Hornby "Duchess of Sutherland" : The Return of The Duchess 

The great value of your site, Bill, is in not only reducing the personal fear of having a go and of fouling-up matters as a result, but helping us to prolong the lives of our locos which are not throw away consumables, rather, they are valued treasures lovingly accumulated through considerable discretionary expense. Other notable web sites focus (sadly) only on reviewing the new releases of manufacturers who generally won’t even include in the box an exploded diagram of the locos showing and listing the various parts that might be required for on-going maintenance: worse, the spares become “discontinued” or “no longer available or “out of stock”. They don’t even touch on the subject, if indeed they recognize the issue. This video is so heart-warming because the model railway community rallied and shared knowledge and experience to get an otherwise lost 6233 back on the rails showing us all such challenges can be overcome. Thank you, Bill, I’ll buy you a dram if ever we meet!

I KNEW IT, I said to myself, "NO WAY can the great oobill be defeated" and I was right!😀

I am thoroughly happy finding out that 00Bill's army of subscribers teamed up to help search for a solution to the locomotives part problem. The model train community are a helpful group throughout the word. Absolutely great news and video, thanks for the update. Jersey Bill

Well done to the modeling community for coming up with alternative part numbers and helping get htis locomotive back on track!

OOBill, you have really nice hardware, locomotives, carriages and landscaping!

Proof that the cat can be skinned in many different ways. An excellent running session with two giants of the steam era strutting their stuff.

Good Job , all sorted well done, part numbers eh can be a night mare. 👍

I had similar fun with a Bachmann Austerity 2-8-0. After searching the Bachmann spares pages, I found different part numbers for the complete wheel set, same problem split gear only available as a full wheel set. In the end I rang Bachmann from Australia and got a very helpful and knowledgeable young lady who sorted it all out in about 12 minutes and the wheel set I actually wanted. The other 15 minutes was spent chatting about Australia.

I gave Bill a difficult challenge with this one, but once again he will not be defeated and has brought a stricken engine back to life again. I promise to stick to older models from here on and follow Bill's library of videos (if needed) 😂

Another wonderful model given new life. Admirable!

Just like the world of motor cars, sadly: a seemingly-discontinued part may well still be available but with a different part number. It does look rather better than my Hornby-Dublo "Duchess of Atholl", but then it's much younger! Good work, Bill.

A Real Head Turner, Looks Fab on Your Layout with 6 in the Rake. Well done Tracking it Down 👍🏻

Excellent. I wish they’d standardise parts but i have a suspicion they don’t so they can charge more for the same part that fits for more popular, or damage prone models just slap a different X number on it!

We all knew OOBill would not be beaten ! Well done mate.

Never say Never Bill well done 👏 she runs like a dream 😊

No rendirse nunca ... Never give up.. olé

Lovely job; lovely loco.

Great work Bill.

Great work Bill!!

Great fix Bill. Trees are looking smart but where are the crows?

Nice very well done !!

She's alive! She's alive!!

I've got the Hornby Dutchess of Norfolk, a recent purchase of e bay and its the older tender motor one ,but looks like it was hardly used and is a superb runner, landed on my feet with this one , but great you managed to fix this one as these are lovely Locos.

Well done Bill, another one saved

well done bill

Some great camera angles there . Layout looking good. Possibly different numbers because they are made in different factories ? I know Hornby use several manufacturers

Shame you’ve not got a low loader to put the loco onto after leaving the shed for onward transport/delivery

well done same you don't do dcc repairs

Great job Bill the question I ask myself, how do we mortals find these alternative parts specially with no dimensions on supplier websites

Bill, I have just decided to restore my Hornby Hymek R.758 (with the 3 pole X.410 Armature assembly). Its been sitting in the cupboard for 40 years! Do you know if there is a 5 Pole Armature available that would fit the Hymek? 5 pole works much better! Particularly for slow shunting. Thanks Paul.

You’ll have to get yourself a 3D printer Bill

ugh made in china