Dungrange

Exactoscale products are available through the Scalefour society's store as an alternative supplier. However, I think the fundamental question over accuracy versus convenience is one that only you can answer. You either hand build track with the correct company pattern of chairs, or you accept a more generic typical BR pattern for convenience. I know which one I would choose, but that choice really needs to be made by you.

I'm assuming "load 5" means with five coaches as a trailing load, but of course the answer to your question depends on how heavy these coaches are and how free running they are. If they are fitted with lighting, then there will be wiper contacts or other pickups which will increase their resistance. There is then the issue of the locomotives and how much the particular locomotives that you have will haul on the flat. In general, diesel locomotives tend to be capable of hauling heavier loads compared to steam locomotives. Locomotives with diecast bodies will tend to haul more than plastic bodied locomotives. Is it going to be possible to add additional weight above the driving wheels of your preferred models to increase traction? As others have said, curves also limit the load that can be pulled up a particular gradient. 1:30 may be okay on the straight, but not if that gradient includes 18" curves or point-work. I'm not personally a fan of gradients having been put off them in my teenage years (something like a 1:24 gradient seemed to limit me to two couch trains with some locomotives), but if you really want to have gradients, then make them as gentle as possible and like the prototype, aim for something flatter than 1:30 if you can and probably flatter than 1:40.

I'm sure he couldn't be any worse than their current MP! There doesn't seem to be any minority candidates standing in my constituency at this election. The only loony no-hopers that I could waste my vote on would be the Conservative, Labour and Green party candidates! None of them have been doing any campaigning locally, because none have any prospect of being elected.

I guess the answer is not really, if they are going to work with commercial ready to place / run products, which is probably the majority of modellers. The standards applied by various manufacturers may not always be consistent and within specified tolerances, but most are probably close enough to the DOGA Intermediate standard that it won't matter much in practical terms. However, if someone is thinking about moving to or adopting 00 Finescale standards (as per the DOGA Fine specification) then yes it is something that someone needs to be aware of. Almost all ready to run stock WILL NOT be able to pass through a turnout built to the DOGA Fine standard. 0.2 mm may be a small distance, but this is the difference between something working and something not working. Of course if anyone wants to adopt EM / 00 Finescale flange-way gaps without modifying ready-to-run stock, then there is always 00-SF or 4-SF, which uses a 16.2 mm track gauge.

Very nice. I was looking for a way to model an internal stairwell in a building and found that stair pieces at a scale of 1:75 can be found on Ali Express. I can't say how good they are, but I've ordered a few pieces, which are currently on their way to the UK. For my purposes, I think they should be fine. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32963856550.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.50df4c4dFxvJL6 I'm not sure how costs would compare to the approach that you have taken.

Technically, I suppose the answer is yes, although you then have over width check rails. The issue with adopting the DOGA Fine standards is that you need to adopt them fully. That means since you have a track gauge of 16.5 mm, with 1 mm flange-way gaps, you have 14.5 mm between the functioning part of the check-rails, which means that any commercial stock with a back-to-back of 14.4 - 14.5 mm wouldn't pass through the gap between the check rails. That therefore means you must re-wheel all stock to 00 'Finescale' standards. I personally don't see the point - if you are prepared to re-wheel stock and build track, why not do to it to EM or P4 standards? However, if using commercial track and ready-to-run stock, then forget about 'Finescale' and either use the DOGA Intermediate standards or the NMRA standards for H0 when kit building. Many manufacturers claim to use the NMRA RP25/110 wheel standards, but I'm not sure if that's the case or not - I suspect possibly not. Some manufacturers products only partially comply with standards - the height of NEM pockets being another issue.

My understanding is that the size of most war gaming figures are specified by the distance from the feet to the eyes of the figure: not sure why. Therefore, what is sold as a 20 mm figure will be around 20 mm from feet to eye or probably closer to 22 mm to the top of their head (assuming they are human) and therefore equivalent to an individual that is around 5' 6" tall.

Okay, since you've already picked up Peco track and points, forget about the DOGA Fine standards and use the DOGA Intermediate standards. What is important is that your track standards and wheel standards match. The DOGA Fine standards are effectively as close as you can get to EM gauge standards, whilst sticking with the 16.5 mm track gauge. That means adopting a 1 mm flange-way gap through the point and crossing work (same as EM gauge), and a correspondingly wider back-to-back dimension than ready-to-run 00 (which is typically 14.4 mm). The wheels should technically be to the same profile as EM wheels, but just mounted 1.7 mm closer together on the axles. If you want to work to this standard, you effectively need to build your own track. Peco's turnouts and crossings are much closer to the DOGA Intermediate standard, which specifies a 1.2 mm flange-way gap. I think the Peco turnouts are allegedly 1.25 mm but I'm not sure. This means that you are looking for a back-to-back gauge that is around 14.4 or 14.5 mm depending on the profile of the wheels you are using. As you have just discovered, "00" is not a consistent set of standards and the term "finescale" is often nothing more than a marketing term for something that looks closer to scale that our other product (such as Peco using the term to differentiate between their Code 100 and Code 75 ranges).

But that is just your assumption: it doesn't clearly state that on their web page. This is effectively the follow up question that the original poster sent to which they never received a reply and which prompted this thread - what is meant by 'standard decoder'. Note that the web pages says "standard" rather than "original". As such, I think this could also be read as a basic non-sound decoder (ie Hornby's standard decoder, say, rather than the original TTS decoder).

I think your choices are either to buy replacement wheel-sets or buy a lathe and place each wheel in turn in the lathe and reduce it to the standard that you want (ie you need to set it up to remove the amount of material required to match your chosen standard). I suspect most people will go for the first option.

I agree that models have always been made in batches. I think the change is that whereas in the past Hornby may have produced a dozen different batches of the same model with running number 123 over a period of several year, now they will only order one batch with that running number. The next batch of the same model will have a new catalogue number with a different running number, crest or livery style. This change has been driven by those who don't really want to buy two models with number 123 and renumber one of them.

In the "How common were/are the small TMDs" thread Pandora posted a link to a photograph of the shed at Hithers Green. The one thing that I immediately notice is the height, so some similar cladding on your purchase could certainly hide the part where the working mechanism is.

Why go to Olivia's in the first place? Obviously in this instance Art has confirmed that it's a desire to support a local retailer, but it could equally be that if you type "Hornby R3460TTS" into Google, Olivia's website is on the first page of 'hits'. Furthermore, this particular model seems to be out of stock at a number of retailers, so as a retailer that appears, at first glance, to still have stock of a TTS Sound fitted model, an e-mail enquiry to them to clarify whether they can provide the catalogue version seems perfectly reasonable, in my opinion. The problem is that Olivia's Trains seem to have built up a bit of a reputation for responding to customers asking about what they consider to be a non-standard option in a rude manner. As a business, it certainly doesn't have a reputation as a customer friendly retailer, although some appear to have no problems. However, I suspect part of the reason why they may still have stock of this particular model when many others don't, is that they are not many people's supplier of choice.

I agree with Alex Holt here, the original poster seems to want a model with Hornby's TTS sound decoder fitted to the model for operation on DCC. This appears to be the default way that Hornby supply this particular model, but it doesn't seem to be an option that can be ordered on Olivia's Trains website. It therefore seems logical for the original poster to want to clarify what they would be getting for £115: is it the TTS fitted model (as per the Hornby catalogue reference) or one where the TTS decoder has been removed? If it's the latter, is it possible to purchase this model without the decoder being removed (ie as supplied to Olivia's Trains by Hornby)? These are sensible questions to ask, and ones that Olivia's Trains should answer properly and politely. Perhaps the problem with Olivia's Trains here is that they have the same attitude as many of those who have replied to this thread. If you want sound, buy Olivia's own sound project (for £236), if you want to operate on DCC without sound, buy one with Olivia's own choice of decoder fitted (for £143) and if you want to operate on a DC layout, buy the analogue version (with the TTS chip removed) for £115. If you want it with TTS fitted (why would anyone want that option), just go **** ***. That's not good customer service. I'm sure that the DCC Sound version with a Loksound V4 decoder (I note it's not a V5) and Olivia's sound files is probably better than Hornby's TTS version, but not everyone can afford the higher priced version or thinks it is worth the extra cost. It appears that if someone is in the market for TTS Sound, Olivia's Trains don't cater for their needs. I've no experience of dealing with Olivia's Trains, but I see rather too many posts on RMWeb about their customer service to make me want to purchase from them

Very true, but how else could the increase in global population be tackled if leaving it to an individual's free choice doesn't seem to have the desired outcome. I'm not saying it's a policy that I'd like to see implemented, I don't, but the continuing growth in the world's human population is arguably as big a problem as single use plastics, which is what prompted this thread. Of course I'm not expecting Peco to do anything about the growth in the global population: all they can do is look at how they package their products.

I'd say that buffers installed in an earlier era would only have been replaced either when they were damaged and irreparable or there was some other station modernisation work that was undertaken which meant that new everything was specified. As such, I think it's up to you what your back storey is.

Of course the issue of an increasing global population is not just about how many children someone has. The global population is also growing at the moment simply because people are tending to live longer: the next generation is more likely to be born before the oldest generation have passed away. That means that children born today are more likely to know their grandparents than in the past, particularly in a global sense. However, I agree that in the longer term, it is only the birth or fertility rate that matters and that is too high in many countries. The problem is of course how to change that. China used to have a one child policy. Should that be more widespread?

I don't see anything wrong with the concept of an end to end layout with the fiddle yards one above the other, but I'm not sure about the suggested gradient of 1:20 or even 1:24 (especially not if that gradient is also maintained round the curves). Gradients that are that steep tend limit you to running shorter trains, which kind of defeats the reason behind your plan - to operate decent length trains. I think you need to conduct some tests with the locomotives you have to see what sort of load they care capable of pulling up the gradients you envisage before you commit to the plan too heavily.

Do you need an endless supply of track-side fencing? Surely once you've built the layout you don't need any more.

No politician ever keeps their word after an election. However, at least this candidate would know what 00 track is, even if he doesn't share your position.

Well, 00 is 1:76.2, so if you want to reduce that to 1:450, divide 450 by 76.2, which means you want to reduce your 00 plans by a factor of 5.9055. That is, buildings in 00 should be almost six time bigger than T in all directions. Depending on what software you are using, you may have to specify the reciprocal (ie 1/5.9055 = 0.16933). That means that any size in 00 is either divided by 5.9055 or multiplied by 0.16933 to get the T scale size.

I can't answer your question, but will be interested in the answers. However, it is not just the sound chip that is important, but also the speaker that it is paired with. In some respects getting the right speaker is as important as the choice of decoder.

Most ready to run stock is designed to negotiate a minimum of "Radius 2" which is 438 mm, so I'd say yes. It won't look terribly prototypical, but it should work. See - https://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/Hornby-track-planner

Cararama used to do a similar model at least ten years ago, which was marketed as 1:80 scale, but was I think closer to 1:76. It looked like https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/cararama-scania-cement-mixer-lorry-76-168149111 I'm not sure how frequently they come up on E-bay or what they sell for, but they never used to cost that much.

But the Exactoscale Fast-track bases are the only 00 scale specific product that was being sold. The sleepers, chairs etc are all suitable for EM and P4 gauges anyway. I agree that the 00 scale Fast-track bases may just fade away in the long term, which was the reason I ordered what I think I'll need now. The problem is cost. It costs money to pay someone to process orders and if there aren't a lot of orders to process then Exactoscale can't make a profit from their mail order operations. Sadly, any business or range of products that can't turn a profit will cease to exist in the long term.