Sir TophamHatt

While this is a little sweeping statement, it's based in fact. Macs are great when it comes to production. Recording music? Messing about with video? Get a Mac. For coding, certain Linux distros are built just for this purpose. For everything else (which includes general use), there's Windows. It's funny as while people "seem" to have problems with Windows, I've not really encountered anything dodgy with my installation.

If I had the money to do all the donkey work, I'd not be bothered about profit. I'm more interested about getting that particular train on the layout than earning money from it, when taking into account the comissioning of locomotives.

*Yawn* I didn't think we did the whole railway/train station pedantary on this forum... Despite some people's lust to keep the terms "proper", surely they've all become interchangable these days. I do understand the differences between a "train" and a "locomotive" but the accompanying post suggests train = locomotive. Althoguh I'm still early days with the layout so I guess I could just start leaving them out to encourage me to play around more.

So, this little (Piko German BR80) train hasn't run in 20+ years. Cleaned it a little and discovered the reason it wouldn't run before is because the little pick up wire was misplaced behind the wheels on three of them. Put it back so it was touching the top of the wheel and gave it a spin. As the cogs turned, there was a little sparking from the cog area. Something then happened to the basic Hornby controller I was using. I turned it off at the plug, waited a few seconds, turned it on again and the controller was fixed. Haven't tried to run the train since. I know I need to strip the loco, clean and oil properly. Did the controller just conk out because there was too much current draw? I guess the cogs sparked due to practically no oil and the train being hugely old. I couldn't help but give it a go!

Do you leave trains on the layout after you've finished? I know there may be options missing but I should think the above covers most of it. I have a couple of "test" coaches (an old battered MK1 and a MK3 for the longness) but I'm still fairly new in my build. I can imagine I'll always put trains away (in the beginning at least!), but coaches and trucks will stay on the layout. The room goes anywhere from 6°C (in winter) to 17°C (in summer) so happy to keep the expensive bits protected in boxes (not their original boxes, some sponge filled really useful cases).

Tested again last night and I think it's the chip settings. They seem to be constantly stalling at low speeds, anything up to about 10-15 on 28 speed settings. They'll stop but then restart again by themselves. ----------------- EDIT ----------------- Resolved! (for me) Hattons emailled me some settings to try, and although they didn't seem to be specific to any chip, they have improved slow running on both the 58xx and a 64xx pannier. The CV Settings are: CV5 = 255 (0) CV6 = 128 (0) CV49 = 17 (0) CV51 = 0 (32) CV52 = 0 (-) CV53 = 140 (-) CV54 = 40 (-) CV55 = 28 (-) CV56 = 255 (-) CV124 = 4 (-) The value in the brackets is the default for my chip. Also, my chips didn't have anything above CV52.

Well this is disappointing. I'm waiting for a response from Bauer Media to see if they're going to resolve my problem, as they're claiming there is no free gift offer - despite me making sure I clicked on the banner from the Model Rail website. Cancelling means the cancellation of my pre-ordered J70 too

Is there a universal way to reduce the volume of all sounds? My HST (non-TTS) (don't know what dcc chip) is hugely loud. Thanks

Yeah - just seen. Should have investigated before writing to be honest

Another new one? I thought their all singing all dancing new tooling was it...

If I wanted to wire up all parts of a insulfrog point, so three blue wires and three red wires, that go from the track to a blade connector (red or blue), which is then in the scotchlok connector connected to the bus wire, is that dangerous or just not best practice? Surely the resistance would be barely noticable than if they were all individually attached through scotchloks to the bus wire? I guess the only point of resistance would be the blade connector. Cheers

Sorry for dragging this up. Managed to bag myself a lovely model of this but I too have trouble with the front bogie not following the rails. Has anyone modified it with more weight? What did you use? Where did you put it?

That's not fair to say though. The problem isn't that we're leaving the EU, it's the time it's taking us and the way the government is handling it. Nobody knows what will happen when we leave. It could make us really strong. But it could keep us where we are now. There's so much opinion that it's a terrible thing but until a few years after we've left, that can't be judged. As for pausing "indefinitely" - that's just a modern day marketing term for cancelled. Perhaps more descriptive yes, but if there's no plans to continue the development, it could be paused for 100 years so you may as well just say it's cancelled.

I was all ready to buy a whole set of these but after watching the review, I'm holding off. Not fully desperate for them but there's too many minus points - plus the fact they'll be running with my Swallow HST (new tooling) only so if the colours don't match... If the oxford rail / Hornby merger is true then I'd be better off waiting anyway as they may solve the niggles like the toilet glazing, silver window surrounds and such. Still, a very nice coach. Just not quite what I'm looking for.

I wonder if this could be modded to use electric to boil the water... This guy could be on to something

Thanks for the replies!

Unless they're winning the bids - that's a version of shill bidding.

I have a Gaugemaster Prodidgy Advance - lovely. I have a bunch of Zimo and Lenz Silver+ v2 chips - lovely. Programmed the chips on the programming track to have better names - lovely. Bought a Pannier and DJM Class 58xx - lovely. Bought some Hattons 8-pin chips - lovely. Put the pannier on the programming track, and while programming the chip, the train was almost trying to move. Sort of like it had been given power but someone was holding it. The wheels turned, maybe only forwards and backwards a few mm but it's the first time I have experienced this when programming. The pannier runs fine on the track, not so much the 58xx but this could be because of that particular loco. For reference, the 58xx acted in the same way. Is this normal? Not normal? It seems to be only the Hattons chips that have done this so far. The Lenz and Zimo all stay dead.

So... tested with a decoder and it didn't go well. I used the 8-pin hattons own brand decoder and it appeared to stutter a fair bit every 5/6cm along the track. I thought it might just be my track laying skills being awful but other trains run pretty well. Will test later this aftrenoon but all I've changed so far is the decoder from 3 to the number of the train; no other CVs have been changed. I oiled in the correct places and ran it in for 10/15 mins under DC - it ran fine on that front. Will try and post a video if it's still dodgy see's what you think.

Sorry, yes, a suitcase type clip, or crimp blade splice as rs electronics calls them. Although weirdly the part number doesn't exist anymore. It was 31-0190, but looks like these: I'm using stranded wire from express models; 0.2mm. http://www.expressmodels.co.uk/acatalog/DCC_No_Solder_Power_Bus_Kit.html I've done a couple of doubles at the back section, which seems to be okay. Not that I'd want to, but four wires won't fit in the crimp blade anyway. Three struggles.

Not sure if this is really worth asking but how many droppers wires would you put together connecting to one bus wire connector? So I use the little blue clips to connect dropper wires to my bus wire. However, when it comes to point work, I try and connect all bits of the point to a bus wire. This means, some little blue clips have three dropper wired coming out of them connecting to three different sections of track. Some have two. Most have just one. It's not all the time but it does save between 10 and 20 extra blue clips connecting to the bus wire. Just want to make sure I'm not risking a huge amount by doing this. Thanks

So I was looking at making a quick track power indicator but don't know if I can change it to indicate how strong the power is. Got the idea from the MERG Electronics for Model Railways (Part B) book. I don't have all my track sections connected to the bus wire, but the ones that aren't are very short, usually brand new pieces of track, so nice and clean. Any idea if I can make some sort of strength indicator so see how good/bad the power is? I guess this may just be a multimeter, even on DCC powered layout.

1) Save up the hundreds and convert a whole bunch of locos in one go. 2) If you have a "ring" that isn't joined (IE, think about the basic Hornby oval), convert one track to DCC, the other keep on DC. Never run trains onto each others sections. When enough trains are chipped, dump DC all together and connect the other track. 3) Convert what trains you have to DCC and just use those for now.

Got mine a few days ago. After following the instructions to lubricate, then run in for 15 mins each way (I did mine for about 7-10 mins, then got bored), it runs pretty well on DC at low-ish speed. Will report back when I fit the decoder and get it on the track in the next week or so. That'll be the big test. My only gripe is that I can't for the life of me fit the lamps. It seems the small "slit" shape on the loco doesn't fit the semi-circle shape on the lamp.

Thanks. I'll give this a go and see what happens. I guess it doesn't really matter which side I put on the power source? (it's an old Hornby controller with the pins on the side).