ColinK

Thanks for the plan, its given me some ideas.

‘Liquid Reamer’ from airbrushes.com is pretty effective. After cleaning my airbrush I put all the parts in a untrasonic bath filled with water plus a little airbrush cleaner. After a few minutes in the machine I dry all the bits and reassemble it. Works for me.

Years ago I took my German N gauge layout to a show, set it up Friday evening and everything was working perfectly. Arrived Saturday morning and a point blade had come off - it was the critical point at the station throat. The problem was caused by the hall being very hot on Friday and down to zero during the night. Managed to run a limited service. On Sunday morning nothing would run. Spent a couple of hours checking and replacing things without success. Finally I decided to remove all the stock of the layout, midway through this the layout sprung into life. The problem was a metal wagon wheel exactly in the gap above a insulating fishplate just touching both rail ends causing a short. I was pleasantly surprised to be invited to take my 00 layout to the three day exhibition at The Great Central Railway - the first time I’d been asked by a major show. I spent a couple of months getting it and the stock ready, including setting it up at home and getting two people who had never seen the layout before to run it and look for problems I had missed. Well worth the effort as it ran perfectly for three days inside a marquee. More recently I took one of my micro layouts to an exhibition which was due to open at 10am. Setting up the layout takes less than a minute, put it on the table, put the loco and coach on the track, then switch on (layout is powered by batteries hidden in the scenery). I arrived at 0940, so loads of time to set up - but the hall was already full of the public when I arrived; there had been such a long queue outside getting soaked in the rain that the organisers opened the show early.

what is Enigma?

Try contacting The Transport Ticket Society.

Interesting discussion. Does this mean that someone who sends me a dubious email, eg one of those you need to pay extra postage scams, is able to know if I have openned their email? If they know I’ve openned it, they will know I am a real person.

I was at Cark station on the Furness Line yesterday. There was a power cut in the area so all the information screens at the station went blank, rather important as a major event (Cartmel races) was on. I didn’t see a ticket machine, but that would be dead with no electricity, and surprisingly the mobile internet went down and there was no mobile phone signal (at least on EE) while home internet would have gone off too with no electric. So you couldn’t find out any train times or train running info, couldn’t buy a ticket (bear in mind all the publicity about no ticket = £100 fine) and couldn’t phone a friend. Too much reliance on the internet.

I once travelled on a France - England car ferry where they got the loading so very wrong the ship had a distinct lean to one side. Vehicles had to be taken off and reloaded, made it very late departing.

To add a bit of action to the scene you could make the satelite dish move.

My dad had a bump in his Skoda which resulted in some front end damage, mainly front panels and bonnet bent, no mechanical damage. The insurance company wrote it off. A few months later a chap knocked on Dad’s front door, there was his written off Skoda outside. ‘Just wondered if you still had the luggage cover?’ He had bought the written off car, replaced a few panels and it was as good s it had been at the time of the accident. So it must be possible to buy your written of car.

My dad was on a coach trip recently to Lindisfarne which is reached by a tidal causeway. The driver told everyone to be back on the coach by 1545 so they could get off the island before the tide came it. One of the passengers didn’t appear until 1615, the coach just got off before it was too late as the driver had sensibly given the earlier time to allow for someone being late.

I know of two Chineese model railways in the UK, one is regularly on RMweb.

Today I called in at Arcadia models at Shaw at 1100hrs to ask Tim to keep me a sound fitted Bachmann 40063 when they arrive. The reply was ‘they will be here between 1145 and 1245’. I couldn’t wait longer than 1300, but DPD arrived just before that so I got my 40063. I have to say it is excellent, looks good, runs well especially at slow speed and the factory fitted sound is superb.

Thanks again everyone. I’ve tried putting a red label under the loco and it works. Both the IR emitter and reciever have two wires, but they may not be easy to see on the photos. I actually got an invitation to exhibit the micro layout on Sunday. I was showing my Zoo Railway at Carnforth exhibition all weekend and had enough space to show the 009 as well. The exhibition manager was happy for me to bring it along on Sunday, but I decided it was better to test it at home first. Good decision as attendance on Sunday was very low due to some football match.

Spotted at Carnforth station today.

After using my airbrush I dismantle it then clean it in the recommended way, then put all the parts in a ultrasonic bath to clean it again.

A couple of pics of my model railway taken today at Carnforth exhibition.

It’s this weekend at Carnforth station/Heritage Centre. I’m exhibiting my HOf Zoo Railway

Thanks everyone for you help, it’s helped me keep going to try and get this working. On previous layouts I’ve used the Heathcote Electronics IR units successfully and had no problems. They have always come as a circuit board with the IR emitter and receiver fitted to it - drill hole in track, fit circuit board, job done. This application is a bit different, it a 009 micro layout just 38cm x 32cm with track on two levels. The simple station stop is for the upper track, just a oval of Kato N gauge unitrack. As there is no space to fit the Heathcote boards with the emitter/reciever already fitted, I’ve had to use a board with the emitter and reciever on seperate 18” long leads. The problem appears to have been getting the emitter bouncing the IR signal off the loco so it is detected by the reciever. I tried taping the two together, taping them together with a little wedge between them, taping them together with a carved wood block between them, the aim being to angle the emitter & reciever so the IR gets back to the reciever. None of these worked, well one did for 5 minutes. So last night I glued the emitter & reciever to a piece of plasticard with the tops angled together. This morning I pushed this up through the whole between the rails, so it was vertical. It didn’t detect the train going over. After lunch I fiddled around with and discovered quite by chance, that having the unit at a angle, perhaps 25 degrees from the vertical, it worked and has kept working. I’ve no idea why this works, but it does. So I’ve now fixed the simple shuttle unit in place. It has a large red LED which flashes when the train is stopped, this is now inside a factory building to give the impression of work taking place, as well as doing its intended purpose. The shuttle unit also has small red and green LEDs that indicate other things, I’ve used these for a two aspect colour light signal. Thanks again, I think I deserve a pint for persevering.

Thanks Nigel, yes the sensors do work. In the past I’ve used the Heathcote IR units which come with the emitter and reciever built into the circuit boards and they have worked fine. For this micro layout I’ve had to use units where the emitter & reciever are not mounted on the boards, but are on long leads. It’s proving virtually impossible to get them angled just right so the beam from the emitter is reflected back to the reciever. It’s not helped by the lack of space where they go. I’m going to have one last attempt by glueing the emitter and reciever to a bit of plasticard at hopefully the correct angle and slotting them into place. If that doesn’t work then I’m stuck. Any alternatives which are reasonable simple to build and fit would be appreciated. I can just about build things circuit boards. Perhaps a different solution would be to have a magnet under the loco (or wagon) and a reed switch in the track, so when the loco passes over the reed switch a latching relay trips in and switches track power off for, say 60 seconds. Even better if a second set of relay contacts changed a signal to red while the train is stopped. I’ve no idea how to make this though.

Hi, I'm building a micro layout in 009 which I want to leave running automatically. It has a circle of Kato track which is covered by a building at one end. Control is analogue. The plan is for a sensor in the building to trip when the loco reaches it, then stop the train for a short while (say 30 to 60 seconds) after which the train sets off until it reaches the building again. As the train will be moving slowly a simple track on/off is fine and there is no need for gradual braking or acceleration. Ideally the sensor would turn a signal to red while the train is stopped, green when it is moving. Even better if a LED flashed the the train is stopped, but this isn't critical. The Heathcote Electronics Simple Station Stop does everything I need, but despite several weeks of trying and help from Heathcote, I just cannot get the IR sensor to detect the train. A surprise as I have used these detectors before. I've only got 10 days to finish the layout, so I need a different solution. Can anyone suggest anything please. It needs to be ready to install and switch on.

That’s going to be an interesting one to sort out. As a coach, especially a tri-axle like this one, turns right the left rear corner swings to the left resulting in accidents like this. Structures like canopies should be set back far enough (or high enough) to prevent this kind of event happening. So while the coach driver will get part of the blame, part of the blame should be down to the building designer (or failure by whoever specified the design to allow for rail replacement coaches), maybe if there was a rail replacement co-ordinator present he/she told the coach to go there. The key point for everyone is be very careful when passing a bus, coach or lorry that is going to turn left or right as the tail will swing out possibly into your path. Much to the anger of motorists, some drivers of big vehicles will deliberatly block both lanes when turning to prevent other motorists squeezing past and getting hit by the rear corner of the big vehicle. Of course there is always the stupid person on a cycle or motorbike who will try and squeeze through the gap and put themselves at risk of getting squashed.

D1015 made it to Kyle-of-Lochalsh in 2009 (?), great trip.

Here is one I made a very long time ago. The loco is an Airfix Evening Star kit.

Hornby have some great running locos, wrong type for you, but the Hornby 08 shunter is a superb slow speed runner. If you can find a Model Rail magazine Sentinel, it’s a fantastic slow speed shunter, and despite only having 4 wheels it picks up well. I’ve fitted mine with a 0-16.5 scratchbuilt body and its run for hours at exhibitions without ever stuttering.