Paul80

On mine I used the MERG Indexed system, works out about £20 more than the peco one for a fully indexed setup.

If anyone else is looking for these Kent Garden railway has one in their Wagon Store, well they did the other day when I was in there

The SH10A is showing as €58.90 inc vat on their website which is the one I am interested in being an n-gauge modeller, but yes some are over €80

Ditto for the above and some u channel alluminium to hold the servos One Servo4 board to control 4 servos plus 4 servos and ally u channel costs about £10, It's a no brainer compared to other commercially available systems You will need to build the MERG setting box or get a £2 from eBay serial to use lead to do the one time setup but once set you just forget they are there.

Hi There was an article in the current Hornby magazine where they fitted sound to a Hornby loco, the decoder used was a new one (to me) by Doehler & Haass with a quoted price with UK steam sounds at under £70, the spec looked good compared to Zimo and ESU decoders which are £100 plus Anyone used these Doehler & Haass decoders. Any views on them good or bad. Thanks

What oil did you use, so others might avoid it, if it has done so much damage. Hope it wasn't WD40

How do you do a "Hard Reset" assuming thats different to the normal reset of writing 8 to CV8 ?

I once had 2 lenz silver mini decoders die within 30 seconds of each other and both were in the same model of loco, the replacements are Still working quite a few years later. Odd things do happen.

Another thumbs up for Kent Garden Railways, they hold a huge level of stock for such a small shop. Not much else of note in Kent I am afraid even the one in Faversham only carries a small amount of stock as far as model rail is concerned.

Just checked the tender and it seems to be in the correct position eleven with the rear buffer beam. I did find two other issues. 1 the drive shaft cup (don't know it's proper name) on the motor shaft had moved forward on the shaft, so might have been drive shaft lockup pushing the tender off, will give it a run tomorrow and report back. 2nd problem I found is that there is no electrical connection between one side of the driving wheels and the tender so it's relying on the tender pickups only although I had not noticed any running issues. Both connecting wires are intact and when I checked with the meter there was no continuity between the driving wheels and the screw that the connecting wire connects to. So next question how do I get the body off, I tried removing the screws at each end under the pony wheels but all that did was drop the chassis out and nearly had a disaster with the valve gear, how does the body come off these or should I just leave it as it is as it is running ok just picking up from the tender on one side only. Thanks again for all the input and help with this.

Thanks for that, will have a look and report back.

I am measuring from the centre of the circle to the track is that not the radius of a circle? The baseboard is 48 inches wide at that point so takes the 20 and 22 inch radius curves. Unless I have miss understood the way the term radius is used ?

Just googled it, Peco say second radius is 263.5mm mine is struggling with a radius of 508mm very odd if it's supposed to go around 2nd radius?

Sorry, what radius in inches/mm is 2nd radius ? Paul

Thanks for the reply Had a look and as far as I can tell their is only one set of mounting holes,

Hi all Hope this is in the correct section I have just picked up an N-Gauge Dapol Britannia Oliver Cromwell DCC Factory Fitted, that looked to be un-used and other than needed the traction tyres replaced as the old ones had expanded during storage or exposure during its obviously short running life and now runs backwards and forwards fine. The problem I am having is on the curves, I have googled this and it appears this loco is supposed to be able to negotiate 9 inch radius curves but on my layout because the tender is so close to the cab it derails on 20 inch radius curves but is fine on the 22 inch radius curves. Anyone else have this issue with their Britannia? I ordered a new draw bar and drive shaft from DCCSupplies just in case someone had fitted a shorter version in the past, but the new ones are the same as the ones already fitted. It does look nice on the straight with the tender so close the the cab but as soon as it hits the curve the tender and cab hit on the inside and the tender derails. Anyone else have this issue with their Britannia, did you fix it, or are the instructions I have seen claiming 9inch radius navigation wrong, as mine didn't come with written instructions. My Dapol 9F goes around the 20 inch Radius curves fine but that has a bigger gap between the tender and cab. I suppose I could just run it on the outer loop but would rather fix it if a fix is possible. Thanks in advance for any help with this Paul

Do you want the lights to be controlled by the switch or controlled by the loco, the first option is easy, second not so easy.

Hi I would think carefully before using an aerosol to paint such a small area as it's so easy to apply too much paint, now might be the time to invest in an airbrush, even a cheap one will give better results than an aerosol on such a small area. As for primer, if the top coat is white a white primer will be best. As to your issues with yellow, yellow is one of the hardest colours to paint over another colour as it has very little pigment, so realy does need to go over a white primer. Hope this has been of help Paul

With the reputation that CT decoders have for failing and for the difficulty of getting warranty support from CT I hope it does not become a big problem for the N-Gauge Society as they chose CT to make the custom PCB with built in decoder for their new Hunslet shunter, hope they did a better job of the design and build quality than there usual quality. Especially as being built as an all in one custom unit there is no option to change the decoder should it fail in the future. PS. Sorry to hear you killed your Zimo, that one is not cheap is it. Paul

One apparently well know but little talked about side effect of Finisteride is it's not just your Prostate it shrinks, is also known for its ability to shrink your gentleman's sausage and plums, you will find little in the accompanying leaflet about that aspect of its shrinking abilities. Paul

I know about the MX616 option and do use them in my Farish 64xx and 3F Jinty, all designed to take the Bachmann R/A decoder My surprise was that this brand new model from a brand new maker should be designed from the outset to take such a poor performing decoder, some owners will end up with the recommended decoder without knowing other options exist, they then might struggle to get their new model running well and then blame Sonic/Revolution. But obviously that's a risk they must be happy to take, as they must have been aware of the Bachmann decoders limitations. Just hope it does not end up biting them on the proverbial.

Just seen a post elsewhere saying this loco is designed to take the poor performing Bachmann Right Angled decoder, Say it isn't so. There was also mention of room for a sugar cube speaker, why, if the above is true, what sound decoder were they thinking would fit in a right angled socket?

I asked on the Bachmann stands at TINGS regarding the expected arrival date of the 8F, he consulted his folder and said June 2020. Paul

Try the 180 option from above, it was a known issue with TTS decoders not just their 31. As you have had two controllers with this issue it might be a controller issue, especially as it's trying to read when programming on the main as it shouldn't try to read when programming on the main, it should just blind write and not look for any acknowledgment from the decoder. But check the 180 option first. Although that issue normally only affected running, with it working in one way around but not the other. Paul

That's what I thought as well Dapol on their forum suggested sending any with the masking error back to the supplier for replacement, in the case of 007 that would be Dapol themselves. Have they improved on the glue used to hold the handrails on, as their class 68 was plagued with them falling of, even during transport from the factory, with many on display in shops with one or two handrails sitting at the bottom of the box. Is this an issue with the 50 or have they improved on their glue or glue application method for this model.