Ray H

In between spells of work for the club's layout, I've been wondering what I could do with the loose end of the lifting flap. I'm not too enamoured with the current arrangement but it had largely drifted from sight as the flap isn't currently used too much. However, Jim was here last weekend and he commented on the awkwardness of the flap's usage - it makes a lot of play on the looseness of the flap's hinges to twist the loose end past the door handle. The arrow points to the notch in the flap that is there to help get the flap past the garage door's handle. I have moved the keys to the other side of the door since the above picture was taken. The door can't open any wider because the domestic gas pipe is behind it about 6ft from the floor. The notch out is clearer here. The blue painted MDF is the backscene, the height of which is limited to that shown to stop it touching the tracks when the flap is folded back/out of use. The backscene has a secondary purpose in that - should there be a derailment on the outside of the curve - it should prevent seriously expensive damage to any stock that makes a bee line for the floor! The backscene transition piece is currently removable because of the door handle, but it could be fixed to the flap as it would be clear of the baseboard the flap folds back against. I'm loathe to make too many changes to the door as I'm led to believe it is designed to retard any fires that might arise if the garage was to ever resort to its intended use - and SWMBO has a habit of fully closing the door during the colder months believing that it limits draughts in the house even though as the garage's regular inhabitant, I've never noticed any draughts. I'm not adverse to temporary changes but I don't trust my carpentry skills to do anything major - like drilling a hole into the door from the edge for a replacement lock 🙄.

Thanks. That was the one I was looking at initially but I've since discovered that it takes them up to six weeks to set up the account. It may still end up being their account that we go for but I don't know how much aggro it will be to reclaim the money from the Nationwide holding account that they plan to put the closed accounts monies into. I was hoping to get an account set up more or less straight way.

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this so please feel free to move it if necessary. Our small club of about 15 members has had a Treasurer's bank account with Nationwide for several years. It generally suited us except that any withdrawals had to be made in a branch - they couldn't be done on-line. We did get interest on the account. Anyway, Nationwide will no longer offer this account from 10th August. I've had a look at a number of other banks for a replacement account and wonder if any club Treasurers care to point us in the right direction. Some of the accounts that I've looked at require an existing account holder, others take a while to process the application and none seem to offer interest. Some want constitutions and meeting minutes, both of which seem a bit excessive for a group of our size. How do other clubs manage?

I got this screen having logged in there didn't appear to be an integration screen. So I followed your instructions on this thread's first post. I have now received acknowledgement of the order and a receipt for payment. I've since checked one of my threads and I appear to now be a premium member. I did struggle to find the "themes" because I didn't look any further than the Navigation Links box. Many thanks for arranging this and for your guidance today.

I've left it over a week and I still seem to be flagged up as a Gold member despite my subscription expiring on 21st July. I don't want to break anything/cause more unnecessary work so do I wait for the Gold flag to vanish or do I try to sign up for premium and see what happens?

Backboards are all in place with little need to resort to instant grab adhesive. I am pondering whether to leave the butt joints between boards as they are or to cover each with masking tape that I then paint blue. I've also managed to add a kind of backboard on the access flap. Its size being determined by what can be accommodated either when it is lowered into or raised from it's "in use" position - largely because the garage door handle gets in the way - and when it is folded back (out of use) where its height is determined by the available space between the fixed boards and the inverted flap. I'm not sure there's a single option so there have been many attempts to get something usable/practicable (and I think there'll be a few more tomorrow as well).

Used a roller on the backboards and all was done in a little over an hour including one board that needed painting on both sides. I'll wait until after lunch and then put them back up then I'd better do a bit for the club. One of these days I might actually get round to running some trains 🙄

The backboards have all been cut and are temporarily in their intended position. I've standardised on a 200mm or thereabouts maximum height above track level as there are so many things - e.g., cupboards, juicers - fixed to the walls with their undersides around or just below that. It was great fun (not) working out how to cut the stuff to accommodate the incline. Most of the boards are simply pushed against the garage walls and held in place by the tight fit. There's probably no more than a dozed screws securing around 60ft of backboards. I've used up a lot of the plywood offcuts and some bendy MDF - cutting that with a jigsaw is interesting. Today's job is to move all the rolling stock to the fiddle yard/traverser, clear the remaining miscellaneous stuff (excluding the track!) off the baseboards and then show the backboards some blue paint. I'm hoping the emulsion paint will dry quick enough to get a second coat on if required before returning the boards to their correct position probably with a couple of dabs of instant grab adhesive applied to the rear as a safeguard. We made a trip to the Railway Conductor near Weedon yesterday and bought some ballast and some cinders. I also topped up my supply of static grass. Do I do the ballasting first around Westbury or do I fit the lower retaining wall between the BR track and the incline and then do the ballasting in that area? Or do I paint the rail sides first? Or do I do some outstanding stuff for the club?

Thanks for the responses. I'll take a look at the companies mentioned. What I should have added is that the strips fell down mostly leaving their adhesive strip stuck to the underside of the cupboard 😒. I did try keeping the strip in place with occasional cable clips. This worked but the (basically) unwanted remote control for adjusting the coloured light was next to useless and I gave up after changing the battery a couple of times despite only using the lights very occasionally. I probably didn't help myself because the strip I bought was many feet long. I thought this would be a good idea because it could be bent/folded back on itself to increase the light level. What I failed to take into account was that the strip couldn't be turned back by 180º without the inability to use the adhesive strip during the bend. That placed a strain on the nearby stuck part of the LED strip which led to the bits nearest the bend parting company with their adhesive which further increased the strain on the next bit, and so it went on. This time I will buy just enough for a single run or, several straight runs if I can cut the strip into lengths individually powered.

Is the bloke on the trailer checking his social media?

Approximately 5ft of the upper level of my O gauge layout is within 7½ inches of the underside of some wall mounted cupboard as shown below. I tried fitting a LED strip to the underside of the same cupboards when I had my previous layout but the adhesive strip couldn't support the weight and, over time, the strip gradually parted company with the cupboard. This time around I bought a couple of short (approx. 6 inches - metric conversion are available on request 😀) strips. They were a lot brighter but the adhesive on one is also quite tired (aka the strip has fallen down twice), Their light is good but nowhere near enough to illuminate the whole area. That didn't surprise me too much and I was thinking of buying some more of the same until one of the pair started to fall down. I have recently added a plywood backboard (against the breeze block garage wall) that I intend to paint blue (at least). I could fix a strip along the top of the face of the plywood but wonder whether that too would eventually fail. The existing LED strip is fed from a local 12v supply. Can anyone recommend an adhesive backed 12v LED strip that, preferably, has a good staying power/adhesive backing for fixing to the underside of the cupboard or, failing that, has a strong enough adhesive that will hold the strip in place if affixed to the plywood backboard? Many thanks.

And don't get me started on having full time traffic lights on roundabouts . . . (a seemingly favourite in Milton Keynes) which could in a rather strange way actually encourage motorists to transfer the the EW rail route. Apologies for going off topic.

It's no problem Andy, I'll cancel the Pocketmags subscription (hopefully) and simply sign up to Exact Editions. As mentioned before. there appears to be two different versions of Exact Editions. The one I formerly had (until becoming an RMweb Gold member) and the one there is with the Gold membership. The former gives you access off-line, you have to be on line for the latter. We go on cruises from time to time and I while away part of the sea days by catching up with the off-line viewable magazines that I ensure to download before we set out. That's why the off-line version is important to me (and why I haven't read any for a while - Covid has a lot to answer for). Thanks again and sorry to lumber you with another problem.

I've spoken to the subscription department (and goofed thereafter). We agreed that I would wait a couple of days before trying to switch to BRM Premium membership to make sure my gold membership was finally dead. I then seem to have made a right mess of things having initially ended up buying a printed issue subscription when I wanted only the digital issue. I spoke to the subs department again and managed to cancel that order. Many thanks to them. I then went onto Pocketmags website (as directed by the subs department) and signed up on there for the digital issue of BRM. Finally sorted (I thought) 🙄 I already have Pocketmags subscriptions for Hornby magazine & Model Rail so I simply logged on to place the order. For various reasons I haven't read any mags for well over a year so I'd forgotten that unlike mags bought via Exact Editions, where all the past magazines are available to read offline once downloaded, you don't get back issue access with Pocketmags although the mags you do buy through them can be read offline once downloaded. As a result I've more or less lost exactly the thing I was trying to get viz: offline access to current and previously paid for but unread BRM magazines. The historical issue stash might also be useful if I ever wanted to use it. I also have a subscription to Railway Modeller via Exact Editions - again with several issues as yet unread - but know that I can read the unread ones whenever I want to download them. I logged on to Exact Editions and found that it appears that I can by the digital version of BRM through them and will have access to (my unread) back issues through them in the same way as I have that facility for Railway Modeller. Is BRM soon to cease being available via Exact Editions which is why I was referred to Pocketmags? I'll happily renew my RMweb Gold membership if I can read the magazine off-line. (Sorry Andy, if I've created more work for you)

Andy My Gold membership has now expired so I'm planning to go for the Premium version. Before my actions give you even more headaches, do I simply do as indicated in the first post on this thread?

The signals have been painted, had their servos fitted, been installed on the layout and connected to the appropriate lever frames. We won't go into the two days lost trying to work out why delving into the Arduino sketch to facilitate commissioning the lower quadrant at Gawcott stopped the points operated by the frame's first lever. The full story can be found in the Arduino section of the MERG website. I happened upon a picture in one of the threads hereon of a couple of sidings associated with a wagon repair facility. That's set me wondering. I had the idea of placing a lineside factory against the garage wall at the loco shed end of Gawcott. Now I'm minded to have a small shed alongside the loco shed that could act as the LR's workshop which undertook some basic stock repairs. That might help to disguise the end of the upper baseboard. An alternative is to move the Goods shed/yard to be alongside the loco shed and have the "works" at the other end of the baseboard. The name of the line came about because I'd bought a Dapol Terrier numbered 5 & named Portishead and didn't want to disfigure the tank sides thereby leaving the GWR crest alone. It transpires that No. 5 was bought by the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead railway in the late 1930s. It then went to the GWR where it was renumbered to 5 and (so the story goes) was cut-up in 1954. However, we all know how accurate some of these historical stories can be and I'm only too pleased to report that No. 5 was loaned to the Gawcott & Westbury Light Railway for a couple of years before being returned westward to face the cutters torch. Similarly (and possibly stretching things even further, at least temporarily), one of the Derby Lightweight railcars built in 1954 that plied between Banbury & Buckingham has been loaned to the LR whilst the LR's 4-wheeled coaches are outstanding some attention in the works (also known as waiting to be built 🙂). BR in turn borrowed one of them there newly built Pressed Steel Company railcars that were later to become the Class 121 of which some found their way to Bletchley. I've been reading a book on Light Railways and have found reference to at least one of the other members of my LR's loco stud. I shall see if I can bend its back story to fit mine.

Who is kidding who? Even at the snail's pace of LM, if it doesn't stop pretty smartish of its own choosing, the brick wall at the end of the layout will do instead 😃 I thought that was why LM wasn't a through station!

George That's not up to your usual excellent paint jobs 😃.

But this is Little Muddle . . . . . Will the mill appear either before the signal clears or the latest freight train arrives at LM? 😄

If I post my garage to you Andy, can you do the scenery on the layout that's inside it? It'll get finished a lot quicker with you doing it than it will if I'm left to do it. 😀

I've finished making the LR's signals - the BR side of things will have none, as the LR connection is deemed to be via a ground frame locked/unlocked via the single line's train staff (or whatever). The two upper quadrants are most likely to be the LR's home and starter signals at Westbury Crossing - signals are only required at one end as the LR side of the station is a terminus. I've also got access to the underside of the baseboard here so the servo leads can be run under the baseboard without fear of being disturbed. The other signals will therefore be those for Gawcott which, as some distance from BR in theory (in practice the BR track is underneath Gawcott 😀) - missed out on the signalling upgrade which, at Westbury saw the BR signal box closed and dismantled and two of the previously BR signals "donated" to the LR. There are no prizes for recognising that the above need a clean and painting before they're installed.🙂 Although the majority of the layout's points and signals will be operated by SG90 servos, Gawcott's signals will probably be operated by two HobbyKing HK-5320 Ultra-Micro Digital Servos. Besides being a lot smaller than the SG90s, their leads are much smaller as are their Micro JST connectors. As a result I think I can get away with cutting the relevant size hole in both skins of the upper baseboard and run the servo leads on the surface of the bottom skin, held in place by adhesive backed cable clips without too much of a risk of any access to the tracks below disturbing said leads. We can but hope.

Ah, but at least recent Zimo decoders from YouChoos use F27 & F28 for reduce and increase volume respectively. (Recent is probably for at least the last 5 years).

Nope, sorry for any confusion. I should have said Function 28

Try CV266 at around 100 - I think the maximum is 192 (although I can't remember where I learned that). Also try function 28 which I believe John sets as the way to increase the volume BUT don't leave CV28 on because you can blow the audio amplifier if our experience is anything to go by. We've found that (with NCE PowerCabs) you have to turn CV28 on and then more or less immediately turn it off again. You may find that you have to do this a couple of times which is better/cheaper that having to have the decoder replaced.

Thanks. That's the kind of thing I had in mind. I think the picture(s) I've found have all been on relatively short posts as well. It's interesting to note that the balance arms appear to be at 90° to the track, much like the MSE KM6 LNWR signals. The arms are at reasonably similar heights, perhaps avoiding the need for a second ladder.