Moley48

These are excellent suggestions. Will definitely help! There are some new ideas to be taken from rugby and Leeds that is for sure. Thanks alot!

Hi, Roads under stations? Does anything like that exist in the UK? We are to keep three large platforms (I'm under strict orders!) which means one of the roads that use to pass under a girder bridge will now go slap bang underneath platform 5/6. I'm looking to keep our scenery as believable as possible but I think this might be a stretch too far. Cheers David

Cheers for your input guys! Found a picture on google maps for inspiration. They've even got my fence!

Well it looks like I have a plan now. Just got to put it together. Thanks all 👍

Hi, Not really sure what I'm doing with this area of the layout. What you see is our mainline embankment and the perimeter of our heritage railway. This part of the layout is a stumbling block at the moment and I'm not sure the best way to gel the two together. It feels wrong. Safe bet, a field dividing the main line from the heritage. Not sure about an access bridge cut (farmers route?) through the mainline at this point but that also feels unnatural. Maybe a road of some description? I so wish we planned this better and maybe based it more on somewhere as my imagination for this sort of thing is shocking. Maybe I am being too fussy on our modest 17x10ft layout. Reassurance, ideas or any help would be appreciated!

I've considered using (dropped) whiskers as fishing rods or maybe pole sections on our lake when its built. They taper like the real thing.

It was this very photo seen in the show realistic stuff thread that inspired me to have a go.. Clearly only one of us is handy with a camera. PS. I need an Andrew Wills 😂

What makes it more scary. Is that what we have available to us on a consumer level will most be waaaaay behind tech going on behind the scenes. Whatever way you look at it we are all doomed! .. and its not just the tech that's scary these days. I'm staying in my own little world in the loft. 😂

I tried asking AI to add some scenery to this picture I took on my embankment as I'm lacking in scenics at the moment. What the hell is that!! Serves me right for trying to be clever.

Try on a small section to see if you can come up with a method and style that suits you. Do you plan to add Lighting above the layout at any point? One lesson I learnt was to get my lighting set as there is a night and day difference 😉 between just the room incandescent/ambient lighting and dedicated (focused) light strips over the track. Definitely study photos. I always look for inspiration from the real world.

Might be useful to someone - When you buy a class 56 decoder for one of the new Cavalex models it's important that the switches are set correctly otherwise you wont have access to all the lighting features. We have had a few returns now where the decoder has worked perfectly when fitted to a correctly set model, which is an inconvenience for everyone. This useful guide should help you set them correctly. The switch positions vary depending whether you are using Cavalex (same as factory sound) or Legomanbiffo so please take note.

Same I use pva mainly because I'm not brave enough and also because everything stays in the confine of our loft space and rarely gets handled. I especially use pva for buffer beam and things like ploughs... If anything like that were to accidentally get caught by clumsy me it will pull out rather than in my luck most likely snap at the lug and then its out with the mini drill.

That would also mean more sound functions, though... The sound of sizzling bacon on Fxx Oh and if you can hear the bacon sizzling from outside that means we need working windows!

Well done Cavalex on your first loco! I grabbed the rail tour pack and both locos are amazing. Cant wait to bring the grids alive when my Sound decoder arrives from Roads and rails in about an hours time!

I have been in touch with Accurascale team. Who suggested I return the whole loco but I'm sure I only need a new sound decoder as the loco motor and lights function correctly. In fact its my smoothest running loco.

I have been running my Loch Lomond 37 without any issues since August. However, last night sound started breaking up as I was running it slowly on the track. Now, after that the first time I went to use F1 the sound blipped for a second. The volume was never set very high when it was working but now to even get it to perform the startup at all the volume needs to be less than 50. This is too low and clearly an issue as developed I am guessing with the decoder based on what else I've seen/read/heard. Anyone else had a fault like this develop out of nowhere. Little disappointed as its been running perfect.

I would say our one is problem free. So you do stand a chance 🤞

Terrible video but hopefully it captures what I consider to be a more than acceptable runner (minimal wobble). Shes a fussy runner with no stay alive but I like that as unlike our big heavy diesels with stay alives that mask dirty track to an extent the 15xx highlights dirt on the track. Keep that track clean and she is an absolute peach.

I'm gutted I had to cancel my pre-order last minute. :(

I would like to do another video on DC but I only have a Hornby trainset controller and I detest the thing. I am using a dr5000 through Merg Boosters. Massively overkill now but these stem from a time when we had a fiddle yard that turned out to be impractical for our cramped space so it, along with our helix got removed. Sad Day :( The best I've ever seen running was from a Heljan class 25, laptop and a arduino. Almost unnoticeable as @St Enodoc says. Again that was obviously DCC and there will never ever be any need to run the loco that slow again it was just nice to see what it can do.

The inside of the tunnel is brickwork to 6-8inches deep. The rearmost section of track will be accessible by a removable top section of hill/scenic. Well, that is the plan at the moment.

I may well be going slightly mad but, my 1501 improved dramatically after a good run and any undulating movement has almost completely disappeared. I'm even starting to think a crew of maintenance workers popped out in the dead of night in the form of little spiders and sorted out any issues with my loco whilst I wasn't looking. 😲 Yes, I think your right. I need 💊.

Thought I would share a little speed step one goodness from this fine locomotive.

That is my thinking too going with the above design. Atleast we can move on now. Thanks

Thankyou everyone for all the great info. Although I really didn't explain things very well. A girder would have been a sensible solution and we have two girders where the chord passes over the branch however, the idea with the branch on our layout is to have single or multiple units running under automation from one terminus, off to two separate fictitious locations both of which are hiding the trains for x amount of time. Anyway, this is what I decided to do today. My dad is happy enough with it which is all that matters. I just didn't like have the mains so close to the top of the tunnel. There will be a removable hill to allow access to the track in the corner if needed.