Lemmy282

The 77's were never in standard rail blue, they were in a form of electric blue, but that varied quite a bit. I've heard stories that the Blue Pullman's Nanking Blue was used on the 77's, no idea if it is true, but they looked very similar.

I've set it up in MX617 decoders in N gauge American locos. Nigel L

Occasionally see 156's on non-passenger routes. Here is Northern 156485 on the 'Old Road' between Chesterfield and Rotherham Woodhouse Mill running an empty stock move from Newton Heath T.M.D. to Heaton T&R.S.M.D. 06/04/2022. Nigel L Should read "at Woodhouse Mill"

Blanking plugs are available from many suppliers including Ebay, you just need to know which type you need. One thing to note, if intending to keep the chip in the locos, the analogue compatability mode may have been turned off in the decoders, and you would need a DCC system to alter the relevant CV.

Sounds like you have answered your own question. What wattage is the iron? A low wattage one will take time to recover if applied to a rail as the heat is drawn away. Although the reel says it melts at 250, that doesn't allow for the material that you are soldering to acting as a heat sink. I have a 50watt temperature controlled iron and run it at 350C, no problems with it losing heat. As an aside I hate lead free solder and can't get on with it, so I stocked up on a few reels of leaded a few years ago, should easily outlast me! Nigel L

Setting CV29 to 34 will give you the 28/128 speedsteps and long address, and disable analogue running. Nigel L

I assume the command station is not shutting down due to a short circuit, so it sounds like it is not picking up power from all the wheels. Check the wheels are clean and that all the pickups are touching where they should.

Get them interested, but beware what it can lead to! We started with reading Thomas stories at bedtime, over and over again, then Brio, then Hornby and then visits to stations. Kids can be useful there, lost count of the number of cabs we were invited into, from Pacers to Eurostars! Virgin were very good giving us bottles of water while we watched trains. He now works on the "big railway" for one of the freight companies!

If each one works correctly independently, could it be that your power supply is not up to driving two decoders? I know it is N gauge and unlikely, but worth trying.

A capacitor or group of them and associated charging circuit are wired into the decoder and store energy. It is used to power the decoder if it loses supply due to dirty track or wheels etc. Some only last a fraction of a second, some several seconds, it depends on which you buy.

Paint matching is always a nightmare. I'm involved with tramcar restorations, and cutting back through paint layers on panels reveals variations on liveries applied over the years. I'm reminded of a story of someone in the past who wanted to model a Llandudno tram in the green livery. He contacted the man who painted the real things and asked what the specification of the shade was, only to be told "whatever was the nearest that Woolworths had in at the time".

For a cheaper alternative use a Hornby TTS class 40

I would remove the capacitor as well. If the loco is still running the wrong way then either alter the value of cv29, or reverse the connections of the wires from the decoder socket to the motor.

I use one of those hand held mini fans, usually £1 from local supermarket. Pull fan blades off spindle, piece of brass tube glued on, then brass rod bent to triangle shape glued into that. A couple of AA batteries last ages, used on Humbol, Precision tinlets, and Railmatch jars. Nigel L

Had a couple of Powercabs for over ten years, never had a problem so long as the supplied power brick is used. There have been a few derailments, but never left long enough to cause a problem. A few years ago I did install MERG district cutouts just to be on the safe side though! Nigel L

Absolutely, and the sound decoders (all Zimo) that I have use the F2 key as the brake key. Using the horn/whistle button makes it easier to use the brake. I have used an ESU decoder from another supplier that had the brake function of F5, which is a latching key, and is not so easy to achieve realistic braking.

Just tried "Rails" site and it is working for me.

Not sure if you are aware, but the F2 key on the Powercab as used for the brake function is a "latching" button, I.e. press to operate and press again to release. The "Horn/Whistle" button replicates the F2 key but is a "momentary" key, i.e. press to operate, release to release, makes braking much easier and more realistic. Nigel L

You'll need a high wattage resistor, something like 47R at 5 Watts.

Sure you haven't got some ballast stuck somewhere in the gears, there seems to be a lot of bits of looses ballast lying around

Didn't know about the Swanage one until I looked it up online and it seems to be the same as the Graskop unit I bought years ago. Used it extensively on 2mm to 7mm nickel silver and brass kits, excellent piece of kit. The only problem I've had was the holder for the bit fell to bits after a few years, made a new one using a coaxial plug as a basis. Nigel L

Okay I accept that it has an aerodynamic effect and may help the airflow under the front end, but I would think the main reason would be to protect the equipment fitted under there, electrical gear, coupling parts, air tanks etc. getting hit by obstacles.

Quite what aerodynamic purpose it might achieve on a slab fronted 442 is open to debate. Still more of an obstacle deflector.

I'm assuming it did have lights and sound at some point, not all 37's that age had them. Would be good to see a picture of the chassis without the body on as there were several different ways that the light connections were made.

Two bits of wire needed to push into the 8 pin socket. Looking at the picture, bridge the top and bottom pins on the far right, and the top and bottom pins on the far left, should work on a piece of track. Nigel L