Hi All, Sorry to post yet another thread on DCC Sound:- Is there anywhere / does anyone have a list of which Hornby Locos have 21 pin sockets fitted? I know the catalogues tell you, but it is a bit of a task (even if you have all of the last 10 years catalogues) to go through them all! Does "DCC ready" on a Hornby box mean an 8 pin socket? Many thanks Paul
H Paul, I think I can help all dcc ready models have 8 pin sockets. DCC fitted come also with 8 pin sockets. All sound fitted locos come with 21 pin sockets I believe as 2 of mine have 21 pin sockets not sure of Hornby as mine are Graham Farish N Gauge the GWR Castle has sound but no working headlights thats according to the instruction sheet Hope this helps, Regards, Gloria.
Paul, I’ve not yet come across a Hornby model that has 21 pin. They are all (I think) the 8 pin and that’s what they stuck to. Bachmann tended to go to the 21 for sound and Heljan 6 pin and 8 pin. Andy
And sometimes ...... just to confuse things ..... it depends on how many functions the loco requires. If it's a steamer and only basically power from the tracks being fed to the chip, ie no lights, whistles and such, then probably an eight pin. ( not always the case though ). If it's a diesel with power, lights, and other various functions , then maybe the 21 pin. The boxes usually tell you what size of decoder it requires. Certainly Bachmann do as do dapol and usually heljan. I have never owned a lot of hornby so would need to check. Your retailer would also be able to advise on a model specific basis. Cheers Toto
All of the Hornby sound locos with ESU decoders (i.e. all of the earlier sound releases) have 21-pins. Most others, including those with TTS sound, have 8-pin sockets. The exceptions are the 0-4-0 Pecketts and the Sentinel diesels which have their proprietary 4-pin interface, and the 0-6-0 Pecketts and Ruston 0-4-0 diesels which have 6-pin interfaces. The above covers 99.9% of the range, (covering myself here in case I have forgotten any other exceptions).
Hi Andy. I have a few of those locos, but there were many more in Hornby's range until the changeover to TTS. The easiest way to identify them is by the suffix letters on the catalogue numbers: XS for those with ESU decoders (many of which were version 3.5), and TTS for those with (you guessed it!) TTS sound (with 8-pin sockets). This was one of the earlier ESU fitted locos, class 60 078. It is one of the few I have with its original sound file still on board (I have reblown quite a few with better sounds from the likes of Howes and legomanbiffo). P_20190117_215201_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr I also have a Hornby class 08 shunter which has a 21-pin Zimo sound decoder fitted (the original ESU one had been removed by the previous owner, so I obtained this one quite cheaply). I can't remember its original identity as I repainted it in BR blue and renumbered it to a Southern Region example. Green D3963 from Hornby has an ESU v4 factory fitted, but the original Hornby sounds were crappy, so it now has legomanbiffo sound (this can be seen and heard here ). Another one I don't have a good photo of (yet) was class 31 233 in Railfreight coal sector greys, although that one has Howes sounds now (installed on the original v3.5 decoder). Hornby class 56 127 in Railfreight coal sector livery has an ESU v3.5 decoder from the factory, but again was reblown with legomanbiffo sounds. Once again, I don't yet have a good photo of this locomotive. This can be seen and heard in a short YouTube video There were a good many more Hornby locos with the ESU decoders, but many of my other sound conversions used run of the mill 8-pin versions in Hornby's originally non-sound-fitted locos. Off-hand, I don't know how many steam locomotives with sound had the 21-pin interface. I don't have their catalogue references to hand, but I hope this helps to identify a few such Hornby 21-pin locomotives.
........and that's before we get to the 'New' Plux18 and 22 pin decoders, though I've yet to come across any loco's fitted with these decoders. As demand increases for sound fitted loco's I can see 4/6/8 pin versions being phased out in favour of the latest spec decoder versions. Many loco's are now coming complete with fitted speaker, which makes it a simple 'Plug & Play' job for those not comfortable with hacking a new loco about to fit sound, as was the case a few years ago, and even steam loco's are becoming available (at a price!) with lights fitted, not just the diesels/electrics. Keith.
I have a sound fitted 08. What I thought was an SWD blown chip, had it a number of years (it’s home fitted and the decoder was bought second hand from a work mate- it’s never been loud enough!!) but having listened to your video above, it sounds exactly the same... I’m wondering if it’s now SWD after all.??
One thing that helps the majority of sound-fitted locos is to seal the speakers. Most factory-fitted examples don't do this, or even leave the speaker completely open, with no sound chamber at all. I have, on a couple of occasions, made up temporary sound chambers completely out of Blu-tack. Better still is to get new, better quality speakers to replace the factory examples. Even that class 60 I showed earlier with its original Hornby sound project has a large bass-reflex speaker fitted. The class 08 I mentioned in passing with Zimo decoder and the more recent one I fitted with TTS sound both have sealed 'sugar cube' speakers fitted behind the radiators; the Zimo-fitted example has twin speakers side by side. Sugar cube speakers don't seem to be available to suit the earlier ESU v3.5 decoders which need 100 ohm speakers, although with sensible precautions they can use 50 ohm speakers (or more usefully, two 100 ohm speakers in parallel).
No, my 08 needs revisiting for this. I recently made a new sound box for the class 24 I did with the 3D printer and it’s so much louder.... hence I need to revisit the 08!
