Model Railway Forum

Hope I am in the right place!
About a year ago I wanted to get back into model railways and bought, from Hornby, a OO starter kit. It had some track two Locos (a Diesel and a tank engine) along with some rolling stock. I am now troubled with the performance of both the Locos and I am asking is it the quality of them? I now realise, having joined the forum, that maybe I have sub standard Locos and should look to buying another goods Loco, I have a DMU and a 4-6-2 engine and tender that run well on my layout.

I would welcome any thoughts and suggestions.

John

Hello John
Have you looked at the wheels to see if they need a clean and that the pick ups are in good order?
As your DMU and 4-6-2 run well the track seems clean enough but any grime will affect the performance.

Puddles

Many people clean the track scrupulously but forget about wheels.

Oxidization is the bane of model rail. Hopefully a little treatment with the cleaner of your choice will set things right.

When I purchase something from the UK, there is a lot of time and expense involved. Simply dropping it off in the post is
but rarely feasible. I rely on Sam's Trains Review before I buy anything British. He has saved me much trouble and money.

not only the wheels or track that may be an issue. search youtube for the types of locos you have, the motors may just need a good service.

I think I know of the set. Is it a Hornby DCC starter set with a class 08 and a Jinty? If it is this set, others have also had issues with the locos in this set. Take a look online to see if anyone has remmedied the issues. Maybe someone has advice here.

Hornby models are usually pretty good. This set though was made to a budget so they may have scraped a few too many corners in their loco chassis design.

(The locos were based on earlier models made by Hornby a few decades ago, except though the older versions were crude by todays standards, they did run ok and were reliable. This set has the same bodies but uses newer budget chassis which some have found to have issues with their running).

Thank you for all your advice.

Mountain Goat. That is the set you mentioned and neither of the locos run well. Look's like I may have to raid the piggy bank!!

John

I assume that you have the set and are using DCC?

I actually have DCC and a few DC 00 gauge locos for sale as I am slowly selling my collection as I have hardly looked at them sice I moved to model in 0-16.5. Only problem is that nearly all of mine are in B.R. blue as I liked the early 1980's.

I can put them up for sale on this site as well. I currently have them on another site just to avoid confusion as in the past I have had more then one person after the same loco on more then one site at the same time...