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11 hours ago, tender said:

Works fine for me with the default settings in both the Hornby H and M7. Although, as you say they can be a bit odd with some locos.


As an example, I have four Hornby M7s, all fitted with DP2X-UK decoders (the only type that really fits!). Three behave beautifully. The fourth one had to have the BEMF turned off and many tweaks to the settings on the decoder to get it to run properly. That one went fine in reverse (with the default settings), but surged then stopped repeatedly going forwards. Swapping decoders fixed that locomotive, but transferred the problem to the other loco instead, indicating a decoder problem. With the BEMF off and the various tweaks to it, the M7 with the dud decoder behaves fine.

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Well, I have been a bit naughty with spending on the European model front, again. I felt I would like an ICE unit of some sort, and stumbled upon the Piko Hobby ICE 3 set. This comes complete with track with moulded ballast (which I won't use) and a 12V DC controller, which may have a use in supplying some accessories with power, later on. The train itself comes as a 4-car unit, with two driving ends, a 2nd class pantograph coach, and a Restaurant Car, which houses the motor and decoder socket. Drive is on all eight wheels, which have traction tyres and no electrical pickups, as I discovered when I placed the Restaurant Car on the test track, turned on the power and nothing happened.

Investigation showed that the unit has electrically active 4-pin couplings, and that only one of the driving cars has track pickups on its bogies. Coupling that driving car to the Restaurant Car produced a result. It was silky smooth and quiet right from the very start on DC, so I set about fitting an 8-pin Lenz Standard+ v.2 decoder. Body removal involved removing two screws (except that one of mine was missing - no big deal because the body clips very firmly back in place). Pin 1 is marked clearly on the PCB, so it was a case of removing the blanking plug, inserting the decoder plug and tidying the wires; there is even a space provided for the decoder to sit out of the way, on top of the housing.

A quick test on the programming track with the driving car and Restaurant Car together again proved the installation was fine, and after a bit of programming to set the address and alter the acceleration and deceleration to match my usual standards, the pair of coaches were placed on the main lines and given a very quick test run, before assembling the whole train.

I have to say that for such an inexpensive set, the quality is very good. I am sure there are a few details missing to suit the budget price (there are some add-on roof vents to fit), but these trains are so streamlined and smooth anyway, anything missing isn't really noticeable. The lighting consists only of directional head and tail lights, but a nice extra feature is the driver figure in one end cab.

While purchasing the unit, I had decided that it needed a couple more coaches, so ordered a 1st class pantograph coach and 2nd class sitting coach to extend it to six cars, which looks better balanced, to me. The train cruised around Newton Broadway beautifully at low and medium speeds, although I have not tried its top speed yet - there seems to be plenty in reserve.

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FWIW I'm all in favour of a bit of self indulgence as the years roll on!

 

Having collected a number of European locos (mainly steam) over a good few years, I treated myself to a set of Rivarossi coaches for the "Rheingold" a few months back. Lovely models and a snip at just over £100 for five off ebay. Look great trundling round the layout.

 

John.

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Gwiwer I have suggested that another layout is needed for all the euro stock SRman is collecting.... I suspect I am not popular at the moment Mrs SRman... just suggesting locations :crazy_mini:

 

We will get him back to the UK railways soon...

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2 hours ago, DougN said:

Gwiwer I have suggested that another layout is needed for all the euro stock SRman is collecting.... I suspect I am not popular at the moment Mrs SRman... just suggesting locations :crazy_mini:

 

We will get him back to the UK railways soon...

 

I'll send you the dimensions of the boards I need for the secret railway. :jester::jester::jester:

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I have just started work on the lighting supports, with a whole lot of aluminium 25mm square tube and various connectors. I did a sketch a little while ago to work out what to buy. With DougN, who built my base boards boards initially, heading to Bunnings, I gave him the list of my requirements and he duly delivered them yesterday (yes, I did pay him for them!).

Several of the pre-cut lengths weren't in stock, so I have to cut some of the longer lengths instead, so two 1.2m lengths supply the four 0.6m lengths I want for the under-board mountings. two 1.8m lengths supply the four 0.9m verticals I need, although one or two of those may need to be trimmed further by about 25mm to allow for crossing the baseboard longitudinal frames. Being aluminium, it cuts very easily with a hacksaw.

Once it is all in place and nice and stable, I will be sticking long flexible strips of LED lighting at 12V DC.

Hopefully, this will improve my photography of the layout by reducing incidences of my own shadow getting in the way.

Anyway, here's the sketch of it, not to scale. The rough outline of the train boards is dotted in. The 4-way connector allows me to add extra support if I find it necessary.

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First steps in fitting the lighting frame in. This is only temporarily screwed in to get a measurement for how much more I need to trim from the upper rail. I have used three nice long screws through the aluminium and into the wood of the baseboard frame.

 

There will be a mid support, as per my drawing posted yesterday, but as you can see, the system is sufficiently rigid that the top rail stays nearly level anyway. I have allowed the thickness of a backscene board between the end support and the baseboard edge, for a future backscene to be inserted. The same will apply at the other ends.

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The roll of LEDs tested with a 12V DC transformer/rectifier. These are the warm white ones, but I also have some cool white versions. I can choose which looks better before fixing them in place. It may even be possible to have both at the same time.

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The aim is to get a more even lighting effect over the whole layout.

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A slight diversion: my best-running Hornby rebuilt West Country, 34053 'Sir Keith Park' suddenly stopped and refused to move, with the motor humming. I dismantled it to check the motor and gear chain, and sure enough, the known weakness in some of Hornby's gears has reared its head, with both gears on the layshaft in the gear tower splitting.

I cleaned the gears in some IPA, then tried filling the gaps and supergluing them to prevent slippage on the shaft, but that still resulted in jamming, albeit with some movement possible. Fortunately, I had a couple of spare sets of these gears in one of my boxes, so after a bit of searching I was able to replace the problem set.

Testing with these fitted showed it to be running better than ever, so reassembly commenced. Before doing that, I had to resolder one of the wires to the tender coupling that had come adrift. Reassembly of these models is fiddly, but I managed to get it back together without damaging the plastic motion brackets or severing any of the wires.

Another test was carried out on the main lines, then it was reversed back into the engine shed roads.

With reference to some of the earlier discussions, this locomotive is fitted with a TCS DP2X-UK decoder. Behaviour can be a little inconsistent, but is nice and smooth, but sometimes speeds up before slowing down when the sped steps are reduced.

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11 hours ago, Tim Dubya said:

 

Seamed like a good idea at the time ;)

 

It was a good idea at the time, just let down by the inferior materials available at the time.

Brunel's atmospheric railway could have worked reliably for much longer if it had had access to modern materials too. It relied on leather seals for the vacuum tubes (as did Bulleid's oil baths) whereas some flexible synthetic plastics nowadays would be far more resilient and not prone to cracking or hardening, or to the effects of temperature extremes from the weather 9or locomotive boiler, in Bulleid's case).

Chains used to stretch, hence the unreliability of the valve gear, where a worn-out loco could be going forwards in full reverse gear. More modern chains can resist the tendency to stretch - just look at many modern cars with their timing chains or belts. They do eventually have to be replaced, but they go a long way before that becomes necessary.

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14 hours ago, SRman said:

Chains used to stretch

As any cyclist who has used a derailleur gear set-up will tell you.  More than a few millimetres of excess play and the gear will slip, or the chain will jump around the sprocket, potentially with consequences ranging from surprise to extremely uncomfortable.  

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On 31/08/2021 at 13:16, SRman said:

With reference to some of the earlier discussions, this locomotive is fitted with a TCS DP2X-UK decoder. Behaviour can be a little inconsistent, but is nice and smooth, but sometimes speeds up before slowing down when the sped steps are reduced.

 

That's exactly the problem I had with mine many years ago and why I replaced these decoders with Lenz Standard+. Using Traincontroller measuring, it recorded the loco at 81 MPH st speed step 28, and 87 MPH at speed step 26. It was the poor implementation of the Back-EMF that was the problem. Whether that's been resolved in later firmware I don't know.

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On 02/09/2021 at 02:27, RFS said:

 

That's exactly the problem I had with mine many years ago and why I replaced these decoders with Lenz Standard+. Using Traincontroller measuring, it recorded the loco at 81 MPH st speed step 28, and 87 MPH at speed step 26. It was the poor implementation of the Back-EMF that was the problem. Whether that's been resolved in later firmware I don't know.


I do like the Lenz Standard decoders, and have a good many in use (23 at last count, including versions 1 and 2), mostly on Hornby EMUs, but quite a few in locomotives as well. The problem with the rebuilt WC locos is there is a distinct lack of space for a decoder. The Lenz ones are fairly large, but usefully, they are single-sided. I was able to use one in the Gresley P2, with the decoder stuck to the inside of the firebox. Unfortunately, that would not work with the rebuilt West Countries - the clearances for the boiler and firebox to fit over the chassis are extremely tight.

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6 hours ago, SRman said:


I do like the Lenz Standard decoders, and have a good many in use (23 at last count, including versions 1 and 2), mostly on Hornby EMUs, but quite a few in locomotives as well. The problem with the rebuilt WC locos is there is a distinct lack of space for a decoder. The Lenz ones are fairly large, but usefully, they are single-sided. I was able to use one in the Gresley P2, with the decoder stuck to the inside of the firebox. Unfortunately, that would not work with the rebuilt West Countries - the clearances for the boiler and firebox to fit over the chassis are extremely tight.

 

I have 4 of the  WC/BB rebuilds and all have Lenz Standard+ decoders. I agree they are a tight fit but I managed to fit this decoder in all of them, although one is a later version that thankfully has the decoder socket in the tender! A few years ago now, when the £/€ exchange rate was quite favourable, these decoders could be purchased from German boxshifters for around £12.50 each and I took the opportunity to fit these in all the models I had that would take it. I even have them in a couple of M7s, though hardwired with the decoder in the left-hand tank position. I sold all the decoders displaced on Ebay, and all went for more than £12.50 each which was very pleasing. 

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19 minutes ago, RFS said:

 

I have 4 of the  WC/BB rebuilds and all have Lenz Standard+ decoders. I agree they are a tight fit but I managed to fit this decoder in all of them, although one is a later version that thankfully has the decoder socket in the tender! A few years ago now, when the £/€ exchange rate was quite favourable, these decoders could be purchased from German boxshifters for around £12.50 each and I took the opportunity to fit these in all the models I had that would take it. I even have them in a couple of M7s, though hardwired with the decoder in the left-hand tank position. I sold all the decoders displaced on Ebay, and all went for more than £12.50 each which was very pleasing. 


Next time you take the 'lid' off one of the WCs with the decoder in the loco, could you take a photo to show me where you located the decoders, please? I couldn't see any way of fitting one in.

:scratchhead:

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54 minutes ago, SRman said:


Next time you take the 'lid' off one of the WCs with the decoder in the loco, could you take a photo to show me where you located the decoders, please? I couldn't see any way of fitting one in.

:scratchhead:

 

I think the decoder is just as flush with the roof as I could make it. I don't think it's in the smokebox. The roof is plastic so no risk of shorts, and the underside has no contacts to cause problems. One option is to remove the the wires from the decoder for the lighting to reduce the bulk of the harness, as this is often what causes difficulty. I did take the lid of one of them a few months ago to remove its capacitor (it was causing my Hornby 71 to behave oddly!) but I can't remember exactly how it looked except it was a tight fit getting the body back on .....

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A new second-hand purchase for me, from Hatton's at not too bad a price was this Roco Swedish Rc5 locomotive in an obsolete but still around livery. I knew it was an older model so was not DCC ready, but a quick test on DC showed all was very well indeed with the motor and electrics, so I set about wiring a DCC decoder in. This involved cutting the tracks on the PCB to separate the lights and brush feeds out, then soldering the appropriate decoder wires to the various components. This also involved adding a few jumper wires to connect the lights' return (blue wire) and the red and black track feeds from each end of the locomotive. I chose a budget Zimo MX600 decoder for the job.

Testing on the programming track again showed all was well with my wiring. I had to resolder one wire that had come adrift from its bogie pickup during my handling of the loco, but other than that it worked perfectly first go anyway. I have removed the weight at one end to sit the decoder on top of the bogie gear tower, held in place by a bit of black tack - there is plenty of weight in the chassis in any case. That black wire should have been tidied up and run along the side of the PCB; I'll fix that up next time I take the body off.

Now all I have to do is add all the handrails and other add-on bits that came sealed in their bag in the box, and choose a number from the transfer sheet that was also included.

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Also having attention is the Rails/Dapol SECR D class 4-4-0: I have added real coal to the tender, and am almost finished with painting some crew figures to put in the cab.

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The end results of my labours from earlier.

Firstly, the Swedish Rc5 loco now has all its detail parts fitted, and has been numbered 1337, and is ready for service when I next run a Continental train theme. The transfers included the ASEA names for the sides of the pantograph bases. There was one centre handrail missing for one end, so I have made one out of brass wire, which was still unpainted in the second photo. I removed the coupling and pocket at one end and fitted the fully detailed snowplough.

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Back to British, the SECR D now has a crew. The fireman has temporarily parked his shovel and is having a breather. I have no idea whether the colours I chose or the dress style are appropriate for the period represented. The D's were right-hand drive, but the driver knows there is a signal coming up on the left with the left-hand curve, so he has moved to the left to observe that more clearly.

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