Dave Scott

The problem I have found is total lack of info on braking system fitted on any loco. Data sheets have every piece of info bar brakes. It is annoying. What is even more anoying is that I was at Whitby recentlly and could have checked but didnt give it a thought and it was the B1 which hauled the train to Pickering

Not necessarily. The resevoir pipe is an option to speed up release process. Single pipe working is ok. GE locos were air fitted on a single pipe system as are the IoW railway

46 is the standard boat train headcode

Better than blocking New st for ages

Good video however the guard in me kept yelling - turn the red marker lights off - its not the rearmost vehicle - guards have a fixation with tail lamps

I would seriously suggest that before sending it back you try it on DC from a non feedback controller to decide if a loco problem or a decoder problem

Yes it probably is. I lost the paperwork long ago as it dates from the 80s. As I said before a new Gaugemaster solved the problem

Are you running DC or DCC. I run DC and got jerky running on an old ECM controller but not on a gaugemaster. If running DCC there appears to be a need to tune the decoder to the coreless motor. See posts in this thread

I was once told of a tale at Waterloo. A12 car train got gapped so it was decided to bring forward the train behind which was also 12 car to give it a nudge. The operators discovered you can gap a 24 car train I was also told of a problem at Adiscombe depot, now demolished. Sometimes the unit would not roll as expected and got gapped. A very dodgy local fix was to rest a shorting bar on an adjacent third rail lined up with a shoe.The driver would select notch 1 and the shunter would pivot the shorting bar to touch the shoe and nudge the unit forward This tale was told to me by one of the fitters at the depot

The difference between AC OHL and DC third rail is that on AC the neutral sections are specific defined points. On third rail the gaps are more random. For example the gaps will be different for different platforms at a big station like Waterloo or Victoria. The collector shoes are quite happy to hang in clear air between the gaps in the third rail being guided back into contact by the end ramp on each third rail rail. A driver will not know where the shoes are in relation to the gaps hence the potential for large arcs. OHL of course needs to be continuous hence the structures found at neutral sections.

Did a bit of a haulage test tonight. 8 bogies including 3 aly body Maunsells which are heavy. Coped readily

She is not wearing safety boots - standards are slipping

Daave - great model, runs well at running in stage. Havn't tried it on load yet. Re controlers I have three, up, down and a handheld for the yard. The yard and up are gaugemasters and give smooth running for the 71. The down controller gave a poor response and a jerky noisy running at slow speeds. I am going to replace it with a non feedback gaugemaster just to be on the safe side. In the meantime the 71 will have to do all its running in on the up line

In the "stop read me now" info is a warning that older feedback controllers may not be suitable for coreless motors. Of the three DC controllers I have the oldest has poor slow running characterestics. Looks like I will have to get a new controller as well.

No message from Kerno yet. I guess that it will take a few days to get through the dispatch process.