Hornby About A Boy

[Kerby Kolpack]

Im fed up of the Hornby elite, I purchased it in April 2017 when I was building my first DCC layout and it's just such a pain. Number 1: A keep buying bargain packs of 20 NMRA complaint DCC controller's for 50 pounds. I fitted them and realised The Hornby elite doesn't Work with these decoders I then purchased a single 200 overpriced decoder and put it in a Loco and it worked perfectly with the Hornby elite. Pain number 2: Only poor quality sound files work easily with the Hornby elite Most of the good sound files have struggled working on Hornby elite. Pain number 3: my kids get bored because They can't do much without the Short circuit cut Activateing for stupid reasons. My kids can't re-create thomas the tank engine Shows because of this. And Alot of the time the Aren't even Any derailments or Short circuits Pain number 3: Alot of DCC equipment I Need for my layout doesn't work with Hornby elite and Hornby don't make Everything I need. Number 4: it takes months To get reply from Hornby about problems with my system and all replys are useless or Asking me what is the problem with the Unit Even though I clearly said what the issue was. I've had enough with the Hornby elite. I'm gonna send it back and buy a 6 pound raspberry pie and upload JMRI on it instead because it's a whole lot easier, if your looking for a DCC controller To buy, AVOID the Hornby elite!!!!! ?

All I can say, is that my Elite works with every bit of non Hornby kit I have thrown at it. I do not recognise the issues you have described. In fact, I only have the Hornby Elite (with RM) two Hornby locos and a few Hornby coaches. Everything else I have, was sourced (including track) from other brands.

I also have the Elite and I have been using it since 2012, firstly on it's own and then for the last few years, with RailMaster. I can't actually recall getting a short circuit. My track and points are all Hornby. I am very interested in the Raspberry Pi.

@Epicrail.....you are obviously doing a lot wrong..........hundreds of layouts use the Elite with none of the troubles you have indicated.......Nowt wrong with my 6 year old Elite which works perfectly with 10 different makes of decoders (inc sound) and 6 makes of loco........ ?..........HB

All I can say is....I am a convert! He made me set up a couple of ovals with points and so on and also made me set up the controller. Worked fine. Used a mix of Hatton's and Hornby decoders with no issues.

You tend to find that Hornby CC only ask you for more information when you haven't supplied enough in the first place. It's a bit like walking into the Doctors and saying "I have a pain", and expecting a cure there and then. You only get out what you put in, and if you're not willing to work with them to solve problems, then why contact them?

I love my Elite, but I do fnd some decoders have to be written to by writing individual CV values in Paged mode, and many can't be read back. This is a pain when using RailMaster as you cant write a number of CVs in one go, but these are the fun quirks of the hobby.

When watching YouTube. You always know when the presenter is using an Elite. There is this loud 'clunk' when they press a button.......yes very toy like.......but all Hornby kit is toy like.......expensive ones, but a toy manufacturing mentality all the same.

Maybe. But honestly, I dont really care. It's a controlller. It does what I need it to do, has two independent control knobs, easy to use, easy to change direction, functions are easy to control, and I don't need to hold it in my hand. I also don't like the horrible look and feel of the hand controllers either, makes me think of walkie talkies. In fact, there is a gap for a good ergonomic design. ;)

It would be very easy to put a flashy metal box round the existing Elite or Select works, but that would not make it any better or worse a controller. Compare the existing Select with the new cased version in the 2019 catalogue.

Piers Morgan: It was a White House official petition site, and if you got past 25,000 signatures then he has to respond. And the verdict that he gave was that I was allowed to talk about the second amendment which is the one about the right to bear arms because of my first-amendment rights to free speech.

Nick Hornby is the author of several hugely popular novels, including High Fidelity and About a Boy, as well as books about literature and popular music. His new book is Dickens and Prince: A Particular Kind of Genius. Recently Observer executive editor James Ledbetter interviewed Hornby; this transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Both of these artists were incredibly prolific to an almost comical extent. You could be prolific without being a genius. You could be prolific without having a legacy, but how do you think that aspect of being prolific affects their reception and their reputation?

Extraordinary sized audience. There were scores of thousands of people reading those things every month. You get the sense that basically anyone who was literate read Dickens. He had this incredibly popular touch. People seemed to completely understand where he was coming from and identify with him as a writer.

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We'd really appreciate it.

The engine is just a shell. She looks rather good, a few paint chips here and there, but a very nice looking engine. The side says that it is #60199, and there is a decal in the cab that says that it is a type 50.

This was indeed a clockwork model. The black locomotive was in the colours of British Railways, the nationalised system which dated from 1948. The models were introduced about 1955, before then models were made lettered for the previous private railways.

The 50 series were the top of the Hornby line being to scale height and width although obviously much shorter in length than a scale model. The mechanism was a clockwork 0-4-0 with drive to the rear axle and coupling rods to the leading axle. There was a connecting rod attached to the rear axle which was connected to a piston rod that ran in the holes in the cylinders. The rods were plated steel. The wheels were die cast with open spokes, painted black. The mechanism was reversing, with reverse and stop control rods with turned brass handles projecting back out of the cab.

The 50 series had a number of interesting features. There were two types of locomotive (on the same chassis), a tank locomotive and the tender locomotive seen here. The tank locomotive was the same lined black colour as the locomotive here, but a dark ("Brunswick") green version of the tender locomotive was sold as a passenger locomotive. The black, lined grey and red colour scheme was the British Railways "mixed traffic" scheme for locomotives used for both passenger and freight (in the UK "goods") trains.

The small projecting "hooks" on the front of the locomotive, three on the frame and one on the boiler front were to fit small (non working) oil lamps that represented the BR means of train identification. Two lamps on the frame, one each side indicated an express passenger train, one on the boiler top only indicated a stopping passenger train. All four positions filled was the indication of a Royal train. The lamps were die cast, painted matt black with silver lenses and were very small (and would not be allowed for children these days. Silver lamps with red lenses were used on the brake van on the rear of the train.

The open wagon and guards (or brake) van were pretty much scale models (given that they were just flat lithographed bodies. The open wagon was painted light grey, the colour indicating that it was not fitted with continuous brakes. The only brake was applied by the lever on the side of the frame, applied by hand in the yard to hold the wagon in place.

The brake van was painted brown (the colour was called "Bauxite" the mineral used to make aluminium) which indicated that it was equipped with vacuum brakes, as well of couse as hand brakes applied from an internal wheel.

The number on the left side of car (as viewed) is the car number, the "M" on the van standing for "Midland" meaning the "London Midland Region", that part of the London Midland and Scottish Railway in England (rather than Scotland). The number on the right side of the car is the tare weight in Imperial tons (and hundredweight =112 pounds), so 20:00 is twenty tons, no hundredweight.

The other foreign train that I have right now is an HO scale freight set that I bought during my last deployment when we pulled into Brest, France. (Oh, boy, the jokes and snickering was quite a lot.)

I am going to attempt to get a replacement clockwork motor for it, but the way it looks, it will cost a lot to get a working / workable motor, so I think I will retrofit a motor pack from a newer loco to make it run.

Go to the web page "Clockwork In The Garden", Also look up Dale Wesfields page. Meccanno which I think was sold (to Nikki?) still carried clockworks. If your main spring rachets but wont wind. It can be easily reterminated on the clockwork body itself. I did it and it was easy. If you go to Youtube you can see a clockwork Hornby train zooming around. I have two Hafners and these clockworks really grow on you. I cant paste links...sorry. My grandkids love them..they are pretty indestructable and easily repaired.If this doesnt work let me know or e mail me off line. .I branched out into clockwork tin toys which are fascinating to me. I can e mail links...in response. Good Luck.

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