Kaput

Golden rule of the Realtrack 156 is to program each car separately and set CV29 on one of them so its direction is reversed. I think the suggested settings many pages back also turn off RailCom on one car which might be advisable on an ECoS. As for which decoder is fitted - original batch were LokSound Selects, current batches might be LokSound V5 but not sure.

Don't know if its an issue for N gauge (never happened to me on the N stuff but thats with Unitrack and not Peco) but on OO some wheels can bridge both rails of a point and cause a short unless using insulating joiners on the vee of the point. See here for example of what I mean: https://www.brian-lambert.co.uk/DCC_Page_1.html (About halfway down the page)

Vaguely sure all the equipment to run from the 3rd rail is still there but the shoes themselves are removed for clearance issues on the West Highland Line.

Has anyone done anything do improve the factory speaker in their Bulleid Diesels? Curious if its worth trying to seal it with black tack or something to improve the volume a bit - not really wanting to go full on modding and soldering in a different speaker entirely just yet (my soldering skills are dire).

Back to back's a little out of gauge? My large logo one runs fine over Kato pointwork at least. Any insulated joiners on your points?

Since its a model of a preserved loco theres every chance it could be running heritage line duties tender first

Thanks both - given me some ideas and things to go on. Have ordered a spare bogie so I can experiment and still be able to restore the loco back to original state.

Picked up the new Black 5 from the 1:1 Collection - how on earth do you fit the front coupling short of gluing it in place? Its not a NEM socket and it seems to just have a screw to hold it in place however theres nothing for the screw to actually grip. Alternatively how to fit a Kadee?

Well day 1 was an amazing £1 reduction on the price of Heljan Class 07's... Some of these "deals" are verging on being false advertising since they've been at the "deal" price for months.

There is at least one detail difference between Destroyer and Brutus - the builder plate. The last few 68's were built after Stadler took over Vossloh so they have Stadler plates instead of Vossloh ones. Achilles should be a straight renumber/rename to Brutus though.

I do have to wonder how much of that is down to Dapol doing 3 runs in OO with the first 2 runs pretty much duplicating some of the numbers, IIRC most of the 2nd run was pretty much identical to the 1st except from the couple of versions modelled with the changes to the handrails/fuel tank. Suppose with the benefit of hindsight having a couple less DRS/Chiltern versions and a couple of TPE versions in the 3rd run would have been better. Pity the 88 would need so many tooling changes to make - if they could have done an 88 with minimal retooling that could possibly have helped justify another run with more TPE ones.

And in a fairly sad statement on the size of the N gauge market the N version of the TPE liveried 68 is still in stock pretty much everywhere. Not entirely sure what planet Rails are on with todays (5th) offer since only the DCC fitted version of the TPE one is on offer making the standard DCC ready one the same price...oh well.

I managed to squeeze a Zimo MX617N in mine but the chip pretty much needed kapton taped to the top of the motor to get the body back on.

Strikes me that they'd have been better shrink raying one of their OO items like the RHTT wagons or the Andrew Barclay instead of something as niche as a Garratt.

Instructions say nothing other than the very generic fitting of a decoder and the only real mentions of sound fitting is instructions for the factory fitted sound models. - nothing whatsoever on how to upgrade a DC version to DCC sound.

This might sound stupid but are the factory fitted speakers actually wired up to the PCB or do they need to be soldered to the decoder if you decide to fit sound? Asking as I was having a nosey to see if it was just a straight fit the decoder and done job but I can't actually see any wires coming from the speakers and the way they are placed makes it seem a bit tight to do any soldering.

Looked at a couple of their items, the pictures are lifted straight from eBay and some even still have the original retailer/seller's details visible.

The 68's instructions at least gave the exact CV's needed for the Imperium to work the lights properly. The new 66 instructions don't even mention CV's, just function outputs.

Yes, they are independently controllable - if I understand the instructions correct a 4 function decoder is needed (I'm using an Imperium in mine). Could potentially be annoying to setup the function mapping unless you have a SPROG and DecoderPro or similar - the instructions only have the barest mention of which funtion output goes where.

They do have 2 decoders however the factory decoders are LokSound Selects which are cheaper for manufacturers/retailers to use as they can't be (easily) reblown.

All gone a bit quiet on the 92 front, don't suppose theres been any update on production progress at TINGS?

33111 has already been released and somehow sold out so fast some of the retailers never even seemed to register it coming out and therefore still have it as preorder. Rather odd...

Put your email into here: https://www.hattons.co.uk/advance/reqnotelist.aspx They'll send you a list of everything you've registered an interest in.

Going by my experience on the Heljan Class 33/1 it's probably a combination of decoder wrong way and/or the lights just aren't that bright (assuming the Hymek is bulbs instead of LED's like the 33).

Probably worth noting that some retailers have (at least previously) quoted the OO Class 68 as having a coreless motor when it most definately doesn't so I'd take retailer specs with a pinch of salt when they don't match the manufacturer's own specs.