Hornby Stephenson Rocket Mail set

[Buelligan]

I had this on pre-order for around 18 months I think. It finally came in towards the end of May, and was promptly sent to me. When it arrived I was most impressed, lovely little loco, great detail, and the carriages looks good to. Popped it on the rolling road and ran it either way for a while, very smooth running, and almost silent! It took me a while to get a DCC decoder for it, but finally got around to it last week. Took it to Marks trains in Peterborough to see if he had anything that would fit in the very small space available. He managed to fit in a gauge master decoder, but it was a tight fit, involved bending the pins, and this made it a loose fit. So while I waited, he hardwired the decoder in place for me, a much better fit, tested on his test track and ran really well.

I haven't had a chance to test it on my own track until today, first running it on it's own, very nice and smooth, good control. Then comes the task of coupling up the coaches with the silly moulded chains, very fiddly, get one coupled up and then another comes off, but eventually get it coupled up and off it goes, plodding around nicely. Just as I'm thinking maybe the trucks could do with a little weight adding as they seem a bit twitchy at times, when the loco starts to slow down, slip, and judder. I stopped it thinking maybe a truck has come off, and with the limited traction of only 1 set of driving wheels, the loco can't drag it round like any other loco would. Having checked the coaches, they're all ok, no debris on the track obstructing it, so I try it again, but again the wheels slip, and judder, and then, a horrible grinding noise. After no more than 15 circuits around my 10' x 6' shed, it seems to have stria gear and won't run. I know prices of everything are going up at the moment, but frankly I think £200+ for 10 minutes of use is taking the Mickey a bit....

I've sent an email to the shop I bought it from (TMC) but I'm not sure where I'll stand with it as it's had the DCC decoder hard wired in place.

With the disappointment with the design and finish of the W1, and the Rocket dying after such little use, I'm seriously considering cancelling my other pre-orders with Hornby.

[Mike Parkes]

Assuming its the same as the first release Rocket of last year there is a small screw on the underside of the loco body. The tightness of this is critical to the performance of the model as whilst it simply holds the body in place, the body has two internal protrutions which hold in place an otherwise loose spur gear. Body slightly loose equates to the lack of movement and grinding noise you have experienced. The first batch were also hampered by the wire connections to the tender snapping at the soldered connection; would be interested to know if they have made any changes - a clamp across the wires a bit like in a main plug would be a obvious immediate soliuion but really need a compelte redesign. It does mean that, if not changed, trying to do any maintenance yourself is likely to cause more issues - the loose, bar slipping into the drawba, arrangement of the tender (in contast to the solid arrnagemnt of Bachammns Wickman Trolley and trailer) and the sheer height differnces of the loco and tender make for something of a rubik cube. Looks nice but clearly no thought put into it being run for any length of time and being maintained.

[Buelligan]

It's the same box and insert, I should imagine the loco is the same. I turn it over in the hope it might be as simple as a screw had come loose or something like that, but it all seems secure. TMC have said to send it back and they'll sort it out, though they did say they'd have to try and fix it, as having had the decoder hardwired in, Hornby won't be interested in taking it back.

[Bigmet]

...TMC have said to send it back and they'll sort it out, though they did say they'd have to try and fix it, as having had the decoder hardwired in, Hornby won't be interested in taking it back.

Good that TMC are prepared to help, but I feel there's a cautionary tale in this.

...He managed to fit in a gauge master decoder, but it was a tight fit, involved bending the pins, and this made it a loose fit. So while I waited, he hardwired the decoder in place for me...

Was the hard wiring necessary? (Bear in mind I regularly hardwire decoders by choice.) But for 'small and fiddly' like the Rocket I know my own limitations, and thus my preference would be to find a decoder that fitted, without any modification that might lead to loss of warranty. I don't know what the best fitting decoder(s) might be, but a little google-fu should reveal it.

[Mike Parkes]

The 6 pin socket is in the tender water barrel but Hornbys inability to come up with a sensible design means the socket incredibly is sited such that their is only space for a 6 pin plug and not a normal 6 pin decoder. On mine they had in any case wired the socket up wrong with track feeds to 4 terminals so stripping it and hard wiring a decoder made more sense - now lost count of the number of Hornby locos I have where the socket and associated spiders nest of wiring have been removed for a far neater hard wired decoder.

[Bigmet]

Disappointing, when the more recent mainstream designs I have sampled have moved away from the tangled rat's nest - which I habitually removed for a hardwired job - to 'just plug in a decoder'.

[Mike Parkes]

You would have thought they would aim to equal/better the competition. The Bachmann Wickham Trolley shows you can have tiny OO motorised stock with custiomer friendly wiring arrnagement - okay not a simply DCC fit that one, and the Bachmann USA tank as an example of ultra neat internal wiring in comparsion to Hornbys stuff in it approach.

[Buelligan]

Was the hard wiring necessary? (Bear in mind I regularly hardwire decoders by choice.) But for 'small and fiddly' like the Rocket I know my own limitations, and thus my preference would be to find a decoder that fitted, without any modification that might lead to loss of warranty. I don't know what the best fitting decoder(s) might be, but a little google-fu should reveal it.

The person who fitted the decoder seemed to be of the opinion it was necessary. I still don't really know much about DCC and decoders, but seemed to think there was little hope of getting one of Hornby's own decoders to fit in there (he seemed to be able to tell from the drawing that that was what was recommended). Even to someone like me I could see an easy improvement they could have made to the design. The decoder socket was on the end of some rather inflexible wiring, loose inside the barrel. I'm fairly sure with a little effort they could have fixed it in place in the bottom of the barrel, with some type of circuit board taking it to the connections to the loco.

He used the smallest decoder he had in stock, and even when he just put the decoder in to make sure it was the right way around, the connections with the wiring weren't great and it would work on the test track, then not work again, due to a dodgy connection to the decoder socket. He sorted that out and managed to get the decoder in the barrel but slightly bending the pins, but this meant it didn't go all the way in, so had a bad connection. Which was when he said it'd be better and more reliable if he removed the socket and plug, and soldered directly to the decoder. He also seemed rather scathing of the quality of wire used by Hornby, it's certainly not as flexible as the stuff he used.

I've not had a chance to send the loco back yet, I'll be packing it up and returning it Monday, so would hope to hear in the next week or 2. I have come to the decision to cancel my other Hornby preorders now, which total around £1100. I'll wait until a model has been released and others have found the issues before I invest in it, which is a shame as I was really looking forward to the rake of LNER articulated coaches, but the last few items from Hornby have left me disappointed.

[SRman]

While this won't help with Buelligan's problems, it may assist anyone else who purchases one of these sets. I fitted a normal 6-pin decoder into my Stephenson's Rocket by the simple expedient of bending the pins around 180 degrees, so they pointed back over the decoder. I carefully bent them back over a flat needle file to get all of the pins bent evenly. The photos show the result, and how easily it all then fits into the barrel.

[Bigmet]

... I fitted a normal 6-pin decoder...

Please identify that decoder by brand and model number, that's useful information for anyone with a Rocket. (Purely seflish motivation, I am liable to be approached by acquaintance with 'requests'; thus far a Rocket hasn't come my way.)

Very tidy job, which is just what's required.

[SRman]

... I fitted a normal 6-pin decoder...

Please identify that decoder by brand and model number, that's useful information for anyone with a Rocket. (Purely seflish motivation, I am liable to be approached by acquaintance with 'requests'; thus far a Rocket hasn't come my way.)

Very tidy job, which is just what's required.

It is a Bachmann 36-568, which is really a Zimo product. Just about any 6-pin decoder with straight pins would do the job, as all the ones I have encountered seem to use fairly soft metal for the pins, and most seem to have the pins rather longer than is truly necessary.

I should add that one should test the installation first, noting which way round the decoder goes before bending the pins to suit.

[Bigmet]

Thanks, that one's 'banked'.

[SRman]

There was also sufficient space in the barrel for me to pop the original blanking plug in there for storage, so it doesn't get lost.

[Buelligan]

I don't know if the gauge master decoders have shorter pins, as bending them as in the post above is exactly what was tried, but it left the pins hardly going in to the socket and was loose, would work sometimes, pick it up and put it back on the track and it wouldn't work again. TMC have confirmed receipt of the loco now, so will hopefully be repairing it, but whether I keep it or sell it on is another question. After it breaking so quickly, not sure I want to keep it and use it, in case it breaks ridiculously quickly again.