nhdesigns

I’m in the same boat with the springs. The couplings on one of my intercity TSOs was wonky and trying to fix it resulted in the springs flying out. I found one but not the other. Can’t seem to find replacement parts for it.

I've been looking at that myself for concrete sleepers on my trackbed. Mainly for a dull and weathered appearnce than having it look all natural in the plastic finish.

So basiacally I've gone and got some more paints for weathering the track on my layout including some of the mig ammo paints. I have got some other paints in the form of Humbrol and revell paints which I'm use to using. I'm wondering if anyone has used mig ammo paints or the other types of mig ammo products. I've heard and read about Tim Shakleton using them for weathering tasks such as with locomotives and rolling stock. The paints I got for doing track weathering both the sleepers and rails are: mig ammo :- 035 Dark Tracks 072Dust Colour 035 Rust Tracks Humbrol 173 Matt Track colour and Revell 87 Matt Earth Brown I do have other paints for basic weathering mixing such as matt leather and gunmetal with black as well on hand. So firstly are these mig ammo colours suitable for track and sleeper weathering? And how good are they? And how easy are they to use for airbrushing as most of my weathering is done this way.

So basically I got some Revell paint mixing cups but just can't make sense of them. The measurements are in CC/Ml which doesn't make sense to me. I know when it comes to mixing paints and glues it's done with percentage ratios like 50:50 for or 5 parts paint and 5 parts the thinners etc. Can anyone help me out with reading these cups? Or any mixing cups that are easier to use, like ones with mixing ratios on them.

So basically I’ve been thinking about 3D printing and have seen some introductory 3D printers at a fair price for me. I’ve done 3D modelling while I was at university so got experience with 3D design but don’t have any when it comes to 3D printing. I was wondering if anyone can help me out or have any suggestions or advice. Also wondering what sort of software is the easiest to work with as I’ve never done anything like this before. I don’t plan on doing anything big and fancy like parts for trains in the form of locomotive parts or parts for rolling stock and the like. I’m looking more at doing small scenic items and detailing parts such as interior items for shops and the like. I model in OO gauge and model more of the urban sort of aspect of the hobby. I don’t intend to have anything over the top with a lot of complexity. I’ve already seen one or two around £75-£90 that I can see should be okay with what I have in mind to do.

As the title suggests I was wondering if anyone can help me out with weathering track that has concrete sleepers. I know how to weather wooden sleeper style track and points but don’t know how to go about the same with concrete sleepers. Most of the track is PECO code 100 concrete sleeper style track used on my layout. My layout is set in the BR sector era of the West Midlands area of the west coast mainline with overhead catenary. I know how to weather the rails and where to add buildups of oil and dirt from trains that would be stationary close to the signals but don’t know what to use for the concrete sleepers. I do intend to use an airbrush on weathering the track but just wanted to know what colours would be suitable for giving the track sleepers a worn in look and heavy use. Thanks for any help and advice on this.

Okay that’s good to know. Would the point motors here be suitable for the location and the era? Or would the Westinghouse point motors be better?

I'm wondering if anyone can give me some help and advice on detailing points and how to go about it. The photos show two express points I have on my layout here just before the four track section of my layout. I've begun to place some details loosely such as point heaters and dummy point motors. I have some orange trunking and relay boxes along with concrete trunking ready to fit into place as well. I've also purchased some dummy westinghouse point motors as well but just don't know what will be better, either these Peco dummy point motors or the Westinghouse point motors. Also not sure what else is needed for points like these. I assume that I would need mechanical point locks and possibly one or two linesinde telephones but I don't exactly know. My entire layout is in OO gauge and is fictionaly based around the West Coast Mainline in the West Midlands region of the BR era in the 1980s - the present day if this also helps.

I wish traintronics modern signal gantry was still available too. In the end I’ve had to go and make my own signal gantry which I’ve done as close as a real one based around Rugby. The only trouble I’ve been having is the signals themselves. Already gone through two lots of traintech four aspect signal heads because of the wiring was a right pain in the backside! This is how my gantry looks with the signals now working.

I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me out with a problem I'm having regarding signal control. Basically I have two four aspect signals and another one with a feather that I have controlled using the heathcote electronincs signal sequencers but can't seem to get power to them. I have one with a feather which I have wired to my DCC power bus and linked to a point that works but I can't get the two seperate sequencers to work. I think it's because I'm using the NCE power cab system, and it's not powerful enough to operate external devices. I am of course running these on a medium sized OO gauge layout with DCC as well using the NCE power cab system and have two DCC concepts slow action points wired to my power bus as well, if this also helps. Would I need to have a seperate power supply fitted to control external things such as signal controllers? If so what voltage power supply would I need? I know these can run between 12 - 16 volts AC or DC but don't know which would be right since I have two sequencers and signals. Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Hi yes I did find out what it was. Turned out it was a case of bad wiring and poor connections that was giving me problems. It wasn't so much a problem with my controller but the fact the power bus wires were poorly fitted to terminal blocks that were slightly smaller and thus not big enough to feed or hold the wires together. I've resolved the problem with that by using bigger terminal blocks and ensuring the wires at the ends of the power busses are twisted around properly and not strangling around. Always has to be the simplest of things that feels like a catastrphe! Got power to my track and to my two slow motion points which is the main thing. I think with the signals and sequencers I amd using, I might have to look at running them on a seperate power bus since I'm using the NCE power cab system and it's not powerful enough to run them.

I’ve done exactly the same with my locomotives and rolling stock. Organised in a similar fashion with models sorted by era, steam and BR blue on the left side of one shelf moving up to privatisation at the other end. Done the same with my rolling stock. Having passenger coaches sorted by type, MKI on the left side going up to postal coaches. Just need to try and do the same with my freight stock. Not easy to do with 31 locomotives and a total of 72 items of rolling stock! Might just look at adding some extra dividers and shelves so nothing is piled on top of each other.

I’ve not used copper cladding at the joints on each board this time since the layout is permanent but I did do that when I originally built the layout.

No I haven’t changed the points to electrofrog and still use insulfrog points with those clips to make the points live at all times. I did fit insulated joiners to the points on the V side of the them but they didn’t work. I mainly fitted them to prevent shorting out everything whenever a stray wheel would catch on them.

Sorry I meant to say that there are two wires , red and black, from the track bus which are connected to to the track output on the transformer.