rodshaw

The feeder which has been on our cherry tree for the last 16 months or so has attracted quite a range of birds. However, my wife noticed that the branch the feeder hung from is totally devoid of leaves, while the rest of the tree is fine. It's not as if the feeder is particularly large or heavy and the metal loop it hung by isn't digging into the branch. Is this just a coincidence or could it be down to the bird activity or the feeder? I can't remember what the branch was like before I started hanging the feeder off it.

For a smallish layout it may be worth considering balsa. I made an 8ft by 2ft layout from 4-inch widths fixed side by side on top of more balsa around the sides, much as you would fix sheets of ply or foam to strips of pine. It was 3/4 inch thick, I think, with no warps or bends. It's very easy to work with. Not cheap but it was very light and quite robust. I glued small squares of ply underneath to take screws for point motors.

Very good indeed.

There had to be some somewhere. Now I'm waiting for someone to post a photo of an old British coach that has been transported to the US and converted into a diner.

"I wish these railfans would keep off the d*mn track!"

The third is the workmen's hut, which, like the diner and the van, are 3mm scale resin castings. Having said which, going by the door heights, the hut and the diner are closer to the layout's 1:120 scale anyway. Interesting you should point out the chap in yellow. This is an unmodified Preiser figure so I suppose it counts as interloper no. 4 - but someone on the ttnut forum pointed out it looks like this thoroughly American fisherman: https://pics.me.me/thumb_gortons-trust- ... 107481.png Just goes to show - I started off intending to show just the rather obvious Moggie. Should have shown a bit of track too, for the discerning to spot it's HOm gauge

I've realised there are three impostors in the picture, though one is probably not that obvious.

It's a busy day at Naples Street. But can anyone spot the impostor?

I'm sure American rule books are and were just as thick as British ones. And going by the pages of Model Railroader, there are lots of American modellers who like to stick to them! Even industrial operations have lots of rules. If you're in the UK, modelling a British passenger scene for a predominantly British audience, it doesn't mean you have to stick to the rules but you'll no doubt feel more inclined to 'do it properly'.

That was more or less my understanding too. The era of my layout is a little fluid but this little exercise brings things more into line. Besides which I don't really like roofwalks! I think only a minority of these 'modernised' cars kept the long ladders so I may shorten one or two more. However, I'm stopping short at changing the date stencil marks - they are supposed to reflect the rebuild dates but at TT scale they are nigh on unreadable anyway.

I've been 'modernising' my 40ft boxcars by removing the roofwalks. And, in one case, by shortening the side ladder. I have no idea whether these particular boxcars received this treatment, though similar ones did. Anyway it brings them into more or less the same era as my other freight cars.

Also https://www.3dk.ca/

A couple of long-tailed tits started to show great interest in our back door window...apparently they are attracted by the reflection of the sky. They've been doing this for a few days now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8RQe_vCZGo

I used the Zimo pseudo-programming mode, where you 'trick' the decoder into setting a CV other than the one you're telling it (see here for more details: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/90995-cvs-over-255-using-digitrax/ ) , and I was able to fiddle around with various volume settings in CVs over 255. The trouble is, after a switch-off, no matter what I try, the sounds have all reverted to their original settings. I can set other things like acceleration and max. speed, but anything in CV values over 255 doesn't get retained. So either pseudo-programming doesn't work and I need a DCC system that recognizes CVs over 255, or it's a limitation of this particular sound project. I've posted on the Zimo forum but haven't had any replies. Any ideas?

Many thanks, I'll have a happy time browsing!

What I have half a mind to do if I can summon up the parts and the determination is to upgrade this rather nice looking Tri-ang DMU I bought some years ago to modern standards including all-wheel pickup from the driving car, DCC and possibly sound. Can anyone suggest a suitable replacement for the drive and wheels? 3SMR have lots of motor bogies on their website but they seem to be all sold out. I'd consider rejoining the 3mm Society if they had the parts. I do have some dual-shafted can motors I've successfully used to motorise a couple of American TT locos and I could probably get hold of some suitable cardans but the bogies and wheels I used for those wouldn't really be suitable.

The room I use as an office faces out onto public land with trees a couple of metres away. About an hour ago while working at my computer I heard a tapping at the window - it was a long-tailed tit! It then flew onto my fence and came to tap at the window again. Then it went back into the trees to join its partner. I heard a similar tapping at the back door and there it was again! Of course, by the time I'd got my camera they'd both scarpered into the trees again.

How about these for starters: http://www.clevermodels.net/ https://www.modelbuildings.org/

Interesting how the visitors to our garden vary. This year we are getting long-tailed tits, but we didn't get any last year. On the other hand, there were lots of starlings last year but I haven't seen any at all for several months now.

I've recently updated my online description of Naples Street with a few new photos and a bit more about switching. Hope you like it. I'm pondering altering one or two buildings and installing lights. Otherwise I think I've probably taken this layout as far as I can now, so after the remaining three shows I'm booked on this year I may retire it.

To partially answer my own question, I've realised that whatever I was trying wouldn't have worked because the DCC system I have (Roco Multimaus) can't program CVs above 255. So I'm going to have to use the Zimo 'pseudo-programming' to fiddle things and see what results I get.

I have installed a Zimo MX648 with a sugarcube speaker into an American TT scale GP9, complete with the Zimo GP9 sound project. I have CV266 (master volume) set to 65 which is apparently the highest Zimo recommend, but ideally I'd like to increase the engine/turbo sound volume. Can the speaker be damaged by setting CV266 higher and is there a maximum I shouldn't go beyond? Also I've noticed in the Zimo manual that there are lots of CVs to do with turbo and engine sound (e.g. 280, 387, 365-371) and I've experimented a bit but with no appreciably different results. Sometimes there seems to be a difference but next time I switch the sound on it seems to have reverted to the original settings. Could this be down to limitations in the particular project? Basically I'd like the engine and/or turbo sound to increase steadily with the loco speed instead of 'fading' in between notches, prototypical though this might be. The speaker is only tiny and I want to make the most of what is there. Can anyone advise what to tweak? Apparently the Tsunamis have CV 116, engine exhaust control, to reduce the number of speed steps per notch, and I think it's maybe something like this I'm looking for. Many thanks

Thank you David. This layout was very much an experiment to see what could be done with American TT and I must say I was pleasantly surprised at what was available once I started looking. RTR locos and stock were the biggest plus, and there's a nice line in road vehicles and figures. Motorising the Lionel display locos was fairly straightforward too. Unfortunately the supply of RTR locos has run out for now but I wasn't intending to buy more anyway.

How about a factory building in the foreground, like this one on the right? It completely hides the hole in the side panel which leads to the fiddle yard. The building is only lightly fixed down so I can remove it for maintenance of the track and turnout behind.

US outline is alive and well for me, except that at the moment I'm modelling TT 1:120 scale. (See the link to Naples Street in my signature). My description of it on this forum is under the micro layouts section rather than American & Canadian. As American TT isn't available from any supplier in the UK (and precious little from the US for that matter), the vast majority of what I buy is from Europe. And very nice it is too. I've taken the layout to various shows in the last couple of years with at least three more planned. Before that I had an American HO layout, Yorkford, PA, and I've kept enough of my HO stock for another small layout if I decide to go back to it.