NIK

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

Hi, As to how they could improve things for a possible next series: Not supply MDF baseboards as the dust may require hoovering up for safety reasons - more noise that the film crew soundpersons don't like and interrupts modelling. Have a venue where the filming is further away from noises such as planes from Heathrow, Peacocks in the garden and 1:1 steam trains (in the final). Be more flexible with the proportions that could be spent with each sponsor. Some teams had £100 for sundries whereas some modellers layouts the sundries cost more than the rest of the layout put together. Be clearer about the rules at the start of the pre-build if possible. Be clear about what rolling stock the teams can provide themselves - I've already seen rolling stock in the first show and the trailer for the second where I'm not sure if they were allowed by the rules. Bachmann and Hornby to hold back rolling stock so there is more choice for the teams. Have each team in a separate building so that there are less interruptions to the modelling in order to record the sound properly. It is not IMO bake off - bake off was largely suitable for cheap filming as there is not much noise. doesn't take too much time and the critical stuff takes place in ovens where the temperature is controlled unlike the venue used for the first GMRC series. Consider changing the scratchbuild challenge, if they are going to big up the teams that take part and encourage teams to take part in a possible second series they might want to take into account that a lot of the top layouts use the best raw materials not the cast offs of three legged relatives (did anyone else spot that?). Regards Nick

Hi, Going back to your great looking 6 REP - how did you do the sides - did MJT sell 4-REP sides in the past?. Regards Nick

Hi, In the first espisode it says the winner will appear at a major model railway show and then they showed a layout at what looked like Warley. I only spotted this on my second viewing as the editing is so fast. So if the aim is Warley then the final has to be aired before it (ie not too many postponements of episodes - unlike the Ryder cup clash which saw the series delayed a week - the second Radio Times edition to mention the series mentions the wrong episode). I don't know how the scaling of the forced perspective terraces was done on the Missenden team's layout but they may have used downloadable kit artwork such as Scalescenes and scaled accordingly. Or they could have scanned Metcalfe (one of the sponsors) kits when they arrive flat and done the same. Regards Nick

Hi, Possibly the stock was as it was due to suitable items not being available from the sponsors. Possibly if this show had been done twenty years ago when production runs of RTR were larger it might have made a difference but then again there would have been a smaller range of prototype stock to choose from. Regards Nick

Hi, Peco was one of the sponsors along with Hornby, Bachmann, Gaugemaster and Deluxe Materials. Might have been Metcalfe as well. Spoiler Alert: I probably misheard but didn't one of the teams say that the Ealing comedies were all about underdogs succeeding against the odds - what about the fate of the main male characters in the Lavender Hill Mob and the Ladykillers?. Regards Nick