great central

Thanks but the problem isn't with the decoder, it's the male plug mounted on the PCB that the decoder fits onto. I now know that pin 1 is an essential so need to decide whether to get in touch with Bachmann about it or just cut the wires and set up for dc only. DCC is very much a fringe interest having bought a Hornby TTS 37 and, at the moment borrowed the club controller.

Thanks Grosvenor, you've confirmed my suspicion. Not that simple to rectify though, it's the pin attached to the PCB, I presume when they're made the pins all stick up and have the 'shroud' fitted over the top then fastened down to the PCB. This one has escaped at manufacture. I've just tried it on dc with the blanking plug in, still nothing. Must have been faulty from the start. Simplest thing is to rewire for dc only, but I'll give it some thought first.

Thanks for the quick reply Nigel, as you say probably just a Bachmann chip, there were some still in their packing if I recall correctly. The 'pin' sticking out is beside the mount on the tender PCB, which the chip plugs into. I would post a picture but my phone won't focus down to the size required.

I'm hoping the collective knowledge here can help. I have a Bachmann 3F which I bought from a deceased estate so don't unfortunately know it's history or where it was bought. Having bought several locos from the same source, all chipped and working, the 3F does nothing. Even trying to interrogate the chip reveals nothing. Having dismantled the tender, it seems that one of the little metal 'fingers' that should be inserted into the socket is actually on the outside (it appears to be pin 1) This, I presume, is a manufacturing fault? That being the case I think I need to speak to Bachmann! Then there's the installed chip, the brand appears to be 'Soundtraxx'? Does that mean it's actually a sound chip, there's no speaker installed but if the previous owner hadn't been able to get the loco to work, may not have gone any further? Any help gratefully received, this is a very new field to me, I'm only going down this route because I got several locos at a bargain price from the same source, of course I could just rewire the loco for straight DC operation.

No offence intended in my post, it just seemed a little odd to say that there was no railway nearby, especially as one of your group lives in the area. My apologies for any misunderstanding, obviously rule 1 applies at all times.

Sorry, have to take issue with that statement, the GN Derbyshire line ran alongside Hucknall Road and Rigley's (not Wrigley's, they're the chewing gum people) wagon works were pretty much the site of the current Tesco Top Valley store, where there was also Bulwell Forest station. Bestwood Park Drive and Top valley Drive the main roads into the area, cut right through the embankment and if I recall correctly there's still, certainly was a few years back, a small occupation bridge in place which is used for the footpath on one of the roads cutting through the embankment. The line of trees alongside Hucknall Road shows the route on Google satellite view: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.0043192,-1.1776418,1829m/data=!3m1!1e3 Edit: Just checked on streetview and I think the occupation bridge was on Top Valley Drive, but removed when the new bigger Tesco store was built a few years ago. There's also a concrete signal post hidden in the trees between Tesco and Bestwood Park Drive, I think it would have been the distant for Bulwell Forest. There's a forum topic about Bulwell Forest station including a couple of pictures here: http://nottstalgia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6221 I well remember the area as I went to school not far away on Gainsford Crescent in Bestwood, Rise Park was just starting to be developed then 1963-69. The school had a cross country running route taking us around the back of Rigleys (I think, because the first time I did cross country I realised I wasn't very good as a distance runner and got left completely behind. Imagine the outcry if that happened nowadays, an 11 year old left out on their own! Didn't matter then, being a train spotter I was well used to finding my own way about and already knew the area)

Does this mean that 26054 was named after the well known co-star of various Disney films? Edit, just remembered that 45 106 also carried the name Vulcan in it's Tinsley days. Remembering the plane or something to do with a Trekkie?

Used to go there with my mother to get the bus to Clifton to see my stepsister. Remember vividly seeing a 9F come rumbling over the viaduct, still at a fair pace, with (apparently) no train in tow. Followed some time later by a solitary brake van, train was all flat wagons hidden behind the parapet. Can't tell for sure whether the NCT bus is a Daimler Fleetline or Leyland Atlantean, can you read the fleet number above the door on the original scan?

Happens throughout the day with Liverpool-Norwich services. No problems so long as passengers are kept informed. Been going on for quite a few years now most are used to it. Why must 'officialdom' think we're too stupid? Perhaps because they really are

I think I know the loco you're talking about, and most likely where the photos were taken. It was built by a friend of mine, Hayden Reed and photographed on our Deepcar layout. Hayden wrote several articles about hacking around various Triang locos to make quite decent models of other types. One I recall particularly was an LNER L1 built using largely B12 parts. There were others that I can't now remember, there was a standing joke within the the club that pretty much all of Hayden's projects contained some part of a B12 I should have some of Tony's photos here with the Deepcar 'archive'. Edit: I've just remembered that the N5 in this picture is one of Hayden's more recent creations http://www.nottingham-modelrailway.org.uk/images/img_4542a.jpg It's O gauge and started life as a Lima 4F!

Derr, worrabaht the one be'ind the clerestory?

Getting rid of steam locos? On another note I see the wires are down at Hunts Cross near Liverpool, shutting the route. Thing is these wires are, as far as I know, never used. If the GW takes so long to get wired I can't help but wonder how much will have to be repaired due to damage before it's even live?

A modern(ish) oddity I can't understand is at Manchester Oxford Road. Certainly platforms 3 and 4, can't be sure about 2 never having arrived in there from the Liverpool direction, have two lots of 4 aspect signals. (There is only the single signal on each platform heading the other way). One is, obviously, at the platform end, the other little more than a loco length in rear. It's a real pain when we follow another train in closely, our 4 car set doesn't all fit in the platform until the first signal has cleared. The next signal in rear is at Deansgate.

Sorry just putting it into context with a Notts dialect twist. Just shows how some peoples minds work

Notts anall

When I told a friend's teenage daughter what BMW stood for in my book (yes I know what you're thinking but you're wrong ) She thought it was hilarious, especially as one had just pulled out of a side road right in front of us Good job I've got decent brakes We then spent the next few miles trying to put something appropriate to AUDI, who almost seem to have overtaken BMW in the rubbish drivers standings, especially the smaller ones. All my opinions, you're free to disagree, but I'm not listening, had two of them on my way back home today

You mean when they can't afford the fare to Vegas

Can I echo 4479's observations. I stood watching an exhibition layout a while back. It looked good but it was run so slooowly! Supposedly a main line approaching a station in recent times. Trains emerged onto the scene under a bridge but instead of slowing on approach to the station, they just crawled the length of the layout. I work on the railway and all trains run close to the upper speed limits most of the time. Most drivers have years of experience and can judge their braking almost to the inch, regardless of conditions. So after watching said layout for a few minutes I quickly lost interest. For the reason that it looks to be operated how I remember, Grantham is a firm favourite. Another club member is a civil engineer and he gets put off by impossible bridges! We all have our particular bugbears but as Grahame says above we can all go out and look how things are done.

Probably having a P & V exam