deepfat

Friends I have been an idiot and got careless with my dremel when removing the internals of my new tender to get a big speaker in there. My question is where can I get a replacement tender body, and be more careful this time. I was wondering if for this new model all they did was put a better connection in the tender to connect to the loco and so maybe I would have more options to get this replaced.

Thanks in advance

Deepfat

@Doilum thanks for that and here's the finished painting ..

Friends  I have  2 questions to help me finish this painting over my layout (it's one of a series of 4 to honour the big 4):

1.  Did Mallard have a corridor tender at the time?

2. What would be the first coach behind the tender e.g. 3rd Brake etc etc.)?

I have the 80th Anniversary Mallard  (with the coronation coaches on pre order) and that does not have a corridor tender but not sure I trust Hornby.

Thanks in advance

Thanks for this @idd15  I will experiment on the same lines  with a central screw and guide posts at either end.  However other fish to fry just now as my Rapido Dan's House keeps de-railing

I think my good friends at YouChoos have the Zimo units  As for knuckles/buckeyes I am modelling SR between the two wars, but not a deep expert on couplings so happy to be corrected. However from the photos I have and the films I have watched of this era I don't see them in evidence in the quiet corner of Sussex where my layout is set. Of course what I have now is not prototypical either but if I was going to move to system I'd want it to look more like it should for the money

OK I can see the sort of thing now Zimo MX821s will control 8 servos so two of these and I am done I think

Thx @ITG

Looking at the Heathcote site it says DCC uncoupler available soon. I need a few of these so I was thinking one board to control multiple servos like we do with point motors as I will have several of these near each other like my station and sidings.

Friends

I want to build some sort of ramp (maybe disguised as a sack barrow) that rises up a bit when active to act as an uncoupler, and control that form DCC as an accessory like a point.  I was thinking of using servos for this (I need about 16 of these) .  I know you can modify stock to respond to magnets but they clunky and the Kaydee doesn't look right for era 3/4. So has anyone done this and what interface did you use between the servos and the DCC system

Thanks in advance  

PS for reference I am on Roco Z21+booster controlled though iTrain

So just setting it up, I have railCom enabled, sound functions working in iTrain and here's my homage to Rapido for their hard work

thx Ian, I think the blurb on dcc train automation is generic and the picture is the RailCom transmitter with just the two wires so hopefully that's what'll arrive.  It'll be good to chat sometime as I get ITrain working well)

Just to follow up I am going with one of these a function decoder with RailCom support, and I'll write up how I get on

OK thanks all - I have enough info to give this a go

@RAF96 I gave up waiting for Hornby to get into loco detection, and now the setup I have does exactly what I need - simply to know which train is where.  I am going to reach out to some experts on this as it look like train-o-matic decoders can do this for me - I just need to work out how two decoders into one loco works.

OK let me clarify I have RailCom detection working on my layout as detailed here ..

so the only challenge I have is to enable RailCom on my locos as the system is working perfectly for loco's like my Loksound enabled Rapido APT-E.  This is why I was interested in the Uhlenbrock gizmo as it appears a cheap way to enable RailCom on locos that have non-Railcom decoders fitted like those with  Hornby TTS as I'll still have sound AND be able to see that loco 2512 for example is on my layout.

Hopefully that make sense and so my question is has anyone had experience of doing something like this?

Friends I have a number of locos (8+)  with Hornby TTS decoders in them and I was thinking that I could use a RailCom sender like the Uhlenbrock unit so I can get RailCom detection for not a lot more money and keep the sound I have in these locos.  So has anyone out there tried doing something like this and how did you get on.

thanks for reading 

Nobody on here is numpty, even you as you are a railway modeller. Blogs did come from the tech world and I was a professional blogger at Microsoft for 10 years, though I stopped in 2017. If you ask me why I blog it's to help others.  For that to work they need to be found that's partly on you to understand how search works and on the blogger and platform to make sure searches return useful results.  RMWeb is  a good platform and actually if you search just on line in Google or Bing (OK I do work for Microsoft 😁) you'll get hits in here  - I know this because I have been trying to figure out a tech problem with turntables and iTrain and RMWeb comes up in the results.  So if you can use the internet for search then you should get the results you need, and then everyone wins you get your info the blogger feels useful and RMWeb attract more members.  However it's be great if member could post short 3 4 min videos too on her if you are listening @AY Mod to show our layout working or problems we have fixed.

OK it may be niche but I have the same setup and I am missing 1 piece of the puzzle how to set up detection on the bridge.  I can see a technical manual referred to and I don't have it and Alistair seem to have ceased trading 

OK I'd suggest

• servicing locos e.g. replacing tyres, oil etc. longer locoes jumping points (so back to back issues) 
• loco detection
• coupling and uncoupling with out the "hand of god" so ramps dcc & analog on board decouplers etc.  oh and fixing different coupling standards

and I'd hand out a mug or something if a readers suggestion is accepted.  

BTW  all the blog post I write  on here have hyperlinks to relevant stuff, but hey I am a software engineer and blogging is a hobby :-) 

@Andy & Friends

two suggestions

1.   For the digital edition of your magazine can you not link adverts to the atvertisers website so we can go there if we wish to.  (this would also analytics for yourmarketing dept.) 
2. for the excellent how to videos and articles can we the audience make some suggestions on what we need help with?

Otherwise loving your work & thanks for reading

Andrew

I am also back in the loft thinking about scenery - I have stored my  my APT-E in a hidden siding behind and embankment like you show as my normal list of trains is steam!

28 minutes ago, Dan Griffin said:

Now this looks very good. 

 

wonder if i could Bluetooth some tunes through the speaker form my iphone! 😀

Well you could get the coronation scot to play the coronation scot but I expect the storage on the sound chip will limit how long the sound can be

I have bought a few of these and to be honest I don't think they are fit for purpose as the flex across the width of the copper ails mean that fragile locos tip over in the cradle which just can't happen with the older design. So I'll be resigned to cutting my losses and selling my units as they are cheaper to swap out and damaging my locos

I am out Margate way in a couple of weeks - so is it worth popping into Hornby while I am there?

If I was designing a digital edition of a print magazine I'd support the advertisers by hyperlinking the ads to their sites just like on any web site.  It's a bit annoying to open a new window, search and then find the organisation behind a product I am interested in

ah well you get a much longer delivery of solar during the day.  I am a data science engineer by day and I can see my generation graphs  that  having solar that works best in the morning and evening when my demand is higher is a good thing