Vonzack

If you couple both wagon sets together and gently pull them apart, can you see which wagon's coupling is lifting and causing the problem. With FEA-B's, especially if you don't have any containers on the decks, the spines of the wagons can bow a little, making the couplings droop or raise. My MJA wagons also have a tendency for the couplings to lift a little when under load, so I swapped the couplings for the Dapol Dummy Knuckles, the NEMCOUP stock code mentioned by Paul above. On the under side of the MJA, you can remove the bogies and the bottom detail part of the wagon with a small Philips screw driver, if you're feeling brave, take the bogies off and slacken off the two screws that hold on the underside detail, then just have a bit of a prod and push to make sure it's been assembled correctly. A couple of mine hadn't been put together properly and this caused the upward play you describe. There's a conversation on the NGaugeForum which covers the MJAs - http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=42104.30 (Reply 40). It's a bit of trial and error with these things at the end of the day, remove the couplers and re-insert them, turn the wagons round, couple the MJA's before the FEA-B, you'll find a combination that doesn't uncouple and allows you to run reliably. Cheers, Mark.

CS is the 2-rail GND is the 3 rail OPTO if I'm understanding it, has LEDs on to show occupancy I have a couple of the DR4088LN-CS versions to install and have used BDL168s in the past, so if I get round to it in the next few days will post back here.

Had a similar experience to the OP with a 6 pin Lais and a Stay Alive unit, not sure of which model it was now, but no evidence of any stay alive once the loco wasn't picking up and this was with a Dapol DVT, so no motor draw. The chips themselves work fine, I use them for DVT's and dummy loco's. Cheers, Mark.

I doubt you would have to read all the pages to appreciate how to turn the 'magic box' on. Digitrax always has a 'Quick Start' section which would be enough for you. For the DCS100, it's a whopping 2 pages As people are saying to you, in every picture you have posted, the 'Track Status' light is not illuminated. You must figure out how to get the track power on for your setup, normally it would be. Switch power to the DCS100 on on, make sure the 'Mode' switch is set to 'Run'. Plug your throttle in, press the 'PWR' button and then press 'Y +'. The 'Track Status' should illuminate. If it doesn't then you need to diagnose this before anything else. The UR92 (thing taped into the PowerEx box) should also be separately powered or you could drop the voltage on your LocoNet and experience other problems. If your Point Decoders are getting their DCC Signal from the Track, then as soon as you sort out the track power issue, things should be back working you. I'm not sure anybody else has asked, what are you driving the points from DS64s or something else and are you now in a position where none of the points work, not just the ones you have swapped wires on. Cheers, Mark.

Does anybody have a link to the latest Rapido Newsletter?

Haven't used the specific version of point controller, but if it has three terminals for each solenoid motor then I would tend to keep the commons separate too. *Edit*, the manual doesn't specify any common wiring option for solenoids. I'm sure somebody will clarify for you shortly though.

For me No Tilt No fancy nose mechanism, just the ability to have it open or closed and a NEM coupler behind it for drags Motor in the designated power car or cars for a full set, nice and heavy Pick up for all vehicles (for lighting etc), pin points please, no wipers to create drag Separate decoders for the driving cars (no requirement for through connections, unless they can be done well and cheaply) Simple internal decoration, no 'tartan paint' Ability to fit lighting units, DJM designed or other after market versions maybe Weighted coaches to make sure they hold the rails when being propelled Overall, I would want something that runs well and reliably. Use tried and tested configurations that as modellers we all know work, it de-risks it for everybody. Shared bogies have been done on other models and I'd suggest using something simple like a locating pin. I would be interested in a 14 car set as a Rule 1 purchase only, however that can be put together (all in one or base model with add on packs). The price has to drop though, £1000 for the 14 car model is a massive premium to pay even with todays prices (Dapol's HST Pricing would put it around £430 for DCC Ready, Revolutions Pendolino is £470 with DCC Sound plus a few extra coaches, say £560). If this is crowdfunding, we're being asked to take a risk and I can't see an incentive if we are paying over the odds to start off with. Would like to see this happen though, despite what is read into the above comments. Thanks, Mark.

For me, they need to re-tool the bogey of the 66, can't believe they are still not NEM Compatible.

Hi Simon, I've done a little more work on these wagons, but as I was looking back at the online pics trying to work out what to do for the brake gear I noticed some other details that I hadn't got on my original drawings. The main thing was a seam between the chassis and the wagon sides, but allot of the wagons have picked up some small deflectors, which look to protect hardware on the bogies like the brake wheel. I'm guessing that these are being added when the wagons are refurbished, but there seems to be a real mix of these mods in traffic now. There also seem to be two kinds of bogey in use and these have an impact on the brake gear and the deflector mods. I think rather than get distracted by all the different permutations, it might be easier to provide the deflectors for people to fit or not as they see fit. This way I can produce a single model which fits either the original production runs or the refurbished variant's. At this point I'm also going to just go with the bogies shown in the images above as this means one spec of brake gear too. Both of the wagon shapes can be seen on the same bogies, so it's prototypical. Here are the wagons with the deflectors shown in place. Cheers, Mark.

Indeed they are, but Dapol are doing 3 versions of each Model. Take 68002 Intrepid which comes in 2D-022-001 as DC (DCC Ready), 2D-022-001D as DCC and 2D-022-001S as DCC Sound. Anybody who pre-ordered the 'D' or 'S' products has another month to wait. I naively thought they might all arrive at once, so opted for the 'D' version myself. I might see if I can pick up the DC versions sort myself out with Chips and bin the pre-orders. Cheers, Mark.

Another month for the DCC models ;-(

Hi, Yes I'd definitely be after some of these (in 'N' though). It's a fair few years ago, but has been said in threads on here that when Dapol agreed the license deal for the 68, they tried to get the 88 as well, but that wasn't granted. I think producing them would be a pretty level playing field for any manufacturer as the 68 and 88 have similarities, but the 88 would require new tooling anyway. The Bogies look identical though. Cheers, Mark.

Poles apart it seems

These are pretty low

I based the wire heights and portal spacings for the Catenary on my layout on this thread - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/71391-british-railways-ole-part-one-plain-track/ Average wire height above the rail is given as 4.7M (last post) which is just under 31mm in N, if I've done the math correctly. Cheers, Mark.

Hi, Is there any update on these wagons? Cheers, Mark.

Hi, What is a 'US outline style drive train'? Also, assuming you get one of the sets with twin Power Cars, are you still going to need just one DCC Decoder, and where will this be located in the train? Thanks, Mark. PS Sorry, where is the speaker likely to be housed for those who wish to go with a sound option?

If you use the Dapol dummy knuckles (short), you can get the gaps between the coaches to next to nothing and they should run on R2 without issues. It can be fun coupling them up initially though ;-)

Hi bluesparky, I think it's always better to split the layout up into routes or lines as ColinK says, on our layout we have Power Districts for Up Line / Down Line / Sidings and Accessories. Whichever split you choose, if you are going to run your points from Accessory decoders, I would recommend that these are run from one of the Power Districts or from the Main DCC Bus. The reason for this is that if one of your Power Districts shorts because you've run into a point set against the direction of travel, you can always still operate it without having to use the 'hand of god'. It does mean that rather than one bus, you would be running several under the baseboards though. Cheers, Mark.

If I can give you some advice, if you are interested in automating the layout in the future and you're planning to use current detection, then think about installing the blocks now (assuming your still track laying). You can always common wire the blocks now and just run DCC and then when you start adding block detection, you just have to intercept the track feeds. Also, if you are going with blocks and you are expecting a train to stop in them, sub-divide them into a slowing zone and a stopping zone. If you have a bi-directional route then you would split the block into 3 zones with a stopping zone at each end. Good luck.

Hi, We took Heworth Sidings to the Swansea Model Railway Show. From our point of view the show was very well organised and the members of SRMG really looked after everybody well. I hope the show was as successful as it seemed to us. Here are some pictures and video from our layout taken during the show Showing the area we were in, dwarfed by the impressive Dorehill St Stevens 'OO' layout of the Soar Valley Model Railway club Cheers, Mark.

I would suspect the DCC Decoders would be re-badged and probably Lenz given some of the details.

Hi, Surprise in the post yesterday.....apologies for the dodgy pics. The detail and printing is fantastic, well done everybody involved. Cheers, Mark.

The question might be a bit vague, is it how do I get it to start up using the Lenz interface, as in a JMRI Profile? Basics though: Lenz Command Station has to be powered There has to be a hardware interface, connected to the Lenz XPressNet at one end and the PC Via Serial / USB at the other PC must be on and running JMRI JMRI has to be configured to use the hardware interface which is connected to XPressNet, this will show up as a serial / COM port typically If all this is in place, you should be able to open a Throttle in JMRI, turn on the track power and run your locos If you are also using something like a SPROG or another brand of DCC System, JMRI can be configured with running profiles. When you start JMRI, you can then choose if you are going to program locos with the Sprog or control your layout via the Lenz system. Have a look in the JMRI Preferences for more info on this. Hope that helps, Mark.

Fantastic, just ordered some Maersk and MSC. Cheers.