Hornby Railroad quality?

[Oranoco]

What are folks opinions?

I got myself a Railroad Mallard to add to the fleet and as soon as it left the box the quality felt rather muted compared to my older locomotives. Went to run it up and it went forward 6" and stopped. Gave it a nudge and nothing. Went to back it up and off it went but making a clicking sound. Model shop has been great and immediately offered a replacement but thinking I may spend a few more pounds and get something better.

[mjb1961]

Well you know what they say ,,,,you get what you pay for ,,,I've got a few railroad locos and find them pleasing to the eye and the only difference between a railroad mallard and a £20 / £40 higher price tag mallard is the detail in the body ,the running gear is all the same ,you may get extra pick ups in the tender ,that's about it ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,mjb

[b308]

Should still work, though, cheapness or not doesn't apply to the basics! Get the model shop to test the replacement before you leave.

[Bigmet]

There's many forms of 'quality'. The loco mechanism in your Railroad A4 is of the same build quality as the main range model. The quality of the tooling in respect of accuracy is much below that of the main range model. Reduced detail fit, and use of many coarser components from the previous generation of tooling, reduces the perceived quality of the detail.

As already posted you get what you pay for, Hornby are emphatically not a charity and a lower price means many good things on the Hornby model are lost to provide an item at Railroad price. Got to be honest here and say that the Hornby A4 is a class job for appearance, leaves behind all other 4mm RTR models of the class. The distance between it and the Railroad A4 is more than worth the price difference, you'd spend much more replacing parts and detailing the body and completely replacing the tender to get the Railroad to the standard of appearance of the main range model. But the Railroad should still run reliably...

... it went forward 6" and stopped. Gave it a nudge and nothing. Went to back it up and off it went but making a clicking sound...

In my opinion, most likely cause on this evidence a connecting rod caught on the leading wheelset crankpin. That can happen on any outside cylinder loco with the connecting rod not on the leading crankpin, seen it happen on very expensive HO models!

It is essential in my book to check any new model with outside cylinders before running for the first time, sighting from the underside to ensure that in all positions of the wheels and rods nothing is going to foul. One small mishandling by the person packing the loco in the box in the factory is enough to make a rod foul, no reflection on the quality of the model at all.

[Oranoco]

Cheers for the input. I spent an extra few pounds and got myself a Duke of Gloucester. The more I looked at the Mallard with its fixed trailing wheel and detail, which was emphasised when my Hornby Flying Scotsman pulled up alongside.

Think I'll keep an eye out for a good used Mallard

[mkrob]

I purchased a Railroad Mallard with dcc off Amazon last February for £48.74 (including p&p). It runs as sweet as a nut.OK it not as detailed as Hornby's main range but have a look at the venerable David Howarth video on YouTube & see what he says!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itqtft61Ziw

[Richard Lee]

I bought a Hornby Railroad Jinty recently, because I wanted the chassis for an E2. The chassis had nicer wheels and ran much better than the E2's original chassis, but it isn't quite as nice a runner as the Terriers for instance, let alone the M7s.

I quite liked the Jinty body. There is no doubt that it is old tooling and not up to modern standards. On the other hand, it has a pretty S&DJR paint job, and is quite engaging. I did eventually get the E2's original (Margate) chassis to work, so I put the Jinty body on it for use with a potential Christmas layout.

[GWR_fan]

The Railroad Mallard uses exactly the same body and the same drive (including the five pole motor) as the premium model. The Railroad Mallard uses coarser chunkier rods, which incidentally cost more as a spare part than the finer detailed rods on the premium model. The fact that your loco failed is not because of the poorer quality of Railroad items but poor quality control.

Now if it was a DCC fitted model and you were running on DC (analogue) power then poor running on DC is a 'feature' of Hornby's R8249 decoder. I purchased eight of the DCC fitted Mallard when they were on special to repower my older tender drive locomotives and every one of them was a gem.

Some Railroad items, like their 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 drives are basic and not considered to be quality items. However, you get what you pay for. Incidentally, the Duke of Gloucester has the fixed Cartazzi truck, like Mallard and I believe all other 4-6-2 locomotives that Hornby produces. The DoG was the first of the design clever releases from Hornby and while a nice locomotive is really just a Railroad item with a fancy price tag.

[alex3410]

it depends on what your looking at - its a case of doing your research beforehand or looking at it in person

for me i look at what i want and dont pay to much attention to if its railroad or not - generally happy with all of the RR items i have got so far

only exception is the 0-6-0 locos - not a big fan of the chassis but might just be the two i had where duffs or i am spoilt with the bachmann ones i have had

[Phipps]

Seen a RR Mallard in garter blue & the decor (numbers/lettering) isn't as nice as that of Falcon.
First alteration I would make would be adding some LNER Fox transfers.

[Oranoco]

I have to be brutal, the more I look the less impressed I am with Hornby loco's full stop. The quality and finish of models going back 10 years seems far superior, the current crop just have the feel of mass produced to a budget. Looking at a good used Mallard on ebay.

[Petepot]

Hi,
I bought the Railroad A4 Mallard DCC Ready, it ran for a short while then stopped, just like Oranoco's..
The dealer opened it up, and found that the motor worm drive was no longer meshing with the drive cog wheel, because the motor had sprung out from its retaining mount. The dealer thought the design for holding the motor was not great, but he re-fitted it and it's been good for about 2 years now. I have heard of some other A4's having this issue...

P.

[Bigmet]

The front of the motor is clamped by a mechanically inept design on all the early Sanda Kan designed product: both all new introductions and those that just got a new loco drive mechanism (mostly LMS locos) introduced 2000 - 2006, Hornby and 'Railroad' all alike. MN's WC's, Q1, M7, N15, Duchess, 8F, A3, A4, among others. Basic rule is 'if working leave well alone, do not undo the screw to 'take a look', or otherwise fiddle with it' as it is very easy to strip the thread in the main block.

This got fixed from the introduction of the Britannia in late 2006 with a much better motor retaining design, newly introduced product since all has better arrangements. The old design though is still present in new productions of the earlier designs, these have not been revised.

[DonnyRailMan]

I have two of the Hornby locomotive R2784x, Railroad series Mallard A4 BR green late crest DCC fitted
and never had any issue with them. Quality I found very good to say they are RailRoad range.

[Bufferstop]

I have to be brutal, the more I look the less impressed I am with Hornby loco's full stop. The quality and finish of models going back 10 years seems far superior, the current crop just have the feel of mass produced to a budget. Looking at a good used Mallard on ebay.

The present Hornby range is still suffering from the short sighted "Design Clever" initiative, it is likely to take some years to disappear. Read "Simon Says" for his take on the wisdom of it.