ITG

Red flashing light indicates a short! If it’s a brand new layout, how do you know if a short exists or not? Can iPad see the Z21 network?

Hi Iain, I’m using DR4088LN, with a Z21 on standard settings. Any suggestion re the required trip value, and therefore if the suggested DCC Concepts resistive wheels will be ok? thanks

Thanks. I hadn’t thought about resistive wheels. I’m not that bothered about lighting, but didn’t know there was a simpler alternative. I’ll need to measure the existing wheels. Ian

Now Ive thought about, I reckon the George stood on St Leonard’s St, which ran behind both the GN and the BTP building; a street long since gone of course. The George was probably (almost?) directly behind BTP. Too far back to be in your scene.

Some indication of the row of buildings adjacent to Peterborough station in 1959. Oh, with Deltic I should mention. https://www.peterboroughimages.co.uk/deltic-prototype-at-peterborough-north-1959/

As you come down the approach road (approx same position now as was way back) to the station with the GN hotel gardens on the right, on the left corner as you enter the forecourt area, I can recall two buildings. The corner one may have been a house at one time, but I do remember for many years it as the Transport Police station. Next to it (or there may have been another building in between) was the George Hotel, round a slight bend towards below Crescent Bridge. In the photo link below (did you know about the Peterborough Images site; lots of railway photos), I’d say if you stood where the lampost is, looking away, you’d be roughly where the imaginary cameraman was looking at your GN / station forecourt area. https://www.peterboroughimages.co.uk/george-hotel-st-leonards-street-1970s/ Edit…. Do you know, having looked at an online historic street map, if it as mentioned in the caption of the photo in the above link, maybe my memory was slightly warped. It says the George was in St Leonard’s St, which may place if slightly behind the GN. I shall continue to try to validate one way or another.

Thanks for the response. It’s 00 gauge.

As one who has lived in Peterborough for some 60+ years, I am constantly amazed, by the buildings on the layout. Yes, the trains are impressive, but I can imagine being back boarding a train to Manton junction (near Oakham, IIRC) on a lads’ train spotting day out. And this forecourt photo reminds of attending discos in the early 70s at the George Hotel (now demolished), the smaller neighbour of the Great Northern, and probably close to where the camera is in this shot. Ian

I’m at the early stages of exploring/implementing automation, using iTrain on a test layout. I’d like to include a tail end vehicle (ie a brake van) which has a current draw, to enable detection by sensors. The obvious thing seems to be to add lighting to a brake van, be that a tail light and/or interior lighting. So a few questions… 1. where would I find metal wheels, presumably on a split insulated axle? 2. and these would then need pick-ups which I’d need to find? 3. if I use LEDs, what resistors would be needed (I’m using DCC)? This will be the first time I’ve tried to do anything like this, so any tips most welcome. Ian

Isn’t it all about the potential difference in reliability of contact of (a) the point blades physically touching the rails to transmit contact, versus (b) soldered permanent connections. If you do the latter, the frog power switching changes the polarity of the entire frog, indeed up to the insulated rail joiners at the end of both inside rails.

But could you not drill additional holes in a suitable position? Whilst I don’t have Tim Horn boards, the similar ones I use also came with predrilled holes, but I added extra ones for bolts for added rigidity.

Is there not any instruction as to what size hole to drill?

IMHO, there’s a bit of a contradiction, in that you’re aspiring to use prototypical buildings of a real location, but blending that with set track which gives unrealistic track spacing and points radius. Ok, we (nearly) all have to compromise on overall radii, and your station to FY plan could easily hide the sharp radii in a tunnel/cutting etc. or do you already have the set track?

If you mean turn them into loops rather than dead-end sidings, you will take up a lot of space for the extra points, thus significantly shortening the storage capacity. Although you said you could access all around the board, there’s potentially a lot of changes of position as presumably you will want to operate/view from the bottom, but with only 4 roads (not really long enough to hold more than one train each I suspect ), it will mean a lot of toing and froing to fiddle with trains.

That’s a pretty big shift from some of your earlier track plan ideas, Barney. Not that a shift is wrong, but are you clear about what you want from a layout? Plenty of folk get it wrong first time - I know.

Maybe the OP is referring to the lower half of his plan being ‘real’, and the upper half being simply a fiddle yard? If that’s so, does it have to be at an angle? By siting the first point slightly further back on the approach curve, then it would be parallel to the baseboard edge (avoiding wasted space) but also the roads would be slightly longer.

Not sure this wholly explains your symptoms as described, but if the router which is connected to the Z21 is only used for that, you will surely get a “no internet connection” message. The system is not connected to the internet, it is only connecting the Z21 and your iPad/iPhone device, and not to the outside world of the internet.

I bought this from eBay, actually for a different purpose, to mount on a well wagon to give me “on track driver video”, which it transmits in real time to my iPhone. So no reason why it shouldn’t also work with an iPad. A9 Wireless WI-FI Mini HD Camera Security Camera Spy Cam 1080P *UK Seller* But for the purpose you outline, I use a pair (one at each end) of reversing camera kits, each of which links to a small screen. The cameras are very small, and the viewing screens a similar size to a decent size smart phone.

Cracked it. Thank you Iain. I actually don’t recall ever ticking that box on iTrain, but at least it’s now sorted. All points now working and starting to input routes. It’s never finished though, as I now seem to have a frog that isn’t switching in one direction…. Yet I thought it was when only using Z21. Coincidence I think.

My saga continues. I reconstructed the iTrain layout, only then to find that switching turnouts 1 & 2 on screen caused turnouts 5 & 6 to move on the layout itself. Other on screen turnouts 3 - 6 all failed to move in reality. I’m using a Z21, so my first thought was that it was somehow the 4 step offset of DCC addresses had somehow occurred. Despite the fact that I new I had ticked the RCN213 (?) box on the maintenance app. This is confirmed by the fact that on the brief testing I did some months back (before I lost the layout!) it did all work ok. But on checking, I find the box unticked. Is that because I had downloaded a Z21 update? Anyway, reticked it, but I could not get the Z21 and iTrain turnout numbers to align. So I deleted all the turnouts in Z21, and then reinstated and re numbered. Still out of sync with iTrain. Other than delete everything on both systems and start from scratch, any ideas what’s going on? What am I doing wrong? TIA Ian

I would have thought that when you have the route set to travel east>south (or vice versa) that you need additional rail breaks on that connecting leg. Otherwise the (east) insulfrog point is routing current down towards your DCC80 yellow wires, which have reversed the polarity of the current coming from the south - hence the + meets the - and vice versa.

No, I could not find. I reckon I must have accidentally overwritten them, then saved under a different name (one of the demo names). tbh, I’m seeing it’s not a good plan to get such a short way into iTrain, then swanning around Europe for 6 weeks, followed by Covid-induced lethargy! I’m also at the early stages of a significant 12”: 1 foot project as well, which takes up brain space and time. It’s no bad thing to start again, as it helps reinforce the bits I can recall, as well as fill in the bits I can’t! Also, it’s a bit cumbersome that my automation project layout is in the detached garage, not the most comfortable environment for learning. I’m trying to learn in the comfort of the house, but then of course I’m not connected to the layout. Thanks for your help again. Doubtless I will need more help as I go……..

As well as track layout, it would be worth considering options for control systems across/between the circuits. Unless I missed it, I don’t think you’ve stated whether DCC or DC. I’m really only experienced in the former, but to me that would be simplest as it would give your offspring flexibility on accessing/controlling/swapping locos, and/or indeed swapping circuits easily. The negative may be it would potentially allow head-on crashes! Another thought…. If all sidings etc are on the outside (albeit space is limited on the inside) will that cause conflict because of restricted access to same?

Thanks Michael. Yes, I know the layout name, and I’ve searched all over the laptop, using tcdz as the search term, in case I somehow misremembered the name. No luck. Good suggestion about the iTrain forum but I reckon I’ll have to start again.

I hope this isn’t a completely naive question. I started to dabble with iTrain, following Bob Fuller’s excellent YouTube videos. I built a simple physical layout, running Z21, and DR4088 block sensor. I also created this in both Z21 and iTrain. And then I went on a European caravanning holiday for 6 weeks and then caught Covid. By the time I felt like picking up the reins, I had forgotten loads, but worst of all, I’ve now lost the layout I created in iTrain. When I opened up iTrain for the first time after my absence, my layout was immediately there. I hadn’t, up until that time, ever got it running in iTrain (but I did in Z21). So I went back to the videos, and in doing so closed the layout. Now I cannot find it, after I opened up The demo layout. I’m sure (I think!) I named and saved it, but it isn’t in the list of layouts. I’m guessing I’ve lost it, and will need to recreate it, but just in case there’s something obvious I’ve over looked, anyone other ideas as to why I cannot find it? Or where to look, other than ‘open layout’? thanks Ian