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A lot of people have asked how to fit stay alive's to a Hornby TTS decoder. There are some fairly large solder pads to connect the stay alive to so it's easier than you might think if you are experienced with soldering, but as this isn't a Hornby approved modification you would probably lose your warranty on the decoder. You need a 2 wire stay alive, the positive wire (usually blue) connects to the same solder pad as the blue common positive wire for functions, the negative wire (usually black) connects to the 4th pad along the side of the...

This has come up a few times as a question so I thought I'd explain the method I use. The screws to remove the body are fairly well hidden, deep beneath the bogies, so it makes it harder to remove the body than with some other locos. Firstly I remove the bogie frames, these clip on so I just use a pair of tweezers and lever gently against the wheels to undo the clip. With this removed the screws are easily accessible and visible. A magnetic screwdriver makes the job easier, particularly when putting the screws back in. We have...

Here's a step by step guide to upgrading the speakers in the 37. I've assumed that you probably already know how to get the body off. There are 6 screws and a magnetic tip screwdriver helps to get them out easily. Once removed this is what you will be presented with. The next step is to unsolder the old speaker, ad remove that and the fan from the body shell, there are 4 screws, one is under the speaker. Use black tack to hold the fan blades in place under the grill.  Stick the speakers onto the top of the...

This new Hornby TFW class 67 was sent this week for sound fitting. I used a pair of the excellent 20x20x7 speakers. These are very easy to ft, the tanks unscrew and you can use a bit of black tack to stick them under the model. Theres a hole to feed the wires through and you connect them to the decoder in parallel. Find the class 67 sound decoder here

Most people when ordering the class 33 decoder choose the 27mm round speaker, this is easy to fit and gives great sound. You will probably need to snip off a little bit of the metal that protrudes from the PCB to give a flat area to stick the speaker. Once the area is flat you can stick the speaker down with black tack. Placing it at this end of the model means it doesn't get in the way of the block which hangs down inside the body on some recent 33 models. Find the sound decoder and speaker here.