Izzy

Thank you Paul, that's reassuring to know. That simple isolation of the speaker feeds is all that is really required. Nothing too drastic. Given the high quality of the sound files - going by the videos on youtube - that are fitted into these two locos (which I think you may have been involved with), it does seem that obtaining the locos sound fitted is the best/cheapest option for those that can afford it. My concern is in understanding the options open to DCC users such as myself who can't, if this kind of installation becomes the de-facto standard for future releases, which following on from the Castle it would appear it might be. I guess the same situation applies there as well, if they have speakers fitted as default, not sure about that. regards, Izzy

I have just discovered that there are two next18 socket versions on this thread , see my post #7 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/127492-testing-Bachmann-36-567-with-esu-53900-dcc-decoder-tester/&do=findComment&comment=2902139 and that there is the possibility that a plain/ordinary/vanilla decoder cannot be fitted if desired. Hope I'm wrong. Izzy

Does this mean that anybody buying the new sound ready next18 socket Farish class 40 (with a speaker fitted as default so all that has to happen for sound is to plug in a next18 sound decoder), can't run it under DCC unless they fit an expensive sound decoder they might not want/need/afford. Oh dear is all I can say if that is the case, and wonder what the reaction will be when this becomes common knowledge. Izzy

I have never found white ink to flow well enough, drying too quickly and making it rather blotchy as you have discovered. May I suggest you try replacing the ink with well thinned enamels, but still applied with the pen? Takes a bit of trial and error to work properly, loading the paint onto the pen with a brush at the right consistency, but does produce usable results which I found a bit easier to do than using a small brush. Izzy

A 'Big H' eh ? Hm. Perhaps it's size wise, and Hornby are going to try O..........to match Dapol with their Terrier/08/3F....... Izzy

Hi Don, Sorry to ask after so long but as I am just mulling over the sound options with my J15 I wondered if I may ask what decoder and speaker you fitted. I guess perhaps the Zimo 648R, but with a 28mm speaker in the allotted space or perhaps one of the cube types? I presume they came from Digitrains along with the Paul Chetter sound file you mention. thanks, Izzy

I would go along with those who suggest using loctite will work okay. I still have and use a bottle of loctite 601 - I think this was the original formulation - and if you put some into the bore of the worm, you don't need much, and then slide the worm onto the shaft and twist it about, the adhesive will tend to smear itself over all the contact surfaces and even out what gap exists. As it is an anaerobic adhesive - goes off with an absence of air - then as any gap gets bigger the curing time will of course get longer. When set the joint will be rock solid, but usefully an application of heat of some kind to the joined parts - I usually use a soldering iron - will break the bond/soften the adhesive and allow the parts to be separated. You must not get loctite near any motor shaft bearing surface............. Izzy

I do hope Hornby will release more chips in due course. Although they may not be to all tastes cost wise they are just so much more affordable and I would love to install some basic sound in my lovely little J15 without the current cost involved with a Zimo version. The tender has been designed to fit a speaker easily as per the King/Castle so I'll keep my fingers crossed! Izzy

Hi Both, I had always assumed that all the wheels were of the standard 3'7" coach size, taking it as a given that coach wheel size didn't really get smaller until the arrival of the B4's, the first generation DMU's being the exception. The Class 15's had 3'3" wheels so this size in the motor bogies seems quite logical/feasible, indeed, if you study 309 photos with this in mind it does become clear in many that the wheels are slightly smaller than standard coach. I don't think non-power bogie wheels would be larger than 3'7" but I do wonder if perhaps all the 309 wheel sets were of the 3'3" size throughout. Oh to have paid more attention when they were running! Izzy

Thanks Clive, having ridden on the units throughout their lives from both the Clacton & Walton lines there are times when the memories get a bit blurred when queries arise and you begin to question whether what you remember is correct. I do recall that in off-peak times in the 80's they ran up to town as 8-car units and wondered if the 2-car units had been pressed into service on the Walton portion on their own at this time. I wasn't aware the power bogies had smaller 3'3" wheels either. Did this just apply the 309's or was this the case with the 302/4/5/8's as well? regards, Izzy

You cannot run a loco on the program track using the program feed. This connection/setup uses low power and is only for programming cv's etc. To actually run a loco you must connect the main output track feed to a - totally separate - piece of track. Warning - Do not ever connect the main and program outputs to the same piece of track! Doing so will destroy the program outputs. Izzy

As there are multiple ways of powering hacked servos according to particular voltage needs I thought I would just mention these one amp variable voltage regulator power supply converters I often use to power them. https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/velleman-1a-power-supply-solder-kit-ve58n Passing through Maplin's yesterday I see the kits are currently down to £5.49 and quite easy to assemble with fairly decent instructions. Input can be 5-24v ac / 5-35v dc and I often feed them off my 15v/3.5amp DCC system. Output via the trimmer - you need a MM to set it reasonably well - can be anywhere between 1.2v and around 22v depending of course on the imput current. They do need a heatsink on the voltage regulator for more than very low current/voltage draw and especially if it's continuous but a small offcut of thickish aluminum is all you need. I didn't need one at all in the installation shown in a previous post - you can see the VR in a couple of the shots. Izzy

Hi David, Yes, most certainly. The important bit would be that the power supply used has enough amperage to feed the current draw of two servos at the same time. As the rough ballpark figure for servos is to allow 0.5amp per servo that would be 4-5v @ 1amp. Izzy

Last year I had the motor in a 3 month old Bachmann version expire for no apparent reason. As it had been converted to P4 I couldn't/didn't want to return it for a refund so I fitted a Mashima 1833 I had. As I understand it the Bachmann/Hornby models are very similar in design so maybe it would be possible to do the same with the Hornby version, if you can still find a Mashima 1833's around. Izzy

I have used the multicore + phosphoric flux combo without problem. The only downside is the build up of rosin crud on the tip which thus needs frequent cleaning. Leaving out every other sleeper is about the limit I have found to keep adequate strength against knocks etc - don't ask! Permanent magnets need to be raised/lowered away from the un-coupling position so they act like electro-magnets . In the past I have used 1/4"/6mm ones sliding up/down in K&S tube, and worked by servos, an idea gleaned from Stuart Bailey. I think if I remember correctly that Ian Morgan uses a similar arrangement with the magnets on hinged flaps. Here are acouple of shots of my arrangement. Lowered and raised. The magnets sit just under the sleepers with a thin layer of paper between- to hide them and allow for ballasting. All very crude as usual for me, but it works, which is all that is needed. This particular one is for two magnets on adjacent tracks. I have arranged up to four across a baseboard - saves on servos. hope it might give you some ideas Izzy

Hi Clive, Lovely to see the 309's coming together, and I look forward to seeing the whole 10 car rake, most impressive. I really must try and get going again on my 2mm Worsley Works 4-car Walton set. On a side note, did the 2-car units ever run regularly on their own anywhere do you know, or just as supplements to the 4-car units when needed? I can't ever remember seeing them run past my house on the Walton branch, but that of course doesn't mean it didn't happen somewhere. regards, Izzy

If you are using the checkrail chairs (I'm afraid I don't) and threading all the other chairs on the stock rail before laying it I can't see any real problem with doing it the way you propose as the end result will be the same as you suggest and it would certainly allow you to bend the checkrail to shape more easily before adding the stockrail. I use separate chairs for the checkrail to allow a modicum of adjustmend and they get laid after the crossing and stockrail, but this involves more chair triming and other fudges and is a technique developed from track building in other scales/gauges, where often checkrail chairs are either not made, or not to the standards you need. Izzy

Yes, JMRI is free, it's volunteer based open source, constantly being updated, and runs on a range of platforms with Java installed, Windows/Mac/linux etc. You can hook up many DCC systems to it and the computer it's installed on in a similar way to using a Sprog, but it does seem that in most cases the computer interfaces cost as much/more than getting a Sprog. I have found that the advantage of a Sprog+JMRI is that it basically gives you a second/independant DCC system that can do pretty much everything and be used anywhere. You can even use tablets/phones as wi-fi controllers with a router added into the mix so it's very flexible in what you want to use it for. Like many I particularly value it for the Decoder Pro part, and there is a large number of Decoder definitions listed these days covering just about all makes/versions. Quite a few hook things up to an old computer sat on the workbench/program track away from their main system/layout. This is especially handy if you have the layout in a loft/shed and in a totally different location to the workbench. Just can't imagine having to rely on using my PA2 system for all decoder programming however good and easy it is to use. Izzy

Chaz, Just to help illustrate what you get with a Sprog/JMRI combo here is the Eco-200 definition with the motor tab selected.These are the apparent default motor settings. Seems there are quite a few options for fine tuning the motor parameters besides the other relevent tabs. No cv's to bother with! Don't know how this compares to a Lokprogrammer. It will read all the cv's on a tab (called a sheet) when asked and may return different values if they have been set differently. To change a cv you just change the value and ask it to 'write' it to the sheet. Records of all the settings can be saved as a roster - you are prompted about this. My personal view is that my Sprog+Jmri is quite probably one of the best pieces of DCC stuff I have, and indispensible when needed. Izzy p.s. The default for the 3 V's - start/mid/max - (basic speed control tab), is all 0.

As far as I am aware the only option is to get the wheels turned to 2FS, the current 2mmSA drop-in-wheels only being suitable for Graham Farish diesels/DMU's. Izzy

Hello David, Yes, small bore albion alloy tube with piano wire to provide a cantilever action since no fixed fulcrum point was involved to provide movement. The particular arrangement involved was to drive rodding above baseboard to the point tie-bars. Both toggle switches are of the SPDT changeover type (on-on) - the DPDT being treated/used as two separate SPDT switches moving in unison. That sounded such a good idea that I have just tried it with the units retrieved from the layout coupled to an old AMR I have spare, but I am afraid it doesn't work. Slowing the speed down looses the inertia in the multi-stage gearing which carries the switch to the limit of it's travel after the power has ceased to the motor. Hardly any movement thus occurs and mostly the switch on the servo ends up stuck in 'no mans' land between the two poles so no movement becomes possible. A real pity. Izzy

Please use the link in the first post to see the original post on N gauge forum by the clever chap who thought up the idea. Nice and clear and better than I could do! Having searched out the details of the servos I have used - I knew I had them somewhere - I thought perhaps they might prove useful/interesting for some. Details: JP EnErGy 7.5gm digital Tower Pro SG90 9gm Motor: 6x10mm coreless 10x12mm flat can 3-pole Gearing: 5 stage 615 - 1 4 stage 320-1 Current Draw - first is running/second is stall. A selection of power settings obtainable using both alkaline and re-chargable AA's or set via an adjustable Voltage regulator. 1.2v: 60ma/170ma 60ma/320ma 1.5v: 60ma/220ma 70ma/360ma 2.0v: 60ma/270ma 80ma/500ma 3.0v: 70ma/375ma 100ma/630ma 4.5v: 80ma/560ma 120ma/970ma You will notice that although running current draw is quite okay the stall figures get worrying when higher voltages are used. You wouldn't really want to use these as stall motor designs when fed with continuous current at any voltage, but especially higher ones. That is where this design implementation scores so well. The action of the servo throwing the DPDT switch ( only one side is used as a SPDT the other switching the crossing polarity), not only reverses the current ready for the next movement but disconnects it too, with the other SPDT switch showing the current direction set, (which of course can be mounted on a control panel). Izzy

Sorry Brian, I'm afraid I have no idea what current they draw in this format/voltage not having measured it, but past tests have shown about 0.5amp @6v and 0.9amp at stall @6v (this with SG90's). You are correct about the toggle switch determining the arc range of movement, which is less than that of a normal servo. It does hold the servo in postion by default but this is secondary to it's main objective to reverse the direction of travel in combination with the other toggle switch. It is overcoming the toggle switch resistance that determines the level of voltage needed to move them which then sets the speed of movement and why the smallest switches available from Expo are used. You can operate hacked servos without the toggle switch as stall motor type devices, but in this case you must keep the voltage down below about 3v (they will work on down to 1.2v depending on the actual servos used), otherwise they just rip the gears/stops to shreds given the high reduction ratios they have. IIRC the 9gm SG90's are around the 320-1 mark with four stages, while I have some JP 7.5gm EnErGy digital ones that use a smaller coreless motor and are around the 615-1 ratio with five stages. (they have a rolls royce type performance - smoother/sweeter/quieter - in comparison with the cement mixer SG90's) This was my original design of hacked servo, powered via sprung centre-off SPDT toggle switches - Expo again, and steel piano wire used as the acutator, the servo moving through it's normal travel arc of around 87degrees and the wire absorbing the excess travel over that needed, much like the Tortoise/Cobalt stall motors, just smaller - much smaller, and cheaper. However this then needed a separate micro-switch for crossing/frog polarity changing. The design posted here overcomes that issue and gives a neat all-in-one package at the expense of needing a bit more power and slightly faster operation. So far they have proved totally reliable in operation. Izzy edited to correct gearbox ratios - see further post for more details

The best way I have found to produce very small signs etc is to make them at a nominal size and then reduce them to the actual printed size needed without re-sampling. I use a very old copy of Photoshop Elements (v2) but other similar ones are just as good. I try and aim for 1200 dpi at the final size. Even most cheap inkjets can print at this resolution (or higher) so long as the correct paper settings are used with those that don't have a resolution setting output in their software options. Just use highest quality photo. Indeed, printing out onto high gloss photo paper - 6x4 size is useful for these kind of jobs - and then 'lifting' the top layer off using a scalpel blade leaves a nice thin printed sheet, the paper being thick to absorb the much higher levels of ink laid down as printing at such resolution on ordinary weight ink-jet paper just floods it. Izzy

Thanks Jim, I actually wouldn't have thought about it being anything else coming from your good self. They are the initials for my light raiway based in North East Essex - completely fictitious - the Tendring Light. When the large cattle wagons arrived many of the small/medium ones were dispensed with as the large could be hired out as any of the sizes using adjustable partitions, and I assumed that like the IOW it obtained one of these secondhand, but with the westinghouse brakes removed/replaced by just a through pipe. Izzy