KingEdwardII

Unless, like me, you are modelling a preserved line - in which case, the more different eras you can acquire, the better!! No such thing as a clash on a preserved line... Yours, Mike.

I moved to Digikeijs DR5000 from a Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance2 system. My choice was guided by the built-in good connectivity options for computers - both USB and Ethernet are standard, with a choice of protocols (I'm mainly using LocoNet). Some other systems only offer computer connectivity as an add-on, often quite costly. If you want to use MQTT as the protocol for accessory control, that's fine. However, you may want to keep DCC as an option simply due to the wide range of kit available that supports DCC. Digikeijs DR5000 has connectivity to a wide range of accessory devices, for point motors, for servos and also for feedback such as occupancy detection. Yours, Mike.

I am using JMRI on a Raspberry Pi 400 and the version of Java installed there is OpenJDK Java 11. So I think it is possible to use JMRI with Java that is not Oracle's. Yours, Mike.

The CK wire strippers use a very different technology that means they can handle a much wider range of wire and insulation sizes. I only need the one tool to handle everything from 32 gauge / 0.2mm wire (for decoders) to the external insulation on mains 2.5mm2 cable. Yours, Mike

I use a pair of C.K. wire strippers that were originally bought for work with mains cables but which proved themselves very capable of dealing with much finer wires right down to the ones used inside locos. One of the best tools that I ever bought: https://www.screwfix.com/p/c-k-wire-stripper-10-265mm/97204 They are good for cutting wire as well as stripping insulation. They make it easy to see just how much insulation you're going to strip. Yours, Mike.

Indeed they did. Although the majority of longer distance buses were "Red and White", for example the service from Aberdare to Cardiff which I used to use. Some details on their fleet are on this site: http://richardstransportpages.co.uk/redwhitefleets.htm The local buses in Aberdare however belonged to Aberdare UDC in those days. This Flickr group seems to have a set of photos covering a range of vehicles and liveries over the years: https://www.flickr.com/groups/aberdare_udc_and_cynon_valley_borough_council_/ Buses seem just as complex a topic for modelling as railways... Yours, Mike.

Oooh, I don't know about that. I have a great picture of two Manors both waiting to depart with lengthy passenger trains from platforms 4 & 5 at Aberystwyth. Despite being the terminus of a long single line, a seaside resort like that often had plenty of traffic on summer Saturdays with multiple trains present at the same time. Perfect excuse for multiple Manors, if you ask me. I think the real question is whether the bank balance can handle getting one of each... Yours, Mike. PS At the moment they both look great. Time will tell regarding any snags. Of course, we don't really know when they will be released - history tells us that much is promised that can take ages to get delivered.

I agree with Esmedune - for soldering large pieces a fine nozzle butane torch is better. I have a Dremel 2200, but there are other equivalent ones out there. My trick is to use solder paste in these situations - literally paint it onto the two surfaces before bringing them together and then heating them. Solder paste is a combination of solder and flux. It is obvious when you have reached the right temperature since the paste is dull grey but it changes to silver as the solder melts and binds to the surfaces. Using paste means that you can concentrate on heating the surfaces and you don't need to hold any solder wire with one hand. Yours, Mike.

I can certainly recommend the flexible drive for a Dremel or equivalent - it is lightweight and neat in the hand and very easy to manipulate. Getting a chuck for the Dremel is also something I recommend - I use a lot of micro drills (0.5mm - 2.2mm) with 2mm shafts and the chuck is way better for handling these and changing them is really simple. Yours, Mike.

I think that the simpler approach to the wiring of the points is to treat Point1 and Point3 as a crossover and organize them to switch together from a single DCC output. However, since you are using Peco point motors, you need to be sure that your DCC accessory decoder has enough grunt to switch two solenoid motors at the same time. I use MTB MP1 point motors that are slow action and I drive them using a Digikeijs DR4018. I have no problem driving a pair of point motors from a single channel on the DR4018 so that all my crossovers have both turnouts switched at the same time using a command to one DCC address, but these motors have a low current demand. The problem with solenoid motors is that they take a high current when they are switched and this may make it impossible to switch two simultaneously on one channel, but this depends on the equipment you are using. Yours, Mike.

My experience of the Rocrail documentation is that it is of the "can't see the wood for the trees" variety. Yes, there is plenty of documentation, but most of it is deep down in the weeds details and the higher conceptual level stuff is entirely missing. Result - lots of functionality that it is very hard to understand how to use. Worse, I found that a good percentage of the details did not match the actual software - the common problem of dated documentation that does not keep up with changes in the software, I think. Yours, Mike.

Dremel with cutting disk. Fast & clean cuts. To get precision with the cut, I clamp a block across the track and cut downwards using the block as a guide. It needs a bit of de-burring after the cut with a needle file, but that seems to be the same for all the cutting methods. I recommend putting some containment around the cutting point (cardboard, etc) to catch the fine grains sprayed out from the disk as it cuts - and certainly you should wear a mask to avoid breathing in the stuff, plus eye protection. Yours, Mike.

I've certainly not tried it, but one of these beasties would form the basis of an interesting project: https://www.arducam.com/product/b006604-arducam-for-raspberry-pi-zero-camera-module-wide-angle-120-1-4-inch-5mp-ov5647-spy-camera-with-flex-cable-for-pi-zero-and-pi-compute-module/ Add in a Raspberry Pi Zero W that has WiFi built in plus a suitable power supply (a DCC -> 5V DC module comes to mind) and you could get a real-time video feed from a loco. Possibly a bit power hungry, but that could be sorted out with a suitable DCC controller. It certainly has the size to suit the front end of a loco, while the Pi Zero is like a rather long Decoder. More likely to be achievable with a diesel loco or D/EMU I suspect. Yours, Mike.

My recommendation: use Electrofrogs everywhere. You will get smoother running with no stalling on turnouts. Downsides: you need to power the frogs appropriately. Either a switch associated with the movement of the turnout (e.g. using point motors with inbuilt switches, like the MTB MP1 & Cobalt motors) or else a specialized frog juicer. Personally, I use the inbuilt switches. Diamond crossings in Peco 100 track are a problem in that they are only available as Insulfrog - Peco 75 track does have electrofrog diamond crossings. It is wise to control the polarity of the various rails on the diamond crossing in either case, typically from the turnouts that control the routes over the diamond crossing, since otherwise you can get shorts as loco wheels touch different rail sections. One tip is to ensure that the turnouts and crossings are laid perfectly level - if they are not level, then loco wheels can lose contact as they traverse and you may get stalling. Fitting DCC locos with stay-alives can help deal with any stalling issues. Yours, Mike.

I solved this problem with the Peco inspection pits by not using the supplied short rail sections - I took rail from a long piece of streamline track and inserted it into the inspection pits as continuous pieces. The short rail sections found homes elsewhere on the layout using the sleepers from the streamline track, so nothing went to waste. Yours, Mike. PS Inserting the continuous rail takes a lot of effort if you assemble the inspection pits as a long section, e.g. the entire length of a full size engine shed, as I have.

At Didcot GWS, the turntable is moved literally by brute force - folks pushing hard on a handle attached to the bridge, with no winding mechanism. But that makes the process slow and steady and it is easy to judge when the bridge rails are aligned with one of the exits. Not quite so easy when you're dealing with a small piece of model kit typically at some distance away with rails you may have trouble seeing well enough to obtain alignment, controlled via a knob that adjusts motor speed rather than turntable position. Stepper motors and indexing do make this a lot easier. It's what they were invented for. Yours, Mike.

Wow. I can't remember the last time I contacted a model railway supplier by phone. It's the ones who don't have a proper website and require orders placed by phone that I typically avoid. I'm probably too wedded to my computers... Mike.

I recommend MTB MP1 point motors - slow moving like the Cobalts but smaller and very easy to fit under the baseboard. The MP1 motors have a built-in switch that can be used to deal with frog power. There is also the MP5 point motor available (slightly larger, also cost slightly more) that has 2 built-in switches if you have a need to switch multiple items. For DCC operation, I use the Digikeijs DR4018 accessory controller to drive the MP1s. Yours, Mike.

I'm not sure that is quite the case. There are folk who have put together DCC driven stepper controllers for turntables and there is a full kit available here: https://www.dccinterface.com/product/model-railway-premium-dcc-turntable-controller-kit-direct-mount/ These controllers are typically based on Arduinos with shields or other extension boards. They handle both the DCC decoder aspects and also drive the stepper motor. Whether this particular solution can fit the Fleischmann turntable, I'm not sure, but it can handle the Peco turntable. Yours, Mike.

My approach to a lifting section is as follows: 1. Ensure that the track crossing the join is straight and ideally at 90 degrees to the join. Curves are very tricky to deal with and track not at 90 degrees also tends to give problems, so I don't recommend having either. 2. For horizontal alignment, I use metal cam dowels fitted to the underside of the edge timber on the edge of the lifting baseboard, which make a tight fit into holes drilled into a section of timber batten projecting from the underside of the fixed baseboard. Here are some cam dowels (other suppliers are available): https://www.screwfix.com/c/screws-nails-fixings/cam-dowels-locks/cat7280104 Whether you use the cam locks is up to you - I don't since the sheer weight of the lifting section keeps it in place for me, but if you do use them then you have to loosen them before lifting. Two cam dowels - one on each side of the join - should be enough. 3. For vertical alignment, I have a single section of timber batten which goes underneath both sides of the join, under both the lifting baseboard and the fixed baseboard. Careful alignment of both baseboards onto this timber ensures that they are level and at the same height. Using the cam locks can help with the vertical alignment, although my view is that if you have to use the cam locks, then something is out of alignment and you should fix that first. Clearly the track on each side of the join must be fixed in place. I use pins, but glue or other fixing methods should be fine. Yours, Mike.

The Meltham branch might have been a busy place. Looking at this page: https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/Meltham_Branch_Line it says "By 1934, the weekday service was eleven trains daily and fourteen on Saturday" This was no sleepy branch line. In addition, the area was fairly industrial. The brick works near the station on the map above was a pretty major establishment with 300 workers, as can be seen from this photo: https://britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw051990 It produced specialized refractory bricks from material mined in the hills above the town. There were also various mills in the area, plus coal mines. I suspect that goods working on the line was fairly substantial and it explains the large size of the goods yard at Meltham. I suspect that "one loco in steam" was not the approach here and the presence of signals and signalboxes points to more complex arrangements. Yours, Mike.

Universal joint couplings seem to be a speciality of the model boat and model aircraft fraternities. I don't know whether this size suits your needs, but it addresses 2mm drive shafts: https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/CAP-Maquettes-CAP-Maquettes-Universal-Joint-Coupling-2mm-2mm-CMC2_2.html#SID=2315 Similar stuff is available from other model boat suppliers. Yours, Mike.

The approach taken in the videos from Little Wicket is OK - it certainly works, but it may have some drawbacks on a real layout. One of the snags is that the Arduino is connected to the computer via USB. This is basically a point-to-point connection and if you have multiple Arduinos, you need multiple USB connections from the computer - long USB cables snaking around under your layout. There is an alternative approach available, using the same basic hardware but with some additions. One that I have used is the CMME (Chesterfield Models) DCC 16 Servo Decoder (https://chesterfield-models.co.uk/product/arduino-dcc-sniffer-relay-servo-decoder-all-in-one-copy/#comment-219) which adds the capability of the Arduino acting as an Accessory Decoder attached to the DCC bus. So, instead of driving the servos via USB, you drive the servos as DCC accessories (turnouts, essentially) and there is no need for a separate USB cable to each Arduino. The Arduinos simply plug into the DCC bus for your layout. You can still use JMRI to drive things (or other alternative software, as you choose), but typically you simply use a single connection from your computer running JMRI to your DCC controller. The CMME device actually neatly packages all the components into a single small box, which can be mounted under your baseboard. This gives them some protection and enables you to organise the wiring efficiently. CMME also organize the Arduino software better, I think. The Little Wicket videos under-explain the Arduino software and the tools use to edit and manage it - CMME have some better guidance, I think. My experiences so far with the CMME stuff I've written up here: But certainly Arduino + ancillary hardware seems like a good approach for providing capabilities for model railways. Yours, Mike.

Look at the date on that message. This does not look like a recent update.

This is the kind of reason that I prefer to do all the geometric wrangling on the computer and print out the results. It has its downsides, of course, in that you need to do the mapping between computer and real world very carefully - in both directions, especially given the lack of "squareness" of typical rooms. But laying the track to follow the printouts gets me good results. Yours, Mike.