Andy Keane

That bit I did know. I was more thinking about evening out the thrust. On petrol engines the aim is to even out the pulses from firing which are much sharper than steam of course, so on an eight cylinder engine one tries to time them evenly with things like 90 degree V8s. On five cyl petrol engines they also have a curious spacing between bores to balance out the rock as well as the pulses. The most extreme were the old Daimler double six straight 12 engines.

One option with outbuildings is to dry line them with modern foam block insulation and a membrane. This makes a huge difference and while it takes up around four to six inches off the dimensions it can make the whole space much better for your modelling. Also if erecting such a building from new you can put a damp proof membrane into the concrete base slab quite easily. Andy

Keith at Dapol is happy for me to share onwards the info on the Mogul sound project to RMwebbers. There is a word file full of screen shots from his decoder programmer and a more general spreadsheet to help explain the various CVs they use. Enjoy! Dapol GWR 43xx Mogul sound project CV list.docx Useful Zimo CVs for distribution Mogul.xls

So I now learn - it seems the chuff rate as shipped on this latest series of Dapol Moguls is simply not right for the gearing and motor they come with. Keith in their tech department has helped me sort this out. I had wrongly assumed that it was 4 cyl versus 2 cyl thing as I was thinking how petrol engines are timed - I now know better. I think it is simply something they overlooked and when Keith saw my video he realised it was not correctly matched. Hence the change to CV 267 from 29 to 58.

I am confused - I thought with two extra cylinders they would be timed to exhaust in between the other two and, all being double acting, I expected a two cylinder engine to give four beats per revolution and a four cylinder engine to give eight? Does this mean that the timing is set up so that on four cylinders the pistons are in pairs like on a four cylinder four-stroke petrol engine? Clearly I have much to learn!

I have now changed CV 267 from its value of 29 to 58 to slow down my chuff rate - it seemed to be set for a four cylinder engine rather two. Keith at Dapol has helpfully supplied some notes on the various CV settings in their sound project - I think they should really send these out with the loco itself. This is the result - not perfect but much better:

I have indeed listened to some youtube tracks to hear this sound - I just think on my Dapol its loud compared to the chuffs - I am investigating to see if I can turn it down a bit. Also it would be good to play with the number of chuffs pre wheel turn - these are two cylinder engines so I assume four chuffs per wheel revolution would be correct.

Maybe its me - I have checked with Dapol tech support and they confirm its meant to be there - its just on the overrun when the chuffing dies back I find it rather intrusive. I am hoping there is a CV setting that will allow me to turn that bit of the sound down a tad. Andy

I have just gotten my sound fitted 4321 and popped her on the rolling road. A really smooth and even runner. However the sound has a curious knock or tap that follows the speed of the chuffs. I am not sure if this is deliberate or not. Too me it sounds most odd - has anyone else got this in their pre-installed sound output? This is a link to the Mogul on test where you can hear these clicks: Andy I am now told the little ‘click’ is the sound of the pressure being maintained on the vacuum brakes – something common to most GWR locos until they modernised them all with air brake fittings. So it is deliberate, though I think it should be more of a little air ‘pshhht’ noise than the click I am getting. I find it sufficiently tedious I think I will get John at YouChoos to reprogramme my sound files. pps - the black on the model seems pretty black on mine.

As I potter on I have returned to thoughts about bridge rail stretcher posts. There is a whole (now closed) RMweb topic on this: This was helpful in getting me started and pointed to GWRJ vol 56 page 453 where there is an article with drawings. I am now turning these into CAD with a view to 3D printing the stretcher posts in nylon (including the first wooden post and a thin base plate plus extensions that go down into the ground). They are quite complex because the diagonal brace is both bent twice and twisted (heaven knows how they actually did this). Interestingly the drawings show the fences with eight wires while I had always assumed they had seven as per the Ratio RO423 GWR Lineside Fencing kits. Since I propose to use those posts for my main runs of fencing I will use seven lines rather than eight. I plan LH and RH end stretchers plus a few double stretchers of the sort that were found midway along long runs of fencing. If anyone is interested in some when I get that far please PM me, because I will get a better rate on the commercial print run that way - and to get a tough high quality nylon part I cannot use a home resin printer. I will use fishing line for the wire to get it smooth and taught with a small diameter.

I have had good experience with the HP spray print system in tough nylon. It builds without support structure and is nicely strong. Surface is slightly rough but probably ok for a chassis. The machines are costly but an online print would be around forty pounds I think.

Might it be worth considering 2mm A grade ply for strength?

nice work with the CAD and laser!

ok - i was confused thinking you were referring to a photo that shows the actual loading gauge, as I have not yet fitted mine. Andy

Yes, the problem is that the point that joins the goods shed siding and the back siding together is very close to the one where they join the main line to the platform, so there is no space for a combined gauge. Also note that the crane was between that point and the goods shed, so its swing would have also limited where you could add a second gauge. But even so it would surely have been possible to have a second one. I suppose the logic was to save costs and maintenance and simply to instruct staff that anything that might look like an issue be gauged by shunting into the back siding to check? Andy ps not sure which of my posted photos you are referring to as I cannot find one at Nov 30th.

Yes indeed - many hours of fun! But the curved bay window roofs were what tipped the balanced over trad modelling - they would have been hard to do and also get symmetrical in card. You can see this house on google maps if you look up 54 Godolphin Road, Helston.

It's cheating really. All the work is in the CAD, but as it's one of only two buildings that are still there I thought worth the effort.

The villa 3d print has arrived. Glazing, chimneys and roof to add.

Another schoolboy error. In my ignorance I had connected up some of my track joints with a fishplate made of solder wiped over the gap. This has been fine up until that really cold snap and with the layout now in the loft. Rail contraction and hey presto several of these joints now have micro-cracks in them. Luckily being a bit of a sloth I have not yet laid any ballast so I am going around adding loops of wire under the base board to span these joints. Should have done this in the first place of course but I thought my little tabs of solder would suffice - am now older and wiser!

Graham, yes I do think you could build and sell models. Not sure the hourly rate would be great but given the quality of what you make you could surely try.

They would fetch a pretty penny if you ever sold them on eBay. They are beautiful.

For info I went with Grange and Hodder - there was a bit of a wait and they were not cheap but compared to a RTR loco with a YouChoos sound and stay-alive setup not that expensive either. I built these top surface down on my rather patient wife's solid granite kitchen work top (with a large sheet of PTFE underneath) using two pack epoxy.

Looking very forlorn - but as you say onwards and upwards. When you come to new baseboards I would very strongly recommend the laser cut ply kits made by several suppliers. I had mine all done that way to my overall shape and got a custom kit which went together really well and left me a completely flat, light and very stiff base to work from.

This can be an issue with stay alive circuits but the system Zimo use has a cunning current control circuit board that is supposed to control this and also allows low voltage capacitors to be used so they are very compact. But there must be something going on so maybe it’s not as clever as it thinks. I have asked John to check with Zimo when he next can to try and get a definitive answer.

Yup - I find just the same - the sound on my YouTube videos does not do justice to the real thing (see below). Its a nice loud but also sharp and crisp sound - basically having an open air path avoids anything getting muffled. Of course having a nice 3W of speaker power also helps. I am sold on it where I can do it for future loco builds and conversions. What I would really like to try is an accurascale accurathrash speaker installed like this - I have a spare and did offer it up but it would have involved too much butchery of the Hornby tender. But if I ever get around to building an etched brass tender that is going to happen!