Pete the Elaner

A slimming group is good. It is meeting people wanting to achieve something similar which helps. 2500 miles cycling in a year is good. I think I managed about 1900 last year & I try to go out every weekend when weather & exhibitions let me. There are plenty of sportives available, although not as many as around 5-10 years ago. 50-70 milers are a challenge without being too painful if you are riding fairly regularly.

Mine has NEM Kadees fitted & is currently in its box/cradle.

I agree. When I started with DCC, the Hornby decoder was £8 , which I felt was ok value when more 'standard' decoders from, the like of Lenz & Zimo were about £20. It has never been a vary feature-rich decoder though. Now its price has crept up to £22-£24 & better spec decoders are around £25, I would much rather pay the (little) extra.

JMRI is free to use if your system has a USB/serial interface. All you will you will need is a computer & lead. Most people will already have these. It makes very light work of programming. As for it becoming a barrier, nothing has changed. It has always required decoders & control system. If you don't want extra features like switchable lighting, or working fans, then leave them off & ignore them. That will have removed your 'barriers' but you will still have great slow speed control & the ability to control multiple trains on the same line.

I agree with Kevin. You are getting noise because your controller is not providing a very smooth output, so the motor is turning in very short bursts. This can cause damage to many newer motors. There was a discussion about this recently. I found a Gaugemaster handheld for £3 at an exhibition not so long ago (one of the cream coloured ones). They give a smooth output & provide a lifetime warranty & honour it without question, so a decent controller does not need to be expensive.

Bit of a red herring there. Voltage pushes current. The load (your loco) determines how much current is drawn, not the capacity of the supply. 15v is too much though. Just because the supply can provide 2A, it does not mean you will overload the motor. It would do more damage if there was a fault though. Heljan locos had a reputation of overloading Hornby decoders because they drew more than 1A under load when full power was applied.

That could indeed be considered by some to be "inappropriate". Without knowing more, the term & therefore the accusation is a bit meaningless really.

My set of those used to immediately get borrowed at the club by others, until they bought some for themselves. They are nice & quick but you can also set a stripping distance so you are not left with differing lengths of bare wire. I have several different types in my toolbox & can happily use the first set I pick up, which is good because these have usually already been 'borrowed' by the time I look for some strippers. Most wire strippers do not go fine enough for decoder wire though (does anyone know what gauge that is in metric please?). I use my DCC concepts ones for this.

There are a handful of spaces at my local Asda where you can back right up to the forecourt, then unload your trolley straight into the boot & just leave i for the next shopper & drive off. Some still park forwards, so they have to wheel the trolley around to the boot then get rid of it afterwards before backing nervously out of the space. I think they don't use their brain in case it wears the batteries out. 🙄

I am curious: You are not the only person I have seen to add an e to Ridgmont. My club has a layout of it & members assure me it used to be spelled with an e, so I looked it up on an old ordnance survey map from c1900 on the national library of Scotland's website. It was spelled Ridgmont on that too.

There was speculation in the other thread about the uncoupler units being sold for retro-fitting to other models. While not impossible, it would entail considerable work: The couplings are DCC controlled, so the decoder has to be up to the task of operating them. The model already has several functions including independent front/rear lights, cab lights, engine room lights, operating roof fan. It would need 2 more to activate the couplings, so anyone with a 3 or 4 function decoder would need to upgrade it. The main board would need provisioning to route the function output to terminals on the main board. If Bachmann had thought of this beforehand, the feature would have been introduced on earlier models. It was not, so it is logical to assume that the boards would need to be re-designed, then an updated board fitted to an older chassis, if it will fit at all. Wiring from the board to the coupler sockets would also be required to make these operate.

Yes they have. Their class 90 has a removable roof section. It is secured by 4 screws instead of magnets though.

What you have described sounds a little weird, which is also the best way to describe how speakers usually sound when out of phase. When I bought a new AV amp recently it told me I had my sub put of phase with my standard speakers & I never realised. I guess this was because they deal with different frequencies.

It is a DCC function & an addition to the NMRA DCC specs. There is absolutely no way it could activated remotely on DC. A 4 function decoder will at minimum need special programming to activate the feature, so that eliminates budget ones which cannot be programmed. Even with a programmable decoder, you would still only have standard front & rear directional lighting available with no option to turn off the rears because you will have no functions left to do it. It is a whole can of worms kept shut by only making it available with the deluxe model.

I don't understand the obsession with bigger cars. Ok, so they have to pass more stringent crash tests so need more strength therefore size & weight, but things have gone very OTT. SUVs for example have almost replaced estates. Have you seen how they react in a motorway incident with heavy braking & a little steering? They topple over. How can that be safe? The traditional saloon/hatch/estate stays upright. It may be news to some, but heavier cars also take more fuel to move, so as engines get more efficient, they also get worked harder. Ironically, the car in the photo is a Mini. Minis used to be among the smallest cars available. The newer ones are enormous compared to my old Calibra & that was not marketed as a small car.

I am not convinced either. I am not a fan of tension locks because they look dreadful & do not work particularly well either. I liked the trend towards NEM pockets because it provided the choice of using something different, like Kadee or Hunt couplings. It would be interesting to see if they have managed to make the auto-uncouplers work with standard NEMs.

That is because Newey is level headed & knows how hard it is to stay ahead. He was surprised others had not caught up for or during 2023

He had already achieved success managing teams in other racing formula. He was signed by Red Bull in 2005 to turn the midfield Jaguar team they had bought into a successful one. In the following 19 seasons, they have won won 6 team & 7 drivers' titles with him in charge. You will not get that from someone earning minimum wage. You do not have to like his personality to acknowledge that he has done a good job.

So nothing more than a Chinese whisper then. No idea what it is or what truth there is behind it. Back to business & if anything does become of it, we will hear in due course.

If so, it is reminiscent of when Ferrari squeezed out Jean Todt in 2007. Their last driver's world title was in....2007.

So it says nothing about what the allegations actually were, but that a Dutch newspaper asked about them. Sounds like the typical F1 rumours to replace genuine news.

It is certainly like this with a factory fitted sound model: The fans spool up independently from each other according to settings determined by the manufacturers, but can be individually isolated with functions.

Quite likely considering its reputation of falling apart in a light breeze.

Never going to happen. He may want to go there, but the team would not want him & I am sure neither would Verstappen. When 2 team mates fight for the title, it gets nasty. The only exception I can think of is Lauda & Prost, although I am too young to remember that properly: Mansell & Piquet Senna & Prost Hamilton & Alonso Vettel & Webber Hamilton & Rosberg As watchers we may not like it, but a clear No1 & 2 is the best way to secure the drivers title. McLaren would have walked it in 2007 if they had adopted this, but Ferrari snatched it by supporting Raikkonen.

It was entirely down to him. Todt built the team. It took him 7 years to turn them from a shambles to winners. He persuaded Ferrari management to sign Schumacher, Brawn & other key people. They would have formed a winning team with whoever wanted them most & Todt made sure it was his team. He then sheltered them from blame when things went wrong, which is another thing we have not seen since he left. The management felt he had too much power so forced him out & changed there structure to stop any principal having the same power How many drivers titles have they had this structure brought them? They seem to be good at finishing second.