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Hornby APT (2020 tooling)


PaulRhB
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Frankly, why the company has not issued a recall on these is beyond me. Through this forum alone I've noted at least 3 incidents now. One of those with a bit more punch in a paper mache tunnel or near other modelling materials and it could easily escalate... ...a smaller number of incidents have provoked recalls from others outside this industry and I don't understand why Hornby don't see this as a priority.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 30/06/2024 at 10:03, letterspider said:

Good luck, let the community know what happened

Quick update, Hornby have had the power car back and repaired it for free. I received it back today and its had a new body and capacitor according to the paperwork, seems to run well. So decent customer service from Hornby on this ocassion.

 

 

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Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Peter749 said:

A question on the Oversized Capacitors(?) in the trailer cars - do they need them to make the lights work.

 

I might just remove them from my coaches.

 

Peter

 

I don't believe so from what I can recall. I would suggest replacing them as they will flicker due to the pickup arrangement due to the articulation meaning that the number of pickups are located on one bogie rather than both.

Edited by E100
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On 02/08/2024 at 13:51, E100 said:

 

I don't believe so from what I can recall. I would suggest replacing them as they will flicker due to the pickup arrangement due to the articulation meaning that the number of pickups are located on one bogie rather than both.

Thanks - I will look at finding a replacement capacitor

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It's all quite frustrating for those of us that put faith in Hornby at the beginning and paid a full price for a bodged job on the first run. I'm wandering if it's worth a second purchase, just to get a decent runner, instead of the toil of getting the first run version to work properly?

Neil.

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13 hours ago, zoomer1979 said:

It's all quite frustrating for those of us that put faith in Hornby at the beginning and paid a full price for a bodged job on the first run. I'm wandering if it's worth a second purchase, just to get a decent runner, instead of the toil of getting the first run version to work properly?

Neil.

The parts to get are reduced price centre trailers and a spare power car or two. As the real thing never ran in the correct sets anyway there's no need to worry too much about vehicle numbers. 
I very much suspect that we won't see any more APT models for a long time (if ever) the market having well and truly been saturated, so although the current bargain bin prices may be painful, in a few years time I reckon people might regret not snapping items up whilst they are cheap(er). 

Edited by andyman7
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1 hour ago, zoomer1979 said:

It's all quite frustrating for those of us that put faith in Hornby at the beginning and paid a full price for a bodged job on the first run. I'm wandering if it's worth a second purchase, just to get a decent runner, instead of the toil of getting the first run version to work properly?

Neil.

 

It felt a bit bodged. A huge capacitor in full view in the passenger compartment which seems to have no purpose: The lights flicker all the time. I don't know how this passed any of the design stages.

A flimsy pantograph which cannot even be raised. (My BW ones won't raise past the point where they will stay up, then they spring back down again. They feel like they will break if I put any more force on them).

It was a nice model in many other aspects but these seem like very stupid errors.

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I've decided to stick with the first version. I've sorted the capacitors, sourced the new motor parts and decided it needs so much work doing even with the second version I may as well stick with it.

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9 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

 

It felt a bit bodged. A huge capacitor in full view in the passenger compartment which seems to have no purpose: The lights flicker all the time. I don't know how this passed any of the design stages.

 

I think somewhere in this thread somebody states Hornby had unofficially confirmed that the capacitor was a last minute substitution due to covid induced component shortages. Makes sense given the timescale, but this is one of several Hornby products that appear to have been rushed out (relatively speaking...) to meet a deadline - presumably the 75th anniversary or whatever it was.

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29 minutes ago, spamcan61 said:

I think somewhere in this thread somebody states Hornby had unofficially confirmed that the capacitor was a last minute substitution due to covid induced component shortages. Makes sense given the timescale, but this is one of several Hornby products that appear to have been rushed out (relatively speaking...) to meet a deadline - presumably the 75th anniversary or whatever it was.

 

Yeah in one of the videos they did the designer said as much - it was linked to up thread. It was kind of a throw away comment but was along the lines of it shouldn't have happened. It's clearly not Hornby's formal opinion as otherwise they would have replaced them...

 

I am though a lot more concerned about the couple of instances of overheating motor capacitors malfunctioning causing a potential fire risk and the lack of action by Hornby to address this i.e. a recall in a similar manor to Rapido's LNER Dynamometer Car for the faulty light bar. The reputational damage caused if one of these lead to a full on house fire let alone safety of customers doesn't bare thinking about. Either way please remove them before running the first batch at the very least!

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10 minutes ago, E100 said:

 

I am though a lot more concerned about the couple of instances of overheating motor capacitors malfunctioning causing a potential fire risk and the lack of action by Hornby to address this i.e. a recall in a similar manor to Rapido's LNER Dynamometer Car for the faulty light bar. The reputational damage caused if one of these lead to a full on house fire let alone safety of customers doesn't bare thinking about. Either way please remove them before running the first batch at the very least!

Agree 100%, heads would be rolling in my day job if enough heat was being generated to melt plastic in a product that had been released into the field.

Edited by spamcan61
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10 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

A flimsy pantograph which cannot even be raised. (My BW ones won't raise past the point where they will stay up, then they spring back down again. They feel like they will break if I put any more force on them).

 

I can do you one of these Pete 😉

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/296701354089

 

Faiveley esque I know ....

Edited by RedgateModels
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11 hours ago, Pete the Elaner said:

A flimsy pantograph which cannot even be raised.

Hornby are not the only "manufacture" with this sort of deficiency - the pantographs on current issue Piko are flimsy, they do go & stay up but soon fall aprt if actually raised & run under OHLE.

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2 hours ago, andyman7 said:

Can anyone remind me of what value of capacitor should be obtained to replace the earlier defective motor capacitors? It's still on my to do list as the set is being used at the moment.

Thanks

 

It's up thread on page 141

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I know it is a bit of an academic question but it really is unusual for capacitors to overheat. Has anyone checked to see if they are the right voltage rating and connected the right way round. A bit worrying really. I bought one in the TMC sale and have not got round to running it for a long time, so I suppose I had better start changing the capacitors before I do any long tern running.

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12 minutes ago, letterspider said:

I think the capacitors in question are on the motor. I disconnected mine...

Oh I thought they were on the lighting. The class 66 did have a batch of capacitors that went short circuit but they were made at least 8 years ago, although I did read of a guy on the Hornby site having the same issue with a class 66. Normally it is tantalums that are the ones that catch fire, why I never worked out. I used to fit them on all my circuit boards as they have a higher resistance than electrolytics but they are expensive so I doubt they would be used in a model railway environment.

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