Revolution Mike B

Well that’s DEMU Showcase ticked off, and what a great show it was too! After a pretty annoying drive it was a relief to get the layout up fairly quickly and find a work around for a couple of small niggling issues enabling us to have all sorts of trains running just about everywhere. We were lucky to have some new Revolution samples to test and we also put the new Cavalex 56 through it’s paces. By all accounts, there were some pretty cracking layouts on display but we were so busy that we didn’t really get to see them. We could’ve got a look around this morning my dimwit here left his van key at the hotel so Rhys had to go back for it while Ian and I were stranded in the car park. Anyway, that’s another show done and dusted and the layout can go back to storage. Stafford 2023 is a very strong possibility for the chance to see it if you missed it this time around. Three notes to self: Don’t leave your key in your hotel room miles away from the venue. If it’s hot, take a fan!! Remember ear plugs - Ian’s snoring is getting worse!!!! Unfortunately some of the wagons got vandalised over night with graffiti which was most annoying. Looking at the tags, we believe it was someone called Wiz but they’d long gone by the time we’d managed to get in on Sunday morning. Many thanks to Ian and Rhys for doing a sterling job of keeping the trains running, along with a thank you to a chap called Pete from Warley MRC who stepped in to help operate the layout on Saturday afternoon and Andy who helped out for an hour or so today. Also thanks to Mick for the loan of two barrier coaches for the weekend. I’m not quite finished yet…. Thanks Cavalex and Revolution Trains for your company on Saturday evening and a very big thank you to Guy Molyneux and the Showcase team for making us all feel very welcome. See you all in a year’s time.

We’ve replied to every email sent to the support email address. Did you send just the one email?

This isn’t the case unfortunately as the Kato 800 suffers from a few design issues (and I say this as an individual not on behalf of Revolution Trains). Firstly, the sprung contacts for the wheel pickups can be problematic, the decoder ‘sockets’ are also problematic due to being an after thought. The windscreens fall out and the head / tail lights can dislodge making the illumination very dim. two of mine have motors that sound like they’d be better employed in a tractor - farm, not class 37! I’m in no way saying it’s a poor model (I have 5 of them) but it’s definitely not without faults. The assembly is simple because the model itself is simple - less detail makes it very easy to put together but when you actually take one apart, it’s easy to see just how basic the model is. And this relates to my point of being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. We can all make basic models that have no detail parts and run like clock work…….but then people will say (as they have done with the 800)…they aren’t detailed enough. Sometimes we just can’t win….but that doesn’t mean we can’t try!

Unfortunately, that’s a bit like comparing apples to oranges. The Kato models are very sparsely detailed in comparison to many of the Farish / Dapol / Revolution products and they aren’t really designed for DCC (that was an after thought for the U.K. market). As manufacturers, we’re often stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea when it comes to the end user. More detail, means more things to get broken, more features or functions mean more complicated wiring or electronics. If we just made basic models people would moan that they weren’t detailed enough.

Yes, they will be available in DC, and DCC sound fitted options.

I’ve started doing some of the scenic work including the new main platform and the ‘Westbury’ end of the layout. I’ve made the platform out of 6mm ply and by the time it’s had two layers of 40thou plasticard added to it, it’ll be roughly the right scale height for most of the western region stations before they started raising the height for disabled access…. …this will be shaped to form a gradient down to the road that’ll be reinstated along with the bridge. I cut part of the top off of the fiddle yard joining board and lowered it so that I can reprofile the landscape… There will be an infill section to fit in to the right angle and give more depth to the scenery. Where the narrow gap is adjacent to the plain top, a road will sit on a man made embankment with a bridge over the tracks hiding the entrance to the fiddle yard. A similar thing will happen at the other end of the layout once I’ve completed this. It gives a more open feel to the scenery. I’ve also contemplated filling in the middle with lightweight scenic boards too as it’s a bit too small for comfortable operation - whether it’ll happen is a different story! Anyway, more pictures to follow as the work progresses.

Next month, the layout will be attending DEMU and this will probably be its last outing for the foreseeable future due to no longer having anywhere to set it up (until I build a garage). It’s also difficult to work on with the bungalow being upside down with all of the building work and decorating going on but it does give me some time to get the HST sets all finished along with my 9 car IET and the Whatley boxes. I’ve also decided to throw a spanner in the works and build a jumbo train using JHAs and HOAs and a Military train (following the success of Ian’s train running on the layout). Although these aren’t prototypical for the location, it does give some interesting viewing options!

Anyone still waiting for their 320s / 321s, they should hopefully be sent out next week. Cheers Mike B

Glad I was able to help. Both the units I have here run very well in both three and four car variants. It’s always with checking the back to backs as most wheel sets on any model will never be perfect.

Made a start on the main station building today by bashing a couple of Peco kits around to make something resembling a combination of the original Lavington building, and the one one at Westbury. It’s not my finest piece of modelling as I really struggle with this ludicrous scale! I’m waiting for another kit to arrive so that I can finish off the middle section and then I can start on the canopies. I’ve got a few ideas for the island platform similar to the structures at Westbury although my first attempt looks like something the dog has gotten hold of……which is even more special as we don’t even have a dog!!

It runs up hill towards the Westbury end on the layout Jo which is the wrong way unfortunately!

This evening saw the layout put back up and apart from one point being programmed wrong, and the track being caked in paint, all went well. It’s nice to have everything working and being able to access every route. I’ve not bothered automating it yet as l need to do some other bits and pieces first but it’s on the ‘to do’ list. It just squeezes in between the purling supports. I’ll be leaving it alone for a while now as we’re quite busy with getting some new projects sorted at work and checking livery diagrams / samples and CAD drawings for some existing ones and I need a clear head! It’s nice to have the trainset back ….

Cheers Nigel

When I bought the layout, half of the fiddle yard points wouldn’t work along with three of the tortoise motors on the scenic side. It’s no secret that I’m not MERG’s greatest fan so I decided to remove it all and start again with something I could use with Loconet. I didn’t need anything complicated and I know iTrain well as I use it on Oak Road, so with the help of James at DCC TrainAutomation, a DIgikjeis DR5000 arrived with some Cobalt AD-SX/FX units to control the points and removal of the MERG hardware commenced. Once it was all removed, I started wiring in the new hardware and checked that it all worked. I also relaid the fiddle yard to give 4 long roads (two each line) but left the rest as it was for now. My plan is to completely rebuild the whole thing but for now I just want it running.

In no particular order, I’ll post up some images of what’s been happening to the layout since I acquired it. The ballast was very grey and didn’t suit its new GWR location, so after a few attempts, I finally got it looking a little more typical… There’s still half the layout to go yet!

Right, after a bit of input from one of my work colleagues, I think I’ve found the ideal location, a town called Market Lavington - it’s more of less half way between Westbury and Pewsey, as well as being large enough to have a fairly substantial station with a few other villages nearby. This also means I can take elements of the Westbury buildings and butcher them to suit. I seem to have upset the original builder of the layout so from now on, the layout will be known as Market Lavington.

It doesn’t really work unfortunately for the trains down to Taunton via Cary. I do have a cunning plan though.

Having had a bit more of a look around Google Earth, I’ve decided that a good location would be on the Berks and Hants between Westbury and Pewsey, meaning the West is likely to be dropped in favour of just Neelbury. It would be assumed that the line to Melksham would diverge off here instead of the Bath line and then continue on to Chippenham as normal enabling me to run a whole manner of diversions.

Hi David, The couplings on the 313 are not the same as these. The 320 and 321 models were made for by Sonic and the 313s are being made by a different factory.

It seems like years since I’ve been anywhere near RMWeb, and while there’s not much to report on Oak Road, Neelbury, or West Neelbury (I still can’t decide) has had a fair amount of work done to it. First of all, I moved it up in to the loft so that I could play trains for a while (and use it as a test track for work) which gave me some much needed chill out time…but then the work started. The station has been completely removed with the building ready to be packed up and posted back to Terry. I’ve taken the level crossing out, removed the road and the bridge, along with the Standen Engineering buildings and this area will be reprofiled with a new road, new bridge and the engineering building becoming a dairy. I’ve spent a lot of time colouring the ballast to make it look ‘Wiltshire’ main line style too which has given the whole layout a more colourful look. The biggest change though has been the removal of all of the MERG electronics and wiring which has been replaced by a more conventional DCC system that works on Loconet (DR5000 and DCC Concepts decoder boards) and controllable via iTrain. I’ll get around to posting some pictures at some point but it’s certainly going to look a little different for GETS in October and Taunton two weeks after!

It’s small enough in 4mm Eric, let alone trying it in 2mm!! In truth, we do genuinely have a lot of projects that are higher priority than a 4mm 59. I’ll be making do with my Hornby / Lima conversions.

It's not something that we're looking to do at the moment Eric, we've got lots of other projects that we need to finish of first. Perhaps a 5in Gauge one would be a good idea?

As Mike says, we have the EP sample and the delay in getting the pictures out is my fault as its still sat on my desk!

And as if by magic…..

Hmmmm, I think this could apply both ways!! Cheers Graham, it’s going to be exciting.