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.

Another "saved by RM Web" moment here. Was retrofitting a Lok v3 to a Bachmann class 25 and initially soldered an 8 Ohm to the decoder. After reading this thread Ive replaced it with a correct 100 Ohm one and all is good!

I quite like Foxunpopuli's sketch and think that it offers quite a bit of operating scope onc ebuilt and loads of scenic scope in a heavily built-up inner city area. The 1:20 gradient might work for industrial short wheelbase locos and a couple of wagons. The engineering for the traverser doesnt look like a "beginner" type of job as it will need to be very accurately built, but the OP doesnt state what he building skill set is, so he might take it on. The passenger workings would need to be very short- maybe a "bubblecar" DMU or 0-6-0 plus suburban coach. It could include a worker's train bringing in folk to the docks area and these could be the 4-wheeled coaches mentioned above..... Some ideas on the plan. Maybe change the station corssover and reverse it as the single platform than has a run-round that will allow slightly longer passenger workings (marginal, but in this space I think worth it). Curving the industrial sidings more towards "south" will increase length marginally and a three-way point at the entrance instead of the Y would give another siding but beware that filling the whole space with track may be counter-productive. I really like the "hockeystick" traverser- engineering caveat above applies. Hope this helps. dave

I got some iphone speakers off eBay and fitted one so the impedence is no longer an issue. Upon testing the sounds worked ok but the motor functions are now working with only a very slow response to deceleration in particular. Strangely, it seems fine on start up but as soon as you play a second twin-track sound the motor response slows so as to make it uncontrollable i.e. it takes 20 seconds to respond to commands. Ill continue testing and have reset the decoder a couple of times using CV8. Ill take RAF96's approach and go through each step very slowly as that might yield a result, otherwise I reckon my excursion into the wrong rated speaker may have caused the chip to partly fail.

Holderness is the area East of Hull (think Hedon). rgds dave

Izzy, yes Ill try that thanks. Thinking back to the fitting process the decoder worked fine with the original speaker attached and I soldered the replacement speaker on because it was rectangular and would fit in the tender of the 3F. It was from a different sound chip so might not be 8 Ohm.....

Ah, just read this thread and will try reading CV151 and resetting CV8 again and hope for the same result as you!

Morning all, here's another problem I noticed following fitting a TTS chip to a Bachmann 3F last week and wondered what the consensus amongst th egroup was on this: I fitted a TTS J36 sound decoder to the 21 pin plug adapted with a 21-6 pin converter in the tender of the 3F, swopped the round speaker for an oblong one and managed to fit it all inside the tender space no problem. Unfortunately, when re-assembled the chip appears to accept the initial input command ok and then just continue, e'g. if you set off in one direction or play a sound the decoder seems to ignore further commands. I seems to reset after pressing Stop on the Dynamis I use for DCC control but then only seems to act on the first commend thereafter as before. Im assuming the replacement speaker isnt doing anything wierd to the chip as it is one from another sound chiop so impedence isnt an issue? Ive tried a CV8 reset and CV151 and CV 152 to see if I can encourage the chip to respond better but to no avail yet. Is it a "return job" to the seller? Any thoughts appreciated as always. dave

I run 2 eras on my layout, early to mid '60s and mid '80s. I was reaching the 40 loco limit and was thinking about how to increase the space available in the roster. As there were several locos that would never have been seen running together due to the historical time differecnes between my chosen periods I have combined loco addresses to give me more room on the roster. Ive manage to create the equivalent of 12 additional slots on the roster now and there's another potential 7 available if I combine more addresses. It neatly avoids running out of space and enables me to run my 2 periods and have more stock! I have also programmed more locos to address 3 as they are occaisional runners or "specials"....

Ive recently hit the 40 limit on the roster so was thinking about ways of working around it. I can use the second handset Ive have and, as long as I remember not to relace the existing roster on start up then I could get 40 more in my "stack". However, as I operate 2 distinct time periods (late steam/diesel transition in UK and 80's banger blue I thought that I could do something a bit cleverer and share decoder addresses in cases where, in real life, locos would not ben seen together. Ive gained 9 roster slots by doing this and can see about 5 more if I want to shre more addresses. Some thought was needed when choosing which 3 chips to share addresses with, but it was relatively straightforward having decided what to do. On the handset, my loco name/number is shown with a space for the shared name/number. It should keep me going and able to add to the fleet for quite a while yet I reckon.......

Ive added small weights to Hornby 5MT, Black 5 and battle of Britain models. On Bachmann 4MT (2-6-4) the leading bogie needed the spring bent to slightly increase the downward force and some weight on it. My track was pretty level when build but has setlled in places and you can see the "undulations". It's an on-going trackwork job to maintian it. Just like the real thing, eh? I agree with the comments above though, facing points are nearly always more problematic, making sure the entrance into and vee is level, free of debris and clean also helps a lot. cheers dave