NIK

Hi, Ian or the other Basingstoke Bodgers can give you the full SP but its the heat layout Santa's Holiday that's going to be on the Peco stand at Warley. Their layout built in the TV final was difficult to dismantle and transport by courier back to the Basingstoke club. The bulk of the layout from the final is being reworked as a 2mm scale exhibition layout featuring an improved bridge over the Tamar and lower level tracks parallel to the river. I think the atmospheric railway is to be re-used on another layout/diorama. Regards Nick (on behalf of the Basingstoke and North Hants Model Railway Society - still looking for new members).

Hi, There was a book called "Diesels on the Southern" which includes inter-regional workings to the Southern Region. Here's some sort of list of Green and Pre-BR blue Diesels on the Southern Region: Southern Region based: Class 24 Class 33 Class 08 Class 47 Visitors: Class 15 Class 20 Class 27 Class 31 Class 35 Class 40 Class 42/43 Class 45/46 Class 52 I think the 40, 45 and 46 were all on passenger services. Regards Nick

Hi, Here's a photo of part of Santa's Holiday being restored to working order in order to be on the PECO stand at Warley. Nick (on behalf of the Basingstoke and North Hants Model Railway Society - still looking for new members).

Hi, Not so much is being done on Beggarwood Lane on club evenings while projects related to the Great Model Railway Challenge take up time and space: Also in the foreground of the photo a new reception desk is being made for our next exhibition in March 2019. In the left of the photo work is being done on Santa's Holiday - the Basingstoke Bodgers layout from the heat of the Great Model Railway Challenge which is being restored to working order to go on the PECO stand at Warley this month. Out of sight (for confidentiality reasons) is the layout from the final. Four of the scenic boards from Beggarwood Lane are in the right of the photo and hidden behind it is the layout built for the Radio Times to publicise the Great Model Railway Challenge. Kit built buffer stops have been installed in the goods yard and isolation provided in the buffer stops and on the track below to minimise the risk of short circuits. Stuart is making a nice looking goods shed for Beggarwood and has started a brick wall on a small embankment at the front of the goods yard. Its intended to stop locos derailing off the layout on to the floor and also to protect the scenery against small children hanging by their fingers from the front of the layout. Many exhibitions provide barriers but not many barriers can stop a determined child. The embankment and wall is made of strong wood. A new member Mark suggested adding speedometers for the mainline tracks on the scenic boards, the rest of the Beggarwood crew agreed and its now been mentioned to the club as whole. Its intended to try and use the MERG Hector2 twin Infra Red detector modules intended for the signals and using both Infra Red detectors on the same track suitably spaced. This part and the timing function have been prototyped on a DCC roundy roundy test track. It is hoped that we can add a MERG CBUS interface to allow the speed and location info to be used elsewhere on the layout such as a possible large information display and on the mainline drivers mimic panels. One day we might be able to display the speeds on any drivers smartphones if they use their phones instead of the NCE handsets. Hopefully after Warley things will settle down a bit and we can do more work on Beggarwood Lane down the club. Nick (on behalf of the Basingstoke and North Hants Model Railway Society - still looking for new members).

Hi, Now that the heat that included the Basingstoke Bodgers has been shown on the Great Model Railway Challenge TV show I thought I could mention that I was asked to give them a copy of my experimental Gradient and Curve predictor. Their heat layout 'Santa's Holiday' had the main tracks on a dumbbell with gradients but I don't know whether they used my predictor as their trains were fairly short (you get a lot of elves in one wagon). Regards Nick (Basingstoke and North Hants Model Railway Society member. The society is looking for new members).

Hi, Basingstoke will have their 'Santa's holiday' layout from their heat on the Peco stand at Warley 2018. It should also be at their own exhibition in Basingstoke on the 9th and 10th March 2019. It is planned to be used as childrens layout for subsequent exhibitions and hopefully at open days if there is room. The next open day should be in April 2019. Regards Nick (Basingstoke and North Hants Model Railway Society member. The society is looking for new members.)

Hi TomMcG, Although the tracks you photographed are very simple the track feeds to the locos are via fishplates and possibly via point blades. There is just a chance this is the cause of the flickering lights. Regards Nick

Hi, If the flickering happens when the locos are still then the only things I can think of at present are a possible intermittent disconnection in the wiring between the controller and the track or something causing a very intermittent upset to the track (short enough or not enough current to trip the controller) - could be a faulty capacitor in a track feed if you have any of those. As to the Hattons chip buzzing that could be a decoder related 'feature'. Regards Nick

Hi, The info on the NCE Power Pro is that the power supply voltage is fixed and the output voltage adjustable via an internal variable resistor (accessed through a hole in the case). They recommend DCC output is set to 13.8/14V for HO. Regards Nick

Hi, Did you use an AC ammeter as both the 0.25A and the 0.06A seem a bit low to me (assuming the Co-Bo has the large standard Heljan motor)?. As to voltages when I found a multimeter that would produce a steady readout on DCC it read ~14 volts on my Power Pro system. I read somewhere the Power Cab has a maximum 15 volts DC input and although I don't know what circuitry is inside I would guess at 13.6 volts maximum on the output. The SB3 can tolerate up to 18V DC on its power supply so I would guess at a maximum of 16.6 volts on its output. I found one of my Heljan OO Class 33s would do 135 scale mph on the flat round 3rd radius curves once it was warmed up but I'm not sure if Class 33s went up to Carlisle (Crewe maybe). Also a Hornby Stanier tank on 12V DC nominal and 7' radius curves would do 125 scale mph. Regards Nick

Hi, I haven't got an ABC braking module but looking at the Lenz Standard+ V2 manual you could try values 4, 5, 6 and 7 in CV51 - that should deactivate ABC direction dependency and hopefully make it easier to experiment with ABC braking. Regards Nick

Hi, I'm glad you've found a solution to your Co-Bo slow running. Do you happen to know what sort of voltage/DCC speed step/scale speed you measured those currents at?. I'm compiling a list of current consumption for model locos which I will publish once I've got enough knowledge of how the current consumption varies. Regards Nick

Hi, EDIT: I can't find the reference now - I've found a link to the first 0.8mm pitch IDC http://www.jst.fr/en/product/sur_203 however JST now do 0.6mm pitch but with 0.2A limit. Our clubs DCC layout has had problems with very fine loco wiring on some Hornby locos burning out when a partial short circuit occurs on the track of one bogie and lots of current flows from the pickups on the other bogie. END EDIT. Regards Nick

Hi, What's the name of this German brand please?. Regards Nick

Hi, I see the loco on the left has an 8 pin socket - is has a blanking plug inserted. The socket needs an 8 pin DCC decoder. I see the loco on the right has no DCC compatible socket - it has a 2 pin socket but that is to connect the pickups to the motor. Regards Nick

Hi, Neither can be run on a DCC setup as they are as neither have DCC decoders. The loco on the left is DCC ready - that is it has a socket that a decoder will go into. The loco on the right is not DCC ready - it only has a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and no DCC socket. Regards Nick

Hi, I've measured the 1st pin to 3rd pin on the 3 way connectors on my Heljan Class 16 and its around 1.6mm. Heljan seem to have gone really small on their connectors to accommodate the 21 pin DCC decoder on the OO class 16 and CL128 DPU. The Wikipedia entry is out of date and JST claimed the JST SUR range as the smallest IDC connector in the world. Regards Nick

Hi, Many thanks. So its not the connector the OP and I have on our class 16s which have ~ 0.8mm spacing. Regards Nick

Hi, Just for clarification when you say 2.54mm JST Plug what is the 2.54mm referring to?. The pin spacing on the class 16 which is a narrow bodied loco is about 0.8mm and appears to be the same on the OO Class 128 - another of the more modern chassis with 21 pin decoder socket. Regards Nick

Hi, It looks as though the 2 pin free connector might be a JST 02SUR-32S, a 0.8mm pitch IDC connector. Digikey.co.uk have them along with the same connector with leads - but possibly not one red lead and one black. The delivery charge from Digikey seems to be £12 (+VAT?) for orders under £33. Maybe they are used by Radio Control drone folks to reduce weight and size - could you try online RC shops?. Regards Nick

Hi, Its a very small pitched connector - seems to be around 0.8mm pitch. I will try and track it down. Regards Nick

Hi, That's handy that's the loco I've got - and its body is off at the moment. I will measure up the connector and check with RS, Farnell etc as RAFHAAA96 mentioned. Regards Nick

Hi, Which half of the connector do you want - the free plug or the fixed socket?. Which loco is that - is it a Heljan and what class? - I may have the same so I can have a good look at mine. Any chance of a less shaky photo?. Regards Nick

Hi, I liked the idea of a Yorkshire Doctor Who and I'm hoping for a scruffy Dalek going down hill in a tin bath in the next series. Last of the Summer Exterminations?. Regards Nick

Hi, The paste might end up conducting heat from the power transistors to the microcontroller which might not be a good thing. If the power transistors are on the opposite side from the microcontroller and the paste is used on the power side then it might be beneficial - but only the manufacturers know the performance of the components at temperature. Regards Nick