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For those of you that are up on Hornby loco's and decoders I could use some help. I have a R396 class J13 0-6-0, an R066 class 7P 4-6-2, and an R309 class A4 Mallard. They were made about 1980 and depending on what decoder list you look at you can get a different idea of what is needed. Also I have an R2659M made in 2007 I believe and has an 8 or 9 pin plug. I would prefer to go with NCE or TCS units. Any help would be appreciated as to just which decoder works on each.
thanks
Mike
Hornby
Thanks Jim, for the web site. My wife and I spent a few weeks in the UK this past July and we went to the RR museum while in York. And as a retired street and custom car builder one look at the Royal Highlander and the Mallard and that was all it took. It took some time but I found the Highlander in the burgundy which is #1480 out of 1500 made. They were only released to the English market. I'll give that web site a try.
For those of you that are up on Hornby loco's and decoders I could use some help. I have a R396 class J13 0-6-0, an R066 class 7P 4-6-2, and an R309 class A4 Mallard. They were made about 1980 and depending on what decoder list you look at you can get a different idea of what is needed. Also I have an R2659M made in 2007 I believe and has an 8 or 9 pin plug. I would prefer to go with NCE or TCS units. Any help would be appreciated as to just which decoder works on each.
thanks
Mike
Hi Mike.
You can use any decoder you like in the Hornby. It does not need to be Hornby.
Any dcc ready Hornby loco will have an eight pin socket.Just remove the blanking plug & fit the decoder. Make sure you fit it the correct way round.Pin one is the orange wire.The older loco's will not be Dcc ready & will need to be hard wired.
TCS are an excellent brand & have I believe a goof proof warranty. You smoke it,they replace it free of charge.If I was to make a list of decoders to fit to locos,Hornby would be last on the list. They don't have a good name.
You can get lots of information on decoders here & how to fit them to loco's that are not Dcc ready.
http://www.bromsgrovemodels.co.uk/dcc.htm?Submit=DCC & here
http://www.dccconcepts.com/
Mike, I've found that TCS or Lenz gold are the best for older Hornby models. The one with the plug is a no brainer, plug and play. The earlier ones as mentioned will need a soldering iron. Make sure you remove any and all suppression capacitors from the motors when installing a decoder. The other thing to be very careful about is that Hornby used a rubbish pancake motor called 'ringfield'. Over the years these evolved slightly but you need to know which version you have as it is critical to the way you install the decoder.
1: the earliest ringfields had a protruding stub from the metal chassis block which made a pressure contact with the silver brush clip. (left side of the motor when looking at the brush clips. To isolate the motor from the chassis you need to grind or cut this off. Drill and tap the chassis to create a connection for the decoder wire.
2: the next version had a very short wire on a clip that attached the brush clip to a 'v' shaped wedge on the side of the chassis block. Just snip the wire and splice the decoder in. (black to the block, gray to the clip)
3: the last version is a real pain. They screw the brush clip directly to the chassis block. You will see 2 screws at the top of the clips. The one on the right is short and only holds the clip to the plastic faceplate of the motor. The one on the left is longer and threads right into the chassis. The easiest way of isolating this will be to use a delrin or nylon screw in place of the metal one. Again you will need to tap and thread a screw into the chassis block in order to provide a place to attach the decoder wire to the chassis.
Good luck and if you need any more clarification or help let me know. (I used to be the Triang / Hornby service tech for Southern Alberta and have done literally hundreds of decoder installs in them)
Hornby
Andrew, it does sound like you have done a few. I have noticed that at one web site it shows two different factory installed boards that Hornby used but neither one matches the one I have on the Mallard. I am going to go with the TCS units on all of my Hornby units. It seems that Hornby doesn't like giving up any information. Even when you go to one of their web sites they tell you to use one of their decoder by number and when you go into their catalog it just says out of stock and then they list another number and it's out of stock also. To me though the real jewel was the Royal Highlander in the red color. The original they have at the York museum I know they had to use auto base-coat-clear-coat paint to get the finish they have on it. So I'm going to try and get the shine on the finish of my unit. I asked Hornby of north America about the paint used they just told me to leave it alone. Yes there weren't many made but I want it look like the real thing, it wasn't the cheapest loco I've bought by any means but it was my dollar. I feel I will be asking you more questions as time goes by.
thanks, Mike
Mike. The older Hornby was made in the UK with a sprayed enamel finish. Quite tough and hard to remove. Anything made later in China will be finished with a matte or satin paint that is more akin to ink than real paint. Its the same stuff as Proto uses. Same factory as well.
Hornby are right you should leave it alone. If its a UK made one and you spray on a gloss coat of acrylic you could end up with a gooey mess. If you are dead set on shining it up I'd suggest experimenting with a small amount of gloss coat brushed on a hidden bit of the loco. If its a Chinese made one a water based acrylic like Polyscale should be safe. Don't use an alcohol thinned acrylic like Tamya or Vallejo or it will rip the existing paint off.
Hornby
Thanks Andrew
That's what I was leaning towards was a water based poly. I was first going to try a rub on type of material that I use in lathe turning that is water based, it's very easy on what ever you put it on and it doesn't need to be rubbed out. The highlander is such a beautiful loco and then the finish Hornby used just doesn't seem fitting, it's as if the finish was an after thought. It already looks distressed. I do a lot of wood working and quit often use exotic woods, so when I get further down the road I want to make a cabinet that will be fitting for some of the better looking trains and it will be housed in there. Attached is a picture I took of it, they have a 36 Dodge sitting next to it for an art deco look.
Basically Hornby just renumbered one of their existing range of locos. In reality the semi-matte finish of the model is closer to the real thing prior to preservation.
I suppose it comes down to who they are marketing it to. Hornby used to get regularly slated in the model press for having products that were too bright and shiny and not realistic looking. Most people buying the set are probably going to run it, in which case it will fit in better with other models. What would have been a good idea is to have a 'museum piece' version done in a high gloss for the collectors.
Hornby
Hi Andrew
Your very right. From what I was told the Highlander and the Mallard was only added to the museum around May of this year and we went there in July. So all I know of these two are the finish that's on them now. If you blow up the picture that I put on my last posting you would see my image in the finish. So you know it's an auto paint job, but it looks great. Being one that has built up custom cars I don't know if the loco would have drawn my attention had it not been for it's current look. But for me, yes I will be running both loco's. I would rather injoy them rather than just look at them, save them for who and for what? I also got a picture of the dyno car that was behind the Mallard on her record run. It in it's self is a beautiful wood car. I'm still trying to understand something you said about them using an ink to color their cars rather than a paint of any kind. I've used ink sprays in working with missiles and explosives, but only for marking not as a paint.
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