AyJay

I am trying to do a clear out of stuff not wanted and this includes a number of Metcalfe houses , assembled, that are just taking up space. is this something that would generate any interest, eg Facebook marketplace, or would there be no demand and I should just bin them and not waste my time?

I have to agree with a couple of others and say that I too do not feel that I should answer this one. In various guises, I regularly see these random questions on social media platforms: “How many cars have you got”, “How big is your house” and so on. It’s probably businesses touting for a lead, but being a suspicious g1t, I wonder if there is an element of someone harvesting data about you to sell on (remember, you are a product to be traded). There could also be more nefarious intent.

Well there's some interesting options. I am in favour of the alternative exit option, so have just done some measuring. I think that by slightly reworking the right end of the lowest existing 'road', I can put a 'large Y' point just right of the water tower, the opposite end to connect to the turntable. This will give me space for an additional 4 locomotives. Since I have already got some lengths of code 75 rail and a few spare cobalt levers, the only cost will be an additional point and cobalt point motor at £40, or £10 per loco. An additional line at the turntable's 2-o'clock position? Yes that should work, and its effectively for free :-) Thank you for that Stephen. As for the retaining wall, I have plenty of brick paper from scale model scenery and so can build a fairly rugged wall that I can fix into the board with some thick coffee stirrers I have, for support. Well now all I have to do is just wait until the next exhibition.

When I designed my layout, I allowed plenty of space for locomotives, but now I have more locomotives than I have space for in my engine yard and I am considering laying an additional siding, as shown by the bottom track in this photograph. The entrance to the engine yard is over points to the right (off picture). But the entrance to this new length will be via the turntable. This solution means that I don’t have the expense of a point and motor; it also means that I don’t lose a locomotive space for the point. This proposed solution will give me space for 4 or 5 locomotives; I will also have to put in a retaining wall on the edge to prevent accidents. But would this be prototypical / sensible? Thoughts please

Well I can certainly agree with everything that has been said here, although you're preaching to the converted folks. I just need to 'educate' The Wife. In a bizarre sort of way, it has done me a favour in that it prodded me to do something that I had been putting off. A lot of my passwords were far too short and I had a couple of duplicates. I have spent about a day going through them all and changing just about everything that matters. They are all very long now, and unique. So now I can relax, comfortable knowing that nobody's going to: submit postings on this website, shop at Eileens Emporium, mess about in the facebook account, play with my money, see my medical records, redirect my mail or order ABBA tickets at my expense. Phew! Incidentally. Just after we had this fiasco with the Driving Licence, my personal Computer started playing up and I was beginning to wonder if a virus had infected it. Well I checked out the symptoms and the response was that it was probably the video card on the blink, check for dust. So I took the computer down to the shed and opened it up. Absolutely full of dust! So it got a good cleanout and now it works just fine. No virus. I gave the Hi -Fi amp the same treatment too, the power transistors will thank me for it.

You have probably all heard about this in the media. Well it happened to us this week and I would like to get past the embarrassment, come out and share what happened, so that I can save someone else from falling into this trap. As part of my work, I have regular training in identifying scams. I think I'm pretty good at spotting them, but I don't think that I would have spotted this one. On Monday, my wife went to renew her Driving Licence and she used her phone to do it. I was in another room, at work when I heard her anguished cry. Piecing together the exact events from what she said and what I reproduced on my computer, this is what happened. My Wife's usual way to access a website on her phone is to go to the search engine, Google, type in what she wants, then click on the option that it returns. She says that she DID click on the option that said 'RENEW YOUR DRIVING LICENCE - GOV.UK' and that this took her to the government website. Once on the Government website, she navigated the options to renewing driving licences and clicked the big green 'Start now' button, which took her to the DVLA website. Once there, she filled in all the questions, gave payment details and clicked the 'Submit' button. The next thing that happened was she received a notification saying that £95 was being debited from her account. The first thing we did was to contact our bank and try to stop the payment. They froze the account and said they would issue a new card. Then I questioned her closely about what happened and even reproduced her steps on my computer, up to the point that she was on the bogus site. At no point was there any text on the website saying that this was unofficial or a 3rd party. There was nothing saying what the charge would be. Then we went down the path of getting on the phone to 'ActionFraud', and a long, uncomfortable, sorry tale of how we had been scammed. I then decided to do an internet search on this scam; this led me to the website of 'Trustpilot', where I read the awful sorry saga of how countless other people have fallen for this very trick for the past couple of years. Further informed, I then decided to search for this third party trader under their own name. Well I easily found the website and I did some exploring. It looks a very well presented and professional website. On it, I found a link to a page that laid out their refund policy. "You must apply for a refund within 24 hours" it said. So I clicked the 'Apply for refund' button. This presented me with a page where there were boxes to enter name, address and telephone number. I filled in details and it looked odd that there were more address lines than would be needed and as I started typing, they all lit up with "This must be filled in" messages. Several times I tried to fill this in, and each time I pressed the 'Submit' button, I got back a message saying "There is a problem, try again later". Then I realised that this was not meant to work! I continued to look round the website, all sorts of comforting words like "We are with you for all your licencing needs" and "Our operators are happy to help, just send us a message". So I tried their 'Enquiries" option. Why did it not surprise me that this option also had a problem and that I should try later? So I looked on Companies House. Well that's interesting! This company has moved address six times in the past two years and has had a change of name. So this is what I could piece together. This is a genuine company and their website does say that they are a 3rd party and it does give their prices. But... I believe that they have managed to misdirect off the genuine site and onto theirs, where they have set up a clone i.e. they are deliberately misrepresenting. By being a genuine company, they are cleverly staying within the law and thus not coming within the definition of fraud. This is so that they cannot be touched by the Police and your Bank cannot uphold a request to dispute the transaction. Where this sorry tale started was with what many of you would no doubt do. Call it complacency, or laziness; with a computer and more so with a phone, the obvious way to find a website is to put your search term into your chosen search engine and then click the presented link. By all means find what you want on Google or Bing. But instead of clicking it, make a note of the web address, that's the 'www.rmweb.co.uk' bit and type that into your address line, or search box, in the case of a phone. Three days later. We have been onto the Bank again, money gone, nothing they can do. I have submitted a complaint to Trading Standards via the Citizens Advice Bureau. I have also sent a strongly worded letter to our MP, pointing out that this rogue has successfully hijacked countless people off the Government website, and since we all have to interact with the Government, this creates serious trust implications. Lastly, I have also submitted full accounts to BBC 'Rogue Traders' and 'Rip Off Britain'. Please don't fall foul of this nasty low life. If you need to renew your Driving Licence, then it would be best if you go and do it in the Post Office.

I would like to add my particular grumpy rant into this general despair of modern life. Last week, I had to ring our Council to try and sort out a problem with not receiving our £150 energy rebate. It’s all my fault, I play the bank switching game. Having rung them, I was first given a 90s recording, then the press button x options. I chose the best fit and this led to the second level of options, then the third, then the fourth. Finally, I was met with a recording of something that was nowhere near my query, it referred me to the council website, then it hung up! I tried this several times, choosing different options, all with the same result, before I finally found the route to a real person. After 53 mins of being subjected to appalling distorted Muzak and constantly hearing “your call is important to us”, someone finally picked up the phone. Well we are still waiting for a resolution. I did send an email to this person, thanking her for her efforts and asking that she forward my criticism of theCouncils telephone system. I politely pointed out that it was not fit for purpose because it was unreasonable to expect someone to waste an hour of their time and run up a big phone bill that they could not afford in this time of financial hardship. The least they could do would be to offer a ring back service. She replied that she would forward my comments.

Another thought has come to mind with regards large layouts, although also applicable to normal domestic sized layouts. Last w/e I went to visit a good friend and see his layout under construction; must be 20ft long by 10ft wide, constructed of thick ply on softwood battens, in one piece and filling the top floor of a townhouse. There are all sorts of reasons why you have to move a layout. I would limit the largest side to 1m (or a diagonal of 1.2m) and watch the weight, because if you cannot carry it around the house, through doors and down stairs, unaided, then it’s too big.

I think I solved it! Dug out a pin punch and laid the locomotive on something soft & clean. Checked the back to back with a vernier gauge between each hammer blow. The spacing is now 14.5 to 14.6mm; also did the pony wheels. Next , after the problem was still stubbornly there, I examined underneath with a magnifier and could see the wheels pulling clear of the contacts. So I took the base off and removed the copper contact strips. Cleaned them and used a pair of plyers to emphasise the desired deflection. Put it all back together and with the locomotive on the track with an insulation under one set of wheels, checked the continuity from rail to the terminals on the tender coupling. Lastly, I turned my attention to the tender. Pulled it apart, Adjusted the back to back on the tender wheels. Cleaned and adjusted the contact strips. Quick continuity check and put back together. There was a lot of 'gunge' on the tender contacts. Ran complete locomotive, starting at the lowest speed setting; ran smoothly. Gradually increased the speed each circuit until it was racing. Lastly, I ran it at slow speed, forwards and backwards over my engine yard, to catch as many points as possible. Job done. Thank you for your suggestions all. Hope I don't have to do this every week, I have many locomotives.

This is rapidly turning into a not a DCC issue, so apologies and I'm happy if admin wishes to move it. I think that you might have something Dungrange, thank you. I have just run all locomotives over the same stretch of track, with no problems. Then I ran the troublesome Clan Line and it very soon stalled on a point. Remembering what was said, I checked the back to back on the driving wheels, it was 13.8mm. Then compared with a more recent locomotive, 14.4mm. So, my next question is, how do I safely adjust this? Never attempted it before.

Worth considering tariff, I’ll give it a look. Clan line has a 2 wire connection, a central pin and conductive base. But think I eliminated that as a possibility by running loco without tender. I am wondering if I could have disturbed the driving wheel pickups when I cleaned and lubed it. Well I’ll look tomorrow.

Thanks for the support gents. When I get a few hours, hopefully tomorrow, I am going to run each of my locos for an extended period over the points in question, just to see if it really is just the one locomotive. Meanwhile, I have been taking a look at the instructions for the PSX3. According to the default lack of current set jumpers, the triggering threshold should be set to 3.81A. That should be enough for all normal loads plus a bit. But a thought occurred to me. If there is a momentary break in continuity as the loco goes over a point, could that cause a transient voltage spike on the dcc bus? Could this trigger the PSX3? I guess that is a question for DCC Concepts or DCC Specialities. If it is this, then the obvious remedy is to add the correct jumpers that puts the threshold up to the next setting, 6.35A. As for Clan Line, this will be pre-dcc enabled, seem to remember that I had to solder in the decoder connections. I guess it is possible that a wire got trapped somewhere, I know that I did have to shoehorn a few in. Not exactly generous on space inside.

Hi Andy, a thought that I have been mulling over, should I ever decide to build another is this: build all the track on an elevated track bed, with all the off-track areas built onto easily detachable cassettes that just slot into place. That way, you are able to start running something early in the project and all your scenically can be done off-layout, so the track is not contaminated by mess and you are working in comfort, not getting a sore back leaning across the layout. Just a thought.

I went and attacked my trees, pulling the foliage mat about to make it thinner. This had the bonus of being able to remove about 50% off each tree, giving me the material to complete another. The end result got the seal of approval over here. I have also learned that the piece of armature below ground needs to be longer, to anchor the tree more firmly. Thank you for your input all.

Thank you. I am particularly impressed by the rockface in the first picture.

Good morning. I’m hoping that by sharing this problem, perhaps someone can shed light on something that I’m missing. Two days ago, whilst giving a demo to my grandson, my layout started misbehaving in a strange way. I had several locomotives on the track, two were running, all those with sound chips were on. Nothing unusual, done it plenty of times before. Then everything cut out and restarted a moment later; this happened several times. The following day I explored the problem further. I narrowed it down to the locomotive Clan Line, released by Hornby circa 2000; whilst on an extended run it would intermittently ‘stall’ on a couple of my points. By that I mean come to a stop and then a couple of seconds later, start up again. Anything else running would also stop. By watching the PSX3 Powershield circuit breaker by DCC Specialities, I saw that what was happening was that an overload, or short circuit, was happening and the circuit breaker was cutting in as it should do. So the next question is why? I examined the track by eyeball and multimeter, I could find nothing amiss with the points. No evidence of shorts or open circuits. I also gently ran a brush around, in case there might be some detritus fouling the frogs or blades. As you have surmised, my layout is DCC and several locos have sound chips. The track is all Peco, OO gauge finescale. The points are all Electrofrog and they are all fitted as per instructions with the connecting links cut and the frogs wired through the common ‘switched’ connection on the applicable Cobalt iP point motor. The DCC output from the NCE controller circuit board, passes through the PSX3 before going to the track bus. There is a separate bus from the NCE controller for the point motors, operated via Cobalt point levers and monitored on Cobalt Alpha mimics, this does not go through the PSX3. The mains plug-in power supply has been upgraded to handle the additional load. At first, I suspected the power connecting link between Clan Line and its tender. I noticed that it appeared to be sagging. As the locomotive goes over a point, could the movement cause the connections to short together? Well I adjusted the contact and then ran the locomotive on its own, without the tender. The problem was still there. The only thing that I could see wrong with the locomotive was that the speedo cable on one wheel was broken; but it’s probably been like that for ages and there’s nothing for the ends to foul with. Over the last week, I had given all my locomotives a wheel clean and axle lube. So if it’s the track, why does it only happen to this locomotive? If it’s the locomotive, why does it only happen intermittently and only when it’s going over a point? If it’s the control electronics, why has it behaved faultlessly for ages? I know that the cut-out threshold on the PSX3 can be adjusted with connecting links, but I have regularly run with everything on the track for maximum load conditions and it has not misbehaved in the year that I have had it. Can anyone offer any suggestions? I am totally bemused by this. Thank you

Well I have tried to interpret what was in the book as best as I could and here it is, foliage blanket covered in scatter material. I thought it looked quite good until The Mrs saw it and said “Looks nothing like a real tree. It looks like a cotton-wool ball on a stick”. She’s right, they do.

I absolutely loved reading through this thread and pleased to hear of so many characters finding their way into the thread. Will ‘Piss Harry’ be having a tanker wagon on the railway? Probably my favourites were ‘Going Postal’, ‘Monsterous Regiment’ and ‘Making Money’. Favourite character, Twoflower. Is ‘The Luggage’ anywhere? I won’t be involving myself in any societies or reunions, got luggage of my own, but the plays I have seen were enjoyable.

This sort of problem is not confined to the model railway. Books, stamps, 12” vinyl, t-shirts bought at concerts. The list is endless. Only a few weeks back I hauled a load of Clive Cussler books to the charity shop. I’d like to live minimalist, but it’s too easy to let the clutter build up. Every so often I do a purge on a theme, it feels very cleansing. Try asking yourself this, if the house burned down and nothing survived (people, pets, photos, documents and financials survived) what would you miss losing?

Thank you for that Roger. Well today started with me prising the top off the chassis to get a look at it and I decided to give it another try before I went further. Good thing too, for it ran faultlessly. So I have no idea why it stopped working. As the top was now off, I cleaned the wheels and gave it a lube. Then turned my attention to why it kept stalling over this double slip. Offering up a ruler, I saw that there was a dip in the exiting track, so after loosening the ballast, I prised up the track a bit to level it. So that's all good. It can still judder on the double slip at low speed, but I think that's down to the frogs.

Today I got all of my locomotives out to run and one of them was stalling on a double slip. However that's not the problem. Another locomotive, Hornby R2569 A3 'Sandwich', also stalled on this double slip and must have caused a short circuit, for the circuit protector cut in. The locomotive did move again and I parked it. But when I later went to move it, no response! All other loco's are OK. So when everything else was packed away, I put Sandwich on my programming line, to reprogram it's long address. I have an NCE Powercab. However, the controller was saying 'can not read cv', meaning that the decoder is non responsive. Without opening it up, I can only guess that it's probably a Zemo decoder. I can only think that I have blown the decoder? But should I expect them to be a bit more resilient than this? Thoughts anyone? Thanks.

Thank you for that info paftrain. I have submitted an enquiry to Hornby, so we will see what transpires.

It's just low quality 'eye candy'. Easy and cheap to produce, no skill needed and it easily catches your attention. It's real purpose is to keep you sitting in that chair for as long as possible and staring at that screen, so that you can be bombarded by endless advertising. You are the resource. The only remedy is to switch it off, hide it in a drawer so that you cannot see it and go do something else instead.

Hroth has given me the word that I was struggling with, “logjam”. Yes, ‘The Lark Ascending’ is a good piece, a very British piece that is bound to have a strong appeal; but I do wonder if it is there, because it’s always there. Whereas there are some excellent pieces which I think should have done better. I think that the nature of classical music is evolving; as a child who listened to Radio 1, it was that stuffy stuff on Radio 3. Yet we now see that it refuses to be defined by a time or a style and there’s new stuff being written. I agree that 3 choices is not enough, if we only had 1 choice then I suspect that a few exceptional pieces would peak high above a relatively flat background. If we had 20 choices each, then I think that there would be a more representative spectrum of tastes; although 20 would make counting unmanageable. Well that’s it for another year. As for my choices: Beethovens 9th, that choral makes me feel so happy. The Blue Danube, I have loved Strauss waltzes since there was a series about the Strauss family on tv so many years ago; then Kubrick went and used it. First Arabesque by Debussy because I heard a girl playing it and we briefly dated; every time I hear it, it’s ‘74 again.

Well a slight change in technique and it looks promising. I had previously done the one on the right, strands twisted all the way down and brushed in acrylic paint. The one on the left is today’s work; the strands are only twisted at the top and has been bound with a couple of loops of wire at the mid pint and bottom. Then smeared with hot glue down the trunk and the thicker joints. Finally given a watered down brushing with flex bark that has some black acrylic stirred in it.