peterm1

Very nice looking job, Colin. On the subject of UK posting of parcels. I had a loco posted on the the 10th of October and it's still sitting in an airport, probably in Heathrow. It had an estimated arrival date of 26th of October.. I don't see that happening.

Yep, I wired it in to my MXTAPS and found the difference in volume. Thanks again.

I did it too, but in a OO 04, and that was a tight fit.

Thanks Nik. While the decoder's out of the loco, I'll try that.

As above, does anyone know if the speaker wires from the decoder have pos & neg'? The reason I ask is that I'm fitting two 8 Ω speakers in parallel and I want them to be in sync. One is a an electrostatic and the other a 28mm round. The round one has pos' marked but I'm not sure how to find the polarity for the other one.

I can only speak for my original one bought a long time ago from Kernow. It was made by DJ Models. I've fitted a sound decoder, speaker and stay alive and it runs very well. The new one is on it's way. I think Rails of Sheffield may have some more via ebay which is where mine's coming from.

I had a reply from Colin at Gibsons. It looks like I'll have to dismantle the loco to see if the axles would match up with the Gibson wheels. If so, I'll end up with two BWT's. I'm hoping someone else has had one apart and can give me details of the axle diameters and what type and size the ends are. I have had this one apart, but it was back when it wasn't very old. I'd all ready sent one back to Kernow, faulty and this one had a pick up stuck in the spoke of one of the pony wheels. I had to cut the brake gear to get the keeper plate off and I really don't fancy doing it again unless it's to replace the wheels.

PWM = pulse width modulation. The motor gets the full track voltage; mines set to 13.5v, but it comes in pulses many times a second. Turning up the controller lengthens the pulses and turning it down shortens them. So no matter where you set your speed on the handset, the motor still gets (in my case) 13.5v.

Nice job, Colin.

I've only just caught up with your thread on here, Colin. I must say it's looking good.

Thought he might be. I suppose he relies on people not thinking or shopping around.

Ended up getting a new one from Frizinghall for 120 quid. Some idiot called Gostude on ebay wanted 279quid then had the cheek to reply to my question about best price and VAT exemption to Australia with, "What a dream,price as listed for second hand items." Maybe he was on something, eh. If I get positive replies from Gibsons and Bachmann I'll probably still fix the original one up. Kernow no longer had spares for these.

Thanks for the replies. I'll email Gibsons and Kernow and let you know what they say.

Hi all, I'vw got a Beattie well tank that's wearing out the plating on the drivers. I've thought of Ultrascale, but they'd probably have to be bespoke, which would mean even more money. I like this little loco and would like to find the wheels for it. I'd appreciate ideas. Being in Australia doesn't help much.

I put Ultrascale wheels on my Hornby 14xx and if I remember correctly, it was easy. I remember slackening the tension on the rear axle spring and with no tyres it pulls OK.

I'm just glad that I've got just about everything I want. All the prices seem to be crazy now, and not just that.

I've just seen the price... 😳

Me too. Very handy info'.

I bought a batch of the first DCC Concepts motors and had nothing but trouble. In the end I ditched them and bought Tortoise. 20 plus years and with 30 odd motors, I've had one small problem which I fixed myself after contacting the manufacturer and bing told that I won't invalidate the warranty. Sorry. Back on thread. :-)

As has been said before, no two loco's are exactly the same. There are tolerances in manufacturing. I have two Heljan cl27's, bought new at the same time and both ran differently out of the box and after running in and then fitting a Zimo decoder.

I'd go with the Lais stay alive for simplicity. I use them as belt and braces. I adjust CV153 to 20 tenths of a second and CV111 to 1 so that the loco stops dead after 2 seconds, rather than going to CV4 deceleration.

Hi all, I've been painting sleepers with some Floquil Railroad tie brown. Coming along very nicely until I knocked the bottle over. 😡 I know it hasn't been made for a long time, but wondered if anyone knows of an enamel paint that's as good.

If CV 394 is 0 and the stay alive doesn't work it might be worth checking the stay alive itself is working. I've got some Lais one's that have been hanging around for months with detached wires (dodgy soldering at the factory). If yours are Lais, check that you haven't got the same problem. A member on here kindly told me how to check if they're working: connect to 9v battery with correct polarity for 20 or so seconds and then connect to a small motor if you have one spare. If not, then use led's. I had a spare loco motor and it worked, proving that the stay alive worked.

Aaah, Rails. I sent a loco (D class) back to them because I found it had a short in the tender wiring that blew a Zimo sound decoder. It went back and forth between Sheffield and Australia three times! I eventually got the message through to them about the tender, and they sent a new one. They must have been seriously out of pocket when it was all finished, because they paid all the postage. I then contacted Dapol who refunded me half the cost of a new Zimo decoder. Better than a slap in the chops with a wet fish.😀

I have the same problem with pointed tips. They don't like to pick up the solder. I always use a chisel shaped tip of about 2.5 or 3mm