wandering blue

Compile from Speakon, XLR, or Anderson Powerpole. See this thread : Recommend a robust plug.

Which, surprise surprise, advocates Anderson power poles. Solid advice as usual from Suzie. Agree about Speakon and XLR, less so , like Melmerby, about D connectors. I have many powerpole connectors, so was able to spread the cost of the bespoke crimping tool (that makes forming the fittings quick, simple and reliable). If the OP needs to only make a small number, Speakon or XLR get my vote. If the number increases, powerpole becomes my preferred choice.

Having been recently overcome with newbryford virus, have finally succumbed and ordered a NR yellow one. And now that Accurascale have launched the 37/0’s, am patiently waiting for the launch of an orange one. As they mention HNRC on their intro blurb, 37087 would be very nice!

Oooh, I know Worcestershire’s answer to that one! Drive to Blakedown! (See my earlier post.) I think they’ve recently given consent for a new car park there. (Don’t drive to Kiddy, that car park can be full by 7.45am.) Ah, hang on, most if not all of the Worcestershire Chiltern services heading for London don’t stop at Blakedown .......... Perhaps Worcestershire rmWebbers can put a paper together for the council to ultimately, after much debate, politely state that they haven’t the funds to execute? How about a shuttle bus every 10-15 minutes from the extremely large Worcester Royal car park to Worcestershire Parkway? You wouldn’t have to walk far then to A&E after parking altercations?

Phil, what are you drinking? I’ve been in Worcestershire since 1997. It was obvious that the completion of the bypass circuit was needed then. 23 years down, maybe another 23 to go before that route gets built?

Many, many years late. Still bedevilled by single track working and the need to take a good book and a cushion if heading east for London. no long distance XC workings, so journey times to North or South extended by the need to change at some point. And doubtless if the car car park is already busy, if and when they address point 2 I’ll find myself unable to park there. As a long suffering intermittent commuter to London, the Chiltern route still wins, even if at Kidderminster: it’s still autumn. (New station to open ‘in autumn’. It’s still autumn.... once again, years late) the car park isn’t anywhere near big enough. And putting a new car park at Blakedown isn’t going to solve it. Worcestershire. Land of joined up transport thinking and rapid development. Not. Warwick parkway has platform shelters....... Rant over, off my soap-box.

Delorean 1984, this is sound advice from both! If you have access to, and are (or can become) capable to design in, a software program, it’s easy to design multiple solutions to see what works, and in particular, what fits. its equally easy to play around with paper templates, peco or others, with or without simple drawing skills. And then when you build it, and because some parts don’t ‘look right’ in your scale or setting, you’ll probably meander off the ‘perfect’ software or paper design anyway!

Hello Bryant. Going back to one of your original ideas, have you considered using Tillig single slips with outside switch blades? Example code 85396, various Uk suppliers including derails and kernow? The outside blade radius is 1050mm, over 41” in old money. Live frogs. ( Beware that Tillig also make inner-bladed slips, similar to peco ones.) I only use Tillig in my scenic sections but to mix and match Tillig 83 with peco 75 in a fiddle yard would be straightforward. For comparison, my modern layout is 2.4m x 4.9m so it’s smaller than yours. The core arrangement is a 10 road peco 100 all bi-directional fiddle yard served by 2 scissor crossings, one at each end. My stock is DMU’s, loco hauled passenger with DVTs and loco hauled freight. Conflicting in-out movements only occur if attempting simultaneous entry and exit to-from the 4 ‘outer’ roads against the 6 ‘inner ones’. I split the ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ number of roads unequally 6-4 because it helped stretching the road lengths into the corners and I have specific freight operations on two inner roads. I have extra dead end sidings at each end of the yard, accessed only from the inner roads to enable freight loco swaps. Hopefully some food for thought for you.

Hi Paul. Can I ask, presumably you fitted the little metal in-rail connectors at the joints? I’ve been wondering about this track for a yard , seems like it will need a lot of fettling for smooth-ish running.

20760mm buffer to buffer according to data sheet on Touaxrail website. http://www.touaxrail.com/sites/touax/files/Sfins 2.pdf

Nope. Not too far for me, so I’ll give it a go. Will advertise the event at Wyre Forest MRC this evening.

Concur, although the cooling was better on my first 800 ride this week, Swindon to London. Back same day on an HST. Writing this on a Chiltern MK3.... Summary- If you travel long distances and are looking forward to trying a new 800, I would advise that you buy a cushion or two and/or trips to your chiropractor. It’s nice as an EMU, OK as a modern DMU, legroom is fine, but either way it is rotten hard to sit in for any length of time. Overheard commuters to Reading voicing agreement with this, and their journey is all of 20minutes-ish. GWR seem to have countered the hard seats with their current service level, as lots have to stand. Glad I reside in Chiltern country! Whoever signed the seats off has consigned legions of travellers to unnecessary discomfort. If those destined for the ECML simply have different seat covers, not extra padding, then they will suffer the same fate.

Top shout ! Worth it for spares alone. 3 still left.

Thanks everyone, I was working off the Hornby shots, not the real machine, sorry! It is indeed a superbly detailed model!

As hopefully this will be. Watch out for missing components, my coach 812004 is missing the silver equipment boxes that cover the coupling. I can also confirm the bogie catching issues.

Lots of options, a search on here and the internet will bring up everything from simple push-fit choc-blocks, to numerous audio or data connectors. As the number of wires on DCC is typically much less then for analogue, I settled on Anderson Powerpoles. Dim ‘under baseboard’ shot attached. These are designed for breaking under current and crimp onto cable ends. I’ve made 2gang pairs. One side is secured through extra slot fittings, offset from the baseboard surface by connector blocks. The other pair is over-sleeved and passes through the board joints. The variety is huge, the number of gangs and possible configurations likewise.

TMC the model centre , sale now on. https://www.themodelcentre.com But just because it’s a sale, doesn’t mean there are bargains...

As of 16.00 today at Ian Allen Birmingham- One wickham trolley left at £50 About 3 Thompson’s left. New pile of 8 Bachmann 39-579 BR Autotrailer Maroon coaches at £40 each.

Budgie, yes you are quite correct, but also Hornby were referring to 'rail centres' being overhang from the centre of the relevant inner or outer rail.I was referring to the distance between the outer rail of 3rd radius and the inner rail of 4th, when laid at 67mm 'centre to centre overall' in settrack formation. WB

For interest, for those like me using trainset curves on the hidden bits- My email to Hornby was immediately responded to- The information is pertaining to the Power car, Running in a Clockwise direction, and measuring to the centre of the nearest rail. All dimensions are approximate, and should be checked by the customer prior to permanently fixing any accessories to the layout that may clash with the moving product. R607. Inside overhang = 23.5mm. Outside overhang front =15mm. Outside overhang rear =23.5mm. R609. Inside overhang = 22mm. Outside overhang front = 14mm. Outside overhang rear = 22mm. I asked them (only) about 3rd radius (R607) and 4th radius (R609) because that it what I am using. The rail centres gap between 3rd and 4th is circa 48mm, so two trains will pass. Comparing these dimensions to my mark 3's, they do need a little more side room, however 25mm appears adequate all round. I didn't ask about 2nd radius, but extrapolating and making assumptions, it looks just about possible if your track laying is spot on? Trust this is of use. Wandering Blue