NIK

Hi, Whilst getting traction data for my experimental Gradient and Curve calculator I noticed I sometimes got variable results for the amount a loco could pull depending on what loco had been on the track before. Suspecting tiny amounts of oil were getting on the inside edge of the rail I tried putting small amounts of talcum powder on the loco wheels to soak up the oil. The pull of the loco increased well beyond the norm. Like graphite, talc is often said to reduce friction but I guess it depend on the application. Talc is too white for most model railway track but the brown variant of Fuller's Earth?. Regards Nick

Hi, Fifty kOhms between the rails should not cause DCC locos to slow down. However the resistance at DCC voltages (as opposed to what the DMM applied) may be much less. With conductive particles closely packed in a dielectric like a mix of air and glue once the voltage gets above a certain level the dielectric starts to breakdown and conduct. The goods yard on a club layout I'm involved with is ballasted with powder collected from a foundry. It is thought to be used casting sand which had a resin coating which is now blackened. I tested its resistance in powdered form but I should have tested it once glued down with ~14V applied. Time will tell if we've made a big mistake. Regards Nick

Hi, A bridge rectifier may improve the DMMs ability if the DCC waveform voltage rise and fall times are fast. DCC is symmetric both in voltage and pulse timing (except during the short Railcom messaging? - if turned on). What I think may be better is a high speed bridge rectifier plus a small capacitor to smooth the rectified signal. The DMM should then display the DCC voltage minus the voltage drop across the rectifier. Regards Nick

Hi, You may find if you look at the manuals for the Gaugemaster decoder and the Zimo decoder that the Zimo has more features and that some CVs are configured differently. One or more Bachmann decoder models are currently made by Zimo. Regards Nick

Hi, DCC ready means the loco has a DCC socket but no DCC decoder. As supplied it will have a blanking plug fitted so it can be run on DC. So the loco needs the inductors and capacitor in order to be EMC compliant when run without a DCC decoder. They are meant to have no noticeable effect to the driver of a DC model loco. Regards Nick

Hi Ron, That's not the reason. DC locos require Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) circuitry and in recent decades this has been done by two inductors and one or more capacitors. A DCC ready loco often has the inductors and capacitors in miniature form and are more difficult to identify. I overstated the extent to which those components may be on the DCC blanking plug. However as far as I know no DCC decoders require them to be fitted and I think the opposite is true. Regards Nick

Hi, I bought an Ultrasonic cat deterrer and next door's cat would put its head right up to the speaker. I couldn't even sit in the garden watching the birds on the feeder as the cat destroyed the joints on my camping chair. I then watched the birds from inside the house and the cat tried to jump up on my shoulders, missed and was left hanging from one claw in one of my arm muscles. Regards Nick

Hi Ron, Those things that look like resistors are probably inductors. You may not see inductors and capacitors on other locos as they have been miniaturised and often fitted to the DCC blanking plug. If the resistor like things are inductors and you don't intend on removing your DCC decoder in the future you can remove them and the capacitors. DCC decoders shouldn't need them and some even perform motor control less well if they are present. You can check if they are resistors with a multimeter (loco not touching railway track etc), if they are under a few ohms they are probably inductors. Regards Nick

Hi, I haven't seen any mention of the quality of the models in the announcements apart from the name Railroad Plus being applied to some 'Limby' items. As you mention does the APT tilt?. It is only going to have an 8 pin DCC socket so is unlikely to have cab lights. Will it have eight wheel drive and twin flywheels or four wheel drive and a Pendolino like motor bogie?. Regards Nick

Hi, I think it was a Soundtraxx MC1 and is now an ESU Lokpilot Standard. If you do online purchases Digitrains have 38 Zimo MX638Ds in stock. Coastal DCC have some as well. Regards Nick

Hi, I don't think Back EMF compensation is needed to provide acceleration and deceleration. I used to have a home made DC controller with inertia to do a similar thing and that had no Back EMF compensation. If Hornby do include Back EMF compensation by Pulse Width Modulation hopefully they will do it at high enough frequency that coreless motors are not damaged. Regards Nick

Hi, I don't think Hornby TTS decoders currently have a start voltage CV or a speed table. Regards Nick

Hi, As has been pointed out to me its not the first system to do this. It uses Bluetooth, NFC only has a range of 100mm or so. There is a maximum of 12 points or other accessories per smartphone. Regards Nick

Hi, I think it only allows a maximum of 12 points or other accessories. I haven't found a mention of whether it can cope with trains being driven from one track to another. Regards Nick

Hi John, I though Blue Rail was control of locos directly by wireless. The Hornby system is control of DC/accessory controllers by wireless, then wires to the tracks etc. Even less revolutionary perhaps. Regards Nick

Hi, It could be Heisenberg's loco but I'm not certain ;-). Regards Nick

Hi, Interesting video. The in cab picture quality didn't seem that high and seemed a bit jerky. I wonder if they slightly smoked the cab windows of the locos to make the camera less obvious when viewed from the side. Regards Nick

Hi, I was quoting CS233's reference to mass production as I was confused as to the linking of the phrase mass production to items whose increased price is now justified on the grounds that they are not mass produced. I've worked in a factory that had an injection moulding machine but I never worked in Triang/Hornby even when they were producing a small range of locos. As various commentators have mentioned the range of model loco classes in particular has expanded a lot whilst the cost of UK housing has gone up. If the average UK wage earner had more spare cash then cost of model railways might be less of a consideration for model railway manufacturers. As to quality control mobile phones and the like may have more qualities in common that can be checked by automated equipment than model railway items. Regards Nick

Hi, I thought the reason given for the recent price rises of RTR model railways that don't seem to have happened with other products was that they weren't mass produced. Regards Nick

Hi, I agree about the demands for model realism being in conflict with the practicalities of drivers eye view systems. Maybe the camera could be mounted at the back of the drivers cab. I agree the model windows might need improving to get good enough optical quality. The topic was Hornby and as Hornby tend not to go in for retrofitting so changing the front of a loco to add a camera lens may not come into play. As to cost Bachmann have included a servo operated pantograph to their class 90 and manual controls to their steam crane. So they have judged play value may pay off. People are paying up to £120 for DCC sound decoders to add to their OO or smaller locos. Regards Nick

Hi, Since the Hornby 4 VEP features towards the end of their recent TV advert(s) there must a small chance the 4 VEP will reappear possibly with slight improvements. I've been told the 2nd hand price for Hornby 4VEPs is high but whether todays Hornby typical RRP would be lower I don't know. Having seen the high quality of the image from a £20 HD cube camera on the end of a OO flat wagon streaming to a smartphone via Wifi I would say the technologies almost there for drivers eye view but the repackaging and EMC certification costs may be too high for Hornby (unless one of their continental companies has done it already). Fitting the camera and transmitter into a modern design of diesel or electric loco/MU would be a challenge as might be getting the radio signal past the chassis block (when the chassis block is between the transmitter and the Wifi Access point, say on some curves). Regards Nick

Hi Paul, I bow to your superior knowledge. I have ideas for a long term project that uses Augmented Reality to overlay the DCC addresses of locos/multiple units on the screen of a smartphone pointed at a model railway layout. It could be extended so that once the train had been consisted a train menu came up on the screen and the train description selected by touch. Happy New Year. Nick

Hi Simon, If you can accept manual input to select the train ID and you have a Wifi enabled Raspberry Pi and a smartphone then maybe you could set up a JMRI panel to be viewed via a web browser with sensor icons on the screen which you touch to select which train for the train info system. If you have the above hardware then that might be the cheapest way to select the train and address your requirement of expandability. If you don't have a Wifi Pi or a smartphone then a 7" HDMI touchscreen connected to the Pi might do (start at £24 on AliExpress). Regards Nick

Hi, I'm not the only one. The Class 47 was one of the early Heljan OO models and I think others also had motor problems with that type. Others have reported motor problems with early Heljan OO Class 17 models. I saw a club members Limby diesel's wiring loom burn out when the loco derailed and 'shorted' a 5 Amp DCC power district (since reduced to 3 Amp). The first Dapol OO Class 73 I bought had a fault when a DCC decoder was plugged in. To get it running temporarily I disconnected the lighting connections. I've been told about various OO diesel/electric locos where the grease in the gear towers has hardened, slowing the loco and presumably increasing the current draw. My new style all wheel drive Hornby HST already draws over 500ma just to turn it wheels at 12V DC (500ma is the maximum for the Hornby HST TTS DCC Sound decoder). Its top speed has already dropped from 143 scale mph to 129mph. Regards Nick

Hi, I had a Heljan Class 16 whose motor went very low resistance when running in on DC. I had a Heljan Class 47 whose motor died during DC running in but I don't remember if went low resistance. If the Cl16 had had certain types of DCC decoder in it that don't shut down the motor drive in the case of an overcurrent then the DCC decoder could have been damaged and possibly caused local overheating of the loco body. Also running on a DC controller that happens not to have back emf* compensation allows for better diagnosis of faults with the loco. * no compensation trying to hide variations in speed. I agree it would seem unlikely that locos are run in on DC before they have their DCC decoders fitted at the factory, but maybe that's the manufacturer trading off manufacturing costs vs. warranty costs. Regards Nick