Brian-1c

Ha ha, yes indeed ! Thank you for the suggestion, I'll try to get a needle or something with a drop of oil down onto the axle end. I suspect my usual accuracy will get oil on the wheel tread too, as I'm doing it. But clearly I need to practice that before removing.

I have a couple of new GF wagons with squeaking wheelsets. I intend to get a tiny drop of light machine oil onto the ends of the pinpoint axles, but want to check the method of removing the wheelsets before I destroy the wagons. Do I simply prise the axle box to the side and pop the wheelset out and back in again, or is there a clever trick to it ?

Thank you all for the additional information, I will certainly now purchase some of them. About 30 of the current range would suit my needs straight away. I wish there was as much variety, with stock available, as our other favourite rolling stock manufacturers.

Hi Paddy, thank you very much, that is exactly the information I was seeking. Representative with reasonable looks is quite acceptable to me, as my memory is also at about the same level, with regards to how everything really looked in the early 1960s As long as there are no glaringly obvious horrors like solid lumps of underframe detail. But other Peco stuff is such good quality, I was hoping the wagons would be fine. Running qualities and coupling are very important and the pictures appear that they have a decent level of detail in chassis' etc.

Are the Peco RTR N gauge wagons good value, in finish and running qualities ? They seem to be well priced.

Thank you Butler, much appreciated. Now, of course, I have also found the dccwiki page for NEM651. But I'll keep that for reference, as this is my first ever DCC ready loco with a socket - and I thought that would be lots easier. Anyway, took the blanking plug off again and re-fitted the decoder as before, upside down with reference to the blanking plug, now that I know that pin 1 is indeed motor right. Talked to it sternly and, it all works as advertised ! Lights work, on/off and directional. Loco moves, in either direction and is performing well. Thank you for all the help, it is appreciated.

I turned the decoder over to reverse the pins and it is much worse that way. Totally dead, no reaction, no lights, F0 does not respond, no movement on address 3. The loco shows which pin is which on the dummy plug and the loco board, as shown here, top picture. The decoder does not, as previously seen. But there is a nice picture. Now that shows the chip in the same orientation as the dummy plug, pin side down. However, it would be really helpful if, for example, "motor right" said Pin 1 also. Unless that is wrong. Please tell me if Motor Right is Pin 1, or Pin 6.

I have an issue with my GF Class 24 and a Bachmann 36-568A. The loco diagram seems to show where pin 1 is, but the decoder does not. The decoder does, however, show which pin is motor right. The loco runs fine with the blanking plug as an analogue loco. It does not run with the decoder plugged in and address 3 selected. However, if I change direction, the lights front and rear change. Do I have the decoder in the wrong way ?

I would really like a 310, or, as I knew them, AM10 :-)

This is very useful, as I am just starting to build a new N gauge layout. The above has made my life a lot easier. I have previously ran an 00 gauge layout over the last 25 years, always using DCC and used electrofrog points from the beginning. I have never modified any of them, but used them out of the packet, simply adding insulated rail joiners at both frog rails in each case. Never had a problem. I do understand why the recommended mods will work and make them even more reliable, but look at them as the icing on the cake. I am now looking at the Unifrog points, which seem to be ideal, but am frustrated that only the medium code 55 points are available in Unifrog as yet. I will use the code 55 electrofrog large radius points to get the basic layout running in the mean time. I will make the extra effort to do the modifications, as I am sure they are worthwhile. I probably will not replace them either, but will use the unifrogs when I need more, if available by then.