Hornby 8F

[Too Tall]

I know the model is originally pretty old, and has modern (overpriced IMO) reiterations, but as its the only 8F available now, and I can not see anyone mentioning a new tooling from other makes, would an early dcc ready version be worth £130 if its in mint condition, or not worth bothering with unless much cheaper ?

[Steve M]

I have the earlier version with TXS and a Powerbank - superb runner.

[Too Tall]

Hi Steve M, Presumably the powerbank is more to overcome the finickity of the HM7K (and maybe TXS as I have never tried those) decoders ?
I think that some of the early ones have no tender pickups, (later ones do if I have not mixed up all my researching with other things) ! ?

As a slight aside, are TXS chips decent as I was looking at another model S?H with a TXS fitted, but have read there were some issues with some controllers that will require the TXC chip to be sent back to Hornby for a firmware update ?

[Steve M]

Having been involved with Hornby HM7K and TXS decoders from just before their launch last year, I have found them to be totally reliable and have not had to return any of the 35+ decoders to Hornby.

From your comments either the things you have read are wrong or you may have misunderstood. All updates and reprogramming of decoders is done over the air at home using a combination of WiFi and Bluetooth. Plenty of guides and information over at Hornby.

The control issues you allude to probably refer to users not using a compatible power supply as directed by Hornby when powered by DC (a full list appears on the Hornby forum). When used with any DCC controller they behave like standard decoders - that's basically what they are with Bluetooth capability added.

Like all DCC decoders they can be susceptible to lower loss requiring the decoder to go through its restart process. Consequently I fit a Powerbank as a matter of course. They are cheap and small and totally transform the performance of any loco.

My 8F was a bit hesitant when fitted with a standard decoders but with the upgrade mentioned it is a stunner.

[Too Tall]

Ok .. yes I may have crossed wires, I thought a TXS decoder was an earlier (non BT) item to the HM7k ones, but realise some may be referring to the HM7K as TXS.

I have used several HM7K on the TT, and id find although my pacific loco's worked fine in analogue everywhere, they did tend to be a lot more finiclkity on DCC, I fitted a very small saty alive to one loco as a test ... so small it gives no discernible run time, but that loco is now always faultless, the unfitted A4 still has a bit of stopping from time to time, so the rest will be upgraded when I go back to that layout in the winter !

Having more room (hopefully) in the OO locos, I will probably fit the powerbanks as standard anyway.

[Steve M]

The older Hornby sound decoders were referred to as TTS (Twin Track Sound id two sounds playing at once) The HM7K system uses decoders designated as TXS (Three X sounds at once).
TTS also respond well to stay alives as they were prone to stalling at start off although they require some fairly delicate soldering rather than having plugs.

[Too Tall]

Ah .. yes it was me with wires crossed then