Moria15

were you in to start with? :) Graham

Well, I'm no longer in business, but my brain is kinda linking the origionators of Triang TT (nostalgia especially as over the years many have questioned a return to TT especially after their forays into N seem to have faded ).. with a production facility and design team accustomed to 1:120 (Arnold) with a company that has already produced UK railway items to 1:120 (Corgi) albeit non-working and a new fund as a possibility. 1:120 would not seem so much of a new scale to the existing Hornby teams as they already have teams working to that scale across the company. Again, pure speculation, but thats what we are here for yes? Graham

Surprised no-one as yet has attempted to link this with Hornby's announcement a couple of weeks ago of a brand new tranche of funding from Secure Trust Bank of £12 million for working capital for operational and "a return to nostalgia". (Last quote from a Hornby management person). Especially when they also talk about establishing new partnerships with the best manufacturers :) May not be related, but it struck a chord with me, and since this is the noble region of speculation, I thought I would just throw it in there :) Graham

Well 1:120 has GOT to be easier than 2 and 1/16th mm to the foot for British N gauge :) Graham

Well, I'm in... just started looking into my next layout with a move up from N gauge and this is awesome news since I see this as a new scale to experiment with. My ideas for the next layout were pushing me towards having to scratchbuild a lot of stuff anyway, but 1:120 with 12mm track for standard and 18mm track for the broad gauge should make all of that a lot easier with a lot of bits available for both gauges such as wheels, axles, etc etc. I already have the 3d printer and was just having a little angst about N gauge broad gauge, so I'll probably dive into 1:120 and see what happens :) Don't see that making dual gauge track would be harder in 1:120 than in N gauge. Graham

Shouldn't be too hard... considering live steam was available in 1/240th scale built in 1973 by A.A Sherwood. I mean that was 49 years ago. Maybe live steam is preparing for a 50th anniversary next year :) http://www.zen98812.zen.co.uk/steam.html Graham

I was thinking this until I read in the Modeller that the sleeper spacing is specifically to UK spacing. Is there a major difference in sleeper spacing from UK to Germany? I know there is a lot of science about this out there, but I was wondering if this is a relevant comment from Peco? Graham

Yes if it is to that quality. So often we have screams about the cost of locos etc.. and then, when the manufacturer dumbs the loco down a bit to save some pounds, the same people screaming about cost then start screaming about it being dumbed down. In older days, in N gauge we had a producer called CJM (now sadly passed on). His locos were the absolute dog's whatsits.. they were accurate, they ran like a dream and they went on forever... I still have 8 of them, some nearly 10 years old now. Even 10 years ago these were selling for just shy of £250 - 300 and they were made in batches of 30 - 40 at a time. Every batch was sold out and waiting lists were sometimes upto 3 years for specific models. IF the quality and accuracy is there, then the price will be paid. Graham

nice loco Next 18 decoder, huge stay alive, sound fitted, bi-colour LED's, supplementary and cab lights.. this sort of quality could make this something very special. Graham

so that means 18mm track for broad gauge near as dammit? That opens up a lot of possibilities with chassis, wheels and other bits. Graham

Many thanks all :) Useful info and makes me feel a bit better about my platform length. My train fits within the loop and the signals, but I didn't want to do the platform the entire length :) Regards Graham

Greetings all... on the GWR branch lines, specifically South Devon area, were the platform lengths longer than the longest train scheduled on the line, or could there be an overhang.. ie 4 coach platform but 5 coach train? I'm not taking halts but full stations. I'm just wondering if there were standards set down for this. Thanks for assistance. Graham

The arch was rebuilt post the 1990 fire exactly as it was before the fire and is there today, or at least it was there yesterday :) For interest, here's an article about the fire in 1990.. http://totnesfirestation.weebly.com/the-east-gate-arch-fire.html As to the Castle, it's actually hard to see from the railway because unless you know exactly where it is, it's visibility from the railway makes it look just like a small hill without seeing the detail of the stonework on top. very easy to miss :) Regards Graham

Thanks so much, that's an awesome resource for me. Looks Like I need to add some battens foirst to my goods shed though Graham

HI all :) OK then as per topic title, these signs... My layout is GWR 1930 - 35 so I know enamel advertising signs were still in use upto 1935, but where to put them? I know that many platform fences were adorned with these and have found photographic examples, but what about on buildings. I can find some pictures of them on Station buildings, generally on the outside of the building, not the platform side, but what about on things like goods sheds and footbridges etc, where they can be seen by public. Was placement allowed anywhere they may be seen by public, or was it more controlled? I don't want to rely on other peoples models, or preserved railways, but wondered if there were any regs or guidelines as to the placement of these at all, or was it down to area manager, or station masters whim or is it down to my whim? Is there a right and wrong, or is it more of a what you want situation Thanks in advance Graham

Thank you all for the comments and details. I'll position things on the basis that there should be no need, unless or until Thanks again. Graham

Greetings all. I have in the back of my mind a rememberance of the fact that Locos were not permitted to run through goods sheds, but I am not sure if this is factual or something I read somewhere that has no verification, so I am wondering about whether this is in fact true, whether it is true depending on whether senior staff are present and watching, or whether it is true only in certain conditions. I certainly see some track plans that might make it difficult to shunt if this is true, but not impossible, so would be very grateful of learning if there is a standard set of rules for GWR locos and goods sheds around the late 20's, early 30's time period. Thanks in advance. Graham

I have only just got my elegoo, however, during my research whilst waiting for it I found this video as I was looking at something similar... Perhaps this may help? its resin that cures at 405 (although the vid says 402) which is the same wavelength as elegoo resin, so don't know but it was interesting to watch however it was designed for an sla printer and the elegoo is a dlp. However, one of the models printed in the review is the elegoo mars castle, and he states right up front he used an ember printer which is also a dlp printer soooooo G

I also snagged a pro this week on Amazon, but I also bought one of these to go with it.. https://www.anycubic.com/products/anycubic-washing-curing-machine Both have now arrived, also just waiting for the resin now Hopefully next week, I will get round to installing everything and having a play. Graham

OK so if i am trying to center on 30 - 35, I can go black.. forget the lining and have the 1294 on the tender and no little A and in my world, it would have been a recent repaint. Would certainly be closer for the period than the Sunshine lettering. And I thought the GWR were complex in what they did Perfect.. so time to get out the T-cut or similar Thanks for the help.

Greetings. I have an N gauge C class in Southern Black, but I think this is wartime (sunshine) lettering . If I wanted to backdate it to Southern prior to WW2 to match my GWR stock, am I correct in that it would still be black but with the Southern, a small letter, and a number on the tender and an oval plate on the cabside? Also I saw a mention of green lining.. is this the case, and would this even notice in N gauge? Thanks for helping a newbie to Southern loco liveries. Graham

Are you tryng to use railcom or railcom+. There was a bit of a bust-up a few years ago between various manufacturers and the NMRA as to how Railcom could be used and expanded with not a lot of agreement. Railcom tends to not be used in the USA (in general) it's much more a European thing and many manufacturers in the USA ignore it completely.. in fact there are even a couple of stationary decoders in the USA that need railcom disabled to work (or there were). Looks sideways at NCE. With the older NCE switch8 decoders you either had to turn railcom off at the base station or extend the railcom timeout from 93 to 87 or 88 before it would work. There were issues with older NCE loco decoders as well on Railcom enabled systems. These issues may well not be an issue with the latest versions, I don't know and have changed tack since then so don't need those decoders anymore. Railcom is actually not an NMRA supported standard Railcom just gets feedback when you change something.. Railcom+ allows feedback and spontaneous messages and has better control of the messages. To use Railcom or railcom+ EVERY power station and Booster and chip (in that block) must be Railcom+ to get the full effects. Is one of your many locos in the block sitting with a Railcom (not + decoder and sending spurious results)? A railcom decoder will report back the address but not much else, even on a railcom+ system . They say the decoder should be capable of working with either, but some older decoders don't work as well with railcom+ as it was a standard not available when the software was written. Having said that, I have only ever managed to reliably read 2 loco addresses in any one block even with Railcom+. Never had a problem adjusting CV's using POM for any locos anywhere on the layout even if they are all in the same block and reading and writing CV values, just getting the feedback through Railcom as the CV was changed was a bit interesting The debate is still open on Railcom and Railcom+. It is not officially part of the DCC norm, but it is fully backward compatible (except for a very few items) . Also of note, is that the previous train number recognition technologies also aren’t part of the DCC norms (namely LISSY from Uhlenbrock, or Digitrax’s transponder technology). I also know that I built my own stationary decoder with an Arduino that used the standard NMRA DCC libraries that had issues with Railcom until I managed to get a different set of libraries to use I know that the latest versions of ECoS and Lenz work fully with Railcom+.. I really don't know enough about the Z21 to comment on that. I'm afraid that Railcom is a bit of a minefield, but hang in there, it will sort itself out eventually. Graham

awesome, thank you all onward we go Graham

Greetings.. working on my small branchline, set GWR and South Devon, and was wondering about the architecture and construction methods. The station building i am planning on using was brick base and wooden built, but the bridges and tunnels on similar lines appear to be a random Ashlar stone or similar (I can't find pictures of any on the line I am pulling the station building from). Is it OK to mix structures like this on one line? ie were the contractors likely to use ( or allowed) to use different materials for different types of structure on the line? I just don't want it to look completely daft when it's done. Thanks in advance. Graham

Greetings all... Having read this, and other threads, I have succesfully prototyped an arduino static decoder to switch my led lights on and off on the layout under the control of RR&Co which to me is a huge step forward (and at my age, somewhat unexpected, least of all by me). What I am wondering is, has anybody built, or designed, an arduino DCC unit for reading the Railcom ID and passing it back on the Lenz feedback bus so that RR&Co can get that info. I already have the layout linked to RR&Co using LDT modules, so I don't really want to change all that for another decoder type such as the Digikeijs ones (cost etc), but if someone, somewhere has built a Railcom ID detector with Arduino that can operate in parallel to the LDT's on the Lenz feedback Bus, I would be very interested in getting details With thanks in Advance. Graham