Vecchio

That's an interesting project and very good advertisement. Even you are 50.4 miles from my house I am sure I have to pop in when I am in the area... Are you using a baseboard or you board only the area where track (or roads or buildings) will be laid? Vecchio, always nosy

lovely pictures and lovely weather as well. Got soaked to the bone today in Paris.... who says it rains only in the UK

Thanks Paul. I would like to build the same speed as you do - unfortunately too many other things to do.... Got a wiring job at the club as well - a 4 module 7mm layout. Not that big but I have to rip out all the track as people before me did a quick job. Means drop wires too visible, frog wires no put through the baseboard... But in 2019 our club has 50th anniversary - so my target is to be ready with Donnersbachkogel in February 2019....

Now I got the answer - half Austrian. The light signals are from Krois Modell. He has the advantage that he (or whoever makes them for him) can customise them. Means you can order the combination of lights you want and you get exactly that. On my last layout I had Alphamodell signals, have to say also the Alphamodel ones are quite realistic and the price was reasonable.

Just to be clear - this is the tape. it is very thin - as you can see - and it follows easily curved shapes. .

I have chipped one of these Bachmann split chassis panniers - the material was quite soft - it can easily be cut. I did cut it with a circular saw (proxxon FKS - do it only if you know your saw very well and you know what you are doing - health and safety...) Also as you can take the chassis completely apart it is easy to get all sawdust out. Can show that model later, at the moment it is at a friends layout

Leds are ordered. should be here on Saturday.

Here we are with some more details. First to the victim of the surgery - my old Lima 37506. Actually not that old, I purchased it approximately 15 years ago. DSC04310 As mentioned before I use a Zimo MX600 for this loco. this decoder is rather slim, and it even fits into the space next to the weight. On the right hand side you see 3 capacitors of 1500uF each - to help the loco over these silly points.... The wires for lights and functions I provisionally stuck to the weight by using a blue tack copy. I will need all of them later. DSC04305 Unfortunately not really in focus - the connection of the ground conductor for the stay alive capacitors. DSC04304 And now some preparation for the lights. I will put yellow leds into the 2 headcode positions and will dim them down. In the middle I put a 3mm white led - as the actual headlight and on the indicator lights I opened only the right one on both sides - here I will put a red 1.8mm led behind. As you can see I have covered the inside of the cab with self adhesive aluminium foil, works very well and is absolutely light proof. By the way if somebody is interested - you find this tape at B&Q. DSC04307 And now a view from the front. I removed the plastic lenses and opened the holes up to 1.8mm. The leds themselves will form the lenses. DSC04309 That's it for today, now I need to find some white 3mm leds before I can proceed.

In the meantime I have chipped the old Lima class 37 - it was easy as there is loads of space. I didn't do the lights yet and I didn't take any pictures. I had some test runs on an analogue circuit - especially in the transition between curved and straight track the engine had some contact problems. The current drawn was minimal - somewhere in the 3 to 400mA region. I added extra pick-ups to both bogies. I couldn't test it after that as my test track is currently at my friends house. Because of the low current I used a MX600. I added 4500uF stay alive. The ground connection on the chip is a bit tricky, but manageable. With 4500uF a charging limiter (50Ohm resistor) is necessary otherwise the controller may see a short circuit because of the charging current. This resistor has to be bridged by a diode so the full current is available for the motor when needed. A test run on my layout showed good behavior - the slow speed performance is not so good - but this is coming from the pancake motor. I will try to play a bit with CV9 and CV56 to see if there is any improvement. What I can say is that the loco doesn't stall, but the slow speed behavior is not impressive. But if anybody wants to keep his old locos running - this is the way to do it. A few pictures will follow soon.

Saw the layout at Guildford earlier this year - and I was not only impressed by the look - who follows the thread will know how it looks anyway - the photos in the thread were all of excellent quality - but I was very impressed by the schedule. There was not a moment where nothing was happening, and this is what is important during a show! And they were running their layout even when I asked a few questions.

Looking at Friday's thread: The A8/14 is a beast with an interesting look!

As it looks we write at the same time. My answer is with both. I tried the ferrit rings and I do not see the need of a much more expensive servo for a model railway application. I know I will hear now how good the prices are at hobby king but normally what you pay is what you get.

Already tried it, no noticeable effect. But as I said - never used a digital servo for model railway application.

I only partially agree. Analogue servos were good enough for the last 40 years or longer for the control of model aeroplanes - and you can believe me it is more disturbing on a fast flying model than on a point or signal motor if a servo has a problem. They come in various sizes which means also power is not a problem. but even a SG90 should be fine to switch 0 scale or G scale points if there isn't something really wrong with the mechanism of the point or signal. Digital servos jitter as much as analog servos do, normally the frequency is much higher which can end in an annoying hum with 50 Hz or even higher. As Suzie said the power consumption is higher, which could also be problematic when you switch the system on having some 30 or 50 points in action. I am using only analogue servos on my layout - there is the odd tick from time to time but never ever any wild jitter. Of course I have a separate power supply of 10A for the servo system.

I wouldn't use hacked servos - I do not see the point. In this case a tortoise or similar with some auxiliary contacts is better. The only advantage of a servo drive is the exact positioning and the variable speed. And in my opinion you will not get that with a hacked servo. Vecchio

For a change something from Switzerland - on the way back from a business trip I had to wait for my train connection yesterday so I took a few pictures at Neuchatel. Different generations of EMUs making up the main part of the traffic. Some older ones - ABt NPZ 20170208_151317 20170208_151735 Now a new one - RABe 527 005 20170208_152307 A BLS Re 465 is pushing a local train out of the station in direction Yverdon les Bains 20170208_152944 While another BLS Re 465 001 arrives with a local train which goes into direction Biel 20170208_153159 Sitting in the ICN in direction to Geneve airport I took a few more 20170208_153506 20170208_161134 This depot would be worth looking at - there are many old shunters around. Unfortunately my phone and the light in the late afternoon are not ideal for pictures so the quality is somehow questionable. I always forget to put my small Sony camera into the bag when I am travelling... 20170208_161232

The smaller the chip is the lower the motor current will be. I do the stall test just to be sure the current of a stalled loco (loco not lock. The spell checker in the phone didn't like loco....) at for instance running against a bumper is more than the max current rating of the decoder. This will guarantee it will not go up in smoke should the loco be blocked somewhere and I do not notice it immediately. Stay alive is another story. Some people like it, but it is not a must. You need to find space for the capacitors which is normally the main problem.

On the MX 600 you need to solder the ground connection between 2 diodes - rather small stuff... Before starting that I will measure the stall current on DC for this old loco - just to be sure not to overload the MX600. In any case I have an old MX64 which came out of a loco (Klein Modellbahn) which died the Mazak death. The MX64 has 1A motor current while the MX 600 has 0.8A motor current. Also on the MX64 it isn't so easy to add a capacitor as the connection to ground is on a small pad on the opposite side of the decoder. Paint leds black - I would like to use the original lenses and glue smd leds on the end of the lenses. And for the aluminium foil I found a self adhesive tape, very thin, normally used to glue insulation boards together. Will make a small thread in the forum when I do this, but it will not be too soon. This weekend is the MKMRS show in Stantonbury, Milton Keynes where I will take part - let's make a bit of advertisement: 2017 EXHIBITIONSATURDAY 11th FEBRUARY 2017, 10.00am – 4.30pm Stantonbury Leisure Centre, Stantonbury, Milton Keynes. MK14 6BN

I have converted plenty of old locos including split frame types. Sometimes it is necessary to insulate parts or cut or mill out the weights. As I have fun doing that it is worth it. And all of them have improved their running characteristics. Last one was a Bachmann pannier tank with a split frame from 2007. Runs lovely with a zimo mx600. Next one on the list is an old Lima class 37. Plenty of space inside. Will put a lot of capacitors into this one.Cab ends will need some al-foil treatment as the material lets the light shine through and I like to activate the headlights.

According to BS7671 the allowed voltage drop for private installations is 5% for lighting circuits and 8% for all other cicuits - but I do not believe that the servo twitching has anything to do with the voltage drop...

Looking forward to that - had an old Lima class 37 running on the test track today and thought this could be a candidate for DCC - with all the space above the dummy boogie one can put in 6000uF stay alive....Means - I cannot tell you were to go - but if you do up the Lima I look forward to your experience

You are running like a German steam engine... by the time another guy thinks and decides what to do you have finished it....

Actually this is not from overseas - but almost abroad.... The station is somehow unique as it is practically in a marina. Ardrossan harbour. pictures taken on 30.01.2017 DSC04267 DSC04268 and a very last one today at lunchtime already on my way back home (not really - had to stop at the butchers for some haggis...) DSC04285

Thanks Alan, just to share the shed - experience: Base is ready mix concrete on a membrane, Water and used water pipes are put in as well as a 6mm2 SWA cable. House is a Billy-oh log cabin, Dorset, 5.5x3.5m. 44mm spruce, windows and doors double glazing, roof 22mm and covered with Katepal bitumen tiles. 60mm insulation under the roof. . But: I use it just as workshop and for building, if I want to put all my modules together the shed is too small - it just fits into the garage... (Out with my wife's car...) regards Vecchio

Hi, some comment from the old Austrian. Hufeisental sounds acceptable. Zwischenbergen I would rather not use - as what is between mountains is a valley - so the native people would rather say the name of that valley - what could have the name of a nearby village or a river or stream or even the name of the area. Examples: Rheintal, Donautal for rivers, Wiental acctually also a river - but most of us only know the city, Tannheimer Tal - example for an area. Liestal (Ch), example for a village. What I did for my layout (10% of yours, working over a year and far less developed ....) is to look at existing names and combine parts to create a new one which sounds realistic. Explanation for the name I selected is on the first page of Donnersbachkogel. From what you have now I would also accept Unterbergen - probably I would change it to Unterberg As I just read about the temperature: Keep your shed heated to something like 10 degrees. this doesn't cost a lot and it will avoid condensation on metallic objects. I do this with my summerhouse, as it is free standing at the end of the garden. Always had condensation problems before - even it is 44mm wood and has double glazing and an insulated roof the temperatures drop more or less to outside values if you do not heat it during the working week. Vecchio