Albie the plumber

39 minutes ago, zr2498 said:

Thanks for posting. Perhaps one day I will attack the chassis under the small bonnet. Did you remove the chassis to hacksaw it. Stopping all of the saw cuttings getting into the works would concern me.

One day I will finish getting a Unimat SL set up for milling!

I think I cut the metal.with the chassis insitu. 

I may have used kitchen roll to stuff between chassis and gears and I probably removed the wheelset .The motor IIRC is enclosed by the casting so that was OK. 

I did it during the lockdown along with a whole load of other projects so it was a good while back and my memory  fails me a bit .

Really great job ! 

You've certainly achieved your objective of getting sound into a Teddy Bear without major surgery .

Not an easy loco to work on , in fact , quite horrid !

I found a pic I posted on a Facebook group that showed my attempt at sound and stay alive ,

I did have to take a hacksaw to the smaller bonnet in order to get sugar cube and stay alive in ,

All in all , it works very well  but not easy as you know .

To get a speaker as large as yours was quite an achievement so well done !

2 hours ago, Chrisjh said:

Good morning, first of all isnt RM Web a great forum so a huge thank you from me. Being new to DCC I am strugglying being non technical.

 

I have a wonderful OO Gauge Heljan class 45 DCC Sound - fantastic sound the only problem is its very quiet and I have no idea what DCC Chip is fitted or how to make the sound louder as the Chip wasnt fitted at the factory and I have no way of finding out what the chip it is.

 

Any help would be very much appreciated thank you.

 

Best wishes and thank you.

Chris 

  

If it's an ESU loksound chip , then CV 63 is the CV to adjust 

The V4/V5 chips adjustment goes from 0 to 192 .

The higher the value,  the higher the volume .

However , it might be a ZIMO chip , if it is , F2 is likely to be a brake function. 

Not sure what CV is used to alter the volume on a ZIMO .

It might be worth going through the function list and putting them on this forum .

Most will be able to tell who's sound project and what chip it is 

HTH

4 minutes ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

Does anyone happen to know if I can buy just a chip for an ÖBB 1216 Railjet by Roco?

 

And where from?

I would be very surprised if ZIMO  didn't do a sound project for that loco .

I believe they have a list from which you can download the relevant sound. 

Alternatively,  you could contact soneone like Digitrains who will probably be able to help you .

I intend to do the same for my W&M railbus with a VT95  schienenbus  project which may sound a bit more authentic than current British offerings 

HTH .

57 minutes ago, Southernman46 said:

Me - I'm thinking - thank god I can have 25155 now without getting the Heljan one and needing to do something about that awful weathering it emerged with 😬

Looks like it was weathered by a YTS trainee 

2 hours ago, 97406 said:

 

The one advantage of adding sound is that the sound file is different, so it gives the loco a different character. Biffo sometimes does different files for a given class which is good too. Having said that, the Bachmann sound projects are very good and the latest 40 is especially driveable. Just could do with room for a bigger speaker without needing a milling machine!

I wanted to fit an EM 2 to my 40 a good while back but ,  having put the chip on the decoder tester and the EM2 under the empty bodyshell  , I found the sound quite disappointing with said speaker. 

Sadly,  it  just didn't suit Biffs sound project , not to my ear at least. 

At  the model world LIVE in Brum and of particular interest to me was the 00 gauge class 02 .

Got a couple of close up shots thru the glass case ( sorry , but I'm no David Bailey

and it looks good and , having spoken to Ben Jones , he has said the 00 model WILL have shunting lights .

Result ! 

Delivery  expected  in the  autumn. 

4 minutes ago, Rhydgaled said:

So, have the running issues with the PWMs been repeated with the class 11s; or are these latest models good, reliable, runners?

If you look through the previous couple of pages , you'll see the reaction is overwhelmingly positive .

Unlike the PWMs , the class 11 have lights , have no body fit issues and run as sweet as a nut .

Obviously made in a different factory

16 hours ago, Southernman46 said:

I just got it cos it looked nice ................ 😉

£62 quid in Basingstoke MZ - those were the days .................

Might try scribing the door lines and adding some plasticard hinges - modelling !

as for the underframe - looks pretty unvalenced in this 1970 view at St Pancras

 

You would think that someone like Exteme etchings would do an etch for that .

Anyone doing a Blue ,pre TOPS class

25  like me , will always have the smooth front end to deal with not to mention removing those blooming dominoes.

8 hours ago, Paul.Uni said:

 

Sounds like a ZIMO / Digitrains project .

Could be wrong though .

I'm assuming you have an 8 pin version ? 

The later 21 pin version simply plugged straight in to the PCB above the worm drive .

There is room between front of motor and rear of grille but beware of the protruding motor shaft at the front which spins of course. 

Fashioning a plasticard shield between decoder and motor shaft would be a wise move .

4 hours ago, 'CHARD said:

 

Based on the headcode glass geometry alone I'm prepared to bet that IS the first version.

Tubby Brush  alert ⚠️ 😁

19 hours ago, GRUNFOS said:

I like mine..........................

 

 

 

Certainly looks good from that angle 👍

1 hour ago, rob D2 said:

From Dave’s vid for those who haven’t seen it.

he also pointed out there’s no backing to the exhaust so you can see straight in to the PCB.

The TMC weathered version was better as it hid some of the mistakes !

 

The video highlighted the raggedness between the  Blue and Yellow .

He wasn't kidding was he .

8 hours ago, YT-1300 said:

I never understood why people sing the praises  of the HJ 7mm 37, it's pretty poor between the cab doors, but as you say its the only rtr 37 available. 

 

Overall I think Heljan are really good, the 4mm 26 and 27 are brilliant, just needing the suspension modules moved inboard, the original 47 is really good too, despite being a bit stout.  Their 35 is still one of the best models out there in 4mm scale.

 

Its a shame they seem to be making so many basic mistakes these days

8 hours ago, YT-1300 said:

Its a shame they seem to be making so many basic mistakes these days

What are the odds that they one day make an 'improved ' version in a couple of years as they did with the '33 ? 

14 hours ago, Roy Langridge said:

the PWM was badly designed and assembled. 

Indeed it was Roy , but we both plumped for one when the price came down to what we deemed to be  acceptable .

Some of the errors highlighted with Heljans 47 may well be 'overlooked' when the price comes down as it inevitably will .

15 hours ago, IOW O2 said:

Fitted AS crew, pushed the dominoes headcode out, scraped off the dominoes with some Meths and then fitted the AS numerical one.  A bit of light bleed as in pic below, but not noticeable in use. Lights up quite quick at low voltage for me DC only.  Had to hold loco to keep in focus.

I think light bleed through the blinds was quite common so it could be described by some aa prototypical. 

7 hours ago, DropTheTap said:

Nope. That's not the way it works at all.

*Satisfaction with accuracy of reproduction* is in the eye of the beholder...

Or put another way , accuracy is in  the eye of the beholder. 

Same thing to me .

We're discussing semantics now .

Gone off topic .

I would imagine you will get a shed load of replies on this subject.

I use Krystal Klear when i use lazerglaze  but I'm sure Liquid glaze will do the job .

While Lazerglaze is a great product . it does IMO need a little practice to do well .

HTH

2 hours ago, younGGuns7 said:

I know I noticed the bit of hard standing sticking up after I had posted 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

I didn't 😁

4 hours ago, younGGuns7 said:

A couple of Heljan 47 and a Bachmann 47 for comparison both look ok to me but what do I know 🤷🏻‍♂️🤣

Accuracy,  like beauty , is all in the eye of the beholder 

On 03/03/2024 at 14:19, Ruston said:

The lack of market interest in a tension lock coupler for O may have something to do with them looking bloody awful! 3-links are large enough in O to be used quite easily, so why anyone would want to disfigure their models by ADDING such a thing is beyond me.

 

In any scale you'll get people going on about this detail isn't right, or that isn't right on a model but they seem to be able to live with these ruddy great ugly and unprototypical couplings stuck on the ends of everything.

Not to mention track that is too narrow {00} and train set curves 

52 minutes ago, Awesime said:

 

Any updates on reaching the shops??

Haven't heard anything as yet .

If you get notifications from their FB page you could ask the question .

They're usually very good at replying 

I've learnt to take delivery dates for models from all manufacturers with a large pinch of salt .

Always over optimistic leading to disappointment when predicted delivery dates come and go .

Worse still,  you get modellers insulting modellers when legitimate questions are asked ( see the SLW class 25 thread/ debacle to see what I mean ) and where some individuals have assumed the role of moderator. 

Very unedifying in what is at the end of the day , a hobby .

54 minutes ago, Mark Forrest said:

Perhaps it's possible that amongst SLW's current and perspective customer base there are a range of different expectations around delivery times and level of communication?

Some are happy to wait as long as it takes; others accept the need to wait but would appreciate more communication around when they might receive delivery and others feel they have waited long enough and are being to lose faith.

 

None of these points of view are wrong; they are just different.

Agree with your views but sadly , there doesn't seem to be any room for 'different' on this thread .

Just the usual self righteous claptrap from the usual self righteous suspects .

And that is definitely my last word on this pointless thread which throws up nothing useful whatsoever .

This is a great post and a great help too .

My 07 will be getting the sound treatment so this is invaluable!

Thanks for posting this .