peterfgf

A frustrating experience! I used the PC based Z21 Maintenance Tool to get my accessory addresses decreased my 4, so that what the rest of layout knew as "turnout 1" became what Z21 knew as "turnout 1" and not "turnout 5". This proved to be easy and was just a matter of ticking the box. I should have stopped there and not gone to the MultiMaus upgrade tab. It failed every time I tried to perform the upgrade. what was unusual is that failed at different programme segments, sometimes at 5, sometime at 24, and so on. I did a bit more searching around on line and found a German website describing the same problem. Their solution was to just keep trying again and again. I'm happy to report that persistence paid off --at about the 30th go. You can't do this with an Apple or with an Android i think), This was the website (my German is not that good, Google translate is a very useful tool): ERROR98 nach Update von Roco multiMAUS => Wer kann helfen? (h0-modellbahnforum.de) Peterfgf

Thanks for the info. I've just had the same problem "Error writing segment 25!". All I wanted to do was to change the accessory addresses by 4 (which worked I'm pleased to say). Should have left well alone. Peterfgf

Thank you to everybody for the advice on the Z21 address offset. I knew that there was a problem but didn't know the solution until I found this page. I'm off to give it a try. RMWeb is a most useful site! Peterfgf

Perhaps one that has been returned and recycled. I'm suspicious sometimes. If you are not happy, return it. It will only annoy you in future. Peterfgf

The bracket looks substantial and acceptable. The attachment to the two rather lightweight longitudinal girders appears to be the problem - possibly via a welded-on pad. There shouldn't be a problem with fatigue and welded joints if it is all done properly, but what are the materials? Years ago I would have assumed mild steel but I wonder if these are aluminium alloy body-shells and longitudinal girders? Peterfgf

That's my wife's car. After thinking that I've locked it, I go in the house, put the keys in a steel box. go back outside and try the handles. It annoyed the hell out of me the first time it kept unlocking itself. Peterfgf

Probably not a lot of help, but there was someone who was advertising quite complicated crossings built up from Peco components on eBay about a year ago. They looked quite good (from a distance). Peterfgf

The tender drive in my old Hornby A4 "Mallard" R309 is effectively an 2-2-2-2 or A1A1, having the first pair of wheels and the third pair of wheel from the front driven by spur gearing from the motor, with the second pair of wheel being undriven and the last pair of wheels mounted on a trailing bogie. This allows it get round tight curves but unfortunately the there was not enough clearance between the top of the bogies and the underside of the tender frame and/or the coupling. The result was that only the forwardmost pair of driven wheels were in contact with the track. Haulage capacity was horrendous and slipping occurred all the time. It took a bit of time to identify it but I did a bit of judicious filing and turned it to the 4-powered wheel cart it was intended to be. It's a nice model from the early 1980s produced when Hornby were evolving from toy into scale model railway manufacturers. It's just a shame about the tender drive. Peterfgf

Excellent book. Peterfgf

Copied straight from Rails webpage: Rails Connect Point Motors - A range of super high quality analogue and digital solenoid point motors designed with you in mind! Crafted for Rails by DCCconcepts. Features: High-power accessory decoder with frog-switching included - just connect to your DCC bus or to 15-18V DC!

I've just got one from Bure Valley Models and it does the same and I'm puzzled. On my rolling road it is noticeable at low speeds. I don't think the driving wheels are eccentric or skew (using close observation and a cocktail stick as a run-out test-indicator). There appears to be some slight binding at once per revolution but I can't identify the cause. It runs smoothly when turned upside down off the track. I suspect the gears or perhaps a slightly bent axle but can't identify anything positively. The screw holding weight which locates the drive pinion in place was loose so I wonder if some rough running of the gears had disturbed it. I was wondering whether to send it back but it seems smooth enough when running on the layout. Putting a DCC chip in it improved matters. How bad is bad? I once bought one of the newer Hornby Duchesses and it was truly appalling when I put it on the rolling road just after I'd bought it. It did a very good impression of a very heavy reciprocating hammer blow and just about shook itself off the rollers. No doubt there - back to the shop straight away. Anyhow, Lode Star isn't nearly as bad and I've decided to keep it (hope I don't regret it!) Peterfgf

They are very nice wagons but very expensive. I suspect they may have been a special commission for the owners of Drax Power Station and another run might depend on what they have to say. I bought two (one of each kind) to commemorate my small assistance in commissioning Drax in the 1970s (nearly killed me when someone broke off the Permit to Work switchgear isolation padlocks that were supposed to be isolating the equipment I was working on). I'll but some more if they become available. Peterfgf

Please could you post the plans on here or allow me to have copies. I'm intending to build Millers Dale station (or parts of it) and would love to have some plans- every little bit helps.

For a support coach it might be prudent to allow for a larger load: kettle, microwave, battery chargers for phones, fridge for beer (and pies), TV for overnight stops,....

I tried most of them and found that Anyrail was the best and easy to use. The worst thing about it was that it forced me to recognise that I was never going to get the main line through the Peak District into my attic. It did enable be to build baseboards accurately to size and decide where to put turnouts etc. It could do with some embellishments, like easy formatting of text and colours, but it did all I wanted. Templot is great and will enable you to design professional looking, almost prototypical trackwork.

You'll probably find that water has leaked under the entire area of the slabs - it is incredibly searching stuff - and I would lift all the tiles up and start again. As the previous poster said, you need to guard against corrosion of copper in concrete. Presumably the underfloor heating is plastic pipe (partly because of corrosion but also because it is easier to lay). Slate is impervious to water and was used for damp proof courses in the past. Detra decoupling is excellent stuff and is essential when laying tiles on suspended wooden floors. The procedure described by Giles sounds like the way to go - to paraphrase "take a shortcut, do it twice". Sorry, not to be more helpful. Peterfg

Most probably a dry bearing. Plastic body shells are very good amplifiers of noise and anything you do to it with it will not attenuate the noise. If you want to reduce the noise that way you have to add lots of mass (think of cast metal body shells or something akin to lead sheets for walls) and block up absolutely every hole around the motor. Far better to reduce the noise at source (i.e. the bearings or maybe the gears). Peterfgf

The 60/40 solder I sue has a melting point range of 183-188deg.C. and I set the iron at 380deg.C. It always a bit of a compromise but this temperature manages to make quick, well melted and effective joints for me. Not a lot of heat goes into the parent material if you are quick about it. Peterfgf

Do get a temperature controlled soldering iron. They are a worthwhile investment. I bought an Atten AT60 from RS Components and I'm very pleased with it (it replaced an el-cheapo from Maplins, which ably demonstrated the proverb "buy cheap, buy twice"). Get small pointed tips for soldering on decoders. Buy a brass wire de-solder station to wipe excess solder off the iron tip (you don't want too much on the tip). Clean up/remove oxidation from the contact pads with a fibre glass pen, tin the pads before soldering the wires to the pads. I use 60%/40% tin/lead solder. It has much better flow characteristics than the replacement lead- free solders (just don't breath the fumes). I lay Sellotape (or better still Kapton tape) over the adjacent pad terminals which I'm not soldering - keeps them clean- but still check afterwards that you haven't accidently bridged the pads with solder. Hope that helps - other people will be much further up the learning curve and give more advice. Peterfgf,

I used some of these track clamps to hold the ends of the rails at the same length. They were also very useful when joining track lengths together. A little expensive but one of the better tools I've bought. One way of avoiding kinks would be to stagger the joints so that there are not two joints at one position. Peterfgf https://www.fohrmann.com/en/track-clamps.html

Incredibly pleased with my 0-4-4T. I splashed out on the factory sound fitted version and it is very good - much better than the efforts of a few years ago. I checked the CVs using Decoder Pro and was surprised to find it set up for 14 speed steps rather than the recommended 128. Strange. The speed table as it comes is also linear. Buxton to Millers Dale push-pull is now a reality! Peterfgf

Thanks for the advice. Will back off on the epoxy - I wanted to provide a smoother/continuous rail surface. Peterfgf

I used a Roco starter set to get going in DCC from an Austrian http://www.hobby-sommer.com/. More recently i've used https://www.modellbahnshop-lippe.com/ and had excellent service at very competitive prices (including loyalty bonuses). In the UK you can get Roco Geoline from https://www.conrad.com/o/h0-roco-geoline-track-beds-1606317 but you might find it cheaper to use a German supplier. Geoline is great track- robustly made with good connectors, and, as you say, concealed point motors. It would make great track for inclusion in UK starter train sets (Hornby, Bachmann). I've noticed that it is used in quite a lot of manufacturers' videos demonstrating new products. The only drawback is the fixed geometry but Roco flexitrack is available but I never got around to trying it before I started constructing a larger model railway. I rather like the Roco Multimaus controller and have now seamlessly upgraded to a Roco WiFi Maus.

I ended up using Peco Code 75 flat bottom plastic joiners. The gap between the rails ends is a bit big though and I'm thinking of filling the gap with epoxy or similar. I tried the Tillig plastic joiners which are small and neat but they are for FB and the BH is just too broad to fit in comfortably. I bought some of the Ambis fishplates (they deserve the name fishplate rather than joiner), Superb but very small and fragile. I didn't use them in the end but they are probably the way to go if you are modelling fine-scale and want something realistic. Peterfgf

Agreed, and my remark was a little tongue in cheek. Presumably part of this is also due to high costs in the USA.