Harlequin

For what it's worth here are the images from Everything Great Western, copied with permission: They seem to be photographs of prints and digging around a bit, I find that some of them have been seen before so apologies if these are nothing new to you. One of them is credited to Peter Gray elsewhere so do you think they are all his?

You are taking a commendably pragmatic approach. I have two thoughts for you: 1. It is possible to build a roundy round in 8 by 4 using streamline track. That would probably mean starting again from scratch so you might not be ready to do that yet. 2. You must have some space around your 8 by 4 to move around it and reach everything. What if you used that space for a layout and some of space currently occupied by the 8 by 4 for an operating well? That would also mean starting again but with much more room devoted to the layout so it changes the equation!

Hi Tim, You're not quite asking the right question. There are multiple suppliers of Black Five sound projects and they can be programmed into a variety of different decoders. So you want opinions on what's a good sound decoder and, separately, who makes a good Black Five sound project. Then you need to work out which combination is actually available and choose the best of them. BTW: I suggest that you'd get more answers in the DCC Sound area (or maybe the Hornby Black Five thread) but please don't duplicate the question there. Ask the mods to move your original thread and delete this one.

Everyone seems to be very stressed out today. I was just trying to do the right thing and check it was OK before copying someone else's images and posting them here.

You obviously must have seen my post in EGW asking permission to post the images. Why didn't you wait for the answer. Did you get permission?

Sorry, I quoted the wrong group. It's actually in "Everything Great Western". But the problem with sharing the pictures is the same: They are both private groups so I can't provide a link that would work and I can't simply extract the photos. I'll see what I can do.

That was not the kind of response I was expecting! The problem is people, not Facebook.

Hi Rob, Did you see that a small cache of four lovely colour photos from the 1950's was recently posted in "Everything Great Western" on Facebook? Kingsbridge, Gara Bridge, Brent and <Not sure, possibly Brent again?>

@The Stationmaster If "nationalistion" meant that most of the control of the railways was removed from DafT and handed down to a new version of BR, run by railway professionals, wouldn't that be a Good Thing?

I must admit I don't follow the heritage scene very closely but I didn't know they were being changed to air brakes. I think I can hear vacuum pumps spitting on many recent videos of GWR locos and the last times I was near to one of the Manors and 2999 they both made spitty/clicky sounds from their vacuum pumps.

Remember it's not a real Mogul, Andy. That won't make much difference to the sounds because of standardisation and being derived from a very similar (under the skin) Prairie but worth bearing in mind.

Please carry on as you are, Accurascale, for the majority of us. The curmudgeons can use AI such as ChatGPT or Copilot to translate "modern", "trendy" phrases into Archaic English. Copilot suggests that, "Reach out to technical support", could become: “Seek aid from the technical sages.” “Entreat the assistance of the technical troubleshooters.” “Beseech the guidance of the technical artisans.” I don't see a flaw in that plan, do you? Oh, wait... 😉

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooke_and_Wheatstone_telegraph#One-needle_telegraph

When Bruno is in a manic mood he charges up trees at high speed. Here he is in my cherry tree: Up in one of my apple trees, he was biting off the flower buds, just for fun (or to annoy me, perhaps). Maybe I could train him to thin out the apples later in the year...?

I think you also need lots of extra cables and pipes all connecting back to a dyno car appropriate for the period. E.g. It would look really odd to have all the data collection equipment without any means to record it…

Yes.

It's only a snoozefest if you focus on the winner and ignore the rest of the field. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see someone other than Verstappen/Red Bull winning but it's still interesting to watch Sainz proving he has every right to a drive with any of the top-level teams, Ricciardo's survival struggles, Norris building his reputation and Alonso adding to his god-like status. The less said about Stroll, the better. If daddy didn't own the team he would have been a goner long ago!

I think it would be worthwhile if the speaker in the smokebox was also upgraded to something with a bigger sealed enclosure. BTW @Neal Ball, giving the sound a clear path out is as much about the sound quality as the volume. The little plastic box of the tender does something to the sound. What really lets my Manor upgrade down is the sound project. Instead of barking it wheezes... When the Accurascale project is pushed through a decent speaker, as Neal has done, it does sound better.

Accurascale are very aware of the sound volume/quality issue from the feedback they got when the Manor was first released so we can hope that they will make changes. (I think the people who are happy with the factory sound have probably never hear a good steam sound project before...) I did a similar upgrade but I removed the circuit board entirely so I have more room for a speaker. It's documented somewhere on here. Found it:

Hi Neal, I know I'm going to sound like a stuck record but you could get the sound even better if the speaker wasn't covered by the solid plastic coal load.

I think you've got your wires crossed somewhere. People talked about 9mm laser cut boards being quite heavy but 6mm being much more manageable. It has also been mentioned that 1200mm long boards might not fit in a car. That would be a reason to make them shorter but not thinner. See what @Nearholmer and @7mmin7foot said. A 1200*600mm board made of 6mm birch ply, including top surface and framing, should weigh about 4.5 to 6 kilos, depending on the type of birch ply used. That's really not heavy. It's about a half to 2/3rds the weight of a common-or-garden 9 litre watering can full of water! If you're only moving the boards through the house, not into a car, the length and the bulk shouldn't be a problem. Lighter boards are easier to manoeuvre. And you can still use your trick of bolting on extra, smaller scenic pieces - if you have the space where the layout is setup.

Hi Ken, The idea of bolt on scenic only parts is very good but I'm still not clear why you feel you have restricted width. Is it due to the weight of the boards or the space available to erect and operate the layout?

This is the current state of my Dean 8ft 6in bogie CAD based on the drawings in Russell: There are a few things that I know are not right.

Yes, I've been thinking about that kind of solution to bolection painting as well: Print the bolections as one piece with a support framework to give them strength and to hold their relative positions accurately. Paint them. Glue the whole painted print to the glazing plastic. Cut away the framework. Fit to coach.

Can you explain exactly what the space constraints are and why the boards have to be thin as a result? Someone may have already dealt with something similar and they could tell you how they solved the problem. A floor plan with dimensions would be great if you could manage it.