Hornby Live Steam

[aramand]

I picked up a Hornby Live Steam set today, had been looking at them for a while and so when one came up close by I decided to go buy it. Havent run it yet and wont get the chance till much later this evening but wondering if anyone else on here is running a live steam loco ?

 

For the time being it going to have to run on a rolling road but when the eventual layout gets done I'm hoping to have one completely separate track for it and keep the other tracks for DCC.

 

I've read a lot of stuff on the web and seen youtube videos on how to run these but any advice is always welcome.

 

Thanks,

Declan.

[WRENNEIRE]

Have a live steam yoke myself......

 

[Broithe]

A friend of mine had a couple - they are hard work to get running well - but a real joy when they do...

[Railway Lyons]

Hi Declan,

 

I bought the Flying Scotsman one when it was released and have had endless fun with it.

The smell alone is a joy but on a long open track it is amazing.

 

Only problem I had was when I put it away in storage for a while.

Not realizing it at first, I put in a box with padding, but the loco was lying on its side.

In doing this the valve became blocked by some old oil (you can never totally empty it).

Therefore I recommend that it is always stored standing upright.

 

Other than that no worries at all.

I hope you get as much fun from yours as I have from mine.

[Guest hidden-agenda]

I picked up a Hornby Live Steam set today, had been looking at them for a while and so when one came up close by I decided to go buy it. Havent run it yet and wont get the chance till much later this evening but wondering if anyone else on here is running a live steam loco ?

 

For the time being it going to have to run on a rolling road but when the eventual layout gets done I'm hoping to have one completely separate track for it and keep the other tracks for DCC.

 

I've read a lot of stuff on the web and seen youtube videos on how to run these but any advice is always welcome.

 

Thanks,

Declan.

Any chance of some close up pics Declan?

[aramand]

Will try get some pics up later - unfortunately have to work late this evening!

[aramand]

Ok, maybe this was not such a good buy after all as it doesnt seem to be working. HELP!!!

 

Basically it the power controllers powers up, then when I move turn on the train controller I get a red light, ~17V and it stays like that for about 10 seconds then I get a continuous beep, light goes out and volts go to zero.

 

I think its a short somewhere but I've tried it with and without the train and with a rolling road and a normal track and same behaviour. BTW when the train was on the track there was no light came on in the train at any point.

 

Ideas ??

[aramand]

Ok, some progress seems like I have a bad connection on the rolling road and also seems like expected behaviour to cut out it if doesn't detect train.

 

Still issues but working thought them, I knew these live steam were supposed to be troublesome but didn't realise just how troublesome :-)

[BosKonay]

The short is on the rolling road, or the controller or both?

 

Can you run a regular loco (DC or DCC) on the road?

[aramand]

Yes actually the problem was the connection appears to have been 'burned out' on the rolling road for one of the rails - the reason I havent noticed this before that all of the other locos I've used on it all were getting the power off the rollers as well so this was the first loco where the pickups were only on the tender.

 

Still getting used to the loco and seems its not quite following the rules as per the manual...

 

Red light is difficult to find - in fact sometimes there are no lights, other times there are both red and green and sometimes just green. I did a quick look on the web and looks like it could be a contact issue.

 

The good news is it is running!!

 

Will get some decent pictures when I get a chance but this is what it looks like :

 

 

and a little video of it running, will try get some more when I have more time :

[video=youtube_share;PuCGUySU07A]

Edited May 29, 2012 by aramand