Tim Hall

Got my BR lined green one from Derails yesterday. The green is slightly darker and probably slightly bluer than my Bachmann 45xx in the same livery (the colour of which I'm happy with) in natural daylight.  it's the lining that's quite different though. The black lines are far more prominent and the orange barely visible on the 61xx compared to the 45xx.  I suspect the reality with the linings is that both are slightly overscale anyway.

I'll post some snaps later.

If anyone wants more information about assessing colour and colour differences, I was a colourmatcher in the plastics industry for over 10 years, for much of it supplying engineering thermoplastics into the highly demanding automotive sector to very tight colour tolerances. One simply did not go to Ford Berlin to present your latest matches to Frau Pfister without having done a selection of very good matches for her to choose from. All you had to do then was reproduce the lab sample in production .

4 hours ago, brushman47544 said:

Indeed, and the recent green on ex-GWR locos has been flat and lifeless, irrespective of the actual colour. My personal preference is the BR green used by Hornby on its recent rebuilt BB R3468 603 Squadron.

 

Not the Dapol D63xx for sure. To my eye in that photo the Kernow D600 looks closest to what I visualise.

I've since repainted the 63xx, cos it stood out like the proverbial sore thumb. It's actually a Silver Fox D600, that I sold when the Kernow one came out (it's quite an old photograph). 

But we'd better stop, as we're off topic here

Just now, Derails Models said:

 

Don't you start Mr Hall!  Plot twist....they're all wrong?!?!

Could well be!

1 minute ago, Derails Models said:

It's really tough, as I'm only just finding out. For example, I've just gone and taken some shots of the loco, brought them onto the PC and toned down the rather "over-excited" lighting we use and then held the model up to the screen....and it's completely different, the photo is far too light. I tried again, different lighting but this time no editing, and again, it is completely different. I then compared the model to the Hornby shot and those of other retailers and in my personal opinion, none of them really match the exact shade! 

 

This is where it gets tough, and I give my apologies but I'm not going to upload the photos I took as I don't want to prejudice anyone with a photograph that doesn't represent the model, which I think looks awesome and runs very well. :-) 

 

But then again, unfortunately I'm a 1970's modeller so I can't pass an educated comment on how it looks....unless it's blue.......(in the distance, I hear sirens coming for me....) 

But which blue?

52 minutes ago, russ p said:

 

 

That was the one, what was the club called 

Excellent picture 

Thanks, I took loads over the years, units, 20s, 31s, 37s, 47s, 56s, 60s, one 66 (that's when I put the house up for sale!), an HST and 4472. Can't remember the club, but there was a street corner pub called the Pig and Whistle about 100 yards from the crossing heading towards town. Anyway, we're a bit OT here!

54 minutes ago, russ p said:

Back in those days a fair amount of beer was consumed when waiting for back workings and where pubs were accessible from goods loops and yards .

Before the days of network rail you find well trodden paths for loops , sidings and the like to pubs and fish and chip shops.

I remember being a secondman on a boulby job where we new we would have a long wait at the mine so the driver asked the signalman at redcar if we could go in the loop and we went to a club on one side of the line and a chippy on the other 

I lived opposite that loop from 1986-2001, here's 37507 on an engineers train in it on 6th Jan 91. West Dyke chippy? My house is just beyond the modern red brick ones.

Thanks for all your comments. I've just discovered that although my local dealer no longer does repairs, a former employee of theirs does, so I've emailed him on the matter.

Hopefully he'll be able to assist. 

8 hours ago, beejack said:

So from the picture this looks like a loksound v4.

The orange cable should be connected to the vacant solder pad next to the red cable.

 

If the solder pad is damaged and you have a multimeter you can find which pad on the reverse side is connected to the damaged pad and solder the cable to that pad instead.

 

Once you know it is all working again you could always desolder the decoder from the pins and fit a blanking plate. 

Sell the decoder and recoup some of the cost for the loco.  V4 decoders still fetch a good price secondhand.

 

Thanks for that. I don't have a multimeter or a soldering iron, a), but it's good information. Two of you agree that it's a V4 decoder, and where the stray wire needs to go.

8 hours ago, beejack said:

So from the picture this looks like a loksound v4.

The orange cable should be connected to the vacant solder pad next to the red cable.

 

If the solder pad is damaged and you have a multimeter you can find which pad on the reverse side is connected to the damaged pad and solder the cable to that pad instead.

 

Once you know it is all working again you could always desolder the decoder from the pins and fit a blanking plate. 

Sell the decoder and recoup some of the cost for the loco.  V4 decoders still fetch a good price secondhand.

 

Thanks for that. I don't have a multimeter or a soldering iron, a), but it's good information. Two of you agree that it's a V4 decoder, and where the stray wire needs to go.

2 minutes ago, Nigelcliffe said:

If you dig out the manuals for an ESU LokSound V4 decoder, then the wiring diagram is shown on page 15.   The "orangy/peachy" wire is one of the motor feeds, in the correct place on the decoder.  The other motor feed is the grey at one end.  

So, clearly the motor wire has come adrift from the motor.   Find the motor in the chassis, and reconnect the wire.  

 

The MTC21 pin out is also in the manual (page 13).  On your loco PCB, with the label next to socket so the writing is the right way up, the motor connections are on the right hand side.  Counting down from the top, on RHS, the pins are as follows, assuming installer used the correct colour conventions :  Track Right (red),  Track Left (black);  no-connection ; Motor Right (orange) ; Motor Left (grey).    So, your broken connection is most likely alongside the grey wire.  

 

Check all the above in the manual to be confident about it before soldering things.   

 

It looks like some sort of one-off wiring job to fit the decoder.  Don't know why someone would solder all the wires in when they could have just bought the MTC21 pin version of the decoder and plugged it onto the socket.  Equally, don't know why they didn't also wire the speaker via the loco PCB.  But some folk are just weird when it comes to wiring...   

 

 

- Nigel

So is that definitely the type of decoder? That's very useful. Unfortunately, I don't solder, but it does help.

Yes, it's orangy/ peachy. 

No, I have no intention of randomly poking the loose wire in various orifices (orifi?) on the off chance I make the correct connection. That way lies madness!

A few rather poor close ups. I've temporarily removed the black tape from the chip in case that helps. Looking at the way it's stuck to the chassis block, and the way the speaker is stuck to the roof, I'm inclined to agree that it's not factory fitted, looks a bit messy.

19 minutes ago, Baldy said:

Tim. Could you post another couple of photos? I think the loose wire is red (maybe wrong as I am slightly colour blind). If so, and wire is coming from decoder, I think it is the right hand track connection which maybe should be soldered to top right hand pin (opposite pin labelled as number 1). However your final photos seems to show black wire having two wire connections to pin below. I am not sure why black (or red) would need two wires soldered to pins but additional photos may help. Could you show a photos looking where other end of black wire goes if there is a second wire from pin other than black wire to decoder. Would also be useful to see a close up of the black wire to pins, and pins right next to it to see if red wire is soldered to any of pins. I am not a dcc expert but it may help me or someone with more knowledge. 

Looks peachy coloured in the flesh, but I'll nip up to the attic very soon. Thanks

4 minutes ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

Much as above, you are rather stuck at this point. Do you know anyone local with a DCC system prepared to help? Alternatively a model railway dealer able to offer DCC services?

No, most of my friends are DC only or 1:12 scale modellers, and my local dealer doesn't do repairs these days (they lost the last loco I gave them for over 4 years (only got it back last month)). 

7 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

What you have there is a previous owner's modification of what was at least a 21 pin DCC ready model. (Can you trust that it is definitely what originally came in the exterior packaging? Possibly one of the Bachmann tractor cognoscenti can advise. I get suspicious with this degree of modification, the mechanism may well be from a different Bachmann 37 for example.) Instead of using a 21 pin decoder, the owner has soldered in a wired decoder (type unknown) on a  scheme of his own devising. That's immediately a problem for the repair, as first you have to understand what has been done.

 

Since the sound still works, but there is no motor power, almost certainly that unattached wire needs to go to one of the motor terminals, and soldering most likely will be required. First step is to carefully track the wiring to the motor terminals to determine which terminal has no connection, in order to restore it. But to do this without a DCC system to use after the repair in 'programme track' mode as a safe check is inadvisable; a wrong connection will burn out the decoder if put on track power DC or DCC.

 

(Fairest way to sell it on would be a description on the lines of Bachmann XYZ in good mechanical and appearance condition, with a very unorthodox sound decoder installation - name decoder type if the paper has that information - hard wired directly to the 21 pin decoder socket. It will find a buyer sufficiently discounted.)

Thanks for that, yes selling it that way is an option. I do have a 30 second clip of it running and making noises. There were two identical bits of paper in the box referring to DCC operation. Is this the standard Bachmann one? I enclose a close up of some of the electronic gubbins. 

A couple of months ago, I bought a Bachmann 37710 (32-390SD) 2nd hand on eBay from a private seller selling it for "an elderly relative", to run on my DC only layout. I bought this rather than a new one for a similar price as it's weathered, which as far as I can tell is not available commercially.

On testing it, I discovered that it was DCC sound fitted, which took me by surprise. The packaging clearly is for a DCC ready loco, but there's a piece of paper with the details of which DCC control does which (making me think it was mispackaged in the factory). Running it on DC obviously the sounds were limited, and I ran it a few times over a period of a couple of weeks to see if I was going to keep it as a novelty item. I had pretty much decided to sell it on as the sounds didn't particularly impress me, when it stopped running. It still does all the sounds it did, but wouldn't move. On opening the loco, I discovered a wire adrift (see photos).

I want to sell it as a runner ideally, with a full and honest description of its history. I don't think I should try to return it to the seller due to the time elapsed, use I've given it and the fact that they hadn't sold any other railway items.

So I would greatly appreciate help. Does anyone know where the wire needs to be reattached (probably)? Can it be done without soldering (almost certainly not)? Do you know anyone who could repair it (hopefully)? The offending wire can be seen pointing to top left in the first picture.

Sorry this is so long, but it's quite a complicated saga. As they were selling out, I bought a new DCC ready one, rather than faff around trying to remove the sound from the currently faulty sound fitted one, and although unweathered, it's lovely!

Thanks for wading through this tome.

On 12/08/2020 at 13:42, Ed-farms said:

One Welsh show is still at the moment going ahead - Bala Lake in September. Last email from them was they are planning to use experience in reopening the railway to put the show on, could this be the first show since cancellations started?

But without at least one layout. As a occasional operator of Borth Aberdovey & Ynyslas Railway, I received a message from the owner telling me that due to lack of opportunity to do maintenance, and the difficulties of  social distancing when operating, it will not be attending.

The old inside frame Hornby ones are toys on generic 0-6-0 chassis with poor detail, and mediocre running properties.

7 hours ago, MikeParkin65 said:

Bit of a strange conclusion in the review of the Rails Terrier - that it is better detailed and cheaper  than the Hornby one! Quoting the RRP as £80.00 which would be nice if true but it is in fact £110.

Beat me to it. It does skew matters somewhat....

1 minute ago, Steamport Southport said:

Worth looking at the webcams. You can see them being cleaned between trains.

 

https://www.festrail.co.uk/webcams/

 

That's my current "go to" webcam.

 

 

 

 

Jason

That looks like the set Welsh Pony was on last week. We rode in the bug box nearer the loco.

OOPS! Duplicated message.

Anyone finished the crossword yet? Not sure about 72 down. Done the rest.

Dan, you've never looked better

Went back yesterday in sunshine for a bit of linesiding (and tea and cake at TYB).