Hornby R3983SS P2 ‘Prince Of Wales’ With Steam Generator .
This is my first experience using the Hornby HM7000 DCC system on my layout.
I have three complaints, first, the steam generator in my locomotive appears to be very weak at generating steam (especially in comparison to the steam generated by other locomotives posted here on KZfaq) you can just make out on this video that the locomotive is in fact generating steam but only if you observe extremely closely.
Second, within the included accessories bag are the etched nameplates ‘Thane Of Fife’ so someone at Hornby or over in China wasn’t paying attention, Hornby have been contacted about this and I’ve been informed that replacement nameplates will be sent out to me in the post.
Third, this locomotive exhibited an annoying screeching noise after about an hour of running, this eventuality turned out to be coming from the front pony wheels and has now been rectified by the application of some Silicon lubrication on the axle.
As for running and reliability etc, the Jury is still out since this model has only been running for three hours or so.
As for the HM7000 Triplex Sound Decoder, and the installed app on my phone, at this time I am extremely impressed.
Upon setting up this locomotive and system I was concerned about how easy or hard it might be changing from app to conventional DCC control and vice versa, however this turned out to be very easy and changing between systems can easily be done by one tap of a button within the HM7000 app.
Furthermore if anyone reads the comments thread here, I’ve been informed by another KZfaqr that it seems that F24 has the function of turning OFF the steam generator (just in case anyone is interested in this?)