paulr1949

For information - in Kernow's newsletter 15/1 We completed processing all pre-orders for these models this week! We have around 200 orders outstanding where either cards are out of date or invalid, phone numbers are invalid etc etc. These orders will be cancelled on 31st January unless we hear otherwise, so if you have an O2 on order please contact us before this date, thanking you!

Not sure, as I ran it in on DC on the rolling road in (I think) November, fitted the chip and made sure it worked, then put it away for a while, bringing it out to weather it and add S&W coupling bars. I tried it last night on a single new length of Peco track at the club, and it certainly ran better. I have cleaned my track again, and then went over some of it with a graphite pencil and it has made a difference - not perfect, but much better. I'll have to give the CV settings some thought - I'm fairly new to DCC. Thanks

Further to earlier posts about back to back problems, I am currently experiencing some issues with my model of 30182. When I ran it in on the rolling road with DC power it seemed to be ok, just a few jitters in 30 mins each way. I have since fitted it with DCC. Having put it on the layout today to check that the S&W coupling bars I have fitted were ok, I found that the loco would go for a bit, hesitate, go again, hesitate, go again and then in most cases stop. Both directions. I checked the back to backs and they were very close to 14.5mm - possibly 14.6 and managed to adjust them a little. I then put the loco in my "wheel cleaning cradle" and tried a cleaning brush - this worked fine as long as the brush was held to the pony-truck wheels, but it exhibited similar problems when touching the drivers. There is (as has been mentioned) an awful lot of slop in the axles. (Un)fortunately, my layout is at an exhibition this coming weekend, and at the moment there is no way I can use the O2. Does anybody have any suggestions for anything else I can try? Thanks in advance

Thanks for the comment, Nick. I hope to be able to complete a few things between the layout's visit to Orpington next weekend and it's next outing at Ilford in April. Not directly the "layout" as such, but the first thing to do will be to test out a strip of warm white LEDs which I bought recently, as the current lighting rig is very heavy. With a bit of a push, I can get three of the boards up on their legs in the shed with the lighting supports attached. What I really do want to do is get at least one more signal sorted out and in position if not actually "servo-ised". Time will tell. I will post some photos soon

Oh dear, I appear to have left things rather hanging in the air - sorry :-/ The control panel was duly completed and tested, with only a couple of minor problems found. Some minor repairs have been done where necessary, a couple of trees have been replaced, some more figures added and a boat has started rowing up the river. The "700", "02" and Heljan rail us have all been run in on the rolling road and chipped, and a new station sign is under construction. The layout is appearing at the Orpington MRS exhibition in Pratts Bottom village hall next weekend (9/10) - do say hi if you are there

One will shortly be entering North Cornwall to run on Trezeath, armed with my modelling licence

I have just collected mine from Kent Garden Railways. I bought a Hornby decoder on the basis that it must be able to fit!! Will put it on the rolling road today or tomorrow.

Time for an update. Having had a break and doing other things since the layout's last outing at Crawley back in April, it was time to set to work on a new control panel. But first, some photos of the layout at Crawley. So construction of the control panels started a couple of weeks ago, and "fitting out" has taken place over the last few days. The inside of the box, with 25-way "D" connectors which connect to the boards. There are more terminals than I will need, but it was easiest to use plugs and sockets which I already had "in stock". I prefer a connection to each board where possible, it means that I can test each board individually. Having said that, there are only connections directly to 3 of 5 scenic boards: there are no points on board 1, so that is just an inter-board plug/socket chocolate block connector; board 4 to board 5 is the same (no points) and ditto the connections through to the fiddle yard (which is a sliding 6-road board). The extra connector goes to board 2 to operate the signals - should they ever get built ;-)) The back of the control panel. Connections will run from the tag strips at the bottom to the tag strips in the previous photo. Obviously this is still a work in progress, the 5 leads at the left hand end are points feed from CDU, LED feed/return and DCC feed/return. This latter is for frog switching, as I do not like to rely on the swicthes on the Seep point motors. You can't really see it properly, but the two long copperclad strips at the top are cut - the top one is mainly for LED resistors which will run between the two, plus the left and right hand end sections are for points feed. The LED returns all go to small copperclad strips. All the points are operated by a toggle switch for direction and a push-button for actual operation. This allows me to have LED indications and frog switching without using relays or electronic wizardry. The exception is the three-way point in the loco area, which uses a diode matrix so has a rotary switch for operation, LED and frog switching, with final point changing by push button. The front of the panel. Signals are marked with red squares, and a separate switch panel will be constructed when required, which will fit to one side or the bother of the control panel. Still to be added are "holsters" for the Prodigy controller handsets. I have set myself the task of completing this and testing by the end of the month, so I can then get on with some other important things, such as signals.

Very nice Giles. I'm looking forward to seeing the trains going up and down the gradients ;-)

Mine is on order from the local model shop - I shall have to enquire! And mine will run in North Cornwall - I have a modeller's licence for that sort of thing

That'll make life easier if/when mine arrives ;-)

It would be nice if my 4mm scale one ever arrived - it's just coming up to the 2nd anniversary of ordering at the local model shop ;-))

A post-exhibition update, after some time widning down (including a holiday in Italy with friends which involved flying out to Maples then returning by train). After the successful DCC-debut, I have stripped out the surplus wiring. Annoyingly, I still need two leads to one of the boards (the one with the most points) to enable control of points, frog switching and, eventually, signals. When at home, the layout resides in my railway shed, and sits on flat plywood "shelving" (foir want of a better word). I have spent some time over the last few weeks building small support brackets which fit into the slots for the legs and support the layout about 45mm off the top of the ply. This enables me to get in and attach or detach cables as required without moving the whole board/layout. I have a few small repairs to carry out (the odd chimney, bit of hedge etc) and the new control panel to complete, then (or perhaps concurrently) I can restart on the brass signals. I made up a Ratio kit quickly for the Crawley show to temporarily replace one which was damaged at home earlier in the year. I also have three or four locos to chip, along with three "on order". Trouble is, as always, lack of time (or trying to do too many things). Photos to come soon.

Hi Do you belong to the Southern yahoo email group (SEMG)? A member of that group is Glen Woods who is a mine of information on SR Milk tanks/workingsand possibly depots Edit - not sure how or why the first quote got there....!

A brief and very belated update on preparations for the Crawley show in 10 days time. The layout is now DCC-controlled, using a gaugemaster prodigy express system, extra handsets for exhibitions coming from various members of the operating team. I have added chips to 5 of my locos, and three or four more will be done before the show, and the fleet will be augmented by some from friends. The loco roster may thus be a little different to before: I'm not even going to think about chipping an old Ivatt tank, and the M7's are proving somewhat difficult! We did some testing at the clubroom on Saturday and this proved that the made-up computer leads I had bought weren't man enough to operate the points, so I had to spend yesterday making up one new lead (the.old one was very slightly too short and was suffering from being pulled about). Some fencing has been sorted out, hedges planted and a new greennhouse sourced (and weathered). Unfortunately, one of the MSE signals was danaged earlier in the year and I have not had time to replace it yet, so I'm still no nearer to my goal of operating signals (I have the switches on the control panel, the servos to operate them and some of the signals, but getting them all to happen is proving difficult). Come and say hello if you're at the show.

Well done! I had a similar shock when "Trezeath" won a similar award at Erith a couple of years ago. Much as I would have liked to visit Barton Peverill again, I was stymied by the reduced and extended schedules of the train service due to them putting in some new crossings at Wimbledon.

Just thought that a link to the club website might be handy... http://www.orpingtonmodelrail.org.uk/exhibitions.html

Well final prepartions are under way to the layout before it appears at the Orpington & District MRS show next weekend at Pratts Bottom village hall, Norsted Lane, BR6 7PQ. Open Saturday and Sunday, 10 - 5 both days. If you're about, say hi to me, green giant and Darentman. The electronic routing system has been updated following experience at expoNG last October, and a wagon turntable has been installed (not working yet, but give us time...!). Some improvements to a few of the buildings, walls and chimneys have taken place, and general fettling.We're erecting the layout on Friday morning and hopefully one of us will be able to upload some photos before the show..

A couple of photos from my day as an operator on Theobald's Yard. We had some very nice comments, and the layout ran well considering it was it's first outing in it's new guise.

We're now set up at Swanley and ready to go tomorrow. It actually took less time than I thought it would to firstly pack the layout into the transport and secondly to erect it all in the hall and have an engine running round. [excuse the pot of paint ;-))]

Surely not! :no:

That wouldn't be for you to play with Ken, by any chance, would it?

Oh dear, soon didn't happen! The small matter of my daughter's wedding got in the way, and modelling basically took a back seat for the best part of 2 months. And since the big day, it's been too hot to do much. I have been getting on with soldering up the new control panel for DCC operation in short doses to fit in with the weather. Signal construction has come to a halt as I need to obtain another piercing saw handle. I need much finer blades to cut the brass etches than I have at present - greengiant of this parish kindly gave me a couple, but I've put them down somewhere and can't currently lay my hands on them. Trezeath is now booked to appear at Crawley next April, interspersed with outings for White Oak light railway and a club layout, so I must get the proverbial finger out.

Not really, despite being retired I don't have the time - Trezeath is on the exhibition circuit and requires work (building signals and converting to DCC), the club has a major project in 00 (here) on which I'm doing a fair bit of the trackwork (slightly less recently) and the templotting (not always correctly unfortunately ) plus I help two other club members operate their layouts. I am considering selling it, as another club member is interested, and I would rather see something happen to it than it sit in the shed getting dusty. Cheers

Chris The letters on this Peckett are almost 3mm, the whole nameplate is 4mm HTH