SamThomas

I beg to differ John. Certainly pre-Brexit it was often cheaper to buy from one of the well known German mail order outfits than most of the UK retailers. However, post-Brexit (& I should have been a little more specific in my earlier post) not so much now. Earlier this month a friend wanted a Roco locomotive and got quotes from three German retailers & worked out the cost including duties ect. He then got a quote from a UK retailer & his locomotive ended up around £8.00 cheaper all in.

If it were me I'd see if I could easily divide the layout into sections before starting. Make sure that everything if off the track, even rolling stock with nothing elctrical installled - double check for things like buffer stop lights, accessory decoders - everything. Disconnect the DCC controller & connect a power source of at least 5 amps DC to the track with a 12v lamp (say, a 55w headlamp, but watch the heat) in series with one of the track connection & power up - the lamp should not light up or even glow - if it does then you have a short somewhere. If the light does not glow measure the voltage where the track feed is & take a note of it. Measure the voltage again with a 12v bulb (a 21w indicator will do) in parellel with the meter - there should be no appreciable drop. Carry on taking voltage readings moving further away from the track feed - you should still get the same sort of voltage & the 21w lamp should still be at full brightness - when checking voltages hold the reading for at lreast 5 seconds - this will give any dry joints time to warm up & manifest themselves. This is as good a method as any to prove the integrity of the basic wiring - forget the beloved US "dollar shorting" method with the DCC unit - it will not find dry joints. Hopr this helps & be carefull with those 12v vehicle bubs - they get HOT !

Good to know that it's all going in the right direction. At least you should be able to complete the infrastructure before the winter. Look forward to seeing images of the construction.

Not really an isue - simply order from your favourite retailer who will order from the UK importers & you will get your item at around the same cost as direct from Trix. If it's available direct from Trix that means it's in stock & can be ordered.

Good luck with the venture Phil & thanks for being generous with the "keepsakes". Could just be room for a n-Gauge dogbone in the window ?

One thing I have not seen mentioned is the possibility of using 2 x wire wound transformers with separate A/C plugs is the fact that under some/rare circumstances if one transformer is unplugged it is possible for a potenially lethal voltage to be present on the exposed pins. It does take a number of conditions for this to happen & I'm not going to launch into a long winded technical explanation & then engage in the enivitable ping pong. Some stand alone analgue controllers have a warning to this effect on them.

The Lima (& Triang/Hornby) motors in question are a copy (IMHO a cheap copy) of the Flesichmann** motor. The burning smell is usually caused by over oiling when the oil residue gets between the commutator segments. People often service motors & forget to clean between the segments - a pin between the segments usually does the trick. You also need to make sure that the brushes are good & can move freely in their holders. ** There was a period when our friends from the south east used Fleischmann drive units on their demo/factory layouts - they may have got away with it but for the red wheels !

IIRC the Kitmaster bogies were reversable - H/D at one end & Triang at the other ? At least that's the way I remember them.

Except that, for various reasons we no longer have a choice. Personally, I would rather pay a little more to buy products from other countries.

Tri-axle artics are not allowed to tow a trailer in the UK.

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere but I have looked ! Bexhill Model Railway Club will be holding their annual Exhibition this Saturday 14th, August 2021. The venue is ; St Richards Catholic College Ashdown Road Bexhill-on-Sea TN40 1SE 10:00H > 17:00H Exhibition manager Mike Reeves 07712 887753

That the west, in effect, paid for.

That must have been a long while ago - HGV's can now run at 44 tonnes, although on more axles. I would think that a new 44 tonner with air suspension, wider tyres, smoother engines & transmissions is kinder per tonne carried than an old 32 tonner.

Always seem to get the "lorries are more harmful to the road surface" comments. HGV's pay an obsence amount of Road Fund Licence & Duty on diesel which (in theriory) pays for the use of the roads. Most HGV's thesedays have air suspension which is kinder to the roads. Poor maintence of the road contributes to it's own demise - the smoother the road suface the less vibration. Mass transfer of goods back to the rail network will never happen - the infrastructure is no longer there & will never have the flexibility of a truck which can be re-routed for the cost of a message to the on-board telematics. We can also aportion some of the blame to ourselves because we want everything "next day" - road transport from HGV's to white van man gives us that.

You could very well be right in thast respect. Manufactures own data should tell them what tends to fall off & get lost or easily broken. I would think that part of "the deal" between the brand name & the factory in the far east would be to have a surplus of models to cover warranties & replaced models cannabalised for spare parts. Possibly any model specific spares would be thrown in as well. We are no longer in a repair society - we are in a throw away society.

Spare parts can be pain all round - manufacture, distributor, retailer to end user. First & foremost (unlike spare parts for vehicles**) there is very little money in it. Secondly, many distributors use an accounts/stock control system (such as one from the Sage stable) that requires everything to go though the system. So when an obscure part is ordered it has to be entered onto the database before it is processed. It will then been forwarded to the "manufacture" with other parts ordered. It's quite possible that some parts will only be sold once only. Parts regarded as "consumerbles" are amother matter. For example, years ago, when you wanted spares for a "Margate" Hornby locomotive someone would pick it out of a parts bin & send it on. Now of couse, the parts bin (if it even exists) will be in China. European rolling stock is manufactured not just in Europe - all over the world - China, Vietnam to name just 2. Spare parts are not really a priority in the big picture. Manufacturing & spare parts availability could be brought back locally but our models would cost more - we cannot have it both ways. One of the best manufactures for spare parts used to be Flesichmann - they carried spares for models produced 40 odd years ago, but look what happened to them. FWIW my experience with Heljan direct left me with a vow to never, ever by one of their products (buildings excepted) again. **You cannot compair model railways with the motor industry vehicle manufactures probably make more money on spare parts/service items than on the original vehicle sales, then you have all the patten parts suppliers making money too. Vehicles will always require spare parts/service items - a huge percentage of model railway locomotive will never require anything.

My suggestions as someone who spent many years installing & maintaining lighting in the retail fashion sector where colours are very important. As already mentioned "white" or 4000k is relatively cool. Three options ; 1) Experiment a little to find the colour you are happy with. 2) Install 2 x strips - 1 x "cool" & the other "warm" & switch them separatly or even better dim them - this will give you some options. 3) Install a RGB strip that has a decent controller/dimmer - this way, you can create any lighting you want such as dawn, bright sunlight, overcast, sunset or moonlight.

If there is no way using the ESU decoder output then could you look at using the motor outputs of an additionalcheap/basic decoder ?

My understanding is that 3rd rail was chosen in the Southern areas for a couple of reasons ; 1) OHL was impractical to install because of the tight height clearances & the sheer amount of bridges ect on the Southeren. 2) DC motor technology at the time was more suitable for quick acceleration.

You can remove them - they are for RF supression & not required for DCC as all the required supression is in the decoder itself. Also, if you find any tiny bisquit shaped componants wired accross the brushes get rid of these or you may get erratic DCC running. (Also that white componant that looks like it's connected to the brushes). Don't forget to make sure that both brusholders are isolated from the pickups & chassis.

With respect Andrew it is different. The individual cores in a sheathed mains cable are designed to be sheathed & have the appropriate insulation. Furthermore, it is not good practice at all to use mains colour coding on a low voltage installation. I could quote many instances of issues caused by this in many years of faultfinding but I'm not going down that road - I say this as an electrical engineer, not an electronics engineer. I never understand the reasoning/logic that some people apply - a couple of reels of more suitable cable would cost no more than say £20 for even a moderate to large layout but they will spend £100's on a single locomotive. However, I do agree with what you say about single strand cables tending to stay put, but you can achieve the same with a reasonable amount of fixings.

Many of the discussions regarding HS2/classic routes/fare structions are the same as those applied to the Birmingham Toll Relief Road some years ago. The junction layouts were arranged to "encorage" you to easily end up on the toll road if you did not really want to use it. No doubt similar principles will be employed for HS2. The toll road is stil there & AFAIK making a profit & the M6 is still there. Personally, as I know the area well I don't use either, but I digress.

In the past I've had a couple of Fleischmann BR614 DMS that have the power bogie at the cab end of a 3-car unit. Even when everything was in order these could struggle a bit but I found that they were better with the power bogie at the end pushing. (OK for me as I only tend to run in one direction). Turning to Diesel/OHE locomotives with the power bogie at one end just load it up with weight ? Actually no, the weight needs to be concentrated as much as possible over the driven wheels - any additional weight over the non- powered wheels simply compounds the original issue with "grip" & the length of the train the locomotive will handle.. Again, with some locomotives with the power bogie at one end I've often found the performance better with the power bogie at the rear. On power bogies that have 2 traction tyres mounted diagonally it may be worth trying them both on the same axel "pushing" so that any weight transfer on applying power concentrates on the traction tyres wheelset. Again, only useful for one direction running.

That's interesting - I've only seen them demonstrated on either the Z21 or on a smartphone - not on anything with a decent sized screen. Maybe, the camera itself could be upgraded ? I'd certainly be in the market for one anyway.

Really beautiful locomotive & coaches. Nice to see the locomotive streatching it's legs in a great setting. BTW, is that triple gauge track ?