AndrueC

Hah. Reminds me of my last job. I was also a computer programmer and we spent four years working on a new (large!) project. Millions of lines of code split across a dozen projects (client, server even mobile), hundreds of database tables. Then during the first pre-launch meeting the MD told us he didn't like some of our terminology (eg; 'document request' should be called 'job'). He had of course heard all these terms during previous meetings but apparently either didn't take it in or just failed to make the contextual connection. So for the last three years I worked there on our shiny new project as it made its way out into the bright world titles, captions, change and feature requests all referred to things that often had no direct equivalent in the source code.

People say that milk is more effective but I think they should pull the udder one 😜

'Bupgeps'. Is that what they call the morning after?

Found the manual for mine online and for AC it claims: Frequency range 40 to 400Hz. Response: Average, calibrated in rms of sine wave. But since starting to build layouts I've often wondered if it's actually showing double the voltage or just a particularly inaccurate DCC reading.

Someone should tell them to get rid of the popups on their website. Even with an ad blocker I didn't have the patience to click through to get to the catalogue..

I have one of these. It does everything needed to build a layout. It's a little odd in that it reports DCC voltage as being 23.5v which is roughly double what it really is but it's consistent. For DCC work that's all you can expect unless you spend a lot of money. I'd have thought anything for around £20 would suffice although at Amazon there are some on there for £10 that look good enough. One thing I'd want specifically is an audible continuity check. That's the function I use the most. This one for £10 seems to have everything a railway modeller would need.

I decided to bump the paint job up the to do list. I've not got it matched quite right but I think with some weathering on it and the other wagons it'll look fine. And yes, the loco probably isn't correct for that type of rake but I did say in the first post that I wasn't very prototypical 😉

A Wallarium maintenance crew head into Castle Tunnel to fix up ballast.

I think they are quite old tooling because they don't have NEM pockets. The couplers can be changed but it'd be a pig of a job because they are held in their brackets by a small spring. You'd have to further compress the spring while you swapped the coupler over. At that point the only thing keeping the spring in place is the modeller. I'm very pleased that my 13 wagon rake does not require me to replace the couplers with Hunts 🙂

I'd settle for an N Scale 'Lizzie' 😉 Closest we've got RTR is a Queen Elizabeth courtesy of Farish (thanks for that at least).

Thanks. So the message I think I'm getting here is that repainting the grey wagon has to go on my list of jobs to be done sooner rather than later. I don't have the skills to do anything about the chassis but if painted to match the other wagons it won't be so obvious. Painting I can manage - hopefully the body just unclips in some fashion. I'll have to investigate how to do the lettering. Perhaps just weather the wagon so the lettering appears to be hidden under rust or dirt, lol.

Reminds of the time in the early 00s when someone was tasked to PAT test stuff. They were new to the job and frankly they'd been picked because they often had time on their hands. Somewhere I still have a computer mouse with a PAT tested certificate on it.🙂

I'll declare right off that I'm not a prototypical modeller. However that doesn't mean that I want something glaringly wrong on my layout. Also I'm curious and willing to be educated so here goes. I currently have a rake of 'House Coal' 21 ton wagons on my layout: I've wanted to find just one more wagon for a long time now and finally found this: My question is: If I have just one of the above amongst a dozen of the brown wagons is it grossly un-prototypical or could I get away with just being lazy and not bothering to repaint it until I feel like it? Quite frankly I normally take the view that rule one applies and personally I'm not too bothered but I am curious as to how much 'offense' it might cause to the experts in the room. And..should I put it at the end as if it's the runt of the litter trying to hide or stick it in the middle of the rake and proudly display it as 'we wanted another wagon and this was available'? 🙂

I remember one hotel had a toaster that was a conveyer belt with a burner on top. You put your bread on the conveyer belt then waited for it to come out the other side. If you wanted it done both sides you had to put it back on the belt upside down. A triumph of marketing over function I feel.

Did that a week ago. Playing golf. Damn' muddy bank. Got a f'in bogey as well.

I looked up the manual for the meter (Rapitest DM25) online and it turns out that what I'd thought of as 'continuity mode' doubles up as 'diode test' and the 1.44... reading is therefore what it sees as the 'forward voltage' although irrelevant here. Apparently it considers anything under 70Ω to be a short which is good to know.

Can I have a sanity check, please? I've spent the last week painting track but this morning I fitted a new turnout controller. During the process I noticed that the resistance track to track is not 'infinite' with the DCC power off. I could have sworn it used to be. My breaker isn't tripping with power on though so it would appear that all is good for practical purposes. My MM is now reporting '1.445...' in continuity mode and in resistance mode appears to be measuring around .5MΩ. I was about to start worrying but then realised that I have 10 locos on the track along with their (unlit) rolling stock. So am I correct in thinking that I'm just measuring the locos' electronics and/or motors?

Of course it also depends where you live. I've lived in a small town in South Northamptonshire for 22 years and during that time I think there have been two or three short outages (like ten minutes or so) and one regional outage lasting nearly an hour in August 2019. Granted if you live in a village or a remote part of the country cuts are probably more frequent and/or longer duration but apparently National Grid is achieving a very high reliability. Mind you whether that can continue to be the case as we rely more and more on renewable generation is an open question. And because of the thread: Due to a power outage, the house was very dark so the paramedic asked Kathleen, a 3-yr old girl to hold a flashlight high over her Mommy so he could see while he helped deliver the baby ... Little Connor was born. The paramedic lifted him by his feet and spanked him on his bottom And he began to cry. The paramedic then asked the wide-eyed 3-yr old what she thought about what she had just witnessed. She quickly responded 'He shouldn't have crawled in there in the first place, spank him again!'

Yes, although it's more complexity that those most at risk might have problems with. Still Ofcom have given this a lot of thought and concluded that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. The problem for communication providers is that the kit needed to keep the old analogue telephone network operating is becoming increasingly hard to source and expensive. BT's national roll-out of fibre is not an attempt to increase profit. It's an attempt to get ahead of increasing costs.

When else do you want them to be sacrificed? 😝

So more track painting. Is it worth it? I've been adjusting my technique. I've now ditched the idea of felt pens because the coverage just isn't good enough. My new technique is a bit more involved but not particularly tedious. Is it worth it? Well you can judge. Here's a picture showing some track - spot the one that hasn't been painted yet: The new technique has several part. Firstly I paint the rail sides black with a fine brush. I'm using acrylic paint and don't prepare the track first. Then wipe clean the top of the rails before the paint dries. It doesn't matter if the paint dries before you wipe it clean as it'll come off easily enough anyway. Then get some 'burnt umber' Vallejo weathering powder and scatter it along the sides of the rail. The idea is to try and paint the rail sides and chairs with it but with N gauge track at least that's quite difficult. After you've covered the section take a larger brush (but still fairly thin) and 'sweep' the weathering powder along the rails trying to produce a fairly even coat. The final (potentially wasteful) stage is to use a vacuum cleaner - I have one with a small nozzle - and attempt to sweep the centre of the tracks clear trying to push loose powder into the cleaner. You'll pick some of it up but really it just thins the colour out a bit down the centre. You can try and recover the powder from the cleaner afterwards if you want but it doesn't seem worth it to me. And here's the 'after' image: The colour looks okay to my eye but most importantly it's done a lot to hide the out-of-scale look of code 80 track.

One of our club members produced The Viaduct. The locos don't actually have contact with the catenary but it shows that catenaries are possible even in N. The layout was on our stand at this year's Warley but here are some videos. Sadly they are Facebook but if - like me - you don't have an account you can click through the banners. https://www.facebook.com/LWMRS/videos/mike-plowmans-fabulous-layout-the-viaduct-on-public-show-for-the-very-first-time/419958859885135/ https://m.facebook.com/LWMRS/videos/the-viaduct-with-trains-running-across/631089942041481/

I'd also suggest less operational interest. Modern era means less shunting and whilst some - like me - have no interest in shunting what does that leave? For a lot of railway modellers it leaves 'running a train round and round' or 'watching the same loco with a different head code arrive at the station'. Maybe the manufacturers have noticed this and are avoiding the 'boring' modern era. For my part I run what looks good. I don't care about liveries, regions or eras (though I am modern era). The only locos I am unable to get are a Princess Elizabeth in N for nostalgic reasons and an APT-E in N because it's the coolest looking loco I've ever seen.

I wouldn't blame the locos. It's more likely that one thing has gone wrong than that multiple things have all gone wrong in the same way at the same time. Have you changed anything recently?

You could always consider modelling in N which would give you double the room ;)