Art Dent

Hi I’m fast getting to the point where I’m about to lay track and the DCC buses in my loft layout. DCC controller is NCE Powercab with SB5 booster. I have a 50m reel of 2.5mm2 mains wiring for the DCC bus - the layout will incorporate a double-track loop around the ends and sides of a loft approximately 40ft long and 16ft wide (12m x 4.8m) iirc. The mains wiring ring will be stripped of its outer grey sheath and the bus wires twisted approx once every 6-10 inches. The track will be laid on multiple baseboards - around the 2ft x 4ft (600 x 1200mm) size of the 9mm thick mdf boards that make them up. The idea is for the DCC bus to run up both sides of the loft with the DCC control station/booster situated at one gable end of the loft. My query concerns the passing of the DCC track bus (and separate accessory bus) between one baseboard and the other. The layout isnt intended to be dismantled but if it would be a simple matter to include connectors - without paying too hefty a penalty in terms of voltage drop - then that would be my preferred option. A final query. I think that both DCC buses on either side of the loft need to be separate - forming a ‘Y’ shape from the command station/booster - rather than a loop (or ‘O’ shape) - and include terminators. That is correct isn’t it? Art

Hi, Try a 1k-ohm (1000 ohms / brown/black/red ) 1/4 watt resistor in series with the LED. It makes no matter whether it is in the positive or negative lead. You may find that 1k ohm is too small (in terms of value) and the LED consequently too bright but 1k ohm is a good starting point. Art

Thanks Clive, very helpful. So my two proposed headcodes of 7M58 and 8M16 should really be 8M58 and 9M16. Proposed freight workings are within the LMR region with possibility of Nottingham to Sheffield through freight on an O-gauge shunting plank. Within the LMR would a code of 9M16 be OK for a stopping freight and 8E58 for through freight to Sheffield from Nottingham (or should that be 8H58?) Cheers, Art BTW, is the info you posted about the pre-1969 reallocation/reorganisation of codes available anywhere on the web - so far I haven't found any sources (apart from stuff relating to N.Wales).

Hi Brian, Can you answer the question as nobody else seems to know? Which of the two is more suited to the control desk of a 25 - is it #1105 or #1127? Thanks in anticipation, Art

Hi folks, Quick query. Modelling around 1965/66 era - before the introfuction of the BR Blue Livery. Want to know appropriate train reporting codes for the Nottingham/Derby/Sheffield area for the mid 1960's for a slow freight - say 45mph and, if different 35mph max for partially-fitted or unfitted stock. Can find info for reporting codes post 1976 but not the 1961-76 era. Can anyone help. Would codes such as 8M16 and 7M58 be appropriate (these chosen before realising that the starting codes of '7' and '8' referred to post 1976 times). Thanks in advance, Art

Did this include reversing in the MPD or just when it was out and about? I'm guessing the crew didn't suddenly think "We need to change the headcode at the other end" when, for example, reversing out of the fuelling point Art

Thanks chaps, that's what I thought. Light engine = same code both ends (or was supposed to be same code both ends)? Art

Hi Folks I am starting to put together an O-gauge payout and so far have several wagons and a couple of locos. The locos, soon to be joined by a third, are going off for weathering shortly but before they do, I have a couple of questions. The first relates to 08 shunters and shed plates. Most 08's didn't seem to have shed plates athough I have seen a couple that do (pictures below). My question is this. If they had a shed plate on the front somewhere (e.g. bufferbeam) or on the rear cab, would they also have a shed plate on the other end? I can find, as I said, some examples where for a specific loco I have a picture of the front end or of the cab end, but not of the same loco with a shed plate that shows both ends. Examples: 08425 with shed plate 82C - Dunfermline Upper / Dunfermline Townhill - on the front buffer beam 08852 with shed plate 65A - Eastfield - on the rear buffer beam or 08496 with the shedplate seemingly fixed to the rear of the cab (and painted over??). This loco seems to have spent its entire life at Cambridge (31A) from initial entry to service through to withdrawal. My second question relates to diesels with cabs at both ends and headcodes - e.g. Class 25. Would the driver/secondman of a Class 25 ensure that the headcodes at both ends of the loco were showing the same or didn't it matter except when running light engine - the only code being applicable was that at the front of the train? In other words, when pulling a train, would the headocode facing the train be the same as the headcode above the driving cab? Cheers, Art

Hi Folks, A couple of queries about this model if I may. 1) I wish to put a driver in both ends. Modelu3d have two seated diesel drivers - 1105-043 and 1127-043 (this latter figure specifically labelled 'Class 24 Driver'). Which is correct (or should I say 'more correct' ?) for the Class 25 - is it #1105 or #1127? 2) I would like the tail lights to be switchable via a function key and direction-dependent cab lighting - also switchable via a function key. Obviously the headcode should be direction-dependent and separate from the cab lighting. Hornby Modeller January 2019 (issue 139, pages 94-99) intimated that this requires some modification to the circuitry and/or fabrication of a separate circuit for part of this. Desk lighting linked to the headcode would be fab. Given that the headocde lighting has been separated from the cab lighting - this is a simple enough addition/modification - correct? Just what is possible without modifying the model egarding lighting and secondly, how easy is it to make the necessary modifications? As per the HM article, it would be nice to retain the electrically-operated fan via F15 by connecting the brown wire to function output 5 and altering the following CVs in the ZS25ASL sound-scheme: CV448 = 15, CV450 = 5 and CV452 = 5. Thanks in advance folks. Happy Easter! Art

Jeremy at Digitrains in Lincoln (phone number: 01522 527 731) is extremely helpful (as are the chaps at Coastal DCC - I've had dealings with both). Digitrains sells their own psu < link > which is compatible with the NCE system and delivers 2A Incidentally, just been on the Digitrains websote and they have 12 PowerCab systems in stock < link >. Art

Sorry, I thought I had posted those pictures. Have a look at this thread. The only difference is that for this coach (BCK) the pickups were on the underside of the bogie, wiping against the inside faces of the wheels. In the SK I tried it on the top of the bogie wiping on the edge of the wheels (not recommended as it introduces too much drag). Wiping on the inner face of the wheels - as close to the axle as possible - is probably the best solution. I used phosphor-bronze strips as supplied by Layouts4u.net. Regards, Art

Thank you. This was my second (or third) attempt. The first time I had the pickups on the underside of the bogie rubbing on the backs of the wheels - but these had been blackened and this had to be removed - so I tried a different approach with this one. You make a great point of having the pickup rubbing as close to the axle as possible. Thank you. Art

Irrelevant question posted in haste (!)

Part 2 - Pickups, wiring, testing and completion In this second and final part, I detail the troubles with pickups and wiring as well as testing and completing the project. The lighting kit from layouts4u comes with two phosphor-bronze pickups and some small screws. Initially I thought that these would be a better option than my previous pickups from DCC Components (DCF-WP12), however with the Bachmann coach (and its close-coupler) the DCC Concepts pickup introduces some tricky problems ... Fitting the contact strips to the bogies is easy. You need to drill a 1.0mm hole to accept the screw (here I'm using a 0.95mm drill and a pin vice). In the BCK I had these strips rubbing on the back of the wheels (which were blackened and had to be cleaned, so here I opted to have the strips rub on the tops of the wheels: Remember to solder the wire onto the strips BEFORE fitting to the bogie (unless you like melted plastic) - a tiny drop of solder flux helps enormously (applied with the end of a matchstick). It makes for a nice, neat, unobtrusive job. As before I cut a curved slot into the floor of the coach. The two thin feed wires pass through the slot. and Testing all four wheels, pickups and wires for continuity using a DMM is a good idea at this stage (all was good). The coach was then rested on the bogie and the bogie checked to see if the pickups fouled anything - and they did! There is a very small gap between the inner end of the bogie and the underside of the coach and the pickup strips were fouling on both the inner and outer ends. I thought that bending the strips downwwards cure the problem and it did - partially. The strips still seemed to be fouling on two small protrusions marking the end of the underframe - and these were removed with a Dremel and a Stanley knife blade. Pickup strips as originally fitted - notice how the straight end of the pickup strip protrudes slightly? This fouled on the underside of the coach when the bogie was fitted meaning that the bogie couldn't swivel freely. I wondered whether bending the end of the pickup strips would work. Picture of the fix where the end of the strips are now bent downwads slightly to aviod fouling on the underbody of the coach. This allowed free movement - until I removed the bogie and re-fitted the close-coupler to the bogie. These close couplers really are a HUGE PITA as far as coach lighting goes - they are ALWAYS getting in the way somehow! The wires have to pass through the body where the close-coupler spring is and this causes a problem as the feed wires foul on the spring. I drilled two single holes - one each side of the spring to get around this but then enountered another problem. You need some 'spare' wire to allow the bogie to move left & right and the further away from the bogie pivot, the more spare wire you need. Also, the supplied wires, fine as they are, are a bit too thick to go between the coach chassis and the interior moulding. The thin red & black insulated wire as supplied with the lighting kit is around 0.6mm in diameter. Fine, but the gap between the underside of the interior moulding and the coach floor means that these wires are 'pinched' and this prevents free movement of the bogie. I thought that would be solved by cutting away around 1.5mm of the floor of the interior moulding and whilst I had the Dremel out, I ground away around 1mm (the thickness of the pcb) at the end of the gangway to allow some extra room for the wiring. Before attempting to route the 0.6mm wire around to the sides of the coach, I decided to abandon this approach and use some of the spare enammeled wire that I had from the loco lamps. This fine enamelled 'loco lamp wire' is around 0.1mm in diameter (although this causes its own problems - see later). Above - the 0.6mm wire as supplied in the lighting kit and the enamelled 'loco lamp wire' for comparison. This wire is so fine that if you drop it on a patterened carpet it is almost impossible to see (as experience has taught me). So, back to the pickups and bogie #2... I cut another curved slot cut INSIDE the close-coupler and fitted the fine enamelled wire to the pickups and the pickups to the bogie and and r You can see here how the close-coupler spring interferred with the first slot that I cut. The feed wires to the stay-alive board were shortened and soldered to the feed wires from the bogie together with a 1k5 series resistor. The coach was then placed on the programming track to check the brightness levels. It worked and the brightness seemed to be OK! ... even better in the dark ... The strip was then stuck to the underside of the roof and the body-sides fitted to the interior seat moulding. The coach was then populated by a sprinkling of Bachmann Scenecraft seated coach figures (36-408) strategically placed t hide the odd glue mark when sticking the seat covers in and the capacitor painted with what was supposed to be matt black paint ... ... and from the side it is quite unobtrusive. Another quick check before the roof was clipped on to complete the installation. Finally, some pictures of the completed coach. The capacitor is really very hard to see (would be even harder if I'd mixed the matt black paint thoroughly): The illuminated coach looks very good (IMHO). First one side (corridor): and then the other (compartment side): Now all I need to do is apply some light weathering! Hope you have enjoyed looking at this and that it has in some way inspired you. Given the lack of room inside the coach to fit the stay-alive board and the tremendously irritating close-coupler (it gets in the way constantly) this is not a project to be undertaken lightly (or, indeed, not at all for those with little or no patience or long-sighted people!) Hope you find this useful / informative / inspiring! Take care, Art

Here is another lighting conversion for a Bachmann BR Mk1 Corridor Second (SK) code (39-026) This article was first published on ModelRailForum in January 2017. As part of my continuing lighting efforts, I purchased a second-hand Bachmann Corridor Second (SK) and a lighting kit and assorted wiring bits and bobs from layouts4u.net Part 1 - Disassembly, painting and interior detailing First, a picture of the coach in question (as purchased): The first thing to do to gain access to the interior of the coach is to remove the three retaining screws on the underside of the body. One screw is on the centre-line, mid-coach, between the frames and is easily located and removed. The other two are hidden by the bogies and close-coupler which has to be extended and moved out of the way to gain access: Remove the three water-filler pipes from the ends of the coach (two on one end, one on the other). This picture shows the toilet end of the coach and where the wire fits. It needs to be carefully teased out with a thin flat blade (a Stanley knife blade is ideal) between the lower end of the pipe and the body (just above the arrow). Body and roof will now separate from the chassis as a complete unit - however the two coach body sides are clipped to the roof (in five places each side if I remember correctly) and the sides may separate from the roof by themselves at this point! To separate the body sides from the roof, turn the complete assembly upside-down then gently prise apart the two body sides at one end whilst lifting the end of the interior/seat moulding. Working from one end like this enables the interior to be easily removed. The body sides can now be separated from the roof by gently easing the bottom ends (floor end) of the sides away from each other. Once a clip springs, you can again apply a wide, flat blade (Stankley knife blade, guitar plectrum or cut-up credit card) into the gap between the top of the body side (roof end) and the roof to spring the remaining clips. A combination of rocking the body side back and forth whilst using the knife blade to release the remaining clips. You should be rewarded with two separate body sides, the interior moulding and the roof: In comparison with the BCK coach that I fitted a working tail light to (link here and here) where the glazing appeared to be a single strip on each side (although with hindsight, it appears that it wasn't), several of the glazing panels came loose on this coach (there are five on each side), so I decided to remove them all from both sides of the coach and re-glue them in back place (after carefully noting which went where and on which side) after painting the interior of the body with Humbrol matt wood (110) to prevent light-bleed. I printed off another sheet of the Peco/Kitmaster 2nd class coach interior for detailing. The seats on the BCK coach can be individually removed but in this coach, the compartments and seating are a single moulding: This made the application of the seat coverings and subseqent trimming rather tricky! The above picture was taken part-way through painting the inside of the compartments with the matt Humbrol paint. As I was taking the coach apart to see what was what and to fit the seat coverings, the morning post arrived with the lighting strip and pickups, stay-alive and sub-miniature plug & socket (so that the coach roof can be completely removed at a later date if necessary) - talk about timing! The stay-alive is quite small (around 23mm x 11mm) although this is version 1 - there is a 'new improved version with a potentiometer included to 'tune' the brightness level but it is significantly bigger. and It was this that prompted me to manufacture my own stay-alive/anti-flicker units (firstly using stripboard with a circular bridge rectifier and then later omitting the stripboard altogether as these two images show): DIY Stay-Alive v1: DIY Stay-Alive v2: The only place to ''hide'' the stay alive was either in the toilet or in the corridor. It just fitted in the corridor and the height of the stay-alive just matched the length of the corridor section. It was a tight squeeze - so no need to glue it in place. Viewed from the side it is barely noticeable - especially if you paint the 'silvered end' of the capacitor with matt black paint. and The stay-alive pcb was fitted with the socket ... ... which was then subsequently super-glued to the side of the capacitor to stop a stray from lead fouling anything when re-assembling the coach. The 12 LEDs on the strip don't quite align with the eight compartments (no surprise there) ... and ... so I debated whether to [1] cut the strips or [2] paint over the odd LED (otherwise some compartment would have two LEDs whilst others would have one). I was tempted to go thinking with option [2] although in the end, I went with neither, simply arranging the LED strip so that nothing fouled the compartment bulkheads as a lighting test showed that there was not much difference between compartments with two LEDs and compartments with one! I cut a strip of aluminium kitchen foil to size and glued this on the underside of the roof to aid with making the illumination more even. As this post is already of biblical proportions, I'm going to split it here. In Part 2 I will detail the wiring of the pickups, testing and completion of the coach. Cheers, Art

I had posted the following images on another website before Photobucket started being silly with their free accounts. Anyhow, below is detailed how I installed coach lighting and a switchable tail lamp into a Bachmann BR Mk1 BSK. First, you have to remove the bogie from one (or both ends if preferred). I chose the end where the Guard's compartment and luggage area is (to minimise the length of pick-up wire required). Once the bogie is removed, you can see the close-coupler and spring. The small screw shown in this picture is to retain the inside seating. Remove the roof and two coach sides before loosening this screw. I decided I wanted a switchable tail lamp (so that it can be turned off when coupled behind a loco). There are several ways to do this - perhaps the best is to use a latching magnetic reed switch mounted in the coach roof. This was one of my first attempts and I chose to use a floor-mounted SPDT (single pole, double-throw) slide switch mounted between the underfame 'furniture'. This picture shows where the switch was to be mounted and what had to be cut from the ballast weight to accomodate the switch. The ballast weight is simply glued in and easily removed. A hole needs to be cut in the coach floor to accomodate the switch. The switch installed and ballast weight reinstated. The swich position between the frames on the underside of the coach. There is just enough room so as not to foul the bogie on curves. I then added a red & green blob of paint to indicate whether the tail lamp was on or off (the main carriage lights are on permanently as I seem to recall that coach lighting was always on - even in broad daylight). From the side, the switch is barely noticeable. For some it may stick out like a sore thumb - but I can live with it. The coach floor needs a curved slot cutting out so that the pick-up wires don's strain (leading to potential snapping of the thin wire). [/url] Similarly for the bogie ... Note that the inner faces of the wheels had been 'blackened' and as this is where the wiper contacts were, they needed cleaning up. The coach was detailed using a scan of an old Kitmaster coach interior sheet laser printed to ordinary A4 paper and some painted figures used to populate the coach. The wiring may look rather 'Heath Robinson' but the use of connector blocks (aka Electrician's chocoate block) means that shoud any part fail, it should be relatively easy to fix. Note the different upholstery for 'First' class passengers. No boring maroon moquette for them! The thin enamelled pick-up wire is soldered to some solid-cored copper wire and the insulation from some other wire used as a 'cap' to prevent shorts. The next two pictures hopefully show this. and I decided to use Layouts4u's phosphor-bronze pickups (not shown) a self-adhesive LED lighting strip of theirs and one of their stay-alive modules (which fits just inside the toilet at the other end of the coach). First the wiring schematic ... The underside of the coach roof was painted cream to make the roof less 'translucent' I then glued a strip of aluminium cooking foil over this, but you have to be careful to avoid shorts. In hindsight, maybe the cream paint was all that was required (and would help with colour-balance). The LED strip was carefully positioned to illuminate the compartments and, if memory serves, the end vestibule. Stay-alive / Anti-flicker unit in the toilet. The stay-alive / anti-flicker uses a 16V,1000uF capacitor. Larger capacitances and voltages lead to larger capacitors and so problems with regard to space. The 16V/1000uF is an acceptable compromise. Due to the construction of the Bachmann coach (separate floor, roof and two body sides), I decided to use a micro-pulg to the lighting strip in the roof. Two views of the completed coach. and and two views of the DCC Concepts tail lamp at the rear of the coach and I've taken to producing my own stay-alive / anti-flicker units and the scematic is shown below. This is considerably cheaper per unit than the purchased circuit-board version from Layouts4u. I hope this helps / inspires others. I have also undertaken coach lighting for a Bachmann SK and Guard's Van and will post these if folks are interested. Art

I have modified several Lima and Bachmann BSKs and BCKs and have a swtchable tail lamp so that it could be turned off if the coach was running behind the loco trather than at the end of the train. In one coach (can't remember which) the switch was under the coach floor between the frames and hardly visible. In the Lima BSK, there was an on-off push switch mounted behind the 'porthole' in the corridor connector such that a pen or small screwdriver could turn the tail lamp on or off. If I can find the pictures (or the thread where I posted the fabrication) I'll post in this thread. Art

The only problem with this idea is the proximity required between reed switch and magnet (a few mm at most). The reed switch would have to be in the roof of the coach and a magnet in a roofed carriage shed and as close to the roof of the coaches passing underneath to work. I don't think it would work for a magnet in the trackbed and the reed switch in the coach underframe. May be worth trying though. Art

Additionally .... You may find that a small stay alive/anti-flicker circuit is helpful. The following pictures show the small curcuit that I use in OO-gauge stock (you haven't said as far as I know which gauge you are working in) Circuit Diagram Components Finished unit (approx 25mm long and 13mm in diameter) Red & Black leads are the 12V DC feed to the lighting strip, the two yellow leads are the DCC feed to the bridge rectifier. Showing the unit being tested on a 3-LED strip. Hope this helps, Art

Hi JST I have fitted coach lighting to several coaches and I have these detaied on another forum < link here >. I either use the pickups that RAF96 showed in his post < link > or sinple phosphor bronze contacts (like this ebay item < link > £3.33 for 5 pairs including 40-inch of decoder wire) and a 12V self-adhesive lighting strip. I'm not sure why you want the lighting to be decoder-conrolled. Most coaches have their interior lights on even in broad daylight - at least that's how I remember it. If you want the be able to turn the coach lighting off - for example for coaching stock in a siding - there is a cheaper alternative. What would be cheaper (and you can switch individual coaches on or off at will) would be to include a latching magnetic reed switch in the roof of the coach. Thus the lighting can be turned on or off with the aid of a magnet on a stick (in the same way that the lighting in the Rails Dynamometer Car can be). If the reed switch is placed in the centre of the coach, you don't need to remember (or mark in some way) which end the reed swich is. Rather than spending £20 a pop on a cheap decoder, the magnetic reed switches can be bought fairly cheaply. Problem is the latching type are difficult to source - possibly RS Components, Farnell or Rapid (Rapidonline) may stock them. Layouts4u have them at £3.25 each < link > but they mak do a discount if you order a quantity. Hope this helps, Art

That's because the Loksound XL has screw terminal connections?? Art

Ooops! Yes - the numbers 2530 - 2541 relate to OO-gauge. My query was regarding numbers 2555 - 2559 - i.e. O-gauge Art

Hi folks, A some queries regarding the Heljan Class 25/5 (item nos. 2555 - 2559). 1) Can someone give me the length over buffers dimension please? 2) Are these locos 'DCC Ready' or is it a 'hard-wire' job? 3) If DCC Ready, can you let me know the socket (I'm guessing MTC 21-pin)? 4) A suitable sound decoder - which of the following would be suitable - I'm guessing the ones higlighted in blue are OK but what about the others? ESU LokSound 5 (up to 1.5A peak) ESU LokSound L v4 (3A average, 4A peak) Zimo MX644D/MX645 (1.2A average, 2.5A peak) Zimo MX696S (4A average, 10A peak) Zimo 'Large Scale' MX699KV (6A average, 10A peak) Finally Rails of Sheffield have some 'Forthcoming Release' Class 25's (item nos. 2530 - 2541) advertised as 'DCC Ready MTC 21-pin'. I've tried to find out additional information on these but not even Heljan's website has any details. Does anyone know likely due date and expected prices? Any help gratefully received. Thanks in advance, Art

Hi Paul, You might find this web page by Mark Gurries of interest regarding NCE's implementation of Consisting. According to Mark "The NMRA DCC standard's decoder based "Advanced Consisting" sets the foundation of achieving a very prototypical consisting system. NCE builds upon that NMRA foundation by adding some key missing command station features that put together with NMRA Advanced Consisting creates the easiest to use and operate. To be clear, NCE remains 100% NMRA Advanced Consisting Compatible in adding these features. The end result is NCE DCC system offer the most flexible and prototypical form of locomotive consisting available in DCC world period. When it is setup the "NCE Way", there is no comparison to any other DCC system." Mark's emphasis, not mine. NCE Consisting web page link. Hope this helps, Art

Agreed. It is. See my BTW above. British English uses 'programme' for everything except when talking about computer programs where the Brits use the Americanized version - program. Art