dan_the_v8man

I need to keep it as small as practical to appease the wife unfortunately!

I've been building a garden railway and the first of two reverse loops I built with Peco set track. I subsequently found this to be too tight a radius for some stock buffer locking I'm running modern image RTR stock, I'd like to be able to get at least a Heljan Class 37 round, ideally something as large as the Class 60 but I'm willing to compromise. What would people suggest as a minimum radius? Thanks!

Lovely bit of cant in the track bed

Found some nice cylindrical orange LEDs that make a convincing functional Amber Beacon. Tested various light options on the Loksound V5 and although it has a rotating beacon setting I found the oscillating lamp setting more convincing

Not really done anything more in the garden yet other than buy some ply to make the shuttering for the sweeping curves in the next track section. Though I've been converting a Heljan 03 to remote control using the Fosworks gear and Legomanbiffo sounds Just need to weather it and add the amber beacon as per the prototype

That must have been some sheet it was cut from!! They look like they're 18mm thick

So Dapol have buried their heads in the sand. I got a quick reply from them but all they did was direct me to DCC Supplies who in turn directed me to their spares page. Went back to Dapol, explained the situation and expected some good will from them considering I have two locos with identical faults both with less than 15 mins use collectively. Nothing. Silence. So rather begrudgingly I bit the bullet and ordered a wheelset at £35. They only had black in stock so my BR blue 08 as pictured above is still in the same situation. The wheelset turns up and I could literally spin one of cranks in my fingers!! I contacted DCC Supplies who swiftly sent me another wheel set and guess what, it does the exact same thing!! So at this point I'm rather cheesed off. I emailed DCC supplies, obviously this isn't there fault but rather a QC issue with Dapol and CC'd them into the email and yet still no reply from Dapol. I forwarded the email chain onto Joel the MD at Dapol thinking maybe this is just an issue with Kevin at Dapol, and guess what. No reply! So from my experience it would appear that Dapol really aren't interested once they have your cash. Which is a shame as they've made O gauge a lot more accessible, but if they can't get the basics right what's the point?

A bit of 08 testing was required as it turns out the gearing varies between the models Then it was back onto ballasting - just need to wait for it fully cure, tidy the excess up and weather it a bit

A diamond concrete disc on a 4" grinder makes light work of the undulations, I used to it to take out any peaks in the undulations. Any remaining dips I let the track bridge them and tamped under the track with ballast though I'm using sieved granodust, darkened with mortar dye and bonded with SBR

The second track is glued down awaiting the ballast But it does mean I can now have a decent test run on the first part of the track (Excuse the Sunday league football match on the field behind our garden) Light engine climbing the bank and then coasting into the loop

Bit more work on the Heljan 20 Started off with a board from Fil Downs which gives a track/remote switch which doubles as battery isolation, built in overload protection, connection for charging and a JST connector for the Radio RX and DCC decoder While the glue was going off I flashed the Loksound V5 with a Legomanbiffo project It ain't the prettiest install but it's all in and working, learnt a few lessons for the next 20 And she's out and running!

My lipo batteries arrived this morning of which I'd ordered a selection of various sizes to try. For my Class 20 RC conversion i've used a 4s 850mAh battery. The 14.8V should be more than enough to get a realistic top speed and with the Heljans low current draw, 850mAh should give a good run time.

I got track placed on the concrete up to the top of the garden which meant for the first time I could run down the garden, round the loop and back up However before the inevitable autumnal wet weather arrives I want to get the ballast down which means the track needs securing. Rather than screws again I decided to bond the track in a few places with SBR so the brick express had to come out The other running line has been moved over while the SBR goes off then i'll align it to the first track using wooden spacers before bonding it also

So the loop is now laid which means I can get on with the easy run up the garden as soon as the SBR has dried. Once the sun has dropped down a bit I'll get the laser out to get the track nice and straight before easing into some nice big sweeping curves around the top of the garden

So ordered a new set of wheels for my 08 and guess what, they spin before i've even got them on the loco! In other news I came across an old Lima 33 that's been repowered and although the body is a bit wide, its a robust loco for my daughter to drive

So I've got a few RC 7mm locos using Fosworks and Tamvalley and seen a few of you mention 00 diesels that you have converted to Radio but yet to see any photos So could I see any of the conversions in 00 please? Specifically the newer more detailed models as I can see how a Lima Class 37 full of air and it's single power bogey would be fairly simple to convert

Which diesels have you converted?

Has anyone else been able to confirm the new 20s have a v5 decoder?

Certainly the Class 20 can, that's why they went into industrial use with Hope Cement and Corus at Scunthorpe

A quick run on the test track and I took the hacksaw to the 20 to make some room for the batteries and radio RX. The next 20 I do, I'll be doing on the milling machine instead

Short break in the rain gave be chance to do a bit more digging and get some shuttering in ready for more concrete My newest addition to the fleet arrived and unlike my Class 60, it can negotiate the tight 2nd radius curves of the loop with no issues

Because it's over 2 years old Dapol aren't interested even though it's the first time out of the box which is frankly annoying.

Better weather today so got some more shuttering in and laid some concrete. Found a small cement mixer on gum tree which was frankly a god send! 14 x 20kg bags of ready mix later...

How did you get the boards to follow the gentle curve?