DJM J94 on sale

[Pennine MC]

I bought 3. I was interested to see who else had bought one

Interested (genuinely) in the psychology of this. Are folk buying multiples because several variants are available, or what?

[dubdee1000]

I bought 3. I was interested to see who else had bought one

Interested (genuinely) in the psychology of this. Are folk buying multiples because several variants are available, or what?

They were liveries that meant something to me. I live in South Wales, but i'm from Wigan, so i bought Mech Navvies, No8 and Hurricane.

[Pennine MC]

So, other than Alex, who has bought one?

Judging by postings on rmweb quite a lot of people have. ...

I dunno, as I've just said to Miles, I see a relatively small number of people, some of whom are buying (or ordering) multiples.

[Jim S-W]

I'd agree Ian

I'd have expected a much larger take up on rmweb. I'd say the reaction has been luke warm at best.

[dubdee1000]

FWIW if I get some time, i'll put a review of mine on here at some point, however the albionyard review is close to the mark - if you want an alternative to the Hornby model, its fine. If you want a vastly superior model, you'll be disappointed. The weathering does set new standards, particularly No8. Hopefully gone are the days of something getting a waft with an airbrush and calling it done. It can be better, but I think reaching the practical limits of a sub £100 RTR model

[Jim S-W]

An awful lot of gear noise there. Hardly suprising given the thing's gear driven throughout. More gears=more noise. I wonder why that was done rather than the more usual drive that works for everbody else. Is there a benefit? Hopefully it'll get quieter with running

It doesn't though does it? I mean this loco is just a single class 50 bogie in reality and hornby's 50s have always been virtually silent straight from the box.

Cheers

Jim

[Pennine MC]

FWIW if I get some time, i'll put a review of mine on here at some point, however the albionyard review is close to the mark - if you want an alternative to the Hornby model, its fine. If you want a vastly superior model, you'll be disappointed. ..

FWIW, both your own impression and that of Mr Yard confirm exactly what many folk have expected during this model's gestation. That being that it's good but not great, and whatever your aspirations in the hobby - from box opener to finer gauge fixer and fettler - it doesn't render redundant other methods of sourcing a J94.

But that only echoes that initial question - why a J94? Is it really going to wash its face on investment in a market already well supplied with secondhand examples, and given that Hornby could so easily knock out another batch at pretty much any price (i.e. cheap, if they so choose) they want to?

[Bufferstop]

Coupled wheels also connected by gears are going to be inherently noisier than either solely rod or gear connected designs, unless some form of flexible coupling is introduced between wheel and conrod. Sounds like a self inflicted problem to me.

[dubdee1000]

There is quite a lot of noise compared to my Heljan 14 which is nearly silent. That said, fitting a decoder was quite a bit easier than that 14. It took all of about 30 seconds. It would be nice if other manufacturers gave more thought to this. There is a waggle when put on a rolling road and on light engine. Loaded with wagons and this goes. The nem pocket is easy to unscrew and remove if you think it looks wrong. "Curate's egg" was a phrase that MR used a few years ago.

I'd guess that these are going to find their way to shunting planks and the like and the few colliery layouts. As to why a J94, well, why not? I'd have thought that commissions are where this model is going to start to pay for its tooling more so than something like his 71/74 There are clearly going to buy these models as they fit with the era that's modelled, but even Mr York seems to have given in to his soft side and bought one out of sentimentality.

[Bigmet]

The last such 'rod and gear coupled' mech I had to look over was the Lima 08. A very poor drive train execution in many ways, but taking out the intermediate gears and relying on the very sloppy rods alone for driven wheel coupling made an easily perceived improvement to running smoothness. (No noise reduction as the motor to driven wheelback gear train was as rattly as all hell.)

I suspect that this self inflicted limitation is there to overcome the big problem with the fairly weak split axle construction. Rod coupling means that any imperfections in axle and crank pin parallelism, rod lengths and quartering, inevitably act to apply varying torque loads across each rod coupled split axle assembly, which lies behind the tendency to short life seen in earlier examples of the type. Central drive by axle gears should provide steady torque, provided both rods are sloppy enough to 'just go along for the ride'. (Because should the rods bind, the thing will pull itself apart even faster than rod coupled alone, for any given constructional strength of the split axle assembly.)

I am sitting out on this one, to wait for the evidence from enthusiastic operators to come in.

[Mike Parkes]

I'd agree Ian

I'd have expected a much larger take up on rmweb. I'd say the reaction has been luke warm at best.

Seem to be four threads on there (at least) with a fair number of postings, DJM, Hattons versions, the rmweb version and the Hayward Trains DFR version.

Have checked ebays history on sales - 2 of the DJM standard £95.50 range versions BR early crest 68023 have sold for £64.09 and £67.81, 2 of the Hayward Trains £100 DFR Wilbert Rev W Audrey OBE have sold for £87 and £78 (all with £3.95 p&p) by the same seller who may be licking their financial wounds

[Pennine MC]

As to why a J94, well, why not? I'd have thought that commissions are where this model is going to start to pay for its tooling...

That's a good point tbf, and possibly explains why Hattons were suddenly all over it

[dubdee1000]

Maybe I spoke too soon about commissions. It doesn't look like the RMWeb one has sold at all well

EDIT : Now being sold through Kernow

[Mike Parkes]

Maybe I spoke too soon about commissions. It doesn't look like the RMWeb one has sold at all well

EDIT : Now being sold through Kernow

Taken from posting on rmweb; 200 made with 180 having allocated purchasers but only 45, or thereabouts, actually sold. However seem to be a number of people who never got an invoice so expect Kernow will be getting a number of orders for them quite quickly.

[dubdee1000]

boot.

I wrecked my J94 Mech Navvies the other night. I grew tired of its whirr. Its never settled down and has always been noisy, so I gave it a good shot of lube in the places the DJ recommends in his 71 advice.

Which wrecked it.

The lube greatly reduced the electrical pickup up. I took it apart to clean it back up and remove some of the lube, but it didn't go back together anywhere nearly as well as it came apart and whilst it now picksup, running is poor. It ain't great.

while it was apart, I ran the motor on its own. That confirms what has been said here that the noise in this loco comes from its gears. I guess the 71 is the same because that's equally as noisy.

In contrast, the 08 Hornby that I had running at the same time was silent.

I feel a bit disappointed by this. I was really behind DJM. 3 J94's and a 71 later and I'm prepared to eat humble pie. My enthusiasm was misplaced.