Frank Sharp

I've found out on the intenet that the BR shed code system was based on or an expansion of the LMS method. I know BR locos carried their codes on small oval plates usually mounted on the lower half of the smokebox door. I haven't picked this out on photos of locos in the prewar LMS era. Does anyone know where and how the LMS put its codes on their locos, particularly interested in late 1930s. Thanks Frank

Even with the mainline stock with buffers you do get coupling shafts, two different lengths. I assume the shorter one fits the suburban bufferless stock so maybe the longer one will do the buffered version. There's also a cable link which won't be wanted until the electrically lit versions come out.

Alex turned up yeterday. It has only been tried on a foot of track and a rolling road but runs fine. It will be renamed and needs a crew. To the latter end, has anyone managed to remove the cab, there are lots of screws under the footplate edge.

Thanks to Kevin Martin, Constructor review explains all I need to know.

You are getting a reading of 7 volts, almost certainly one of the rectifier diodes as gone and you are effectivley getting half wave rectification. I've fixed 3 various Gaugemaster controllers at shows with the same problem. None of them belonging to our layout! It may be that something else has gone in the circuit and is overloading the diodes, but a new set of 4 diodes, try 3amp versions, even at show prices will only be about 60p

I have bought an old Compspeed Rambler Minor. Push button control on a hand controller and the purpose of the buttons is clearly marked on the front. Once I got all the pins on the DIN connector extended to the same length it works. However there is a slide switch on the top which appears to be original but it doesn't seem to have any obvious effect. Anyone one still using one of these and knows what the switch does or is supposed to do please?

Modelex, standard controller good for 2.5 amps but they do a 3.5 as well. Bit of an odd shape if used as a handheld but I see quite a few at exhibitions.

Towards the end of their trading Kent Panel Controls produced a Kentrol Controller. There were modules you could add to it. I have the fine control but I'm looking fot the Inertia/Momentum module and the hand control module, I have a hand controller but not what it plugs into.

Moonraking Red, I have one of these apart at the moment. There is a transformer with two separate windings and two otherwise not connected printed circuit boards. They should therefore run common return without a problem. The terminals marked c are for adding an add on hand controller. I now have two but no wiring diagram, that's why I have the case open. The HCs are quite crude in so far as they handle reversing. There are 12 wires but 8 are paired to become 4 and that's to handle the two amp output to the reversing switch on the HC, you take power out of the box connections, to the HC reversing switch and back to a new connector and to the track. As far as I can see the 4 other wires must go to the AC out and to C C, but as yet I haven't had time to sort out what goes where. Once I've sorted that out I'll put a DPDT relay in the box and a 6 wire connector to a plug and socket on the case, it will be a lot neater. The Orbit has a output of two amps, it really needs 16 0.2 wiring not the usual 7 0.2. 12th Feb 2022 I've now sorted this, so more info which might help someone else. Be wary, I have several of these dual track controllers and they aren't all alike. I have seen a hand controller on Worthpoint that terminates in a DIN connector. On the back of the controller are a set of connectors of the chocolate block screw up type. Looking at it from the back, starting on the left. First pair are controlled output from the knob at that end. The second pair, black and white are marked CC for the hand controller but read on. Third pair are usually empty. Fourth pair are brown and blue AC from the winding on the transformer that powers the RH end as we look at it from the back. Fifth pair marked CC again black and white are for the hand controller at that end and finally the power out from that end. If you have the hand controller that I have, it terminates in wires as I've said above. the paired wires go into the switch on the hand controller, you should be able to work out which come from the power out on the box and which should go back to another connector to feed the track. The black and white wires that come out of the box into the connector connect to the black and white wires going to the hand controller. The brown and blue are 16 V AC and it doesn't matter which way you connect them to the hand controller. If you want a hand controller on each output you will need to go into the box and connect a brown and blue wire for the left hand side. You will need a 1 amp thermal overload. One end of that overload floats, see how it has been done on the existing side. I've found that I cannot properly turn off the hand control, the motor keeps running slowly. The circuit is I think picking up enough voltage by induction to trigger the transistor. The cure is to connect a 1 MEGA OHM resistor between the white and black wires in the hand controller to sink this voltage. I've fitted DPDT relays in the box, driven by another transformer, twin windings 6 volt 3VA total. So all I have on the back now are connectors for the output and two 6 pin sockets into which the hand controllers plug on 6 core 7 0.2 wander leads. As the track power is switched internally by relays I don't have any heavy wire outside the box. Hope this has helped someone

A long time 'late' but I've just obtained one and had to work out the wiring. There are stupidly small numbers etch into the circuit board that show under the connectors on the outside of the body. However if you count from the top left hand side. 1 and 2 are 16v AC in. with the selector set to 1, the black button works no 15 and the red button no 3 set 2 Black 14 Red 4 set 3 Black 13 Red 5 set 4 Black 12 Red 6 set 5 Black 11 Red 7 set 6 Black 10 Red 8 which leaves No 9 which is the return from all the point motors 9 is connected internally to 2 If you have to run it on DC which should work, connect DC positive to 1, DC negative to 2 Hope it helps someone I should mention that it isn't just a selector, it is a Capacitor Discharge unit

Gaugemaster do seem to have sewn up the controller market. Morley seem to be their main competitor but their controller had a centre off and no direction switch. In effect with a reversing switch as Gaugemaster you get 270 degrees of rotation but with Morley only 135 degrees each way, which just makes dropping on exactly the right speed setting that bit more difficult. Avoid anything with feedback that you cannot turn off. Coreless motors are becoming more common and feedback is usually not recommended with FB. I collect controllers, there were umpteen clever electronic ones using chips which were never intended for model raiways. Some are great but it is noticable that Gaugemaster and I think Morley are back on discret e components (transistors/capacitors/diodes/resistors. Momentum is fun on a really big layout or garden but you will probably soon tire of it.

I've fitted one of the 'computer' motors into a Lima diesel chassis. It is actually under a Sierra Leone/Welshpool 2-6-2. Formerly it had two speeds, stopped and rocket. The new motor has made virtually no difference except that now it has some degree of controllability provided you use feed back. Mercian do/did a Fowler Dock tank, an 0-6-0 but the coupled wheelbase is within a fraction of a millimetre so that will be the basis of two others I have to make......sometime. Incidentally that means it will do Russell.

I collect old controllers. I've just bought on e-bay several ECM block modules which plug into 11 pin sockets (I think). The vendor says there are no sockets which isn't a problem, I can buy them. He also says he has no instructions. I can probably open one up and try to work it out, but it will be easier if anyone still has instructions and could scan them please. Thanks

Hornby did this with Rails. Rails announced a Terrier and Hornby quietly did theirs to arrive just before. Whether that's co-incidence or an active policy to stop the dealers from becoming manufacturers only time will tell. In this case of the coaches Hornby could have complimented rather than rivalled by producing a similar set but of Victorian/Edwardian bogie coaches. Now we've got these coming what locos are there that would look right pulling them. Terrier, Beattie Well tank suitably back dated, Dean Goods, but very few. It has been a boom year for hobbies as we cannot go out and some still have money coming in. Bear in mind that all this money the government is spending will have to be recovered, that means more tax, less disposable income. Hornby and others are riding a fragile bubble.

One from the archives. I have two Doverbeck Dynacontrollers. They are for panel mounting and are about 16 inches long and about 6 inches high. There are more knobs and switches than a spaceship, but the main controls, regulator and braking are big red handles. The panel is huge, just the thing to impress your mates. Input and output is a long row of grey 'chocolate block', far more than needed for AC in and DC out. It is according to front pulse width modulation. This is a long shot, but before I try to connect it up and make it smoke does anyone recognise the description, know how to wire it or even have the instructions? Frank