Dungrange

Probably because that was the only way he knew how to do it.

I'd change your topic title to something like "Looking for Birmingham based modeller to help me with point motor wiring", since it seems the key thing you are looking for is someone who lives in Birmingham. Living 300 miles away, I can't help. As the secretary of a model railway club, I occasionally get e-mail requests along the lines of what you are asking. The problem is of course that whilst we have about 25 members, they are spread over quite a wide area, not all have access to their own transport, some have health issues, and a lot of the working age members are time poor. Some members hate wiring (or whatever the request is), so the pool of vaguely potential helpers is actually very small. Whilst I find we have quite a few members who are willing to assist fellow members with renumbering or servicing a locomotive and may be willing to go and help a fellow member (friend) solve a problem on their home layout, there is rarely a rush of hands to undertake such a request for a stranger who has just e-mailed the club. I think RMweb is great for getting advice about how best to do something yourself (because it doesn't matter whether the advice comes from Birmingham in England or Birmingham in Alabama), but it's much more challenging if you're looking for someone to ring your doorbell and work on your model railway.

As you're modelling in 2mm scale, I'd expect each of your locomotives to be drawing less than 0.5 Amps. Three locomotives should be well within the capability of the DCC system without needing a booster (which will just provide extra Amps that I don't think you need). The loss of speed is therefore most likely caused by a drop in voltage. The drop in voltage is caused by high resistance, which is either wire with an inadequate cross section, or a poorly soldered / connected joint. I suspect that it's probably the latter. Whilst a multimeter is useful for identifying voltage drops, you've already highlighted that there is a notable drop in speed when entering the fiddle yard, so it's likely that any poor joint is in this area. If you can identify which join the locomotive starts to slow at, then you can probably assume that the wiring is okay on the command station side of that join. You then need to check the wires that connect into the fiddle yard from that point. If the go slow section is quite short, then I'd hazard a guess that it's a dropper issue, but if it goes slow throughout the fiddle yard, then I'd be tempted to suggest it's the bus wire. Is the fiddle yard a separate board, in which case it might be your cross baseboard connector?

What is the current output from your command station and how many locomotives / accessories are you running when this power drop is occurring? My first thought is that it's a problem with voltage drop due to too much resistance in the wiring.

Yes. With a link to the new one.

They don't need to be designed or tooled, but there will presumably need to be painted samples, so since they aren't listed under samples received, I'd guess the others in this category for which details have been given is your best guide. At best 2024 Q4, but probably more likely to be the first half of 2025. Some of the in production items have a 2024 Q4 delivery date, so any earlier than that would seem highly unlikely.

I'd certainly see it that way, as I don't see how you're going to hand make the nose of the common crossing. With handmade track, the normal process is to file both rails so that you end up with an all metal 'frog'. For an Insulfrog style design you either need a way to create a plastic frog (eg injection moulding) or you end up with a very small all metal frog, isolated from the diverging tracks, which would be difficult to support, but might be doable. The high diverging angle of Set Track would make it easier to get a short frog than with more scale track.

Unfortunately, that only seems to be the case for the Streamline range. There doesn't appear to be any downloadable templates for the Set Track range.

I guess the obvious question is what is your budget? There are lots of software packages out there to derive optimum delivery schedules and routes, which presumably all the large logistics and delivery companies use. The issue is that most of them cost money - they're more than just an app for your phone. A quick google search threw up https://www.upperinc.com/blog/best-delivery-route-planner-app/#:~:text=Some prominent delivery route planner,%2C RouteXL%2C and Speedy Route. which seems to give some of the pros and cons of each package, albeit the cost information is given in dollars.

There still is. If there are multiple intermediate points, then it won't give you the optimum order for these - it just assumes that you want to visit them in the order that you add them.

Phil, Okay - I'll update the post and get the webmaster to update the website as well.

Having never attended any school in Edinburgh, I'm not sure which ones are 'right' and 'wrong'. Hopefully not too many consider GWC to be the 'wrong' school.

Yes, I understand that there were model railway exhibitions at George Herriot's many years ago but I don't think George Watson's College has been used before. I hope our prospective customers don't go to the wrong venue!!!😭

That's what I was thinking, although dismissed is as not quite fitting. That movement would be: Platform 1 to Junction (unit 1) Junction to Platform 2 Platform 1 to Junction (unit 2) Junction to Platform 2 The units would then be in a different order. However, what's shown is: Platform 1 to Junction Junction to Platform 1 Platform 1 to Junction Junction to Platform 2 However, looking at these two sequences, the only difference is the second line. Effectively lines 2 and 3 appear as the same entry in Realtime Trains (an arrival and departure), and presumably Realtime Trains can only display one platform where we effectively have two trains using the same head code. It therefore looks like Realtime Trains is displaying the departing platform. I'd therefore agree that this is probably the most likely operational reason.

What I don't understand is why it starts from Platform 1 and goes back to Platform 1 before ending up at Platform 2. I initially wondered if it was a refuelling turn based on the booked times, but clearly the actual times indicate that's not the case. I also wondered if it was to swap the order or the units (ie so that the same unit as was leading on the way into Fort William from Mallaig, was also leading on the journey south from Fort William despite the reversal at Fort William), but again, that doesn't look likely from the timings and would require the first move to be back to Platform 2. However, what I find even more interesting is the actual timings for the 12 April, because in this instance, the unit terminates in Platform 2 at 19:42 - 8 minutes before the Caledonian Sleeper left Platform 2 at 19:50. This doesn't make sense as the terminating 5Y58 would have blocked the departing 1B01. https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/search/detailed/gb-nr:FTW/2024-04-12/1955?stp=WVS&show=all&order=wtt

First press article about the show. https://www.midlothianview.com/news/midlothian-modeller-exhibiting-in-edinburgh

Well that's a bit more than I was hoping for. I suspect that in a lot of cases Rapido won't have that much detail and the livery as modelled may be based on a single photograph taken in 19xx. When the livery first came into service or was replaced isn't necessarily relevant to painting a model, so I wouldn't expect Rapido to research that, but information that says 'based on a photograph from circa 19xx' would be useful - especially for those of us who don't possess a vast library of PO wagons books. That's really useful, as it at least rules out one of the retailer specific models I was looking at as being 'too modern'. Thankfully none of the ones I've pre-ordered from the main range and still to collect from my local retailer are so marked. That doesn't mean they're definitely right for my period, but it's a start.

You could always invest in a Peco track gauge SL336 - https://peco-uk.com/products/6-way-gauge?variant=7435677499426 The Amazon website (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Peco-SL-336-6ft-Way-Gauge/dp/B002QVNAQC) gives the track centre to centre dimensions as 18+9=27mm for streamline and 26+9=37mm for set track spacing. The absolute minimum you could probably get away with would therefore be ~135mm (~5.3'').

There is one on E-bay - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166710557351 Looks like most retailers have sold out from a quick Google search.

Yes, the wagons were around from 1907, but that doesn't mean that the liveries that Rapido have applied date from that period. Some are Edwardian period liveries, but others seem to definitely be post-Grouping. I just can't tell which are which.

Can anyone advise which of these are in pre-grouping liveries?

For those who use Facebook, there is an option to win a free Family ticket worth £18. Just like and Share today's post. https://www.facebook.com/EdinburghLothianMRC

Does anyone know if this model of the Forth Bridge in T Gauge still exists?

And it looks like it achieves that. No I agree with you, but since it doesn't really detract from the overall scene, it's probably not worth criticising. What could be done to improve it? Probably lowering the two girders either side of the track so that more of each girder is below rail level. However, that would leave very little space between the water surface and the underside of the girder, which could look just as strange. Perhaps the stream shouldn't be so wide: the narrower the stream, the smaller the cross section of the beams under the track would have to be (assuming they run parallel with the track).

Good, because I'm not sure what you are actually asking. Going by the title of the thread, I'd say "how long is a piece of string?" The height between rail head and a stream passing under the track could be anywhere between 2m and 200m, so near enough 2cm to 2m in H0 scale. The choice is really what captures the essence of what you're trying to model - ie what looks right. Use blocks of wood or whatever you have to hand with a piece of track on top to try and decide what looks best or captures what you are imagining. Off the shelf, yes, but some of these providers will do custom jobs if you can provide a detailed drawing of what you want. It doesn't need to be in CAD, but you will need to give all the dimensions and custom work will obviously cost more. The alternative is to just buy a standard flat top kit and then cut away parts of the baseboard to allow your stream to be modelled. Most of these baseboards have a depth of around 100mm, which is so you can mount Tortoise point motors etc under the track. However, you obviously wouldn't be fitting point motors under a stream. Where you've cut out the top (and therefore weakened the structure), you could fit additional ply on the underside under your stream. How well this would work would depend on how much of the board you were looking to cut away. Maybe an alternative would be to use these upside down. You could then make a track-bed to be fitted to what would normally be the underside of the board and you just profile the upside down front edge to achieve what you want.