RFS

Basingstoke was part of the London Overspill plan along with places such as Ashford anbd Swindon, which meant they were rapidly developed in the late 1960s. In the post-war years Basingstoke was a small provincial town with a population of around 25,000 whereas today it's close to 125,000 and with electric services to London very much a commuter town. No doubt off-peak and Sunday services were easily served by 3-coach trains.

Many Bachmann 2EPB parts can be obtained direct from Bachmann themselves.

Don't know why Lendon's describe it as "2 Bill" instead of 2-BIL, but the bogie part number is X6575 . Also don't know how they sell it for £9.80 when everyone else is saying around £30. Just a bit miffed as I bought one from Peter's Spares for £28 (a good price I thought) and only later discovered the Lendon's price.....

Some DCC decoder brands, such as Lenz and Zimo, do have short circuit and overload protection.

On my unit I have a Lenz 21-pin chip and it's F5 that turns the interior lights on and off.

Do you have a multimeter? In which case I would suggest taking the engine off the track and then measuring the voltage along the route to see if it's consistent.

Yes you can use the LV101 with the LZV200. I did it for a while with mine.

But surely the point blades will still click due to the spring action of these solenoids?

I got a quick reply from Bachmann but not of much help. Just suggested I return the units for repair at £26 + parts (per unit) + cost of sending. As I mentioned earlier, coupling the coaches with a short piece of copper-clad strip, whereby the two connections are electrically joined, solves the problem. What I've done temporarily is wedge a thin piece of phosphor-bronze strip in the coupling pocket of the trailer coach and then connected up with the usual conductive coupling. Bit of a lash-up but it works for now. I don't really understand the wiring of the 2-EPB. With the 4-CEP

Only if you are using slow-motion point motors that have their own locking mechanism to hold the blades in place.

I've contacted Bachmann with the issue and will report back what they say.

Suggest you do take the time to get to grips with this as it's a really vital part of using DCC to its full potential. I have no knowledge of the Prodigy (I have Lenz), but I do know these Bachmann rebranded decoders have this issue if CVs 54 and 55 are not set correctly.

The replacement arrived today and all is well with the new one. Now I have another problem - couple of 2-EPBs where the lights in the trailer coach only come on in one direction. Had forgotten about the first unit as it runs on a schedule where it doesn't reverse, but the second one is a new issue. I've tried changing the conductive couplings to no avail. However the trailer from a 3rd 2-EPB works fine in both motor coaches, so it's not a problem with the coupling or the motor coach. And if I replace the coupling with a piece of copper clad sleeper strip so that both co

Suggest you have a look at surface-mounting a Peco PL-10 and hiding with Hornby's R8015 point motor housing.

On these 3-ways the frogs are completely isolated and must therefore be powered by external switches. The two frogs nearest the tie-bars can be switched together with one switch, whilst you need a second switch for the other frog.