GP9u

Great stuff as always Prof! F-Unit, in case it helps, you can "roll your own" adjustable dimmer thanks to Loksound's conditional function mapping. First set the Front and Rear light outputs [1] and [2] like the first 2 screen shots below. Set the [1] output to max bright and the [2] to whatever looks like a good dim setting. You have a 31-setting dimmer scale for the [2] outputs this way. Then make F0 directional and add the [2] outputs to the "opposite directions" of the full-bright Front light [1] and Rear light [1] like the below screen shot. Now Front headlight [1] bright will be on in forward, and so will Rear headlight [2] (adjustable dim). And vice-versa when in reverse. By the way, setting zero in the 31 steps is actually on, and I find it best for the dimmest dim, as it were! You could make F0 conditional upon moving or stopped instead/as well if you wanted. Pete

Spooky: I'm at my home "office" handily located under east end staging, and I glanced up to see if this was one that I have also... Pete

I went to Canada! 22 years ago mind you. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an Englishman in possession of a growing O scale roster, must be in want of a basement. Pete

Daniel, A couple of obervations if you don't mind! It looks like you have bare wire in the speaker leads. If those touch while the decoder is live, you will 95% likely blow the decoder's audio amp. The "L" decoders I've used did get warm but not too hot to touch. It's best to mount the decoder up and the adapter board down. Leave some free air space around the decoder. Make sure you insulate the entire underside of the adapter board before mounting it in the loco! What speaker are you using and what is its Ohm rating? If it's between 4 and 16 Ohms that should be fine. Is the Pittman a 8514, or another model? The 8514 can be a current hog so it's really important to make sure the whole driveline turns very freely by hand before running, to minimize the current draw. It may just be the camera angle but could the drive shaft/sprocket/UJ at the top of the tower be askew or touching the weight? OK on to the sound issue. With LS standard settings, F8 "on" is the prime mover startup. F8 "off" is mute when driving or shut down prime mover when stopped. Assuming you knew that already, onwards to diagnosis Which DCC system do you have? Do you have a Lokprogrammer or JMRI DecoderPro? Do you kow which LS sound file is loaded in the decoder? Pete

I think the audience for the articles in MR will be mainly North American HO and then N scale modellers with a smattering of other scales and countries. So for me it would be great if some of those readers took a look at Ow5 or P:48 as a result of Tony's work. The O scale market over here is a bit different I've found. The 3-rail O scale toy and collector market (with some scale equipment) is huge but mostly a separate world. I don't think there would be many 3-railers looking at MR. There's a subset of 3-rail scale modellers who build highly detailed scale layouts but use the 3-rail track they already had, and often the wheels, but most use Kadees instead of lobster claws. Maybe some of them would read MR. One other bit of good news for O scale is that the 2020 O scale convention will be held next door to and at the same time as the NMRA Convention in St. Louis. This is a first, so maybe there's some opportunity for exposure to the broader hobby. Pete

LOL Jason, you're allowed to be a bit grumpy once in a while. After all it's 25 years since you guided me onto the slightly less lonely path of Ow5 in the UK. I think there were about 20 of us back then! ;) I've had so much fun with the hobby over the years, thank you! I am surprised that Tony chose P:48 over Ow5 for a mainstream magazine. And as Jamo said, the scenery is almost laughable compared to what Tony has done in HO over the years. That is disappointing for sure. If he was trying to make O scale seem more user-friendly for beginners surely Ow5 would have been the way to go. But despite all that I do feel it's a Good Thing for the exposure. Here are a few clips from my last ops session which I hope will cheer you up. Yes, it's Ow5, mainly Plywood and Placeholders (still), apart from Mike Culham's paper mill scene, but everyone seemed to have fun! :) https://youtu.be/N6HmOFqHB3o https://youtu.be/gHAy5_C-r-o https://youtu.be/B1bugnQPrPk https://youtu.be/4JlmfJFvT1c Pete

Jamo, To me it's great that Tony is exposing O scale to MR's readership for 4 months in a row, even if the layout doesn't meet the standards of detail that you have achieved with your excellent work. That's a lot of exposure to a potentially new audience for O scale 2 rail and P:48. :) Tony did make the above noted comments for some context: "The average reader will build it using Atlas O track products or even in another scale, so the P:48 aspect is essentially a sidebar to the story. My hope is that it will encourage others who are finding HO getting smaller every day to try their hand at O or maybe even P:48." So I'm just happy to see MR giving that amount of coverage to O scale with the implied endorsement of a modeller who's held in high regard by much of the MR readership. Pete

The MRH magazine's forum is here: https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/recent-posts Here are a few links that have some modern-era content in various scales: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/?board=20.0 Scroll down this blog for links to several modern-era layouts: http://westtorontojunction.blogspot.com/ https://groups.io/g/Proto-Layouts/topics https://lancemindheim.com/model-railroads/ Pete

Here are a few clips of my latest attempts at Alcos in O scale. In the left corner, an Atlas C424 chassis and in the right a (very) used C&LS RS11 that I recently acquired and upgraded to a coreless gearhead motor. Both use Loksound 5 DCC HO and Tang Band TB1931s speakers. Also showing that the new Loksound 5 DCC motor drive almost makes a silk purse out of the sow's ear that is the Atlas Dual motor drive. Turn up your subwoofer! Pete

Hey Jason, how about Veranda Turbine for your grand-daughter! Looking good Daniel! A bit of fine tuning the decoder will smooth out the starting and slow runnng. When you open the trucks you may find some of the original oil and grease has hardened around the worms/axle gears which is an easy fix. As well there's a nose bearing below the worm on the motor shaft which can cause some binding. It can either be reamed out a bit, or tbh I just remove them if too bad. No issues so far... I know reading the MRH article is a PITA but I really do highly recommend not using IPA or other polar solvents. See below extract from the article for why. Pete

Sounds like the best place to start! I recommend reading this article from MRH about the best things to use. I'm not going to start one of those "OMG product X changed my life" threads but I will say try to use things at the lower end of the Dielectric Constant scale. That really has worked for me. https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/mrhpub.com/2019-05-may/online/index.html?page=9 Depending on the age of your GP35, it may have the newer phosphor bronze pickup wipers (good) or the older spring plungers (bad). Plungers is normally a perfectly good option but Atlas chose to run the current path through the flimsy plunger springs and they can melt or loose temper and stop making contact. Once you have the cleaning done best you can and if running still not up to snuff, then I would add a keep-alive to the decoder next, assuming the pickups are working OK. Pete

Great work Daniel! To all the good advice above I would add the following: I have been using Loksound Select HO for many years and recently LS 5DCC HO in Atlas dual-motor drive locos. I have not had one fail in use pulling up to 15 x 1lb cars each on level track with some 36" radius in hidden areas. None draw more than about 1A or slightly over at wheel slip. I add a TCS Keep Alive to all my LS decoders. Again, no issues with any in service. NB: LS has been muttering that this may invalidate their warranty and only their PowerPacks should be used, but so far so good. As well all track is powered, turnouts are DCC friendly with powered frogs and closure and switch rails wired to stock rails. Sadly I find track cleaning is still very important even with all these belts and braces, but worth it for me as sound dropouts, re-starts and flickering LEDs are eliminated in normal operation. By way of encouragement, here are a couple of clips with Atlas dual-motor drives, motors wired in series, LS Select HO and 5DCC HO decoders, TCS KeepAlives and Tang Band speakers: Atlas GP35s with LS Select HO This is an Atlas C424 chassis "virtually" consisted (no physical connection between the locos) to a C&LS RS11 with Maxon gearhead motor upgrade, both LS 5DCC HO And coupled up with the sound on: Looking forward to seeing your layout in operation! Pete

Thank you Jack! You're right John. Unfortunately the founder of Car & Locomotive Shop Henry Bultmann is no longer with us. He created and imported some exquisite steam and Diesel locos during his all too short career in O scale, but these days they are harder to find. The speaker will end up being mounted in the long hood, it just fits. The Pennsy paint wasn't factory and will go, as I don't think it's correct anyway. It's numbered 8620 which I think was a high-nose RS11. It'll be patched for my modern-era shortline for now, maybe repainted later. The motor control is pretty good considering the motor and gear ratio. I'm waiting for my first Loksound V5 to arrive and then I think the sound quality and motor control will be even better! I may put a smaller coreless gearhead motor in there to make the speaker easier to fit. The ProtoThrottle is amazing! It has added more realism to the model engineer's role in ops sessions than anything since DCC imho. It makes "super-detailing" the locomotive sounds worthwhile. Fun!! Pete

Thanks Covkid! Yes, O scale. It's the chassis of a Car and Locomotive Shop Alco RS11, one of the finest brass O scale Diesels made imho. It has the original Pittman motor but it's a custom 24V unit and draws only 1.2A stalled. The low stall current means an HO sound decoder can safely be used. In this case a Loksound Select with a TCS KA2 Keep-Alive. The sound file is 75414. Not exactly right for this loco but close, and such a nice recording. This leaves room (just!) for a Tang Band 1931s speaker which has FO of 105Hz thanks to its passive radiator. Should sound even better when the Loksound V5s arrive. I hope this is helpful. I'll be happy to share more details if of interest, but don't want to go too far off topic in this thread. Here are a couple of pics showing the level of detail on these beautiful locos: I seem to be addicted to them! Pete

Here's one I'm working on: Pete

Well now Basil, the excellent St. Jacobs and Aberfoyle is 10 minutes from my house. So if you do visit there, you'll pretty much have to come by here for an ops session! . Pete

Good spotting! The cab of 3012 does seem a darker orange in the 2014/2105 pics here, but looks to be the lighter shade matching the long hood in 2012 and earlier pics: http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?road_number=HCRY%203012

Here are a few pics that might help. Scroll about 1/3rd of the way down on the CRO (1st) link and you'll see how the orange changes under paint shop lights and in daylight. I wouldn't worry about a bit of variation. And bear in mind that the sun fades paint faster even in southern Ontario at 44-45 deg N compared to the UK. https://canadianrailwayobservations.com/RESTRICTED/2014/January/shortlines.php https://www.flickr.com/photos/132395721@N08/33671455265 http://www.railpictures.ca/upload/it-is-a-muggy-morning-this-1st-of-september-2015-as-gexr-432-prepares-to-depart-kitchener-for-cns-macmillan-yard-in-vaughan-today-was-the-first-time-i-saw-the-second-of-the-two-gatx-blue-and-white Pete

Hi Basil, You're welcome! If you do decide you want some railfan action en route, you could get off a VIA train at Kitchener, Woodstock or Ingersoll and I could bring you to a few local spots for OSR and GEXR. Chris (dibber25) and I had a fun day doing that when he was over 3 years ago, thanks to OSR webmaster and railfan Walter Pfefferle. LMK nearer the time if of interest and I'll see what I can rustle up. Pete

The trouble with even Southern Ontario is it's big. Really big. But if you happen to fly into Pearson, there are a few places worth a look en route to Windsor if you have a car. You'd need one or two overnights to make your way down to Windsor for sure. If you like class 1 action you can check out CP and CN around the GTA. CP at Guelph Junction, CN at Paris and both at Bayview Junction are kind of en route. If you like shortline action, a bit further west you could check out GEXR (some about to be handed back to CN) and OSR around Kitchener-Waterloo, Salford, Stratford, maybe even Goderich if you have the time/stamina. Also there's rumoured to be a half-decent O scale modern shortline layout in Waterloo (actually it's in my basement) that you'd be welcome to operate if of interest*. * Assuming it's not 1st week of May as I'll be in England for a wedding. If passenger trains are your thing, you will see VIA all the way, and GO Transit out to KW. Somewhat sparse compared to UK action though! I'm not so up on Windsor but there are the tunnels to Detroit plus CP, CN, ETR and VIA. Here's an idea of what you might see in Windsor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmBWgq4Mt9M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSkXEL4dT78 HTH, Pete

Maybe you could use a simplified version of the highly effective photo-based interiors as seen on the A&O: http://forum.aorailroad.com/t/mount-union-development-commitee/575/25 (see latest posts) You could perhaps just use a suitable photo flat across the interior for now, and come back later with more 3D content if you have the time and inclination. Pete

Thanks very much Ian. I had tried that but got too clever and pasted the embed code instead of just the URL.

My ProtoThrottles made it to Canada. Bit of a game-changer for me. FUN!! My setup: O Scale, Digitrax, LNWI, Loksound Select. Turn up the volume to get the benefit of Tang Band speakers! First up is engine start, lights, bell, horn. Notch 1 is "sound of load increase and creep forward" but no notch sound increase. This is an Advanced Consist on Digitrax with a 2-digit address. The lead unit is 2771 and it's facing backwards, so when you set the reverser in 2771's cab to forward the consist actually moves backwards. Then when you set 2771's reverser to "reverse" the consist moves forward. AUX button can be used to swap this when you move to the cab of 1541 for the return trip (see following video). Now I need a little lie down to get my head around all of that... [media]https://youtu.be/PU_71i9BohA[/media] Next up is the "Reverser swap" using the AUX button, which is based on Joe Atkinson's great concept for use with 2-digit-addressed Advanced Consists. This enables the controls to work realistically as if in the trailing unit's cab when the engineer swaps units for the return trip, I went a bit beyond the Full Mindheim in this one to illustrate the point. Not recommended at ops sessions... [media]https://youtu.be/Z6BxvId3GEI[/media] Lastly, with the AUX button engaged and the engineer safely ensconced in TRAILing 1541, he can operate the lights, bell, horn of 1514 and the reverser is correctly oriented. [media]https://youtu.be/JypMZvkzXZs[/media] So, as you can see, knowing which control on the PT to use next is not instinctive yet for me, and I know I'll get fired for forgetting to set the brakes half the time. But I'm having more fun with my layout than I have in a long time! There's also some adrenaline involved as each of these locos weighs about 5-6lbs and I haven't operated with CV4 set to 255 before. Fortunately the PT pulsed braking seems to have a very consistent feel. Pete P.S. If anyone knows how to embed videos... I did try but I'm obviously too old to figure it out.

Very nice job! Rather than spend time on making your speaker enclosure, could I be so bold as to recommend these: https://www.parts-express.com/tang-band-t1-1925s-speaker-module-2-1-2-x-1-1-8--264-944 I promise you will be gobsmacked at the sound quality, especially the almost extra octave of bass. They also offer one smaller unit and several larger ones depending on what you can fit in. All seem to work very well with Loksound decoders. I'm in Canada these days so Parts Express works as a souce. Hopefully there's a way to get them in the UK. Cheers, Pete

Nicely done! I think you've maxed out the number of cars that can be switched per train with this revision. But the trade-off was losing a bit of "main line" between yard and town. So maybe some fine adjustment suggestions: If you set a max train length of 10 cars, you could adjust the run around track accordingly. Perhaps shorten a bit at the right hand end to allow 2 GPs (not sure what era?) instead of just one switcher. Or, if there's still more than 10 cars space in the run around, you could bring the left end switch in a bit to the right to add back a little to the "main line" run. Down at the yard, you could add a loco release off the middle spur to the back one (against the wall). That way the returning loco(s) can get back around the train to switch the yard. And if you feel like you need an excuse for more engines you could add a loco service track off the back track into the corner, bit like you had on V1.0. So now when a train comes back to the yard, the power can escape onto the back track and swap with the second set that was sitting at the service track. You'd have ~10 cars on the inside track for the next train. ~10 cars would come back on the current train into the middle track, and the back track would be mostly empty, used for the locos to escape and to come and go from the service track. Then you'd switch the yard between middle and inside tracks, and you could block the cuts for the town spots before leaving. If you wanted more variety of cars, maybe a shelf above the yard for another 10 or 20 which you could manually swap out between sessions. However, please note that these are the ramblings of a switching obsessive so take them with a carload of salt... Pete