pctrainman

Hi , I a few months ago I purchased an N gauge Bachman 4MT tank , I ran it in on DC and it appeared to be fine so I then fitted a Lenz Silver mini and the problems began I had not realised that the cylinders are held in place by the body and it's screws and the cylinders promptly fell off , they are a devil to get back on again but I eventually cracked it , but since then it does not run at all well appearing to jam up intermitently , I then noticed that where the rods attach to the centre pair of driving wheels there is a hex headed screw which had come loose , I tightened it with the only small tool I had which was a pair of flat ended tweezers , it ran better but still was'nt right and then I noticed that the screw was coming loose again , my question is , should I Loctite it ? and secondly does anyone have a clue as to what size the tiny little hex headed screw is so I can hunt down a Spanner ?, I would just send it back to Bachman but my inattention with the cylinders makes me think it's not their fault .

Believe you me Norski there were many occasions during the scenic work when I wished i'd gone for OO and still do at times but my space was very limited and there was no way I could obtain any more so N it had to be .You do get used to it after a while and it becomes easier , the only other advice I can give is be patient and take your time as it's much better to let a small section you have just glued dry thoroughly and then attach it to a larger piece than to not let it dry properly and have it fall apart in your hands , when you've finished your card structures I also can recommend Ghiant as both a UV protector and to also protect the card should you decide to add some paint weathering etc .I used PVA for the majority of the work , occasionally i used a little UHU although I think I only used some UHU when I had run out of PVA for a while and I used Rocket where I wanted an almost instant joint .have fun Norski , I dreaded the scenic work but I surprised myself by achieving something i'm very happy with whereas conversely I thought i'd love the Traincontroller and electronics work but found them to be the biggest headache .

I did a complete Metcalfe mainline station in N gauge using just one Swann Morton blade , you do get blades snap when perhaps they are at an awkward angle but for my entire 5 foot X 3 foot 3 inches layout build I used no more than 10 blades , the station is by far the largest card structure on my layout as in corporates extra canopies and an island platform but there were also some smaller structures as well as a few other things demanding the use of a blade .

I can't comment on de luxe but I have tried rail zap 2 and I noticed no difference whatsoever , I now use Isopropyl follwed by a quick rub with a Graphite stick and that is so far the best option i've found .

Hi , I have a Jinty and a 08 and both are DCC , however neither of them are yet reliable enough to give me the precise running I need for full Computer control , later this year I am going to be sending them off to have stay alives fitted ( it's beyond me ) and hopefully that will do the trick .

Thanks guys , Ebay have some Farish ones at a fair price so i'm going to go for those .

Hi , I have the need to replace the plastic wheelsets on my N Peco wagons , I don't want plastic , what wheelsets would fellow members recommend ?.

I thought as I found a phone number for DCC concepts I would give them a bell , a very helpful guy I spoke to was familiar with the Uncouplers and told me that their unit would handle them and 18 Volts easily , so that's the way i'm going to go , thank you all for your help , it is much appreciated .

Hi , I now have an accurate measurement of the current draw , it is peaking at 086 Amps with the multimeter set in the 200M range , i'll fire off an email to DCC concepts and see what they say , as soon as I know I promise to report back , oh and Nick don't worry about what you describe as a red herring , I was hazily aware that the LS 100's sequential addressing had been known to cause problems on layouts with lots of point changes but i'm fairly confident that my low usage means that i'll hopefully not encounter that problem .

Hi Nick , I was starting to think my multimeter must be faulty ( I had it set in the 2 Amp range) when I found a Post from a Guy who had done what I want to do and he stated that the Seep uncouplers only draw a few Milliamps at most but do work best with 18-20 volts DC , unfortunately he did not say what accessory decoder he was using but at a few Milliamps i'm guessing that anything that can handle 18 Volts DC should do the trick , do you know of anything that can handle 18 volts DC input ?.oh and btw the uncouplers will never be used both at the same time .

As usual a problem seemingly solved turns out to throw up another problem ( possibly ) , my LS 100's use the Lenz LA010 3 wire to 2 wire adaptors so everything is ok there , I have looked at the switch 8 and it states " not for Cobalt" so I don't think I can use it with my system , but having said that I don't envisage too many problems caused by the Lenz sequential addressing as the use of the various points on my layout will not be very heavy ie it has inner and outer loops connected by a scissors crossing with the inner loop connected to 6 sidings via a double slip a 3 way asymetric and 1 left hand turnout and there is also a branch line connected to the inner loop and which also acts as the entrance path to the sidings , the sidings will be worked ( low useage) by 2 shunters ( Jinty and 08 ) but neither of these will leave the sidings so the only point changes will be by a 4MT which will make very infrequent visits to a coaling tower within the sidings from it's point of origin ( a loco maintenance shed ) located in a further 2 track siding ,it will stop and pick up coal and then return to the maintenance shed and then repeat after a set time ,point changes will be kept to a minimum so i'm hoping the LS100's will cope ..I should perhaps mention at this point that I use Railcom with 2 X 16 zone ( blocks) DCC4PC railcom reader boards acting as occupancy detectors and also passing railcom info to TC via the Tams RC interface .I should perhaps add that the scissors will most likely end up almost redundant as at the moment i'm not planning on switching locos from one loop to another ie they will stay on either the inner or outer loop with the only complication being in the form of 2 DMU's which will operate shuttles between the branchline station and the mainline stations number 3 platform which is the track that also leads into the group of 6 sidings.The Seeps require 18 volts DC and the max input on an LS150 is 16 volts AC so it would appear to be unsuitable , what I appear to need is a 2 output accesory decoder that can handle 18 volts DC and also give an estimated 2-3 second pulse , do either of you have any ideas there ?.

Hi John , thank you for the reply , I do indeed use Accessory decoders for my code 55 points and Cobalt analogue PM's , I have 4 Lenz LS 100's but all are fully used , do you know if the cheaper LS 150 would do the job ? thank you for the TC info as it will give me a good starting point to achieve what I need , TC and myself are still getting to know each other and i've got a hell of a lot to learn .

Hi , I have a Lenz LZV 100 based system in N which uses TC Gold 9 for automation , the layout has 2 Seep Electromagnetic uncouplers in the sidings powered by a dedicated 18 volt DC regulated PSU , the layout is 99% complete with just TC requiring fine tuning , I want to control the 2 seeps via TC but am unsure of the best route to take to integrate the Seeps into TC ie what would be the best way to interface the Seeps with TC and also how should I set up TC to handle the task ?.

Interesting pics Rugd , I had seen the one showing the poor condition of the roof already and must admit that when I saw it I did wonder how a 1950's Mk1 had deteriorated so badly by 63 but of course I now know that it was'nt a Mk 1 , I have been trying to research the event as I intend to model it albeit in a much reduced way due to my layout not being very large , in the New Year I will contact etched Pixels as it appears that they may just do the kits that I need for some advice on exactly what I need to purchase to construct an ex LMS TPO.

Thank you Gents , so it was'nt a Mk 1 , was it therefore based on a Stanier ? and bearing in mind that i'm modelling in N does anyone know of a kit or maybe some conversion parts to turn a Stanier into a TPO ? or is there a better way to end up with a convincing likeness of an ex LMS TPO ?.

I'm not sure what happened to my text but here it is again , can anyone confirm that the BR MK1 TPO which was involved in the great train robbery was in BR Maroon as shown on the Cinema film ? photos taken at the time are in Black and White and so are of no help .

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Reeves White Acrylic , it comes in a plastic tube and covers everything i've asked it to .

Hi Mike , I have to be honest and say that i'm not sure if I tried disabling BEMF , I have a new Loco to address this week so when i've done that i'll use decoder pro to have another go at the CT chip .

Hi Alan , just to say that i'm having no problems hearing Rudys voice although there is a slight lack of quality to the sound in this video compared to previous vids .

I do use decoder pro with a sprog but have'nt done much programming other than the Jinty as with my other locos the Lenz Gold and Silver minis I use give me what I need straight out of the box , I would appreciate Izzys settings though Chris as it may give me a better idea if i'm close to the optimum or way off the mark .

Hi Chris , I have tried to get this Jinty to run as I need but no end of CV tweaking has helped beyond a slight improvement , so i'm now thinking that I need to get someone more competent than me to implement Izzys solution by removing the PCB and fitting a wired decoder plus stay alive Capacitors if there is room , if anyone knows of a good and reliable N gauge Loco Doctor who could do this work i'd very much appreciate a reply .

I used Ghiant inkjet fixative spray on my Metcalfe buildings and it did the job of protecting the printed card very well , it's not cheap but I used less than half a can for a mainline station with island platform and canopies plus 3 workers cottages and a small building that comes with a Metcalfe engine shed , I model in N so if you're in oo you'll obviously use more .

When I weather an item I keep this mind " no matter how over enthusiastic you think your weathering may have been you only need to look at the prototype to see that nature can and often will leave you far behind" ,

No need for apologies POB , I did'nt get what they are carrying right , I do have it all sorted now though with the arrival of some Dapol 6 wheel milk tanks .and if anyone needs some 4 wheelers in Express dairies livery they'll shortly be on Ebay ( 3 off) .