Millardski

I ordered an Oxford Diecast model that Edward of Aspire was advertising as in 'Stock'. I ordered the item on 31st October 2022 and received an email confirmation and invoice the next day 1st November. Edward took the money from my bank account that day, then nothing. I left it 3 weeks in case he was very busy, but nothing. I phoned and got his wife who said she would ask him to call me back. A week later and nothing. I phoned again and got Edward who was very apologetic and said, "I know I've got it somewhere, but just can't find it". He promised to have a further search and send it, then nothing. I emailed and suggested that as he was unable to find it, he refund my bank account, but nothing. Apart from the invoice on the 1st November I have had no reply to any contact I have made with him. He is a thoroughly scurrilous individual. Unfortunately it seems he has history for this behaviour. November, December and now January, he's not going to send the item OR refund me my money. He's not just disorganised , HE'S A THIEF.

Excellent suggestion from JDW. I have a quantity of very narrow tape from my old days of using Letraset in the office, which will sit on the rail tops, can be painted a rust colour and sit under the wheels of these old locos. As you say, this tape, or just the paint, can be tested by parking the DCC locos with their lights on and if I change my mind in the future, can remove the tape and/or paint. Thank You again.

Absolutely great, just what I needed - confirmation of what I sort of assumed. I'm modelling a 'Heritage' railway and these locos will be mainly parked in sidings alongside a loco shed. The rail tops in one of the sidings will be painted rust colour, but I also wanted my DCC loco's/shunters able to slip into the unpainted end of some of the sidings, so I didn't want to isolate the whole siding (although I guess I could just isolate one end of the siding). The locos I am dressing the sidings with are rather old locos that belonged to my late father and will be heavily weathered, but you've confirmed that I need to disconnect/remove the motors. If once that's done, there's no fear of me shorting the whole DCC system, I'll be happy with the result. Thank you for your excellent advice - I just knew the combined expertise of RMweb modellers would put me on the right track.

If I have elderly DC locomotives that I would like to place in sidings as STATIC models on a DCC layout, can anyone tell me (a complete electrical novice) whether they will be safe to just sit there (dressing the scene) or will they cause shorts on the system. If they will cause problems, then what actions should I take to prevent such issues?