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Chris White

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  1. Chris White
    until
    Bentley Model Railway Group are planning to hold the next Calne Model Railway Show (the twenty eighth) at the Calne Community Campus, White Horse Way, Calne, Wiltshire, SN11 0SP (https://what3words.com/minute.feeds.airliners) on Saturday 13 April 2024 from 10:00 until 17:00 and on Sunday 14 April 2024 from 10:00 until 16:00. Prices: Adult £6.00, Child (5 to 17) £3.00, Group (2+3) £15.00 Under 5 Free Website: https://www.calnemrs.org.uk/ facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/786427216267703/786427226267702/ Layouts: Bridgebury Gate - N Broadford - HO Bruckless - 1:76 3ft Gauge Choates Lane - N Dounreay - HO Fairwood Junction - OO Gemto - OO9 Norton Vale - OO Oldshaw - EM Somerford - OO Sud Harz Eisenbahn - HOm Swannish - EM Traders: abc Model Railways Andy Lynch C+L Finescale David Smith Books GLR Bespoke Services Graham Ravensdale Just in Case Lord & Butler, Cardiff Model Railway Developments Ray Heard Model Railways Richard Panes Spares Ron Lines Squires Model & Craft Tools Others: Scleroderma & Reynaud's UK The 'N' Gauge Society
  2. Chris White
    I would disagree with those suggestions as the wipers are becoming detached from the carrying arm. Their attachment points are a long way away from the connections where any soldering takes place. As to switching of current the switching of DCC power to the point frog would normally take place when there is no rolling stock at the frog and hence no DCC current flowing through the frog, the other contact is just switching a low current feedback signal.
  3. Chris White
    MERG is a group of enthusiasts so whilst the Servo4 is a much lower cost than many commercial offerings you do have to build it yourself from a kit and support from the community is readily available but there's no warranty. The Sema4 firmware will allow a bit of bounce to be simulated but some find it challenging to use. For those not keen on spending some time down rabbit holes best go with one of those many commercial offerings now out there.
  4. Chris White
    I am unaware of any solenoid motor designed to use a continuous current. If it's just the switch you want to stick with but are prepared to do different wiring then there are a number of circuits designed to take a simple "on/off" input, i.e. just using one side of the and based on that changing output the appropriate pulse to operate a twin coil solenoid motor. Your title mentions servos, whereas you posting does not. Here again you would need to employ a circuit that would utilise one side of the switch for an "on/off" input and output the appropriate command signal to drive a servo base on the state of the input.
  5. Chris White

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    On behalf of the club thank you to the traders and exhibitors that supported the show as well as to all those who visited over the weekend. We trust everyone had an enjoyable time and considered the show worthwhile.
  6. Chris White

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    Unfortunately WWScenics have withdrawn.
  7. Chris White

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    The leisure centre no longer serves refreshments, it merely has some vending machines in the main lobby. For the duration of the show The Italian Job Coffee will have their trailer parked outside the main entrance from which they will be serving a selection of hot and cold food and drink. The leisure centre still has the public lounge on the first floor from which you can overlook the exhibition hall. So having made a purchase you can bring this into the lounge for consumption. The centre prohibits the consumption of food or drink in the exhibition hall itself.
  8. Chris White

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    Unfortunately Simon Addelsee has had to withdraw Hobbiton End.
  9. Chris White
    I've only just come across this thread but I repaired what I believe is one of these units back in March 2018,
  10. Chris White

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    Neal finally told me the scale/gauge for "Farmer's Drove" along with the location and era being modelled. At almost the last minute we have one more trader who literally walked through our clubroom door to ask about attending. "The Locomotion Store" are a new venture who are introducing a range of gauge 3 static display locomotives as kits, ready assembled, or fully finished.
  11. Chris White

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    Greensplat has had to withdraw but a club member, Neal Mansell, has offered his new layout, "Farmer's Drove" to make up the numbers. We also have a new trader, Graham Ravensdale, who will be selling die cast road vehicles.
  12. Chris White

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    By the way for those not familiar with Calne the Community Campus is NOT the Beversbrook Sports Facility. It's the original leisure centre adjacent to the secondary school at the Quemerford end of the town.
  13. Chris White

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    We're grateful to Simon Addelsee for agreeing to bring Hobbiton End.
  14. Chris White

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    Unfortunately Bridgebury Gate have had to withdraw from the show. We're in the process of finding a substitute.
  15. Chris White

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    Unfortunately due to a mix up with the venue booking the limited time available to us on the Friday evening means the layout Broadford has had to withdraw this year. We're in the process of seeking a substitute.
  16. Chris White
    Many thanks for the various responses. I do not need convincing as to the merits of using a card reader, I've been advocating this for some years. The difficulty I encountered a few years ago was that when it came to signing up the bank account had to be a private individual or an incorporated body, e.g. a limited company, in that these are recognised as legal entities that can enter into contracts whereas most private clubs being just a group of individuals are not. What I was looking for was information from those who have actually setup card reader accounts for such a club as to what, if any, restrictions are applied in this respect now.
  17. Chris White
    Bit of an odd one this I'll admit but over recent years it's become increasingly obvious that visitors expect to pay for admission to shows using card and contactless methods. In any enquiries I've made the response seems to be that you have to be a private individual, an incorporated organisation, or a registered charity, i.e. a legally recognised "body", to sign up to any such service. Being just a private club I understand that we would be deemed at best a "community group". As such we can obtain a business bank account but do not qualify in the opinion of any of the card and contactless service providers. Hence I was wondering if anyone was able to provide any advice or insight on this? At the very least I was wondering if it would be possible to draw on the experience of other clubs and groups to find out if they'd solved the question and if so how? -- Chris White Chairman Bentley MRG
  18. Chris White
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    Bentley Model Railway Group present their twenty-eight Calne Model Railway Show. Website, facebook event Venue: Calne Community Campus, White Horse Way, Calne, Wiltshire SN11 0SP Times: Saturday 15 April 11:00 to 17:00, Sunday 16 April 10:00 to 16:00 Prices: Adult £6.00, Child (5 to 17) £3.00, Group (2+3) £15.00 Under 5 Free Layouts: Bovington Junction (N) Depot de Camions (N) Farmer's Drove (N) Highbridge Road (OO) Nove Mesto (TT) Peasevern Yard (O) Penryn Stone and Clay Company (OO9) St. Philips (OO) Sydney Gardens (OO) Ulvik (HO) Victoria & Albert Docks (OO) Wheal Imogen (P4) Trade support: Andy Lynch Branchlines Genessis Models Graham Ravensdale Just in Case Lord & Butler, Cardiff Richard Panes Spares Ron Lines Sgts’ Mess Squires Model & Craft Tools Sunningwell Command Control The Locomotion Store YouChoos
  19. Chris White
    Let's just say we'd witnessed some less than admirable responses to judging decisions in the past. Added to that the whole process of giving out and getting back trophies could be a right pain in the proverbial :-)
  20. Chris White
    After careful consideration the club has decided not to proceed with the Calne Model Railway Exhibition proposed for October 2021. We would however like to continue holding these going forward and look forward to meeting up in person at some future date.
  21. Chris White
    Following Geoff's sudden and unexpected death we've still not yet been able to gain access to any of Geoff's paperwork or emails relating to his organising of either the Calne Show proposed for October 2021 nor Trainwest proposed for April 2022. I have been able to contact most of the exhibitors and traders for these but for a remaining few I have no contact details whatsoever. So if anyone had been in correspondence with Geoff about attending at either show and has not yet been in contact with me could you drop me a line, preferable by email to chariman@bmrg.org.uk (that's chairman at bmrg.org.uk). Thanks.
  22. Chris White
    Do you mean natively or that it has problem with those exported to a common format? Searching on the web suggests nanoCAD only handles DWG whereas both Draftsight and DoubleCAD claim to be able to import and export a wide range of formats including DNG, DWG, DXF, and SVG which are usually the most popular for exchanging drawings. I have had issues with different packages putting different interpretations on DWG, particularly disagreeing on the scaling of a drawing. Also should you try Inkscape it took me a while to discover it's idea of saving as an SVG wasn't quite the same as everyone else's. Like Stephen I ended up exporting from one package in every format, and version thereof for some, then importing these into the other package until I found one they agreed on, or didn't in some cases.
  23. Chris White
    Initially I'd be doing the mechanical setup by setting the servo horn and signal arm to their mid point, i.e. with the servo horn perpendicular to the axis of the signal operating rod. Then I realised that this was where I got most vertical movement of the servo horn and have changed to using servo horn perpendicular for signal arm on (danger, stop). This way I get most bang for my buck when setting up any bounce. With respect to the controller I arrange for this on (danger, stop). position not to be at the full limit of travel setting so there's still an degree of adjustment available to fine tune everything once the signal and servo is installed in situ.
  24. Chris White
    I don't feel I have the time nor patience to hand build turnouts and track. I would like to be able to buy stuff off the shelf that looks a little better, e.g. smaller gaps, as well as not have rolling stock nod and duck as wheels roll through the the gap at the crossing V. As a bonus I'd like the wheels to be round so I don't get things wobbling along the track :-) I'd also like to be able to use one style of coupler where for all my stock these ride at the same height, and don't droop or drop out. I'm quite happy to do some wheel swapping and back to back checking and adjustment if someone somewhere can provide a definitive statement as to what the measurement should be and for that to apply consistently without caveats, provisos, and special cases to all my rolling stock. To be drowned in a Tsunami of EM-2, DOGA BF, DOGA IF, DOGA SF, 00-SF, 4-SF (particularly where some of these are different names for the same thing) just doesn't help.
  25. Chris White
    For me one of the major issues is there seem to be too many groups advocating too many standards. Flawed or not in the US you have the NMRA and as I understand it manufacturers aiming at that market fall into line with this. I don't know how much influence or adherence they have but in the rest of Europe you have MOROP and their published "Norms of the European Model railroads", NEM. For the UK scene there appear to be a plethora of specialist interest splinter groups all advocating their own published standards, albeit derived from EMGS, MOROP, NMRA, or some hybrid of these. Manufacturers for the UK market seem to freely pick and choose which standards they pay any attention to, or just put out their own. I often feel those of us looking for a RTR solution are pretty much lost until there's coherence and agreement on a single set of published standards that manufacturers can they be requested to follow. I'd suggest herding the cats might be a worthwhile first step before endeavouring to propose a better mousetrap. At the very least I'd appreciate a web site somewhere listing all the different UK standards, and ideally giving a tabular cross reference and comparison, such that every I can look there rather than picking through every different conversation I come across every few years, these do come around cyclically in order to try to come to terms with the latest fashion or flavour.
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