Lots been happening here, but not a lot of visible progress. Nearly 200 locos have been "audited" and put into an excel inventory with information on which which DCC decoder socket, or decoder chip and all tested. A few issues after up to 12 years in boxes but mostly running smoothly after a little run round.

I travel a fair bit and have built up quite a few ESU Loksound decoders which i've bought out and about. So i've been busy uploading Legomanbiffo sounds (diesels) and Howes (steam). Also have a weird and wonderful selection of 4 and 8 ohm speakers of different sizes and quality which i'm slowly fitting. It's a very slow job, particularly as i'm still trying to make progress on the layout itself. The small stickers on the cabinet doors have a significance, but I can no longer remember what each colour means. To be chipped, already chipped, Loksound 3.5 to be replaced, and sell. Something like that.

Observant readers will notice that many of these locos will never have run on the Great Central. But many did. And in my world it never closed.

Before new year I drove down to a small German joinery company that produces nice display cabinets for model railways which I varnished and put up. After one disaster when I hadn't drilled deep enough into the concrete wall and all my class 20's came tumbling down (few buffers broken, but easily mended). Now they're all soundly drilled in and I have again made peace with my neighbors. However when I get my two new EM2 "earthmover" speakers (£25 each - price hiked) then I fear I may need to bring more hobnobs over from the UK to keep the neighbors on side.

I have also been spending some time sorting out my old wiring. It works but it doesn't look very nice. So after my first (second actually) attempt at wiring up the BDL168, PM42, PR3 and DAC20s I decided to redo them again now that I have a better understanding of what wire goes where.

BEFORE

AFTER - well it's not finished, but i've tidied up for the day as i'm off to the UK tomorrow to get ready for a trip over the Settle & Carlisle on Tornado. Hopefully more successful than the last two trips which were cancelled and then derailed (Andover Fist). Still looks much better, even the wife says so.

Last thing i've done is finish planning the BDL168 sections and power zones (4). I thought I had 5 BDL168s but one turned out to be a second PM42 which I don't need (hence my excited note on the plan). So a quick call to Kevin at Coastal DCC and he's already put one in the post to my UK address (basically a store for stuff i've bought and never have space in carry on luggage to bring back). So all good so far. The plan has now basically been finalised. The sections are for two purposes, i) traincontroller ii) a mimic signal box display. I already know that for Train Controller doesn't need occupancy detectors on points, but I want the display to show the section occupied. I have no practical experience of all this, however it all seems to mirror the many signal box diagrams online.

With the extra BDL168 I thought i'd found I added stop sections to the station area. I had previously planned to speed profile all locos and then get them to stop exactly where I wanted. This proved to be above my experience and pay grade right at the moment, so I decided that on the stops I want to be quite accurate I would have a final stop section (or indicator in Train Controller). Although I shall have to speed profile everything anyway. The stops in the storage yards will be based on measurement past the entry indicator (of the block in Train Controller).

No more track has gone down since the past update, but it's getting wired up. Every time I had to wire up point decoders or occupancy detectors I lost my mojo to continue, so I guess by doing all the electronics boards all in one go will enable me to progress more quickly. Let's see.

Anyway, thanks for reading.