Monte

Belated thanks again guys for your further info, rather a lot to get your head round! I think I will look into the idea of using sound fitted locos on analogue and see what my friend then thinks! Thank you again, Monte

Firstly thank you guys for the above info, very helpful, as has been mentioned there are clearly lots of options! One clarification please, am I correct in assuming then that for a DCC ready loco, not only can you buy decoders to then run your loco on with a DCC controller, but you can only buy a sound fitted decoder too? If so do you then have to buy the actual sound program and then load it onto your controller - like you would when you buy new software for your PC? Monte PS Thanks Graham, you are correct about me not having any model railway clubs nearby, Glasgow will be the nearest which is about 120 miles away! My friend lives in Wigan so he should have a better chance of finding a club to go to!

I am an analogue user and know next to nothing about DCC fitted locos, so I wonder if anyone can answer these probably stupid questions! A friend of mine has become very interested in sound fitted locos and would love to have his 00 gauge analog locos sound fitted. Some of his locos (the newer ones) say the are "DCC ready" which run on his analog layout, and obviously so do his older ones which were bought before DCC came along. I think I read somewhere however that a "DCC fitted" loco won`t run on analogue and you have to take the chip out and replace it with a "blanking plate" Is this correct and if so where do you get these plates from? Having just looked on EBAY I saw a loco advertised as "with sound" but the description said the loco was an analogue one. Can this be right, I was not aware analogue locos can have sound only modules in them, I presumed to have sound you must have a normal DCC fitted loco. I`ve also read on one Ebay seller`s loco description that it was fitted with a "Loksound" V (something or other ) sound module, and the seller went on to some length about how it worked, and gave examples of what the module would do eg. press F5 for squeeling brakes, press F6 for acceleration noise etc. This all sounds terribly complicated! Presumalby then there are lots of different sound module makes about , and if so do they all do different things? Also what kind of controller do you need to operate locos that are sound fitted? Sorry if these questions are somewhat daft, but I was thinking of getting my friend a sound fitted loco for Christmas if he goes down this route but I have no idea what to look for! Hope someone can help! Kind regards, Monte

Thank you so much guys for your kind replies, sorry for the late response. I`ve just got a copy of the Tourret book you mention and it is certainly very interesting. Seems like I`ll have to relivery and renumber this wagon then for my period! Kind regards, Monte

Hello folks, I have just acquired this lovely little tank wagon, and on the assumption that Bachmann have modelled an authentic livery I was wondering if it was specific to a particular kind of product that this tank would have carried. I haven`t yet found any photos of an ICI tank in this livery so I am also curious as to what time period tanks in this livery were running? Someone told me they thought Bachmann indicated this vehicle is suitable for Era 3 (grouping?). I am modeling the late 50s to early 60s so I`m wondering if tanks in this livery would be suitable for my period. Regards, Monte

Gentlemen, Thank you for your kind replies, and your words of wisdom. adb968008 - re your comment about "drilling a few holes under my keeper plate..........." can you elaborate please as I don`t follow you on that one. Also re the magnets attracting themselves to other trackwork, did the tendency for something to derail occur if you have two tracks side by side with the plates underneath, or for example a facing point where two tracks diverge off it, both of which are powerbase fitted, causing the magnets to want to pull over to where you don`t want them to? I have read some people fit small magnets underneath the leading pony trucks of steam locos to help the keep on the track which is powerbase fitted? Due to the length of my incline I will only be fitting this system to the uphill line, and like you have a large loco fleet. I think I`ll start with the locos that in real life were powerful ones, but are disproportionally poor pullers in model form (my Hornby tender drive A4 for example) Thanks again, Monte

I have just come across this topic, and I have realised that I am going to need to install the Powerbase idea on my layout, but the cost of the "genuine article" i.e. the actual centipede plates available from DCC Concepts would cost me a fortune as my incline is over 80 feet long! So I will have to source some rolls or sheets of mild steel shim as suggested by Andy Reichert back 2014. Does anyone what the thickness of the plates is that DCC supply? TIA, Monte

Hi guys, Thanks yet again for your help, Martin - you are bang on re the Grange, it ran absolutely fine on my rolling road straight from the box so no problem there. RAF96 - thanks for that bit of info, that may come in useful if I end up with a DCC fitted loco that doesn`t have a blanking plate! Kind regards, Monte

Hi guys, Pete thanks for your reply, surprisingly the seller had pinned what now turns out to be the blanking plate on the underside of the polystyrene box, so I have just carefully fitted it to the Jub, tried in on my rolling road and it runs absolutely fine. So thank you good people as I now have another loco "in traffic"! A friend of mine has a Hornby Grange (ref R2404) that is coming my way this next week that is DCC ready, so I will have to look at that too, I`m hoping that the decoder is as easy to take out as the Bachmann one was and that the blanking plate is still in that box as well! Kind regards and many thanks again, Monte

Hi David, Hi Izzy, Firstly thanks again for you kind and prompt replies; I have managed to gently separate the decoder from the chip, so far so good!, Izzy, looking at your photo of the blanking plate there definitely isn`t anything like that in the loco`s box. When I first read about blanking plates my little brain thought it was just something to cover the socket up but reading your post it`s clear now that the loco won`t run without one as the pins I assume connect the relevant wires from the pickups to the motor. This being the case, as I need to order one, are all the sockets the exactly the same configuration (or at least all Bachmann ones) or do I have to look for one specifically for the Jubilee? Many thanks again guys for your help. Cheers, Monte

Thank you guys for your kind replies, Iain yes I did try running it, I put a Jinty just in front of it and when I turned the power on the Jinty chugged off just fine but the Jub stayed where it was even after I gave it a quick prod! So I took the Jub off quickly in case I was going to damage it somehow. Attached is a photo of the loco in question, any advice as to how I can remove the decoder please without wrecking everything? (not the chip - thanks Redgate models for correcting my terminology!). Rab, on the box it says DCC ready. Can`t seem to see a blanking plate, or even if I`d recognise it for that matter, presumably it`s a small piece of plastic that clips over the socket? Cheers guys, Monte

Hello folks, I have recently and inadvertently bought a DCC fitted Bachmann Jubilee (45587 "Baroda") which I cannot use as my layout is DC analogue. Unfortunately the seller advertised the loco as in working condition but omitted to say it was a DCC loco. I have taken the body off and looked at the chip, abut as there are several coloured wires attached to it, I was wondering if anyone new which wires come to and from the collector? Is it therefore a simple job therefore to simply cut all the wires from the chip and join up the relevant ones so that the loco will run on DC? Any help on this will be gratefully received! Kind regards, Monte