Bob83a

Windsor Central station is too small for the Royal Train now, only suitable for 3 car Dmu. For the royal train by the time the loco was in the platform not much else would get in. Plus it would need to be top and tailed as there is no run around. Road to Paddington, rail to Slough and then road to Windsor would be a bit ridiculous. Waterloo to Riverside would be better route. But all by road is the best option.

A quick search of topic on here shows that the 36-567 is a Zimo MX618N18. The basic way that decoders are rebadged is just to change the label on the box/packaging. Taking it a bit further would include also changing part such as the manufacturer ID (cv8). And taking it another step would be to have changes in the firmware that would change how some of the firmware and or CVs work. The manufacturer ID is almost certainly not hard wired into the hardware of the decoder but is just part of the firmware. While it may be a Zimo decoder you may find that standard Zimo tools to change the firmware might not work if the manufacturer ID has been changed as part of the rebadging

I have to question the caption on the photograph. From the position of the loco and wagons it would appear to be arriving into the sidings giving access to the goods yard and the Heathfield Branch. This could be to pick up additional wagons. I do not believe that from these sidings it was possible to gain access back on to the line to the east directly. If it was possible to access the line east then the train would be being laid over or being side lined to allow faster services to overtake. . There is a second possibility is that the train could be reversing out of the sidings after a layover before it then headed east. In either case it is not heading out of Newton Abbot.

AIUI the concrete rings for the Ruislip-Greenford tunnels are coming from or via Grain. So there is one train per day on that route each way. Spoil from the tunnelling is initially being stored on site/processed before being removed later by rail. Rings for the Thames Sewer that came via Grain but I believe originated from Lincolnshire, is it the same for these HS2 rings. It is surprising that the Rings are not coming from the plant at the southern portal of the Chiltern Tunnels which is only a few miles away, particularly as the Chiltern Tunnels are almost complete as far as tunnelling is concerned.

According to the ESU documentation the 8 pin version of the LokPilot v1.0 only supports 2 digit addresses this appears to be the one rebadged as Bachmann 36-553. The 21 pin MTC version of the LokPilot v1.0 also supports 4 digit addresses, this I believe was rebadged by Bachmann as the 36-554. The Hornby A4 would have an 8 pin socket unless it was originally supplied with sound. therfore as Butler Henderson says you cannot use 6029 as the address, it would need to be between 1 and 99

A quick google show the 36-553 is a LokPilot basic 1.0 so look for the manual for that. It is shown as a 3 function decoder not 4.

I think Imperium 1, 2 and 3 are all Lais decoders but the Manufacturer code (cv8) has been set to 154 I.e Dapol. So manufacturer will not help. Also Dapol do not appear to have much on their website for the Imperium 4 and 5

The concrete rings for the Thames sewer may have already ended but rings for HS2 will be starting soon, the schedules are shown but it has not run yet. The TBM’s for the Ruislip to Greenford tunnels are almost complete, so these services should start later this month or next month. It is odd that these rings are coming via Grain while the Chiltern Tunnels have their own factory only a few couple of miles from Ruislip.

If I was retailer and my allocation was likely to be low (one seems to be common) the I would not be able to justify the cost of advertising a model. It would even be costly to put the item on our website. I would probably just take what I recieve and put it on the counter for first come first served. Because allocations are being cut after orders have gone in than I would probably say i would not bother with pre-orders and only sell what I can actually get in stock. Is there any significance in Hornby cutting allocations to just one, is it possible (am i just being cynical) that this is just so that they can say the item is available from retailers in their advertising. If they are going direct only then they should just say so and do it.

Construction of the TBM’s at the West Ruislip Portal seems to have started. But all you can see is parts being lowered into the cutting at the tunnel mouth. Road works for the TBM’s power and upgrading services means that the is nowhere to stop and watch with a good view. Besides it is slow work.

Just received my order of these, triple pack weathered, single weathered and double barrier pack. I have not received a shipping email. Models all appear to be very good, especially the weathering effects. I have however found a packaging mistake. In the triple pack I have 2 boxes printed as TEA01 and one KBA01. The box printed as KBA01 has a label TEA WB TP(1). One of the TEA01 boxes has a label KBA01 WB TP(1) and the other has a label TEA WB TP(1). The models appear to be correct, For completeness the single model is printed TEA01 on the box and the label Is TEA WB. The KBA’s boxes are printed KBA01 and the labels are both KBA01 WB DP(1) I think that WB is weathered finish, TP is triple pack and DP is double pack. So I would suggest that everyone ordering these check they have the correct models, the packaging for me is of little significance.

I have FGW and GWR HST’s and based on the date of release I believe that the Scotrail Inter7city power cars do have NEM pockets but as Hilux5972 says they are cranked. check the Hornby site for the relevant Service sheets.

Ade, I think the subject of the thread is wrong, due to the confusion between the heritage lines in the area. The SDR (South Devon Railway) runs from Totnes to Buckfastleigh. The DSR (Dartmouth steam railway) runs from Paignton to Kingswear (or Dartmouth if you take the ferry). It was previously the Paignton and Dartmouth Steam railway. The DSR is owned by the Dart Valley Railway Plc. The SDR is owned by the South Devon Railway Trust. The Dart Valley Railway originally owned the SDR at which time it was known as the DVR (Totnes to Ashburton, later cut back to Buckfastleigh) At least that is they way I understand it

This model 32-904DC was supplied with “Bachmann” decoders 36-553 (8 pin) or 36-554 (21 pin) I believe. But as you found they were just rebadged LokPilot Basic 1.0. But Bachmann may have made changes to the firmware, which may include the manufacturer code. The problem that you have reading the decoder in the trailer car is because the is no motor installed. You can get around this by installing a resistor on the motor terminals, but do not leave it installed for normal use. Other ways of programming the trailer is to put both cars on the programming track an change both at the same time, hopefully doing this the changes will get written to both. You need to make changes based on the trailer car. Then you take the trailer off and make changes to just the motor car. Another way is to program the motor car with the trailer car settings, swap the decoder with the trailer and then program the motor car. My preferred way of doing the programming is to take the decoder out of the trailer car and mount it in a decoder tester which has a motor on board, and then put the decoder back in the trailer.

The board mentioned by Barney is made by/for Strathpeffer Junction, www.strathpeffer junction.com The solder tabs on the 8 pin board are fairly large so probably easier to use if not experienced with soldering. The tabs are clearly labelled with function and standard wire colours that should be connected to each. Strathpeffer junction also do a 21 pin breakout board but the solder tabs are smaller and only marked with 2 letter abbreviations of the standard wire colours, I.e the function is not indicated. Strathpeffer Junction prices on eBay are less than those on their own web site. disclaimer: no connection to Strathpeffer junction other than as a customer. as indicated you just need to plug a 8 pin decoder with a harness or an 8 pin direct decoder into the board with no modifications, so the soldering iron goes nowhere near the decoder.

What decoders do you have fitted or more importantly which sound project. if it is a matched pair (e.g. legomanbiffo set) then the decoders will be set up slightly differently, I believe that the horn for example only sounds on the leading power car and when the engine starts the rear power car is delayed a bit. Also I believe that cv29 is already set. The decoders are labelled for the front and rear power car, I.e they are not identical. if on the other hand you have two identical decoders then you may want to give the decoders separate addresses so that you can sound the horn at one end only and also manually delay the startup of one engine. In this case you will need to set cv29 to reverse on one decoder. You may want to set it up as a consist in this situation. not sure what the situation is with the TTS decoders pairs.

They are clearly using voice recognition on these video’s to produce the subtitles, but is anyone checking the conversion. islip and rice occur in the location and Keir becomes as clear at one point. Surely someone should be checking what is being put out meets a level of quality. The quality of the works though looks to be much better.

R3762 is still described on the Hornby site as an 800/1, however the unit number of the model was I believed changed to 800 201 as shown in earlier posts, this means that the model is actually an 800/2. Given that Hornby’s current tooling is only for the 5 car class 800 then the model is now correct in that respect. For ref 800/0. GWR 5 car 800/1. LNER 9 car 800/2. LNER 5 car 800/3. GWR 9 car AIUI as indicated above and in the other class 800 thread just adding a coach pack will not convert a 5 car set to a 9 car set due to the MC/MF issue.

On their homepage scroll down to company news on the right hand side, there is a Christmas and new year opening article

Opening times on the website will not help over the current period as it has not been updates since at least September, there is reference to not being able to ship for 2 days due to holidays in sept. Do not forget that Royal Mail was not collecting or delivering for 4 days, so even if Hereford Model Centre did open then nothing would have left the building via RM. So unless your order shipped early on Christmas Eve then it would have had to wait until today for collection. Other couriers had a similar break.

At about 16:55 in the latest edition of the Hornby A Model World (no 9) on the table when discussing the P2 CAD is what appears to be a class 43 power car. I cannot see the bogie mounted tension lock coupling but the bogie does seemed to be slightly turned away. There is a name plate with a red background and a logo of some sort above it but I cannot read it. Is this possibly a new version or possibly the class 43 DVT for the Mk4 sets

The areas where N scale items will look too small is mainly in the width of structures. Ballast shoulders and Cess etc may look too small. The rolling stock may overhand the sides of the structures. Of. course anything that needs to be close to scale figures would be approximately half size. In particular parapets, walls and fences would be under scale. The materials that the structures are built from are also important. There are no such things as 1/2 size bricks used in bridges etc but stones used in structures could vary in size.

The Great Western & Great Central Joint Railway by Stanley C Jenkins, Oakwood Press (Oakwood library of railway history no 46) covers the line. There are a few pages that cover the specific period (book is 250 pages). Of course in the period concernd it was a GWR/LNER joint railway. There are no formal engine shed in the Ruislip/Wycombe section so as said are would be covered by shed outside of the area, Old Oak/Southall/Slough and Neasden to the East and Aylesbury/Banbury to the North/West. The branch to Uxbridge would not have generated large amounts of freight, while the Maidenhead to Wycombe line would have carried more but was more of a main line. The book covers Marylebone/Paddington and thru to Banbury but does not cover the connections to the Great Central at the North end.

Looks as if all downloadable plans have gone, I tried several oo gauge plans and got page not found for all.

I think that is what Martin R describes as scant, just a list of functions. The list on the Wheeltappers site is slightly better but only adds notes about function that only work on some conditions. There is no information about CV’s although we can assume that the standard Loksound V5 ones all apply, but the is no details of CV’s to set sound levels etc. One would hope again that the standard/common locations apply. Other manufactures at least give A4 sheet of founction’s and CV’s