JimFin

Tis indeed, same as Shildon in fact! At least next time we see them, they will have Alison's layout rather than the trade stand with them! Only one Bemo log wagon crossed the divide and a strange device one of my operating team got quite excited about - something called a class 66 which was really quite inappropriate, would not even fit on the track.

Neuburg 1913 has made the short hop up to Newcastle / Jesmond for the Tyneside MRC show this weekend. If you are attending, look forward to seeing you there, Jesmond Academy 10.00 to 5.00 Saturday and 10.00 to 4.00 Sunday.

This is an answer I got. "It is being VERY slowly worked by the RhB as part of the overall project to do a traction technology refresh on the RhB Ge 4/4 III loco fleet. AFAIK, the existing MOB traction package has been largely removed. RhB has other things soaking up money right now so the Ge 4/4 III refresh is very much a back-burner project. Eventually Ge 4/4 III number 653 will emerge with the new traction package and after testing/tweaking, the same package will retrofitted to the whole Ge 4/4 III fleet."

I use a Cricut Maker and think it very unlikely that would work. Firstly the maximum material thickness is 2.4mm which might exclude some of the Wills range for a start. Using the knife blade and a strong grip mat with plasticard taped down, it is very effective up to 20 thou. Difficulty beyond that is the number of passes the blade has to make and risk of the material moving on the mat increases. I have found it is very useful to simply make one pass of the design which gives a decent cut that can then readily be followed by hand as you have the exact dimensioned shape to follow. Almost using it as a marking out tool as pete_mcfarlane suggests

I have bought a lot of items from Plaza Japan over the last few years with no problems and find them very helpful and efficient in all aspects. Regarding taxes, no import duty, model railways (and all scale models) have 0% tariff under World Trade Organisation rules. Imports to the UK have 20% VAT added on arrival and you will usually have to pay the courier a handling charge as well (£11 to £15) to collect the VAT and make payment to HMRC. HOWEVER - historically there was a £135 personal exemption limit under which tax was not collected and my experience is that this is still being applied. So - maybe split your order into smaller parcels, each under £135 and you may avoid the VAT, since there is no tax to collect, no handling fee either. You need to do the calculation if the multiple postage costs exceed what you might save.

For anyone in the North East of England, Philip will be giving a presentation on "Amberdale" to the Thirsk Model Railway group on Monday 17th October. 7.30 at Sowerby Parochial Hall, Thirsk YO7 1JG While there is no admission fee, any donations from guests to offset the hall hire would be appreciated. (now I can remove my treasurers hat 🙂 )!

Set up at "Locomotion" at Shildon for their exhibition this weekend. Both layouts side by side. If you are visiting, do drop by and have a chat.

Have a look at Litzirüti on the Chur - Arosa line. Simple curving passing loop. There is a very slight inclination at the station building but the loops to the Arosa side have a more pronounced gradient and a sharp drop away in the Chur direction.

Just need to wire a resistor in circuit, either side.

Over scale sparrow.

Not of those specifically but have a few of their goods vehicles. Detail is generally lower resolution then Bemo, a bit courser.

They are resin prints - but single pieces. I use a mix of 2 different types of resin to give them some flexibility. This is the RhB version but same principle.

K7D4

I went back to TCS after the experience I had with Digitrax on the Hakone loco.

Bemo have produced both code 100 and code 70. I recall that the point work was made for them by Shinohara and when they retired, production stopped so you will only find used or new / old stock. Peco works perfectly well and may be easier to find and a more reliable long term source.

Tinkercad is great for quick and basic stuff, Fusion 360 personal copy (free) for more complex.

Like others, I avoid contact with the fep as much as possible and do not drain unless there is a reason. What you may be seeing are localised stretch marks in the fep if you are repetitively printing the same item in the same spot. I would be more inclined to move the print position on the build plate from time to time.

What works for me it to set CV2 to a value - say 40 and set the loco off on speed step 1. If it moves off, reduce CV2 by say 5 and repeat. Keep adjusting and fine tuning increments until it just begins to move on step 1. If it does not move off at 40, try 50 and just repeat until you can find the right value.

Filters attached to the printer seem like a bit of a waste of time/effort to me as you need to think through the whole process. Rresin in the printer is just the start. After you have removed the print from the build plate and drained the print down, washed, dried and cured it, having resin impregnated towels, gloves and support material in the workspace all needs to be considered. To that end, I opted for a complete 7 stage air purifier for the room. Like this - https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/eap500hc/electriq-eap500hc

A method I use may help with the wheel cleaning, although I have no experience of detection. I have a narrow strip (about 1cm) of blue paper towel held across the track at the entrance/exit to the fiddle yard. There are screws fixed to each side of the track and the strip held in place with magnets. The strip is kept damp with a few drops of cleaning alcohol which picks up dirt from all the wheels passing over it. As it becomes dirty, just swap. Means all wheels get a clean whenever they pass over it.

Hope that solves it. Did an install for a pal at the weekend. Looks like it would be possible to create some venting by cutting away some of the black "box" section in the AC unit which would allow heat to escape via the AC grills. Having said that - not had a problem with mine, even with exhibition use.

SBB use their own custom font - lots of details here - https://brand.sbb.ch/d/k7TF5BpX3B3F/markenelemente#/markenelemente/typographie-1 Cannot help with BLS I am afraid.

Contact Mike Marno at Marno.Ltd. Provided you can give him the part number and name he is able to get them for you as a UK importer for Bemo. Places orders roughly once per month. I have found him very helpful. http://www.marnoltd.co.uk/index.html

Not able to answer your very specific question but as a thought, have you put the Switchpilot into programming mode? The SwitchPilot manual has a wiring diagram for the LokProgrammer if that helps.

A trick I use to remove residuals from the vat is to leave a small amount of resin just covering the whole of the fep and run an exposure test for about 20 seconds. Remove the vat and press gently on a corner of the fep from the underside and on top, use a plastic spatula to gently lift out the entire sheet of exposed resin complete with any residual material attached to it. Refill the vat and off you go. Alternatively you can put some scrap support material leaning on the edge of the vat into the exposure area before running the exposure test to give you something to lift the sheet out with.