MichaelE

Hi and thanks for the reply. I found what I needed from Swiss Model Rail. I had this site in my bookmarks and had forgotten about it until someone at the Albula forum reminded me. Along with Sommerfeldt, Swiss Model Rail has what I need to replicate this catenary. He even has the outriggers with the registration arms and insulators attached. Both for a single track and dual tracks. He also has LED mast lights for each of the transverse beams and other bits and pieces.

Easier than trying to figure this out. That much is certain.

Hello folks I need help with some Sommerfeldt part numbers for my catenary installation in Langwies. Sommerfeld doesn't list which parts, are used how, on their website and I'm not that familiar with complex catenary installations. Would someone help me with the part numbers of the parts I need to install the circled parts in this photo? Specifically, I don't know which part number to use for additional registration arms and I don't know what parts I need to attach those arms to the catenary mast and the outriggers hanging from the truss. I received an email responce from Sommerfeldt that essentially said, check out the catalog. Big help there. Thank you guys.

Goods shed is finished except for painting the roof fascia.

Unfortunately not. The track turns to the right coming out of the Langwies station as it is supposed to, but then crosses two sets of DB tracks below before continuing on for a few more feet to Litzirüti.

Well, it's nice to have the forum back. Hello all. Since then, I have been trying to work on my DB, ÖBB, and RhB layout and a new station is in the works. The dual gauge line on my railroad is about to become HOm only as soon as I can order the turnouts to splice in to the mainline. Unfortunately it's not feasible to use a change-over track to get the dual gauge rail to the correct side of the tracks that the commercial turnouts are made for, and custom made turnouts are prohibitively expensive. Also, I don't think my skill set is up to laying a scratch-built dual gauge 3-leg turnout for a first project. Enough of me prattling on now. This area of my layout between the rising HOm track and the back unseen tracks has been empty since the layout was bult. I researched the smaller RhB stations and found one that fit the existing track plan almost perfectly. Langwies was selected for the approach from the west and the exit to the east most closely matched my trackplan as it was already laid. It is probably a bit on the short side, by maybe 6-8", so a little selective compression and creative structure location is going to be done. BTY, Langwies is on the Arosa branch coming from Chur and ending at Arosa. About 16 miles. The first order of business was to create a pattern to cut wood for the available space. I used several sheets of heavy printer paper taped together and laid over the existing layout to draw an outline of the areas from underneath the layout. I then cut this out and transferred the pattern to the laminated fiberboard I was to use to fill the space. Then I cut wood using the pattern. Another point to mention is that this area on my layout is on a grade of about 4%. This couldn't be helped and so I decided to push ahead with the plan and structures will have to be leveled as they are located on the sub-roadbed. The actual station , as you may already know about is on what appears to be level ground. After the sub-roadbed was cut to conform to the open space, four risers had to be cut to fit the grade of the new space. Risers are directly under the black laminated fiberboard: After the risers were installed the sub-roadbed was dropped in place for a test fit. I was glad I didn't need any adjustments on the cut. A few days later after mulling about the roadbed I decided to lay cork on the entire surface and mount the track and build the station area upon the cork. To bring the railhead to street and sidewalk level before ballasting, additional cork will be cut to fit between all of the track close to the station and will taper off farther away where the ballast will be more pronounced. I've ordered and received the FALLER goods shed that is at the far right of the station area along with a package of almost identical sidewalk brickwork from Auhagen. There will be a lot of this left over for other areas on the layout since only a 2cm x 6" strip of this material is needed. I'm not happy with the shade of the stain on the wood parts so I bought a small can of Min-Wax Expresso #273 stain and it darkened up very well to match the actual station shade and looks very good. No photos of that yet, it's still drying. Tomorrow assembly of this laser cut kit starts. I have located a FALLER laser cut kit of the Langwies station that I will be ordering soon. The rest of the three structures on the immediate grounds will have to be scratch-built and will likely use foam core board for these along with spare bits and bobs from previous kits I've built.

Decoder and speakers installed without trouble and it sounds pretty good. There is some irregularity with the way the traction motors sound on the recording, but there's nothing I can do about that. The speakers are very loud and the sound is crisp- especially the station announcements. I also added two more announcements with the help of the Lokprogrammer. I'm going to have to get one of these 23mm speakers for my Br.232 Ludmilla.

I examined both sound projects in the Lokprogrammer software and I saw no difference in settings other than a couple of function assignment locations were different. I listened to the electric motor sounds and those were slightly different as was the startup sequence. The Bemo factory sound project had a better operating sound so I loaded that one up. It sounds somewhat better, but the slight irregularity in the smoothness of the traction motor sound is still there. I think that may be a consequence of the recording and nothing more. When I converted the factory sound project from Loksound 4.0 to Loksound 5.0 I lost my random sound slots that included the braking sounds. I will have to manually add this back in with instructions provided by ESU on their web site.

The Loksound 5 programmed with the Allegra sound file and a pair of 23mm speakers arrived today and after installation they sound wonderful. However, the traction motors don't seem to sound very smooth while operating, though everything else sounds great. I had them program the S0340 sound file, but after the fact I noticed a footnote for this file being for the LGB G scale Allegra model due to using SUSI. I'm not familiar at all with that protocol, but the factory sound file that I didn't realize was available says nothing about SUSI. This is the factory sound file used by Bemo. The S0340 sound file is the one used for (but not exclusively) for the LGB. The factory sound file has a different five digit numeric only number that I don't recall at the moment. I'm sorry if that last paragraph was confusing. It was late here when I wrote it after work. I'm wondering if the difference in these sound files is causing the irratic traction motor sound in the Bemo Allegra model and has anyone else experienced this? From more experienced modelers, in your opinions would this LGB specific sound file possibly cause the traction motor sound I'm experiencing with this file because of SUSI? Everything in the sound file sounds wonderful except for the traction motors.

Sure, just place a sliver of wire under the rail to level the rail tops and slip on the rail joiner then solder. You might have to experiment a bit with the correct gauge wire, but they join different codes all the time over here. All I use is code 83 so I never ran into this problem, but it's more common than you might think.

I ordered the Loksound 5 Micro, two 23mm speakers and the Lokprogrammer this morning. The shop is going to program the decoder with the Allegra file, but I'll make use of the programmer with a much improved sound and operational file for the Br.232 Ludmilla, and fix the lights in my control car on the ÖBB push-pull CityShuttle.

ÖBB City Shuttle push-pull.

Well, I did not know which forum to put this in. They are DCC controlled, but I don't know if the problem is related to DCC operation.

Last night while running trains I decided to swap out the ÖBB 1142 push-pull City Shuttle train and pull out ÖBB 1014 pulling Eurofirma coaches. A BEMO Allegra was running on the narrow gauge line and all of the coaches are lighted in this train. As soon as ÖBB 1014 started rolling, the lights in Allegra coaches started flickering rapidly. The headlights and tail light did not and continued to burn steadily. In addition, the coach lighting in my Era IV TRIX coaches was not affected either. It would appear that only the BEMO Allegra train is affected by the ÖBB 1014 locomotive. As soon as that locomotive stops, the flickering ceases. What is it about either the ÖBB 1014 locomotive, or the lighting in the Allegra coaches that could be causing this? All are DCC equipped locomotives.

Very nice! I like it.

Everybody that plays an instrument has that feeling when studying scales. "What can I do now", or, "from here" is typically lamented by students studying any instrument. The more you study and practice those scales, the more obvious the answer will be. It will come gradually, but, it will come. One day you will amaze yourself at how far you have come with your repertoire.

American companies or corporations I think are the worst businesses on the planet to work for. American companies care nothing about their employees, treat them like dirt, and try and get twice the labor out of them that should be for at least two people, in addition to being severely underpaid compared to UK or European counterparts in the same or similar positions even taking into consideration the fluctuating (and tanking) US dollar and inflation. Service and retail are the worst positions in the US, with teaching and nursing not far behind.

I used to record on a TASCAM 38 and later on a DA-88 through a TASCAM M 2524. I really learned a lot about muti-track recording, mic placement, EQ, and matching levels. I did that for about 30 years and finally gave it up about ten years ago when it became work and wasn't fun anymore.

I've been playing the piano for 53 of my 59 years on this blue ball. I know it's boring, it's tedious, and sometimes hard to stay awake while doing it, but you must practice your scales in all keys. Every day. For at least an hour. With the scale music in front of you. You will increase your sight reading skills and your technique rapidly by rigidly practicing this. I can't stress it enough. This has the benefit of not only the above mentioned, but also being able to play much classical and contemporary music. Instead of trying to decode the music as you stumble along like someone who is learning to read the written word, you will soon be able to make those notes flow out of your hands fluently, like a person well versed in Shakespeare. Keep practicing and keep playing, but remember those scales with music in front of you as you do.

Hope you get some sleep later. You know that coffee doesn't help. But it must be around 0600 by now. I'm still tipping down a lager at 2300 after work in the States. I'll be getting some sack time in about an hour.

The decoder is a Doehler & Haas though I have no idea which one. It comes up as Version 050, though I think that might be the software revision rather than a model number as I can find no reference to this at the D&H website. I know it is a tiny thing though with not much room to fit it in. Controls appear to be head and tail lights, cabin lighting on F1, and hi/low beam on F8. THose are the only controls I found. I was hoping I would activate the number boards, and I'm not yet convinced they do not illuminate, but I would probably need a sound decoder with the Allegra project to find out.

I don't do any shunting either but I have a staging yard for complete trains to store for swapping out on the main for another train. Most times I have to stop currently running trains on both mains if a train is going to the inner main, but the RhB line continues to run. I don't like doing it this way, but my layout is of limited space too at only 11'x13' U-shape and there is not enough time between trains to swap one out without a collision. Good luck with your plans and post as you progress.

Interior lights are standard. Not certain which decoder they installed as I haven't programmed it yet. Still running on 03 address, but when I do I'll let you know. Not certain about the Swiss lighting, but there is always one white tail light on when in forward, and on the opposite end in reverse. There is no lighting control other than the headlights and the interior lights and UM did not include any decoder information at all.