Dungrange

Another thread on the topic of rail for the early Liverpool and Manchester railway suggests a company called Ambis - don't know anything about them.

DCC Train Automation have a video on their Youtube channel on how to set these up with a Digikeijs DR4018 and you can hear the operation of the MP1 and MP5 from around 09:30. The first part of he video being how to wire them, and how to set up the DR4018. I have no experience of these but I am looking for point motors.

If you replace 'studio' with 'www' and remove the /edit/basics from the end of the URL it should work https://www.youtube.com/video/NTTOPkjCQ0s worked for me, but the URL should more correctly be I agree that it looks good, but I don't want to spend that much on a camera.

I don't know the answer, but I expect that someone will suggest disabling DC running in CV29. http://www.2mm.org.uk/articles/cv29 calculator.htm should help you to determine the correct value for CV29 as this is a multipurpose CV. I'm suggesting this in case the decoder is seeing full track voltage and responding as it would in DC - ie running at full power.

I guess that they could be spares that they had set aside in case they had any faulty returns. If these returns didn't materialise, they can now sell them on.

I think there is need to differentiate between reopening the club rooms in a limited way and returning to what was 'normal'. As the secretary of my local model railway club, this is a topic under consideration at the moment. In the past, we met two evenings per week and the number of attendees any club night would range from barely half a dozen to at least a dozen members. For the Annual General Meeting, we'd have upwards of twenty attendees. Returning to opening the club as was normal in the past is not something that we can consider in the near future - I suspect that we might be looking at 2022 - because social distancing requirements means that we simply cannot accommodate these numbers in our club room. However, in Scotland at least, the Government are proposing to allow individuals to meet up indoors with members from up to two other households, with effect from 10th July. That therefore presents us with the opportunity to allow three members to meet at the club room. This would have to be managed by grouping those who are keen to return to 'normal' into 'bubbles' of three, who could then be allocated a specific time slot to attend. At the moment, I've simply asked the membership to think about whether this is of interest. Small groups reduces the potential risk of transmission, but similarly reduces the social enjoyment. The problem is within all clubs there will be a range of opinions ranging from a desire to return to normal as quickly as possible to those who will be reluctant to set foot in the club room until a vaccine is found. However, just because some members will not want to attend doesn't necessarily mean that some can't. We just need to find the most workable solution moving forward. However, for the moment at least, our club room remains closed.

Another quick question - what is the length of these wagons (both the twins and the quads)?

Is there a date for when the 'early bird' pricing ends? I fancy a few, but not sure which ones to sign up for.

Agreed - it's a form of advertising for the BRM brand. Agreed - the issue is who should pay and how much? What monetary benefits do BRM get from running / hosting RMWeb? If the costs involved in running and maintaining the site exceed the value that BRM feel they get from owning RMWeb, then they need to seek additional ways of covering the running costs, since as you've highlighted the purchase wasn't for altruistic reasons. That therefore means that they have to: make the site subscription only (so subscribers pay for the full running costs); sell advertising space to Google (or anyone else who is willing to pay to get their adverts on the site), so that the full running costs are covered by advertising; or adopt a blended model where some people can subscribe (Gold Membership) and not be shown adverts, while those who don't want to subscribe are shown adverts. That therefore means that users have a choice as to whether or not they are shown adverts. Like you, I wouldn't be on RMWeb if it was a subscription only site and I agree that the number of members would reduce significantly if that was the approach taken by BRM. Clearly the value of the site is in its content, so without the collective valuable knowledge of many contributors the site would have little value. I suppose the question is how do you monetise the value of the contributions of individual members? It would be easy enough to suggest that Member A posts loads of helpful information and should therefore be shown fewer adverts than Member B who only asks stupid questions and contributes very little. The problem is that quality of input is subjective. It may be technically feasible to suggest that those who have the highest post counts could be shown the fewest adverts, but there are several members on here who post a lot of ****. Perhaps a members 'Community Reputation' score could be a better measure of the quality of posts that someone contributes, but if this was used to serve up fewer adverts to those with a high score, what would be shown in place of adverts: blank space? Personally, I have no issues with the adverts served up (perhaps Google just knows me better) if it provides me with free access to this site. I will click through on some adverts, but those of no interest, I simply ignore. I agree with that. The adverts that I have clicked on in the past are shown much more often after that - just don't click on the 'dubious content' or you will get that regularly!!!

Yes, to pay for the costs of running the site so that cheapskates who don't want to pay for Gold Membership can still access the site for free. It's quite simple, if you don't want to contribute to the running costs of the site by seeing adverts (which you can chose to ignore), how do you want to pay for access to RMWeb?

I'm assuming that these dimensions are to the track centre line. You'll therefore have to deduct about 19 mm from centre line of the track to edge of platform. Your island platform therefore becomes approximately 88 - 19 - 19 = 50 mm, which is pretty much the minimum you can get away with for a two sided platform: it's certainly not over generous. The rear platform is slightly wider at 65 - 19 = 46 mm, which means you can put station furniture in the rear 20 mm or so that is against the wall.

I'd have thought that was doable. As Colin has said, the minimum clear space is to be 6' or 24 mm in 4mm scale. Therefore, you could probably get away with say 30 mm if all you're going to have is some seats / platform lighting columns up against a fence attached to the rear the wall. The island platform would need to be a minimum of 48 mm, but again, you'd probably be better aiming for around 55 mm so that you can have benches, lighting columns, station name boards etc along the centre. Obviously any station building will need to be at the end of your bay platform, which may mean shortening it a little, since there isn't the space for a building on your island platform.

I'm more intrigued how a passenger train from Gort is supposed to continue onto Athenry, since it seems that both tracks through the platforms join the southbound line on the double track to the north of the station. As for your question, I'm assuming if you go with the Analogue versions then you'll need a separate accessory decoder if you want to operate via DCC.

I could see a use for it as you envisaged, but alas you live at the wrong end of the country!!!

If payment was only taken on 13th June, then I'd assume that will be the date of dispatch from Sheffield, which probably means it hasn't left the UK yet, but will probably do so soon. How long it takes to get to you in the US will largely depend on US Customs. Having ordered from a model shop in the US last year, it seemed to take at least three weeks before it got to me in the UK, but at least two weeks of that seemed to be customs clearance in the UK and then writing to me to pay the import VAT before it could be delivered. Ultimately, it will take as long as it takes.

I had assumed that this would stop access through the train, but I note that the entry on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_153) states "All have gangway connections at either end to allow passengers and staff to walk between units working in multiple", which I didn't know, so I guess fitting the Class 153 in the middle of a 2 Car set isn't an issue.

By 'inside the 156' do you mean splitting a two car unit with the Class 153 as a centre car in a re-marshalled three car set? If that was the case, would that not prohibit movement from one end of a Class 156 unit to the other? If @turbos is correct and the plan is to abandon splitting and recombining services at Crianlarich and operate five car sets from Glasgow to Fort William, then the Glasgow to Fort William services would presumably be formed as 2-Car Class 156; Class 153; 2-Car Class 156, which would indeed mean that the Class 153 would never be driven and therefore wouldn't need RETB equipment.

Does that mean that there will be an increased number of trains on the Glasgow to Crianlarich section, or does the recast plan to keep the same number of trains on the southern section but simply drop the practise of splitting at Crianlarich, with alternate trains operating to Oban and Fort William? If it's the latter, then there will obviously be more capacity on four car units heading to Oban, but there would be fewer trains per day on the Crianlarich to Oban section. The same would obviously apply to the Fort William / Mallaig services. Can you point me in the direction of the details of the proposed timetable recast?

I think their website stated a land address when I ordered last year, but it appears that they no longer have the shop in slough (which closed in February) and they are now only selling on-line whilst winding down the business. Their blog states that the business will close completely in September this year and a lot of product lines will not be reordered, so basically once they run out of stock, that will be it. https://www.modeljunction.info/smartblog/30_End-Of-An-Era--.html However, I agree that even although they no longer have the shop, they should still have a land address and another means of contact besides a web contact form. I'm assuming that they are simply fulfilling orders from remaining stock in the owners home.

My understanding is that Model Junction are based in Slough - https://www.yell.com/biz/model-junction-slough-4278563/. I agree that their address doesn't seem to be on their website and looking at the invoice they sent me when I ordered from them last year, it doesn't seem to give an address either, which is strange because I thought invoices should display the company registration details and registered office. That said, I had no issues with my order and there are a few positive comments on an old RMWeb thread.

My understanding is that these units will both be powered and driven, albeit perhaps not that much. Prior to Covid-19 restrictions, West Highland services left Glasgow Queen Street as a pair of Class 156 Units, and I understood that the Class 153 will be fitted between these two two car sets for the journey north to Crianlarich. However, at Crianlarich the train is split in two, with one Class 156 unit proceeding to Oban and the other to Fort William and Mallaig. I think that the Class 153 units are to continue on the Fort William service, but that would mean that between Crianlarich and Fort William the Class 153 will be leading in one direction and trailing in the other, since I can't see them re-marshalling the train at Fort William.

Andy, Welcome to RMWeb. The important thing about noise is to avoid getting glue into the voids in the underlay. Using cork and then filling the voids with PVA glue when ballasting simply removes any noise reducing properties that the cork had by making it rock solid. This is where a latex glue is allegedly better, but at the moment I can't speak from experience. I also can't confirm from experience that foam underlay is better than cork, but it's foam underlay that I am going for: a mixture of Woodland Scenics and C&L. However, there are other sources of similar materials that others use, which are not specifically sold for model railways, but seem to be very similar and a bit cheaper if you require loads. As for whether to use H0 or N, that is up to you, but if you want something in between the width of the N and H0 rolls, then you could just cut the sheets to the width that you want - https://woodlandscenics.woodlandscenics.com/show/item/ST1477. The other consideration is thickness - I think the N gauge range is 3 mm thick, but the H0 range is 5 mm thick. I think the thicker material should be better at reducing noise if that is a primary consideration.

I'm assuming that 1 - 9 are the possible locomotive addresses that the Bachmann EZ controller can access. It shouldn't be necessary to try all of these as the address should not have changed from when you first got it to work and if the decoder was reset, then it should revert to the default address of 3. I don't really understand your references to ground or common. My understanding is that the red and black wires from the decoder always go to the track (via the locomotive pickups) and the orange and grey wires from the decoder go to the terminals on the motor. You shouldn't need any of the other wires from the decoder to get the locomotive to move. The Red / Black wires provide the electrical circuit that powers the decoder (from the track). The Grey / Orange wires provide the electrical circuit that powers the motor (from the decoder). There shouldn't be any connections between any of these wires. The lighting circuits should most likely be connected to yellow, white and blue, but these shouldn't be connected to the motor terminals - I note that your second post indicates that the yellow wire goes to the left brush, which would be incorrect. If you go with stripping all of the wiring out and starting again with a new chip, make sure you test the locomotive / motor on DC before attempting to fit a new decoder.

I think a "Cameo" is effectively the same as a "Diorama" - something that is essentially small and static, along the lines of the various "cake box challenges" that have appeared on RMWeb. A "Cameo" isn't intended to be operated. A "Micro" on the other hand is a very small layout, which is intended to be operated - ie there is some operating potential. I think it's generally assumed to be a layout that takes up no more than four square feet (in 4 mm scale), so I'd say anything up to seven square feet for those modelling in 7 mm scale. However, the four square feet metric seems to be a fairly arbitrary measure and one that seems a little small for my tastes. I don't think there is any definition for "Big Micro", but I'd take it to be somewhere around the upper end of the "Micro" definition and strangely it was the term "Big Micro" that prompted me to look at this thread!! Of course trying to categorise artworks into "Cameo", "Diorama", "Micro" or anything else is as fraught as trying to categorise artists by music genres!!

I note you refer to Mk 1, 2, 3 and 4. Were these wagons produced in different batches and are there differences between these. If so, do you which type the Heljan model represents? I asked a question about these wagons some eight years ago now - how time flies