Izzy

I have only ever mounted these wheels on their axles by hand, and I’ve used them since they first arrived, dressing both the axle ends and the wheel bore, and twisting them as the axle is pushed in. This method ensures the axle follows the wheel bore rather than reaming its way in if both are not exactly at right angles to each other. 
 

Bob

I think this tight curve problem is why so many of us with limited space just stick to straight layouts rather than circular ones. With the way housing is being ever more ‘efficiently’ designed I do think that in the longer term, if they can stick with it, Hornby’s decision to explore TT120 might be a clever move. 
 

Bob

The axles are steel and an interference fit in the wheels, which are nickel plated brass turnings. If the wheels are 'wobbly' on the half axles then they have been pressed on them wrongly and nothing you can do will correct them. New replacement wheels/axles are the only answer, if you can obtain them.

Bob

2 hours ago, GrumpyPenguin said:

PoM is OK if you are very careful or you could change CV's of everything that is on the track at one time.

Most systems I've encountered require you to enter an address before you can use POM. Do any still write to all addresses? My Z21 will also read as well as write in POM mode, I think this is due to Railcom, or Railcom enabled decoders.

Bob

I may be wrong but I don’t believe there are any public telephone’s in the UK anymore, certainly I don’t encounter any in my daily life. Do they still exist? Although I have a mobile - one I now mainly use on Wi-Fi - it’s just on a PAYG tariff which I only have to top up when I need to. I am told this type of PAYG is hard to find now, that most demand a monthly top-up, which I don’t class as PAYG. £10 a month for something only for use as a ‘backup’ I find extremely expensive.

I do see the advantages of only having a mobile for most people these days, and especially those renting or having to move around regularly. Several times it has been remarked when I have given my landline number that having a home telephone is unusual these days. 
 

Bob

12 hours ago, Sithlord75 said:

Didn’t realise Ley Hill was still around.  I’ve enjoyed watching it on YouTube a number of times.  Very neat and inspirational.  

Quality modelling like David's never goes out of fashion does it. I keep going back to all the layouts featured on the 2mm association website and looking at both the stills and videos and the also the 2mm Golden Jubilee DVD.

Like I guess many others viewing the posted shots I feel rather envious of all those that managed to attend SWAG, as I do the Larkhill events, but I'm grateful to those that share them.

Bob

With those CT decoders I've fitted with home brew SA's I've always set the decoder up first because I was told it's not possible to program them, certainly on a program track, once the SA is hooked up. Attempts to do it seem to back this up. With other decoders such as Zimo they have circuitry that allows this to happen, but I still like to set any decoder up first to make sure all is okay before adding the SA.

You can test individual capacitors using a MM to confirm they are okay and hold a charge. To test a SA pack you hook it up  ... 😀 With small packs you don't really know they are working apart from any material difference in running quality. However, sometimes that difference can be significant.

Bob

Underboard protection

As I have handled the layout, moved it around the workbench etc. I have several times caught the underside bits with my fingers, and particularly the servo mounts. Not wishing to get anything damaged by being pulled about too much I decided to fit a layer of foamcore inside as protection, screwed into place so access is still available as required. I used long thin pads of foamcore glued in place as the mounts.

With this done the result is a nice little package for easy storage almost anywhere, horizontally or vertically. The latter is what I mostly do.

Total weight? As far as I can tell around 2Kgs. So not too heavy to lug about……….lovely.

Bob

On 27/04/2024 at 14:24, DCB said:

Why eliminate the switches.   It makes more sense to leave the switches so on start up you can add extra locos and lighted coaches to the load by stages   Switches with 1 amp breakers in series would allow a straight forward  change from DC to DCC.   My DC layout has Power  Districts, I now realise nearly 40 years after wiring it.    Up Up Main, Down Main, Up sdgs, Down Sdgs, Loco depot, Branch, Hidden sidings,  all switchable between several controllers and operating positions and all subdivided by  isolated sections.       As the layout is  24 ft long X 8ft plus a 30 foot branch fault finding would be impossible  without the power district switches.   With DCC my Horny Q1 would have shut the whole layout down when it dd its party trick of shorting out randomly,  As it is the switches isolate the fault to easily identify  which area of the layout  the fault has occurred at.     Mine also has isolating points,   With DCC non isolating points a derailment  short anywhere  on the layout, sidings  hidden in loco sheds etc, loco running into wrongly set point etc  could stop the layout completely , or stop it powering up.  Separating point power from  traction power is  essential.  for reliable operation.     People falsely claim DCC has less wiring

 than DC.    That was only true with low power relying on fish plates two wires to the track, point motors, signals etc plugged in .   But fishplates can't conduct much more than 2 amps and point blades 1 amp so people needed droppers and  As soon as "Droppers" and ""Buses" are used the reverse is the case.  adding huge numbers of soldered joints for a smaller number of DC Feeds.    Many 1970s layout plans had 3 (Three) feeds for the entire  8 X 4 

For your particular layout what you have chosen to do is certainly best for you and I can see the advantages it provides. Really, in a general sense, wiring a layout is or should be no different whether it's for DC or DCC with the size of a layout and how it is intended to be operated the overriding factor as to how that is arranged. The 'only two wires' thing is/was just a headline to get people interested as to the the differences DCC could provide. I only have small layouts where the elimination of section switches saves valuable space. Indeed it enables me to have small handheld plug-in switch units for signals and points etc. which would just be too large if section switches were also needed, both in respect of the overall size and the mass of extra wiring involved. Like so much else in regard to model railways, and indeed life in general, it's those horses for courses scenario.

Bob

Ah, I kind of wondered if those small fold down flaps with the holes were for some form of radial truck rather than a pony truck working inside the frames. Couldn’t see and still can’t what the narrow fold down parts inside the centre of the frames are meant for. Hope it all goes together well for you. 
 

Bob

I’d want to know a lot more about the rest of the etch and what the loco is before deciding how to tackle it. Am I right in thinking it’s a 2-4-2 of some kind? There is I presume another vertical frame spacer to fit just to one side of the lower axle hole? All the small bits that fold down with holes in them and the large end spacer will need doing first, especially the latter with the smaller one right next to it. Hm..  Would be tempted unless it folds up really easily by hand to break it up into separate parts and make it up that way. Just because an etch had been drawn up a certain way doesn’t mean it works, that the designer knew what they were doing. I’ve encountered quite a few etched kits like that down the years…….    
 

Bob

The question is not whether the chassis is live to one side, as with many locos such as the Farish 03/04/08 etc. but whether the motor is isolated from it, which they are I.e. no brush connection directly to the chassis or the motor body itself being ‘live’. This is where the issues can lay if they are.

Bob

I, and many others from comments I’ve read, started off down the DCC road by using our then current DC layout, swapping out the DC controller for the DCC one, and leaving all the section switches on. I still wire the track in the same way now but have eliminated the switches.
 

Bob

14 hours ago, dave75 said:

Looking at expanding my dcc plank layout, have read lots about power districts but have yet to find a decent simple definition of what one is. 

Leaving aside the hardware required which seems to be a circuit breaker etc and thinking just of the track, is a power district any different from a DC "section" 

Ie a lengths of track electrically isolated from ajoining pieces by isolated rail joins or cuts in the rail?

 

Yes, it's exactly the same in principle. Splitting a layout into separate power districts can be done for a variety of different reasons and there are several ways of doing it depending on what is required. The simplest is just to feed each section through an on/off switch as you would a DC powered layout, doing so to aid with fault finding or short circuit issues. Or power each through a CB so that if a short occurs in one section the rest of the layout remains okay. Another is for power draw where boosters power each section.  Much thus depends on what the layout owner wants, with the size of the layout and the number of locos running on it playing a large part in deciding what is best.

Personally I feel that for a lot of DCC users with smaller layouts and one operator just the one section is all that is needed because if a short occurs then the attention is taken with dealing with that. A continuous circuit layout however is another matter and where such arrangements as power districts etc. then becomes helpful. A separate bus for the track and accesories is probably best though whatever else is chosen.

Bob

The decoder hasn’t been locked somehow to prevent cv changes has it? I have looked at the Dapol Imperium profile in JMRI but can’t see one although I have read there is some mention of cv15. It’s a bit confusing TBH. Thought it worth a mention though just in case. 
 

The other thought is that you might need to knock cv5 down really low to see an effect with the 121. Try a silly figure such as 50 and 25 for cv6 to see if there is a difference. If there is at least you’d have a benchmark to go on. 

Bob

8 hours ago, 2mmMark said:

I'd recommend this instead of scouring pad. It's a little bit finer and has a better base colour


I made an "electric nozzle" for a Noch puffer bottle that works very well.   The charge for the nozzle comes from a Flockbox.



I documented some of my scenic work on British Oak a while back.

 

Thanks Mark, I did follow what you did and thought it really good and to make a note of it, which I then forgot to do being typical me, so thanks for the reminder and the link. I have found a few different materials to try today, some scouring pads and also something from Woodland Scenics.  I also have an old grinder my wife gave me years back which I must try and dig out and see if some of the scatter stuff can be made finer.

Bob

9 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Have you tried using green scouring pad, cut (or torn and trimmed, depending how neat you want the hedge to be) into strips, then dressed with flock as foliage?

 

Jim

Not yet Jim, I’ll give that a try. All this is as you can see both experimental and rather nip & tuck in that there isn’t much room which makes it seem more difficult. I never seem to have enough space with anything I do!
 

Bob

The point hand levers, and some fencing

I had laid the point lever bases when the track was ballasted. I used 10thou plasticard to represent the wooden plank mechanism covers. However when I came to add the actual levers I found they were already starting to break up.

This didn’t seem very good and having had problems with plasticard like this before I decided to replace them with new covers made from scrap nickel silver etch culled from the etched kits I have made. I have a habit of saving what I see as useful bits of etches after all the proper bits have been used. In this way I have lots of straight strips in various sizes and lengths and used a few to also make up the actual levers. I haven’t got the shapes quite right, finding it awkward to get the bends in the right places at the correct angles. But using metal for both the levers and the bases meant I could solder the levers into them to assist in making them stronger and more damage resistant.

I will probably still catch and bend them at times when track cleaning though….. They were given a dunking in metal black before gluing into place and the levers then painting white. I think they look okay.

I have also made and planted the fencing along the back and end. 1/32 ply cut into strips and planted into drilled holes after a coat of black poster paint. I did try at first to drill holes in them to string wire, but this didn’t work out, they just kept breaking up, so the idea is it gives a hint of post and wire fencing without the wires. I managed to wire all those on Tendring, but most of the time the wires are not visible unless the light direction catches them so I think this subterfuge will work.

The etched buffer stops do make up nicely.

The next job is to try and put a hedge behind the fence because the fencing alone looks too stark to my mind. But I have never made field hedging much before and so this is proving a real challenge and especially in 2mm as most of the scenery materials around seem more suited to the larger scales.

Bob

Although it’s been driven by lack of space to have bigger layouts down the decades I’ve slowly come to understand that for me at least as a lone modeller the saying less is more really does apply. Picking a station that allows a wide variety of train movements and services such as you have done is key I believe. Even though I didn’t have that in mind I have managed that with my Priory Road and the scope that has resulted is most beneficial. I do sometimes wish it was just a bit bigger in both length and width, but not too much. So if I’m totally honest while I am envious of the space you have I think that I would reduce the station trackwork a bit and instead have more fiddle capacity. Sometimes I think more fiddle space for easy use is more important than the main layout design. Whenever I see really big layouts now I think, well that looks nice, but I can only run and control, and look at, one train at a time. 

With regard to your sometimes unreliable running this might be down to the track. The Peco rail is very narrow in head section so the slightest bit of dust or dirt is problematic even allowing for stay-alive. The 2mm code 40 is wider at 0.5mm and I haven’t found the need to fit SA to any of my bogie diesels. They mainly have steel tyred 2mm wheels which do seem better for current collection.

If you can afford to do it going 2mm and using the British Finescale trackwork/points might bring benefits. Or even using that track in N. (I wouldn’t be able to stand the still bumpy ride through the pointwork, but that’s just me).

Enjoy the ride whatever!

Bob

9 hours ago, Yorkshire Square said:

 

As I understand it they're all different diameter axles and the length over pinpoints aren't the same either. You end up with items that are only suitable for a specific model or a small group of models. Frustrating to say the least. 

I’d say! Thanks for the heads up. This is the big downside of pin-point axle collection where there is no collective standard. All the makers in the differing scales seem to be going their own ways with all wheel standards and designs which makes it very awkward to say the least when you want either consistently or to adjust/alter things. 

8 hours ago, VRBroadgauge said:

 

I've been regauging Association wheelsets from 9.42 to 10.5mm gauge. I just made up a jig out of styrene (plasticard) and moved the wheels accordingly after some careful measurements.  I've had excellent results. Is this what you're referring to?

Not exactly, rather the distance from the outer wheel face to the end of the pin-point, which of course can vary with not only the overall wheel width but the length/angle of the pin-point and the design of the outer frame. This is crucial as the gear meshing mostly relies on them being right. The tender wheels in the Farish locos that use them are a pain for example as being just plain mazak castings as soon as you shift them they generally become loose on the axle.
 

Bob

1 hour ago, GER_Jon said:

The Dapol wheel sizes by my measurement are

3-333   7.5mm

3-336   7mm

3-339   6mm

 

 

That’s handy to know @GER_Jon thanks. Would the stub axle diameter be the standard 1.5mm? I don’t know what Dapol use as I haven’t any locos to check at present.

Bob

Not read of any conversion myself but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been done. However more likely you are the first to want to do it. The new wheels for Dapol conversions might be a solution, if the muffs can be bored out to suit their stub axle diameter - have no idea what that is not having used any yet. Otherwise pin-point axle conversions are difficult due to the need to shift the wheel on the axle, if that is indeed possible, and that is besides machining the wheels. 
 

Bob

The layout cover

One of the driving principles behind this little layout was that it should be small and easy to both use and store. So as part of this the fiddle board was designed to plug into place in use, and be stored within the outline size of the main board. This has been achieved by making a pocket in the cover into which it is placed. This accounts for the lack of even a low backscene. This internal pocket sits just above the fencing posts. It is a nip & tuck situation but as it is shorter than the layout itself there is still room for the bridge!

The cover is made of 5mm foamcore sheet bought from Hobbycraft and is a close fit over the layout, quite tight in this particular case. I have used this material for all my layouts covers in recent times being lightweight yet providing enough protection. The joints are glued using tacky PVA and then reinforced with 2” wide masking tape. This is to both protect all the edges and corners from damage and guard against any paper cuts cause by handling. The outer covering paper of the foamcore board is thin, hard, and cut edges can be sharp.

With some care taken in the design it is possible for the cover to take the weight of the layout involved so they can be up-turned to work on the underside for wiring etc. when needed. This has proved most useful now a countless number of times. Some covers have been made before track laying and others such as in this case towards the end of the layouts construction when locations of all the scenery is known.

Despite the material they have proved surprisingly robust. Although easy and cheap to replace should they get fatally damaged none have needed doing so to date and I would be surprised if any got to that stage given the length of time that has passed since the first were made and survive intact today.

Bob

What do I wish I’d known? That decoder makes are not equal in the motor control quality, most not being nearly as good as I got under DC. If it hadn’t been for CT & Zimo I’d have bailed out back to DC. And the situation is little different today than 14 years back. For the high investment cost I had expected better. Now I know different.

Bob

1 hour ago, JSpencer said:

Under TTS, the supplied bigger round speaker had to be located in the tender, while the chip went into the smokebox (some sources saying TTS were suitable for sugar cubes). 

Any 8ohm speaker will suit TTS. I have never used the supplied speakers with any TTS I have fitted. One uses a Zimo dumbo one. The improvement in sound quality over the supplied one is marked. 
 

Bob