Richie Kynaston

Interesting concept. Remember Lime Street in Liverpool had a shunt neck (it still existed until the recent track layout changes and resignalling). This allowed the station pilot to draw out the entire train intot he neck, to release the train locomotive from the stops. Something like that may be what you are looking for? Are you still working in 2mm/2FS? Richie

Evening chaps, Thanks to Andy, The Johnster and David for your input so far. I guess this is a bit of a rattle the tin and see what falls out approach! But all comments, criticisms and thoughts are welcomed. Yes, i'll go with ambitious - to be honest, thats the one thing that puts me off. Im more than happy to spend time working on the trackwork before being able to run a train, as I get as much enjoyment out of that (and ssssh.. but also enjoy electrics!) as running, although doing the latter correctly and prototypically does give me the ultimate buzz. I'll have a look at the N gauge plan you've suggested. Thats a valid point. It could be set up on DCC to queue up services and depart them to a timetable from the fiddle yards by computer, leaving me with manual control of the station area, but i take your comment on board. Llanelli is not a place i've visited or even looked at, but I will admit, it does sound interesting, so will do a bit of research and reading up on that. Selby is good thought, and I had considered it, but to make it right, it really does need an accurate representation of the swing bridge. While i'm ok (I may even venture to 'quite good'!) at buildings, im not sure I could nail the bridge. While it would not have to be spot on of course, it would niggle away at me if i didn't get it reasonably right! You make a valid point about St Davids. Thinking about all the pictures i've looked at the GWR/SR segregation is obvious, but that had not occurred to me. Par has always struck me as being an interesting location, as has Lostwitheal to be honest, both worthy of another look. I'm only 40, so I am hoping there is ample time left to complete such a challenge!! But if you find any way of getting "two or three lifetimes" for modelling purposes (or any other come to that!) do please let me know! Newcastle is a catch 24 situation. The variety of LNER types now available in OO draws me towards something Eastern in OO, but the ability to display trains in a setting, where the railway is actually a small part of the scenery, as it is in reality, makes me think N really is the way to go. Richie

Afternoon guys, I have been dawdling about over building a new layout for far too long, so I am looking for a bit of inspiration and advice. I have long hankered after recreating a main line in miniature - not all of it, just a section! But I am looking towards double, or quadruple track, set in the early 1960s (allowing a crossover of steam and diesel power) or mid-1970s, featuring a City style station with freight through workings, but also perhaps some countryside running, or exiting the city on viaducts. Because I have a wide-ranging interest base, I have considered the former LNER/NER areas and Somerset/Devon on the GWR. I am fortunate in having a large space, of around 19 foot long by 10ft wide, with the ability to 'really to go town' and add an extra section lengthways down the middle, which for description purposes could give a figure of '8' style if needed. I have come to the conclusion that N gauge is the way forward to give scale length trains without it looking crammed in, although for motive power variety I did consider OO, but concluded that even with 19ft length, the kind of railway I am looking forward could (and likely would) end up being squashed in. Having had a bit of a clear out of things, I am going to this with no stock, so have the freedom and flexibility to locate it anywhere that suits. Where have I looked at so far? Well, I considered something based on Exeter St. Davids as it was in semaphore days. A busy five platform station, which at the time still had the freight loops around the back, with the layout potentially extending (with a couple of 'added' corners!) to Cowley Bridge. I've always loved the look of the diamonds at Newcastle and the ability to recreate those would really give an interesting layout to operate I think, but I do love anything A1-A4 Pacific, Peaks, and Deltics! At the other end of the scale, I have also considered the double-track railway south of Plymouth on the approach to and passing through Devonport station - a basic two-track railway, but with an almost hidden goods yard at one end. I enjoy building layouts and creating the scenery, but get my real enjoyment through realistic operation, either by timetabled operations or prototypical working. The layout would most likely be DCC controlled - unsure whether I would go DCC sound or not - but certainly DCC control. Trackwise i would look to use Code 40 Finetrax, but im also happy to work with copper clad sleepers and handbuild trackwork (ie in the case of the Newcastle diamonds) Given all of the above, does anyone have any thoughts or flashes of inspiration? Richie

Thanks James, Decoder Pro identified it as a Massoth decoder, with a manufacturer id of 123, and then told me that nothing about the decoder was recognised. I have to say im not sure that Decoder Pro (DP) is working with my Loconet correctly. When i turn the Loconet monitor on within DP and use the handset, every single command, turn of a dial etc, shows up which suggests all is well, but when DP starts it defaults to Internal, rather than Loconet, and when you switch to Loconet is says power status is known - turning the power on and off does not appear to be doing anything. So i don't have too much confidence that what it is telling me is right - plus looking on the web, I cannot find that Massoth has ever made an N gauge decoder - their products all seem to be sound related for the larger scales, such as G. Anyone any thoughts, as this is driving me nuts slowly! I think if i could find away of doing a factory reset on the decoder, it would probably solve the issue about the decoder responding to any command on #3 but not accepting any programming data, but there is still this query over DP. I have put one of the other locos on the layout, and successfully changed the ID with the handset, so I know that all is working fine there. Rich

Looking at the DCCWiki last night - it appears that Digitrax decoders use CVs15 and 16 as a programming lock - both have to match to programme the decoder. So assuming the troublesome decoder is a Digitrax board, I'm wondering if when I did a reset through DecoderPro, it has changed these. It seems odd that I cannot reprogramme the address of the decoder at all, either through DecoderPro or from the handset. Thats the task for this evening to see if i can get that sorted out. Richie

Well I think i’ve managed to identify the decoder that is in the three locos, there is an N163K number in one corner of the decoder and while browsing eBay this morning I have noticed that Digitrax do a DN163K1C drop in board, so I suspect it’s a Digitrax. Unless different manufacturers use the same codes of course. Paul, That’s really helpful, many thanks for taking the time to reply with that. Richie

With all due respect, this is not about not knowing how to use Microsoft Windows - I have a Batchelor of Science first degree in Computer Networks, have been programming and using Microsoft Windows for more years than I care to remember, have had Microsoft certified Server training and worked for a major high street bank in an IT capacity - I know full well how to use Windows. It is the fact that Windows 10 (which has to be the most dumbed down version of Windows yet), has decided to do the stupid things that it does, and in this case disabled anyway of installing drivers for the Locobuffer. The only way round was to dig into the registery through terminal and make several system alterations to enable the buttons, after which it installed as it should have done. It had not escaped my notice either about Firefox, and I did not say that Microsoft did provide it - I said it would not for some reason download the file. 20 seconds later i was in Opera which did download fine. What I said was that the problems I encountered that took up almost two hours were all Microsoft's fault. Yes it would have been easier if the manufacturers had followed the rules and signed the drivers, but regardless - to anyone without a inner knowledge of kernals, registery data and command prompt, they would have been totally and utterly stuck. No major software manufacturer should dumb a system down that much that there is no obvious/easy way to do something. I had to laugh, when the Troubleshoot said - USB Locobuffer requires drivers to work. The options are look for drivers or exit. You tell it to look for drivers, and 10 seconds it says, no drivers found - they are sat on a CD in the CD Drive, which it did not check! So having told me nothing was found, it then said Troubleshoot has no other options to offer. So as for Windows being an open system that allows anyone to install anything, that was not my view today. The system did not find the drivers, it did not search the CD drive for drivers, it disabled all buttons related to installing drivers and updating drivers. Ironically the only button in Device Manager it left operational was "Driver Info" that when I clicked it said "NO information available as no drivers are installed" !! With the Apple Mac, I would have simply unlocked the pad lock on the necessary control panel and got the permissions to do what I wanted with buttons. As a matter of interest, I did this evening installed the locobuffer on my iMac just to see what happened - it was a breeze, took just over 4 minutes, including getting the drivers off the CD. Apple may be a closed system, but at least they make things easy and obvious for the user, without needing a computing degree to work it out. Having said that Im not an "Apple is great, everyone else is rubbish" person, I am just stating a fact. However, this thread is not about Microsoft, the manufacturer of the LocoBuffer or IT problems - it is about trying to resolve the issues with the CV values, on which I totally accept I am a novice, so if we may get back on topic, it would be appreciated. I apologise to anyone who may have been offended by my three line rant at the start of the last message about IT problems! Richie

Right, Well what a waste of time this afternoon was ... and its all Microsoft's fault!! I got JMRI downloaded eventually, for some reason Firefox would let me on the website, but just wouldnt download the file at all. Then when I got the USB Locobuffer plugged in Windows, would not let me install or update the drivers for it - took me 90 minutes to sort that out, together with the machine wanting to do a reboot because of updates arrghh! Now i know why I moved to Apple Macs 10 years ago! Give me a mac anytime I know I could use JMRI on a Mac, but the iMac isn't anywhere close to where i could connect it to the railway! So first loco on, #5804 (which has TCS decoder), managed to updated a couple of CVs i think, removed the inertia and all worked fine. Wayhey, we're on our way I thought. Second loco on, which I think this may be a default Kato fitted DCC board as having taken the lid off the loco, there is no manufacturer or board model number on it at all. I went to remove inertia the same way, sending the commands to the decoder, absolutely nothing. No beep, no movement, no nothing. Cutting a long story short, the decoder just stopped responding, couldnt control it by the Digitrax controller or anything. Reboot the PC (fourth time!) and I managed to get DecoderPro to do a reset and then write all the values to the decoder. It moved after each value and responded on #3. Great, back in business ... however, not quite! I have gone into Decoder pro, changed to long addressing, and updated the ID number from 3 to 5642 the loco number. The command station beeps when the write commands are sent, the loco stutters as it should, but no response on 5642, change the handset to No. 3 and off we go. Ok, so try programming from the handset. Usual thing into Paged Mode, 4 Digit Addressing, 5642, OK. Beep, Beep, stutter stutter. Loco still responds to No. 3 only. I've given up for tonight and come to have a read of what Decoder Pro can actually do as Im wading about in the dark somewhat. But does anyone have any thoughts? In terms of speed 5804 and 5642 are my two BNSF locos. Running about at 10 out of 99 on the Digitrax handset for 5804, and 14 out of 99 for 5642 (well No. 3) and they are about even speeds. Can anyone therefore suggest what I need to alter to bring them together. Given the problems im having with the decoder on 5642, Im thinking that 5804 will be my yardstick for aligning everything with speed. All help and suggestion appreciated. Richie

Paul, Thats great, thank you. My mate, who is on here as Marsh Lane, was the one that suggested moving to Zimo decoders, and having seen whats possible with your sound projects on his O gauge locos, I would whole heartedly concur! I need to see if I can obtain US sound projects for Zimo. Thanks for commenting tho, much appreciated. Richie

Phil, Many thanks for that detailed explanation, that is great. I'm just downloading Decoder Pro now, so will print out your comments and go have a look. One of the area's that I have thought about using using something like TrainController to operate the fiddle yard for me, allowing me to 'take over' drive manually on the layout. A friend of mine knows Paul Chetter and had a chat with him about a similar scenario. Paul responded that on Zimo chips (others may be similar I guess) but there is the ability to have two sound projects - ie a light engine and a loaded train. He said that if we didnt want those scenario's the other option is to use the two sets of settings as 'computer' with zero inertia, and a 'manual' with the standard inertia settings. As these are 'swapped' over using an F key, the computer could be advised that it needs to turn (for exmaple) F8 on before starting to move, and switch F8 off when it stops. Therefore at anytime the train is manually picked up, F8 is off giving you the standard interia settings, but anytime the computer takes over it turns F8 on removing all the interia. An interesting prospect - although it doesnt help with mine being TCS decoders of course! As I've only got the four at the moment, if i develop the fiddle yard idea, I may just replace the existing decoders with Zimo ones, then again that could be the point at which i move to DCC sound, making a swap of decoders necessary anyway. Richie

Thanks guys. I’ll hopefully be able to download Decoder Pro later today and have a look at it. I’ll report back! Richie.

Hi James, Thanks - I may need to read up a bit on speed tables, that not something I've heard alot about (and know far less if im honest). I do have an LocoBuffer-USB here, which connects the PC laptop to the Digitrax Loconet system. I'd got it to use with TrainController at some point, but I suppose it can work with JMRI too. Edit: It looks like Decoder Pro is what I need to download, so will investigate that. Any advice on which CVs to look at would be welcomed. Richie

Hi David, The weathering on that 47 looks superb well done! Richie

Hi Colin, If you've achieved all that in a month, you've done incredibly well! Id have been at the stage of pricing up wood for the baseboard!! . Looks great tho - oh and welcome to N gauge - Im a recent returnee as well, although a totally different period and area to yourself, but very impressed with what you've achieved. Richie

Good look, and well done for starting a thread. Love anything North East based so will be keeping an eye out for what your doing. Richie

Chaps, I have four N gauge US-outline models. All are Kato EMD SD70MAC or GE AC4400CW. Three I purchased second hand with DCC already fitted (not sure if it was manufacturer fitted or a previous owner), the fourth was a DC model purchased new with a TCS K1D4 'drop in' decoder border from Coastal DCC acquired to make it DCC. In all cases, this is pure DCC, not DCC sound. I have a Digitrax DCC system. On their own the locos operate fine, but each appears to have a different start point. 2 of them start moving at 01, 1 at 02 and 1 at 03. One of them seems to slowly build up to where you set the controller, the others start and stop immediately. One of them has an odd operational habit in that it starts moving at 01, and accelerates up to 12 on the decoder, then at 13 immediately drops its speed to where it was at 04, and then ramps up again as you turn the power up. I was trying to multi various combinations this afternoon and by controlling two of the locos separately got them running about right - one was at speed 43, the other at 29! The other two both seem to be of equal speed steps, but one of them is the one that slowly accelerates and decelerates! Im sure it must be down to CV values, and while i've looked in the manual about setting values, I haven't a clue which CVs to set or what they should be set to. I presume there must be away to do a factory reset on decoders, but do all decoders leave the various factories equal? While the decoder I purchased is a TCS, I am not sure what type of decoders are in the other three. Any help and/or advice would be gratefully appreciated, as multi-working with the US locos is obviously quite a major thing! Richie

Hi Kev, Any further progress with your signal box? Richie

Hi Michael, Thanks for that - sorry if I have got the wrong end of the stick somewhere, reading through the thread, it sounded like this was an option for those purchasing the OR/GVM Janus and wanting to regauge it to EM? Cheers Richie

Hi Michael, Sorry for what may be a daft question, but presumably if using this chassis etch for EM, we use the original wheels, motor, pick-ups etc from the model? Are these available to purchase or is it an advance order? Richie

Jon, What are "Gaslamp" LEDs if you don't mind me asking? Richie

Not a model railway bargain but for anyone that enjoys travelling around, Northern Railway (which covers local services over all of North West, North East and East Midlands, down as far as Nottingham) are running their newspaper offer again. Remember that the RMT are striking on Saturdays so the usefulness of the weekend ticket is variable, but the weekday offering is good. A weekday rover ticket (three vouchers, plus £10 for adults or £5 for children) gets you an all-day Northern rover. See https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/jpimedia for details. List of Johnson Press titles carrying the vouchers is here https://www.northernrailway.co.uk/newspaper-offer/341-participating-papers-jpimedia which also lists the dates the vouchers are in.

A quick question to those in the know ... Oxford Rail produce the INTERCITY Swallow livery on the Mk3s, which was the third generation livery for the fleet (after Blue & Grey, and Original InterCity colour schemes). Other than the style of the INTERCITY branding, was there any other changes to the livery between the original IC and Swallow schemes? ie. if the INTERCITY branding was removed and replaced with new transfers saying InterCity, would the coach be technically accurate, or were there other changes? I have looked at a number of photographs and cannot really see anything, but you guys are far more knowledgable then me! Richie EDIT: Ah I may have just answered my own question - the INTERCITY Swallow vehicles have CDL lights on them (which I don't think came in until the 1990s), so its looks like original IC livery is going to have to be a respray of blue & grey vehicles!

Thanks! The whole project may go totally pair-shaped, but you would think that if an indicator display could be made to work 60 years ago, modern day electronics should mean we can get a realistic representation of a working theatre indicator in the 21st century! He says fingers crossed Thanks Suzie, I must admit that is one of the better ones that I have seen and doesn't look too over scale, compared with the like of the Absolute Aspects one. I do love the realism on the LLS layout tho, absolutely superb. Richie

I think its one of those things, of each to their own. For example, an indicator not working properly or displaying the wrong letter would annoy me, because I like signalling to work and be correct. The same way as many people would say an Intercity Class 90 on Gresley Teaks is just plain wrong (I agree btw!). Other's are happy to have signals on their layout so they 'look right' but may not work, or are just happy to run trains, regardless of whether the combinations are right. It is, as they say a broad congregation! For me, this was as much a challenge of say could I achieve it and making it work, than it was to say it had to work, be to scale and be correct.

Purchased some N gauge track work and points from them before Christmas for a little test bed layout, was told they were busy and it would be 24-48 hours before it was sent. That's fine by me, so imagine my surprise when it turned up 36 hours later!! First order from TrackShack but really impressed.