9C85

I am desperate for a br blue class 47 with sound and I have noticed on a certain online auction site that quite a few Bachmann 32-800ds ie 47 404 'Hadrian 's are available for around the £160 Mark. This is within my budget but I am curious as to why this model seems to be more prevalent at this price than other 47s. Does anyone on this forum have any first hand experience of the factory fitted sound on 47 404? My layout is a shunting yard so I am only really interested in low speed sounds with the occasional burst of light engine thrash off to 'the main line' behind the backscene. I do want the idling sound to be good though - I could listen to that all day. Cheers

You should actually set to not ten past, but eight minutes past ten 'in the evening'. That way, a corresponding digital clock will read 22:08, which uses the maximum number of elements you can use on a 7-segment display, and an analog clock will still 'smile' accordingly

Hello Anthony566 I purchased 3 Cobalts a couple of weeks ago. I installed the first one last week and eventually got it working with Dynamis, although I am pretty sure it didn't respond when the switch was in the Set position. eventually out of desperation I just reset the switch to Run, selected my accessory number (3 in this case) and pressed the point direction button on the Dynamis... and it works! Although I did wonder if the reason it worked in this mode is because it was the ONLY accessory connected at the time? Feeling a little more confident, I tried installing another Cobalt tonight, and it has been a nightmare. Mainly due to my sausage fingers and deteriorating eyesight, but also some quality issues with the Cobalts. I was using the exact same installation method as the first one and stuck the motor to the underside of the baseboard using the self adhesive pad. However, when I was 'up top' fine tuning the point blade position, the motor fell to the floor (concrete, garage). There was no external visible damage, so I continued. I tried programming the motor (as Accessory 2) with the switch in both positions, but no luck. I eventually gave in and tried the third motor. Upon wiring this one, the spring catch on one of the wire terminals jammed open (see attached) I can insert one of the power feeds for the Cobalt into this hole and it will just about hold in place. If I select Accessory 2 on the Dynamis (with the point still in RUN mode) it will throw the point. But I am reluctant to install it under the board with the potentially loose wiring. For my sanity, i checked that Accessory 3 still works for the first point installed. It was hit and miss at times but, as it stands, Accessory 3 throws the point installed on the layout and Accessory 2 throws the motor which is yet to be installed. I have contacted DCC Concepts to discuss repair/replacement of my motors, I am also contemplating alternative methods of point control.

Thanks a lot. I am soon to purchase 3 cobalts as a starting point. I will let you know how I get on. I did get more information from dcc concepts stating that the latest version has been available for a couple of years, so I should have no problem with the self centering

I am so glad that kendo has shared his experience on this thread. I too am new to dcc and have purchased a dynamis as it was actually recommended to me by a well known, reputable model railway shop. I also want to use cobalt point motors, controlled by the dynamis. When I read the start of the thread i was already looking for a plan B, but it looks like I may be able to use them after all, provided I get the latest models. As for RTFM, I am a stickler for reading them (I actually write them for a living), but most people either don't read them at all or only reach for them when they hit a problem. TBH I am still trying to work whether I need a decoder between the dynamis and the cobalt or is it simply a case of connection to the bus and the frog? I have contacted dcc concepts on several occasions and I have had a good response, but I am still waiting for info regarding controlling the cobalt from dynamis.

Errm... when I said that both the main track and service track were behaving like they had swapped over... they had. I had moved all track off the baseboards to paint them. When I connected the dynamis back up to the temporary track, I had connected the piece of track with the feed for the service track to my 'main' track. Pilot error. Carry on everyone.

I have had a similar problem this evening. I am in the process of building a layout and have just completed the baseboards. I have one loco - a 2nd hand Hornby Class 31 fitted with a TTS sound decoder (by previous owner) , and I have a new Bachmann Dynamis controller. I have not laid any permanent track as yet but I can connect up a 4 yd length of 'Main' track and a 1 yd length of 'Service' track to the Dynamis. I have previously managed to program the loco on the service track, but this evening, I was trying to change the default direction on the loco but kept getting read and write errors. The loco will work on the service track in terms of sound, lights and movement, so there is no problem with the electrical connection, but it will not program. Furthermore, If I put the loco on the 'main' track and select 'program on service track' it programs the loco! So basically. the service track output on my Dynamis works like an ordinary length of track and my 'main' output thinks it's also the service output. It's not so much of a problem at the moment, given that i don't have any permanent track and only have one loco, but once things are up and running, I want the service track to behave properly. Any help would be appreciated.

I have just started using a dynamis ultima and I am trying to read/change CVS on a Hornby class 31 fitted with a tts sound decoder. At the moment i only have a 3m length of track connected to the main track output of the dynamis. When I try to read CVs, I get a 'program 11 read error '. I am using the 'program on main' option in the dynamis. Do I need to physically connect the program track output to a separate track, or are both outputs identical from the dynamis? ie if I select 'program on program track', will the dynamis treat the track connected to the main output as the program track, allowing me to read and adjust CVs?

Thanks bike2steam and hayfield. I will get sealing and painting. Also, I am not going to bother with underlay. I am modelling a yard so don't need a ballast shoulder, and it's a slow speed shunting layout in a detached garage, so noise isn't an issue.

I have just returned to the hobby after a break of 40+ years. I have built a 15 ft x 2 ft shelf baseboard in my garage which is timber framed and topped with 18mm MDF. I was wondering whether I should paint/seal the wood and MDF prior to tracklaying.? I will probably prime and gloss the framework but what do people recommend for the MDF? And yes I know 18mm is thick but it was what was available at the time, and I could get it cut down to fit in the car :-)

Thank you all for your valuable input. I like the idea of a bus for rail power and another for accessory power, especially as this is going to be a long term project and I will probably add point motors etc quite a bit later than getting the track powered up. I also the like the idea of integrating the program track into the layout. I am planning on having a small diesel refuelling /stabling point at the front of the layout, so this would be an ideal place for the program track. I forgot to mention that the layout will be permanently housed in my garage but it will be made up of three 5ft long boards which will be removable so i can stand them up for wiring etc. I am making progress with the baseboards and hope to start laying track soon. Thanks again

Hello, apologies if this subject has been covered already. I am new to the forum and this is my very first post, having just returned to railway modelling after a 40-ish year absence. I am in the very early stages (one baseboard support bracket built ) of building a 4mm scale layout in my garage. It will be a shelf layout (15 ft x 2 ft in old money), and will be a shunting layout with a 3 track storage yard behind the backscene, a single line entering the 'real world' from right to left, near the mid point of the layout, and then a combination of kickbacks/headshunts, giving me a reception siding at the rear right of the layout, and a headshunt on the left of the layout serving four sidings (including the the reception siding), The fourth siding, at the front of the layout, will also have a kickback to either a on or two road diesel layover/fueling point. As you will appreciate, I am a complete newbie to DCC but I have spent months on the Internet, especially YouTube, trying to work out what I need, My first question is about DCC bus wiring. I understand that I need a bus which runs the length of the layout, to which I should attach dropper wires from each section of track, but do I need just one bus, with wires joining it from each track? Or do I make the bus mimic the track plan, so that (for example) from the yard throat, the bus 'fans out' under each of the sidings and I have dropper wires to each 'siding bus'? I suspect either option is acceptable, as power will be getting to the right places, but which is best practice? Looking forward to getting back into the hobby. Stu