Mick Bonwick

Thanks to @john new on page 13, I have been wandering around the area of Easton station (not physically, you understand) and considering railway related industries that could be represented somewhere on my baseboards, or very near. The possibility of a wagon repair facility is attractive and, as there have been large steam locomotives seen south of Portland, some sort of heavy engineering support is possible. I'd still like to model Park Quarry (south of the station, just before the lifting flap) as a quarry, but something else could come into being just north of the station, around Inmosthay but bringing it closer to the station - maybe just the other side of Reforne bridge. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Easton,+Portland/@50.5482518,-2.4375188,472m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x4872f094a88f0877:0xa0eae304dbf7590!8m2!3d50.5457225!4d-2.4360814 If you want to understand what I'm going on about, you can either use the Google Maps link or go back to page 1 and look at the sketch map there. Or both.

Are you using your DCC system to change points? What sort of lights are you using or planning to use? Are you using your DCC system to change signals, and are these semaphore or colour light? You will need to be more specific about your requirements if you hope to get a full answer. You haven't supplied very much information that will help respondents.

Aha! Something for the weekend?

Many thanks for going to the trouble of working on this, Nigel. I shall have go at your suggestions tomorrow and let you know how I get on.

Thanks for the quick response, Nigel. I am using Layout Editor because that was what seemed the easier for me to get to grips with at the beginning. That may not have been the right choice but, at the time I started, I ploughed ahead without seeking assistance. I'm quite happy to start again if I made the wrong initial choice. My requirement is to be able to control trains, points and signals from a JMRI screen, from a DCC system (Digitrax) and from a physical (as opposed to screen-based) mimic panel.

I am having trouble getting a pair of points to work as a crossover controlled by JMRI. I have searched many places for a solution but am still confused. Rather than describe the path I have taken to get here (in a circular motion, many times re-iterated), does anybody have a suggestion for best practice when installing, defining and operating a left-hand and right-hand point as a crossover, please?

To begin with a layer of Testor's Dullcote was applied to the model. Any matt varnish will do this job, it's just that I get on well with Dullcote and find it serves this purpose admirably. The form of pigment that I use is gouache, but ordinary paint in tubes will do the job as well. Start with a small blob on the tip of a brush and place it on the model above the area you want to discolour. Start to work the paint downwards with a damp, not wet, brush tip. The more you work the paint downwards, the thinner the layer you will end up with. The paint can be manipulated all over the place in whatever pattern you wish. If you want more than the one colour you can protect what you have already done with another layer of Dullcote. Try it on a piece of card to see how it works. This is the result of using one colour of gouache on a Class 37.

Daft questions require daft answers. Yes. Mixed them with water.

I knew somebody would come up with that, and I should have guessed that it would be you.

All the way back on page 3 there was a photograph of a pair of points that were carefully positioned where access from below for point motor installation was non-existant. Just after DCC Concepts introduced their Cobalt-SS I bought a crossover set with the intention of trying them out to see if they would be easy to install and robust enough for me to do it. I didn't actually get round to that at the time, but it has occurred to me that they might be suitable for page 3, even though the control board has a cover over the top.

Now's the time to announce your version!

Shaun, I'm sure there's no complete vehicle available, but you could put an RTI skip body (mentioned by @gordon s above) onto a Base Toys chassis. The latter can be picked up from a well-known online auction site. Depends on how much you want to spend.

Marvellous. You can't see the join.

Definitely green where I lived, Medway Towns.

Slippery characters, these banana vans! Waiting patiently for some close-up shots. I We need to see how well you've done this one!

Absolutely splendid!

WITH AMPLIFIER.

A sound fitted guitar? That's novel.

I think your idea of a baseboard system on top of the worktop will work very well, John. The only thing you will need to access under the baseboard surface is wiring and that will be easy if your hinge system is implemented. You've obviously thought it through, so all I can say is, "Go for it!"

DCC Concepts have been evolving products ever since the beginning. Their MasterSwitches were excellent products and I used them extensively, but they kept improving them, changing the format. This in itself is not a problem, but I was working on long-term projects. My final plan centred around 16 of the final iteration of MasterSwitches, at the same time as they stopped manufacturing them. I know of three layouts that utilise these devices and they are still functioning. I also know of 12 unused MasterSwitches that could be for sale if anybody is interested! In this day and age, where electronics play such an integral part in many modellers' plans, it is essential for manufacturers to incorporate technological advances wherever they can, as long as they're relevant to the modellers' needs. My feeling is that the manufacturers should also pay attention to the modeller who wants to maintain a level of technology that doesn't cost the earth to keep up with, but I do realise that that is going to be increasingly difficult to achieve. Like you said, Ian, it's a rock and hard place situation. I'm off to crawl around under the baseboards. I may be some time . . . . . . . . . . .

Nope!

The solution has been announced! Mick Bryford @newbryford has quite correctly pointed me to the DCC Concepts website where the Advice page quite clearly states that the DCD-AD4 is not suitable for a Cobalt iP series point motor. Silly me for making assumptions or, rather, not thinking about that possibility. I have a DCD-ADfx2 that drives a pair of Cobalt iP Analogue point motors elsewhere on the layout, but had not thought to check out that combination with all my testing done yesterday. All I need to do is remove all the boxes from underneath the layout, make up some new cable and rewire 4 point motors. Simple.

I already had a decoder and it was only the point motor that was faulty. Seemed a logical decision to me. Should have read through the DCC Concepts website before making assumptions.

It states this quite clearly in the "Advice" section of DCC Concepts' website. If only I had thought to check there first. It didn't occur to me that a DCC Concepts decoder would not work with a DCC Concepts point motor. Thanks for pointing this out, Mick. It had to be a simple explanation, didn't it?