Luke Piewalker

It's normal practice for locos with multipin decoders with lots of function outputs to separate out the rear lights from the traditional directional output to separate function outputs so that all prototypical lighting variations can be accessed. According to the list on Accurascales website, red tail lights are on Aux1 and Aux2, cab lights on Aux 3 and Aux4 and engine room on Aux11 outputs. (and various WIPAC light options on Aux 5-7 and 10) You may need to do a bit of function mapping to get the lights operating in the manner you wish.

I've never been able to get on with pressfix, I do however have a finely honed approach with waterslide decals to float them into place then soak up the water from underneath with a painbrush. That helps drop them down in to the desired position where I always found trying to dab them dry with a tissue generally ended with them somewhere else. Often on the tissue... If you need to reposition you can add a bit more water, refloat, nudge, and so forth. The only caveat is really really small decals which tend to get sucked up onto the brush with the water sometimes. But larger ones you can hold in position while you extract the water with tweezers or something, with smaller ones that often isn't an option.

33 and 34 should be 1 and 2 so they come on with F0 in the forward and reverse directions respectively I'd try setting 35 to 1, and 36 to 2 as well. That should map output Aux 1 to come on with F0 forward, And Aux 2 to F0 reverse. This is rashly assuming that the white lights at No. 2 end are Aux1 and the red lights at No. 2 end are Aux2. If this gets you lights at either end, that change with direction but are the wrong way round, try CV 35 to 2, and CV 36 to 1. These CVs are assigning the function output to the F key, so anything above two is just adding control to extra function keys. CV33 of 5 will assign the No. 1 end white lights to F0f, and F1. CV34 of 3 will assign the No. 1 end red lights to F0f and F0r CV35 of 9 will assign Aux 1 to F0f and F2 CV36 of 9 will do the same for Aux 2 Worth a try... I take it all back, I think I got the table the wrong way round... Ken

My Strathclyde 101 arrived this morning. Going well so far. Very orange...

Looks like I'm getting another 101 then...

I have just done the DCC89 install myself. It took a few shots and a bit of tweaking of the contacts for the light decoders. I had rear lights but no front lights. Should be two reds, three white. My other thought is whether the decoder is all the way in. There are two spring contacts that connect with the two decoder pads either side, if everything isn't quite lined up and contacting properly it will go wonky. My lights are definitely toggling on F0 and being directional.

As far as I am aware the NCE USB adaptor is the only game in town.

You aren't wrong about the lack of coverage of the sniffer in the manuals! Basically the sniffer takes the track output of your other controller system (in this case the ZTC), and intercepts DCC commands which it then relays on to the locos.

This is where my plan of a crack roving team of electrifiers, in a permanent state of electrifying, comes in. Electrifying the GSWR all the way makes a lot of sense, introducing an avoiding/relief route for the WCML. Then do from Carlisle to Leeds. And Carlisle to Newcastle. Manchester to Leeds. And just keep going...

Paging @pauliebanger

They've got the label on the box wrong too...

Mine has arrived. Arrows of extreme indecision a bit of a disappointment

Hi All Dapol N Gauge 156 in Strathclude Orange should be on its way soon. I can't find many pictures of the internals of these, and they've gone Next18 so things may be a bit different, but has anyone done a sound install on one of these? Normally plenty of space in DMUs for such things. And does anyone do a 156 sound program with appropriate announcements for this era (and area)?

The ones at Newcastle Central certainly had a runner wagon with them

Maybe consider a charging bag like model aeroplane types use for their LiPo batteries.

I saw two class 68s attached to each other, one an early example, one a much newer example. The difference in buffer height was noticeable. Not 3 inches, but noticeable. To my non expert eye it seemed to be entirely due to the wear on the wheelsets of the older example.

My highlight was when I got an advert for an ad blocker...

Earl of Merioneth arrived from Derails today. Trundled away on the rolling road happily.

I find the problem with Plainly Difficult, is it very much comes across as someone just reading out the accident report. This means the videos involving radiation frequently have different radiation units and it would be nice if they were all in SI or at least gave SI conversions rather than leaping from system to system.

The TTS chips are basically wired decoders with a plug attached. Shouldn't be an impediment to them having a different plug soldered on.

There were 2. Apparently 10578 and 10610 in 1986-87, briefly. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/14601-inter-city-mark-3-sleepers-with-scotrail-blue-stripe/

It really is a fabulous looking train. Livery and shape in harmony.

Some epic rail blue action there!

Is the Digitrax Zephyr worth looking at? Great big direction and throttle handles for small hands? I'm happy with my PowerCab and have extended it with a second ProCab, a Smart Booster and a USB adaptor so I can use JMRI for all my programming and WiFi throttles if desired.