BoD

Blimey, that must have cost most of next week’s beer money.

But wasn't the second shock van in that particular train an ex LMS one?

So now all you have to do is buy the plugs and solder them up or buy male to male cables.

You should have saved the washing up and just waved the lemon curd tarts about. The pastry rim might be just what you are looking for.

As RobD2 says but I didn’t even connect the frog and have had no problems as the ‘dead’ section is so short. Having said that, the shortest wheelbase I use is a Class 08 0-6-0 diesel shutter.

Looks interesting, especially the ability to store 5 routes with unique addresses but only if you can individually change each address and they don’t program sequentially automatically. I was thinking along the lines of having more than one of these devices controlling a fiddle yard with the same address setting a route via more than one of these decoders. However, one of the advantages of the DCCconcepts decoder, for me, is its ability to change the frog polarity, although I appreciate that there are many other ways to do this.

Facetious reply: yes, you could fit one but I’m not sure where and it wouldn’t do anything. Less facetious reply: some decoders are specified as sound decoders, having on board memory with recorded sounds to be replayed through a speaker. Others are non-sound decoders which only have motor and ‘lighting’ outputs. Sound decoders tend to be quite a bit more expensive. You need to ascertain what type of decoder you have. If it is a sound decoder there would be a speaker attached or specific pads ( see manual) to which you would solder the speaker. I’m not sure if Bachman produce any sound decoders but I am not up to date with their catalogue.

Blimey, inappropriate sexual behaviour on RMweb too. Whatever next?

RAIB have issued a press release about their plans to investigate the incident. Other than describing the outcome, the only thing they say is that the first train was travelling at approx 5 mph and the second approx 14 mph. So a relative impact speed of approx 9mph. Earlier in the thread some assumed that the HST must have been stationary and braked for such damage to be caused. Apparently this is not the case.

As the question in the title really. I have a number of uncoupling magnets for S&W couplers buried under the track and they will eventually be totally invisible to the eye. Hopefully. I’m looking for different ways to indicate their exact location. What are the best/most interesting/ingenious/wacky ways of doing this that you have used or seen?

Stunning photos when compared to the prototype. An inspiration and I really should be getting on with mine.

Regarding your original post about splitting your layout into blocks.... I’m not sure what information Iain gave you in his PM but might I suggest that if you are going to progress with automation you need to fully understand the ideas behind blocks and routes, irregardless of the software and hardware used. It would be beneficial to you if you understood these and divided your own plan accordingly. It would certainly make life easier for you in the future and inform your decision making regarding hardware and software.

I am tied to Lenz (using Rocrail) to control my layout. The decision to go with Lenz many, many years ago was probably correct for me at the time and because I stuck with it when buying block detectors, to migrate now would be very expensive. Don’t get me wrong, my Lenz equipment is very reliable and more than ‘does the job’ but I worry about their lack of development compared to newer offerings. If I were starting again I probably would seriously consider other options. I use the LDT RS 8 occupancy detectors. They are relatively expensive but so far, touch wood, reliable. I am just hoping that someone develops or includes an RS ‘sniffer’.

Get yourself to ‘The Works’ if you have one local and buy a pack of their cardboard gift tags. The pieces card can be found a use for but the reel of string they supply for tying the tags on is perfect for what you want. Even Sort of looks like wire rope when painted. Added bonus - dirt cheap. https://www.theworks.co.uk/p/wedding-invitation-cards/brown-square-string-tags---20-pack/5052089258792

Nothing to do with masking but when were you going to weather the sides of the rails? I wouldn’t bother doing that on the bench because as you lay the track, particularly on flexitrack curves, movement of the rails within the chairs results in unpainted rail showing and the need to redo it.