Paul80

Has it got a TTS decoder or the ESU decoder Bachmann fit, having the void if removed sticker would indicate it's got an original ESU decoder fitted, if so it (a) needs to have run on DC active in cv29, and (b) if it's got a v3.5 decoder could they have run on DC enabled or did that come with the v4 decoders.

The Laisdcc decoders might be worth a look, £9.99 each and not a bad decoder, they sometimes have slow running issues but that's often down to the motor type, I know they are not the smoothest with Farish Coreless motors but are smooth with the motor used in the n-gauge Dapol 68, might be worth buying a couple first just to see how you get on.

Gloss varnish for the oily bits.

Could be wrong and often am, but i didnt think the TTS decoders suported stay alive?

Why were they called Siphon Wagons???

Coat the inside of the hook with a thin coating of rubber cement, it does wonders keeping coupling joined together. Sometimes these couplings just refuse to stay together without a little help, there are various reasons for it, and not being at the correct height is one of them, even when the wagons are made by the same company, I have even seen locos with the couplings at each end at different heights. Another issue is how flopping is the coupling in its nem pocket, I have some that droop in there pocket whilst there are others that point upwards, none of which help them stay together, even a slightly uneven track will give you uncoupling issues. Trying different couplers sometimes helps but can be costly. I have found the short version of the standard Farish coupler to be a bit more reliable than the standard new coupler, although the older one with the spring which held it in the correct position was probable better than the new NEM versions as it held it's position better. I have also tried the Dapol Nemcoup but although slightly better than the standard one is even more critical on it's nights as its smaller, their Magnetic couplers i findcsre the best for staying together but are expensive at £20 For 10 compared to the Nemcoup at £3.20 For 10 Try the rubber cement dodge, it may be all you need to improve reliability. Paul Paul

I get mine from an eBay seller, £9.99 For the last batch I got. Motor control can be good, but they can be fussy with some types of motor. I put a Next18 one in my class 68 and was quite impressed with its running equalities. I also always use them as function decoders. Dapol also sell them under their Imperium range. Paul

The trouble with the Noch n-gauge vegetables and flowers is that most of them are way over scale, their cabbages would look at home on an O gauge layout., brands and tomatoes are more suited to OO gauge.

I once made the mistake of buying one of a UK based seller on eBay with loads of positive feedback. I went for a higher capacity version that had extra cells, when it arrived once fully charged my laptop reported I had 5 hours of battery life so thought all was well, but with only web browsing that 5 hours soon turned out to be 45 minutes at most, and it goes flat very quickly, even when removed from the laptop, so I even doubt it's got Li-Po batteries in it as they hold there charge for ages. Will be getting a replacement from Duracel next time.

Don't bother with Staysure's pre-existing medical insurance as after telling them all pre-existing ailments you find in the small print that pre-existing conditions are not covered. https://www.allcleartravel.co.uk might be worth a look as are https://www.the-insurance-surgery.co.uk

Ok, thanks, will give it a go tomorrow.

Hi I have a small Zimo MX616 wired to 8 pin decoder I would like to convert to 6 pin but need a little help Obviously Orange goes to Pin 1, Grey goes to Pin 2, Red goes to pin 3, black to pin 4, white goes to pin 5 and yellow goes to pin 6 but were does the blue common positive go, I assume it must just connect to one of the others but which one and is my assumption correct. Thanks

Yep, removed them from mine as well, slow running was greatly improved one they were removed.

One more question, how does the sound from the modified microcube compare to the minnow speaker shown in the other install shown on your site, I know when I did mine I went with the minnow, but had to remove the glazing to let the sound out, is the microcube louder than the equivalent minnow.

Thanks for bringing this up Clive, as a fellow Dyslexia sufferer who went through the state education system in the 60's undiagnosed my attempts at spelling can get quite interesting. Being publically humiliated over it was something I got used to in the 60's but even now in my 60's it's still annoying when petty people who are probably members of the apostrophe club, think it's big to point out my errors, but not to correct me but to point out how clever they are and to publically humiliate me. Remember attacking someone with a disability can be classed as a hate crime Paul

And have millions in the bank, mind you that should ensure it will never be finished, as Pete Watermann has admitted with his extensive layout.

He claims to have returned to music after getting more free time now his railway is finished, didn't know it was possible to finish a model railway.

Someone has nothing better to do. I am Dyslexic think yourself lucky you can even read what I type sometimes, sometimes if it were not for the spell checker I type utter gibberish If the spell chequre on mi pea sea says it ok it gets posted

I have always found the DCKits website to be a complete nightmare to navigate, been on there loads of times to buy sound decoders only to give up and go elsewhere to a much better written site. A poorly constructed e ecommerce sight is not good for business and must be costing them money in lost sales.

Nice Job john, what size speaker did you use and what is the Stay alive, not seen one like that before. I assume you insulated the cab floor before fitting the Cab as the speaker contact looks far to close for comfort Paul

My usual supplier does not charge for active braking but adding the cost of a decent speaker does close the price gap considerably. But then again only doing n-gauge the ESU speaker will have to be replaced as it's too big for anything so an additional speaker pushes the ESU costs up as well, pushing ESU prices back ahead of Zimo As one of their sound suppliers do you know if they have any plans to introduce a 6pin micro decoder. Paul

Hand up on this one, my only experience with failed sound decoders have been with Zimo so well done the ESU sellers who sound to to more accommodating for failures than Zimo sellers All the Zimo decoders I have had fail I have had to pay for their replacement as I as a humble customer had no way of proving that it failed without my being at fault, good job replacement costs are low though but its still a cost. In my case of all the ones that failed only one failed in use and that one died after many months of use, and to be honest I suspect it was a faulty Lenz controller that killed it All the other failed during install mainly when removing not needed function wires Heads up here I am an electronics engineer with 40 years experience so know how to unsolder wires without doing and component damage and have successfully installed sound on almost 50 locos but then had a batch when the original failed, that was replaced and that failed , then its replacement also failed, that ones replacement finally worked, having 3 fail during install I suspect was down to a faulty batch which obviously I was unable to prove, although all decoders did work on arrival when they were tested in the decoder tester. Perhaps it was just down to bad luck, I do have loads of that but all those done after that batch have installed fine. Just glad I get a good price on their replacements, but it does push the price up over ESU decoders once you have to add replacement costs Just wish ESU would do a 6 pin direct fit micro decoder

And they are as cheap as chips

Thanks for that, will have a look for the single CV programming option, I hadn't seen that before.

If Facebook's gender identification list is anything to go by, you would need 57 different colours. No wonder the kids today are so confused and screwed up. Should social media carry a government health warning,