dave flint

Thanks, but we're weighing up options at the moment. I've found another dad who's "a bit keen" on getting a layout sorted for our boys. Will bear it in mind though.

I can see this being the simplest course of action for this application. Any idea how the power feed to the ttable works, if i turn a loco through 180 degrees ?

I'm tempted to get a R070 Turntable for a Thomas based kiddies layout, which will be controlled via DCC. It seems easy enough to wire a decoder in to control the motor, but I'm struggling to find the best way to ensure that the track doesn't short circuit when in use. I did a search on this site, and didn't bring up much, but Google brings up a huge range of replies. Basically, they're 1) Take out the brass contacts from the turntable (Hornby's official advice) and feed the tracks radiating from the ttable. 2) Put some isulating tape over the contacts so they don't work 3) Buy a "thing" off ebay to avoid short circuits One other point. Does anyone know how the table itself is wired? I'm wondering what will happen when a loco is driven on, and then turned through 180 degrees to come back off again. Is it a slip ring ? I'm not bothered about the loco losing the track power supply whilst turning as I don't want them to move whilst the ttable is moving and they wont have lights or sound on them anyway.

Thanks for your response Dapol Dave - model rail failed to point that out, although its obviously work in progress judging from the trailing cars lack of underframe detail. Ive yet to see a side profile of the model. The cad mock up is too "front on" to make a valid judgement of the profile, so let's hope we see some photos soon. As regards couplers, id say it depends on whether Dapol set it up so one dcc chip fits the whole unit. If its a chip per car, then we only need 2 contacts to create an inter car "power bus". Could they use the magnetic coupler a la 220 and modify it to conduct electricity. Apple use a magnetic attachment on their laptop power leads..... A friend has a Hornby 142, the later one with an inter car power carrying coupling. It has only been used a few times and despite care, it has damaged itself when one contact rode up and bent while being attached. To get a reliable and robust coupler in n gauge must be quite a challenge.

I've been waiting a long time for pictures of dapols 142 to appear on here, but its been a difficult beast to track down. I don't want to be negative about a model that hasn't even come out, but Model Rail 152 has a picture on page 13 of a 142 and I'm not sure that the overall shape is correct. As I said, I've not seen any other pictures, but from this one, the rake of the cab windscreens looks very flat, and not quite right. This is a key point of the front end, and in the printed photo it looks wrong. Similarly, the door are the four leaf ones as originally fitted, but I thought the later liveries were being released first. I've been looking forward to this model for a long time, and really want it to hit the spot. Does anyone else know of pictures that may prove me wrong. I don't want to be negative. I have many Dapol locos and have generally been happy, but 2nd gen dmu stock will be important on my layout and I wanted to get a stud of these.