nightstar.train

Rather disappointed that the mainline hunslets in current condition haven’t been announced. Hopefully for Autumn. Rather a thin OO announcement I thought, only locos and no stock. Good to see that their class 37s don’t clash with the Accurascale releases, hopefully both companies can succeed in that space having both spent so much on their tooling suites. Bumper crop for N gauge though, great for modellers in the smaller scale.

I’ll be surprised, amazed and delighted if it is. Key bit of stock to model mail trains in the late 90s/early 00s. But if it is I fear what price might be asked, especially if it has working lights.

Both Hornby and Rapido are experimenting with water vapour generators that sync to the wheels and produce realistic chuffing. Hornby had a working demonstration unit at Model Rail Scotland and it looked really excellent, proper little puffs of smoke as the wheels turned. So the tech is certainly there if Bachmann wanted to join in too.

I am one of those who run 92038 with my Mk5s. I didn’t know about the difference to begin with, but now I do know I don’t really mind. I like the Chunnel rings.

Funnily it's only the day coaches, no sleeper vehicles. Was this due to a blockade of Euston so a short formed sleeper using Kings X, or some sort of failure of the sleeper vehicles (but odd that 2-4 sleepers have all failed simultaneously)?

Certainly not me I bought 2.

Hopefully Fran or McC can give us a better update. But the page https://www.accurascale.com/pages/project-status lists them as Q3 2023. However it also says they haven’t entered production. So I’m thinking that date will have slipped a bit, but hopefully still be this year.

Bachmann seem to make their announcements the first Wednesday of the month, which by reckoning is just a week away now. So thought it might be fun to have the usual froth, speculation and wishlisting/begging thread. For me I’m expecting a 009 Blanche as currently preserved with the cab tender. And I’m really really hoping that they will announce a Garratt soon. Although that might come in the November announcement as we’ve seen previously with the Fairlie and Mainline Hunslet. Not sure what I’m hoping for in OO. Whatever they do announce will probably be too pricey for me anyway.

Here is the afore mentioned article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-65397495

It will certainly work as it’s a standard Lokpilot 5. But it will need a lot of reprogramming to get all the lights working as you want.

Given it’s a much narrower tunnel, so less material has to be removed per meter of tunnel, so we expect this tunnel to be dug quicker than the running tunnels? Or is the erection of the rings the limiting factor for speed of tunnel digging?

Don't get rid of the Lokpilot, they're great decoders. You need to remap the functions to be accessible to you. Do you have a DCC system you can connect to a computer? If you do then Decoder Pro makes that fairly easy. If you don't then you can do it the old fashioned way by reprogramming CVs. If you go here you can download the full manual for the Lokpilot 5: https://www.esu.eu/download/betriebsanleitungen/digitaldecoder/ On page 57 is the start of the instructions for changing the relevant CVs. Basically you need to go across the mapping rows and and program each CV as required. You program some of the CVs with the conditions (F0 on for example), and some of the CVs with the outputs (Aux 1 on etc.). It looks daunting but is fairly simple once you've wrapped your head around it. For the inertia you need to alter the CVs for acceleration and deceleration. I also found these to be set ridiculously high by default and set both to 30, but you can set them to 0 if you want. These are CVs 3 and 4 respectively. On page 46 of the manual.

A question for the sound project. Will it have a ridiculously long cold start sequence? I’ve seen 5 minutes be achieved on a few.

Finally had a chance to play with my 423. Wow, what a model! It sounds absolutely incredible, most definitely my best DCC Sound model. Only slight annoyance is that something is rattling around in one of the cabs, I think it’s a drivers seat that hasn’t been stuck down properly. So I’ll have to try and take the whole thing apart and fix it soon. The depot lights seem very dim to me, is this realistic to the prototype? Is it possible to turn them up a bit so you can see them better on a layout? The top light and day/night headlight are reasonably bright.

That’s excellent news. I haven’t had a chance to play with my DCC sound 425 yet, but I’ve been feeling that a lack of cold start is a bad omission. Hopefully the new sound recording can make it on to the batch 2 models as I’ve got the yellow peril and the Europhoenix on order, both sound fitted.

I guess the question about wether Accurascale has bought any of Hattons’ other models has been answered. This week Hattons have announced new runs of the Barclay, P class and warwell.

Do you know why this is?

Accurascale build their locos to the DCC standard so you won’t need a MTC decoder. However the Hatton decoders you have only 6 functions. So if you use it in the 37 you’ll not be able to access all the lighting features.

I've had two bits of luck. Due to this thread I was able to score a Carl de Haviland from Hattons when they had two left, only DCC ready not sound. But then today had a call from Rainbow Railways who I had a Spirit on order with and they said they had a spare sound version, so I've upgraded to sound. Can't wait to get them and play with them. Just hope the delivery company can find my house.

Oh yes please. I’ll take one in BR green please.

Generally models are only offered DCC sound fitted, and it adds £90-100 to the cost. Many people prefer to fit their models with non sound chips for £20-30 instead. So easy access is a bonus for that. And sometimes the DCC sound model will sell out before the DC model, so if you’re a bit later to order and want a sound fitted one you have to buy the DC model and chip it yourself.

Then it’s probably the lack of chip. Should go away when you chip it. If it doesn’t some have found turning RailCom off on their DCC system (if you have it) fixes it.

Is it just the DT that hums? Have you chipped it? It’s common for DC models with lights to hum when on a DCC track.

Whereas I’m of the contrary opinion. Whilst a working fan is nice, if it pushes the 37 up towards the price that the Bachmann one is I’d be less likely to purchase. For me £170/£260 (DCC ready/sound) is a very good price point for the quality we’re expected to get and I have 3 on order, all sound fitted. But for me there’s a big physiological barrier at £200/£300. When locos start touching or breaking that barrier i find it a lot harder to justify their purchase. That’s why I’m still umming and ahhing over getting 50007. Maybe a better option would be to have the plug on the circuit board ready and offer the fan as an extra?

Some serious problem there, that’s not going to be an overnight fix. This is an important artery for the rail network, the majority of container traffic from Southampton goes that way, plus the GWR trains to Oxford. It’s worrying it’s either been allowed to get to this state due to a lack of maintenance, or there’s been a sudden collapse. Either option is worrying, for different reasons.