LongfordLad

Thanks for the info. I'd been struggling with this on the first loco that I've ever converted - on which I used a LaisDCC decoder. As you said, it functioned OK at low speeds but as the throttle was edged open, it would suddenly take off like a scalded cat. (Am I still allowed to use that metaphor? Sorry if it offends anyone.) I tried setting CV 61 to zero but that didn't help. However, subtracting 16 from CV 29 to suppress use of the speed table seems to have done the job. I'd bought a few of these decoders as a batch, so I will now try out the others.If they show similar issues, I will move up market. John

I've come to this topic too late so missed the opportunity to get to Stafford. I had to rely on the Utube video. It was damned good! I'll be looking out for your next exhibition and try very hard to get there. The very long thread has been an education - brilliant modelling and a wonderful record of progress. Keep up the good work. John

Many thanks for the reassurance that I'm not completely daft. You can't tell from the signal diagram, but from OS maps of the period, the "neck" is only about a quarter of the length of the sidings on the other side of the mainline, so I think that it must have been intended for locos running light in & out of the sheds. Consequently, goods trains for the branch would presumably block the down running line until they could push back across and in? The Dallam "Branch" provided access to various industrial sites and coal yards but was less than a mile long down any of its branchings. Would that be too far to push a train?

Apologies if this question is very naive - I'm discovering just how little I know and how much jargon I don't understand. I'm returning to a childhood passion, now that I have retired. I'm in the early stages of planning a project including Dallam sheds and branch in the mid fifties, to match my earliest trainspotting memories. Having poured over old maps and a 1937 Signal box track layout diagram (https://signalbox.org/diagrams.php?id=749); I am left stymied on how trains would move between the four West Coats Main Line tracks and the branch line and sidings. What would be the process for up and down trains to get in or out of the branch? At present, I have an uncomfortable vision of a train heading north on the down goods line having to come to a halt and then push back across 3 mainlines into the branch. That feels unworkable... Similarly, it appears that a goods train on the WCML Up Goods would have to enter the branch by pushing back into the sidings before running forward down the branch. I haven't pasted a track layout image into into this topic to respect John Hinson's copyright but I hope that you can see what I mean from the link above. Any advice will be gratefully received. John