artizen Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 I am using the US version of the Prodigy and the only slightly annoying feature at this point (one hour after taking it out of the box where it has been stored for eighteen months) is that it reverts to 28 speed steps every time you turn it on. I expect once I get familiar with CV addressing that can be programmed out. I haven't read the manual yet - just what is printed on the back of the handheld. I was able to get a loco running straight out of the box with a controller I had never used before - ever - in less than thirty seconds. Not too shabby. On 128 speed steps my Davenport runs at five miles a fortnight on a speed setting of 001. Stalled on my bodge turnout though. i think these sorts of controllers run rings around DC any day but you only get back what you put in so the track still has to be perfect and kept clean. I still think the average handheld DCC controller could do with a serious ergonomic makeover though. You just have to look at the average phone handheld to see that. Hijack over. Looking forward to seeing the new rake in action. They look good already even without wheels and lettering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flood Posted September 23, 2010 Author Share Posted September 23, 2010 ...but you only get back what you put in so the track still has to be perfect and kept clean... Hijack over. Looking forward to seeing the new rake in action. They look good already even without wheels and lettering. No highjack where I'm concerned. You're absolutely correct regarding the track, Glenn spent about an hour sliding fillets of plastic card under selected sleepers of the peco double slip until the 08s ran perfectly. Since all the track is now held by ballast as well as the track pins we've never had an issue with the running. Every time we clean the track we use a hand held vacuum cleaner to remove the bits of track rubber as well, it all helps. Glad you all like the stock. It's a real bonus knowing Glenn and Alex with their airbrush skills as I can concentrate on researching and converting stock and leave some of the painting to others. Glenn tends to do a little at a time and build up the coats as required - certainly seems to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunedin Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 I am using the US version of the Prodigy and the only slightly annoying feature at this point (one hour after taking it out of the box where it has been stored for eighteen months) is that it reverts to 28 speed steps every time you turn it on Stalled on my bodge turnout though. i think these sorts of controllers run rings around DC any day but you only get back what you put in so the track still has to be perfect and kept clean. Hijack over. Looking forward to seeing the new rake in action. They look good already even without wheels and lettering. Thanks for the comments about the rakes. We get the same issue with the Prodigy Advance 2 reverting to 128 speed steps. It may be that there is a way to programme it out, but I haven't found it yet! Having said that, it isn't too much inconvenience to press the button again when you call up a new loco - it does remember 128 for a loco once you've called it up in an operating session - that is until somebody runs through a set of points the wrong way, causes a short and stops the job.... Regarding stalling on points, there are a number of ways that we got around that: I followed Allan Gartner's brilliant DCC website advice so every piece of rail is soldered to something which is connected to the power bus (you can find it by Googling Allan Gartner or go to www.wiringfordcc.com) so we don't rely on rail joiners to carry current. (He also has good advice on how to avoid shorts stopping the job by using brake light bulbs in series with the supply to isolate the short and dissipate the energy therby avoiding the controller shutting down - I'll let you read it on his website! We have the parts; just haven't implemented the solution yet. ) As Graham said, make sure the pointwork is level Lastly, for short wheelbase locos which are likely to get gapped on points, I used Lenz Gold decoders and Lenz Power One modules. These maintain power to the decoder in the event of the loco becoming gapped so it keeps going. It transformed the 08s which were problematic on points or track which wasn't 100% clean. Power 1s and Gold chips are expensive, but performance is fantastic! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbg06003 Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 Thanks for the compliments as always. I've never seen a photo of one of the ScotRail BGs on any other train apart from the Glasgow to Aberdeen push-pulls. I asked Glenn on Saturday as he was at Haymarket during 1985/86 and he says he never saw one on any other service either. I'm not saying that they never were but with there only being five of them and three rakes needed per day it would only have been on the odd occasion (if ever). This one was nagging at me (sad, I know) - 47 431 leads the 12.00 Aberdeen to Edinburgh past St Fort. October 1985. A non-push pull. Admittedly the only one but at least it proves a point. The push pull rakes also saw service through Fife on Ed-Ab's both towed by 47/7's and 47/4's. BTW, a fantastic layout really capturing the atmosphere of the last days of 'interesting' Scotrail. Bruce 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldfield_Park Posted September 23, 2010 Share Posted September 23, 2010 Just as an aside, I'm sure you're familiar with this site but it came up in another thread. Plenty of inspiration for you (although I'm not sure this fantastic layout has much shortage of it!) http://photosbyroddy.fotopic.net/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flood Posted October 11, 2010 Author Share Posted October 11, 2010 A quick hello, mainly to say thank you to forest2807 for the kind comments on his thread and the same to Bruce and Oldfield Park for their comments above. I must also mention that Roddy's fotopic site has be very, very useful over the last few months - so thanks to Oldfield Park for the link although I actually found it on fotopic quite a while ago. I'm amazed that over two weeks have gone by since our last post. Glenn had a near disaster with one of the Mk2Z TSOs. After applying the ScotRail stripes and logos on one side he varnished with Revell satin spray which promptly crazed the paintwork and shrivelled the transfers. Luckily the other side was ok so the coach was placed in some brake fluid on the wrecked side and this has removed the paint back to the primer. This coach can now be redone. The exhibition at Mickleover went very well with no 47/7 failures (but two Inverness 47 failures instead - bit of luck we own seven Inverness duffs!). Much to our surprise we were awarded best layout, I'm still not used to this kind of praise. Steve Flint from Railway Modeller came over to Glenn's on Saturday to photograph the layout. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say so I'll just state that it should feature in the magazine in due course. We're currently making "not to be moved" and "attached to shore supply" signs to leave laying around. In addition we need sockets for the permanent battery chargers and some more cables to trip over. We've also started a little Civil Engineers dump (sleepers and track panels) so we'll be adding some short rusty lengths of rail and some A frames for that. Finally there will be some wheel sets left outside the wheel lathe. With only next weekend spare before the next exhibition not all of this will get done and the coach painting is also on the back burner at the moment due to Glenn's work commitments. Finally we're both looking forward to exhibiting at Rawtenstall and hope to see some of you there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
47401 Posted October 12, 2010 Share Posted October 12, 2010 .The exhibition at Mickleover went very well with no 47/7 failures (but two Inverness 47 failures instead - bit of luck we own seven Inverness duffs!). Much to our surprise we were awarded best layout, I'm still not used to this kind of praise. Steve Flint from Railway Modeller came over to Glenn's on Saturday to photograph the layout. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say so I'll just state that it should feature in the magazine in due course. . As I said to you and Glenn on that Sunday that award was richly deserved and I am sure you will get many more over the coming years. Really well done!!! Cann't wait to see the photos and the article in the Mag in the future. Richard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mike Bellamy Posted October 12, 2010 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 12, 2010 As I said to you and Glenn on that Sunday that award was richly deserved and I am sure you will get many more over the coming years. What Graham has failed to mention is that the 'Best Layout' award was decided by the ladies from the tea rooms and who knows what criteria they used to help them decide that this was better than all the others Sorry chaps - yet another joke which isn't really appropriate - of course it was the best layout there - well at least on that side of the room Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flood Posted October 12, 2010 Author Share Posted October 12, 2010 What Graham has failed to mention is that the 'Best Layout' award was decided by the ladies from the tea rooms and who knows what criteria they used to help them decide that this was better than all the others Sorry chaps - yet another joke which isn't really appropriate - of course it was the best layout there - well at least on that side of the room Mike Nice try Mike but that was last year! The club's caterers (Mike Marwood, Barry...) did the judging this year. You're not trying to tell me that Barry knows nothing about model railways are you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mike Bellamy Posted October 12, 2010 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 12, 2010 Nice try Mike but that was last year! The club's caterers (Mike Marwood, Barry...) did the judging this year. You're not trying to tell me that Barry knows nothing about model railways are you? My apologies - that was changed at the last minute then as I know that they had been asked to do the judging earlier that day. I missed the actual presentation of your award as I was sorting out the door cash and didn't realise that Mike and Barry were involved - a well deserved award - and I'm not joking this time Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunedin Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 Just to keep you up to date with developments: The Layout: Following our experience at the Mickleover exhibition a few weeks ago, we decided that some additional protection was needed in various places in order to limit the amount of damage that both the public and we () could do to the layout during the course of a show and indeed getting it there and back as well! As a result we have: Added a perspex screen along the front of the layout to protect the static grass that I spent ever so many hours (and electric shocks) getting to stand up and appear realistic and which a few small children (and even some adults who should have known better ) spent ever so few seconds flattening! Made but not yet fitted an "endscene" - i.e. a continuation of the backscene to fit at the left-hand (south end) of the layout. This is to provide additional protection from spacially unaware women with large handbags and unruly children. I know these people claim to be able to multi-task, but the bags seemed to be capable of attracting an ever decreasing amount of their attention and developed minds of their own, apparently intent on demolishing our south-end fuel points and lighting tower. They didn't actually succeed, but it was a close run thing and enough to convince me that something had to be done. Fitted additional side protection in the shape of a plywood panel to Boards 3 & 4 for transportation. These were quite open when they were stacked and vulnerable to damage. Following the failure of the bags to demolish one of our lighting towers, I have to confess that I made a pretty good effort to do so whilst we were loading the van on the Sunday evening following the show. Once back home, emergency surgery by Graham and I using tweesers and pliers managed to get it straight again, but lesson learned! The Stock: Well my original plans to get another ScotRail Express set and an InterCity Charter rake completed for the Lancashire and Yorkshire DCC Exhibition this coming weekend have suffered various setbacks over the last few weeks. Graham reported the paint problems on one of the Mark 2Zs in an earlier post, so I'm now pleased to be able to report that this is now resolved, only to be replaced by further challenges elsewhere! Currently, the situation is: Both Mark 2Zs - complete (except for weathering) as per the photos below: IC Charter Mark 1s - painting now complete, but hit problems last weekend with the InterCity red and white stripe transfers. These just broke up whilst I was positioning them! They behaved totally differently to the equivalent ScotRail stripes which I have used over a dozen times now without any problem. I'm hoping this is just a batch problem and I'm returning them this week. IC Charter Sleepers - problems removing the "Inter-City Sleeper" printing from the bodyside without taking the paint off too - even using SafeCut which usually does the job without any trouble. Lima paint must be very thin. These probably now need at least the light grey respraying, but found when masking up with Tamiya tape that it started to lift the IC red/white stripes off........aaaaaargh!!!! So until I can resolve the IC transfers issue, the Charter rake is on hold. Pity, because I'm pleased with the paint job on the Mark 1s! The rest of the ScotRail Express rake: just ran out of time and energy following all the things above! More on this to follow... To finish on a positive note, here are the two Mark 2Zs: 5197 - TSO with original aluminium window frames: 5152 - TSO with window frames painted dark grey (I think this depended on whether they had been previously painted light rail grey): That about as much as we'll get done now before Rawtenstall this weekend, so looking forward to seeing those of you who make it there! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Baron Posted October 27, 2010 Share Posted October 27, 2010 This layout is fantastic - I plan to get over to see it @ Rawtenstall if I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
russellwar Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 Which exhibitions are planned in the winter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flood Posted October 28, 2010 Author Share Posted October 28, 2010 Which exhibitions are planned in the winter? After Rawtenstall this weekend the offers have dried up until next year. The next exhibition we've been invited to is Nottingham East Midlands on 19th - 20th March 2011. We're currently down for four exhibitions in 2011 but we can certainly fit more in if any more societies are interested. Hopefully the Railway Modeller article will help us in this respect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poindexter Posted October 28, 2010 Share Posted October 28, 2010 Hopefully the Railway Modeller article will help us in this respect. Its about time this layout was in print. When I first viewed this thread it I thought the layout would be a mammoth undetailed showroom to show of your stock. How wrong can you get!! The detail is sublime and the execution faultless. When are you coming to the North East?? I have read your description of painting the walkways, but who are they made by? The (Kytes) fluorescent lights and wire hoses on the fuel points are excellent and the wheel lathe shows what you can do if you have modelling talent and too much time available!! I just hope these details don't go unnoticed when exhibiting. Cheers Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flood Posted October 28, 2010 Author Share Posted October 28, 2010 ...I have read your description of painting the walkways, but who are they made by?... ...the wheel lathe shows what you can do if you have modelling talent and too much time available!! Cheers Guy You're gonna kick yourself! The walkways are lengths of 6mm ply with Slaters planked plasticard stuck on top, the whole idea is so simple it beggers belief. I got the idea of painting the light brown then over painting in dark brown and wiping it off from a colleague at our club who does the same with brickwork. I never thought it would turn out at well as it has. I used the same method to change the office block from red brick to grey. Note: this method only works with enamel paint, I've tried with acrylic and the base colour comes off when you wipe off the second colour. Glenn made the shed for the wheel lathe and his friend Ian, who doesn't live near but has helped out when on holiday, decided to give the actual lathe a go. Glenn and I where both astounded when we first saw the photos and luckily we've managed, along with Richard (47401 on RMweb), to finish the interior of the shed to the same standard as the lathe itself. That said, we've still got to add a swarf extractor and bin - the list of projects is endless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flood Posted October 28, 2010 Author Share Posted October 28, 2010 When are you coming to the North East?? Cheers Guy When we get invited depending on 1) whether a North East club reads RMweb or 2) we send blanket emails to all the exhibitions in the country and see the response. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poor Old Bruce Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 When we get invited depending on 1) whether a North East club reads RMweb or 2) we send blanket emails to all the exhibitions in the country and see the response. Farkham is going to Gateshead in a couple of weeks (they are at Hazel Grove this weekend btw). Get the boys to put in a word for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poindexter Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 You're gonna kick yourself! The walkways are lengths of 6mm ply with Slaters planked plasticard stuck on top, the whole idea is so simple Cheers for that. People from Darlington club frequent this site and Blyth club. Both big venues, Darlington always has quality diesel layouts at the show so it would fit right in. Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mike Bellamy Posted October 31, 2010 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 31, 2010 Congratulations to Glenn and Graham for winning another competition Best Layout voted by the LYDCC members Aberdeen Kirkhill Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
37425 Posted October 31, 2010 Share Posted October 31, 2010 Hi Saw this layout at Rawtenstall yesterday and I must say it is an absolutely fantastic layout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pendlerail Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 I was looking forward to seeing this layout at L&YDCC Rawtenstall and it didn't disappoint, Fantastic. Nice to chat to you as well. Keep up the good work, Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunedin Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 A big thank you to everyone who came along to see us this weekend at the LYDCC exhibition in Rawtenstall - it was great to meet you/chat to you etc. The exhibition was superbly organised by 37023, DavidM, Sovoyard etc. and we were all made to feel very welcome - we all had a great time. As Mike Bellamy has already reported, we won Best Layout as voted by the LYDCC members, so thank you to all who voted........... Two awards in one month........hmmmmm! We aren't used to this sort of attention, so it's all ever so slightly embarrassing but in a nice sort of way! Anyway, I'm sure it can't continue; after all, let's not forget that coaching stock depot layouts are boring to watch, boring to operate and as my next door neighbour tells me, I'm far too old for model railways anyway and should try Scalextric!!!! Maybe the next layout should be DCC Scalextric? Then again, maybe not; in fact, DEFINITELY NOT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 Maybe the next layout should be DCC Scalextric? Then again, maybe not; in fact, DEFINITELY NOT! I dunno a scale model of Le Sarthe circuit would be pretty nice - so long has it was pre - chicane. Best, Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poor Old Bruce Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 Best Layout voted by the LYDCC members Aberdeen Kirkhill Well done guys, especially considering it was still only an idea 18 months ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now