Chamby

By way of a contrast: Just two wires from the bank of control switches to the layout, and two wires to the display panel (visible). The fiendish DCC complexity lies sealed within the switch boxes, and the chip board secreted behind the panel!

DCC chips are programmable in many ways. This includes adjusting the ‘speed profile’, where maximum speed can be programmed in, and the acceleration ‘curve’ up to that speed. I have found that different chips are supplied with different speed characteristics, and commonly that pre-programmed sound files for specific locomotives have had the speed profile changed as part of the programming. Swapping ‘as supplied by the manufacturer’ chips between locomotives can dramatically affect the acceleration characteristics. I now exclusively use ESU or Zimo chips, partly because of familiarity, but also because the manufacturers provide very detailed downloadable manuals on their websites, for programming all aspects of their chip ranges. Great detail is provided about which CV’s can be adjusted to modify both the top speed, and how quickly the loco accelerates as the controller knob is increasingly turned. So if a loco is running too slowly, the first thing I would check is what the maximum speed CV has been set to. I find that simply reprogramming this normally solves the issue.

IC125, please.

There is a second batch of Hattons genesis coaches in the pipeline, but it’s not due until December. No teak examples are listed, but GER ‘Stratford Brown’ liveried examples are currently available to pre-order on the website.

It’s not what you do but the way that you do it, that’s what gets results... as the song goes. I think that you have captured the imagination of many modellers with both the subject and ongoing execution of your ambitious ‘last great project’. Even if you feel progress has been slower than you would have liked this last year, you’ve kept the thread well informed, interesting to follow, and have brought an increasing number of followers along with you. It’s a nomination well deserved!

These days we have the benefit of laser levels. If you don’t have one already, I recommend them. About £50 for a Bosch or Stanley branded DIY ‘cube’ version in the UK. Very useful, and accurate, when measuring up for battens on the wall and baseboard leg heights around the room!

Exactly the point I made in the ‘any other comments’ bit at the end of the survey. I only now buy stuff that’s relevant to my primary modelling interests. I just need to trim down those interests now!

Nice survey, Andy. I would have probably added a question on buying from retailers or direct from manufacturers. Also I didn’t include my HOm stuff as it wasn’t one of your scale/gauge options. Understandably, perhaps: it’s a bit niche anyway...

How have I missed this website before? Impressive...

An interim progress update on the industrial corner of the layout: The kits have now been built and painted, it has taken a little longer than I anticipated but enjoyable nonetheless. I may yet still do a little further detailing, specifically adding guttering and downpipes that are not included with the warehouse kits. I took the time to add internal lighting to two floors of each warehouse, using pairs of yellow LED's that will be powered from an accessory decoder wired in to the accessory bus. I also stuck some barrels, oil drums and packing cases inside the floors to be illuminated, for additional detail. Fine chain was used to represent the lifting tackle, with a spare wagon coupling hook being repurposed. The exact siting of the buildings has still to be finalised, and I have yet to add detailing such as line side fencing, people (Modelu figures are currently on the painting bench) and goods, but some photo's herewith. Again my apologies for the small depth of field, I blame my phone camera: The small warehouse: The large warehouse, with its boiler house and chimney: As a distraction from warehouse building, I have also acquired a few more spruce trees from Primo, giving me sufficient to create a small forest out in the countryside section of the layout: I will need to dismantle the layout and remove the corner board, so as to give good access to undertake all the detailing in that corner. I'll probably also then take the opportunity to install the turntable in the other corner at the south end of the station. I probably won't start that work until we have got back from exhibiting the club's Old Elms Road at Alton in a couple of weeks time... helping to prepare the layout and stock for that has to take priority over the next couple of weeks!

It’s marketing! Hornby will be using price to tempt people into TT. You’ll find that TT pricing will also compare well to N gauge. Well, for now. They have to secure a captive market, then expect prices to rise …

Asymmetric scissors... outside slip... Great Central?

Very nice, Trevor. You’ve definitely improved the look with the use of an embossed and painted exterior, as opposed to the sticky-backed paper overlays supplied. I’m looking to build a row of terraced houses, and will probably do something similar using Redutex sheets.

A happy new year to everyone, if it's not too late to say that! A lack of posting over the holiday season does not mean that I have been idle... However I am starting to realise that my progress on the layout has a random aspect to it, and my late activity is no exception. Leicester Central around the time of my model was surrounded mainly by factories and warehouses, and this is something that I want to represent in the surrounding scenery. Not an accurate model of what was actually there, because the spatial constraints preclude that, but some representative buildings were required. Having discovered their stuff online, I was pleased to see that J S Models were one of the traders attending Warley, so their stand was duly visited and goods inspected, and I was duly impressed. So once back home, measurements were taken and paper 'footprints' cut out and tried for size, resulting in an order for a boiler house, medium chimney, small stone warehouse and a canal warehouse. These arrived by return of post, to be immediately whisked away by family members and disappear under Christmas wrapping paper.... Once back in my possession and opened, I was immediately impressed with the quality of materials and workmanship that has obviously gone into these kits. Everything slots together perfectly and looks amazing, the instructions are very clear and fully illustrated. These kits are proving to be a joy to build, although requiring some patience particularly re: painting. They are still work in progress, but sufficiently advanced to be worth sharing. The components are mainly laser cut MDF, comprising an inner shell with the windows, and an outer representing the stonework. The inner shell goes together quickly and I used these to play around with the positioning in a corner of the layout that needed filling. Some photo's then: The first three show the 'inner shell' of the canal warehouse, small warehouse and chimney in their provisional location (apologies for the poor depth of field owing to the use of an i-phone camera): The outer shell demands a bit more work, specifically re: painting. A bit of head-scratching ensued, and some internet research regarding the colour of stonework in Leicestershire. There proved to be a huge variation, from the whites and greys of North Charnwood, to the warmer pinks and ochres just north of Leicester, to golden brown farther south towards the Northamptonshire border. Granites, limestones and sandstone. I settled on a colour palette approximating to Mountsorrel Granodiorite 🥴, so Ochre, mixed with a mid-grey and pink. I decided not to paint each cut stone 🤪 as individual cut stones are not a single colour: rather I sought to represent the range of colours using a base coat of pink tainted ochre, then dry-brushed additional patches of stronger pink, and then dark earth, using Revell matt acrylic paints. Under a harsh LED modelling light, the technique can be seen here: The above photo also shows clearly how the windows of the inner shell become nicely recessed when the outer skin is added. The sills and glazing are still to be added at this stage. The following two photo's show how the paint effect is more subtle at a normal viewing distance. The large canal warehouse, where the outer skin is being glued to the inner shell after separate painting: And the smaller warehouse with walls assembled: Probably another three more modelling sessions are required to add and paint all the sills, and roofing. I might also decide to tone down the stonework with a heavy wash to represent industrial smut, my memories of the time are of grotty blackened buildings, rather than the pristine sandblasted stonework of the present day. Some barrels and crates to go inside the windows, and the odd ModelU bod to bring them to life should then do it! I'm still debating whether to illuminate the interiors, it would be nice to do but I doubt if the result would be worth the effort, given their location tucked away in that corner.

Carrying a name allocated to an A3!

Not necessarily. Careful alignment whilst soldering an extra length of rail to the turnout would do the trick, with a rail joiner used to hold the bond. The additional piece of rail could even be pre-bent to the required radius.

A happy new year from the real Porthmellyn too! My thanks for all the inspiring and regular content throughout the year, definitely one of the best quality threads on the forum. If you feel that progress is slower than you would like, I would encourage you to start adding a bit of greenery on the layout... plant a tree in ‘23. That stage was when my own layout started to come ‘alive’. It’s one of those tasks that has much greater visual impact, compared to the amount of work required!

I think I’ll stick with a drawing pin, length of string and a pencil !

I am in similar circumstances... apart from the last paragraph! My grass also needs cutting... but it’s about 2 degrees outside so it’s not happening today(!)

Confidence, and knowledge has a lot to do with it, I think - and that takes time and effort. People won't change tension-lock couplings if they don't yet know any better. They won't add details or modify things if they think they'll make a bodge of it, which would probably be wrong . And many won't even be aware of lamping and the significance of different lamp positions. There are a lot of blissfully ignorant people in this hobby... and a lot more who are still on a steep learning curve. And yes, there's always the odd one who simply isn't bothered. I observed more than one layout with unadulterated Metcalfe kits at Warley this year. Is that wrong? Whilst those layouts only got a cursory look from myself, there were clearly many other show visitors who seemed to relate to these layouts better than those that I regard as epitomising modelling excellence. My own modelling is imperfect. But as time goes by I learn and things get corrected... yet that same learning leads me to continuously discover yet more 'wrong' things, and so it will be for the rest of my days. Recently, a new member at our club ran some of his stuff on our exhibition layout (on a club night, I hasten to add). It was an NSE liveried diesel hauling a mix of wagons, including a few private owner 5-planks. He enjoyed the evening, but at the same time he 'learned' things from the rest of us, which is one reason why he's joined our club. We've already got him adding crew, coal and lamps to his steam locomotives, he's done some basic weathering and is currently working towards providing a full train of appropriately modelled stock that can be added to our exhibition roster. He'll get there, given time and support. As Neddy Seagoon said in Tales of Old Dartmoor: "Little do they know how little I know about the little they know. If only I knew the little that they know, I'd know a little. I'll have to keep my little ears open you know."

I have used LMS buffers, and simply cut the moulded white metal rails as short as possible... so the break becomes close enough to the buffers that wheels don’t reach the joint. Using C&L insulated rail joiners between the running rails and buffer stop ensures that the bufferstop itself doesn’t cause a short: the joiners are themselves very discreet.

With exhibitions, it is myopic to just simply look at the financials on the day. Take Warley this year, for example. I was just a visitor this year. On one stand, I spent about £20 on the day, but will undoubtedly spend much more in the future - now that I know they exist, and what they sell. Since the exhibition, I have also spent a couple of hundred quid in online purchases from other traders whose stands I visited, because I didn’t want to lug the stuff all around Hall 5 and the long trek back to the car on the day. There is also another £300 in purchases still to be made in the new year with two other traders, having viewed their wares at Warley. Since arriving back home I have measured up my layout and made further decisions to purchase additional items. So about £150 spent on the day, plus another £500 later on, as a direct result of the show. Also, whilst on the subject, the financials have changed for exhibitors as well as traders. Our club had a discussion recently, and came to the conclusion that we should no longer expect all our costs to be covered when taking the larger club layout to an exhibition. We accept that exhibiting is an intrinsic part of the enjoyment of our hobby that we can no longer expect others to fully cover financially, especially at other club shows. So assessing the cost to us will inevitably be a part of the decision making in future re: whether to attend an exhibition. But again, exhibiting brings several other benefits to the club: socially, networking and increasing our profile and awareness of our activities and abilities. Yes, the money is critical. But you have to make an assessment of value rather than simply cost on the day.

Indeed. Not a good environment for any small business owner at the moment. I’m very sorry to see EE go.

I had always assumed from your track layout that StEnodoc is based on Bugle, your Porthmellyn Road represents Par, and Wheal Veronica is Carbis Wharf... so your model was based on the ‘other’ line to Newquay. I am also intrigued that Tregissey (Pentewan) has been highlighted on your map. Are you going to add this branch to your layout? The small and picturesque harbour at Pentewan has terrific modelling potential...

It would be great if, before dismantling, the layout and its operation could be recorded on video and posted up on RMWeb. There should be a ‘remembrance’ thread for layouts such as this!