cutting42

The irony is that after that conversation with Mike with no Pendolinos on the horizon I decided to model the ECML (Newark) and have been collecting stock with that in mind ever since.

However I could not resist the Pendo and so have two, I saw a deal for 2 x 350 sets in London Midland at $80 each and could not resist, I have a 321 in London Midland on order and I suspect I will need to get a 313 or two, maybe I am destined to build my home town station after all.

Anyone want to buy two full full sets of GNER 225's, HST's, Eurostars and lots of  CT DEMU's ;-)

I remember driving up to Warley with Mike several years ago and we were discussing the possibility of modelling Watford Junction.....  Looks like we are nearly there Mike!

1 hour ago, Alank said:

Hi all,

 

Having managed to miss all the units that were being sold at Wharley I’m reduced to sniffing round eBay for a set, ideally DCC Sound, 5 car (layout limitations).. Obvious question I think, but If I was to buy an 11or 9 car variant, given that the coaches are dummy am I able to run them with reduced coaches?... Maybe one day I’ll get a bigger layout

Yes, easily. I ran mine on a test loop with 2 power cars and 2 coaches when testing originally.

15 hours ago, Kaput said:

This might sound stupid but are the factory fitted speakers actually wired up to the PCB or do they need to be soldered to the decoder if you decide to fit sound? Asking as I was having a nosey to see if it was just a straight fit the decoder and done job but I can't actually see any wires coming from the speakers and the way they are placed makes it seem a bit tight to do any soldering.

This is my DCC fitted Pendo. You will need to solder the speaker to the chip. I converted a DCC Pendo to DC and vice versa. The solder tabs on the speaker are large and easy to solder.

Edit: Also the speaker comes out easily to give better access to solder.

I exchanged emails with Dave on this topic and there are no updates hence no emails. Numbers remain lower than the original project.

This is a project that I am convinced a market exists, if there is enough interest for the APT-E numbers to hit the "Go" button, the far more useful APT-P must  have a chance. Some serious marketing to re energise interest is required IMO.

The discount code I was given for the Sturgeons when I recieved my IZAs does not work. Should that still be working today?

 

Also, the price has already gone up to £35 so it appears we don't have until midnight tonight. Can this be fixed and extended for 24 hours?

The discount code was rendered superfluous when the price was just reduced instead. I don't know why the price has gone up already.

This is the text on their website and it says the 21st is the last day.

The CAD for our N gauge Sturgeon wagon  is complete and these wagons are ready to start tooling.  The order book is now open and we can confirm that the price is £35 per wagon. We issued discount codes with our Class B tanks and IZAs but as the CAD took us longer than anticipated some of the codes have expired, so as a result we have discounted the Sturgeons for everyone automatically (ie no need for a code) by £2/wagon ie £33/wagon until 21 December 2018.  We thought that was the fairest way as some people will have old discount codes that they might have lost etc…plus it meant we could offer a £2/wagon discount on singles and triples (the discount codes would have only given £2 off a triple pack not £2/wagon).

I asked Dave Jones about this at Warley. He said that after the redesign of the N gauge APT-P to get the price down, he now has fewer expressions of interest than through the original Durham Trains of Stanley full fat project. So what is stopping the people who supported the original concept from supporting the revised and cheaper version? I was in on the 14 car original version and have "expressed an interest" in the current cheaper version to make up a 14 car train. Apart from the activity on RMWeb I have seen scant publicity about this project since I picked up a flyer at Warley 2017. Although I have tried to encourage interest on various forum websites, without anything substantial to offer to people it is a hard sell. I think it is unlikely to happen without some major communication and publicity initiative from DJModels.

It is odd as the Rapido downsize of the APT-E in N seems to have the requisite numbers to make it viable now and that is far more niche that the P train.

But it was collected without a decoration that it would be kept. 

 

Implied retention is not enough and Dave and almost everyone else did not ask for explicit permission to keep information, or write to everyone before GDPR cam into force asking to ask to keep the data.

 

Rules are rules, and big fines are big fines!

You may be correct and I may be guilty of trying to apply logic and common sense here but I am told by others more knowledgeable that a big issue with GDPR is over compliance. Folks feeling they almost have to go the extra mile on everything for fear of those big fines, creating way more work than was intended.

Or maybe I just don't like bureaucracy ;-)

But GDPR really meant this was illegal to do.

I am absolutely not a GDPR expert but I am not sure this is the case. If he was keeping the names randomly "just in case" then I would agree but surely if it was to transfer from one electronic system to another it would have been fine. Analogous to buying a new filing cabinet and transferring your paperwork from the old one to the new one?

Dave, do you have the means to contact all the original expressers of interest to inform them of the changed spec and price? I wonder if the people who saw the original publicity and signed up even know about the changes?

Edit - cross posted as you posted your rely above

I struggle to see why Christmas would influence an "expression of interest", this is not a demand for money.

Placed an order and got an email confirmation. Looks great.

Thanks for the getting the quotes, looks like a handy reduction. Lets hope it has the desired effect.

Nice! Here are my two bad boys:-

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qasxUlanw2gYwLOd2

 

Not sure how to make images to appear in the thread!

Lovely basses. Never played a fretted but the fretless is a legendary sound.

I'd be in on that basis

Eh? Why would a manufacturer (Dave) ask another one to make a product for him?

DToS may approach Rapido or Kato (I imagine the latter would laugh heartily at a production run of c100), but that's like saying why don't Samsung ask Sony to produce their TVs!

Actually its not that unusual in the manufacturing world. Where a company has a particular expertise in manufacturing it can sell its capacity on the general market even to a competitor. The Panasonic OLED panels are made by LG for example.

I  have nothing useful to add to this thread other than to say nice bass! Personally I am a Musicman Stingray man - I have a fretted and fretless version! 

Love MM as well, my fretless:

As someone who has 'chopped & changed' a fair bit over the years, I have never seen a better, more reliable system than Lenz especially if allied with Roco Multimaus* operation - this is simply Bomb-proof.

I'm now in my early fifties and whenever I pick up a new system, it is a very hard and steep learning curve, to try and get to grips with how that system operates.

So - I would say to stick with Lenz! You know how their systems operate, everything should stay compatible and you get superb after sales service.

John.

 

*Lenz base station and hardware, Roco Multimaus for handsets.

Thanks, what is the Multimaus like for function switching (sound)?

For me

• No Tilt
• No fancy nose mechanism, just the ability to have it open or closed and a NEM coupler behind it for drags
• Motor in the designated power car or cars for a full set, nice and heavy
• Pick up for all vehicles (for lighting etc), pin points please, no wipers to create drag
• Separate decoders for the driving cars (no requirement for through connections, unless they can be done well and cheaply)
• Simple internal decoration, no 'tartan paint'
• Ability to fit lighting units, DJM designed or other after market versions maybe
• Weighted coaches to make sure they hold the rails when being propelled

Overall, I would want something that runs well and reliably. Use tried and tested configurations that as modellers we all know work, it de-risks it for everybody. Shared bogies have been done on other models and I'd suggest using something simple like a locating pin.

 

I would be interested in a 14 car set as a Rule 1 purchase only, however that can be put together (all in one or base model with add on packs). The price has to drop though, £1000 for the 14 car model is a massive premium to pay even with todays prices (Dapol's HST Pricing would put it around £430 for DCC Ready, Revolutions Pendolino is £470 with DCC Sound plus a few extra coaches, say £560). If this is crowdfunding, we're being asked to take a risk and I can't see an incentive if we are paying over the odds to start off with.

 

Would like to see this happen though, despite what is read into the above comments.

 

Thanks, Mark.

Spot on Mark, well summarised.

Thanks for the input. I think I will stick with Lenz and Train-controller then, good to have an old decision reaffirmed

Hi All

I am fairly experienced in DCC since the early years and came through Lenz Compact to Lenz LZV100 and RS232 interface and Railroad & Co although only demo mode as I was waiting to finish a layout before purchasing the full system.

Fast forward 15 years or so and I find Lenz has not changed much (good and bad) but there are many more manufacturers out there. I need a better controller than the compact as a throttle and still want full automation for my layout. I have a large number of Lenz LB101 occupation detectors that I would not wish to replace and a large number of MERG accessory decoders/encoders.

So the question is, do I buy the upcoming new Lenz handset and stay on track or would I benefit from changing to ESU/Zimo a another brand and also is RR&Co the only game in town, are there automation alternatives?

Can I use other brand throttles on the Lenz LZV100?

Can I use my Lenz LB101 and MERG decoders on the other brand?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Gareth

He said:

 

Which is not definitive. It needs to be able to shift 14 coaches (inclusive) at a reasonable pace IMO. If that can be done with one then great. The Kato Eurostar manages it, but has terrible DCC provision, no coach lighting etc.

Maybe I read it as more definitive than you 

The Eurostar was the reference for a long time and I agree re dcc, mine was a battle and I have another one to do at some point.

The APT has fewer wheels than most and with enough weight, traction tyres and being right in the middle, one power car has a good chance. 

If two power cars, two decoders.....

I thought DJM had said only 1 power car

You

 

I didn't understand what you meant by:

 

 

I mean obviously that's good, but it appeared in response to a question around where the locate the motor coaches and how many to have.

 

 

It is probably the obvious thing to do, but needing 4 decoders (potentially) is a bit of a pain, even using cheap function ones in the ends it's not trivial.

 

Edited for weird formatting!

Where does 4 decoders come from? One for motor, one at each end for lights, where does the fourth go?

through wiring is easy, but i'm not sure a new price point should include 2 powered power cars to be fair.

As I mentioned on my comment, with through wiring you could have all driving wheels as non pickup traction tyres and one power car would be fine full of motor and weight with the second power car with space for speaker, chip and pickups.

ok, opening this out a bit, pick up on all wheels with through wiring, 1 decoder, 1 power car, light bar ready and wired to DCC?, possibly a lifting nose with NEM pocket depending on cost savings etc, non tilt, basic coloured internal finish, posable panto and DCC sound compatability?

 

How does this sound? early days but open to thoughts.

cheers

Dave

For me this would be just fine. I would want DCC sound upgradability and lights via optional lighting bars. With one power car 14 cars and through wiring I would think that traction tyres would be a requirement. Not personally bothered about the lifting/removable nose but I can see the benefit.

Critical will be the price as well as the simpler proposal to see if we can attract more folks. At the very least if you can do it for half the price then we will see if the market is there or not.