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Some more adventures in DCC, this time courtesy of the fabulously patient Kevin at Coastal DCC. I wanted to fit a stay alive to the J27 which has a small chip and loudspeaker fitted in the tender. Kevin supplied a charging circuit and nice big capacitor. The charging circuit manages the power from the capacitor and I had no idea how to wire everything up. I'm not good on circuit diagrams and the terminology involved and I couldn't understand the instructions; so on the phone to Kevin with lots of simple questions and a pad and pencil at the ready. And Bingo! Success! Thanks Kevin! Here'sthe original set-up with the charging circuit and capacitor already and waiting... The charging circuit can be trimmed to size as I only needed one set of connections. The side shown in the photo is called the top, the underneath is the bottom. I wired the charging circuit and the capacitor from my sketches as described to me by Kevin. A start has been made on insulating the contacts, I covered everything later in the translucent tape I used with the Lady Armstrong. Then everything was wired to the chip...the blue wire and the "ground" which turned out to be one of the unused tabs on the chip. I removed some of the plastic and very carefully soldered the remaining wire. I zoomed in on this photo to check that the solder hadn't strayed. Then everything was checked and insulated with yet more tape, then eased back into the tender. I forgot to take a photo whilst doing this and I'm not taking it apart in a hurry but it does work very nicely! Here's a link to a swift video... www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUFfG4jviHo ... Cheers Simon And of course, don't forget about the West Midlands Workshop Day!

I phoned Kevin at Coastal this morning and along with some very relevent diagrams via email, he patiently and thoroughly explained exactly which wires to solder where. It all seems so clear when an expert explains! So, very soon, I'll rev up the soldering iron and post the results on my thread in Scratchbuilding. Cheers Simon

Hi Vecchio; thanks very much for the link, I have looked at this previously and I'm afraid the problem is one of too much information, I just can't understand what is shown in the manual! I need the specific information in a very simplified form. I'll phone Coastal tomorrow and let you know the result. Many thanks for your help. Cheers Simon

Hi, I wish to wire a ZIMO SACC16 "stay alive" charging circuit and SC68 supercapacitor (as recommended by Coastal DCC) in conjunction with a small Zimo sound decoder that is already set up and running. Can anybody describe, preferably with pictures or sketches, what goes where? I can make assumptions, but they might be expensive, and the instructions don't quite help me understand! It really is as simple a matter as which colour wire goes where! Cheers Simon

After having successfully plugged in a Dapol O gauge 08, I thought I'd have a go at some proper DCC wiring as my scratchbuilt Armstrong Whitworth doesn't have a plug! I had a long email conversation with John at YouChoos (other DCC manufacturers are available). John is very patient...and after considering his advice I chose a sound-chip with a hefty capacitor as the loco is a rather short wheelbase 0-4-0 and I wanted belts and braces as well as the bells and whistles... There's a nice big speaker inside on the right, smack in the engine compartment and the chip is stuck up under the bonnet. The original small capacitor is still attached. I took that off and added the SuperCap,making triple sure I got the + and - terminals correctly wired to prevent small expensive explosions. The metal casing of the capacitor needs to be insulated, I used some Kapton tape (I think it's Kapton...), anyway it works well. And the capacitor was secured inside the front of the bonnet. The main wiring uses microconnectors so I can take things apart if I need to. I made double sure everything was insulated before putting it all back together as the inside of the loco is basically a bare metal box. All the components are held in place by "Black Tack" which is both sticky and rubbery! And there she goes.Marvellous! My first home wired DCC sound installation. Great fun although I drove everyone quietly mad playing with it at last night's meeting. Next; to learn how to tweak the CV settings, including the fantastic sound volume. Anyone interested in 7mm modelling or learning or more about stuff like this, there's a West Midlands Workshop Day supported by the Gauge O Guild coming up in March! Cheers Simon

Hi: In response to a thread discussing the provision of workshop/demo days on the Gauge O Guild forum I have organised one in Ludlow, Shropshire. It will take place on Saturday 30th March 2019 from 10.00 to 5.00pm. The venue, the Mascall Centre, has a very pleasant, large, well lit room, enough for 14 and is used to hosting model railway activities as my local ScaleFour group regularly hold workshop days there. There is also an excellent cafe on site and ample, free, off road parking. The train service via Hereford or Shrewsbury is very pleasant and reasonably frequent. The station is about 10 minutes walk from the venue. Ludlow has some very nice pubs, as well as being a beautiful town, if people would like to socialise afterwards. The day is workshop based, in that participants are invited to bring their own projects, materials and tools and I and fellow volunteer demonstrators and facilitators, including Sandy Harper, Derek Mundy, Warren Haywood, Richard Lambert and John Percival, will provide assistance where requested. We have a wide range of skills between us and are very happy to welcome beginners and experienced modellers alike. If you have a particular interest please let us know. The day is supported by the Gauge O Guild, you don't have to be a member to attend, you can even join on the day if you wish! The charge is £10 per person for the day. Please contact me, Simon Bolton, at [email protected] to book a place.

Really useful master class in how to build a great running loco, thanks very much for posting Dave! Does anyone have a copy of the instructions for the Jidenco T6 as an additional aid for me to build the same kit? Cheers Simon

Another diversion...here's Geoff Hayne's beautiful paint job on my scratch-built MSWJR 4-4-4 and 2-6-0 tender for Stephen Duffell's lovely Roxey "Galloping Alice"...such a great name for a loco! Cheers Simon

Excellent service from Pete at 52F! Two very nice chassis kits with all the wheels and bits arrived within a week of first enquiries. Many thanks Simon

Excellent stuff. Thanks for posting! Cheers Simon

And back to the 7mm Tilbury tank... I beefed up the PCB spacers with some U-channel. Then soldered up the chassis using my Hobby Holidays jig held on its side. With the jig back the right way up, a quick test run wih the motor and driving wheels...and, oh joy, those self-quartering Slater's are so nice to use! And then a think about how to add the rear wheels and front pony truck. I'm going to pick up through the wheels using insulated axles, so I'll need to adapt a few more of those. The compensation on the drivers is by two seperate beams to avoid shorting across the frames. Cheers Simon

Just a quick post. Bradwell J27, finished and awaiting weathering in a lovely photo by Gordon Woods. Cheers Simon

Thanks everyone; the trouble with the pesky things is the time it takes to do all the test builds and then go back to tinker with the drawings then wait for the next etches and build them and then real life happens! All very enjoyable though and I'm still in awe of 2D drawing; it's like metal magic from a cloud! The 1400 is overtaking the Spinner at the moment but I intend to have something to show at the NGauge do in Warwick in September. I'm demo-ing at the 2mm stand on the Saturday. Meanwhile, big splashers! First I bolted the boiler to the cab and the smokebox. I find it's easier to be able to take things apart when doing fiddly things like splashers. (This photo was taken after the splashers were fitted.) The half etch splasher strip fits into a slot in the cab front after a quarter bend has been made. I marked the start of the reverse curve and bent it round a drill after testing for a good fit. Then the final big bend was made with a bit of brass tubing. When it all fitted properly I could solder it mostly from the inside. The splasher is held in place by the slots in the cab front and in the footplate and also where it touches the firebox and boiler as the etched boiler bands stop short of the edge leaving little steps for it to locate against. I checked everything was square and true. And took the boiler off to clean up and adjust things. It look as though it's ready to pounce: quite insect-like! Cheers Simon

That's superb! I'd like to read your build summary, particulalry about how you did the cab windows! Fantastic paint job too Cheers Simon

And now the boiler. The round firebox part needs removing for the belpair version by cutting along the boiler band. The boiler is rolled around the same dowelling former as I use for the Spinner and the back and front etched formers are soldered in. These are then used to bolt it to the firebox assembly and the saddle/smokebox front to check for fitting. Next, the splasher tops! Cheers Simon