John ks

I keep seeing the Fell mentioned As I didnt know what it was, I googled it That loco takes the expression " a face that only a mother could love" to a new level Would I want one . Maybe???????????????????? John

I know of at least 1 that is running on a loosely based US layout. By US I mean the country not Un Serviceable Although in my defence the loop it will usually run on is under catenary mostly meant for BR prototypes and any thing I like that has a pantograph.(GG1,Bipolar,Little Joe, Krokodil, TGV ,ICE, Bullet train, Acela, ETC) John

Dave wrote the Following in post#1 in the NEW OO gauge Crowdfunded Class 92 initiative topic "Crowdfunding price TBC but approximately £150.00 per model" Dave wrote the Following in post#70 in the New N gauge Crowdfunded Class 92 electric locomotive project topic"Currently the decoder and speaker is going to cost around £110.00 on top of the loco price, but will be factory fitted and marked as such, and as such fully warrantied by DJM I'll firm this up a bit closer to deposit time as obviously I might get a reasonable discount for buying in bulk etc. so I can pass that on. cheers Dave" ​This might give you a indication as to the price of either model i.e. approximately £150.00 for DCC And approximately £260.00 for DCC + Sound ( Dave this is your cue to correct me if I have grossly miscalculated ) ​Hope this helps ​John

From what can see the rapido turbo train has a 2 wire connection between coaches and I am fairly sure that these 2 wires run the full length of the train There are 2 motors & 2 decoders in the train i.e. 1 motor & 1 decoder at each end I believe the intermediate coaches are lit from the track power and are on all the time I powered up the track & lifted one of the power cars of the track , all the coach & power car interior lights remained on If the front bogie looses power (through a bad point or other dead or dirty section) then power is still available from the other pick ups in the train Last time I ran this train I don't recall having problems with them trying to pull/push each other off the track. Hope this helps John

You mean like this John

In post 182 I asked If I was to order a 32-646Z Bachmann Class 438 unit number 8007 in BR Research red and blue livery​, what do I get A 4 coach set in BR Research red and blue livery or 2 coaches in BR Research red and blue livery & 2 coaches in Network SouthEast livery or the 6 coach set as illustrated The answer I got answered the questions I had asked but not the question I hadn't asked ​Lyddrail in post 297 answered the question I hadn't asked when he said "The extra NSE coaches came later in the trains testing cycle, so 4 car is ok for the beginning." . Only a few weeks ago I didn't know what a 4-TC was, when I saw the production model being towed by a class 33 I wondered why an EMU was being towed by a loco Now my knowledge of the 4-TC has gone from 0% to a point where I can make up a train with a Class33+4-TC & know it will be an fairly accurate representation of the prototype thanks to all the modellers who have given there time on this forum. Thanks John

If I was to order a 32-646Z Bachmann Class 438 unit number 8007 in BR Research red and blue livery​, what do I get A 4 coach set in BR Research red and blue livery or 2 coaches in BR Research red and blue livery & 2 coaches in Network SouthEast livery or the 6 coach set as illustrated John

I've noticed quite a few kitbashed APT-P trailer coaches on eBay. Does somebody know something the rest of us don't know? John

Dave Thanks for updating the product progress page on your web site Does this mean we'll see a painted model of the 71 soon? John

Mike Just a thought or have I done a bad bad thing John

Sorry I missed that, I wasn't thinking, where I come from that looked normal Just like any other bright and sunny day here in Queensland John

​ The Backdrop looks excellent, the clouds look almost real The people in the station all seam to be in natural poses The skin tones are spot on. The track looks like Kato that has the ballast touched up with a brown wash so that it doesn’t look so grey The HST looks too clean and the paint is too glossy, is it the new one from Hornby? The trees are a bit ordinary. They look like straight out of the box Heki Overall the modeller has done a creditable job John

Dave Any chance of updating the product progress page on your web site. Last date on the progress chart shows November last year about 6 months ago. Thanking you in advance. John

UP 4000 The easiest way to dim LEDs is to add more resistance in series with the LED The lighting board in the trailer cars will have several LEDs in series with a current limiting resistor and may have several banks of LED-LED-Resistor in parallell and look something like this. If you want to permanently dim the lights then just add a resistor in series with the lighting board. To get the right brightness experiment the resistor values till you get it right for you I would start with a 1k ohm. If it is still to bright keep adding 1k resistors in series until you get it right If it is to dull the replace the 1k resistor with smaller resistors eg 470 ohm or 120 ohm or 56 ohm The resultant circuit will look something like this. To get two or more levels of brightness, a circuit something like this should work. F 1 on = full brightness F 2 on = medium brightness F 3 on = low brightness F2 & F 3 on = medium to full brightness For F2 to work as an on/off switch you will need to program the appropriate CV The diodes are any 1A 100V or similar diode EG 1N4001 or 1N4004 If you want to save on accessory decoders the you could wire 2 or 3 coaches to 1 decoder & it would look some thing like this. John

Dave I am very partial to most things that have pantographs. Hence the recent prepurchase of your class 71 I model mostly North Americian HO models followed by UK OO, and a smattering of European, Japanese and Australian My wish is not so much for type of loco but more to the mechanism for diesel or electric locos Most American mechs have a central motor with flywheels and drive shafts to each bogie, giving all wheel drive. All wheel pick up is essential. In recent years UK models have started to follow this layout If the bogies could be made with clip-on side frames then these bogies could be utilised on any other loco with the same axle centres simply by clipping on the new sideframes Use the same motor/flywheel assembly for all locos where possible Loco’s with the same bogie to bogie centre could use the same heavy cast chassis. Fuel tanks, battery boxes, sub chassis, etc as clip on plastic bits What I have described is pretty much how Athearn have done it for years. My point is to use as many standard parts over a range of locos This could mean that in 10 to 20 years you could replace worn or damaged drive parts from a current model John

Richad At the point of the "not OK" arrow in the gap between the universal and the rest of the drive shaft place something small and flat like the end of a small screwdriver and push forward in the direction of the arrow and the universal should click into place. Rotate the motor shaft 180deg And check that the other side of the universal is ok. john

This is my 42nd post and I was hoping to answer the answer to life the universe ETC But I spotted something in Richard's 47137 APT-e that looks wrong( although 47-1+3-7 does equal 42 So maybe this is the correct post to spot this) Is this PC2 a bit noisy? What I noticed was one of the universals doesn't appear to be correctly seated The image should explain it better than words John edit This is post 3313 and 3+(3*13)=42 This is getting better all the time

The area circled in red might be the key area for connecting a decoder But without a close up look at the PCB it hard to be sure and I don't think there is enough detail in the image. Probably not much help but that's the best I can do for now. .For me its 2.00AM now & way past my bed time John

This is an educated guess , I haven't opened my APT-E but using some logic and guess work I think the following might be close to correct If you put TC1 or TC2 on the track by themselves i.e. with one articulated bogie on the track and the other end on a block then the interior lights do work, I've done this In tc1 & 2 there are circuit boards, at each end of this circuit board are ten pin plugs to connect to the next vehicle ​So there should be 10 PCB(printed circuit board) tracks on the circuit board running the full length of the board Logic/ guesswork tells me that they are for Rail left Rail right PC2 motor + PC2 motor - PC2 cablight PC2 headlight PC2 taillight Function common Speaker + Speaker - some where on these boards will be coach lights (LEDS with Resistors) Worst case is as shown below, each circle represent a light Each light will have to be isolated from the rail power by cutting the PCB track on both sides of each light This is not a job for the faint hearted The easy way is if rapido made provision for the coach lights to be isolated by cutting/removing bridges, the next drawing is how this could work Of coarse I could be completely wrong Best of luck John

I finnaly got my APT-E I thought you might be interested in where its been It Started life in China And then to England Where UPS picked it up Next Stop Germany Then to USA And a Second stop in USA A quick stop in Honolulu Then to New South Wales And finally to Queensland A little trip of about 29,343Km And now its at its new home where it may do only a few more Kilometers I think some of the meets were arranged by a man with a blue box Thanks to Sandra Locomotion Rapido And all the rest involved in this project John

What Suzie says is correct but you may need only two dropper wires connected to the switch rails and extending the existing bare wire connected to the frog. The two wires connected to the stock rails are the same as the track feed wires and wont be necessary if there is a track feed already feeding that block. If your not sure then put them (The two wires connected to the stock rails) in and connect them to the track feed See the top RHS of the diagram. i.e. Add feeds here and extend this wire. Join these three wires together (imagine that the point switch & the thin black wires aren't there) In this configuration the point will work the same as if it weren't modified If you decide you need a frog switch then separate the 3 wires and reconnect the switch rail droppers to the track feed as shown by the dotted wires & connect the frog dropper to the point motor switch as shown with the narrow black wires I agree with Brians diagram, this is the way I wire my points The diagram on the Left may give a clearer indication of where the insulated joiners go John

To Sandra At Locomotion I am a bit concerned as to the whereabouts of my Sound APT-E . I just tried to send you a email but got a reply that your inbox is full There is also an unread PM to you on this site. Hoping to here from you soon John

Some where on a previous post I am certain I read rapido were doing the locos and matching coaches. I'm not sure if it was rapido or some one relaying a message from rapido and I,m not going to spend hours looking for that post. I'm not that young any more. I suspect that means the Mk3 coaches will be done. As for the Mk3 food service coaches your guess is as good as mine. As for the Mk1 food service coach it may not be economic for rapido to produce if rapido don't do the Mk1 coach may be locomotion could commission another manufacturer to do a special repaint on a suitable coach. Jayson or Locomotion if you are listening you are the ones to give us the correct information John

​While slightly off topic this is what can be done with slightly modified Sommerfeldt OHE and a bit of kit-bashing. the next 2 use Brass I & H beams with Sommerfeldt wire and insulators this one is based on what is at stations around Brisbane Qld this span is typical of what QR ( Queensland Rail ) use to span multiple tracks QR OHE is based on BR OHE I wanted a OH system that loosely followed BR and at the time Sommerfeldt with slight modification worked for me John