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Harlequin

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Everything posted by Harlequin

  1. Think about the railway in a scene, not just some track on a board. Double track around the outside of the baseboards leaves no room for any scenery outside the tracks so it's really difficult to make it look natural - you'll always see the "edge of the world". Leave room for roads and houses, fields, trees, rivers as well as the railway scenery like station buildings, water towers, signal boxes, etc... Facing points in main lines. They were avoided as far as possible on steam/early diesel railways. Complex junctions with diamond crossings connecting the outer circuit to your inner loop. Things like that probably happened in the real world but they would have been very unusual and wouldn't have looked anything like what Setrack forces you to do. (If you were using Streamline you'd have more options.) Wiggles. Try to keep it all as smoooth as possible especially on the main lines. Use the corner curves to start your crossovers, don't wait for the curve to straighten out and then have points that turn outwards again - that's classic trainset stuff. Platform length. Not long enough to look right and any train that’s three coaches or longer (I guess) won't fit without looking silly. Loop around the goods shed with short spur beyond. Fine for processing vans efficiently in the real world but the vans would have been moved by hand with pinch bars. Locos were usually not allowed to run through goods sheds (although it did happen). That makes a loop like that difficult to use realistically in a model. You also need to provide road vehicles access to the goods shed. That can actually be across the loop track at a push but it was most common to keep the road and rail vehicles separate for simplicity and safety.
  2. Hi Dan, It's a classic trainset but it's not realistic. It's very hard for us to comment on trainsets because by definition they can be anything you like. So, if you like it, build it. If you want a more realistic model railway then I suggest you look at some model railway plans and read some books about designing model railways before continuing.
  3. The A/S Manor smokebox has a matt finish which makes it look lighter. The Dapol Mogul's smokebox has the same satin finish as the rest of the black areas on that model and similar to the non-smokebox areas of the A/S Manor - and similar to 99% of GWR loco models we've ever seen. Dapol would be very foolish indeed to try to replicate the different surface finish of the A/S Manor smokebox by greying down their standard satin finish over the entire model - and I don't think that's what they've done. I think they've either chosen to use grey for some other reason that's difficult to understand or it's a factory mistake.
  4. I just returned my grey mogul. I couldn't live with it and I couldn't face dismantling it, masking it up, buying an airbrush, learning to airbrush, etc., etc... to put it right. 😞
  5. Yes, my previous suggestion was wrong. I think the two LED connectors are simple + and - across the internal LED and there's no internal connection to other parts of the switch. Sorry, the way the product is described on AliExpress is a bit confusing!
  6. The internal LED (LEDs, plural?) is connected to one of the C common pins and the switch includes a resistor for the LED (that's what the voltage ratings on the side are about). So, assuming that the switch is rated 12V, I think that bridging from one of the NC or NO pins (i.e. to 0v or +12v) to one or both of the LED pins should do the job. If the LED comes on in the wrong sense, connect to the other C pin. Scrub that. It's wrong.
  7. Great! I thought that a wiring diagram showing the actual back of the switch would help because it's an unconventional device. And thanks to @Jeremy Cumberland for pointing out my initial mistake.
  8. If you've got the 3-position version of the switch then the normal crossover wiring for a DPDT to reverse polarity is already built into the switch. So have you tried this: [Deleted incorrect diagram] The centre off position will connect both Tortoise power connections to either 0V or +12V, which is fine.
  9. It's either weary acceptance, too early for most people to have formed their own opinions or not wanting have a go at a manufacturer that is making a decent effort to upgrade a model and provide new variations. But to get the colour black wrong is a bit of a howler...
  10. I guess some issues are more time-consuming to solve than others. It's also possible that they might be trying to find a permanent fix for problems related to the motion rather than simply sending out replacements that might then develop the same problem again. I think we just have to be patient for a while longer.
  11. The GWR Structure Colours book (1912-1947) says this for loco shed doors, in summary: Typically: Below 5ft (or below half height), either black or chocolate (Standard Tint No. 4) Above 5ft (or above half height), Standard Tint No. 2 for the vertical boarding. Frames and any visible ledges and bracing picked out in Standard Tint No.3. The same scheme applied inside and out. If there were fixed timber panels beside the doors the same scheme applied to them. All ironwork, black But there were local variations and sometimes doors would be painted Standard Tint No. 3 all over.
  12. The black moulding is the valve stem and valve stem guide. It should be exactly horizontal (assuming the bogie is sitting on level track) and in the prototype the stem guide is fixed to the upper crosshead guide. It's interesting that it more frequently seems to be the model of No. 97 that shows these problems. Maybe that's just because that version is more popular than the others. Edit: Nope, You can actually see the part bending up and down in AY Mods' video of No. 61 on a rolling road:
  13. In natural daylight: old mogul at the rear, new mogul at the front:
  14. Well, as per your advice to me, you need to see one "in the flesh", if you can. But I would certainly suggest not judging it standalone - you need to have another loco of similar livery alongside. 🙂
  15. I know BR didn't give its inherited steam locos much love but the GWR had pride in it's creations. It's not so easy to use a grime overcoat to hide painting errors on models from that era. Models are most commonly supplied in ex-works condition. That's why coach roofs are white and the copper and brass in the cab gleams. It's always been up to us to weather it down to the desired extent. So either Dapol have got the ex-works black wrong or they are telling us that black was really grey on this loco. Furthermore, I think we can legitimately expect our models not to violently change colour when we photograph them. Just look at @gwrrob's photos if you want a real shock! I'm not happy about this - not sure I can live with it or find a reasonable way to mitigate it.
  16. Yes, it's a comprehensive book (but at first glance it doesn't answer the steam heating question). I got a copy from Abebooks.co.uk and as I write this there are 6 copies available on that platform.
  17. Yes, I agree. I can even see the gap in my first batch mogul 6336, but not quite as obvious. I think my "local" model shop is probably the same as CK's since the one in Exeter closed - but it's still a 45min drive away over Dartmoor!
  18. The "black" is definitely not black there, is it! This is not just a camera or lighting artefact - I'm seeing something similar. Edit: To clarify: The model doesn't look anything like that colour in real life, so the camera is affecting the image but nevertheless you can see the difference in colour with your own eyes when the new mogul is stood alongside other locos.
  19. I meant to post some photos of 5350 here, but I posted them in ANTB instead. Here's the link: I said in that post that my smartphone was doing funny things with the colours but I think I was mistaken. It's Dapol doing funny things! Have a look at this: 5350 new batch top left, 6336 first batch bottom right. This difference in colour of the "black" parts is real - 5350 is very obviously dark blue-grey. That's true of all her "black" parts, wheel centres, tender, etc.
  20. Actually, I meant to post those photos in the Prairie and Moguls thread but, heck, this is close enough! Some of the photos are cruel close-ups but they do show that the general fitment of parts could be better, I think. The body doesn't sit down on the running plate as it should The handrail knobs are too big (not unusual for RTR models) but even so some of them have been damaged by the hand rail wire being roughly pushed through them The coal load doesn't sit down properly (not a big deal, just noting it) The cab glazing is a bit wonky and the porthole glazing seems to sit on top of the cab sheet. Not sure what's going on there - I wonder if some of the transparent plastic should have been painted loco green? Or maybe it is painted but we can see inside, behind the paint, because of refraction?
  21. Here are a few shots of 5350, as received, showing some high points and low points: (Please don't worry about the colours - the smartphone is playing it's own game with them!)
  22. "ZS003MG" is the product code for the sound file, not the decoder, but looking at Digitrains website I think it's safe to assume the decoder is one of the new Zimo MS range. The sound project should already have the mapping from F6 to output Aux1 and that really suggests that there is something wrong with your LED installation. With the LED and resistor disconnected from the decoder apply a 9V battery across it with + connected to what would be the blue common return. It should light up. If not then you've probably got the LED the wrong way round so reverse the battery and try again. If it still doesn't light up then the LED has probably blown. Remember that the blue common wire from the decoder is common positive and AUX1 output is pulled down to 0 when you activate it via the Function input. P.S. Trying to do function mapping by setting CVs is like doing keyhole surgery with a knitting needle. To really get to grips with decoder programming it's much easier to use a program like JMRI.
  23. I hope this isn't going to add to the workload of our Moderators! They need every hour to keep on top of the forum and the pesky "ad-techs" who seem intent on annoying us for no good reason.
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