Izzy

It's just 3, so 660uf. More than enough for small, efficient motors, especially in 2mm. Full details are here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/107235-2mm-coal-tank-test-build/page-6 starts at post 143 The ebay links are old of course, but new searches using them will bring up alternatives. With the mini-melfs/SMD bits I reckon about £2-3 per pack all told. You can of course arrange the tantalums in a variety of ways to fit the space available. All this comes because of the ground work of Nigel Cliffe. Details and more links here: http://www.2mm.org.uk/articles/DCC%20Stay%20Alive/index.html cheers, Izzy

I have found using packs of 220uf tantalums to be good enough to overcome basic poor running. The packs are cheap to generate if you get the bits off ebay. I recenty just got another 30 case D's (7x3x3) for £11.99 posted to use with the zeners/diodes/resistors I already have. Here is a basic pack and a 4x one recently fitted into a Bachmann 03. This uses a MX648 and small Zimo sugar cube speaker. The shot was a test one before final fitting/conversion to P4. At speed step 10 of 28 you get around a quarter of a wheel rev when power is lost. So less at lower speeds, but even at creep speed there is no stalling at all. More than enough for me. Especially at the cost effective nature of the arrangement. Izzy

A ticking when running in one direction can be something catching/ brushing against something else that doesn’t happen in the other one. It can often be gear related when spur gearing can move sideways under loading, and sometimes the face of the worm or wormwheel can be poor and is the cause, (since different faces will take the load depending on direction). Might even be the flywheel catching something if the motor shaft has a lot of end float. Izzy

I would say use the Seep ones, they don’t get too hot if left on and seem to have enough power. I did try a Peco once....appeared to be a single version of their point motor ones, so little power - not enough to work was my experience - and rapid heating/overheating if used for more than a second. Izzy

Yes, I have often heard the remark that it will all be 'a good investment/nestegg for the wife when I am gone'. Quite how this is expected to be I have never understood. I just pity the poor wife or who ever is left to sort it all out. Izzy

Don't know if this is of any help/interest but I have always put a few rivets in certain timbers to add a bit of strength and aid electrical connection since plastic chairs first arrived. I have never used them with anything but ply timbers. This is P4 but would be the same whatever the gauge. cheers, Izzy

I think you are confusing the Dapol J94 with the newer offering from DJ Models. It is the latter which has the features you refer to. The Dapol then Hornby J94 has the small motor used in a lot of the smaller current Hornby locos and details of how to take it apart for oiling etc can be found on the DCC fitting guides section - under Hornby J94 conversion ( as it’s basically the same model). I believe it’s on page three. Hope this helps, Izzy

Back in October I was lucky enough to see Jas Milholm's S scale Abbey Street at the Chelmsford Exhibition. To my mind it is a masterclass on how low relief should be. Look around on the web and you can see quite a few more. Pinterest seems to have links to quite a few layouts I have not encountered before elsewhere, but it might well be that the perspective angle from which shots are taken/reproduced doesn't show the whole picture (ouch) if you get what I mean. That in the flesh the viewing might generally be different/not so immersive. In general I would say that how succesful low relief is seems in many instances to be related to the size of the layout and it's scale. Whether it's a major part of the view, or just a small percentage at the edges. So with larger scales it is easier than with smaller ones. But if you look at Peter Denny's work he appears to have judged it right. I do so envy/admire those with an artists eye who can do this, which I can't really seem to really. Izzy

Hi Ray, If you take a look here, post #20, you will see what the Jinty PCB and blanking plug look like. They are not standard i.e. the blanking plug has other bits on it. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/82934-farish-jinty-4f-2fs-dcc-with-stay-alive/ As has been said the original Bachmann 6-pin decoders do not work on DC, which might have been fitted. It is not clear from your shot whether a decoder is fitted or it's just the blanking plug you can see. It might be the latter and the loco just isn't working. If you need a new blanking plug I would suggest you contact Bachmann UK service dept as they are very helpful. Izzy

Couldn’t agree more. Apart from it’s price being classed as a budget decoder seems mis-leading for those who have no experience of them which is a terrible shame. Apart from one or two ‘bells and whistles’ other Zimo’s have they are probably more highly specified/many more adjustment options than most other decoder makes. The motor control alone is on another level to any other save CT. This also applies to the other budget versions Zimo are currently offering. Madness to use anything else IMHO except perhaps CT where space is an issue. Izzy

What a good idea. Izzy

When, after three decades I lost interest in modelling in the late 90’s I sold off or stored all that I had collected over the years in respect of books, magazines etc as well as the basic items such as tools, parts and so forth. All kept bits went into the loft. I had all the MRJ’s from 0 as well as virtually every drawing that had appeared in others such as the RM. In 2010 when I regained an interest I discovered that while the tools and parts were still there, somehow all the magazines/saved articles had disappeared, gone, never to be seen again. As the loft was emptied once for refurbishment it has been accepted that this is when they went, by how/why is still unknown when all else remains. The strange thing is that I don’t miss them. I took the view that if I was new to the hobby I wouldn’t have them and would be starting from a ‘clean sheet’, but I did have past modelling experience to lean on. And these days thanks to the web, information and much more is easily located if needed. The only MRJ I have re-purchased is No6 for the GER 1865 station building drawings, which in the end I found I didn’t need anyway. I now take the view that free space, or space that can be used for current projects, is more useful that reference material that might never be referred to. Last year 2/3rds of the books I had (so about 200) went to a local charity bookshop, keeping only those covering that which I am currently interested in. They will hopefully have gained a bit for their good cause - a hospice - and I gained useful space. Felt like the lifting of a weight. Izzy

May I ask why not? Yes, the tenders for the E4’s might have differed in certain aspects, but then so did those for the J15’s, and why I believe there are a few different types hung behind the models of them that Hornby have produced. In this respect therefore I was thinking that having suitable tooling for these might have some impact on the financial viability of producing a further design such as the E4 when otherwise it might prove not viable. Izzy

An GE/LNER E4 to go alongside the J15 would be good. Lasted until the end years. Hornby have already got the basic tender behind the J15. Izzy

The link took me to bitly.com which states the web address given is a ‘short branded’ one, whatever that means. Short term lease of the address I presume, which has now run out. I appreciate the idea of offering the dvd to those who would like one with paper issues where they are not included by default, but this rather defeats the object, which is obviously not intended. I got this issue for the combination of the Bawdsey update, the LNER brake van articles, and the Humbrol brushes, thinking it worth while for the £5.49 cover price. In actual fact it was very worthwhile even without the dvd. Izzy

As someone who once had a Littlejohn copy camera the size of the average car, (among other stuff as part of an art studio/darkroom/platemaking complex employing around a dozen staff, 6 of them artists), to convert such stuff into photo tools/etched plates in the days when litho was king, it is sobering to realise that all this kind of work can now be done with a click of a mouse on really small devices by a single person. Well, perhaps not the actual etching bit. I often wonder whether litho still plays any part. Izzy

6123 was re-engined at Paxman's Brittania works in Colchester, which were sited behind St Boltophs station with rail access. I think this was in 1963, so after the move north and the application of yellow panels. I would therefore think that running this in an East Anglian setting could be justfied under the idea it was undergoing testing after the re-build. All the other 19 were subsequently re-engined in the north, at North British I believe but not sure. Izzy

I have to say, as someone who has long advocated fitting split-axle current collection to bogie/tender wheels to aid current collection, (especially useful to such as 0-4-2/0-4-4’s but beneficial to all locos), that split-axle collection in itself is no more reliable that wiper pickups. Indeed I will go further and say that often it isn’t as reliable. The reasons are quite simple. Properly tensioned wipers maintain constant contact, which split-axle, both in theory and practice, and whether in captured bearings or just loose in slots, cannot. In fact, as someone who produces the odd few 2mm loco with split-axle/split-chassis, in the case of all my non-diesel bogie locos and whether converted Farish or with etched chassis I have been recently fitting them all with tantalum stay-alives (luckily I use DCC) to ensure/produce decent reliable running. In the case of 2mm scale and split-axle/split-chassis it has long been the case that ‘Simpson’ springs, named after the originator, wire tensioned to press on the axle halves to aid current collection, are recommended and usually used. Izzy

Yes. To my mind one of the biggest drawbacks of online anything is that it’s fine if you know exactly what you want, or how it is described/named. But if you don’t, or don’t realise you could benefit from having something, then that is where it all falls down for me, and magazines score highly in this respect. Browsing adverts is as much information gathering for me in this respect as actual articles on modelling itself. Izzy

Yes, I realise that it can be made to work, it just seems, as the previous post quoting Iain Rice suggests, bad general practice. Not only that but in effect the chassis becomes just mainly 4-coupled in respect of traction and pickup. I haven’t built a chassis without some kind of axle movement/slop since the late ‘70’s, and I understand the idea behind it. Just seems the wrong way to go about it. But then, each to their own. Izzy

I have never used a Comet chassis, and I just can’t get my head around the idea that for a fixed axle chassis of 0-6-0 configuration (or greater I presume) the middle axle(s) should be raised above the centre line, which has been seen as a ‘good idea’. Are coupling rods ‘bodged’ like this to match? It’s one thing to have axles allowed to rise and fall in relation to each other in a ‘flexible’ chassis - via springing/compensation, etc, quite another when the axles are fixed in position. If this is indeed the case it explains why some have so much trouble getting decent running. Izzy

I posted a few shots a while back in the workbench thread here:- http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/65499-whats-on-your-2mm-work-bench/page-64 It's been finished since then - just - and fitted with a stay-alive unit. When I get the chance I'll post a few more shots if it's of any help to anyone. The stay-alive is fitted into the cab below the window line and makes all the difference to performance. I would now suggest that they need to be considered as a basic fitment where space allows and DCC is used with small locos such as these. I will say that whatever motor you use trying to add as much weight to make up for fitting the etched chassis is useful. You loose quite a bit, the Farish chassis is a good proportion of the total loco weight being a mazak casting. Izzy

I keep getting the feeling the servers are really struggling to cope with high demand since the recent maintenance. All seems quite normal during the day but slows during the evening and often stalls past 10pm. But a lot of sites seem similar over the last few weeks so maybe it’s the general web straining under the run up to Xmas. Izzy

Erm, yes and no, well in my case anyway! I formed the layers using wire through the crankpin holes to align them (which becomes soldered into place and so forms the crankpin), and then just opened up the hole gently to take the axle, standard 1.5mm. Soldered these in place and then cut down to size as stubs. The drawing/etching standard is such that this gives a good concentric result. Izzy

Oh, thanks for that Martin. Didn't know that existed. Very useful. Izzy