AyJay

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.

I’m quite getting into Einaudi, however the computer game music is beyond me, I think that it needs a genre of its own. Could never bring myself to vote for Wagner, too intense for my liking; every time I hear Wagner, I feel that I’m wearing oilskins and hanging onto the wheel of a clipper in a heavy storm. As for The Snowdrops, was that Chopin, it’s a funeral dirge, I like happy music.

I really like Rossini’s ‘William Tell Overture’, always makes me think of The Lone Ranger. But I’m disappointed that The Blue Danube scores so poorly. Never mind, Beethovens 9th always scores well, my third choice

Well I have given my tree armatures a second coat of the flex bark stuff and it really does not leave a smooth surface, is it made from Artex? I might try a thin coat of pollyfilla instead. It also did not hide the twisting of the wire strands, so on Tuesday I’ll visit The hardware shop for some fuse wire and try binding the strands with that instead, as suggested by Mr Gravett in his book. Not sure I’m ready to try the hot glue gun yet. I have enough wire for two more but not today, I’m just getting chilled out in this armchair enjoying Classic FM’s Hall of Fame. 🤫 Might open a beer.

I see a problem. We are all told to model the real thing, not copy what someone else has done and even Mr Gravett's book says that one should look at real trees, although it would be helpful if his examples were to say "this is an Ash tree" or "this is a chestnut tree" or whatever. The two UK tree books that I have, give photo's taken if full leaf. You can see the overall shape and the colour of the leaves, but it is difficult to make out the shape of the tree underneath. Modelling articles that I have seen, give nondescript tree armatures, but do not say what they are? I have just gone out with my camera and found a few trees that do not have much leaf coverage on them, their structures are completely different and I have no idea what they are.

I ended up applying it with an old brush that I kept wet by dipping in water between applications, made it flow a bit smoother.

Three trees are mine. Sorry, couldn’t resist it 😂

Good evening all. you can gauge how busy I have been on my layout, by the diversity of what I post. For I am exploring different subjects. After six years, I have now completed stage two, ‘land and buildings’. Stage one was ‘functional operation’. So now phase three is ‘bringing it all to life’; meaning: People, vehicles, interior lighting, miscellaneous detailing and, trees. The first thing I did was to raid my local charity shop, where I came away with a book on identifying British trees. My premise being to model what I see. Then I did an inventory of what I have: sea moss, wire, a pot of flexi-bark,foliage mat, pastiche, green scatter material. Today I bought Gordon Gravett’s book ‘Modelling trees -broadleaf’. So I think that’s everything that I need and I have started reading the book. I want to try the armature construction method first and plan to build about a dozen or so trees in various stages of maturity, to put at the back. See photo. Does anyone have any special words of wisdom, to help me make worthy trees? Thank you