Yardman

snip the wires to isolate the frog and wire as shown here.

http://a19modelrailwayclub.org/tonys-dcc-workshop/simple-pointwork-wiring-for-dcc/

1 hour ago, Ray H said:

 

Does anyone know if there is something similar for the NCE systems? Our club has a large O gauge layout and the facility to have a few red buttons around the layout would be useful. 

The NCE system has an emergency stop button on the Pro and Power Cabs. Press once to stop your loco or three times to stop the whole layout.

2 hours ago, The Fatadder said:

I do have access to one (and have used it’s output for the road on my other layout).  But I have read in a few places about acid content in the ash playing havoc with the electrics.  Something I am less than keen on.

 

I had seen that, but from what I’ve seen it looks very dark.

 

 

This is what I am aiming for: (extracted for purposes of research from eBay photos)

Ash ballast is very Dark are you sure  what you are looking at is not just dirty granite? Be careful of colours in any photo, too many variables to be accurate. Most North eastern branch lines used Ash ballast. I picked up Samples from the Rothbury Branch, it was definitely Ash. The picture below is Woodland scenics ash ballast.

Woodland scenics do ash ballast.

I used to use a pulse magnetiser in industry. It was for magnetising electrical instruments and relays. I don't know the spec. but it was floor standing the size of a large fridge and must have weighed at least 500lbs. It contained a large bank of capacitors and their charging system  and the magnetising coil was about 10" in diameter and 8" tall. So all in all I suspect the circuit shown will not cut it. Also the motor for magnetising needs to be assembled with its pole pieces for magnetising.

18 hours ago, johnarcher said:

What structure is it on? I can't see obvious joins, is the backscene in a single 14ft piece?

The visible part of the layout is on two baseboards. The photo backscenes are mounted to 6mm ply. Each board having a back and one end. The two baseboards are bolted together to form a box for transportation to exhibitions. The whole layout fits in the back of a large SUV. When set up for operation the backscene's also support the layout lighting. This is computer controlled and does a 24hr sequence on a fast clock.

The photo's were printed in two sections, each section some seven and a half feet long. This was done for ease of handling as much as anything. If you look carefully you can see the baseboard joint in the photograph near the peak of the mountain. I have attached another two photos taken from the other end. More photos appear in the BRM Gallery https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/album/3980-alwinton/ and on our club website. http://a19modelrailwayclub.org/layouts/alwinton/

A factory I worked at in the 60's received a couple of 21ton hoppers of coal per week. There were below track bunkers close to the boiler house. these were covered with metal grids to prevent anyone falling in. During the winter the coal loads were often frozen into the wagons so they were parked next to the boiler house so the heat escaping would thaw them out. Simple and effective and easy to model.

17 hours ago, Mick Bonwick said:

 

Was it sealed or fixed? Hard to tell from the photograph.

The image was stitched together in photoshop from five images. It was printed in two sections (total length is over 14 ft) then sprayed with Phoenix matt varnish using a large nozzle air brush after allowing 24hrs for the inks to fully dry. It was mounted to the backboards using permanent Photomount.

Here's one I made earlier.

I find servo operation best for signals as ou can adjust speed and travel to suit. This is a similar signal made from MSE components. it is upper quadrant, but the principal is the same. The servo mechanisms (on another signal) are shown in the other photo.They are driven using MERG circuits, interlocking by JMRI,

9 hours ago, NittenDormer said:

I quite fancy giving this a go, can you explain the circuitry? And if battery powered, how do you access for turning on/off?

 

For a start mine aren't battery powered, it's harder to find space for a battery and switch, multiple LED's do start to draw a bit of power. Mine are DCC powered operated by function only decoders, the coaches operate in sets so I can turn all the lights in a set on or off with a single command. The accompanying picture should explain it. I use small SMD (Surface Mount Device) LED's Usually one to a compartment, wired in series sets of three with a current limiting resistor. The picture shows a DMU power car which only required three LED's and one resistor. Marker lights and route indicators required others. This was all driven from the loco sound decoder. The trailer car is similar, but used a Function only decoder with pickups on both bogies. Remember LED's are polarity conscious so install them the right way round.

One thing to note. The coach interiors need to be painted to prevent light leaking through the plastic. I give mine a coat of black then a coat of an appropriate interior colour. The interior colour has a bearing on the light colour so experiment. I use “Warm White” which I think most represents incandescent lamps. “White” looks more like modern strip lights and “Yellow” more like oil or gas lamps.

2 hours ago, JohnR said:

Does anyone have any feedback on the best coach lighting to go for? I'm looking for something that has that combination of quality and low price! Ideally with a battery, rather than being track powered. Ease of installation too is a consideration. Seems you can pay anywhere from £3 to £23 for a single coach.

 

Does anyone have any recommendations? 

Yes Make your own, its not that difficult and much better and cheaper. Here's some I did earlier.

Make your own. Here's one I did earlier.

As regards uncoupling KD's, I use servos. In my case operated via MERG circuit boards and JMRI software from a touch screen. You just need a couple of small sections of ply and a hinge as can be seen in the photo. A much cheaper alternative to Rapido or electromagnets, especially if operating signals and points by the same system. The magnet does not have to be dropped very far to disable it. You need to decide where the magnets need to be before laying the track, but this is all part of the design process. A thin piece of card covers the hole to prevent ballast falling through the hole. Incidently the problem with British short wagons and KD's is the steel weight in the wagon floor interferes with the uncoupling operation pulling the wagon towards the magnet especially if the wagons are free rolling. It is NOT the steel axles. I find suitable “weeds” planted in the four foot help produce enough drag in this respect or replace the steel weight with Lead or other non magnetic material. The advantage with KD's is you usually only need one uncoupler for a fan of sidings.

Decoder and speaker fit easily in the tender, however a Britannia hooter sounds nothing like a B1. Here's one I did earlier. This one has a Loksound decoder. Sorry I don't have any installation photos.

A motorised Oxford LWB Landrover operating from a modified Lowfit.

2 hours ago, Down_Under said:

 

Does any one want to hazard a guess at the wagos origin?

 

2 planks, with removable ends

wooden underframe

spoked wheels

1907 RCH type brake gear 

 

Some sort of pregrouping carriage  wagon?

The wagon is most likely North Eastern or North British in origin and looks like a drop side rather than drop end vehicle. It would make loading a Landrover interesting, but knowing the ingenuity of NCB staff not impossible. The question is why is it on the wagon at all? All parts of the Harton System where accessible by road and it certainly would not have come via BR on a wagon like that.

1 hour ago, Down_Under said:

 

Very nice! What did you use to motorise the Land Rover with?

It's an Oxford Long Wheelbase Landrover. I used  a German RC VW bus for power. It needed a lot of modifications  as the wheelbase was wrong, wheel size was changed and components on the circuit board had to be moved to fit under the bonnet. New LED's for front and rear lights were fitted to the Oxford body with Fibre Optics for the lights. A lot of alterations were made to the Oxford shell to get everthing to fit. I also had to fit drop ends to a Lowfit.

Heres one I made earlier.

Best thing with KD's is to cut off the NEM boxes and fit either No. 5's or 148's to the floor. NEM's are a pain, too much slop in the box. None of the NEM KD 17/18/19/20 NEM's work as well as proper KD's.

Most likely Bauxite paint was all they had available at the time a repair was made. from early 60's all stock was to be painted bauxite irrespective of whether it was fitted or not. However this proved unworkable as it was no longer easy to differentiate between fitted and unfitted stock and bauxite painted unfitted stock got put in fitted trains. So unfitted stock reverted to be painted grey, but not before many bauxite painted examples had escaped. This was just into the TOPS era so lettering was not usually the same as on the van shown.

It should be noted the paint colours were not the same shade as used previously, but as with most things on British Railways this was not always the case at some depots. It depended on how much old paint they had in stock.

I had working radiator fans on a Deltic I built over 50 years ago. they were run  from a Triang x500 motor supplied from a rechargeable battery.

Download JMRI Decoder pro and re-map your function keys to do what you want. It's not difficult. Always be careful doing a decoder reset with a sound decoder. You will not loose the sounds, but you can loose how the sounds respond to the motor.

Not a Bachmann, but a Hornby with red and white LEDs in six positions on a Loksound V4.

Here's one I did earlier. See our website for video. http://a19modelrailwayclub.org/layouts/los-karr-quays/

Try this.

https://www.google.com/search?q=grass+grid&client=firefox-b-d&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=ifqx1rhNiHMJEM%3A%2CVTQ6uwHnGEV3LM%2C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kSnsO4az3iZ92lZX2yJU1bMvE6GKg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiI47ff0MXjAhV8QRUIHXDHDxwQ9QEwAHoECAkQBg#imgrc=ifqx1rhNiHMJEM: