Brummyrlb

Thanks Andi unfortunately they’re not that type Eh ?

can anyone help me with peco point problems ? Briefly , the problems are mechanical ( ‘ bouncing ‘ ) or failing to conduct electricity . I have over 70 on the layout , all controlled by the ancient triangle / Hornby passing contact levers . Unless I’m consistently doing something wrong , fitting the motor underneath requires an accuracy of less than half a mm , such accuracy being almost a lottery under the board with one hand free ! This can be the difference between working properly or not . I suspect temperature and or humidity are playing a part , the board is 12mm MDF . Even when the point changes perfectly with a clean snap does not guarantee conducting and a mere feather touch to the blade restores power . At the moment I have 11 playing up , an all time record .

can anyone tell me where I can acquire decent loco yard lamps ? All I can find are those dreadful too short made in China things with a lamp hanging off a 90 degree bracket . The ladder rings are even rounded where they abut to the sides . Cheapo out of scale junk . The most common style is approx 20 feet with the lamp hanging under a vertically rectangular mounting on top of the pole . Can’t believe these just don’t seem to exist . If I get Re directed to another load of Chinese rubbish on e bay again I’m going to scream ! help ! Please !

can anyone tell me where I can acquire decent loco yard lamps ? All I can find are those dreadful too short made in China things with a lamp hanging off a 90 degree bracket . The ladder rings are even rounded where they abut to the sides . Cheapo out of scale junk . The most common style is approx 20 feet with the lamp hanging under a vertically rectangular mounting on top of the pole . Can’t believe these just don’t seem to exist . If I get Re directed to another load of Chinese rubbish on e bay again I’m going to scream ! help ! Please !

Got the ballast pre colouring sorted but now I’m struggling to find a pva glue that DOESNT leave a glazed ‘snail trail ‘ across the sleepers - Tamiya matting agent noted Thankyou for that - yet to source it . Ballast bond works great but DOES NOT dry Matt ! There has to be a glue out there somewhere , no one seems to address the glazing problem HELP !

Thanks to everyone who commented on my ballast meanderings ! I do intend to do a final weathering with an airbrush , but I remain very dissatisfied with the colours ‘straight out of the jar . To date I’ve had some success colouring the ballast by shaking it with a dab of weathering powder . Caution with the work area this is a serious contaminant ! Trouble is , much of the colour is lost in the track wetting process . I’m testing Ballast bond currently , but it does not dry Matt as it says on the tin , glazing my painted sleepers . It spreads wonderfully on a wet bed , but tends to drag the ballast on a dry bed . Maybe I’m doing something wrong? . In the colouring experiments I’ve found that adding water to the powder / ballast mix does improve its resilience to being ‘washed off ‘ , but the business of drying it out is lengthy and it’s less ‘tweakable ‘ . It’s a case of stirred NOT shaken when tweaking the colours because otherwise the pile gets bigger and bigger but doesn’t change much in shade , the added ballast colour being polluted by the powder already in main mix . Any comments very appreciated .

I’m so scared of getting the ballast operation wrong that I’m two years on and researching it ! Any help would be appreciated but I have learned a few things which may help others . I’m oo gauge . Firstly , selecting ballast , size and colours . I opted for woodland Scenics and investigated it thus . Place a ruler on white millimetres side uppermost . Drop a pinch of ballast onto the sheet and tap it so the particles come to rest on the edge of the ruler . Now take a photo with a decent mobile . Expand the photo and you’ll see very clearly the average particle size . This revealed for me that the medium woodland stuff is mostly half an inch too large and the fine is mostly half an inch too small . ( I collected some real ballast and measured it ) However , a blend of two parts medium to one part fine looks pretty good . Colour : I didn’t like any of the colours available because basically they all look ‘too new ‘ . I decided on the colour I wanted and set about colouring it . First method was to mix in some weathering powder by shaking the mix in a margarine tub . A small amount of powder does the trick . One problem with this is that much of the colour gets washed off in the track wetting process . Initially I abandoned this before discovering that my coloured mix was still a great improvement on the untreated ballast . Along the way I’ve devised a ballast spreader which works great , and easy methods if removing those particles which adhere to the sleepers and rail sides . Please ask - don’t want to go on too long ! Currently trying variou pva glues on short pieces of track . Sleepers are painted so I don’t want a glazed finish . Track bond anyone ? ? Tried the the ballast powder and I as much as I love some of that company’s products I found the powder virtually hopeless , even mixed far stronger than the instructions . Hope all this is some help !