Sir TophamHatt

I know the king seems to be Preiser but I will need around 600 or so. Any good ones I should consider? They're for modern MK3 HSTs, that will be lit but I accept I can't afford to get super good figures. Thanks!

This is it. I had a dodgy one, sent back. After some work, they swapped the chip to another loco, which then had problems. The third one had problems like the first with the motor somewhat "pulsing". Despite their promise of "we'll check the next one that goes out" - I decided to put my money elsewhere instead.

Very nice shots. I only have a DRS 68 so wouldn't really do it justice to run without a TPE 68. But keep manufacturing the modern stuff! As soon as you make something for me, I'm in there!

Not sure. Here's a couple of photos: Here it is with one of the old MK3 tooling (top) with the new tool HST and new MK3 (bottom): Interesting that the old tooling has windows indented but the new tooling, they're flush with the sides of the coach.

Hooray! They're here!

Had my picking / packing list that the new INTERCITY coaches will be with me tomorrow. Better than the October date!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077MDH8HT/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_ijSoFbXVMPV76 £19.99 when you apply the voucher.

The other problem is people's wants becoming a reason to do that livery. Just because you want it, doesn't mean it's a good idea.

Rotary Tool set: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077MDH8HT/ £19.99 with voucher (apply on site).

Perhaps a few years ago but these days, with many locos being built for DCC and many coming pre-fitted, I would have thought it's time to lie this advice to the ground. I think I've only ran in one loco out of about 20 I have, and pretty much all of them have gone straight on DCC.

Maybe now that they're very difficult to get hold of, instead of just "out of stock but still able to find one within a couple of weeks" then people see the value in having one. Glad I bought mine. Shame I couldn't afford more coaches, especially now they're around £100 a pop.

Wow! I've been pretty lucky and not broken anything or anything like that! Mrs STH has only ever had one operation in her life so far too! I've worked out that I can't watch Disney/Pixar's Up without crying at various points these days. Whether becoming a father has done it or really connecting with the very short story of Carl and Ellie Fredricksen I don't know but hey ho, I'm not afraid to admit I can be a cry baby sometimes... especially when stubbing my toe!

I'll be surprised if Bachmann don't produce pretty much every livery over the next 5/6 years. But then they should ramp up available liveries as it would appear to be a fairly good success for them.

I'm sure I read this or even had an email from Hattons Support saying most, if not all would be checked before sending out. I wonder if the excitement and number of orders on the second batch, or even the modified "extra glue" may have caused many to be sent with no checks.

Phew! A busy week. Watching rich House poor house. Makes me sad there's families out there that have just £155 spare cash a week, yet there are people that have £1791 spare cash a week. Sorry but I really don't think any job is worth that you have £1791 a week that is literally SPARE cash. However, got my rock casts on the layout and will paint them tomorrow. Signals are in and very nearly working (only one that doesn't as yet). Work has been okay too, which is good. Night all!

I knew I wouldn't get round to transferring the strawberries! Vets took nearly an hour what with the social distancing lark. Came back and cleaned the dishwasher. Got to grips with the signalling and after finding out the most difficult to reach control board is faulty, I replaced it with the spare one and all is working fine. A little underwhelmed with them but another layer of realism I suppose. Yorkshire Farm programme on this evening - Channel 5, 9pm. Jealous I don't live that sort of lifestyle. Back to work tomorrow. Anxious but need to get back into it properly.

Oof, what a day! Washed the "car blankets" - we keep spares in our cars in case of bad weather. Went out to the garden centre and bought compost ready to transfer some strawberries to bigger pots. Also bought some seeds - 50% off. Then went to IKEA and came home with a rug. Ours is really shaggy but it's become more hassle than it's worth. £35 later and now we have a nice and pleasant, smaller rug. Theh don't even sell our old one anymore. Quick mow of the lawn, watched Toy Story 2 and then was preparing for bed. The little one took about an hour to settle this evening so I did some preparation work for the final saga of adding signals to my layout. Figured one signal would be pointing away from view so no real point in having it. I can put it anywhere though as it's independent from the rest. Tomorrow is cats to the vets day, testing signals and transferring the strawberries. Bet I won't get to do the latter! Night all.

Seems not - they just wouldn't work. Have got a separate power supply now so I don't need to split the one I have for points. Will be testing tomorrow so I'll see if any LEDs have burned out but pretty certain they were fine when I tested using another method.

Well, just to prove I didn't electrocute myself! May seem like a simple / easy /not scary task for some but for me, it's a fairly large step.

I did indeed. But I should have explained better. It'd be in a gap that is less than 10cm in height, about a metre in depth, the base height is over a metre itself so pretty hard even for an adult. But it will most likely live in a box as I have acquired a laptop power supply for lights, so points can stay with the Hornby controller.

Hmm. Will probably return the "naked" one as I'd rather not have to buy something else as well. Although to be fair, it would be under the model railway in a somewhat unreachable location safe from anyone touching it. But I think I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Don't apologise! To be fair, some sort of pre-GCSE / junior school type of approach may be the way for me to learn. I've made a few similar but fairly different threads about power as I'm sort of thinking out loud with planning and options but I think I'll stick to the Hornby controller and a laptop PSU for other things. Cheers!

It's okay, the PSU converts the power to 12v DC for the actual circuit. I could have chosen a smaller unit, say 60W but too late as it's on it's way now though. This is the link to what I've purchased: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254252328250 Has been a little inspired by this video: Where, in theory, I could have a few different 12v circuits all coming from the one PSU. Although the person in the video plans to use the other voltages too.

Digital but has a dial for me to choose the range / what I'm measuring. I guess it just worries me when I see a video of someone that seems to put one probe on the live wire of a power supply (goodness knows where they put the other one?) and get a reading. If a power supply has just two cables - how will I know which is positive 12v (coming from a 12v PSU) and which is negative (I guess this would show 0v?)? Never needed to use one before as the one time I had a short just after soldering, I just re-traced where the cables were plugged into the bus and swapped it round.

Well, first day of new job was mixed. Social distancing means I couldn't actually sit with the trainer but opposite them... so I couldn't see the screens. Next time should be much better though as they're sorting it so we can sit sort of together. However, hopes of a new car are dashed as a new ulez charge in the city I now work means I'd have to pay £8 a day. Yet, the car has free / £30 road tax? Don't understand why they don't just base both charges off the same system. At least a new power supply should arrive tomorrow so I can finally add these pesky signals to the layout!