dasatcopthorne

looking good! Dave.

On Monday evening at our Club I heard a weird tale, well the truth actually. On a large American layout of ours, one member had three plastic centred axles melt. He did a lot of research to discover that a wheel bridging a baseboard gap, conducted a high number of Amps through itself. I still don't quite understand but here goes. He wired the layout with feeds to each track at one end of the rails which consisted of around 4' rails incorporating a soldered joint using a fishplate to make up the length. Apparently, the relatively high resistance of NS rail means that by the time the rails get to the far end of their length and meet track on the adjoining board where the next rails are fed close by, there is a difference in volts/amps. The wheel bridging the gap passes current from the next rail (freshly fed) to the one it came from. When there are second and or third locos asking for current on the previous track, the current passes through the bridging wheel. I thought I understood electricity but that baffles me. The answer is, if you have a long length of rail with no gaps, feed that rail at both ends. Anyway, there seems to be a lot of research done and it's true. I hope I have managed to make this at least semi-clear. Maybe Nigel Cliffe can help. Dave.

I think in your case it will be best to use Set Track but at the Baseboard joint, make sure a section of track straddles the joint. Bolt the boards tightly together, lay the track and fix down well. Then, with a razor saw, cut through the rails immediately above and in line with the joint. Dave.

Many thanks to the Erith Club for a great weekend exhibiting Elbow Lane. A well run and set out show. Highly recommended. Dave.

Brian Kirby, by the way.

Yes, or course. Dave.

DC Kits are showing Loksound chip for the Cavalex locos. Dave.

New Kid on the Block. Thanks to a Bargain from Rails, this Class 45 D15 has just arrived, Sound chip has also arrived from DC Kits and there is enough room under the body to fit a Zimo Double Dumbo, There's even a pre wired plug so all that's needed is to solder the wires to a speaker. Dave.

5 areas of operation? That probably means 5 people to make sense of the layout. (or two and a half people juggling with both hands). And why would a 'complicated' layout not work with Common Return. Surely it would be simpler? Dave.

Here is a pic of a 4Rep. They had the same bogies but without the shoebeam, of course. Dave.

Odd you should say that because R Swypp bought the business when there was a run of their shares. Dave.

As the window prints have gone so well, I decided to ask my friend if he might be able to produce a window style for one of the layout's old buildings. This is a window produced to fit the R. Swypp building. It's looking very promising. Whilst the current 'printed' facia seems to work well, I want to put lights in some windows. D.ave.

Tom. Whilst I understand the 'basics' of magnetism I don't know the ins and outs. However, I have staples on all couplings and I use two magnets 25 x 10 x 3mm N52 strength fitted end to end. I fit these on the underside of my baseboards. This way, they can be retro fitted and moved. Baseboards are 6mm + 3mm cor + track. These seem to work well without attracting steel axles. Bought from Spider Magnets. Dave.

As Mike Buckner says. No problem with traction types or plastic wheels. It evaporates so quickly, it'll never get near them. Remember though, A clean cloth or pad every time, otherwise you could be laying down dirt. Dave.

I've found the original article that convinced me. https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/mrhpub.com/2019-05-may/online/index.html?page=9 Also notice the 'Mineral Spirit' is fairly high on the list. Called White Spirit here in the UK. Dave.

What you want is WD40 'Contact Cleaner' Its brilliant but a good alternative is genuine 'White Spirit'. A fairly exhaustive test was published in Model Railroad Hobbyist a while back. I cannot find it again now, but I went straight out and bought a can and I out use anything else now. The test included many common fluids used for cleaning rail and this came out tops. Dave.

Nomisd. I would agree wholeheartedly the previous posters. Common return is the way to go. With your three 'areas' each complete are could be fed through a rotary switch, as above. Then take this feed through your isolation switches. That way, all three areas could be controlled by any of the three controllers. May I also ask about ML1 and the other blue siding to its right (no number) If purple is in use, what can be done on ML1 using the blue contoller? Common Return? Don't worry, it's a piece of cake. Used it on all layouts since 1970s. And Pete is quite correct in describing how to change later to DCC Good luck Dave.

Might have bought stock from Hattons. Dave.

Short one as I haven't even started the new board. Dave.

Try Halfords for matt spray. Dave.

Thanks for your post. Nearly ordered a JA from Rails at £99. Have now ordered from Kernow at £84. Also found I had a. £10 credit with then so only paid £74. Result! Dave.

Guys. I understand that Dapol have updated/changed the pickups on these locos. Before I purchase a new one, is there anyway of telling if it has the new ones or not please? I don't want to buy someone's old stock. Cheers Dave.

Here are the three diagrams made available to me from someone involved in current design practice. Dave.

I'll be at Tonbridge for the day with Elbow Lane. See you there. Dave.

Looking forward to bringing Elbow Lane along for the weekend. Come and say hello. Dave.