Graham Radish

To cut down on issues mainly and its nice to have real controllers sometimes over software, one company made one that looked identical to the inside of a class 37 controls it was great but cant remember which company it was, it was a tabletop controller. also instead of firing up a computer just to move some trains i suppose. Very rarely is anything free any good, while it gets the job done it just complicates things further for a lot of people, especially with wifi, it can have a ton of connection problems. As for PC control, i really cannot understand why someone doesnt make a USB controller. I know Everard Junction uses Lenz Wired controllers, all about preference i suppose.

Yea and how many times do people here say "im gonna play trains tonight" they never say "im gonna play locos" Still... You will go loco down in Acapulco if you stay there too long. Here you go, and you get some free decoder wire: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/N-Gauge-Phosphor-Bronze-strips/282117385427?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Suppose i could do a single track tailchaser going into a tunnel, then in the middle a train maintenance depot with trainwash/sheds/refuelling, also i addition to this a small raised section somewhere, but yea, you are right, sometimes having the tailchaser running is great! and of course for running in new trains its a must.

Take the shell off the train, turn it upside down put the chassis on a piece of foam and connect its motor to 12vDC with crocodile clips, grab a load of cotton buds and clean the wheels to a mirror finish with PEEK metal polish whilst the wheels are turning. Your train will run better than it ever has before. after you have done, give every pickup a squirt with, SERVISOL SUPER 10 Im in electronics sector and use servisol daily, its mega stuff for pickups, its designed to clean wipers inside potentiometers for enhanced and prolonged electrical contact, one squirt of this will keep the phosphur bronze pickups clean for months.

As we all know trying to fit sound AND any form of stay alive in n gauge trains is very hard work, sometimes impossible, i started to think outside the box a little, my freighliner 70 was running pretty good with the occasional flicker of the lights, this is very very common on n gauge due to the contact space of the wheels being roughly half the size of that in OO gauge, so i thought the problem is obviously lying in the power delivery to the train, i'm really not a fan of stay alive capacitors, especially when your setup is on train controller where precision running is key. So out came my soldering iron, flux and phosphor bronze, after looking at the wheelsets i immediately thought of a cure to this problem, more pickups is always better right? of course, so i soldered an extra 4 pickups to the train, each middle wheelset now has dedicated power going into the train, and its now all wheel pickup, doing this was the best thing i ever did! damn she runs good now, i mean really good, not even the faintest sign of any light flicker at all, and slow running has been improved to the point she crawls over every single part of my track including insulfrog crossings and points. (my insulfrogs are hidden in a tunnel) So in a nutshell, if you have any graham farish locos with less than perfect running, do it! that extra 2 pickups on each wheelset has made a massive difference! Take care folks.

If its a known weak problem area, i would highly recommend in your new chassis add a small amount of 2 part slow curing epoxy to the area, this stuff is harder than concrete.

Don't tempt me, im seriously considering switching to OO gauge, farish make some beautiful models but oo gauge is where its at for the majority of people i think. I only have space for 2ft6" x 5ft5" baseboard so not sure if much can be done in OO with those dimensions? id prefer some sort of tail chaser over end to end

Ok fitting cab lights to this train is proving to be a real pain so im not going to bother, however, the roof spotlights (front and rear, independently) could be connected to Fo1 and Fo2 couldnt it? this way i could have control over the overhead lights separately. All the images i see of this train and the spotlight seems to only be on in night time running, the marker and headlamps are fixed to day running, nothing i can do about that, but it doesnt really matter tbh. These trains are beasts, yea theyre ugly but most american built trains are, but reliability and power, wow, theyre amazing!

No m8, it stopped right outside the flat but, drove off pretty quick, shocked how big these trains are

Wow just as we speak a class 70 colas rail came past me pulling some colas wagons lol

I set it to 115 as a guess and its pretty much spot on lol 120 is correct

Yep this is true, farish make all recent locos from the past 20 years but no track to match, peco are lagging behind bigtime.

If you want a strong bond get a pin vice with 0.5mm drill bit and put tiny dots of good quality cyanoacrylate superglue on the affected part, just keep superglue or poly cement away from windows, it will destroy them. Dont use cheap rubbish from the pound shop, this stuff is the best: a permanent plastic weld will be achieved, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Loctite-406-Prism-Cyanoacrylate-Adhesive-20Gm/112735466602?epid=2254819579&hash=item1a3f8eb46a:g:zjgAAOSwhnlb7FG9:rk:3:pf:0

Compared to OO gauge N gauge seems hugely lacking with track, for example they sell concrete sleeper flextrack in N but no concrete points to match! Why? surely these are quite common in real railways?

Excellent, This is my result:

QUICK UPDATE: These speakers are £1.50 each here with free delivery, just ordered a few for future models. https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/miniature-speakers/1176046/?relevancy-data=636F3D3126696E3D4931384E53656172636847656E65726963266C753D656E266D6D3D6D61746368616C6C7061727469616C26706D3D5E2E2A2426706F3D31333326736E3D592673723D2673743D43415443485F414C4C5F44454641554C542673633D592677633D4E4F4E45267573743D4142532D3233372D524320737065616B6572267374613D4142532D3233372D524320737065616B657226&searchHistory=%7B%22enabled%22%3Atrue%7D

If your dr5000 is connected in clear sight i think its much better to use an actual physical controller than these phone apps, better still perhaps an infrared controller like the dynamis controller

Hello, The class 70 has a top speed of 75MPH, how would i go about putting in the correct maximum speed in cv#5 ? at the moment its set to 115. Cheers.

Never again fella! this thing is an absolute swine to work on, im sticking to 37's and 66's from now on

Been fiddling with this train again, i tell you what, i have now got maximum respect for anyone managing to fit cab-lights and sound to these n gauge locos, especially the class 70! this is far from easy in fact id rate the difficulty 9/10 for this train. The class 37 was easier as the chassis is wider, but the 70 in n gauge damn, the wiring has to be 100% perfect everywhere, even had to take out and re-fit the shell contact board for the headlights to make things fit properly. the 70 is an absolute swine. once eveythings completed electrically going to give the train light weathering, but only very light around the fans and fuel tank, will probably use weathering powders and seal with matt varnish or something havent fully decided yet. Trying to find some pictures on where to weather it properly. After further investigation and testing this speaker is the only one that will fit in this train model: while the sony speaker fitted ok it vibrated like hell so its got to go: ABS-237-RC farnell sell them for 3 quid: https://uk.farnell.com/pro-signal/abs-237-rc/speaker-8ohm-88db-0-5w/dp/2534983# CV 266 should be set to 64 for best results.

This is hands down the best decoder ive ever used, ive never heard so many random engine sounds before, and the sound quality is top notch! Ive turned down cv266 overall volume) to 32, as i want to create the illusion of distance on the layout, the 70 will be doing some heavy work randomly fading into and out of the the tunnel at the back, pulling freightliner wagons. roughly every 20 minutes In the end i found the perfect speaker for this train rated at 12ohms too which puts less stress on the decoder, i had a broken old sony ericsson k800i mobile phone lying around i used the handsfree speaker out of it, soon as the shell is on it sounds very crisp which is great for flange squeal and brake noises. Ive made a note of what ive done to the train so in future when i get another 70 will make life easier.

Ok this is the best post ever, didnt even know digikeijs made this box, thank you!

Ok removing the cabs is easy enough, they just lift upwards, continuing on now in fitting the lights, ill be using 0402 warm white leds with a 1k resistor Actually even better would be a 10k resistor on the common positive, this will reduce the cab lights down to 1.9v and very realistic light levels for a cabin. Ive just set CV 127 to 1 and CV 128 to 2, and CV 42 to 12, now everythings working epic, directional cab lights that can be switch off and on with F8

Now if anyone knows how to remove the cabs that would be great, just got to fit the cab lights then all done.

Hello, Using the digikeijs dr5000 and traincontroller i would like automated signals somehow if possible