GWL

Hey all, just a quick note on the lack of cold start on the DCC sound fitted models, I felt compelled and dropped Accurascale an email to say how fab the loco is, but that I’m sad about the absent cold start sounds. I’ve had this promising reply from Stephen at Accurascale:

Hi George

At the time of making the sound project we didn’t have a cold start recorded on a refurb so those projects have a wheel slip instead. However we are recording a cold start 37 hopefully in the coming few days and if that works out well offer a free reblow service to add the option.

So potentially some great news and excellent service from AS! My first foray into DCC sound so I’m very happy to have done so with them 👍

On 08/04/2022 at 10:35, ikcdab said:

This one seems to have slipped under the radar as I don't find any references to it on here.  Bachmann have produced a 2MT for many years...I have never had one so I can't speak about its chassis type or detailing.

However, back in 2020 they announced an updated version. 

 

Ideal for my layout as a number of these were based on the Southern region and there are pictures of 41298 working the Weymouth quay line.

 

I placed a pre-order in Jan 2021 and the locomotive shipped to me last week, March 2022.

 

Although the list price is £164, Rails discount it to £140 but they honoured my preorder price of £123 with free shipping, so I was pleased with that.

 

I have no idea if the revised model has a new body shell, but the chassis is a brand new one. The body shell looks good to me though some of the details are moulded rather than separate fittings, such as cab handrails and smokebox dart, so maybe it's just the old body shell.

 

My only criticism is that the cab is mostly taken up with a large lump that I believe is to do with the DCC and speaker, I don't use that but it does mean that any driver or fireman would need to have their lower half chopped off to fit. You can see this lump in both pictures below.

 

The loco pretty much ran perfectly out of the box and after some running in, is a great performer. I have moderate 1 in 70 grades on my line and the loco will easily haul 6 Hornby maunsells around the layout.

 

A little detail pack is included with guard rails, foot steps etc. 

 

I immediately renumbered mine as 41298 using railtec transfers and gave it a very light weathering.  Attached photos are "before and after".

 

 

 

All in all, I'm pleased with this loco and would be grateful for others comments.

 

Ian 

I couldn’t believe no one has mentioned this until your post, the new chassis is a marked improvement over the old one in my opinion - I also had a pre order and am very happy with it, super runner! Lovely and smooth. I am enjoying many of Bachman’s recent chassis improvements with NXT18 decoders. My class 03 and 94xx are also fab.

Thanks for posting, hopefully this decent model will get some attention.

3 hours ago, gwrrob said:

 

A trio of BR black panniers sit in the afternoon sun on a glorious end of winter's day. Left to right we have 1609, 9440 and 9678.

 

They look wonderful - new to the thread by the way, excellent work sir!

I've just ordered the Bachmann 9405 in GWR weathered, with a Hornby Choc & Cream Collett 'B set' on the birthday list... but your photos are making me wonder whether to go for BR Black and maroon collets instead!

15 minutes ago, Black 5 Bear said:

The chassis was reworked from recollection a couple a couple of years back. 

Unfortunately, this revamp didn't extend to the the loco body.

A very consistent and smooth running item though.

 

Thanks @Black 5 Bear! So, reading between the lines, this could come with a reworked body this time around, but we won't know until we hear more from Bachmann?

And any word on what Awaiting means? I'm assuming Awaiting start of production rather than awaiting delivery, seeing as other models have a date attached?

Hi all, I think this is the best place for this post...

I'm in the market for a 2MT Tank as it fits my current Clevedon branch project well. 

I've noticed Bachmann's 31-443 Ivatt 2MT Tank listed on their website here:

https://www.Bachmann.co.uk/product/lms-ivatt-2mt-tank-41227-br-lined-black-(british-railways)/31-443

What do we know about this? Specifically:

Is this an upcoming new tooling and/or mechanism or is it just a new batch of the old tooling?

If it is new, what does "awaiting" mean on the Bachmann site?

I've recently bought Class 03 (Fantastic!), and have my eyes on the 94xx after Sam's youtube review. Based on these, if this is a new Ivatt 2MT tank, I'll definitely be placing a  pre-order!  Plus I'm a big fan of Next18 decoders, if one can be a 'fan' of such things!

Apologies if this has been covered somewhere else. I searched the forum for Bachmann 31-443, Ivatt 2-6-2, 2MT tank but couldn't find what I'm looking for.  Will keep looking though.

10 minutes ago, RobinofLoxley said:

What I am getting through here is that the objective is to have very high reliability. That doesn't just mean power supply to the trains but if you are looking to any level of automation, all the peripherals, particularly detectors. I am teasing out answers as I go by asking questions that may or may not be silly, which is how we got onto soldering fishplates; it was in the context of avoiding having a dropper on more or less every rail. I would say that only for detection purposes might it be necessary to have every rail separate from its neighbour,  but in most situations it won't be (necessary). The extra detectors introduce more precision in positioning (in terms of feedback to the CAB or to the computer supervising). But then you might have a long run of track where the only requirement is to know if there's a train in it or not. Then you might have 1 dropper only if you were confident of the integrity of the rail joint itself, which in turn is a function of track laying expertise.

 

It makes a difference what kind of track, too. I will re-use a lot of setrack when I rebuild my layout, and there are a fair number of short R600's for historical reasons and they might go back on the layout. But someone else might be building with exclusively flexitrack, covering metres with few pieces, and there you might consider 1 dropper per track section completely reasonable.  Also, someone building a branchline scenario with more emphasis on realistic modelling and operations than I am, might have so few track sections that putting a dropper on each is hardly a problem. My new layout plan is hardly super large but as it has about 500 track segments if I use all my old stuff, I might be justified in welding sa few short sections together.

 

I did exhale a bit when I was told I needed to fully isolate every point and power feed each part of it, but now I get why, I will just have to get on with the soldering.

Completely understood, and in your case where you’re likely to be reusing track for future layouts you’re right, it would be ridiculous!

From my perspective of building a layout where my priority is ultimate reliability, I can justify my time taken “dropping” every piece of track as for me that is the most reliable option. Plus I never intend to take the track up again.

It all comes down to the priorities of your use case, time, money and patience, ultimately!

Are we talking about EITHER soldering all joiners OR droppers on every track piece? Or both?

If you’ve soldered dropper wires to every piece of track and hooked it all up to bus wire of an appropriate csa... soldering rail joiners as well seems like huge overkill to me, and stops the rails from being able to expand and contract.

If you’re not an experienced “solderer” you can get away with lovely big blobs of solder under the rail to “weld” the droppers on and make sure they’re 100% secure and conducting, all hidden by ballast afterwards.

Neatly soldering rail joiners requires a slightly higher skill level if you’re new to it.

Either option is time consuming, and if you simply enjoy the process then absolutely, knock yourself out.

And of course in a thread like this the context varies hugely - converting old layouts vs building new, investing lots of time and money vs the least amount to get you running trains.

But in the context of a new layout that will be built to last forever, I’d say “simply” putting droppers on every length of track and using unsoldered joiners with a mm or two gap for expansion seems like the most reliable investment of time IMO. 

Someone please tell me if I’m missing something!

Some triple checking on Google gave me confidence to proceed. So I soldered up the “long and thin” Kung Fu to the V+ V- pads.

The top of the cab unclips, giving access to the cab floor around the driver to place the capacitors. You can see the stay alive through the window but I’m reluctant to start cutting away at a brand new purchase... I’ve wrapped it up with black LX tape, as well as the cables feeding through under the floor which helps. The cables follow the pickup the wires under the decoder, there are two plastic pillars either side of the motor for cable management, which keep the wiring back away from the body. Here are some photos of a test fit before soldering.

It works! Very happy. Thanks Bachmann for making it easy!

Onto the Bachmann 03:

What a lovely model it is. Runs super smooth with the Zimo MX618N18.
 

As explained above, I’m fitting stay alives for the added reliability on my shunting layout and generally for the learning experience.

Remove the body, unscrew the cab LED contacts, remove the decoder and unscrew the PCB and lo & behold! There are lots of helpful solder pads on the underside!

Now... no mention of these tabs in the manual but the PCB labels seem pretty self explanatory.

I simply solder my stay alive to the V+ and V- tabs, right...? They’ll be the decoder +/- from the bridge rectifier?

Photos attached for reference and info.

Thanks all for the advice!

Norman - Mick from DCC concepts has been helpful in suggesting some CV changes but we haven't managed to solve the lurch yet.

Paul - I ran in the 1361 for a good two hours on DC, and had another 3 hours running in with the decoder today. It hasn't improved things sadly. I suspect it may be something to do with this model...

Grriff - yes agreed, I'm hoping that the prairie will not really need one, but the s1361 definitely benefits - I do regularly clean and maintain my track and locos, but I'm looking at it from the perspective that doing both will mean far less chances of the "hand of god" making an appearance! got the kung fu's for £10 per stay alive which I think is good value.

My Bachmann 03 and Hornby 61xx have arrived today, looking forward to fitting a Zimo and Lenz into them respectively. I will see how they cope without the stay alive first, then work out the best way to fit to each.

Best,

G

Thanks Paul, reassuring to hear I’m barking up the right tree.

The Zen Blue+ arrived from DCC Concepts today, fitted into my 1363.

BUT... an issue on my length of test track - when I set speed step 1 the loco starts moving quickly for a fraction of a second then immediately slows down to a lovely crawl... it’s like it goes from speed steps 0 > 40 > 1 in a fraction of a second.

Any ideas how i solve this? CV2 is set to 0, Accel & Deccel speeds are low at 8. I’m stumped. I’ve been reading about “removing capacitors”, something to do with the decoder thinking its on DC for a moment?  This feels like a solution to a problem i shouldn’t have to deal with in a brand new model with a brand new decoder fitted...

I’ve also turned off DC operation on the decoder. 

One for a new thread for sure, but any thoughts here welcome.

Hi all,

Long time no modelling! I'm lucky to have been back at work for a few months, and now have some time to return to the layout. So I have decided to take the plunge into DCC.

Loads of research done here as usual, thanks RMweb! My NCE PowerCab has arrived, confident I've chosen a great controller to learn the ropes with, now just waiting on decoders and a couple of new models.

There are so many decoder choices, it's been very intimidating...!!! But after research and for the sake of variety and learning, I've ordered:

• Zen Blue+ 6Pin for my Kernow (DJ) 1361
• Lenz Standard V2 8Pin for a new Hornby 61xx Large Prairie (Great Western)
• Zimo MX618N18 Next18 for a new Bachmann 03 (BR green wasp stripes)

I am aiming to fit stay alive's to all the models because A) I want to learn how to deal with the different decoders and B) I'm all about low speed reliability.

My school lessons on capacitance and resistors are dusty memories, so I've shelved learning to make my own Stay Alive's just now and ordered the following off the shelf versions:

• 3x KungFu stay alive (one of each shape)
• 1x Zen Super stay alive

My query is this - do all these stay alive's have charging/protection circuitry built in, so they can be used with any of the decoders?

I think I’ve worked out how to fit them all but it is based on the assumption that I don’t need to solder up a resistor/diode circuit for any of them.

Also any other tips/thoughts/opinions on my purchase choices are more than welcome!

Many thanks in advance,
G

My DJ Models 1361 arrived today, gave it a good two hours running in but it stalls frequently at low speeds... needless to say I’m returning it, but wanted to ask if anyone else experienced this?

Trying to work out whether I’ve just got a dud and to ask for a replacement or save my cash for a different small engine bargain...

Hi Jon, 

I've just written a blog post which details my conversion of exactly these two coupling types - link below.

Also two photos attached which show the socket on a wagon which I think matches yours, and a comparison with the original coupling along side the modified Kadee.

Hope that helps!

Best,
G

Please could someone with knowledge clarify this for me:

It seems  that Collett coaches were initially painted with brown window frames for doors and “lobbies”, but when they changed to the shirt button emblem these windows were painted maroon/red.

I’ve just noticed this while window shopping for Collett coaches. I have a Hornby early GWR auto coach (R4547) with brown windows, whereas the current model (R4831) has shirt button emblem and red windows.

my queries:

Can anyone provide more info on when and why the windows changed?
 

Would it be unusual to have seen an old and new paint job autocoach together? Or would they all have been changed within a matter of months so only have been seen during that brief transition?

Many thanks! G

Long time reader, first time poster!

I'm a theatre production sound engineer in London, who grew up in North Somerset.

My imagination was captured by the ghosts of old branch lines that snaked around and through the villages near my childhood home - specifically The Strawberry Line, Clevedon branch, & WCPLR.

A pile of Hornby 00 gauge track and several models of local GWR stock has been sat in a box in our tiny flat from a childhood 6'x4' layout that closed to goods and passenger traffic circa 2008. 

Like all of us, I have some time on my hands for who knows how long, so I'm embarking on a small layout project that will ultimately last for as long as the lockdown does!

In short, the layout is a fictional GWR country terminus (because we can't get enough of those!), perhaps a preserved line, based upon a shrunken version of the B&E / GWR station in Clevedon, N.Somerset, to be built on two 100cm x 60cm Ikea table tops with Code 75 track.

I have found much inspiration and advice from this forum, and I'll be starting a blog in the appropriate section shortly where I will go into more detail. I hope that documenting my progress provides some interest and points for discussion, and that I can glean further hints and tips from you all!

Stay safe and well, everyone!