Ouroborus

Funny you should say that. I was watching the 76's. I ordered a couple and watched the stock go down. "9 left in stock". A few hours later "more than 10 in stock". I know we shouldn't take the stock levels quoted as gospel, but it was odd it went up. Mine were reportedly dispatched the same day i placed the order. What's also a little strange is why some of this stock is being sold at quite a bit less than Olivias. If the idea was to help push sales through Hattons' perceived market draw, it seems strange to undercut the original seller by so much - you'd think they would just honour the same price.

Isn't it stock from Olivia's?

Hmm. Sunk £99 into one of the Hattivias/Olons FGW types. Hopefully this isn't a dud

Thanks Mick. Yes, I knew that DC on lenz dcc was feasible, but in practice not something you'd want to do for long. Janus went pop immediately, coupled with that expensive blue smoke. It's the only DC loco that I've ever had this happen to

Mine went pop when running analogue on lenz dcc after running in on a gaugemaster dc unit. Is that what is meant by para 3?

The moment we have been waiting for... Olivia's trains Class 76's are on Special offer at Hattons... all £124 E26049 - BR Blue w/o cables - £119 - nice as its the only blue w/o jumper cables and good for renumbers 76014 - BR Blue / Multiple Jumper cables 76022 - Blue BR Late/Logo - ran until withdrawn in 1981 like this. ------------------- Oh yes! Thank you for this!

^ THIS! Absolutely! At the danger of wandering off topic, this nails it for me. On another forum a chap asked about designing a model railway that his son would enjoy as well as him. The majority of the advice he had was to design it for himself and if his son like it, consider it a bonus. Like you said, enjoy it for yourself, they may join you later on. They may not. Forcing the issue will end in tears. And by "Fifty" and "Freedom", please can we add "Forty"?

Picked up one of these the other week when it was a little cheaper (a return). Its a lovely model.

I have 2 boys (13 and 9) who were Thomas mad when younger. Neither have any interest in model railways/toy trains now. Its xbox all the way, insta, snap etc. From this Gen-X'er it would seem that there is a huge pressure on younger generations to live their lives in a way identical to their peers. Not only 'must' that phone be an iPhone, or an iPhone 8, it most be an iPhone 8xyz. You 'must' document your life on insta and if you don't get enough likes, you're a zero. And that's a real shame because it seems like we're getting a generation of clones (and i include my eldest child in this). ​I applaud 009 Micro Modeller and others who are strong enough to stand up and say "i like model trains, what of it?". This hobby and many others need it. Whether it be trains, planes, knitting, cooking, we need the younger generations to come in and take an interest, otherwise like us, the manufacturers will die out, design clever or otherwise

I meant to add, by 'all' I meant Google/Alexa can switch the sockets on and off as well. So "alexa, turn trains on" switches on all the lights and sockets

For heating and cooling, I think you could consider looking at an inverter air conditioning unit. Fully installed, it'll cost in the region of 2k. However, cheaper to run than you might think and it'll give you a toasty room in a few minutes if desired. The joy of cooling in the summer cannot be understated. If your room is back to brick, this would be the time since there are some big holes to drill. A spur of an existing socket is likely to be sufficient for the juice. They do not extract the air though, so the dust will just be recirculated. As for lighting, if you go down the smart home path then you can have Google or Alexa to switch your lights on and off as desired, so a single voice command can switch it all on/off. I find this handy because some of my switches are at the back of cupboards and difficult to get to. With some lights such as Hue, you can also control the temperature to set warmth for sunsets/dusk. I find these lighting effects make a lovely difference to playing trains.

It's a hobby, a pastime, something you do that gives YOU pleasure. Whether it a steamer, a DMU, a blue diesel, what other people think is irrelevant

Tts will cut out if overloaded

Funny you should mention cars. How's Hornby's involvement with Pocher doing?

THIS! Absolutely. And just wait until they start getting into phones. Forget it. I have three - not one smidge of interest. WhatsApp is a different story

the picture on their website shows a yellow cast to them : https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/alpha-mimic-12x-lms-br-ground-signal/

Have they always been white?

Very definitely yellow.

Thank you! 76's all gone now

No, they are very easy to connect up. You're supplied with a drill to cut through the baseboard. Take this drill and throw it away. If you use it, the hole remains that smidge too tight to force the connecting plug through. But force it you will and you'll mangle the plug so it doesn't connect to the board. I told dcc concepts what i'd done and they sent me some new plugs out foc. Obviously a longer 'run' between the signal and the board would need some new wire splicing in. The board takes a signal from the track and assigns each signal a cv number. You can reprogram them to suit. Thats about it, pretty much plug and play. Its laminate floor underlay on top of my baseboard - easy to chop out. Took about 30 minutes to solder the new plugs, recess the base and connect up for all 4 signals. I would also say that the long exposure on the camera (1.6s) makes the lights a little brighter than they are

I connected and sunk some of these into the layout today. Certainly the light is lot more pleasing than the Eckon signal and a dam site easier to connect up. Each to their own, but i'm pretty happy with them. The men/loco are level with the front edge of the light. If you haven't got that massive point motor behind them they'd be even more impressive!

I found this too - very dim. Prototypically, it was probably right, but just seemed disappointingly dim at 4mm

I found one at £135 with free delivery

Here we go. Thats an Eckon signal with it and a Bachmann loco and figure for scale.

I've got some. I've installed a couple. I'll see if I can get a picture. They were a site easier to get up and running than the berko ones were