richard w

I use 50W soldering iron. Trick is to use some flux to minimise the amount of time the iron has to contact the led.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Started another project today. Bought 21 Hornby Railroad HAA hoppers. Great price at only £19 for 3 of them. They need a repaint and some extra detail so my desk will be like this for the next week or so.

Had a bit of fun making an 80s BR style video of the station over the weekend. It's only short, but its probably one of my best videos so far.

I've continued working on the station and have got it back on the layout. Getting everything sitting right wasn't easy and took quite a while, but I've managed to get the station sitting right on the platforms and town scene. All the lights are wired up and I'm very impressed with how well they have turned out. I also made some extra pieces of platform that run under the town scene to create the effect of the station continuing underground. This looks much better than the temp pieces of wall I used to have in their place. Some extra detail is still needed in places, but its mostly finished. Everything is still removable if needed but its not easy so hopefully this is the final time the platforms will come out. Really pleased with the below pics, its like my camera was sent back to 1989!

Today I decided to hit the station hard and get it finished. Its only been on the go for about 4 years! Feels really good to get the thing mostly complete.

Decided I wasn't happy with the 3mm leds. So I've swapped them out for smd ones and the difference is huge. Light spread is much better now and they actually look scale rather than the somewhat oversize 3mm leds.

Back on topic I've taken some pics of the station platforms. I've still got some stuff to add such as benches and bins. I'm also thinking of changing the leds for some surface mount types. I've got 3mm leds in there at the moment as thats what I had to hand at the time.

No worries. You can usually find out on a laptop by right clicking my computer > manage > device manager > network adapters. Your adapter should be listed under that and have in it something like 802.11a/b/g/n. If you only see a/b/g then your card is not N. With an N capable card wifi speeds should be better, but its unlikely you'll get the full 150 over wifi. A number of other factors play a part in how fast it will be. On a wifi connection I'm getting about 90mbps.

What sort of device are you using on the wifi? If it doesn't have a wireless N network card you will experience a max download speed of around 40 to 50 Mbps. Devices with wireless N network cards support up to 300 Mbps.

Excellent job Dave. Everything on the new townscene works very well. Looking forward to seeing the supermarket go in. Cheers

Hi Dave Its takes about 30 - 40 mins to upload and process my videos. Biggest factor is the upload speed which will determine how long it takes to upload the video to YouTube. Then after that YouTube has to process the video before you can watch it in a decent resolution. Sometimes the processing can take ages if YouTube is really busy. Fortunately I have a good ISP so my upload is quite fast. Hope that helps.

Nice work Terry. The revised position of the Turners warehouse looks good. Standing at the end of a real platform you'd be more likely to see a warehouse rather than a large concrete plant. Cheers

I'd probably buy a rake and would be pleased to see the 91 get the tooling it deserves in model form. I've never even considered buying a 91 because of the spec of the current model. I think its likely that this will happen after some more widespread electrics have been tooled to prove the market for AC is really there and here to stay. Biggest problem for manufacturers is the cost of doing it. If a 91 does happen I think its far more likely to be sold as a pack of 91 + DVT. The Mk4s will probably just get a lick of paint. When Hornby retooled the HST the mk3s didn't get a retool.. Biggest problem for buyers (including myself) is the current lack of decent RTR catenary. As for who does it I don't mind as long as they do a decent job. Hornby have proved in the past that they can do it with the 60, but more recent efforts have also shown that perhaps they can't do it anymore...

It varied, but I think most were about 100mm x 50mm.

For those who haven't seen the vid on the yard lights you can find it below. Some of the shots at the end came out very well so I'll be taking some pics to put on here when I get the chance. Cheers

Height is an issue for me to. I had previously looked at some very tall lights which looked fantastic, but I think they would dominate the area. These berko ones are a nice height. Even so I'm sure I'll manage to knock one over at some point.

Thanks for spotting that. Serves me right for rushing it back together late at night!

For the money I think the seeps are good. The switches in mine all still work and I've had them installed for about 4 years now. The key is to get them lined up perfectly when they are installed. If you can afford it go with Tortoise, they are better and have the nice slow speed operation. They are over 3 times the price of seeps though. The cobalt motors offer the same stuff as tortoise but opinion seems divided on those. Thanks

I've made some more progress with the 04. The engine is now fixed to a plasticard chassis which also holds the wheels and connecting rods from the original chassis block. I've also added some paint to the body and engine. Engine compartment doors are next on the list.

Been rather cold recently so I've turned my attention to projects I can work on away from the loft. I saw a video recently where a class 08 was cut open and fitted with a plastic diesel engine as if it was having an engine swap. I have an old Bachmann 04 that could do with something similar. So i've been working on turning it into an out of service example to be left at the end of a siding somewhere. The 04 has a gardner 8l3 engine. Below is my attempt at making an engine which looks roughly similar to the gardner 8l3. Its not finished yet, but so far I think it will do the job. The 04 has had its grills removed and will later have them fitted back on in the open position. A repaint and a touch of rust should make for an interesting scene.

Good to see the layout again Terry. Looks like 47715 might need a trip to Loughborough though, appears to have had a bird strike! Look forward to seeing more. Cheers

I've finished filming the signalling video and got the first gantry installed. Its needs more painting, but I'm amazed at how much it lifts the surrounding area. Looks much more interesting than before. The video tutorial can be found here. It is quite long so I will be doing a thread on here which covers all the details. Cheers