DCB

Maybe vape oil might work, if the cars full of vape fumes are anything to go by Has anyone ever heard a shoveling sound from an actual steam loco actually in steam let alone actually running? The sound of shovelling precedes the glow of the door opening when working hard when the glow is more a brilliant flash. This weekend recording locos on the NYMR P3 ( J27?) Std4 Tank and Black 5 shows the background hiss of boiling water is the dominant sound of a steam locomotive, the hiss of escaping injector steam, steam leaks sizzling safety valves. To be fair they don't sound anything like any DCC sound, but that's because the sound is synchronised with loco speed, where the pulses should be synchronised with wheel speed and the volume by the operator, depending on whether accelerating, pulling hard, coasting or just powering along gently.

It's the interface issue. But the real thing which irritates me is the unrealistic operation DCC enthusiasts think is good. Full size Trains can't creep for extended periods unless Slow speed fitted for MGR operations , but they can stop to the nearest 6" or less so coaches never move when couping up. I am working on sound, So many sound locos chuff like they are pulling 400 tons when running light. Real ones usually give 4 or 8 chuffs then coast. But its the interface. I want a speed control knob Hand held one handed. ideally wireless. Everything else can be on the console, Whistle button would be nice

Please give one example of a suitable controller or pair of controllers , where two operators can operate Railway traction similar to two cars being operated on the same lane of a Scalextric Digital track.

My first train was Hornby Dublo 3 rail and I had two Duchesses and an 0-6-2 tank The tank would just haul all my 17 (?) wagons around my not exactly level layout at a crawl but stopped dead if it slipped, very realistic. The opposite to most RTR where a burst of wheel slip gets a stalled train underway again. What I want from DCC is a capability for me to drive the train engine and my son drive the banker independently, rather than to consist them. I am pretty sure we could do it with Scalextric DCC Hand throttles but I'm not aware of any Model railway DCC equipment giving that sort of immediacy of response.

Someone could get a lot of free publicity for naming a loco inappropriately. Or a gasp at an exhibition when it or even 7930 "That's Hall" appears. They say you can't rewrite history but we modellers can. 70014 painted name Iron Duck anyone? My layout has posters for Harry Markle and Anton Deck appearing at the local theatre

There is something about a loco drive steamer easing away with just a hint of a slip , or judging how much wellie you can give it without excess slipping which the clunky Railway DCC does not fit well with. Its not a DCC issue, Scalextric DCC hand throttles are great, but no one seems to make a decent real time speed control for railways. I keep planning something I call "Protoslip" for a Bullied where the drive is shared between a heavy tender and a light loco powered from the sae motor with a differential so it the drivers slip the tender loses power. The gulf berween whats possible with DCC and what the trade churns out is well sad. The Tender drive shown has traction tyres. I banned them because they make the tracks so filthy

My layout has hardboard projecting above the baseboard surface to stop stock falling off so leaning on it is painful. Leaning on an exhibition layout is sheer bad manners, why it might damage the static grass or fencing which should like the railway boundary!

The signalling problem comes from the illogical track layout. I would expect the milk dock point to be operated from the signal box, locked in the straight position when either starter or home signals are off. But I would not expect the station to have a milk dock. Milk was typically dealt with at passenger platforms, loaded and especially unloaded., off peak in London. It was a fairly quick operation, rolling churns around on their edges prior to going to tankers. The dock would never have a "Train" enter, just a few wagons propelled in. "Dock" platforms are often higher than the 3ft passenger platform maximum to make loading vans easier.;

Why? He and Fuller, potentially saved millions of lives by inventing Blitzkreig in place of WW1 style trench warfare.

I think operationally a std 4 point BLT would be more interesting. The sidings are very short, very awkward, and there is nowhere to put anything out of the way, sort of like a chess match unless you want to model BR steam circa 1965/7 with 3 wagons and a van. @Harlequin's solution is a lot more user friendly and visually better, though I would have deleted his short spur behind the goods shed as being little use. In practice the tracks are so close to the edge that there is no real room for even low relief scenery, trans might actually hit the wall. It's too cramped. At present I am constantly moving the goods shed on my terminus "Ugleigh" not on software but physically moving it around the baseboard as what looks good on paper dose not translate to looking "Right" on the baseboard.

The 3901 was one of Churchward's few failures. He saw the French compounds, thought I can do better than that, and made the Saints, they pulled better but rode worse so he built the Stars, and then when everyone else had moved to Atlantics and 4-6-0s he said "Bring it on," and built the "Bear" He saw LNWR 2-8-0s and built the 97 and the 28XX, much better, but when Hoy on the L&Y brought out his 2-6-2 T which was supremely ugly Churchward said "I can do uglier than that" but failed (Just). The 3901 was on paper a rebuild of 1890s 2301 class Dean Goods locos. Churchward wanted to build 45XX but new build money (capital) was not forthcoming so he used the repair fund to "Rebuild" Dean Goods retaining the wheels, /cylinders / motion etc with Churchward's 44/45/46XX tiny Std no 5 boiler and a 45XX cab and the ugliest tanks he could devise. Even though the 1890s Dean boiler was not as good as the final 2301 or indeed its progeny the 57XX there can be little doubt it was a better steamer than the std no 5. It's so much bigger. and the final 2301 boiler was much better than the Ivatt 2MT boiler when tested in the 1950 when they tried to replace 2301 with Ivatt and 78000 2-6-0s They were as were the 42XX 56XX 31XX 3150 etc , But lets face it who checks the height of their locos from rail level apart from me as my clearances are minimal and ridiculously over height Hornby King and 2721 won't fit my hidden sidings. But caveat time. Churchward locos had wooden cab roofs overlaid with (tarred?) canvas. Collett changed this to steel sheets which lowered the roof, most dramatically in the new build Prairies starting 6100 which earlier locos were altered to conform, but even the 42/56/72 XX had this change. It affects the cab eaves which almost every model gets wrong, Bachmann 56XX spectacularly so, as the drawings would not have changed. Changes started circa 1929(?) and were unpopular with enginemen from my reading of Engineman's reminiscences. The model has the Airfix City of Truro boiler. The Airfix smokebox is too big in diameter for a std no 2 and too small for a std no 4 and is much larger than the std 5. 45XX That sort of hurts the illusion, massive loco tiny boiler. as do the photographs with the 45XX (should be same boiler) and 81XX (built 5 years after last 3901 scrapped) which emphasises the issue. For me the lack of curved drop ends to the footplate is noticeable but lets face it you would need to be around 100 to remember them so full marks for creating something different.

Looks like a Taxi service from the free car parking at the Junction as by the station its pay and display or supermarket (Morrisons) 3 hr max. Or... The Mallaig trains are often 4 car 2 X 2 units and the Glasgow 1X 2 car units . The units arrive as a pair from Mallaig and one remains at the buffers while the other heads for Glasgow picking up another at Crianlarich to arrive at Queen St as a 2 +2. At some stage the units need to be swapped so the same one does not continually shuttle FY to Mallaig until it runs out of fuel.

You need to measure your stock. N gauge is notoriously over width, about 12 scale feet instead of 9 on some "Heritage" models but you should be safe with 1" per track plus around 1/2" at one edge very much as @Dungrange suggests. I can't really get my head around why the sidings are between tracks and the three running lines so widely spaced, I would have the sidings outside, actually I would have a train lift one or both ends based on a Nellyvator but bodged with junk from a skip to suit my budget (Virtually non existant)

If you must have an engine shed, why not have a disused one.. I was de cobwebbing my BLT today and decided that it made a lot of sense for my one and a half Airfix engine shed to be rendered "Disused" and rented to an Engineering firm,

How on earth is he getting the stuff so cheap. Boxed wagons for £2 to £5 sold for £10 -£15. A class 37 £12.50 sold for £40. Buying well below eBay prices. House clearances? The Yorkshire Auction House on TV gets derisory amount for models IMHO, so maybe that is the answer. Auctions and buy up anything cheap

Does the spare 3" actually exist? With Harlequins drawing twizzled round 180 to match the others I counted room for 24 wagons and an ability to run round 12. Its a good plan but I fear translated from thin 2B (or not 2B) pencil line to Streamline track on the board it will be cramped. My branch station "Ugleigh" is on an 18" X 7ft (usable) board and with the same number of roads (remaining) it looks cramped, and with an engine shed at the inside board edge it was awkward. "Ugleigh" has so far lost 3 sidings and an engine shed in an effort to make it less "Ugly" What "Ugleigh" has is well over 10 feet of main line to use for shunting, I think shunting would get tedious if less than 3 feet of extra main line was available ( 5 feet beyond the points )

1ft wide will allow about 5 roads between baseboard edges with 50 mm streamline spacing you can get 11 into 2 ft There isn't much scope for anything more than a loop and a single siding if you want platforms and space for loading carts or lorries.

Looks like a 3 rail power bogie and a 2 rail trailing bogie. On mine also a 3rail convert, I used Romford Markits spoked driving wheels 14 or 15mm dia and picked up one side of the power bogie and the other ( well same but it runs the other way round ) side of the trailing bogie

The direct from China Dapol models on a well known auction site which rhymes with Ebay as of yesterday were not class 68, or Irish. Just go on the well known auction site, punch in Dapol , nearest first and spend the next hour scrolling until you find "From China" The product looks like Dapol and are 33% discount. Dapol advise against buying them. Now they could be knock off, or seconds or plain fake or maybe someone made extra because the unit cost drops dramatically with volume assuming Dapol would re order and maybe they didn't ... Personally I look for "Made in England" labels so whether the China made model comes direct or via Wales is of zero interest but I am intrigued as to what is actually doing on here..

I just found another YouTube video comparing Superglue used with 4 different fillers, Baking Soda, Styrofoam , charcoal and Cement. Baking Soda performed best on some tests and was worst on others.. Oh well, ... But I don't have Baking Soda, Charcoal or Styrofoam but I do have a great big bag of cement...

The YouTube clip is called, "Works like magic pour super glue on cement and be amazed" I can't make a link work but google the complete phrase. It looks like ordinary (Portland ?) cement used a filler with super glue just like people use baking soda but seems to be a lot stronger. The guy put cement and superglue around two steel (?) rods running parallel and when it set the rod bent instead of the joint breaking. He also mended a plastic chain guard or similar with a plasticine mould which he filled with the cement and superglue mix and it looked very robust. in all about 9 different fixes in 8 minutes running time.

I just watched the YouTube video "Works like magic pour super glue on cement and be amazed" and it looks like the old baking powder and superglue fix but much stronger. Just wondered if anyone had tried it and if it a) worked or b) didn't work, c) exploded and burned the house down or d) ruined a slightly damaged model. As always interested to learn from others experiences.

To be honest I don't know, and if they are contaminated what would be the result? They came out nicely and cleaned up with a piece of cloth. I filed the end square, I had hoped someone else had experience of this. I have cut down larger brushes from power tools and car alternator in the past but its very frustrating as the carbon breaks up easily. The AAA battery core is dead size for diameter and was easy to trim in the lathe chuck

The Mainline didn't have dodgy wheels as such but anything Mainline / Bachmann split chassis is waiting for the wheels to fall off, My Bachmann Manor did it 10 minutes from brand new. Never chuck nothing away. eBay it. One mans crap crud collector wheelset is another blokes fine scale EM gauge refurbished lathe turned and polished wheelset . We had an old gramophone case, no guts bottom falling out, couldn't be bothered to take it to the tip. stuck it on eBay £7.50 plus £5 p+p and got £105 for it. Horrible orange clock £35. 12 axles Hornby Dublo 3 rail wheels £12. I only paid a fiver for 6 coaches so made about £4 profit and got 8 good bogies to put Lima wheels in. Being an old age pensioner that £4 makes all the difference, 2 bottles of supermarket budget cola or a twix bar or 8 Just don't over sell, "Needs attention," "Spares or repair," If its tatty a quick blast of Poundland rattle can matt black and its "Weathered" , or Grey Primer or pound shop red and some flattering photos and Bobs your uncle.