Jintyman

I've had all the models mentioned (except the MOK 14xx) through my hands and I've found pretty much all the RTR offerings are excellent value for money.

Minerva 8750 and 57xx Panniers are a little dearer than the Dapol version, but they allow for more of the slight alterations within the class, such as tool box positions, top feed or not, footplate vacuum pipe run positions, and a lot of the other minor differences.

as for sound, maybe playing around with different sound files may help in achieving certain sounds you prefer.

Here is a Lionheart 74xx fitted with a Zimo MX644D and a Collett 2251 sound project from YouChoos. It has (IMO) a much richer bark, and I had a 2W 8ohm cube bass reflex speaker to hand, which I cut down to fit in the space under the chimney and re-added the small reflex tube to maintain the sound quality. A bit of a fiddle, but #I think it was worth it.

I'm busy fitting out 3 Dapol 14xx's with sounds, two are for one individual, so I am going to make the sounds slightly different in each one somehow.

The Dapol 14xx is, again in my opinion, one of the best RTR locos out there. The innovative decoder fitting slide out PCB is a hoot. I do adapt it a little to get a twin speaker on a 3D printed enclosure in and a decent stay alive as well.

Good luck with the layout.

Stay safe all

Jinty 

Sorry forgot to add a couple of pictures of the new Dapol 14xx's.

19 hours ago, dmeaden said:

Hi Jintyman

 

Being the Jinty - man I am assuming you are knowledgeable on the said 3F’s and might be able to recommend a good sound file for my o- gauge jinty?

Your observations and experience would be appreciated and apologies if I’ve missed it in the previous 41pages of posts!

Kind Regards DM

Without a doubt it would the the Paul Chetter protodrive sound project through Digitrains and would need to be loaded onto a Zimo MX644D sound decoder. Jeremy at Digitrains does some excellent 3D printed speakers and a very good stay alive too!!! 

Jinty

2 hours ago, dmeaden said:

Hi Andy

I decided to replace the large speaker facing up with a smaller bass reflex facing down. Sounds better now and the bass chatter of the Diesel engine is much more discernible.

Not sure I need to drill out the tanks as the sound is quite well balanced but will run it for a week or so and decide ( after Reading trade show next weekend)

As a matter of interest I wired the roof fan to Aux4. Works ok but a bit noisy. Tuning down the brightness of the lighting with CV60 causes the fan to hum and below a setting of 50 it doesn’t start. Did you connect up your roof fan. Wondering if it will work better on one of the servo motor connections? 

(Have the same problem with the Class 20)

 

Regards DM

I've fitted sound to many many Heljan locos, and have never had much luck with the roof fan.

They either make a noise from the beginning or start quietly but within a short period of operation, they become noisy.

Not sure if it's anything to do with the signal from the decoder causing interference or not, but I just don't bother now.

As for speakers, I am currently  fitting quite a few Heljan 37/4's with sound and I'm actually using the tanks as the speaker chamber. I'm also fitting a reflex tube between the speaker chamber (tanks) and the inside of the body. This creates a Bass Reflex speaker in essence, and the deep tones are much more crisper, as I'm sure Andy will vouch for after hearing the class 37/4 I took to our meet up.

Also Andy's two 'Rat's' have been fitted with two Bass reflex speakers mounted on pedestals facing down over the gear towers, allowing the sound to come out through the bogie apertures. This gives a nice crisp sound, again, I'm sure Andy will comment with his view on this.

Jinty

19 hours ago, P.C.M said:

So things have been quite on the 7mm side of things recently. One reason is that I have been working on a loco shed for Llanbourne, which is nearly finished.

I had  a meeting here last month and set up Holmes Road with it's new traverser which  still needs some work but will do the job. After the meeting the layout was left set up and I ran it a few times but something wasn't really working for me. I only had two working loco's but the branchline idea does seem a bit far fetched for running what I want. I couldn't get my head round a running sequence that seemed plausible  I really should have thought all this through when I changed my mind last year. Another problem was I had extended a board, making it heavier even before the scenic work had started .

So the layout was put away and I spent a week or so running Llanbourne, and having a think about what I wanted to do with Holmes Road.

 

I had  been drawing trackplans and one thing kept coming up and that was a small shed and fuel point, not unlike what I first started with back on page one. So it seems I am back the where I stated but with an extra point the trackplan could have a bit more going on and more loco and wagon moves.

 

Last weekend the trackwork was removed and the new layout is taking shape. I will post up a few pics of the progress in a day or so.

 

Cheers Peter.

I know exactly how you feel Peter, Talyllyn is going the same way, I need more room and operationally it would be difficult.

Good luck with the changes.

Jinty

Hi all,

I'm looking for somewhere where I can see a list of which 08's were painted into Intercity livery.

In particular I'm looking for one which had a standard IC livery with no name, or even one that ran for a while with no name.

Rats, 37's and 47's have their own sites, 08's seem not to.

Thanks in advance

Jinty

17 hours ago, brossard said:

I read this thread with my mouth open and in awe.  I can only hope to to start to approach your standards.

 

I do have a question related to sound.  I installed a Loksound V4 decoder into my Tower Brass J39 and I'm puzzled by the start characteristics.  For the first few second it staggers and makes a loud noise after which it all quietens down.  My suspicion is that start BEMF is the issue and I'm wondering if there are adjustments that can be made (I did have a brief play with the associated CVs but nothing changed that I could see).  I have to admit that the loco is barely run in so I'm hoping that once that happens things will get better.

 

Funny thing is that all my other locos have Zimo sound and work marvellously.  I had to go to Loksound because Digitrains won't ship to N. America.

 

John

Hi John,

Thank you for your kind words.

As for the ESU problem I'm not going to be much help as I switched to all Zimo a long time ago.

I do believe though that the ESU decoders from the V4 onwards have an 'Autotune' feature which may help the running characteristics for your J39.

Google ESU Autotune, or put it into the search box on here and see if anything comes up. I know I've read about it on here somewhere.

Regards

Jinty

A few class 37/4's have traveled over the WB this last few weeks.

You've seen 412 above, and you've seen 413 above.

413 unfortunately was wrong. The nose grilles should of been the darker grey, so I've now corrected that as shown below:

Next up is 37426 "Vale of Rheidol" in BR Large Logo Blue livery.

Next is 37403 "Ben Cruachan" in BR Heritage Green Livery.

And finally, the best livery of all, 37421 "The Kingsman" in Regional Railways Livery.

That's all for now

Jinty

2 hours ago, Andrew P said:

IF    Your brave enough, you tell my Missis, haha.

 Well you got that wrong, you used the word TELL instead of INSTRUCT!!! 

Only kidding, but it is only 2 or 3 foot (short of the bottom of the garden!!!).

Jinty  

26 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

Still not sure if SMS will survive the house move as most standard garages are far to short.

Garden, garden, garden!!!!! even if it's only 2 or 3 foot!!!

Jinty

Well I won't bore you all with another set of RFD 37/4 pictures, suffice it to say that 413 is finished now, and here is one picture.

But also here is a video I did of her on test on Talyllyn Junction.

Jinty

Here's one of the Heljan 37/4's finished as 37412 in Railfreight Distribution Sector livery.

Extra Western reigion lamp brackets fitted to the side of the headcode box, as it was when working the china clay traffic.

This one's been done alongside its sister 413.

Short video to test the sound project.

Just awaiting weathering now......

I'll post some more pictures when the weathering is complete.

Jinty

Paul,

You should find on the Zimo MX645R that there is a live volume function on F27 Volume down and F28 Volume up.

As for the extra chuffs F26 according to the chart supplied above, is Shunt Mode which may give you what you require.

If that isn't what you want to achieve, than Pauliebanger is your man.

Jinty

That's looking good George.

Yes we must have a get together soon, life can get in the way a bit sometimes!!!

Jinty

15 hours ago, georgeT said:

Thanks Guys, The wagon is coming together at last, but its a challenge l can tell you...

Totally agree George, for a start the holes for the handrails are 'drainpipe' size, you may find it easier at this stage to solder some brass behind and re-drill 0.7mm holes to suit the correct handrail size!!!

The ploughs are the other pain, bit by bit is the best way!!!

Love the T9, looking very good George.

Jinty

16 minutes ago, Simond said:

David, if you can insulate the bogies from the chassis, you could short one side of each pair of wheels, and use the American pick-up system.  No extra friction, very reliable, and less fiddly...

 

atb

Simon

Peartree wheels Simon, not like Slaters, somewhat more difficult to do that with.

I have some ideas for some low friction sprung pick-ups anyway.

Thanks all the same.

13 minutes ago, PannierTanker14 said:

A question I’ve always wanted to ask since I first started watching the videos: where does the tunnel go?

To the next room from the garage and eventually to the bottom of the garden to the shed!!!

Jinty

Not a lot been going on due to summer stuff and recently car trouble in bucket loads!!!!

Anyway here is the Gladiator Ex LNWR M52 Driving Trailer with a coat of paint on.

LMS Crimson Lake and awaiting the weathering stick.

I haven't painted the bogies yet as I've been trying to fathom what to do about DCC lighting of the coach.

The lamp is a YouChoos bi-color unit which is white/red and this will work in conjunction with the Jinty loco. The driving cabin and the saloon all have lighting fitted, one glowing warm white over each compartment.

My dilemma was, do I run the wiring to the Jintiy's decoder via a plug, or do I give the coach it's own pick-ups and it's own decoder?

I have now decided to give the coach its own pick-ups and decoder and will run the Jinty and the coach with the same DCC running number so that they work in harmony with each other.

This decision was pretty much made for me by the Dapol Jinty not having adequate space for a 5-pin plug/socket under the rear buffer beam.

Anyway a couple of pictures, unfortunatley the light had faded so it all looks a bit darker than it is in the real world.

Now to fit the bogies with pick-ups!!!

Jinty

3 hours ago, Andrew P said:

Thanks Chris, I cant remember if that's the one that David / Jintyman did or the one that I did, but here is the other one for comparison.

Plus them both together.

 

 

The 25/3 is the one I did

They both look great together.

Jinty

Yes Hal Nail is quite correct, early 50's till the 70's I believe.

There aren't many around at the box shifters, but they can be found on Ebay and the Facebook groups.

They are also short of a little piece of pipework at one end which can be purchased from MM1 models (Ex JLTRT)

Here is a link:   https://mm1models.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=108_117&product_id=557

Craig (Muddy'sblues) was selling a couple of there style of tanks but in another livery and including the Ex JLTRT pipes.

Might be worth asking the question! 

Jinty

Here is a little example of the AK products on a Heljan tanker.

You can clearly see the sheen after drying. I'd put a bit of preshadi g on with fhe airbrush before hand touching up various bits around the vehicle.

Please excuse the artificual light in the Phone photograph, it had gone dark so in the garage under LED's I'm afraid 

Jinty

10 hours ago, Art Dent said:

One thing I really can’t seem to get right are the ‘oil streaks’ down the sides of tank wagons from the filler caps!

 

Art

Try AK Interactive Fuel Stains, it may need a number of coats and a little bit of pre-shading with a darker wash, but it gives a sheen like appearance when dry.

Another one is the AK Engine Grime. They are both enamel washes and can be thinned more and worked with white spirit.

Jinty

The Zimo decoders pretty much all have active braking now on F2

As you let off the throttle (either drop it a few speed steps or back to zero) I have set the coasting to quite high, so effectively increasing the effect. This allows the loco to 'coast' and by pressing F2 the brake is applied. The longer you press F2, the more severe the application.

Live volume control is on F27 to decrease volume and F28 to increase volume.

I'm not sure on the NCE Powercab how you get these particular functions.

Hope that helps

Jinty