Bryn_Bach_Railway

I understand the headlight being on its own AUX connection, that’s not what I meant. I was more referring to the automation of the light being turned on and off when the loco is stationary being done by the decoder and a specific function map, rather than some complicated circuits on the main PCB. Apologies I could’ve worded that better.

assuming it’s the decoder doing this internally using the existing lighting connections rather than it being wired to an additional AUX output? If so then maybe have it automatic by default, but with a manual override on a higher function number for those who want it? Not sure how possible that would be with the amount of functions in sound models, but would then give the best of both worlds

short term the double chimney probably does look better, but I’d imagine it would allow a fair bit more water condensation on the inside of the chimney over time and thus run the risk of water dropping on top of the generator. The single chimney already results in a small amount of condensation on the inside walls. There is a mention in the operating instructions that of you somehow get water on top of the generator, to clean it off as it could lead to damage. And if your running the double chimney chances are your not going to notice if water does end up on top on the generator and as such the generator might become damaged. The amount of steam being generated could well just be the reservoir being almost too full, as I have noticed the more water inside results in the more ‘steam’ out the chimney

Had a few layout issues but finally got them solved allowing for a proper full length railtour with the P2 steam gen. Even if it’s not the most realistic it certainly adds an element of immersion. It did struggle around some of the curves tho hence the 67 at the rear

After running her in last night, I got the steel wagons out this evening and gave her something to haul. Granted not the heaviest of trains but there was absolutely no issue what so ever with my 11 steel wagons. technically this exact spec of this loco is out of my era. However there’s so many 66’s it’s not something I even noticed until this morning and it’s not bothering my enough to do anything about it, so she’ll stay as part of the fleet along with her sisters due in a a month or two. It’s also worth mentioning I did have to re-glue the horn grill back on this evening. However that’s the only piece so far and that could well have been due to me pushing directly onto it a bit too hard without realising until after. i did try a few more settings with the Zimo chip too to see if it was an error with my programming. And while I did find that JMRI and decoder pro’s default values don’t match the Zimo manual (as such any functions beyond F4 are disabled), even after setting these back, I’ve still had no luck with functions F5-8. Would love to see someone else be able to get a Zimo chip working and share the settings however as it stands I’ll just swap to the pre-programmed esu chips once they’re available.

Looking at the AUX lists I don’t think they’d be quite right. the 37 Aux functions; Front Lights - white marker light front Rear Lights - white marker light rear aux 1 - red tail light front aux 2 - red tail light rear aux 3 - dashboard front aux 4 - dashboard rear aux 5 - head/day light front aux 6 - head/day light rear aux 7 - night light front aux 8 - night light rear aux 9 - cab front aux 10 - cab rear aux 11 - top light front aux 12 - top light rear aux 13 - top light rear aux 14 - engine room light where as the 66 is; Front lights - white marker light front rear lights - white marker light rear aux 1 - red front aux 2 - red rear aux 3 - day front aux 4 - day rear aux 5 - night front aux 6 - night rear aux 7 - cab front aux 8 - cab rear so with a 37 chip, you’d most likely end up with the default running turning on night lights rather than day. But that depends on the pre-set function mapping

more of a side on shot shows it quite well. Personally it’s not something I’d be too bothered about as I wouldn’t notice it from normal layout viewing distances, and by the time I eventually get around to weathering it could easily become part of normal wear and tear. However it is something that’s worth knowing about. You’ve got a very keen eye to spot that especially on the ESW livery!

Decided to contact Accurascale and ask for my order to be split, and as a result 66 001 turned up in the post today! I personally never got to have a proper look at this models previous life under Hatton’s so for me this is a huge step above the Bachmann ones I have had previously. I’m yet to run mine in but just doing a couple back and forth runs over some very gentle curves, the model runs like a dream. I did have to adjust the back EMF on the current decoder to get a nice slow and smooth set off but that’s by no means an issue with the model, rather something that should be done on all models to fine tune them I my opinion. The DCC socket appears to have been redesigned from the original and is now an MTC socket, as apposed to the MKL used in the original Hattons run. As such there is a little bit more functionality for the lighting. I’ve currently fitted a Zimo MN340C decoder, as accurascale are yet to release their pre-programmed ESU chips. Interestingly while being able to operate more functions than my previous attempt with a Zimo decoder and an ESU circuit board, not all functions are operational. I have made sure the Zimo decoder is programmed to operate them, it’s just having the same issue as I had before just on different outputs. However I can control upto AUX4 which gives me markers, tail, and day lights at both ends. That’s good enough for now until I can get proper chips from accurascale once their ready. Certainly seems to be some incompatibility between ESU circuitry and Zimo decoder tho but that’s not for discussion here, just something to keep a note of. I’m not a class 66 expert so I can’t comment on the 100% accuracy of everything, however I do seem to see these all the time here in South Wales. There’s nothing that jumps out to me as being wrong or out of place so I’m very happy with it. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the batch arrive in a month or two, hopefully with the correct decoders ready and waiting for them! Right, now to run her in and get her working the steel train, it wouldn’t be south wales otherwise now would it!

Very exciting to hear the first ones are here!, I think I know the answer but I’ll check just incase. For those of us who’ve ordered 001 in the same order as some of the other 66’s, I’m assuming 001 will be held and so that each order is sent out in its entirety in one?. Also is there any updates for the pre-mapped DCC decoders? Really looking forward to these now they’re that little bit closer!

A rather interesting and somewhat confusing update to the project status page! Both in transit and arrived, either way I don’t think it’ll be a long wait

if I remember right from other forums, the stock notification emails do not all get sent at once. instead they are sent in order of sign up from earliest to latest. and on top of that, they only send between 1.5 and 2 times the amount of emails for the amount of stock. so if 10 items came into stock, then the first 15-20 people on the list will get an email. I believe that process repeats its self through the list every 5-10 minutes or so. that might've changed since it was mentioned and I might've got some details wrong. but it was something like that which was given as an explanation when people were saying they had not had email notifications before. I believe it was in the class 37 forum, or maybe the Mk5's.

appreciate its not for everyone, but this is where thinks like Apple Pay or PayPal really do help. can check out within a minute with them set up right and don't need to find the card. like I said tho there not for everyone but they do streamline the process

warwells have returned to stock, just picked up a pair for my heritage line as I missed the original hattons orders

Finally managed to pick up the tfw 67 in black yesterday. nice to see its been updated to 21 pin and has some decoder controlled lighting functionality. fitted my example with a Zimo MN340C, and have the following DCC controlled lighting; F0 - Directional lighting including Head/Night* lights, Tail lights, and the side marker lights F1 - Lights off No1 end F2 - Lights off No2 end F3 - Directional top marker light *switching between the Day and Night headlight is still controlled by a switch on the underside of the loco. very pleased with is as I have been all my 67's, and very glad to see the extra lighting capability. will do a bit more research to see if this can be a simple PCB swap for the older models too. hopefully Hornby will do the matching Mk4 coaches and DVT once TFW get them into the final livery. would be a nice touch to have the remembrance DVT too!

Perfect thank you!, I’ll pay them off end of the month then to relief some strain on the bank. now to start working out if I can make enough room on the layout to fit them all on track!

just had a second email about payment for these with an invoice. Are these super close now or am I ok to wait until the end of the month? Going off the latest timing of roughly 8 weeks from the beginning of the month I thought I was safe but wanted to double check.

Just had my invoice for the first run, so my bank is hoping there’s no colas in run 2 😂 wouldn’t say no to 66 789 or 66 773 in their current livery’s tho

I managed to find a solution to the coaches being incredibly free-rolling and not staying put on uncouplers if anyone here is interested. I picked up some DCC concepts wiper pick ups to try add just enough drag to keep the coaches still on ‘not quite level’ track, but not enough to stop wheels turning when being pulled or pushed etc. I couldn’t find a way to fit them in the standard way and get the desired result, however I did find that fitting the plates vertically and bending the wipers up and over the top of the bogie frame worked decently well. fitting them this way also means they are completely hidden behind the wheels, so you really can’t tell they are there from a visual standpoint as seen here i found for a 5 car rake on my layout I needed 4 axels to have these fitted, so I chose to do the inside axel on the outside bogies of each end coach, as well as the inside axel on both bogies of the middle coach. This way also allows for some minor adjustments to make sure performance is not affected any more than necessary. another thing I noticed earlier today before fitting these was due to how little rolling resistance these have, basically every model I own would haul these up my heritage incline with ease. The same models that struggle with 5 57’ LMS coaches which don’t even have pick-ups fitted! *please excuse the small glimpses of a very messy work bench, I have far too many projects going on at once to have any hope in keeping it tidy 😂*

Admittedly something I should have asked in the original post. But I forgot and vanbasher mentioning them has just reminded me. I only got the additional curtains included with the first class coaches (BFK and FK) and not in the TSO’s. I assume this is correct? especially after looking at the layout of different coaches. Thought I’d ask just incase.

managed to take some this morning before work. as mentioned above, the mk2B’s are fitted with Kaydee #19’s. I believe the 37 is fitted with Kaydee #18’s. side on view of the mk2B end with Kaydee coupling #19. side of view of the end of the class 37 with Kaydee coupling #18. The class 37 coupled up to the mk2B’s. Note the coupler heights here are normally much more level, I just happened to position the loco right over a change in gradient and didn’t notice until now 🤦🏼‍♂️. You could probably get away with even closer coupling if you only couple up in straights and no curves. I would add tho the incredible free rolling of the coaches does mean that if your coupling up very slowly with the goal of not moving the coaches at all, you’ll more than likely end up pushing the coaches away before actually coupling up. I would add tho I’d rather have to increase rolling resistance than have locos struggling with the coaches etc. it’s also partly due to me running a shorter 5 coach set on close to but not perfectly level track too.

I believe extended, happy to be corrected if wrong tho. As far as I’m aware buffered are recessed when coupled up and extended when not. personally I won’t be changing mine as the heritage line locos run around and couple up to both ends. but for fixed rakes where the back is always the back, it think it’s going to add a nice subtle detail that once noticed won’t be in-seen. Especially when these make it out to exhibitions on layouts etc.

My 5 blue and grey ones for my heritage line arrived today, and they are quite superb in all honesty. Their currently having some running behind various heritage line locos including Accurascale’s 37 043 ‘Loch Lomond’ They come with additional CAM’s for the couples to allow for closer running, although I’m not entirely sure they can get much closer than out of the box with the magnetic couplings fitted (which are incredibly seamless too). As well as a wealth of other details including extended buffers for if the coaches are not in a rake (they come ‘pushed back’ as standard as they would be when coupled) (gap when coaches are pulled apart under their own weight, using the supplied magnetic couplings) (gap when coaches are pushed together, again with the supplied magnetic couplings) As with the mk5’s the stay Alive’s on these coaches is very powerful too, a good 5 or so minutes (admittedly not timed). I took the BFK coach off the track before opening the last TSO, as I forgot to change the coupling at one end. By the time I’d got the last TSO out, swapped the couplings on both coaches over to the included magnets / kaydees (for each end of the rake) and placed the coaches back on the track, the lights in the BFK had only just started to go out. It’s going to take some incredibly dirty track to allow the coaches to turn off. For anyone who is interested, I’ve used Kaydee #19’s on the ends. The back part of the coupling is in-line with the buffer ends and allows the majority of locos to couple up on a slight curve, if the coupling is set up in the same position on the loco. The only ones that are not are locos with kinematic couplings that have a larger overhang when not under tension, all bogie mounted couplers have so far been fine. They are also incredibly free rolling, so much so I ended up with multiple runaway trains when setting up the rake (probably best not to set these up around an incline) and I can’t get them to stay still over the Kadee magnetic uncouplers I’ve got installed. To be fair that last point is much more of a problem with my layout and not the models, but is there any advice on how to increase rolling resistance 😅?

Obviously no one here wants a repeat of the class 56 thread (including myself). I’ll deal with that separately through the appropriate channels which I clearly got wrong before. I apologise to everyone for the way I handled that, and for simply how long it went on for. I’ll be apologising to RBE and the cavalex team in due course, however I feel that apology needs to be more in-depth and handled privately once I know I’ve included everything I need to. I’ve also already sent an apology to AY Mod. I am going to make one genuine request here to avoid this entirely in future, which has already been somewhat jokingly suggested above. I’ll then leave the discussion around it there. I was not entirely sure if I should post this at all, but I think this is the best place for this request as it is not really relevant to the support channels. I’ve also tried to be as polite and non-hostile as I possible can be with my wording of this message, if I’ve worded something wrong here too I apologise in advance and I’ll work on that in future. ~~~~~~~~ If the model is going to require an ESU decoder set up a certain way, please can this be made clear in the product description and/or listed on the box somewhere. Bachmann do this with their class 90’s due to the servo operated pantograph, and personally I think it should be adopted by all manufacturers even if just recommending but not requiring specific decoders. I appreciate the class 60 might not be at a point in development yet where decoder set up is not fully known, so I wouldn’t expect it to be confirmed yet. I also understand the class 60’s have more complicated lighting. However once the decoder set up has been finalised and confirmed, an appropriate update would be appreciated. I’d just like to be made aware when purchasing a model (payment on arrival for pre-orders) if a specific decoder is required to access all the lighting functions, Without needing to cross check different platforms to get all the information. I think others will benefit from that information being in the description and/or on the box too. I’m aware it’s stated in the loco manual, but by the time most users get to that the model has already been purchased especially when bought online. ~~~~~~~~ I do admit I’ve posted much more negativity on these threads than positivity, and that needs to change starting now. At the end of the day I didn’t return my pair of class 56’s as the are great models, I Just had an issue that I handled incorrectly and discussion spiralled out of control. I do have to say that the physical detail on the model looks outstanding as It is on the 56’s. having seen the photos as well as the samples at Model Rail Scotland, the bar for detail is being raised yet again. Depending when these arrive, I do genuinely think Cavalex have 2 consecutive contenders for model of the year. ~~~~~~~~ Apologies for the length of this post, there was a lot I wanted to make sure I covered in detail. As said above I’ll leave the discussion around DCC there, and will work to handle future situations better.

I have a problem with a Cavalex product, as such I am contacting Cavalex. If they deem it appropriate to contact ESU then that’s what they’ll do, but that’s down to them. You wouldn’t contact Samsung about an iPhone screen issue just because they made the screen. You would contact apple who made the product.

When using cheap decoders I would agree, but using other high end decoders at similar price points should not lead issues. as for the tail lights your right there. Didn’t proof read what I said before driving off for lunch 🤦🏼‍♂️ and re-reading it, I was clearly thinking about a different situation and crossed wires. I’ll admit that was an incorrect statement and I’ll edit the post accordingly.