AndrueC

An update on the class 33. She still goes into 'wheel slip mode' now and again so today I got her onto the workbench and stripped her down (ooh er missus). Everything seemed okay but I did find a couple of hairs inside her. I don't think they were mine because I bought her DCC fitted. Anyway I can well imagine that hairs drifting into gears could be an occasional problem and after putting her back together she seems to run just fine. Time will tell I suppose. She had her good days before I did the strip down and refitting the bogies fixed her on those occasions. But I couldn't see any other problems.

https://goo.gl/maps/uzwTtHsyxKTYYeoY6 This is another (somewhat lower, lol) section of the line I posted about before. On the right is the entrance to a drive leading (eventually!) to Cairnsmore House (there's also a couple of very nice holdiay cottages up there that I've rented in the past). The left leads eventually to Kirroughtree Visitor Centre. The railway used to cross the A75 at Palnure: https://goo.gl/maps/nUETqJYX25yHfpej7 You'd have no idea it was there from the ground, but from the air it becomes fairly obvious. https://goo.gl/maps/615wo5RSa5B6CyCX9

I was a beginner at modelling last December. I also model in N. My strategy for this layout was 'just get it done'. My next layout will be my proper hobby layout and /then/ I will do things properly. Maybe . To be fair my layout runs well regardless of what corners I might or might not have cut but then it's likely to be replaced within a few years anyway. For wiring you can often get away with just two for DCC but it's not the best idea. I used insulfrog setrack points and whilst power switching still works for DCC it's a problem with multiple loops because when you set a loop to be continuous run it becomes isolated from the rest of the layout. Also insulfrogs sometimes don't make full contact so the inner switched rails benefit from power for reliability. The only issue I've had with settrack points is that when placed back to back my 4-6-2 Queen Elizabeth struggles to go round with a high risk of derailment. She seems fine with a single turnout but Peco n-gauge settrack turnouts are minimum radius and two together is where my QE stops playing. Luckily all it means in practice is that she's banned from one of my staging sidings. I've mocked up a scale sign that reads 'Diesels Only' I have the NCE PowerCab starter set and I think it does a good job. I can operate two locos just fine and it's an expandable system. I also used suitcase connectors and had few problems. I got caught out with my staging areas because I aggregated them above board to use a single bus wire through the board and ended up trying to connect 'bus wire to bus wire' and discovered that my original connectors couldn't do that. I had to buy some more that were the next size up. But they were quick and easy and haven't given me any problems.

And they say you should never use a first radius curve and always have a straight section between curves of opposite directions That looks like something I'd have laid having failed to plan correctly and not wanting to remove a perfectly good wall

Different end of the country but I took this up near Newton Stewart. Doesn't really fit in with 'rails in the road' but if you're ever up that neck of the woods it's worth checking out the old munitions line. https://photos.app.goo.gl/QxJuaeTAXu44tfDK8 Although there is a sign implying that you'll incur the wrath of British Rail if you set foot on it. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Big_Water_of_Fleet_viaduct_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1535016.jpg

The Cover Story. So what's been happening on Circularium? Not a lot. With golf courses now open my other hobby has taken precedence. I'm still trying to repair the damage inflicted by nearly six months without decent golf. But York Modelmaking came through with my bespoke staging yard cover. I can highly recommend this company. All I told them was that I wanted to cover a section of track with a simple girder structure. The cross section would be an inverted U where the arms were 40mm. The entire structure would be 900mm long with regular girder braces. I would provide my own perspex. From request to delivery only took a couple of weeks and here is the result: https://photos.app.goo.gl/aLGxyaiJTJXp2nuh8 A better modeller could probably get the perspex glued better but primarily it's a dust cover so that I can leave my rolling stock out all summer. I might not have the time to work on my layout but it'd be nice to be able to run it when the fancy took me without having to assemble trains. There will be a second of these 'covers' for the other staging yard which should be complete this week (you can see the first two sections in the distance). I've also glued some steel at grade crossing in place, laid some more ballast and stuck a few junction boxes and a control cabin down. I might even lay some ducting. But apart from that I'm not working on the layout at all

Not wishing to spam this thread but something I find kind of eerie about that picture of the road bridge. Taken from that position today my house would probably be visible (if not blocked by others on the estate) off to the left. Possibly near that tree in the distance. There should be a name for that feeling. Knowing something about the future that those of the time didn't. I know the bridge in the distance very well. It forms part of the path to the local 'pocket park'. https://goo.gl/maps/E7TkSSFAw6CmHxXn7 One of several surprisingly impressive and tall bridges built for local farm traffic.

Speaking of old buildings the engine shed at Farthinghoe (the next stop along from Brackley) still stands. It's now home to junk resale centre. https://goo.gl/maps/T5ZRJv4xX7ySVEmg6 There's a funny anecdote about that. Back when HS2 was first being mooted there was the suggestion of a part time stop for Brackley as an excuse for reinstating the old route I mentioned. No-one believed it of course but someone dug up an old leaflet from when Farthinghoe station was proposed back in the 19th century. It turns out lots of people objected because it was too far from the village and they claimed it was a sop in an attempt to get the route approved. Just goes to show that planning shenanigans are nothing new. In a way it's a shame the original HS2 route wasn't approved. Brackley used to have an impressive viaduct across a valley and HS2 would have created a new one. It would also have gone over the top of a roadbridge over the A43. Would have been quite impressive. http://www.forgottenrelics.co.uk/bridges/brackley.html The footings for that remain in place. There also appear to be remnants of that 'Skew Bridge' bridge near me. Leastwise I don't know what else they'd be for. https://www.rcts.org.uk/features/mysteryphotos/show.htm?img=66-27-32&serial=13 There's an image somewhere of a loco and wagons going over that bridge. The location is here: https://goo.gl/maps/ihDJecccvx3d4Ld76 The semi-circular gap in the trees/bushes must be the bridge. If you zoom out you can see that the roundabout is somewhat south of the original course of Banbury Road. I still think HS2 is a white elephant though

There's a short section of embedded rail here at Brackley. It's a bit odd that it's still there. It's a couple of hundred metres from the old top station so was probably part of a siding but it's strange that it survived when everything else was ripped up. https://goo.gl/maps/FrmZgeStvuidmesB8 The top station: https://goo.gl/maps/wXrSTZJgms5mYXvA9 I do find it interesting to see how long old lines remain in the scenery. If you zoom about you can see the two lines that used to run past Brackley. https://goo.gl/maps/vapGo5BojtBtTEyZ9 A new housing estate has been built on the Northern edge of town over the last couple of years and it's interesting that they've left the old railway embankment in place. They've landscaped it a bit and made a path but it's still intact. I assume that building on railway embankments is difficult so they've made it a park. Near my house is the old skew bridge: https://goo.gl/maps/mmo1JjmHQecg5y6SA What's left of it (a filled in embankment) is due to be destroyed over the next couple of years because another tranche of houses is going up and access will be off that roundabout.

Does the DCC reset? One of my HST 'Miss Behaviour''s traits is that if she derails the decoder resets itself. I've left her assigned to address 3 as a result. It saves the hassle of reprogramming her after a minor bogie mishap.

Hi. I've just taken delivery of an N gauge class 68. Lovely loco and runs well but the coupler (Rapido) is bent upwards slightly. It's fine on the level track but keeps uncoupling at the top of inclines or one slightly bumpy section of my layout. What's the 'approved' way of adjusting couplers? I do have some Easi-Shunt couplers in my drawer that I haven't fitted yet, are these a better bet? Alternatively what do people do if they want a permanent coupling? Wrap a bit of very thin wire around the couplers?

If the only way you can get human contact is with a shop assistant (lockdown not withstanding when you shouldn't be having contact with them) then perhaps you need to get out more and widen your social circle The issue of being reliant on technology is an interesting one but my experience is that it's plenty reliable enough. I never suffer internet or electrical outages. If things become bad enough to make using the web impractical then I suspect it'll be because of a complete collapse of UK infrastructure in which case I'll have better things to do than go to the Post Office anyway, lol.

Apparently it's a place you can go to to get bills paid, driver's licenses, passports and parcels sent. Quite why anyone would choose to actually go somewhere to get that done escapes me.

So I got my 'Oxford Flyer' back from DCC supplies yesterday. Repaired insofar as she actually moves now but not right. Suffered wheel slip. I eventually worked out she's only got one driven bogie so have started the refund process with Hattons. This leads me to suspect that my troublesome class 33 might be suffering the same thing intermittently. I also took delivery of some light grey ballast and this is the stuff I should have ordered all along. So today I've removed the ballast from Wilf's junction and replaced with the new stuff. I do have to wonder how Woodland Scenics 'extra fine dark grey' is larger than than 'fine light grey' though. But the new colour is much better. The sleepers clearly stand out and there's scope for application of paint to simulate oil. I've decided that my sidings are going to be 'exhibition standard' detail. That'll be a challenge in N scale and one that I will be attempting next autumn. I've placed an order for two canopies with York Models so that will turn up eventually. The idea is that those canopies will act as dust covers allowing me to leave my rolling stock on the layout over the summer. I've also decided that the second half of the board will have a stream and a large village so that's something else to look forward to next autumn/winter.

We're also choosing not to have to fight our way into the town centre then pay through the nose for parking (assuming we can find anywhere to park). I'm 54 and I've never enjoyed shopping. It's tedious, noisy and a waste of my time. I haven't bought anything from a real shop for what must be the best part of twenty years. I don't care which is cheaper. Buying stuff online is easier and a lot less hassle. Nothing is ever going to entice me back onto the high street.

Tax is just a business expense like any other. They will just pass it on to their customers as higher prices or their staff as lower remuneration. If the excuse is to prop up the high street then they are wasting their time at our expense.

Got it back today which is a pretty good turn around. She runs again but unfortunately suffers wheel slip at a couple of places on my track. I've investigated further and it seems only one of her bogies is actually being driven. Not a very impressive repair by DCC supplies. Anyway I've emailed Hattons and requested a refund. Enough is enough.

I have the same problem even though my layout is indoors. To be fair the dirt doesn't seem to have any effect on the running but if I wipe my fingers along the rails there's always a grey deposit. I use Peco track and model in N.

This is the plan of layout: What I'm currently considering is 'Wilf's' junction which is left of 'Withering Heights'. If all the turnouts (including the one below 'Withering Heights' are turned out then trains will run continuously from the outer loop to the inner figure of eight and back. If the turn-outs are all set to straight-ahead then the two loops are separate and you can have one train on each. What I'd like to have are three indicators above the track just below below the junction. 'X O O' would be running both loops as one, 'O X O' would be running the loops separately.

I was wondering how best to use signals to indicate if a given route was viable. What I mean by that is that I have two loops on my layout, an outer loop and an inner figure of eight. I can set the turnouts so that the loops are separate or configured as a single run. It would be a cute use of signalling to indicate if the various turn outs were set correctly. I could put the signals (LEDs) above one particular tunnel which has three tracks entering it. There are four turnouts involved (one of which is almost hidden) and two possible configurations. Being able to tell at a glance that the turnouts are set correctly would be really handy. All it needs is something to set LEDs above each track. X O O or O X O would tell me all I need to know. My first thought was something based on electrical continuity but I'm running DCC so even though I'm using insulfrogs that won't work. I suppose that just leaves something mechanical driven off the point switch but I thought I'd pose the question here. I'm a computer programmer so by trade so I can easily see the logic required but it's a question of how to implement it.

Thanks for the replies, folks. Interesting to hear about the 300f. Having looked a bit more this morning I think I'm going to blame the track layer :). It's only those four joints that have this issue, and the one in the picture is by far the worst. Thinking about it if there was a track mismatch there should four corresponding 'corrections' elsewhere and I can find none. It seems hard to believe that I did that to all four joints given that I know of only one other joint that I didn't make properly but thinking about it that incline was painful to lay (it's in the centre of my board so over 700m from the edge). Access to that end is quite easy from the curve side but I would've cut that track by lifting that end (carefully!) into the air. I would probably also have been reluctant to file it for fear of breaking a joint further down the incline. For now I'll probably just print a miniature warning sign as a reminder.

I was cleaning my track this afternoon and noticed an unusually rough joint. It's never bothered any rolling stock but it felt odd. Then I noticed that the problem affected both rails. This section of track has another running parallel to it and although the joint on that is in a different place it too seemed very rough. It's too far away to see easily so I took a photograph and was rather shocked and surprised: I have another photo of the other section of track and it too is slightly raised. The sections of track are at the top of incline, albeit several centimetres from the edge and the joint sits on a single piece of plywood. The left end of that fishplates looks slightly open but I'd be amazed if all four joints had the same problem and I can't see the same on the other joint. Although it's the top of the incline I remember when I laid it that the end sat apparently flat all by itself. The track on the right is Peco Settrack and the track on the left is Streamline. I remember that when those curves arrived they were wrapped in elastic bands that pretty much crumbled so they must be quite old. So I'm wondering if there is a slight incompatibility issue here? To be clear it's not causing me a problem but I am curious about it.

There's very little shunting on my layout. Originally it didn't even support the concept since pulling a train out of a siding meant it ended up on an incline and if uncoupled would just careen down to the mainline. I've addressed that now with a couple more short sidings that allows for a pair of locomotives to work together but it's just not currently what I want. My layout doesn't even have a station, lol. I wanted to watch trains running through scenery and for that N gauge has a definite advantage. It takes a train over a minute to complete a circuit of both my loops during which it passes through a couple of tunnels (one long enough to completely hide six coaches), through a cutting as long as the train, over two bridges and up to an intermediate level. All that and the layout sits reasonably well within my spare bedroom.

Yup, I'll having to choose between N and OO in a couple of years when I move house into my 'retirement bungalow' wherever that ends up being. But when you can take the space formally occupied by a double bed and produce a layout with two loops, eight sidings and run trains with six passenger coaches it's hard to argue against N.

Agreed. My layout looks nice enough but I don't think it would stand up to such close scrutiny. I've almost convinced myself that it's more the 'fault' of the scale but you see pictures like this that put the lie to that. N scale can look 'almost realistic' in close-up if you have the skill. Oh well - I've only been modelling for six months so there's time for me to learn, yet