NIK

Hi, Its just over a week until Beggarwood Lane goes to our club's own exhibition in Basingstoke. Impossible to make know exactly what stock will be there but there should be Spratt and Winkle coupled stock in the yard. Many EMUs including a 13 car Boat Train. Hopefully at least one 4VEP after wheel flange reduction. A number of interegional trains including block freights. At least one 2-Hampshire unit. A 4TC with Class 33/1. Other Southern Region locos such as Class 73 and 71. Possibly a 4TC/REP combo. Four or five 2-EPBs coupled together. 2-BIL and 2-HALs may make an appearance. An inspection saloon and loco might make a short train. Units that are DCC’d but can’t run for some reason could be parked in the MU sidings. We will probably try to run a very frequent service but with no service trains doing two laps or more on the trot. Doesn’t mean we won’t be asked to test run a loco for someone who wants to buy one from a stand at the show. Regards Nick Murphy (on behalf of the Basingstoke and North Hants Model Railway Society - still looking for members)

Hi, Spa baths are even worse, more conductive electrolyte. Probably why the Romans liked spas and used lead plumbing but didn't use electricity. When I visited Sydney gardens I was expecting to see overhead electrification but at least it was better for photography. Nice art museum in the gardens. I was almost inspired to build a model of Bath gas works and its compact and extensive railways after seeing a model of it at Bath Industrial Museum. Regards Nick

Hi, Bath electrification rarely a good thing especially a two bar fire dropped in at the tap end. I think they lowered the tracks through Sydney gardens and put up an ugly fence in preparation. Regards Nick

Hi, If you can power as many accessories as possible* from a separate supply that will help reduce the current draw on the DCC command station. *Not all accessory decoders allow a sperate supply. As to locos bridging the join between two power districts - the two districts need to have the same voltage and then little extra current flows through the locos wiring. The two power districts output the same DCC waveform so there are no problems with DCC decoders. Regards Nick

Hi, It looks like its made by Liasdcc. Regards Nick

Hi, Many thanks, a diddy board indeed. Regards Nick

Hi, Very useful information. Any idea where on Digitrains website they are located - I can't find them. Regards Nick

Hi, I was thinking of modelling Reigate because of the third rail spur from Redhill and the sidings. There was a model of Redhill station in one of the mags recently but the platforms had been reduced to 8 coaches and the junction lines didn't diverge as much as the real thing. I'd been hoping for a 43XX mogul until it was announced but now I can add a Manor to my wish list. Regards Nick

Hi, The announcement says they were lightweight 4-6-0s but were they light enough for Reading-Redhill?. I only ask as I model Reading to Tonbridge and I like to get models of locos that ran on the line. Regards Nick

Hi, Zimo budget range, £20. Regards Nick

Hi, I'm not sure what research has been done in to DCC loco performance vs DC. The voltage may be higher in DCC on average but its current that sustains arcs between closely gapped metal rails and pickups. The current profile depends on the motor current profile and the performance of any capacitors associated with the decoder. The more efficient the motor and the larger the capacitor the lower the peak current to the decoder and so arcs are harder to sustain. Plus the current switches direction thousands of times a second with the risk of quenching the arcs. I found that trains ran less well on my DCC test track after I discovered and removed a capacitor across the rails inside a DC designed track feed section. DCC stay alives may improve the powering of DCC decoder logic and loco motors but whether the bigger capacitor the better may not be quite so clear cut. Something that I have heard about is interference with Wifi throttles at large exhibitions. Not a DCC specific problem but any delays or missing messages between throttle and loco could lead to poor running. Regards Nick

Hi, There is also the cost of painting, finishing, assembly and packaging in the UK. I agree it does sound cheap. Regards Nick

Hi, As to the question of extra operators, even if you can get them there may be a need for an extra car and possibly more hotel rooms thus reducing the chances of being chosen by exhibition managers. Getting on and staying on the exhibition circuit before the layout gets too old or the layout team break up is difficult. On Beggarwood Lane (at the Basingstoke show in 2 weeks time) we now have the goods yard operator sitting at the front of the layout on a low chair so they can chat to the public without spoiling the view too much. I'm looking at the possibility of autostaging in the fiddle yard where as trains leave the others shuffle up towards the exit of the fiddle yard. This should allow more trains per hour to run. The problem is the cost or complexity of the sensors even with DCC. Regards Nick

Hi, Its only two weeks to go until Beggarwood Lane goes to our clubs exhibition in Basingstoke. The two left hand boards have the main scenery done: Also the other two end boards have more scenic sections roughed in: The industrial siding top right can't be seen from the front of the layout and the tramway style infill has not been added yet. Marks made by dirty footprints on the backscene have been painted over. Regards Nick Murphy (on behalf of the Basingstoke and North Hants Model Railway Society - still looking for members)

Hi, On some exhibition layouts the trains can't be seen by the operators often because of the backscene. Combine this with dirty wheels, tired or inexperienced operators and lack of knowledge of how other owners locos behave and good running may become the exception. If the layout is DCC then the momentum feature may help but it may be set very low to speed up fiddle yard operations. DCC may bring more consistent speed. Many exhibition layouts can only be set up in full at exhibitions. Pickups on RTR stock seems to be getting worse. Some O gauge modellers are fitting Stay alive capacitors on DCC fitted locos to bridge 5 second interruptions. I'm not sure that should be necessary with the weight of O gauge locos and the physical attributes to fit reliable pickups. Friction in RTR locos seems to be getting higher making starting and stopping more unpredictable. At one club open day I was distracted by a dog that trotted into the building, took my sandwiches from inside my bag, ate them and pee'd on one of my stock boxes. At the last IMREX show in Westminster I was the only operator on a club layout at the start of the first day due to a late running train and puffs of smoke started coming from the points. The hall had underfloor heating and a glazed roof where the Easter sunshine was streaming in. The rails next to the ends of the live frogs had expanded and were heating up due to partial shorts. I was lucky enough to help operate a club layout at Warley and all sorts of operators and stock appeared that were new to the layout and untested. Regards Nick

Hi, Every product is a combination of what it cost to develop and produce and what price the market will stand. There are a lot of different types of DCC socket but not all can fit into all locos. In the US where DCC was popular earlier than in the UK there are a range of decoders made for particular locomotives (the locos original PCB is replaced with a PCB with the decoder soldered on). So having plug in decoders may give the consumer more choice. Also DCC is still evolving and the number of lights and other accessories on locos/multiple units is increasing. Sound decoder manufacturers keep in business by protecting their sound files against copying. So the use of memory cards is unlikely. Also having a card socket may mean taking the body off a loco to update the sounds and will increase the size and cost of the decoder. Regards Nick

Hi, The sound decoder hardware is not mass produced with respect to consumer electronics. Like most surface mount electronics they are involve pick and place machines which take labour to set up. Say a batch of ten thousand is made per DCC socket type per year the setup labour costs have to be spread across only ten thousand modules. The sound files and sound playing/mixing/motor control software are not mass produced they have to be recorded/ written by skilled people. If there was just one sound file for all locos steam and diesel the cost would be a bit cheaper. I think it is unlikely that there will be a sound decoder with preloaded sounds for ten pounds as ten pounds is the asking price for the cheapest non sound DCC decoder. Model railways would be more widely used if they were cheaper but that's no argument for much lower prices. Hornby got into financial difficulties and withdrew a lot of their range. Bachmann have put up their prices in order to remain in business. Regards Nick

Hi, If there were just one locomotive available and in only one scale and not too detailed then maybe it could be produced by a lot of automation and the cost could be lower. With so many model railway items being produced, many of specialist interest and to a very high standard of detail, keeping the costs down is difficult. Many locos and rolling stock seem to be of exhibition standard and in the case of diesel and electric locos difficult to model except by high quality plastic injection moulding. Regards Nick

Hi, Its just over three weeks until Beggarwood Lane goes to our club show at Basingstoke. A problem is that we have lots of Hornby 4 VEPs but we can't run them due to the flanges being too deep for the track. One second hand 4 VEP has just had the flanges on the power car reduced in height by spinning the wheels in a chuck and applying a swiss file. The VEP now awaits testing. However a faster and more precise method of reducing the flanges is needed. The team have access to a milling machine but the collet holder leaves the collet recessed so a lathe tool can't get in to reach the flange. Perhaps a custom collet will do the job but that will probably have to be made on the mill which currently has a 16mm as the biggest collet that goes in the holder. The idea is to use a jubilee clip to tighten up the collet (which will have thin slots in it to allow it to be tightened). As the wheel tyre is about 13.5 mm diameter that leaves only 1mm for the wall thickness at the business end of the collet. That might be enough as the wall only has to be that thin for a few mm so that the wheel can sit in a recess with a bit of the tyre proud so the lathe tool (clamped in a machine vice on the mills compound table) can take about 0.3mm off the depth of the flange. The jubilee clip might also be able to grip the thin section to stop it flexing too much. Regards Nick Murphy (on behalf of the Basingstoke and North Hants Model Railway Society - still looking for members)

Hi, What does your decoder manual say?. Regards Nick

Hi, Its less than a month until Beggarwood Lane goes to our club's own 2 day exhibition at Basingstoke. Stuart has been adding a higher wall behind the pub on Board B to stop the customers taking a short cut across the railway. Robs been working on the town scene and has also been adding buildings and scenery to the right most scenic board (see photo). The scatter at the front was still being glued by PVA so the white should disappear. Where possible a weight is placed on a building while the glue is setting (see attached photo). The island platform being glued down. A retired battery is being used as a weight. Only the very end of the platform is visible, a more extreme version of what we had on our previous layout SE28. A disadvantage is that even if a clockwise train stops at the very end of the platform it wont be very obvious especially when buildings are added in front of the platform to disguise the hole in the backscene. Perhaps we could add a visitor information monitor to highlight a train has arrived - there is a Raspberry Pi 3B under this baseboard driving the cinema screen and the station sound effects so maybe it could be swapped for a Pi 4B with its two video outputs. Might have to add another track circuit and connect to the MERG CBUS so the info display can be triggered automatically. If we add RFID tags to the trains in the future that might help with displaying accurate info on the train. Regards Nick Murphy (on behalf of the Basingstoke and North Hants Model Railway Society - still looking for members)

Hi, Aren't most Bachmann multiple units diesel or electric now around £100 to £125 RRP per coach?. If so why the surprise about the 4 BEP price?. Regards Nick

Hi, Zimo also do a 21 pin DCC decoder for £20. Regards Nick

Hi, The RRP for new 4CEPs is also £449.95. Kernows 4-TCs were manufactured before a series of price rises by Bachmann. I wouldn't expect any changes to the 4BEP over the 4CEP except maybe to make assembly easier. The 4CEPs like Bachmann's 2-EPB had interior lighting, directional lights and all wheel pickup. Regards Nick