Grahamrfd

Just my opinion, alot of people knock Hornby with their TTS but personally I like them as it gives sound at what to me is affordable. I worked with class 47s for quite a few years and the TTS sound seems ok to me. The example I have has been re-speakered so maybe that makes a difference. Personally I think the whole hobby of model railways will price itself out of existance eventually as many of the prices are beyond reach. I am reasonably well paid (but not in the 30k band mentioned earlier in the thread ) but have very little disposable income to play with, one of the joys of being married I guess. Ultimately I suppose its an individual thing, what is affordable and what is good value.

Could this chip be reblown to something else, say a class 25 and then I could refit a micro chip into the 08? I suppose the problem would be the age of this one. Ive been looking at the ones done by Chinnor railway as they sound ok.

Thanks again Rob, To be honest I think I'll have to accept this chip has been messed up which is more than likely why it was sold. I guess the lesson learned here is don't buy used sound locos without being able to see them work first. I'll call Howes when they open and see if they can still do anything with a V3.5 chip. Merry Christmas anyway Graham

Thanks, Ive had a look and can't find a sheet specifically for the 08 but to be honest even if I could it might as well be written in chinese for what I would understand. It might need reblowing if its still possible to do that with an old chip.

I recently bought a used Hornby 08 but the engine sound doesn't rev up when increasing the speed. It will eventually but my layout isn't big enough to reach the speed where this happens. Is it possible to alter anything in the cv settings to make it rev up at a lower speed setting? Thanks Graham

Ive finally got the layout running but it needs a bit of tweaking on some of the clearances. I attended our local show with it as a layout under construction which gave me the opportunity to set it up and have 2 days finding all the trouble spots. Now I need to get on with the scenery. Heres a few photos of the fuel yard area. The concrete area is fine sawdust glued down then sanded when dry. After I had finished sanding I found a weighbridge plate, possibly from a Wills kit so dug a bit up and fitted that, looks a bit better than a printed one. I'm also going to replace the card hut with a plastic one at some point. On another topic, I recently bought a Bachmann 37 which has some missing lamp brackets. is there anyone now who makes lamp brackets that would be suitable?

Thanks for your answers, I have looked at the controller and its only showing function 1 which is the engine . I will phone the supplier tomorrow and see if they have heard of this , if not it will be easy enough to exchange the chip as Ive already started hacking the chassis about

Hi, I have recently bought a tts class 37 to be used with nce power cab, when I press any function button it always plays the horn first. for example when I press 1 to start the engine sound it will first play 2 then start the engine. It does this with any button number. Any ideas? Thanks

Managed to spend a few hours today on the layout, working on the point control. It needs a little tweaking still but the idea seems to work. I got the idea for the cranks from a chap in Oz who goes by the name of Gormo. helpfully he has made a few youtube videos on the subject. The cranks are just cut down tile spacers and the rodding is 2.5mm garden wire. It will need supporting on the longer runs and I will try cable clips for this. I still have 5 more points to do so still a bit of work but hopefully they will be done in a couple of weeks. I still have to fit micro switches to throw the crossing polarity but that should be easy enough.

Thanks SGJ Your own layout looks interesting too and you have some very good photos there. I work away all week so modelling time is very limited although I do try to get little bits done during the week

Well thats the holidays over and back to work, literally with a bang, as on my first day back I had a tyre blowout. Hopefully thats not an indication of how things are going to go. Anyway I need to start getting some modelling done as I need a working layout (not finished but running) by October 14. Ive got the 2 Dapol gunpowder vans painted but need to prepare the lettering still, hopefully by next weekend. Ive added brass tie bars as the Dapol model doesn't have any, a vacuum cylinder, a leftover from a parkside kit and cast buffers. I still need to add couplings which will be instanters.

Very neat. It really does look good

I've not done much this last week as I've been trying to get my van ready for the holidays (fitting beds in the back) but I have managed to paint the gunpowder van bodies. I will do a bit with the underframes before I put them back together as they need tiebars, vacuum cylinders and cast buffers fitting. The electrics really need doing as I need to start testing it all soon before I start on the scenic side so I prepared to panel diagram and ordered the switches but they are coming from China so don't know how long that will take Once I get the holiday out of the way hopefully I can get on with this as October will soon be here and I need it running for then.

I ordered a couple of Dapol unpainted gunpowder vans which arrived last week. They have spoked wheels so will need rewheeling with 3 hole, also I will need to add vacuum cylinders. I have plenty of these though, left over from previous wagon kits. My impression of these vans is that they are more toy like than most of whats on offer now but this is reflected in the price (£9.00 each) Ive started the wiring now and am adding cosmetic fishplates, mainly because I already had them. Also in the post this week was a Hornby TTS class 20 but I've not yet been able to try that out and won't be able to for at least another couple of weeks but looking forward to seeing what it's like. I also have a Hornby class 40 and 47 with TTS chips fitted. While Hornby might not be the best it does make sound an affordable option for me. I will have to splash out on some chips for my 25s, 26s and 27s at some point though. Any suggestions as to what are good sounds for these are welcome.

During this last week I started on some parkside southern cct vans. I managed to get the first coat of blue on today and hopefully finish that tomorrow. With a bit of luck these will be done by next weekend (does anyone know how to turn the photo round?)

I've been a bit busy this weekend trying to get my old transit van ready for a trip to Germany in a few weeks but managed to get an hour or 2 on the layout. I've been wondering how to control the points as eventually I want to use levers so I had a go at making something to screw under the switch blades. Here's the first attempt which should work, its a bit of brass tube, gardening wire and a paperclip soldered together but seems strong enough. During the week at work I've been trying my hand with scalescenes papers making a weighbridge hut for the coal yard, I don't really like using papers but I want to do this as cheaply as possible Just needs a few more bits doing to finish it off. I also have a couple of old triang grain hoppers which I got secondhand years ago so I will see if I can make them look a bit better. i've removed all the underframe bits and will replace the buffers with cast metal. Last week a couple of Parkside cct wagons arrived so will take them to work this week to play with in the evenings.

I forgot to add the track plan.

Heres the first few photos. Its going to be a slow process as I'm away all week working so only have a little time to work on this but hopefully will be in a usable state by October

I've recently started a new layout with the aim yet again to have it ready by October. As I want to keep costs to a minimum I'm using up old copper sleeper strip from previous forays into em gauge, along with code 75 rail. Due to the small size of of this layout I have used points the same size as peco small radius, not really ideal but it will have to do. Im basing it in Scotland as I have a few old lima 26s, 27s and 37s along with a couple of 20s and 25s from Bachmann. Initially it will be wired for dc but later I will make it usable with dcc as well as I have recently been tempted and bought a couple of Hornby tts locos, a class 40 and a 47. The layout itself is 8' long by 16" wide. I'll put a couple of pics up later as for some reason its not allowing it tonight.

I'm not really a fan of Kaydees but like you say, they do work well. I have thought about spratt and winkles. This isn't really an exhibition layout, more just something to amuse myself at home with so I'll keep trying 3 links for now but maybe try something else later

I attended our local exhibition last weekend but as a work in progress, not as a working layout. Currently I have fitted all my stock with 3 link/instanter couplings but I don't think this will work as my points are to tight a radius and a couple of items buffer lock when propelled. I suppose I could always fit wires behind the buffer heads on the offending items. This is set up at the show. Here are a few pics of my Hornby tanks, still not finished but getting there. As can be seen in the background of one of the photos I acquired another 5 of these so will need to start on them soon. If it is of any interest I can take photos as I go and post them up here. Heres a couple of parkside fish vans. A Dapol presflo, eventually I will add handrails and a pipe down the side. I have another 4 or 5 of these to do. Another old parkside kit that I dug out of the loft. I have had to fit new buffers and new tiebars as these somehow got broken while stored over the last 15 years. I have another 4 of these and recently bougt a couple of parksides fitted grampuses or whatever the plural is. A non railway subject, this is a model I started years ago and nearly getting round to finishing it now. Once this is out of the way I want to try and make a slightly larger boat. These will sit at the front of the finished layout. I have an old OKI printer which I have been playing with making decals, or in most cases trying to, but some attempts were succesful. To end this here is a photo of my CCT lettering

Well I only have a few days to go before our local exhibition and this is going to have to be a work in progress as I just haven't had the time to get on with this layout. Anyway here's a few pics as it is now. If anyone is in Northamptonshire and would like to do a bit of modelling over the next few days please feel free, any help welcome

This week I started on a few tank wagons I want for this layout, (although it is looking less likely that the layout will be ready in time). I buy most of my rolling stock 2nd hand which often means alot of work to get it somewhere reasonable looking. I bought a few Hornby TTAs some years ago hoping to be able to do something with them. This is one of them as bought. I have cut off the brake blocks and re attaching them in line with the wheels to try and improve the appearance. Here is a wagon I started to do before I finished with railway modelling. Hopefully by the end of next weeked I will have a couple of them almost finished. Just need to find some suitable grey to finish them off. Finally I've drawn up the track plan in anyrail, not worked out how to use it properly yet though.

As the title says thats another weekend over and not alot done, I'll just post a few pics for now as got to get ready for work but i'm going to have a few days off next week so hopefully get a bit done then. I have managed to finish most of the wiring but not been able to test it yet, I really need to get some stock sorted out as well so this week I'm going to try and tidy up some old Hornby tta tanks.

I've had a bit of a mix this weekend doing a bit of everything. Hopefully soon it will all just come together. The first job was to start stripping paint from loco bodies using dettol, (which actually works), so over the next few weeks I can try and get a couple of locos ready. One body is an old Hornby 25 which I hope to fit onto a Bachmann chassis, does anyone know if this is actually possible? The other loco is an old Lima class 26 which is still soaking in dettol now but is almost ready for scrubbing. i've also started sorting through some of my old wagons as they are all in need of some sort of repairs. The first ones are a few grampus which are old parkside kits and all are without buffers and tie bars after 15 years sitting in the loft I'm still working on the volvo F88 truck and also started another volvo but this ones an F86. Theres also a leyland sherpa which will end up as a marine engineers van. On a marine theme here's a little model that will probably sit on the quay side somewhere Lastly I've been getting on with one of the layout boards, a bit of ballasting and plastering. As I haven't finished wiring the track yet it is all untested so here's hoping I don't find too many problems when actually try running something Im going to be home alone for a few weeks soon so that will let me set the boards up in the house when hopefully I will be able to get alot done and get some decent photos as I can use the tripod. Well thats it for this weekend