IMS

Thanks for the reply, Donw, but I cut to the chase and simply added BRM to my PocketMags subscription at just under £50pa. Works well, I do get back numbers free at least back to 2020 but generally not the special issues or WOR issues. I get it on my Android phone in the same sub as on this iPad too. Railway Modeller on Exact Editions is great on the iPad, right back to the start in the 1940s, well scanned, with comprehensive index based on good OCR. I'll forget WOR and grudgingly put up with the intrusive adverts on RMweb.

How can I subscribe to World of Railways Plus and to ad-free browsing of RM Web, please in one simple statement? I see it is possible, and I've browsed this forum, but I've given up each time I try to do it. The key problems are: 1. It seems impossible to put both the WoR and the ad-free browsing in the basket, doubling the complex process. Some basket that can only hold one item! 2. Although I'm logged in to start with, I have to sign in again to buy one of the subs and it doesn't work. I either get an invalid/ not recognized message or an infinite Please Wait. It doesn't help that I can't display the contents of the password box. 3. I already use both Exact Editions for the Railway Modeller & its archive. And I subscribe to several mags in PocketMags, which is a breeze to use. BUT I understand that with PocketMags I'd lose out on much of the BRM archive and have to subscribe separately for other mags (Narrow Gauge World is in fact the only one in the offer that interests me). Is that right? Advice gratefully received. Realism is great, but replication of the nightmare of online train ticket buying is something I could do without!

Does it need to be a power drill just for drilling into, presumably, plastic sleepers? I used to use a 12v drill wired Expo drill but found a simple “archimedes drill” (aka “pin vice”) much simpler and safer. You just hold the end vertically above the Job and press down the slide to rotate it. I did have a Dremel but never used for anything useful it as it was hard to chose and fit accessories, there was no handbook or guidance for it. I confess to being wary about power tools for anything except masonry drilling and mowing the lawn.

Yep, that's typical. At least we can have our very own 175 in due course! I've chosen the Arriva version for mine, the pinnacle of services on this line - until they were bought by DB who just sweated the assets. Not that you could blame them, there seems to be no longer any financial incentive to improve services.

Many of us who live on the Marches Line between Cardiff and Crewe are more concerned at the number of long distance trains still operated by 2 car 150s and 153s. These are hopelessly inadequate in capacity and, with 75mph max, are often incapable of maintaining schedules leading to trips being terminating before conclusion. The 175s are nice, fast, and comfortable with more seats and toilets than the the new 197s, but they are hardly ever seen now. I actually abandoned a trip this week because the rush hour train was nearly always a 2 car 150.

Order books now open for the 00 Class 175! Placed mine for a 3 car ATW unit. Nice trains, sadly doomed, hope at least one gets preserved. Comfy roomy, fast. Fond memories of my commuting days.

So they are now - thanks!

When do we know when we can place a pre-order, and how do we do it?

I see the CAD is now completed for the 175 in 00, so hopefully we'll soon know the price and be able to place a pre-order?

Thanks for the advice in reply to my query about Exact Editions. I downloaded their app and have had no problems, so far anyway. I particularly like the indexed search facility, in Railway Modeller it goes right back to 1949!

How do people feel about the Exact Editions app? I’ve been wondering about subs too and was glad to see this post, but the reviews for the EE app for iPad are few, mostly poor and mostly ancient so I was thinking of PocketMags which I already use and find generally good and reliable.

Years ago, I contrived a safe and simple continuity tester from the bulb, holders and wires of a broken slide viewer. Talking of testing reminds me of the mains-tester screwdriver that may have saved my life. I'd connected up a fluorescent light fitting (the vendors of the house had taken all the fittings leaving bare wires!). Being cautious, I turned it on and checked the steel chassis before completing the job. The light in the tester illuminated! The #@*! who'd put in the previous one had used green sheathing for the live and red for the earth... Sorry, I've drifted from the previous thread drift...

Thanks a million, Pete. I got most of that excellent posting, but have two queries. I was unsure about the above quoted bit. I take it you are saying disconnect the main track feeds from the controller and join the feeds together temporarily to create a short circuit? The SC would then mean that more than minimal resistance anywhere indicates a problem? Secondly, does the red scroll wheel (Ohms Adjust) enter into this at all?

Thanks for the tips. I've got a multimeter, but no idea how to use it, even for the simplest of tasks, such as electrical continuity. The instructions may as well have been written in its native Korean! Found nothing useful on the internet either. Here's a photo of the jacks and settings. There are 2 probes. Please could you advise me what to do?

Thanks, will try it tomorrow.

Thanks, Tony. With a magifying glass, I was able to make those out. For anyone with even worse close eyesight than me, they run C, NO, NC from the "hinge" end of the arm (1 to 3 respectively in my numbering system). The ambiguity in this context of the word "switch" had me baffled for a bit, so I'll try to recap. So it's frog to C. The rail you want connected to the frog when the microswitch arm is squashed shut is soldered to NO. The rail you want activated when the microswitch is open is soldered to NC?

I've finally got back to this job, and am about to use the microswitches suggested and illustrated by Steve W on this thread, posted 20 December last. The wiring will be as illustrated by bertiedog in his 29 May 2017 posting on this very useful and pertinent thread: But I'm no expert on electrical components, and would be very grateful for advice on where to solder to the wire from the frog and each of the connections from the rails that feed into the point. The microswitches have three pins and I need to know which to connect to where! For clarity, let's number them 1 to 3, starting from the "hinge" end of the arm: the operating pin being about mid-way between pins 1 and 2.

Really looking forward to these models. I think the A2/2s were among the most handsome locos ever built, although the modifications were notorious for causing rough riding and maintenance problems. Saw 60504 Mons Meg once at Essendine, just after I'd run out of film... The individual locos of the type had detail differences mostly documented in the RCTS book on the LNER pacifics. The A2/3s (and the A1/1 Great Northern) seem to have been much better engines, lasting into the wholesale withdrawal of steam.

My problem is that any solution to the conductivity problem needs to be surface-mounted and small. Microswitches and solenoids look pretty big to me! Peco P-11 surface mounted motors are commendably compact (but still hard to disguise) and do offer the option to connect a switch to the outside of the throw, but I'd really like the actual switch to go under the point whether manually or power operated. I've dismantled (just popped open) a PL-13 and am contemplating ways of using the resulting tiny pcb, it's connectors and/or the springy phosphor-bronze (?) contact piece to fudge an improved electrical connection under the point blades. The alternatives seem to involve ripping everything up to do complicated and subsequently inaccessible work under the track with buried microswitches, or use old-type electrofrog points (I have a few), or scrapping the lot and using insulfrog with extra toe-end wired sections.

Thabks for the extra ideas. I left off this topic over Christmas as I had family visiting. The glassfibre brush proved a very temporary solution: the point soon failed again, and now another has joined it! I think the current Peco Electrofrog points are unfit for purpose unless they are attached to a microswitch or equivalent means of replacing reliance on the blade. I'll look at the ideas suggested alongside a few others, including fitting Peco PL-13 switch under the points. There are many other threads on this site and elswhere on this and the related problem (I've also experienced) of electrofrog points failing to isolate the unselected route. If I was starting from scratch I'd also be looking at insulfrog with the switched routes having their own sections from the controller: http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/744/t/231667.aspx

Thanks to all. The problem points are working again thanks to the glass fibre brush as suggested by Harlequin. Went over the butt joints of other points too, and the tags of the older points reclaimed from earlier layout. I'll try the suggested longer term solutions, but I'm very limited by the need for surface wiring and the desire not to lift the track unless absolutely necessary. Peco, please, reinstate the tags under the moving blades that you had on earlier points! Seasons Greetings to all.

Thanks for the new replies. The points are operated simply by pulling and pushing the slide bars. There is usually little more than the 6' way alongside the points and only the 1/2” or so of baseboard underneath the track. The track on the duff connection side is completely isolated by the failure. I'll see how the glas fibre brush works. It's a pity a microswitch system isn't built into the points, or the contact clips retained -these were easy to adjust with a small screwdriver.

My post crossed with John's. I've not ballasted yet as I want reliable operation first. I'll try your tip with the abrasive. I normally use a cloth with Isopropyl alcohol to clean track, using Peco track cleaner rubber for bad bits. But these don't get into the contact location. Steve W and Pete the Elaner: Would I need to remove the points to cut the manufacturer's connection and to access the wires to install the microswitches? And... Can the moving switch be readilly set to push and pull the sliding plastic switch on the point?

Gosh, many thanks to you all for the very helpful, prompt replies! Much food for thought: I'm hopeful there may be a solution there. There's little scope for using buildings to disguise switchgear as the tracks and points are so close together: it's two terminii and sidings (one urban one rural) end-on with a short tunnel between with the backcloth curving to the front between them. The failed point is, of course, right in the middle used by all trains and close to the tunnel! But I need to treat all points as it can happen again. The microswitchs look particularly interesting as maybe a low impact direct solution. Thanks again...

I have a small layout in Peco Streamline Code 100, using electrofrog points, traditional DC wiring, all soldered. The baseboard sits on furniture, so surface wiring and switching is used. The points are wired "out of the box" but the track current switching is unreliable. Trains often stop as soon as they hit the frog. I can see nothing evidently wrong, the switching seems quite positive and I've carefully cleaned the track especially where the switchable blade butts up to the static rail. I hope someone can help. I have been trying to solve the problem for some time and my investigations and musings are summarized below The trouble seems to be that the conductivity relies only on a butt joint. In older electrofrog points (I've been a casual modeller since the 1970s) there were little clips under the track helping to secure both the switching process and the conductivity - but these seem to have been dropped! I'm reluctant to revert to these older Peco points because they had another problem: the switching spring was under the points so if it popped out you had to rip up the track to get at it! Or use an ugly external switch. The obvious answer is to use a switch which simultaneously switches the point and the electricity. These are generally unsuitable for surface mounting. I bought some Caboose manual switches from the USA, which look like prototype US yard switches, but were too finicky and delicate to assemble reliably. I know it's heresy, but it seems to me that in my situation I might be better off with Insulfrog points. The tiny dead section in them would be a minor problem. Do Insulfrog points have a more reliable electrical switching than Electrofrog? Or would I need to remove their electrical switching and put in separately switched extra track sections for the loops and sidings? I would would be most grateful for any advice.