dpgibbons

No issues personally - I have a 56xx on order

You cannot discount buyer circumspection so readily. I have great faith in Revolution (and an order in for the 56xx), but to date they have released only one N Gauge loco and that was produced by an established manufacturer, whilst Sonic have released none. Buyers are accustomed to cancellations or long waits for N Gauge projects. There has not yet been a magazine review. And DJM is still fresh in the memory. Let's see how much demand comes in at the deadline and afterwards through retailers.

Microbrush disposable applicators with a tiny sponge tip are very good for this - available cheaply on eBay.

The 56xx has had pretty good coverage in the NGS journal and the modelling mags, so I'd be surprised if many potential buyers were unaware of it. But perhaps some are reluctant to commit in advance given the issues with DJM etc, especially as Sonic are not yet well established.

Looking at the GWR 4W coaches the premium for pre-painted versions is about GBP60, which is good value compared to a professional paint job and the hours it would take me to do half as good a finish. I see that they are offering pre-painted PO wagons too.

Staying with basic economics - there are large fixed costs to making sound decoders and more particularly sound sets, so their marginal cost of manufacture is low. If you believe that the price elasticity of demand for sounds is high, then you would expect that cutting prices would lead to more sales and also more profits. It seems that Hornby, and to a lesser extent Bachmann, have explored that relationship. In N Gauge I have noted that Bachmann's OEM deal with Zimo for the MX622 DCC decoder led to a dramatic reduction in price, and that Farish are making plug-in sound a feature of new models and offering sound fitted models at a discount to third party solutions.

As bigP suggests, it's very unlikely that an LBT in steam days would have been as lavishly signalled as the OP's diagram. Even bigP's diagram would have been an extravagance unless the terminus was very intensively worked - a more economical setup would have been to work all passenger trains from P2 and dispense with the P1 starter and bracket signal. On a preserved railway more signalling sophistication could be justified.

See here

You won't save money - Dapol is charging a GBP150 premium for factory-fitted sound versus around GBP100 for a third party solution, which should be a simple plug-in job.

Dapol do a NEM conversion kit - see this

Thanks. How do you use the various outputs? The most useful appear to be 12V and 3.5V DC

I have upgraded my computer PSU and I'm wondering if the old one (ATX 750W) might be adapted for model rail use. Any thoughts please?

As others have said, this is very convincing modelling. Well done. A couple of suggestions - there seem to be no inspection/preparation pits, and the location of ash and coaling facilities in sidings rather than loops will make loco servicing very awkward. It would be a good idea to consider the flow of locos through the water/coal/ash disposal/turning facilities and the sort of bottlenecks that are likely to arise with your shed layout given that a large MPD like this might need to service twenty locos or more an hour.

In addition to import restrictions there's also the issue of the high shipping cost to Australia, although that might be offset by a VAT rebate if Tim is registered. I drew up my own baseboard design in Inkscape and had them laser cut locally, which worked out a bit cheaper than Tim's UK prices.

Hi Dan - I assume you used the smallest Tramfabriek motor 0615S 6 x 15mm with a 1mm single shaft. Did you need a custom adapter to connect it with the Dapol drive shaft?