DCB

Reading a book on Gresley Locos by OS Nock published circa 1947 I was struck by the references to A1s as Pacifics and A3s as "Super Pacifics" rather than as a single class. Further research (Wikipedia is wonderful) shows 30 A1s were renewed as A3s during WW2 and 12 more after the war. As new boilers were required how on earth did the LNER wangle that one when the need was for Mixed Traffic locos? They even scrapped the P1s to give their almost new boilers to A1s. Was there some skulduggery similar to that which saw the NER Atlantics scrapped well before their mileage was up?

Sounds like stainless steel track. As a first step I would try peco joiners as it is easy enough to solder to them. Even ordinary steel track is a sod to solder to unless you have a big iron a pointy bit some good flux and the right solder. My solder came in a very second hand job lot off ebay and is the good stuff not the EU approved lead free rubbish. I stick to DC to avoid changing my hobby from model making to dropper soldering.

Getting the roof straight is always a challenge, Its a bit late now but you needed to solder a brace or three between the top of the sides to stop bowing or even solder the roof in place at an early stage to make a strong rigid monocoque into which you insert the glazing and interior at a later stage. At this stage of the game I fear a jig of a couple of pieces of ply end on to hold the sides straight while the glue sets is the temporary answer but the glue will eventually let go and ruin the model. The only really successful "Glue" for brass in my experience is solder.

I well remember a Grey class 37, "Imperial" running light on the WCML near Abington in 1987, it shone silver in the afternoon sunshine. The Silver Jubilee will have the same issues, bright silver in bright sunshine and dull grey on an overcast day irrespective of the actual hue. Most photos I have seen of the Silver A4s look like they have vertical dark lining where the panel edges have attracted the dirt. Did the Silver theme A4s still run the Silver Jubilee after repainting into Blue? Presumably the stock stayed silver until the war but what then, muddy brown "Teak"?

People who model locomotives and tenders as separate items and end up with huge gaps between and the tender sides and footplate out of line with the loco. People who don't model to a standard Buffer height. (Ugggh tension locks) . I have some photocopier copy counters which look spot on for 00 headcodes so why don't premium manufacturers make their headcodes so they can be changed, or at least west bound one end and eastbound the other.

Inserting the ends of the uprights into accurately drilled holes into wood or MDF rather than card seems about optimum, they get knocked over but you can put them back up again. I used this on our hinged section and they stay put despite being at 90 degrees to horizontal for 90% of the time. Extending the uprights with brass tube squared off gives more purchase but I have never found a glue to really successfully glue Ratio fencing together or to sprue.

Whether it is DC or DCC is in some ways fundemental, but even to a DC diehard like myself it is simple pragmatism to make a new layout DCC compatible. You can use code 75 or 100 rails to distribute DC over quite long distances, well over 20 feet. You can't use code 75 or code 100 or any other 00 rails to distribute DCC (unless you use sections and 1 amp overload cut outs) which means DCC becomes simple to plan but tedious to wire The big issue is that DC is generally a lot less powerful than DCC. DC generally about 12 va DCC 4 times that. 00 Fishplates can't handle 4 amps, I have seen them glow red on 2 amps, so for DCC compatibility you either need bus bars and droppers as per conventional and hideously tedious DCC or sections as per conventional DC with 1 amp overload cut outs for each section.to protect your fishplates and points from overloads from excess load as opposed to short circuit protection. Today I would run a "Section" wire to the section and additional feeds to rails at intervals of around 5 railjoiners or every 5 yards with a 1 amp thermal cut out on every section. Your track plan lends itself to DCC as there is not much else for trains to do but follow each other but storage loops, spirals and top station would ideally be 4 separate sections. For DC I would use rotary switches 1 per section to select any of up to 5 controllers plus a few extra places you can isolate locos within sections. I use Maplin double pole 6 way rotary switches nowadays having used 3 pole 4 way and needed more ways. They are no good for DCC unless you have additional overload protection, though this may prevent fully lighted trains operating. I use one colour for left rail and another for the right rail , brown and pink, another pair of colours so up and down line are different might be handy but I don't bother. The number of boards mentioned suggests the layout is portable? If not I suggest just using wiring connector strips but if it is to be portable that suggests quick detach wiring connectors which are bad news. . Something big and fat like a 7 pin trailer socket and plug would be ideal for DCC, if you can keep the max amperage down buy using DC or individual overload protection for each section then DIN plugs can suffice Looking at your track plan I would say you have unnecessary crossovers in your storage loops and nowhere near enough storage loops. What you don't have is any way to reverse trains. my unfinished loft layout had an ability for any train to depart any storage road from left to right and go either clockwise or anticlockwise around the layout

I was thinking as below. See the green crossover. The Headshunt could be longer and as the sidings would usually be shunted by anti clockwise trains a trap in the clockwise direction would be an advantage to stop runaway wagons without necessarily derailing then and blocking the running lines. See red bits From a quick squiggle I couldn't get get a really neat arrangement of pointwork into your siding location. so my post is indicative more than anything.

Poor quality needle files used to be available from Poundland but the pound sliding seems to have priced them out of Poundland's reach, however they are widely available from markets and trade stands where the same old tat can be bought for 10 times the price. Even the cheap and nasty needle files should be ok for elongating holes in N/S as long as you don't want to do too many, but I do wonder why they need doing offset as the axle holes should normally be bored using the coupling rods as a guide.

The headshunt is quite rare on prototype layouts, unless the line drops abruptly and a headshunt remains level the usual "headshunt" turns out to be a refuge siding. I really don't like headshunts on small stations but simply adding a crossover where you have the arrow for short headshunt to add operational interest. would improve matters. The tedium of shunting the sidings would probably mean they never get shunted, I always seem to end up shunting a great raft of wagons, pulling the outgoing ones out on the end of the incoming ones which I find interesting, especially bif as per prototype there is only a short 2 hour window between passenger trains to shunt the yard, check the rabbit snares and have a well earned half at the pub 50 yards down the road.

Does it give the correct unintelligible echoing resonance of the real thing?

The cure for the mainline Scots and Patriots (and Manors and 43XX) was bin the motor and push it with a Tender drive. My cure would be a 1960s Triang B12 Chassis re drilled to take the Patriot coupling rods with Markits wheels. Should last at least another 50 years.

Morley Vector arrived yesterday,so around a week from phone call to delivery. Now I have just got to adapt the controller shelf to take it so should be up and running for Sunday's running session. The failed OnTrack was just a failed 2.2 amp cut out so after fitting a new (1.1amp) Polyswitch I just need to find a way to fit the case back together with screws instead of pop rivets and it too will be back in action ready to test. If the 1.1 is not sufficient I will double it up to equal the original 2.2amps.

I can understand the axle gear splitting in the same way as Scalextric motor pinions habitually do because they are both a force fit on the shaft but the double gear should not have any stress on it so that is a bit of a mystery unless the worm mesh is too tight. The fact it seems to be old but little used locos adds weight to the theory that the motor is pressing the worm down onto the double gear. The cure seems to be to use the locos and get a bit of wear onto the gears and get the stress out of them. Personally I find leaving Hornby pacifics on shed and using Wrenn ones to pull trains works well. I will be dead long before the Wrenn gears wear out.

Have you tried reversing the connections on the motor to test the switch and the wiring harness. If it starts throwing the other way...

Can motors are usually mentioned in reference to Hornby models which were available with either can or X04 motors. The Cans are fully enclosed and don't usually have replaceable brushes. They appeared in Hornby /Scalextric cars in the 70s or 80s in place of the X04 type and gradually worked their way into some cheaper Hornby locos like the Thomas Range Percy, Smokey Joe etc before the type 7 became popular. They rev higher than the X04 lack torque and clip into place rather than secure with a screw. Shaft sizes are smaller and they use plastic gears. I avoid them and replace them with computer CD drive motors which are much lower revving. I always make sure I have a spare when fitting one and recently have been using 0.5 amp Polyswitches as onboard overload protection

That looks like the problem I had with my loft layout, similar concept nearly impossible to make work. John KS plan works with steam rank locos, however lots of diesels and steam tender locos have pickup one side of the loco and one side of the tender or one side leading bogie the other side trailing and wont get across the join between two separate transformers. The easiest way to make the loop work is with common return cab control with the common rail the right hand rail, so with double track the rails adjacent to each other are common return. With this and insulfrog points you don't need isolators. This is fine until you introduce crossovers between the two tracks at which point you need to abandon common return and switch both -ve and +ve feeds, however stopping to switch controllers before running across a crossover is easier than trying to do it half way around a return loop..

After many years service one of our OnTrack power units died last Sunday. A Hornby Saint was running in after conversion to X04 loco power for about 3 hours and the controller just went dead. The OnTrack is like half a Morley, it has a very light wander lead hand held which plugs in and is centre off rather than having a reversing switch. I suspected a failed overload cut out and ordered some 1.1 amp polyswitches off Ebay from a UK supplier rather than wait a month for some from China. They came next day and last evening I drilled out the pop rivets and opened up the OnTrack. As suspected the 2.2 Amp overload cut out had failed and when I soldered one 1.1 amp polyswitch in parallel the controller came back to life. In the mean time Father in law ordered a new Morley Vector! I wonder how many other controllers have been consigned to the bin for want of a 75p component. However as I have never used Polyswitches before, using bi metal thermal breakers previously, I wondered as they are around 75p each I started wondering about using Polyswitches as overload protection on individual sections and on DCC. That way the power could be limited to 1.1 amps or thereabouts on any fishplate or point tag while the full 4 or 6 amps was still available to the layout, could even stick an LED across it for fault indication.

The back to back problem exacerbates the motion clearance issue, it's not enough to ease out the B to B to 14.5 or 14.25 sliding fit which I use you also need to shim the axle to get rid of the excess sideplay. A cynic would suggest that Hornby (or the Chinese factory) reduced the B to B to stop the conrods hitting the crankpins. Whether the shims are horseshoe slipping over the axle in situ and superglued to the chassis or washers requiring the wheels to come off is a personal taste.

Is the viewing from "Inside" the L or outside? Sort of guessing Swiss Zillertalbahn sort of stock, Welshpool and Llanfair on a mountain? At present it needs a turntable to give a reason locos come back chimney first (Turned at both ends of a journey) and continental style track layout, they like loops rather than dead end sidings, Viewed from outside it could be a really good exhibition layout but that would be very different from one designed to be viewed from inside.

We went to Buxton earlier in the year and the Midland station has been almost completely obliterated. However from what is left Buxton Miidland was on a curve with the LNWR Manchester line continuing almost straight with the (surviving) LNWR Ashbourne line swinging around the "outside" of the Midland station until the (Surviving) Midland tracks passed below the Ashbourne line Viaduct. Shunting using the "Up" or outgoing line was totally normal and headshunts were the rarity except on the busiest main lines.

Morley seem to sell direct to the customer these days and apart from annoyingly not producing a single unit their rep sounded very knowledgeable on the phone so another Vector will be winging its way shed wards this week while I delve into the innards of an OnTrack in a quest to fix its overload cut out which suddenly failed after a 5 hour running (in) session...

Lots of 00 controllers put out 19 volts or more. Dapol motors may well be optimised for 9 volts but my experience is that N gauge controllers have lower settings on their overload cut outs and are not suitable for 00, yes it was a bargain buy off Ebay but the cut out trips at anything over a brisk trot for a Bachmann pannier and will barely let a Triang chassis crawl before tripping. A 1/2 amp cut out should be about right for N gauge and 1 amp for 00. I quite happily put two 00 controllers to feed the same train when triple heading Triang Transcon Diesels, it makes the fishplates glow red on occasions but hasn't set anything on fire yet.

Is it a European narrow gauge line or a UK one? There doesn't seem to be much operational potential nor do the stations seem to be delineated

There is not much headroom between the just light voltage and the smoke and die voltage of LEDs typically 1.8 to 4 volts. LEDs are non Ohmic and don't obey ohms law, a very small increase in forward voltage causes a massive increase in current. Testing with 9 or 12 volts will kill them stone dead. I use 2 x AA cheapo non rechargable batteries in a double AA holder for testing coloured LEDs and 3 X AAs for clear ones.. Coloured ones smoke and die on 3 X AA nicads and barely blink on 9V before expiring. I am sure Bachmann will be delighted to sell you a new lighting module, but whether that will cure the original problem