Mike Buckner

Just west of Bristol Parkway is a 4-way Wye, where you can get from any point of the compass (North / East / South / West) to any other point: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5155291,-2.5583017,1231m/data=!3m1!1e3 Stewart's Lane has a Wye suitable for turning, which probably gets used on specials from time to time. Selhurst Depot contains the makings of a Wye.

I bought Lenz decoders in 2003. They are still running trouble-free, and give excellent Back-EMF control. Lenz tend to issue manuals applicable to several decoders with small differences (such as plug type). The operation of the decoders is the same. Possibly some of the decoders had plugs, and some just bare wires. A previous owner may have snipped off the plugs, intending them for use in locos without sockets. The second decoder from the top (with a red label) seems to have cables with no protruding metal wire. Suggests it had a plug which was snipped. The other red-label decoder has probably received a visit from a wire-stripper. CV 50 determines whether "silent drive" is in operation or not. You may find you are happy without bothering with this. The main issue is to make sure that your locos do not draw more than 0.45 amps in total. M

Perhaps someone can enlighten me. In the case of coreless motors, is there an equivalent concept to 3-pole / 5-pole / etc?

Well, I suppose you will usually only be looking at one side of the loco at a time...

"Your call is important to us. Please hold until it is no longer important to you."

I wonder if they have the class 08/09 in mind?

Will there be sound as well?

Thank you for the replies. Have been made an offer of an industrial-size ultrasonic bath, which I'm considering. I was wondering if anyone had already tried this, and could advise how effective it is regarding removal of the ordinary crud which accumulates on track due to running sessions and tarnishing/oxidation. Also, whether it loosens the rails from the trackbed. Having to lift/re-lay track periodically wouldn't be a worry, as I don't have a permanent layout and frequently alter the layout to a different plan.

Bump

Has anyone used an Ultrasonic cleaner to clean pieces of track? How well did it work?

I had a Hornby Class 31 (rotating fan model) a few years ago. Although it didn't have the mazak problem, it exhibited frequent start/stop behaviour at random locations on the freshly-cleaned layout, no other loco having problems. Perhaps it had loose solder joints affected by being in motion? I would have been able to disassemble it (with difficulty), but there is no way, with my 3 thumbs and limited dexterity, that I would have been able to re-assemble it with everything in place and all the lights working. Too complicated for people with basic skills. Got rid of it. Also had a Hornby Class 40 which stopped dead. This one, being of simple construction, I could attend to. The Chinese factory had used very thin wires and weak solder joints. Re-soldering cured the problem - which occurred on 2 occasions in separate places. Made a vow to buy no more Hornby, and have stuck to it now for several years.

Please forgive my asking a basic question - does that mean mix up some baking soda with water, or is there a proprietary "liquid baking soda" product?

I can (the Hornby Brush 2). Frequent stuttering at random, all round the layout. With clean wheels. Other locos have had no such problems on the same layout. In the end, I just dumped it on ebay.

Part of the issue is explained here: https://dccwiki.com/Accessory_Address As I recall (I can't find a link immediately to hand), a related issue is that some accessory decoders offer addresses in groups of 4, grouping them as 0 to 3, 4 to 7, etc. Whereas others group them as 1 to 4, 5 to 8, etc. Some command stations make similar assumptions (either way). Mismatches between conventions of one supplier's command station and another supplier's decoder have caused confusion in the past. There was another issue with a Hornby command station (I forget which one), where the electrical signal output to the track was liable to manifest "ringing" to a greater extent than other command stations, so that some decoders did not interpret the commands correctly. TCS decoders were prone to have problems, and TCS published photos of oscilloscope readings applied to a Hornby command station showing the ringing.

The question of Elite compliance was mooted before it became clear that the original NMRA spec was ambiguous. The NMRA have now admitted this, and sanctioned both interpretations as compliant. It had to do with whether you regard the "first" number as 1 or the "first" number as zero. Hornby had chosen the minority interpretation.