petertg

Thanks 66C for the information, but it is not clear to me how to do it. If you have any photos or can direct me to where there any, it would be a great help. Thanks in advance

Hi 66C! Thanks for the photo, but it seems to relate to my second photo. The first photo is of the bogie under the Dapol passenger coach and it does not have a centre screw but, apparently, a force-fitted plug. How do I get this apart? I don't want to start forcing things and break something important. Regards

Thanks for this information, but I believe that I do need to see some photos to clarify my ideas. Do I need to remove the bogie and how is it done? With the state of my hands I can't see me working with it in place. Also, are the wheels plastic or metal? Thanks also to Butler Henderson. I have printed out the text in question.

Hi all! Here I am again with more questions. Since I had only 4 UK passenger coaches for 3 steam locomotives, I decided to lash out and buy some more passenger and goods stock. Since one of the locomotives is a Fowler tank in LMS livery, I purchased 4 Dapol coaches in LMS livery to go with it. These coaches do not have Nem pockets (see photo below) I also purchased a set of Bachmann goods vehicles. Some seem to have Nem pockets (models 37-586 and 37-508, please confirm), whereas the others do not have pockets and the fitted couplings do not seem to be the same on all models I would like to fit Kadees to all these vehicles, but, before making a mess of things, I would like to receive informattion on how to set about it and on which Kadees I should acquire for each particular model. I would stress that I have 1st radius curves on the layout. If suitable information has already been published on the forum, please direct me to it. Thanking you in advance for any help you can give me.

I have chipped three old locomotives. One was a Wrenn City class purchased way back in 1975. It was mainly in its box until 2007 because I did not have a permanent layout. I then started building one, originally DC and got the loco out of its box and had the misfortune to have it fall to the floor twice, which reduced its value. I then went DCC. I drilled out the uninsulated brush holder and replaced it, had the armature rewound and fitted a neo magnet, but it wasn't until I purchased a Zimo MX632 decoder that I got it to work. It has suffered other accidents and it is something of a miracle that it runs, but it does. The other two are Lima H0 locomotives, one purchased at least over 45 years ago, and the other of indeterminate age, because it was given to me by a friend, but it probably dates from the early 80's. Again, it wasn't until I installed the MX632 decoders that I got them to work. I wanted to update these locomotives, because I have a lot of old Lima rolling stock, and, as a pensioner, I cannot spare the cash to lash out buying new stock. Hope this helps you.

It is now nine years since I had the bright(?) idea of building a layout. Originally conceived for DC operation, I upgraded it to DCC, but inadequately and this year, as mentioned in a previous post, I made the drastic decision of ripping up the whole track and relaying it with a multidude of droppers and bridges across rail joints in places. I think I can now say that I have solved the electrical problems, but soldering droppers and relaying the track has left a few imperfections to be sorted out, since my three steam locomotives with light pony trucks and bogies are susceptible of derailing, whereas the heavier electric locomotives take things in their stride. I have discovered two places with faulty rail joints, one was easy to correct because the soldered droppers were a fair distance from the joint and there was enough play to be able to remake the joint, but the other is more problematical, being at the end of a half curve with the droppers in the middle. I don't fancy having to cut the droppers and then turn the layout on edge again to resolder them. Anyway, to-day I got out my three coach and locomotive push-pull unit of the Class 450 type introduced in Spain around 1992 for suburban commuter service and it worked well, even at speed step 1. I had done a quick track clean with IPA, but there were still some spots, mainly on the points, requring rubber treatment. Once I have sorted out the track problems, I shall have to start on some serious scenic work since, having replaced the foam underlay with cork, I shall now have tol lay ballast. I have some of a blue colour, but I would prefer to have a grey coloured ballast. I shall also replace the Hornby buffer stops, which clip in place, with some Märklin ones, which are held down by a screw. I know that the scale is different, but since I have both 00 and H0 stock, it doesn't make much difference and I prefer to have the buffer stops permanently fixed.

I don't know whether it will be any consolation for you but on the Pyrennees foothills above the bay of Roses (Catalonia) there are some ruins and ceramic plaques and on one of these there is a poem which I can't remember all, but it has a line reading more or less as "There are so many greens that you cannot count them..." and if you look out over the plain lying below, this is true, so you shouldn't worry about your varying shades of green.

Since my last post, I effectively refitted the point motors, then turned the layout edge on to be able to work underneath without contortions and set about getting the droppers connected to a bus. I made a query on the Forum, got some good advice and, while I did not follow it too closely, it was a a great help. After almost two weeks, in sessions of 1-1/2 to 2 hours or a bit more at a time, I to-day managed to connect the last droppers and wire up the bus wires. I still have to wire in the plug socket where I connect the controller, but was able to do a first provisional test run by plugging the ends of the bus wires in to the controller plug. The results were encouraging. There was a problem at a diamond crossover but, since I haven't cleaned the track, that might be the cause. However, I had to run the layout up to the ceiling and tidy up all the tools, because we have things to do to prepare the house for my sister's arrival next Monday. So, full scale testing will have to wait until early May.

I have been silent for some time since: after an exchange of opinions on the Forum way back in February concerning dead spots, in the light of the comments made and of the fact that these comments allowed me to identify the cause of one such dead spot, I came to the conclusion that my layout had very many more potential candidates for producing dead spots. It was originally designed and built for analogue DC operation and had been converted to dcc by adding some droppers, but retaining the power clips. So, I took the drastic decision to rip up the whole track and relay it with droppers all round, in spite of having said on the Forum that I was not all enthusiastic about this. However, since the layout has nigh on one hundred individual pieces of track, including a good number of short straights, I felt that connecting two hundred droppers would be an enormous task and so in places I have connected two or three pieces of track together with bridges across the joint or soldered a dropper across the joint (probably highly unorthodox and not at all to be recommended). At the same time, I removed all the felt track underlay and replaced it with cork (hand cut from larger slabs). After several weeks of intensive work, yesterday I fixed the last pieces of track in place and to-day I finished getting all the droppers through to the underside of the baseboard, not without problems where the overhead track sections are concerned. My ramps are sustained on columns and some droppers had to be led to a column to run down the side hidden in a plastic straw. I then plugged two pairs of droppers into my dcc controller and got out the power car of my Class 156 DMU and saw that the dcc signal was getting through, but the main purpose of this test was to discover possible faults on the track. Running forward the DMU went reasonably well, but when put into reverse there were problems with derailing at a particular spot. I shall get out my DC controller for track testing, before I upturn the board to attend to the underside wiring. The next immediate job is to refit 11 surface mounted point motors, but I have to suspend operations for a few days because my wife wants the garage tidied up.

Recently I have had some success. I had commented on the Forum that I had a runaway problem with one locomotive which the recommended solutions did not solve. I had also had a problem with the lights of another locomotive, i.e., the front headlight came on at power-up and did not go out irrespective of the direction in which the locomotive was running. Both had Zimo MX632 chips which I had bought on-line from the U.K. I took the matter up directly with Zimo and, after an exchange of e-mail correspondence suggesting the known solutions and possible causes, they said that to be sure that the chips were at fault, the faults had to appear on a decoder tester. So I bought a tester and, to be sure, the faults appeared and then Zimo admitted that the chips might be at fault. I sent them to Vienna and in a fortnight I had them back reset and with updated software. The cost was about 20GBP. I reinstalled them in the locomotives and so far everything seems to be O.K. I must say that the correspondence with Zimo was very fluid, with immediate responses to my messages. One of these locomotives was given to me about two years ago, but the other was purchased about 40 years ago and I intended to have it running chipped whatever the effort. I finally had it running with a rake of four coaches. Apart from this, I have a lot of old Lima stock; some I know is around 40 years old and the rest is probably more than 30 years old. As a result of information received from the web and other sources regarding tension lock couplers, I have replaced these on all the modern stock having NEM pockets, both OO and H0 scale models, with Kadees, with a notable improvement in performance. However, the old Lima stock does not have pockets, but a rigid flat bar extending directly from the bogie. It occurred to me to consider the possibility of fitting Kadees to this stock, firstly to make all stock compatible and also to extend the versatility of the layout. It has only one double loop, going alternately over and under the bridge and passing through both stations, or two individual loops, which cross each other, with one missing out both stations and the other calls at only one station. The layout has, nevertheless, nine sidings which with Kadee couplers and some strategically placed decoupling magnets could provide much more scope for play. So I removed the bogie from one of the coaches, cut off the original coupler and fitted a Kadee nº 5. I than coupled it to a modern Hornby coach and tried them on part of the layout having a slope, so that they could run free around the tight curves, which they did without any trouble. However, I had placed the new coupler slightly farther out than it should be, so I removed the other bogie and fitted the coupler closer in. Since it seemed to work, to-day I have modified both bogies of another old H0 coach (Paris-Nice Mistral) and hooked it up behind a two Hornby Gresley coaches hauled by my City Class locomotive (another relic recovered as mentioned elsewhere) and they did various runs around the double loop without any trouble. I now have to test them in the other direction. This situation has led me to consider whether the Lima locomotives could be modified because, in the negative case, there would be no point in modifying the coaches. However, it appears that both locomotives have sufficient space to take a Kadee gearbox. So I am going to have a closer look into the matter. I hope you all have had a good Christmas and wish you a favourable New Year for modelling. I also hope that the York members have not suffered with the floods.

I have a mixed lot of OO and H0 stock. I only have four OO BR coaches which will be associated with my City class steam locomotive. I have two Renfe sets, one push-pull with its double deck cars and the other an Arco with its corresponding coaches. I then have several old Lima passenger coaches which are appropriate for being hauled by a SNCF CC40101 electric locomotive and half a dozen goods vehicles for which I have my Swiss 6/6 electric locomotive. This leaves me with two tank engines, one in BR black livery and the other in red LMS livery for which, for the time being, I have no stock to pull. In addition, I have two 2-car DMUs. For tht time being I cannot contemplate purchasing any more passenger or goods vehicles.

My layout became unintentionally dated with the scenic material chosen: Metcalfe semis and terrace houses. As there is a street and a private road involved, vehicles are a must. I have purchased a lot, all for sentimental reasons and I have got all I could with Leeds reg. numbers comprised within the approximate year span (1937-1960). However I have a few without reg. n

Recently I have had some success. I had commented on the Forum that I had a runaway problem with one locomotive which the recommended solutions did not solve. I had also had a problem with the lights of another locomotive, i.e., the front headlight came on at power-up and did not go out irrespective of the direction in which the locomotive was running. Both had Zimo MX632 chips which I had bought on-line from the U.K. I took the matter up directly with Zimo and, after an exchange of e-mail correspondence suggesting the known solutions and possible causes, they said that to be sure that the chips were at fault, the faults had to appear on a decoder tester. So I bought a tester and, to be sure, the faults appeared and then Zimo admitted that the chips might be at fault. I sent them to Vienna and in a fortnight I had them back reset and with updated software. The cost was about 20GBP. I reinstalled them in the locomotives and so far everything seems to be O.K. I must say that the correspondence with Zimo was very fluid, with immediate responses to my messages. One of these locomotives was given to me about two years ago, but the other was purchased about 40 years ago and I intended to have it running chipped whatever the effort. To-day I had it running with a rake of four coaches. When running in one direction, there was no problem. I kept the speed down because of the tight curves on the lay out. However, I decided to try it the other way round, so I unhooked the locomotive, ran it on the runabout loop and hooked it on to the other end of the rake. Then I had problems. At one particular place where there is the end of a downward ramp and a 1st radius curve is followed by a reverse curve I found that the last coach was pulling the one immediately in front off the track. Since this was the very first test with this locomotive and the rolling stock, it is too early to draw conclusions, but since all the rolling stock is old with the coupler sticking out rigid from the bogie, the problem may lay here on this particular coach at least. This coach, when hooked on directly behind the locomotive and running in the first direction mentioned, did not cause any problem. I shall just have to try out all the stock to see what happens and if this same problem occurs with other coaches and then take remedial action.

Hi all: Have I come too confident? daring? or downright rash? with altering RTR stock? After having rake splitting problems both with U.K. tension lock couplers and my modern HO couplers, I went on the Forum and requested information concerning Kadees. As a result, I decided to go ahead and purchased several envelopes of two different types and a height gauge. As far as the coaches and one of my locomotives were concerned, it was a simple matter of unplugging the old and plugging in the new. The problems came with the other two steam locomotives, a 1992 vintage Hornby Fowler Tank and a 1975 vintage Wrenn City Class. In the first place, I had to source 2mm bolts which, fortunately, I found in my local Model Shop. The next thing was to subject these locomotives to surgery. I should say here that I excel in taking things apart; putting Humpty Dumpty back together again is another question. The Hornby locomotive came with Triang type couplers which I had removed and to fit tension locks I changed the pony truck. Now, to fit the Kadees, in the first place I had to open up the hole in the rear bogie to admit the 2mm bolt and also I had to go back to the original pony truck and drill a hole in it to take the 2mm bolt. To do this I made a jig as per these photos: I managed to get the hole centered from side to side but somehow, in spite of having a clear mark, I managed to drill the hole 1-1.5 mm further back than I would have liked. For the Wrenn, it was a case of adding the coupler to the rear of the tender. I have decided not to touch the hook at the front of the locomotive. Here I had an irregular hole that I had drilled a long time ago. It was alright for a 3mm bolt and the tension lock, but too big for the 2 mm bolt and the Kadee coupler, which was also too low. So, I started to grind and file away material under the tender until I could level the coupler with the gauge. Then I drilled out the hole slightly larger to remove certain irregularities and then filled it with a proprietary putty of those which you mix two components which air harden, but leaving a toothpick to form a hole for the 2mm bolt. I then fitted the coupler and after three trips with one coach around the layout in each direction, with only once splitting apart, I feel satisfied with the results.

I have mentioned in previous posts certain advances made in the scenic decoration of my layout and would now show a few photographs. In June I posted some photographs and requested suggestions for filling in the bare spots, but none were forthcoming. So I went ahead on my own initiative. First, there was this bare corner: Which has now become this and to which I may add a few cows. Then there was this space at the other end, thus. Which has now become this after lifting the last track section of the siding, which could be deemed as redundant, since you can't leave wagons parked on the level crossing and to leave an odd one stuck out on its own at the end seemed out of place. Also, after installing the Metcalf subway accesses on the platforms, it seemed appropriate to replace the scratch built one with something better (albeit not up to the standard of the Metcalf ones) and so this new one was installed, which at least does have a flight of steps going downwards (unfortunately not very clear) There are still a lot of bare patches to be covered and other details to be finished, such as platform benches and finishing the other station with its walking passengers and certain items of rolling stock that do not perform well have to be adjusted. I have, however, managed to solve the derailing problem of my City Class Locomotive tender. A U.K. supplier did not have any wheels but he replaced the original tyres with flangeless ones. I still have a problem with the tender end coupling but I have a Forum thread open on this. After seeing that another member has a NRMA Standards Gauge (I am unaware as to whether he is a U.S. member), I decided that I wanted one and, after doubting for a while at the cost, I went ahead. The price of the article was 12 dollars but, here is the catch, the postage from the U.S. cost 54 dollars, more than 4 times the cost of the object itself.

Good evening all. I have been hesitating about a new post for a whle but after yesterday's events, I think I can add a bit. Tuesday was my wife's birthday and yesterday we had a family gathering (limited with two members being absent abroad and two working) with the grandchildren included. One boy got out all the mobile scenic material, i.e. buses, cars, trucks etc. and we got two trains running at the same time. The purists would have objected: there was a French locomotive hauling a motley rake of continental goods vehicles in what is basically a U.K. environment. To compensate we had an all Brisith DMU running. At least this proves that the track layout is acceptable and it is the other material that I have that needs adapting. The drive on scenic work that I mentioned in a previous post is proceeding, not particularly fast, since I have other things requiring my attention (I am retired which means that I am short of time for all the things that I have to do) that have got in the way. Nevertheless there has been progress. One bare area has been filled with the wooden pavilion in a small garden, the level crossing gates have been installed where the passing locomotives will not knck them out of the way. A phone kiosk and a pillar box have been planted, bare patches are being covered with earth or grass and another fence and a hedge have been installed. Finally I have a few trees to plant, a second pillar box to locate and various platform benches to install/build. I also have two subway entrances built and one installed, but the other one would have to go in a place where it is not easy to work. This, of course, is the result of improvising as you go along. I have also had to add an additional support to a viaduct because I discovered that when the heaviest locomotive passed along, it sagged.

I have been doing some card modelling in recent times. I have decided that I must fill in the blank spaces on the layout soon. Like Maggie Smith in that Hotel film who did not buy green bananas because she didn't know whether she was going to live long enough to see them ripen, I have got the same feeling about the layout. So, I purchased several Metcalfe card kits: subway accesses, wooden pavilion, platform benches (two packs) and park benches. I have already assembled all the kits except one set of platform benches. I spent all this afternoon (including a 50 min. siesta and half an hour taking the dog for its afternoon outing) building three park benches and preparing a 20 mm strip of pavement with Metcalfe paving slabs left over from other kits. I did this on a separate sheet of card which will now be glued into place. I originally purchased the pavilion for a bare corner but when made it didn't seem to be right there. At the other end of the layout I had ripped up the last section of track of a siding to make more public space and I shall place the pavilion there, with the park benches. I don't think it will look out of place there. When finished I will post before and after pictures. Apart from that, I have two pillar boxes, a phone booth and two static signals to install. I also have to cut holes for the subway accesses. I have a problem here, because I really need three and the kit only contains two. I have a station witth an island platform separated from the road running in front of the terrace houses by two widths of track and another platform which can be accessed from another road behind it. I (home)made a subway access which was placed beside the road, but the station platforms were lacking accesses. A further aspect is the genuine appearance of the Metcalfe accesses and the aspect of my version, which really looks like one of these concrete roofed brick air raid shelters built during the war (only the very senior members of our clan will remember these). I assume that the Metcalfe models will not be out of place with a late 1930's-late 1950's environment.

The 8th anniversary of my layout is coming up any day now and the scenic work is not much nearer to being finished than it was two years ago. I have added a second signal box that the original plan required and I have a phone booth and two pillar boxes to install. Modifications have been under way on the frequently mentioned Wrenn City Class loco. At one time it seemed that it was about ready, the only thing left being to add a coupling to the tender, the original one having been removed. I have a habit at times to remove locomotives from the track and leave them parked between tracks. S, one day I left my CC40101 parked in that way and set the City Class running. It came round at a good speed and bashed straight into the parked locomotive, making a mess of the piston rods and con rods on one side, one rod having come out of the cylinder block unit. Now my physical limitations, i.e. arthritic fingers, finger tips so smooth that they expel things instead of holding them, not the best of eyesight and the lack of suitable tools meant that removing crank pins and con rods was not on and I went for the more risky route of removing the cylinder block by drilling out the two rivets holding in place. Then the problem was how to fit the three loose rods on either side into their respective holed in the cylinder, particularly since only one rod is fixed and the other two are articulated and could both point upwards, point downwards or one up and the other down. I had no good way of holding the cylinder block and two hands were not enough. I than had the bright idea of using magnets to keep the rods in place and, since I had two loose ones available, I put them to work and, at the second attempt had all the rods in their right places. Subsequently I set about refitting the decoder, which I had removed to prevent any accidental damage (it is Zimo which are not cheap) and then saw that one end of the pickup wire was not touching the corresponding wheel. I removed it, then thought that the lead attached to it was a bit short for soldering to the decoder lead and replaced it. Then I thought that the new one was too thick and, on removing it I somehow managed to cur the pickup wire in two. Fortunately I found a Wrenn spares supplier via the Internet and got a new pickup wire and a replacement drawbar (the original had gone astray in the early attempts at dismantling the loco). I installed the new pickup wire, decoder and drawbar and tested the loco. It worked, so I replaced the body and it still worked. The next thing was to try the loco out with the tender and this is where the trouble started. The tender derailed at several points and one obvious point was where I had replaced the track after the accident. It was a stretch of four sections with a curve. At first it appeared to be irregularities in the track that caused derailment so I replaced the four sections with one portion of flexi track. However, the tender still derailed at this point. It was becoming obvious that the problem did not lie with the track, but with the rolling stock. On the layout I could not see clearly what was happening, since it was on the inside of the curve, so I got hold of the section of track I had removed and placed it so that I could see the inside of the curve clearly and discovered that the drawbar plate assembly was diving under the loco body and causing the rear end of the tender to lift and then derail. So, after checking that the drawbar was correctly installed, I removed the plate assembly and ground off the rather square shoulders into a triangular shape. Once reassembled and coupled to the loco, it seemed that the problem was solved, but another hitch appeared. There is one particular part of the track where the tender derails, both when attached to the engine and when pushed along alone. It would appear that a joint in the rails is causing the problem, but I can't quite see why. I have posed a question on the Forum.

My idea from the start was that it was natural for the curves on my layout to have superelevation to avoid the risk of derailment at speed. I started the layout using foam underlay, although there has been some replacement with cork. The problem was that since I do not glue the underlay or the track down but hold it with screws, it wasn't easy to get the inner rail to stay at a lower level than the outer rail. However, whatever the way of achieving it, I believe that the curves should have a camber.

Things seem to be moving forward again in the direction of getting back to the situation prior to the accident. Last Sunday we had a family visit and with the aid of my son-in-law (a Jack-of-all-trades for my wife and me) I managed to get the layout tipped edge on again to be able to work on the underside since, at my age, my body is no longer supple enough to do contortions to work underneath. I reconnected a couple of point motors and then started testing them all. I found that one was not working, but the wiring close to the motor was correct so I went to the other end and found a loose connection and, at the same time, found another loose connection which was why the station lights did not come on. Once the connections were remade the problems were solved. I then started wiring in the new droppers I had added taking advantage of the fact that I had had to lift portions of track when repairing damage on the top side of the layout. On Monday I finished wiring in the new droppers and finally managed to repair the street lamppost that had lost its head as a result of the fall, not without a problem, since the bulb fell onto our hemp carpet and since it was almost smaller than the roughness of the carpet, it took quite a while to locate it. Nevertheless, I did locate it, reassembled the lamppost and refitted it to the layout and it works. On Tuesday I decided to go part way to solving a problem I have had ever since I changed my point motor and public lighting system from AC to DC operation. I have Faller station which has a moving belt under one of the platforms to drive a rotating advertisement post and also passengers walking up and down the platform. The motor was originally wired into the AC system but when I changed, it stopped working because it only works on AC. I also doubt that it would work through the controller since the current delivered, apart from not being exactly AC, is much too high for this motor. So, I decided to extend the wiring to a point adjacent where the transformer is located, with a view to devising a way to insert it in the system between the transformer and the controller. I then lowered the baseboard back to its horizontal position and thought it would be a good idea to give a locomotive a run to see how things were. The first one I tried was my Lima 40101 (with a Zimo chip) that had previously worked very well, but this time it objected. I put it away and got out my Bachmann 150 DMU (with its 36-554 ESU chip) which has also worked very well (in fact, apart from its mysterious derailing fault, now cured, it is perhaps the best performer of all) and on the main circuit it went O.K. I then tested it on the sidings and the first effort went alright. I varied the siding and it stopped, lights on, and would not respond to orders. In the light of previous experience with this machine, I sensed that it had done a spontaneous reset and, effectively, this was the case. This is the second time so I assume the best thing it to leave it with address 3 (obviously cheaper than changing the chip). Wednesday and Thursday went by with some cleaning of the track but I still think that more has to be done. To-day, Friday, has been a blank day. I am now going to ask for some help. Any day now it will be eight years since I started this layout ais no nearer being finished than it was a year or even two years ago. It is not one that can keep on growing since it is constrained to an 8x4 board. So, I enclose some photos and would appreciate ideas for filling in the bare spots. The Metcalfe filling station is too large for any available space and for this corner I had thought of the Sports Pavilion. I have some level crossing gates for placing on the road. I had fitted the pair closest to the board edge but too close to the track and while most vehicles passed with a hair's breadth clearance, my City Class sent them flying so I have to reinstall them. As for the remaining space, I have two pillar boxes but two seem too much for such a small urban area. Also, please forgive me for such a long-winded entry.

There was no real earthquake. This was the name I gave in earlier posts to the accident that occurred to my layout when, instead of going up to the ceiling, it fell with a crash to the floor and some of the effects were like a real earthquake.

In DCC Questions I raised a query concerning a possible PCB failure in my Class 108 DMU. As a result of the fall the decoder had developed faults, so I removed it and inserted a blanking plug and tried the vehicle with an analogue controller, with no success. I assumed that the PCB might be damaged and dismantled the power car to the extent of even removing the motor from its support. When tested it worked so a number of further tests as recommended on the Forum led me to suspect that the blanking plug was defective. I replaced it with another one and got positive results and to-day I even managed to reassemble the vehicle practically in no time (much to my surprise). Further testing revealed some faulty power pick-up through the non-powered bogie of the drive car. I removed it, fettled up the chassis pick-up pads and cleaned the bogie pick-up pins and it now seems to run O.K. Also I commented on the Forum that I had damaged a good decoder in that the white wire had broken loose. I dared to resolder it and it appears to work although when I first replaced the decoder compartment lid, both rear and headlights came on simultaneously. The locomotive in question has very little space for the decoder and the harness so I had to fold the latter slightly better than it was to be able to replace the lid. It now seems to work properly. Both the Class 108 and this locomotive have only been tested on a separate two foot track I have really prepared for programming (although by switching leads from the controller it doubles up as a mini main) and I have not yet tried them on the layout. Just a year ago I said that I had finally completed the underside of the layout and added photos. With the earthquake this is no longer true since I have to reconnect some point motors and some new droppers which I added to parts of track that I had to lift and relay. At my age my body is not in the best of conditions to work under the baseboard and perform contortions and to tilt it on edge on is becoming increasingly harder each time. The best thing in my favour is that I am not usually pessimistic

In my last post I said that my layout had suffered something comparable to an earthquake. Yesterday I managed to have it lifted off the floor and placed on its trestles and set about assessing the damage. One street lamp damaged, the station platform illumination does not come on, one station building had lost a chimney pot, some of the columns supporting the ramp up to the bridge had broken away from their bases, two under floor point motors had become disengaged from the track and one track joint had come apart. The whole ramp did not come apart because one of the columns is attached to the baseboard with a screw and the track base is also attached to the column head with a screw. The chimney pot and the split track joint were easily repaired. The point motors have required lifting of the track and one has already been refitted. This operation led me to realise that there were substantial length of track that had not been held down to the baseboard, so this will be done. To test the track integrity I got out my Class 150 DMU which suffers from mysterious derailment (mentioned before and subject of a Forum thread) and managed to close the wide back-to-back measurement of the offending pair of wheels to an acceptable dimension. This test revealed the split rail connection mentioned above, but the machine continued to derail under the specific conditions. A close inspection showed that the derailment occurs at the joint between a straight and a turnout. There is no obvious reason why this should happen, but since I have had to lift the track in this area to reengage the other affected point motor I will see if relaying the track cures the fault. I add a picture of the take-up roller as it is now. The motor was pulled away from its support. Finally a question: is the Regional Railways Sprinter livery BR or post-privatization?

I have not written a specific tite because what I have got to say this time is only partly connected with modelling. I have just come back from a fortnight in Portugal and had intended to have a ‘drive’ on my layout to try and approach a finish (those of you approaching my age may remember the G.P.O. drives post-war to install as many telephones as possible, party lines included). While away, I had seen and purchased in Lidl a digital caliper, so I decided to try it out on my problem DMU Class 150. I lowered my layout from the ceiling without placing the trestles underneath it, since I only intended to take the model off it and send it up again. However, when I pressed the appropriate button on the remote control, instead of rising, it crashed down to the floor. It had pulled the take-up roller from the wall. I am now waiting for some able-bodied person to help me lift it off the floor and dismantle the roller to assess the damage. No personal damage was suffered. The new caliper enabled me to ascertain that the offending wheel pair on the DMU was far too wide, so I now have to settle that problem. I than tested the B2B on other units and on one of my two 2-6-4 tank engines, I found a pair of wheels on the rear bogie to be very narrow. The more I dive into this modeling lark, the more complications I discover. Going back to the holiday visit, we had intended to travel to Lisbon by train but the nearest station was at Santarem, and what a station. It has a very small public carpark in front of the station, a small subscriber part a bit farther away and free parking on the road behind the station but, get this, there is no access to the station from this road. Depending on where you have to leave the car, you have a long hike back down the road to the level crossing and then a shorter hike to the station. Since Santarem was practically 30 km from where we were staying (a marvelous rural tourism house), we dropped the idea of catching the train. We did happen to see the terminus in Sintra and I took a few snaps. They are not particularly brilliant but I post them for what they are worth. And finally, a mural inside the station booking hall

I have been quiet for a while because my layout is at a standstill, mainly due to my not having been able to replace the hoisting pulleys I wanted to change way back last November and also due to the fact that it is cold in the garage where the layout is suspended. With a bit of luck, there may be some new movement the weekend of Feb. 28-Mar. 1 and the new pulleys installed. I also have to replace a burnt-out point motor. That will leave a few blank places to be filled with appropriate scenery and repairs made to deteriorated material. In the meantime I have been fiddling around chipping locomotives and had a funny experience. I fitted a Zimo decoder to an old locomotive and found that as soon as I put it on the track, the front light came on, without having addressed the locomotive. When I addressed the loco and selected reverse, the rear light came on, but the front one did not go out. Apart from that, I was able to read and program the CVs and the locomotive responded to orders and the wiring was correct. I sent it back to the suppliers and they immediately replaced it. Apart from that, since the original track plan called for two signal boxes and I had only installed one, I decided to go for the Metcalfe GWR box (already half built) which, in theory, is out of place, since, as previously mentioned elsewhere on my blog, my layout can be considered to be scenically Leeds orientated (mainly from the large number of vehicles having Leeds registration numbers and/or other indications, because the buildings could be found in many U.K. cities) but it looks nice and, moreover, is not expensive. When I finally get around to be able to play trains, there will be many other incongruences since, as I have mentioned in other posts, the majority of my rolling stock is H0 continental. From the traction point of view, the U.K. side is slightly ahead, with three steam locomotives and two DMUs against four electric locomotives, but the passenger stock is way short (four against thirteen) and I have no U.K. goods stock.