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wasdavetheroad

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  1. A few years ago I tried out a receiver board from BlueRail Trains that switched automatically from track power to an onboard battery if the track power failed. I only tested it on the rolling road but the change either way appeared seamless. Unfortunately it was too big to fit in any loco and used a smart phone app. No way, I much prefer knobs, switches and buttons with tactile feedback allowing you to look at the loco while controlling it. I did calculate that all the 'fiddly' bits of my layout 'dead' were about 1/3 of the length which would extend the battery life by 3x. No need for a stay alive!
  2. Thanks for the inspiration. Now i have a use for the 100+ spare Zeiss lens wipes I bought by mistake . 150mm x 130mm when flat and the alchohol has evaporated.
  3. If you decide to have a dehumidifier buy the dessicating type, they work well down to low temperatures. Mine mantains a steady 40% humidity and contributes a little toward frost protection.
  4. What is the purpose of this pipework forward of the tank? I tried searching online with no success, obviously because I did not use the correct search terms.
  5. I think waiting 3 minutes for a model turntable to rotate 180 degrees would drive me crazy. I want to turn the loco, not stand there waiting, 30 seconds seems a long time to me. I remember admiring a beautiful BLT at an exhibition. No trains moving so I asked when the next one was due. He looked at his watch and said '3 quarters of an hour, I am running the Saturday timetable.' It was Saturday. I replied, i like the trees and backed off rapidly. If i ran a real Sunday service on my layout there would be a couple of excursion trains and a curtailed local passenger service. No pickup goods, no shunting in the exchange sidings etc.
  6. Nice, yesterday I Hannibal Lectered Thomas' face as someone had used polystyrene cement to weld his visage into the smoke box. I presume the same person used the same stuff to add coal to the bunker. If they had used PVA I could have just dumped him in a glass of warm water for an hour or so. I got the gunge off after several hours with some slight damage, the coal rails had to go. The good news is Peters spares have Smokebox doors and Phoenix Precision Paints have the Ramsbottom safety valve /whistle but only post on Friday. ,I am not going to bother with the chimney. The doors were posted today. Shapeways have them as well. The chassis was interesting, something called a super strong pulling power jobbie with TRACTION TYRES and a compensated rear axle. Luckily I have a newer normal chassis bought as a spare a number of years ago. The next job is to run it in without the body followed by an endurance test with normall full load to determine the power requirements of the loco. Talking of coal rails i have updated my Bachmann Hughes Crab from LMS livery to BR black. The replacement body and tender body cost £60 from Bachmann spares-ouch!. No coal rails for the tender though. Did the Crabs ever have railless tenders or for that matter run with a different tender. They would look a lot nicer with a BR B1 tender (not my idea but I agree and rule 1 might apply, the excuse is the famous Scalesgill accident when a black 5 ran into the back of a Crab, destroying its tender and derailing itself. Luckily the crew and tender managed to detach themselves before the 5 went over the edge of the Whin Sill - Oops, totall write off. Thinks - did I use PVA when coaling the LMS version, maybe not as it was second hand.
  7. I am planning to convert a Thomas E2 'inspired' loco to battery power and radio control. Despite it's shortcomings this model has one advantage, you can disassemble the body, removing the cab and boiler top which allows for easier fitting of the batteries and receiver. I don't plan to change the cab windows but may consider lowering the bunker. The loco will end up in a simple black livery. I am happy for rule 1 to apply as it will run on a far North West inspired layout. Questions - 1. The smokebox is 20mm dia, is there any alternative door available 2. Is a shorter funnel available 3. where can i source a replacement safety valve?
  8. Thanks for reminding me. I had a flat warm roof fitted to my garage over 10 years ago and I think it probably needs re-proofing. I can't remember the name of the process used but it involves painting on a water proof resin based paint? I have a Dimplex fan heater plugged into a socket mounted thermostat. The heater is set at 1Kw and the thermostat at 10 degrees. For humidity control I have a dessicating de-humidifier ( they work well at low temeratures) and I empty the reseroir every 2-3 days. I decided on a fan heater as it distributes the warm air around the room rather than it pooling at ceiling level with an oil filled radiator. For additional heating there is a second fan heater which combined with the original one , just turn the thermostat up, soon gets the temperature to a comfortable level. The walls and floor are also insulated and I calculated that a 1Kw heater could maintain a temperature 16 degrees above ambient, The de-humidifier maintains a steady 40% humidity.
  9. A online search reveals PVA is Poly Vinyl Acetate and Glue n Glaze is Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA). Both are adhesives.
  10. In my experience copydex will eventually become translucent light brown rather than clear
  11. Johnsons Klear was discontinued some time ago but there MAY be alternatives such as Pledge Multisurface Floor Polish? There is a lot of discussion online about an alternative
  12. Coming late to this topic but how about a re release upgraded period III Stanier corridor composite and brake third in KIT form with the addition of a corridor first and a corridor third. Maybe having kits would go some way toward a guarantee of supply compared with the batch production of RTR models which results in almost everything gone after a few months. New RTR prices are eye watering too.
  13. Wow! 600mAh giving 30 minutes of run time suggests the loco is drawing 1.2 Amps. Are Heljan locos all power hungry? My steam locos top out at 400-500 mA and range down to 110mA in my remotored Lima Class 08. I must finish my Class 37 conversions and endurance test them. The endurance test runs the loco at normal load and speed with a 100mAh battery and the time to LVC (low voltage cutoff) is used to estimate the locos mA requirements for a hours run time. I don't need an hours run time as my operating sessions are 3 hours with locos running for up to 30 miniues max and the rest of the session lying idle but switched on. An idle Rx plus booster draws about 20mA per hour so for example a 400mA loco would need 200mA running and 50mA idling for a total of 250mA. I am fitting all my big locos with 600mAh batteries from Micron Radio Control, and I even managed to squeeze a 600 mAh battery into a Bachmann 2MT 2-6-0 Micky Mouse. The loco draws 240mA so is good for 2-3 sessions before recharge.
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