S&DWatty

Hi Robert that was exactly as you suspected and an easy 5 min fix! Thank you and Happy New Year! Regards Dave

Cheers Robert, yes its the uncovered end that's unlit. I'll go back and check that the unlit end is correctly connected as its entirely possible that one of the connecting drawbars has a bent pin. Thanks for the help!

Hi all,I picked up one of the TMC bargain 4 BEPs and have chipped it with a 21 pin Lais 6 fn decoder. I'm struggling to get the head and tail lights to work properly. I can get one end only and that is on for both directions of travel. I was wondering if I could adjust the CVs to sort it out? As bought F0 is head/tail and F1 is interior lights. Interior lights work fine and connectivity between vehicles is fine, albeit awkward to rail as others have mentioned. Happy New Year to all.

Looking excellent chaps! I think that this will be another winner of a layout. I'm really looking forward to watching it develop. If it turns out anything like as good as West it'll knock folks socks off......

Here's my penneth worth: Ive got a Hornby 50 and added TTS sound only, detailed the ends and am happy with it. It's silky-smooth runner and sounds good. 2 off Lima ones (large logo and NSE). Ive re-motored, DDC hard wired, detailed the ends and got rid of the ludicrous couplers by using wire over the buffers in my house style. Im happy with all the models and price was a big factor in getting the Lima ones to be honest. They run ok but dont crawl at slow speed like the Hornby one. You get what you pay for and the close-up detail is not so apparent at normal viewing distances and scale 100 mph........

Many thanks Rob. There's a couple of good pointers there for me so Ill work through tem. In particular, Ive noticed that the radial truck appears to be partly sprung by the pick up wires so will see if I can eliminate that. Some of my track is not level and that is probably adding to the issues, but the loco randomly stops on plain, straight, curved......well anywhere really! However, I also note your comment about the rods binding if the body is screwed on too tightly and will have a look more closely at that since I did initially suspect a mechanical issue. Ive already had the "fun" of chipping this model and the attendant factory mis-wiring of the bogie pick-ups. Mine wasnt as bad a some have reported (they have experienced crossed polarity and some wired to the lighting pins....). However, Ive blown one DCC chip in the process and that has had to be replaced. Thanks for the steers- Ill continue to work on the model as it is a nice addition, ran well on DC but the slipping is its major issue on my layout. rgds dave

Hi all, Ive had a quick look through the thread as Im fettling my 0415 currently having experienced all the listed problems above. The sole remaining issue now is pick ups for me. The loco runs ok but randomly stops. I cant work it out as the pick ups seem ok and the wheels/track are clean. It's DCC chipped (no stay alive) and Im running out of ideas. BTW, having attempted the pony truck spring reduction to increase driving wheel adhesion, I gave up for want of breaking any parts and simply added lead to the underside of model between the driving wheels and adhesion is greatly improved. It's a nice model but runs like a dog at the moment. I had similar issues with the M7s and cured them in similar ways more successfully- changed out the washers in the pony trucks reducing their downward force, added weight and fixed the loose NEMs. My 2 M7s run very nicely now and can pull enough for my layout. dave

Thanks for the heads-up everyone. I was going to head down to the shop tomorrow and would have had a wasted journey. I do an on-line order.

That looks to be Albion Farm in the background too with the chicken sheds. Egg production locally was popular. One of my neighbours was involved and said there was a bonus for producing 1 million eggs per year. He missed that bonus 3 times apparently, only getting 950,000 or so....... And mice too.....one of Larry Goddard's books tells of chaotic scenes at Delph station once when mice that had been bred for use in labs got out and ran amok until rounded up again.......

Chris, great looking forward to seeing the layout. Safe trip, see you there. dave

That's great steve thanks- I think this will be a good project for my layout that will add a lot. Ive really noticed the diference with working signals- and the realities brought about by trying to drive to them! Foreshortening on the model means that Ive got only representative home signals but I get plenty of SPADs!

Thanks Steve, that's amazing workmanship as always with your stuff. These Westinghouse ground signals would be just the job for me I reckon. Im wondering whether I could operate them with a wire-in-tube push pull system rather than buying another Megapoints board and servos. I could light them using the fibre optic powered by a bulb off my lighting ringmain. Id certainly be keen to find out more about availability, price etc. cheers dave

Hi Steve, thanks for the response. Mine would be those used on BR(S) region but I think they are fairly generic disc-type signals. I have some non-working ground signals but think it would be a really great enhancement if I could replace them. Thanks for the link- Ill have a look at it later. dave

Just thinking about ground disc signals having now almost completed my semaphore project with Megapoints electronics and servo control which I am very happy with. Is there a manufacturer that is thinking of producing the disc signals in 4mm scale that can be servo controlled? Ive not seen any chat around that topic. I have seen the LED "modern" ground signals that look very nice but are probably too modern for my 1960's- based layout. dave

Im looknig forward to seeing the layout at Derby.