Sir TophamHatt

I started swapping a lot of my stock for Kadees as I wanted an easy way to get stock on and off the track rather than messing about with tension locks. However when Hunt Couplings came about, I instantly put in my order for the fixed rake sets I ran, as well as the Bachmann 170 unit I have. Cheaper and perhaps slightly more reliable (on my layout) than Kadees, which sometimes ride up and down each other and come apart. I'm not that fussed about what looks authentic at the moment. There is another under-the-radar coupling too: Realistically, I'll probably look at swapping out Kadees for Hunt Couplings (or similar) so all my stock is the same. There's only the Bachmann S-Stock, 221 Voyager and a Roco OBB 2016 + coaches that are proving difficult to find suitable couplings for. The default ones are fine but longevity may be an issue. There's also a few older coaches where the coupling is part of the bogie, which I'm not sure can be easily / nicely converted (although I do have some 3D printed NEM boxes to give them a go).

After 5 days off, first day back is tough. Was feeling quite positive on the way in but not as much now. But then if my colleague wants to make it awkward then I'm okay with that. I just sit here and do my job (as well as browse on here!) - luckily the quiet desk this week. And even better is that I've just remembered I bought some sausage rolls on the way to work! Nom nom nom. Cars (my list is small - I'm only young-ish!) Ford Fiesta Ford Focus VW Beetle (1967 classic!) Ford Focus That's right, a measily 4 Next is a Volvo V40 though - that'll be within the next few months as the current Focus (56 plate, 161,000, petrol!) is getting rather elderly.

Indeed! There is always that option. I never force anyone to use the GSP and not sure why users would not message a seller to ask if there was another way. But I always include it as an option.

Baby Sir TH has learnt that he can walk! Still needs a baby zimmer frame thing to push but he's now charging about all over the house! Give it a month, I bet he'll be able to walk unaided.

Well, I think it's time to look at a new Internet Provider. Been with Virgin for 8+ years and recently the line has become more and more unstable. Would have gone for BT but they're just expensive 24 month contracts. The old favourites like Plusnet or Zen are both expensive so gonna risk TalkTalk. They have a fairly good deal with 6 months half price. 18 month contract but I can deal with that. Hate having to mess about like this but hey, after the 18 months, I can always re-join Virgin as a new customer and get a better deal than I am on now.

Very happy to report it's snowing here in the Midlands. After watching news reports of snow around the country and missing out, finally getting a good covering.

Much better day today. Although three incidents going on at once, information provision was top notch. AND worked out that a government child care account pays 20% of our nursery fees. Not bad really.

It would need to attach to the chip direct as during power outage, it'll power the chip (which will power the lights).

Well, work has come back to bite me. After a few weeks of easy street, this week has been horrendous. Just really busy and not really knowing what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm a bit black and white. If one desk has certain things it has to do, I will do those. The other desk has other responsibilities but the used to be paid less. Now both desks are run by the same mix of people, the lines of responsibility are blurred meaning one person thinks the other person is doing the job and vice versa! At least I only have one more day left. Then 5 days off - now that's what I'm talking about!

And people say Steam is king? I expect these to be sold out within weeks.

Only 5 left in the pre-owned section: https://www.hattons.co.uk/stocklist/siteresults.aspx?searchfield=h4-66 pre-owned

Morning... what a frustrating one! Seems some people in the office today are all "knowledge is power", which may make me personally look incompetent but at the end of the day, I'm only as good as the information I'm given and it doesn't make me look stupid, but our whole department... and it's a pretty key department - if we don't work, the trains don't run. Tomorrow ill be another day I guess. However, I have also figured out I could make some board game pieces I have been printing much better than I originally thought by using the huge box of scenery and flock. Don't know why I didn't think of this before!

I have a spy phone too! Makes me feel like James Bond But only seemed to get those prompts at work. At home, I'm auto logged in, so I thought it was something to do with this. Haven't had any today. And I'm at work!

No but you get a lot less features with DC... not that we need to flog that dead horse.

Have you tried larger Asda stores (unless it IS a larger one!)? Our town "supermarket" (bearing in mind Asda usually have Hypermarkets - "supermarkets" are like a large corner shops these days) has taken this COVID opportunity to get rid of more value lines. No Smart Price mint sauce or mustard here any more. Go 10 mins in the other direction to the next (and larger) town Asda and you can get anything.

I don't mind paying more if it's truly ready to run... Tried to fix the axle boxes, twice. Lost two round the layout so until that issue is fixed, I'm simply not interested. I'd rather have rotating axle boxes than not and I'd rather not have a Hattons 66 than one that wobbles. I also highly suspect this wasn't a one-shot lot. I'll bet I find one in any upcoming release.

Did a lot of touching up of scenery today. Only small bits here and there before moving on to the larger scenery things. Weeds in ballast, ballast in between sets of tracks, a bit of static grassing, bushes here and there. Next on the list is to work out what to do with the huge area I have spare. It's calling for some sort of village type thing but not sure I want to get all my village stuff out. Although do need to make space for a load of other buildings I bought.

Doing my token one day in work this week. How novel. The local sandwich bar told us it's not worth them opening so no hot breakfast for us today. Although I do have some stuff in my drawer so I'll be okay. Certainly a sign of the times though. Faffing about with annual leave though. After being told that nobody in my department cares too much, it seems summer has practically been booked already! Next year, I will be on it straight away.

The lighting board works as a unit so when the light is green, the feather is also lit but my layout (and most!), the feather would only be lit when the route is set that way. I'll go back over the instructions but pretty sure there's nothing there :( But yes, this is what's required. The point motor already has connections that go to a off-on-off switch but can the point motor supply power to the feather while the point is set for a diverging route? And if so, which A, B, C, D, E F should [the signal] be connected to for it to make this happen? I guess @RFS means using connection F, which is the frog polarity.

Spent a fair amount of money on the Great Central Railway station by Bachmann... but everything in one job lot - the big stairwell,booking office & canopy, toilets, platform ramps (although no platform) and the waiting room. Seller did a great deal at ~£70 off. While I'm supposed to be saving money, I'm sure I'll be glad of it in the future. Have no where to put any of it on this layout but I'm sure I'll build one with it in mind at some point in my life.

Baby TH has worked out that he can make loud noises intentionally, which means if the vacuum cleaner is on, he has to be louder than the noise it makes! This guy makes me laugh every day!

Hiya Back on this again. So the red and green wires going to the "LEDs in panel", would both connect to the route indicator? Or just the green wire? How does the route indicator know when to come on? Or is it a case of if the point is thrown and the route indicator isn't on, swap it for the red wire and then it should work properly? For the avoidance of doubt, better terminology would be a "feather" on the signal itself.

Lovely loaf! Mrs Sir TH is great at making bread. Must ask her to bake some soon so I can scoff the whole lot!

Sunday. A waste of a day me coming into work. But then at any moment, it could all go wrong. Getting a bit tired of this stupid weather now. I don't mind the cold but when it's just cold and wet for days and days, it gets boring. Where's the snow? I know we haven't had any proper snow for many years and it really does depend where you are geographically but I read Spain had 20cm!

I thought this but the Lenz BM1 didn't seem to work when I rigged a test line. I then found an s88 board which seems to be the thing I need but at £60 odd (or £80 for the newer version!), that's quite a lot. I think my research let me to some s88 boards that are about £40 and I think someone makes some for around the same price out of the Auduino but when I could follow a tutorial and pay less than £15 for everything, I'm obviously interested. I do have a tutorial / diagram to follow and it seems fairly simple but the above questions are just the missing pieces to the build @RudyB may be able to help? I'll take a look at the starter kit but would be great to learn from a model rail point of view.