NIK

Hi, The Red Kites only reached my part of town about ten years ago. Unfortunately my telephoto lens broke shortly afterwards and I couldn't afford to replace it and carry on snapping the Kites. There is a golf course a pitching wedge away from my house and I'm wondering if its still being mown and sprayed with herbicide. If not its ecology might change fast. I've read that Red Kites don't take live prey larger than worms or beetles there are now probably squashed rodents (first surprised and then flattened by middle aged runners). Before the lockdown I almost trod on a rat when I was crossing a lock gate on a canal. The rat was traversing a beam below the plank the humans use for crossing and I and the rat arrived at the step down from the lock gate at the same time. Take care. Nick

Hi, I've yet to even see a Hen Harrier although a few years ago a neighbour said he saw a pair above a nearby field. I once had a juvenile Peregrine Falcon land in my garden briefly (after 24 hours of continuous rain) and a mate in the same town had the same in similar circumstances. Take care Nick

Hi, Saw a Buzzard flying about 50 feet up the other week. Buzzards had largely been displaced in the last few years by Red Kites over the part of the town I live in which is in North Hampshire. I surmised the Buzzards appearance was due to reduction in roadkill. Also it was flying lower than normal. Of course there may be less dead lambs this year if the weather has been milder. Two days ago I saw a Red Kite go over my garden at about 20 feet high - I've never seen one go that low in my town before. I guess like the Buzzard it was extra hungry or it was a country bird that was searching for food outside of its normal environment. Those people who normally leave food out for kites might be changing their habits and there is probably less discarded takeaways on the streets. Take care. Nick

Hi, Following on from a previous post the Coastal DCC website says the MX636D has 8 function outputs. A pinout of a MTC21 connector I found shows 8 function outputs available labelled F0f, F0r and AUX1 to 6. So maybe there is no need for soldering. I think I tested all eight outputs on a MX634D by just by plugging its 21 pin connector into my ESU decoder tester (two were at logic level). What it doesn't seem to say on the Coastal DCC website is what the current rating is of each function output, what the total is for all eight functions and what the total is for the motor plus functions. Note the MX638D is considerably cheaper but it only has 6 conventional function outputs and two logic level outputs so in that respect it all depends whether the loco you are planning to put it in requires 8 functions or 6 'f' plus 2 logic. Take care. Nick

Hi, A digital SLR with a selection of lenses (plus a tripod). An SLR so you can get an optimum view of what is in focus, a selection of lenses to get optimal optical quality for the distance you want to shoot from and a tripod for maximum stability during long distance shots and or low shutter speeds. The SLR will also allow you smaller apertures which is key if you want 12ft to the inch style depth of field. I don't think anybody does an SLR small enough to sit on a baseboard and photograph an N gauge train let alone a Z gauge one so no one camera type can do everything. Take care. Nick

Hi Nigel, Do the DCC decoder manufacturers make it clear in their online literature what frequency their various decoders PWM run at?. I recall some online decoder manuals (ESU, ZImo, Lenz & ?) do mention the frequency(ies). Do you know of a decoder selector that includes PWM frequency (the Coastal DCC selector doesn't seem to include it)?. Take care. Nick

Hi, Re: operation on DCC: You need a type of DCC decoder that can output high frequency drive to the motor. This is because DCC decoders and most DC feedback controllers send full voltage pulses with a square edge to the motors. Most iron core motors can cope with this but coreless motors require a more sophisticated drive in order to stay reliable. This can be done by driving them with pulses of sufficiently high frequency that the lower inductance windings of the coreless motor can 'resist' enough of the short pulses to avoid motor overheating. If a low inductance winding is given a lower frequency drive the current stays too high for too long. I think DCC decoder drive frequencies from 11khz upwards are ok, 19khz and 22khz are also frequencies I can recall from DCC decoder specs. Take care. Nick

Hi, Wouldn't Shane have heard the loco motor buzzing if it had a DCC track supply connected to the motor outputs?. Take care. Nick

Hi, Very clear photos of the top of the decoder and the loco PCB. Shame the bottom side of the decoder has sticky labels on them. Having looked at a few failed decoders in the past I was expecting to see obvious damage to the H bridge FETs (the transistors that drive the motor) but I can't see any. There is a sign of a strand of something between one of the PCB pads and one of the holes where the loco PCB DCC connector pins comes through. However it looks white like PCB labelling ink rather than shiny solder but that could be a trick of the light. So for now all I can offer is guesswork based on the following: I noticed a file next to the loco and it wasn't clogged up with white plastic. Some high end decoders deal with more than one Digital CC protocol as well as DC compatibility mode. Sticky labels are a place where detritus can collect including metal swarf. The diecast metal used in most chassis tends to catch the tool and then a strand of swarf peels off. As I said no obvious sign of damage to the two thirds of decoder components that can be seen. So my guess is a contact was been made between one of the DCC connections and another connection to/from the DCC decoder. My guess would be one of the connections from the pickups (from track), the other one of the speaker connections. Somehow this put the DCC decoder repeatedly into a strange mode (test mode?/ start up mode/motor check mode/connection cleaning mode or some sophisticated ACK mode using HF AC*). * I don't know if any sound fitted locos can be reprogrammed while the loco is still on the track. If so they might need an HF AC ACK in order for the loco not to crawl off the end of the programming track. Take care. Nick

Hi, I have a guess of how (assuming you were within earshot of the loco all the time the DCC power was on and the loco never moved). The motor could have been fed with high frequency pulses from the decoder (the current going in one direction and then going in the other). Many DCC decoders put out high frequency pulses to the motor but only in one direction (current wise) for a loco going forward and the opposite direction for the loco going in reverse. These pulses can be above the frequency range of human hearing. DCC decoders don't normally produce any motor pulses at speed step 0. I see you didn't ask why, an answer to that may need to be more information provided. What does 'part built class 25' entail?. What is the white plastic shown and what temperature does the plastic melt at?. Who is Mark Miller?. Can you show very clear photos of the DCC decoder, the PCB on the top of the loco and any wiring you have added. Take care. Nick

Hi, Great photo. Does any one happen to know if the big building to the left was the cinema in Petts Wood (on the Queensway, named the Embassy at one stage?). I don't know Petts Wood but I am building a model cinema for a South London layout so background info is useful. I noted the lack of limited clearances signs on the visible ends of the rail overbridge in the foreground - did they come in roughly at the same time as the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974?. There might be signs parallel to the running rails. There is a mismatch in the alignment of the first two coaches - signs of too much lateral play in the bogie suspension?. Take care. Nick

Hi, Out of interest are there any visible differences between a phase 1 unit and a phase 2 unit (apart from the commonwealth bogies)?. Take care. Nick

Hi, According to the Southern Railway E-Group some later batches of 4-CEPs were built with commonwealth bogies (to improve the ride). I think the south coast is ~Dover to Land's End, did you mean Kent coast?. Take care. Nick

Hi, Good on him, but is it a kid goat?. Take care. Nick

Hi, How long before Donald Trump thinks the pandemic was caused by pandas - 'the clue is in the name - I knew all along - I'm a great thinkerer, I'm great, I grate, condoms for Pandas - they're breeding way too much in Panda land, I'll phone the head panda in Pandamonium right away'. Take care. Nick

Hi, Is Charity an unusual girl?. Take care. Nick

Hi, Half parrot half teddy bear surely?. Take care. Nick

Hi, Before the UK COVID19 crisis my brother in law applied to do shifts as a casual worker with Royal Mail. Since the crisis the volume of E-mails for shifts available increased considerably . He can't do them as he is now self isolating as he has managed chronic respiratory conditions which make him vulnerable to COVID19 complications. He volunteered to work from home for the NHS coordinating calls to vulnerable people but they haven't tasked him yet - but there is a surplus of volunteers. Take care. Nick

Hi, I wish I'd had that info when I built my MTK Ex 4 SUB de-icer. I hope I got the coach and unit numbers on my unit right. I think I've got a spare Hornby 2-BIL motor bogie (minus the side frames) that might be able to replace my Southern Pride motor bogie (which has a live chassis/motor and not that easy to DCC). I've got a milling machine so if I could get a chunk of steel delivered I might be able to make a Hornby 2-BIL motor mount/weight. I would have to strengthen the MTK aluminium floor to take the extra weight. I suspect the Hornby 2-HAL motor bogie would be a better slow speed runner as I think it has a different motor more suited to starting with the frictional load caused by the large weight. Take care. Nick

Hi, Isn't there blue light bouncing off the ceiling and a light source low and to the left (its casting a sharp shadow to the right). Take care. Nick

Hi, I stand corrected about the instruments. Just the background illuminated in blue from left and low like in a TV or film drama and the foreground illuminated from right side in cool white. 'Photoshop' of two image sources or a posed photo for TV/film/drama/book publicity?. Take care. Nick

Hi, Yes, the 'instruments' on the table are DIY tools, hairdressers scissors and a kitchen ladle. No scalpels, no motorised surgical saws. The morgue scene is illuminated in blue. The foreground is illuminated in white. Take care. Nick

Hi, Another factor might be the number of underground railway lines of various types in London and the large number of interchange stations/transport hubs. I saw a TV programme about Sydney's commuter lines and appeared they were mainly above ground and there was less enclosed interchange points. Also space is at a premium in the UK especially in the most populous areas so more people may have got close enough to others to get infected. Also the UK is coming out of winter and Australia is going towards autumn so may not have so many coughs and sneezes. Germany may have a more efficient public transport system than the UK with greater carriage space per head so virus exposure time and distance between travellers may result in less infections in a short time. It may turn out that the distance between people is critical - I haven't seen any scientific info on this - it may be impossible to collect this information as deliberate infection of people is unethical and there may be no quick test at the moment for virus presence on surfaces. Take care. Nick

Hi, Maybe the death rate is not the most important factor to a country's health service ability to continue to be effective. The efficiency of the virus in infecting health workers and their house mates is probably important to that effectiveness. More morgues can be built but trained staff can't be created in weeks or months. The rough value of the lethality of the virus may not be important to a nations leaders at this stage (the order of magnitude is). Maybe death rates for this virus at this stage are largely dependent on exposure (geography, human factors, PPE), testing capability, existing health of population, age distribution, health service capability, effective health communication. Regards Nick

Hi, Yes, in the absence of info I could find as to whether very short car journeys are a greater risk than walking I drove to my local UK supermarket to do a food shop that should last a week. The pavements in my town are less than 2 metres wide and I can't carry a weeks shopping. Still little pasta or vegetarian protein in that shop and I forgot to look in case there a couple of foods that would be useful for me were back in stock (I had a lurghi a few weeks ago and I feel I should build my strength up). I wish I'd bought more parts in previous years to complete my model railway projects but I didn't have the money. Take care. Nick