Sir TophamHatt

American components, Russian Components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!

Just wanted to say a huge thanks to many members here for helping me with different projects this year. I know I've ask silly questions, have no real idea what I'm talking about when it comes to model railways and used terms that a 5 year old would but at no point have I ever felt like someone has made me out to be an idiot, or talked down to me. It's just been a river of help, advice and a dash of silliness in some threads So Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from me

Brill - thanks I'll take a look at the thread and blog.

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I appreciate you taking photos of the changing landscape. I was watching part of a documentry a couple of years ago that suggested in the future, we'll have less and less photos of the changes we make as people are more interested in taking photos of themselves. I love seeing photos of trams running in Leicester City Centre and the Great Central station, seeing how it looks compared with now. You documenting this will be great for the future.

To be honest, I don't know what I used :S I need to write up a proper guide (to help myself in the future too!) but I used: Super Capacitors: https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/electric-double-layer-capacitors/7637750/ Cooper Bussmann 1F Supercapacitor EDLC -10 → +30% Tolerance Supercap HV Series 2.7V dc Through Hole Diodes: https://www.rapidonline.com/dc-components-1n4001-1a-50v-silicon-rectifier-diode-47-3130 DC Components 1N4001 1A 50V Silicon Rectifier Diode Resistors: https://www.rapidonline.com/truohm-cr-025-100r-carbon-film-resistor-0-25w-pack-of-100-62-0346 TruOhm CR-025 100R Carbon Film Resistor 0.25W - Pack of 100 I have no idea what half the stuff means (-10 --> 30%, Through Hole, Carbon Film?) but I'm happy not learning about that at the moment. If someone gives me a list of things I need, I'm okay buying it and constructing it. I guess I didn't use a balancing circuit? After joining (6 of) them together, it worked as expected. I used a LaisDCC decoder for testing though I wonder if their own large capacity ones work fine with their own decoders? They're pretty cheap too. Home made isn't as pretty as commercial ones but I spent about £26 and can make 5 stay alives, so they're about £5 each - much less than the ~£17 the commercial versions command for the size I require. I bought 100 resistors and 100 diodes (the smallest quantity they did), but only bought 30 capacitors. I use 6 capacitors in each stay alive so limited to being able to make 5 at the moment. Bought a Zimo decoder with the stay alive wires so I'll be swapping things about and hopefully have a particular loco running sweet. Just concerned a little though as I read elsewhere that CD motor conversions don't play well with stay alives :/

Not really sure what I need here. Basically, a loco travelling between two points, slows, stops, reverses and does the same at the other end. Am I right in thinking I need two BM1 units from Lenz and a suitable chip? Finding them hard to find online (although I haven't looked too intently). Or is there a guide for home build versions?

Search "LaisDCC" on ebay. £9.95 + 95p P&P for the decoder. Apparently they are copies of other decoders, but they're cheap and accept a stay alive. The usual stay alive part is 860007, which is pitifully tiny - not really worth having. However 860009 is the larger capacity stay alive, but I haven't tested that as I bought stuff to make my own. Good for testing and getting to know what will work and what won't work though. However, I had a strange problem with the 0007 kit stay alive. When the loco lost contact with power, it would use all the stay alive juice in reverse. Life got too busy for me to test further but I'm sure someone else on here had the same problem. Tried with a Zimo stay alive and my own hom ebuilt version - all release their power in the opposite way the loco was originally running. I've ended up buying a Zimo decoder with the stay alive wires attached so I can use my home built version stay alive and not have any funny reversing incidents.

Ray, where do you live? Someone from here with a DCC controller may be able to change it for you?

I would expect a Class 357, especially now they've re-tooled the 170 (although whether that is a real upgrade is another question!). While it's not my scene, I would have thought an investment in a 377 body shape could allow many variations of that shape to be pumped out without too much change - even a 172.

Honking your horn does nothing these days. You as the honker, what do you expect the (honkiee?) to think? Are they going to change their attitude to driving? No. I understand people using their horn to vent fustration but honking in the hours of darkness unless an emergency is not acceptable to me. Neither is honking to say "hello" to your friend. The latter waters down the real use of the horn, so peope become immune to it. That's if they can even hear above the radio!

I know it's not really to do with the subject, and call me sad but I'd love to jet wash that!

FYI: I ended up sending my Hattons decoder back and replacing it with a Zimo. Not saying they're junk, just it didn't work as expected in the loco I had it in (can't remember which now though!)

The difference is, I am a single person, not a multi million pound company. Royal Mail has decided the re-use of stamps happens on a small enough scale not to bother to invest in machines that ensure ALL stamps are franked. If it hurt them so much, they'd be investing in better systems to stop this happening. I certainly wouldn't think anyone cares about the odd few (maybe even thousands a day) being reused. Royal Mail clearly don't appear to be doing anything significant about it. And if you're seriously suggesting Royal mail would cut the prices if everyone bought and used stamps honestly... I don't think so. I'm not trying to convince you to re-use stamps - the effort in peeling it off and gluing back on is hardly worth the effort. But however you want to dress it up, re-using a stamp is not the same as someone stealing from a garden. If there's a way round it, people will do it. You will never change the morality of people, especially when you're facing them against a huge company rather than Mr. Franks whose owned the hardware store for 50 years.

If a stamp hasn't been cancelled, I have no quarms about using it again. If Royal Mail couldn't/didn't frank it, that's their problem. Reusing stamps isn't what pushs the price up. Competition (certainly in parcel delivery!) and the lust for making more profit than last year (to give more to shareholders no doubt) is what drives prices up.

This is what I've done - even with a "we missed you" card. Annoying as you have to wait but understandable. I understand if someone has underpaid postage but if it's had a printed label from Royal Mail, it should be accepted as the fault of the underpayment is with the counter staff not the person sending or receiving it! There was a news article about this a few years ago where Royal Mail was stopping letters going through as they were put through as a normal letter when they should have been large letter, but many were done over the counter. Shame they use normal stamps at the counter as then it would be easy to see who is to blame here. I printed about 500 labels of "Return to Sender" so there's no writing for me. Stick a label on and pop it back in the post box.

I can see merit in merging the "questions" and "discussion" together, but perhaps making the titles a little more specific would be better - I like the idea of "news and discussion" to show it's DCC news and subjects about the system as a whole. While I get not everyone uses DCC, it might be worth looking at something a little more major, like having a "DC" section and a "DCC" section that mirror each other in terms of subsections (to a degree). DCC is only going to grow, and I can imagine DC is slowly on the decline. At the moment, I see most people post in the "modelling help and questions" which covers everything - it's easy to allow topics to be pushed down and usually has the same caveat of question replies: "DC or DCC?". Splitting this up into two sections would stop this and allow focused discussions on either mode of power. Having "Sound" in it's own subsection is better. I'd consider adding more subsections like "decoders" or "power supplies" that can involve questions and discussions instead of lumping everything together in one main section but then there's a risk of creating too many forums with too many subsections. The plus is focusing discussion on particular subjects all in one place.

Just watch that speedo cable! I unscrewed mine but still managed to break it off! Bachmann supplied me with another one but the way it fits on and connects - the little pipe is fixed into the body some how, so can't be replaced. Mine now runs without it.

A friend came round yesterday with a blue pullman loco in intercity livery. I've never come across this sort of motor before so wanted some guidance. We tested on DC. The motor is really old - never seen this type before. It seems the bogie is all metal. The wheels have "teeth" cut into them. It didn't really want to move so we took it apart a little and found loads of metal shavings, which apparently came from something that was used on the track. Gave it a little clean with isopropyl alcohol and put it back together, but then it just shorted out every time. We then pulled the solder off, so it's turned into a bit of a mess. Would be great to get it working again, however can this whole bogie/motor be replaced with something else? Does anyone have any photos of this type of motor that explain how it fits together? I could only see pick ups from one side :S It has a small square magnet and two worms driving each of the two wheels on either side of the bogie. On the top is a slab of metal - it's quite tall! Thanks

Send them to Northern. Send the 319s to the scrap man.

pwned is a mis-spelling of "owned". That in itself doesn't make a large amount of sense but it's recent history slang for "defeated". So if you tripped someone up, you "owned" them. But in the days before auto correction, people would hit the "p" in their exceitement to type and it would come out "pwned", hence the phrase was born. It's actually a real word: l33t is another good one. If in doubt, always check the Urban Dictionary

I watched it and came away a little harrowed but well informed. It made my archive of documentaries. I can't really comment on who said what or who is guilty of what as the amount of people left who were active during that time; in my opinion it's not worth trying to drag them through the courts now. What I feel bad about is the modern Germany kids of today. The war was nothing they could control or help but as a nation, they're still having to say "sorry".

There are different levels of security I use with passwords. Low Level Password: could be cracked instantly Used on most forums. If my forum account gets "hacked", I'll just make another one. A bit of bother yes, but I've never had it happened yet and while it would be a bit sad to lose all the posts (IF the email on the account is changed), there are worse things that could happen. Semi-Secure Password: could be cracked in 4 weeks Used on some secondary email accounts, a few shopping websites. It's slowly replacing the low level passwords. Interestingly, adding a symbol at the end bumps this to 53 years! Secure Password: could be cracked in 4 years Used on my email account, amazon, paypal. Adding a symbol to the end of this changes it to 13 thousand years. Secure+ Password: could be cracked in 204 million years My most secure. Used on my webspace. The way I have my emails set up means at the click of a button, I can redirect all emails to another address if needs be. Considering it's only a slight variation of the secure password above I'm surprised how it jumps significantly in crackable time! Not the most secure way, and I am sure going to get caught out at some point but for now, that's just the way I do it. An interesting website I enjoy visiting every so often is How Secure is My Password.net, which is where I got the values above. I also used to think using the £ sign was a little bit more secure. Only UK keyboards come with this in an easy to reach area. For example, using the € sign needs the ALT Gr + 4 to be pushed. All other symbols are SHIFT and a number. However the Euro sign is more prevailant in Europe - not sure where or how the £ sign is activated on a euro layout. However, as most "hacking" these days is done by computer software it's neither here nor there.

It'll be interesting to see what will happen with the Bachmann offering though. Will the new importers be able to buy them direct from a UK base instead of US? Will the pricing be the same as the US (converted to £)? Or will they fetch slightly higher prices, thus making importing for the sole consumer still viable? I wonder if availability will also increase, but also drive prices down? I have nearly all the Bachmann locos and a Hornby Stepney - all chipped, apart from Percy who I might have to just buy a new one as his side rod (maybe piston?) keep falling off. Just a shame they are very shiny plastic, although I'm sure someone sprayed some sort of matt finish which toned it down a fair bit once.

I'm almost surprised they don't work with CAF and grab the CAD drawings from the 195s to produce those. They got the 800s out pretty quick, which seem to sell reasonably well.

Was just having a think about DC and DCC and wiress charging. I wonder if there will be a system in the future where the track is no longer powered but some sort of wire (copper tape?) could be stuck between the rails that could sort of charge a small battery in the train, or just feed the motor directly. Would mean less wires, track can be as dirty and grubby as ever and it wouldn't matter.