Jintyman

Myself and my wife had a great time on the Sunday when we visited, and a great selection of layouts to view. I was particularly taken with 'Fence Houses', just WOW!!! 2mm finescale at its upmost best, and the fantastically smooth running that was achieved in the small scale was a joy to behold. Numerous other layouts took my fancy, including Craster, where a couple of my pieces of work were operating, which was nice to see, hopefully there will be more soon on there. I took a few pictures on my phone, of some of the layouts. Pwllheli in 4mm: Crinan in 4mm: And Fence Houses in 2mm Finescale: A great show, I can't say the trade support didn't have much in the way of kits, Invertrain were there with some 7mm kits that I saw, I don't follow 4mm suppliers so I can't comment on that particular scale. We both enjoyed ourselves, and will certainly give it our patronage again. Jinty

Nice to meet you also at Railex NE on the Sunday. Great little layout, full of atmosphere and plenty of little cameos to give it an excellent atmosphere. I only got a couple of pictures with my phone. Jinty

No Smiles Simon, my prior comment was 'tounge in cheek'!!!! I've seen a Marcway scissors before and as you've noticed (as well as a couple of others) the 'K' crossings are wired with the adjacent vees, so it's the two 'K' crossings and the adjecent Vees need wiring and switching together and then the two crossing Vees. Hence why I suggested a Frog Juicer in the first place, mainly because I'm carp at wiring and electrics. The last one I saw wired up was utilising 4 x Tortoise turnout motors and one frog juicer, and he had all the motors running off one switch, so all switched to the curve, or all switched to the straight at the same time. Hope that helps in some way. Jinty

Andy is currently building and running "Pen-y-Bont" in 7mm and "Kings Moreton" in 4mm. Not sure which is next in press! Totally agree with Chris K's comments about how well balanced RM is. Jinty

A great visit to Railex NE today. Delivered another Rat after sound, lights and weathering and also a Fairburn after fitting sound, firebox flicker coupled with coal shoveling and a renumber to 42085. Awaiting smokebox number and shed plate from NP. Here is a short (shakey) video of 42085 leaving its new home, Craster at the show. More very soon Jinty

I've weathered a couple. Not a bad model at all really. Jinty

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but aren't the 'K' crossings incorporating the turnout frogs needed to be switched as well as the crossing frogs? I know some are against the use of these units, but I've had perfect running over both my single slip and my threeway using just one Hex Frog Juicer. Easy to set up and just one wire from each K crossing and each crossing frog and you'll still have two ports left over! (PS; Don't tell SimonD, he hates the things ) Jinty

Maybe I should start washing them when I've finished. Intensive cycle on the dishwasher should do it!!!! Jinty

As an addition to what has been suggested before, Peartree Engineering do diesel wheels, but if the Roxey ones are a faf, then you're better off having them turned down a bit. Davids website is a great read, he's done some lovely work on his San Cheng brass locomotives to give them a lift. Jinty

I take your point Mike, and respect your knowledge. The customer and I agreed on an early 'D' and Unicycling Lion as a little bit of difference for his layout. There are photos to support the fact that the early D's lasted right up until 1962. Plate 72 in The Diesel Shunter by Colin Marsden shows an 04, in green, no wasps, renumbered, with the early D on the bufferbeam at Yarmouth on the 8th of September 1962, photo by F. Hornby. I had also found on the internet a picture of an 04, renumbered, in green, no wasps and unicycling lion in early 1959, but for the hell of me, I cannot find it now!!! Typical!!! Therefore a little modellers licence has been applied, especially the fact that this loco is modelled in the late steam, early diesel era where all sorts of things went on. Thanks for your input, it is appreciated and taken constructively. Jinty

Yes it's on its way Rod, hope you enjoy it. Jinty

D2227 ambling along with a couple of 5-planks.

And another loco has been completed. Here is a Bachmann Brassworks class 04 diesel shunter. Numbered D2227, and finished in BR Green livery with a small 'Unicycling Lion' totem. This loco has also been fitted with sound via a Zimo MX645R decoder and one of my own speakers. I've also fitted a 4700uF capacitor and directional lighting at both ends. I have visited the crankpins, turning them down to a more reasonable size and losing the hexagonal screw head, replacing with two flats for tightening up. I think this little job makes quite a bit of difference to the Brassworks locos, and, although a bit laborious, it is straightforward to do. A driver was fitted from the excellent Modelu range after being superbly painted by Claudia Everett. Once all the technical bits were finished, it was glazed with 0.5mm PETG and then weathered with washes, powders and some colouring through the airbrush. Hre are a few pictures before it heads home: A couple more later this week too!!! Jinty

Sounds strange!!! I agree, I think a reblow would benefit it. Jinty

The Dapol repair system is now, to contact DCC supplies who are Dapol's repair agents. The loco would then have to be sent to them for repair, etc. As for the sound problem, I have fitted many 08's and I've never come across it, but then I've always used a Zimo MX644D with Paul Chetter sound. The Dapol 08 requires a 21-Pin 6-function decoder to operate the lights correctly. For a re-blow you would now have to get the decoder re-blown with Paul's sound file at Digitrains, where all his sound projects are now available from. But the decoder would have to be a Zimo, as Paul doesn't do any other make of decoder. The codes for the three Paul Chetter sound projects that are available from Digitrains are: ZS08AD, ZS08AP and ZS08ASL There is a 'How to' on the ESU site for fitting their 4-function decoder, but this, I believe, involves altering some wiring within the loco, which I believe would invalidate any warranty on the loco. What decoder is used in the 08 that has the problems? In balance, I have had, both myself and for customers, at least 2 dozen 08's through my hands with only 3 with any kind of fault. One was a poor running fault which was a wheel turned slightly on an axle. The other two were a collapsed front ladder on a green one (Which took some putting back together!) and a buffer head fell off on another. I think that for the price of them (Sub £200), they do represent good value for money, but as the old saying goes, "You will never please all of the people all of the time........." Jinty

There will be twins, 5202 and 5191!!!! Jinty

Quite Tove, Fat fingers, it is the MX644 as Digitrains advised. It's what I meant to type, honest Jinty

I have a slightly different approach to the speaker than Tove. I thought Tove's speaker set up was a great sound. I remember the video he put up of it and I was very impressed. I on the other hand use one of my own 32mm round speakers in a custom enclosure that I fabricate myself out of acrylic. The speaker is hard wired (soldered) to the PCB where Tove has a plug. I use the same MX645 that Tove uses, with the Paul Chetter 'Active Drive' with 'Speed Lock' which I believe is on version 2. Here is a video showing one of the many Dapol 08's that I've completed for customers with the Active Drive and Speed Lock. As stated above, Jeremy at Digitrains is very helpful Jinty

Really? I'll go back through my sources to see where it says 86G. I wish I'd of been able to spot Panniers in service, especially along that line. Jinty

9648 setting off back home to Merthyr. Jinty

5191 sunbathing in the early 70's Jinty

With having my 'Rural' photo plank outside this evening, I thought it would be rude not to take a couple of shots as the sun crossed the yardarm (house), showing the background foliage with sunlight on, but shadows for the subject matter. 9648 facing both ways and then with a pair of 14t tanks on the hitch. I'll hopefully get back to some more in-depth updates soon, where something is progressed on Talyllyn!!!! Jinty

Well Andy, await no more.................................................. Here she is, Class 25/1 (Derby Built) Number 5191 in BR Blue with FYE. Fitted with a Zimo MX696S via a screw terminal adaptor board and feeding twin bass reflex speakers. Directional head code lighting, directional tail lights and cab lighting in both cabs. Fitted with a driver in each end (No2 end chappie looks like the second man taking a rest!!!!) and snow ploughs. The locomotive weathered in detail and some gratuitous pictures taken in some nice natural sunlight. This one is a little De Ja Vu to the one I did for Craig a little while back, but I've made it a touch different. Here are a few pictures: I'll try and get a video together as well of 5191, see how busy my week becomes as I'm dropping this machine off to its owner at the end of the week! Jinty

Ready for the November 7mm meet up on the Llyn

Not with the Zimo MX696KS it isn't, which is what I've used in this case. I also prefer to reduce the brightness at source with a comparable resistor to the brightness I require, then if I want any more, or less brightness, I can simply change a CV to do so. Doing it this way, it is set at a brightness I prefer to start with, then it is only minor adjustments. Question: Is the Lokprogrammer capable of working with other manufacturers decoders, or is it ESU based only? Jinty