Sir TophamHatt

Thanks for coming back with the results. I know there was a quiestion about bridge rectifiers earlier. I'll try and find my part numbers and plans and post them for my version of the DIY coach lighting.

I guess there's been no news regarding different liveries for this unit? I'm surprised they haven't released a whole load more, then do re-runs with different numbers in later years.

I think what makes me a little sad about anti-vaxxers is that they will never admit they are wrong. The BBC article above states these people are using laws that aren't actually laws. My brother-in-law is likely to be part of that crowd. He's just not a nice guy at all, thinks he doesn't have to pay council tax because the council isn't a business and so doesn't pay VAT or something - I can't really be bothered to understand. More interestingly is I listened to a programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning (also available as a Podcast) - The Coming Storm - which is mainly about the American election but I can see the parallels here in the UK. It described how a book about "How to Catch Witches" written in the 15th century by a guy as fiction (but written like fact) went viral and huge waves of women lost their lives as people decided they were a witch based on what the book was saying. It links this to the riots at the Capitol and how certain messageboards, called "chans" - someone can write something and loads get on board thinking it is fact. There's another Podcast somewhere about why people like conspiry theories. Quite a reasonable, well thoughtout points raised in the programme. People may see Christianity as a book about the life of a guy and huge amounts of people believe it but that's quite different to Covid conspiries. What a weird morning!

I guess so, but will it have the same amount of detail as this: Photo doesn't quite do it justice. The pack I bought was 4 coaches, 1 DVT, 1 loco. But then I posed this question a while back - Do modern units have less detail?

Wow - how busy have I been recently! Work things have got in the way and as it's winter, not been involved with the model railway as much - the room is super cold. But still ran a few trains round for Master Topham Hatt - he loves it already! Been rediscovering old childhood toys in the form of Ghostbusters recently. I had loads - more than I realised at the time but through a mid-teens "I want to be grown up" spat, binned them all. Big regret there - prices for them now are sky high.

I'd have the Flirt on my list but it's simply not worth that much to me. Shame really. Maybe I'll grab it if the price drops a little... considering a few years back I bought a rake of 5 coaches and a loco for around the same price.

Sorry to hear of your sister-in-law and brother @PhilJ W. This covid thing is stupid, it really is! Just tired of it now.

I noticed two things yesterday. The first is people who can see the lane is closing, there is nobody behind them and yet they continue to wait and follow the line of cones that forces them to change lane. Not sure why the driver decided to do that. The second is someone who was on the hard shoulder and decided to pull off straight into the first lane. I've seen this a few times and I have no idea why the driver DOESN'T think speeding up on the hard shoulder first is a better idea than entering the motorway at barely 10mph. I really would like to understand their thought process behind this.

Good afternoon! Coming to the end of a long set of shifts at work - only two days left. Have been very good at community relations with the work colleague. After we both got called in for an hour and 30 minute meeting last week, since then it's been pretty good. They have backed off and let me do my job when I'm on the busy desk, I have assisted them when they are on the busy desk. So that's pretty nice. I hope this puts me in better stead though as I applied to be the team manager! I think it has been earmarked for someone else though. Great to read Christmas and New Year has generally been pretty good for most people

Does the ECoS need a bmp file? They are some of the largest as there's no compression.

Does the background need to be transparent? If not, open Microsoft Paint (assuming you're using Windows?). Left-click and drag your existing (too big) image into the blank Paint document. Then save it again (name it something else) and see if it reduces in size. Make sure you're using the right file format. MS Paint may try and save it as a PNG file. I don't know what the ECoS needs.

So any old bottle from Halfords will work? I'm always up for trying new things.

Do you have an example (link) where I can investigate these further? I understand what they are (I guess, Bachmann Voyager has something similar, as does some contentential stock I have), but wonder how they'd fit into an NEM box.

This is not a fix though. It's a bodge, at best. I bought this loco to have that feature... I'm not about to get rid of it.

A bit late for the morning but it's morning somewhere in the world! Just having a mosey around at houses. Went to a friend's wedding today in Lichfield. It seemed quite a nice town (okay, city!) but not sure it would benefit either of us (although it would make my commute down to 25 mins instead of 45). The thing that significantly puts me off is that there are plans to move me to another office, which would be 25 mins. If I lived in Lichfield, it would be 50 mins, so I guess that idea is out. Still nice to see what's about though.

Good morning! Out of isolation, two days of tidying the house before being back at work for two days. At least I got a new keyboard for my workstation! Loads of previous posts to read through, so will get right on it - a little light relief from work with a good cuppa me thinks.

A bit late on this but glad the current offering isn't changing too much. I have my Swallow and MML versions, but if I know there is a newer version, I'd feel bad for having the old. For example, the 158 - the new version is amazing compared with the old - so much so that I am waiting for my preferred livery rather than buying the old model. I know I am at risk with my Voyager and even the 170. I can see major upgrades to those but the HST, I wonder whether it's just "done" now - much like the 37, 47, 66 - many locos that can't really be improved. That's what I think about the HST now. It's done, can't really be improved (thinking about RR range compared with the err.. not RR version!).

While we're on the topic of food, thought we'd have a very adult fry up for tea this evening... Quite full now!

This week should have been a week of fun as Master TH has shown some limited interest in the railway. Instead it's marred with things that don't make sense. A few weeks, month or so ago, I fitted and tested an auto shuttle piece of hardware. The Zimo fitted chip, after some hours of testing different settings, did seem to work. Come to the railway today. Gave it a test and the loco completely ignored the shuttle activator (a break in the track) and crashed. Turned the loco the other way, it recognised the shuttle and slowed, but then sped up again and crashed. Turned the loco back around again and this time it noticed the break in the track, slowed but didn't actually stop. Knowledge in this area is fairly low anyway and it seems the only way to get reliable shuttle working is to spend £600 on a premium controller that has special wizardry of it's own to make trains stop in the right place and reverse back. I notice Richard from Everard Junction has opted for a loop to turn one of his locos (although not sure what will be on the other end). I just get really frustrated when something that should be simple, doesn't work and I think about the hours I've wasted trying to get it to work. Does anyone else find a project so annoying that they feel completely put off by the whole model? I built this with some limited automation in mind but if I can't have it then it seems nearly pointless. It's a bit dodgy in places anyway, so maybe I should just scrap the whole thing and regain some house space. Ugh!

Well just to update everybody from my last post... we all tested positive for covid! So that's 10 days at home... with a nearly 2 year old. It's day 4 tomorrow. So far, not been too bad and we're looking at changing up bedtime as we both now have time. It means instead of being there for Master TH tk fall asleep in his bed, we'll say goodnight and leave him to fall asleep by himself. Two nights to far and it's been fine. The test will be tomorrow when Mrs TH takes the lead. Covid symptoms so far have been a mild cold for me, added very slight cough for Mrs TH and absolutely nothing for Master TH. Also means we're likely to miss the 3rd booster jab date as announced this evening. And can't test for 90 days anyway. At least we have some baking to look forward to tomorrow!

Good afternoon one and all. My last late shift before Christmas. However, Master TH had a high temperature yesterday. Mrs TH took a lateral flow test, which shows as positive! She has a slight cough and a bit of a cold. All three of us had PCR tests this morning, Master TH had an idea the portacabins were not going to produce a good experience. His may come back negative or invalid as not sure we could get a good sample. I'm always worried I don't do it very well too as my gag reflex is terrible. I have no symptoms. Wonder if it's selfish to hope I don't have covid because I have three extra days to work this coming week, which means a slightly larger pay for January? Not bothered either way to be honest. Feel bad for Master TH as it was their Christmas Dinner at nursery today - he missed it and was likely to be missed by the other little people as everyone likes him. Stupid covid.

Interesting. I wonder if you simply need the feed from the green LED. While not prototypical, it would make things simpler. I'll email Heathcote and see if that's potentially possible. Clive at Heathcote says: "The polarity of the green is the wrong way round. But I could easily supply the boards so the feather lights when the green signal is lit. If you wanted to get accurate operation, you could use the point indicator board, which would be activated by the point motor. The 'standard' board will work or you could use a microswitch worked by the points tiebar movement" Link to Board: http://www.heathcote-electronics.co.uk/point_indicator.html#POINT-INDICATOR-STANDARD - they are around £19.

Ah ha, yes... although this doesn't work for non-DCC. Maybe I'll have to wire that point up as DCC.

Good afternoon all! After saying I was a little fed up of Royal Mail being a little slow, the game finally arrived. I have labeled it from our cat to us. I can't wait to play it but I suspect Mrs TH won't be as bothered as me. Things not doing to well in that area - we just seem to be biting at each other all the time. I'm sure it's a phase that will pass. Happens a lot when I'm on late shift.

It's a bit of a hidden art to get them to work. I have some SEEP point motors that I want to do the same thing but after slowly looking at each of the connections, I don't think I can make it work. There must be some way that when the point is thrown one way, it can complete a circuit and light the feather but I think it'll be more of that sort of approach than thinking about drawing some power from the point motor itself.