manufacturers' quality control! ;-)

And the end of the day the normal end-user's contract is with the retailer, and consequently it is their responsibility to make sure the item is of saleable quality. Sadly Hornby are making point of sale testing increasingly difficult - note the securing lugs screwed to the underside of the King Arthur locos. The alone would add a minimum of five minutes to any testing regime.

John.

In message , John Turner writes

Oh yes I have. Why do I have to use smileys to indicate irony or sarcasm in my mailings? Surely you guys would know that I must have been paying attention, or I wouldn't have mentioned their testing of the loco, after reading that they test-run _every_ loco before sending them out for sale.

Somebody on a group that I'm a member of adds "may contain traces of irony" to his sig. Maybe I should add "If you can't detect irony in this message you haven't looked hard enough" to mine.

That's nothing compared with what Walthers have done with their Proto

2000 F7 locos. They are almost jammed into the packaging with some plastic girders which are screwed into the coupler-fixing holes, and which keep the loco's wheels off the track unless you remove them first.

Mind you, they are wonderful locos, responding on speed step 1 (of 128) straight out of the box.

Jane Sullivan wrote in news:ijAUvK $ snipped-for-privacy@yddraiggoch.demon.co.uk:

Changing the subject slightly (well quite a lot really) I'm becoming more and more attracted to the idea of modelling US outline, mainly due to the quality of the available RTR stock (and of course HO is not just a guage but a scale representation).

Chris Wilson wrote: [...]

OooH, apostasy!!!!

--wolf [May contain traces of Fe-ry.]

I thought the RTR stock sold in the US came from the same Chinese factories as the RTR stock sold in the UK?

(kim)

"kim" wrote

Don't know about *all* of it, but Hornby is made in the same factory as Life-Like's Proto 2000 range. Bachmann, of course, have their own factory and I believe that all their model railway products (irrespective of the market) are made the one location.

John.

In message , John Turner writes

I suppose I knew that, really, but the difference in quality between Proto 2000 (Life-Like was taken over by Walthers some time last year) and Hornby is astounding. I suppose you get what you pay for, because Proto 2000 is not cheap, especially when it's fitted with DCC and sound.

Damn wevva! I was just getting into my stride putting No. 36 (that's the consist number, you understand) through its paces (CV3 = 100, CV4 = 255, etc.) when it started raining!

I'm thinking of naming my F7s Anni-Frid, Benny, Björn and Agnetha.

Surely then if they're made in the same factory they must be made to the same standard? It's not as if the workers at Sanda Kan are going to deliberately loosen chimneys on models bound for the UK so they fall off or Kader deliberately fit the wrong chimney just to annoy UK customers.

(kim)

In message , Chris Wilson writes

Have you looked at the cost of American stuff? Yes, there's cheap and cheerful things out there, but decent stuff is expensive.

Cheap and cheerful:

A and B units, powered, 1 for $39.50

Expensive but decent

A and B units, DC powered, no sound, 1 for $139.98, 2 for $269.98 F7 A and B units with DCC and sound, 1 for $189.98, 2 for $369.98

You might want to buy a complete passenger train Empire Builder:

"Jane Sullivan" wrote

You've got a four loco lash-up with two B-units in the middle then?

John.

"kim" wrote

That's a big assumption - there must, for instance, be some motor car plants where cheap and luxury end of the market vehicles are made under the same roof.

John.

In message , John Turner writes

Correct. And the B units face in opposite directions.

Why would that be? The factory delivers the quality level the customer wants and is willing to pay for.

It's not the workers' fault - it's a matter of the contract between Hornby and the factory. The factory produces models for Hornby under contract. If Hornby wants a lower price, then quality control will be, um, skimped. The amount of and quality of detail in the tooling may also vary, as will the amount of applied detail. I don't know whether Hornby shipped their tools to China, or whether they contracted for new tooling, too. If the latter, then it's up to Hornby to make sure the correct chimneys are made and applied. Etc.

I'm really quite surprised that people think that quality is a worker problem. It's a management problem, and always has been. If management wants the workers to build a better car, for example, management will ensure that the parts are better and fit better, and that the line is set up to deliver a better product. That means both that the workers are trained to meet the expected standard, and that quality control is applied at every step of the process. But both worker training and quality control are expensive. Beyond a certain level, it's cheaper to replace defective product than to pay the cost of higher skills and quality at the factory.

That being said, high price is not a good guide to quality. As the experience of buyers of "luxury cars" attests, a car costing $75,000 is nowhere near 3 times as durable etc as a car costing $25,000. The function of the higher price is not to guarantee quality, but to prevent the unwashed from buying the thing - exclusivity matters more important than quality for people with an exaggerated sense of their own importance.

But I'm drifting OT, again. Sorry. ;-)

I once worked in a factory that produced bolts / screws for the aircraft industry. They cost many times what the theoretically identical fastener made in the automotive branch of the same company did. This was due to the high level of quality control. Tony

You're not supposed to think - such actions cause most of the problems in the world! The other 49% are of course caused by people not thinking ;-)

Greg.P.

I read somewhere (Model Railroader I think) that Bachmann have seven factories, one of which is specifically dedicated to model train production. Of course some of their trains are toys and come from a seperate factory even though there are common parts/mechanisms/tracks etc.

Of course, I might be repeating rubbish.

Greg.P. NZ.