RFS

Looking at your route from Seaton Avenue to Copnor Road on Google Earth, you will have crossed the railway line between the stations of Fratton to the South (leading to Portsmouth), and Hilsea to the north. This line was electrified as part of the Portsmouth Direct route in 1938. The line divides just after Hilsea station: Portsmouth-London electric services turned east at this junction, whereas the line to the west led to Southampton which was not electrified until the 1980s. Your bridge was not in Fratton but it was the electrified railway to Fratton and Portsmouth that it crossed.

If you want chapter and verse on all the various formations / re-formations of the Bournemouth line stock then it's all detailed on the "blood and custard" web-site - http://www.bloodandcustard.com/bournemouth1966.html

The original 2H units had 500hp engines, but when they were converted to 3H the engines were replaced by 600hp ones, with the original 500hp ones going to new Hastings DEMUs. However 600hp is not a lot for a 3-car unit....

Hornby make the shed - http://www.hattons.co.uk/7282/Hornby_R8015_Adaptor_Base_Housing_for_R8014/StockDetail.aspx

I've set mine up with a Hornby R8220 in the loco and the (shorter) Roco version in the TC and that works a charm. Nicely close-coupled and no problems at all with derailments whether pushing or pulling. I did first try Kadees, but the NEM pocket on the loco (Heljan 33/1 D6511) is way too high but that doesn't seem to affect the Roco couplings.

Just because the line was electrified it doesn't follow that all services were therefore electric. Portsmouth to London was electrified in the 1930s whereas Portsmouth to Southampton didn't happen till the 1980s. Even today direct services from Portsmouth to Salisbury are still operated by DMUs.

Just got mine today and had a bit of a faff getting the lighting to work with DCC. As with the DJ Models class 71, you need a 5-function decoder to get all the lighting to work correctly. This is what I found having fitted a spare Lenz 21-pin decoder: F0 - turns on the head-code lights at each end (or rather just enables them) F1 - then turns off the head-code light just at the rear F2 - then turns off the head code light just at the front F5 - turns on the interior lights There are 3 switches on the underside of the TBSK to do this for DC users, but they must all be on for DCC users. Also the head codes are directional: the rear shows white/red blinds according to direction whereas the front shows 91 in either red or white! I shall be changing this to white/red blinds for which a spare head code panel is supplied. There is no information in the supplied leaflet to say how the functions work with DCC which I think is a bit poor. However I am extremely pleased with this model!

Rather than start a new topic, I would suggest you have a read through the two existing topics - DJ Class 71 - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/88264-oo-gauge-class-71-electric-locomotive/ Hornby class 71 - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/96263-Hornby-class-71/ Then you have to make your mind up - it's really a personal decision.

52 second in the motor coach and 13 first, 50 second in the driving trailer composite. The additional centre coach, perhaps one day modelled by Kernow (hopefully!), had 104 second.

The BR Database website will give you detailed allocations of all the black 5s. http://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=class&id=446003&type=S&page=alloc

When Lenz eventually get round to bring out the LZV200 with firmware version 4.0, then this will be fixed. Meanwhile if you assign one loco to the digital system via TC, it will then be tracked if you control it via the handset.

Has anyone tried my suggested method in post #37 above? Windows should find the driver on the net and install it. Worked for me with the 23170 decoder programmer which uses the same FTDI chip. I'm on Windows 10 Creators edition.

Try this approach. With the device plugged in, go to control panel, right-click on device manager and select "run as administrator" Scroll down to the device - should show if you open COM / LPT Right click on the device entry and select "update driver". Select the option "search automatically for updated driver software".

Mine too. This will be Kernow validating your card with the expectation that the transaction would be completed in the next couple of weeks. Kernow have always said the pre-order price of £269 will be honoured until the first shipment makes landfall. As the price is now £289 one can assume that shipment has made landfall and hence dispatch is imminent, at which point they'll confirm the transaction with your card supplier. EDIT: just checked Kernow's website and it says they're in stock!

If you're using full automation, absolute reliability of your point motors is criticial. If a motor doesn't switch for any reason, the software won't know and can send a train at speed along the wrong route with possibly serious consequences. Therefore you need to have absolute confidence in the motors you choose. Tortoises, with NCE Switch8s (the MK2 version) give me no problems at all. Have Cobalts reached that level of reliability yet? If you say they are prone to "upsets" (even the latest incarnation) then I would think carefully before using them in that environment. Or in any location where you cannot tell for sure the motor has switched, automation or not. As far as bus terminators are concerned I've tried them and they make no difference at all. Having your turnouts on a separate bus is to be able to still change them if there's a short on the track bus, a fault that most commonly occurs when you manually drive a train to a point set against it (ie operator error).

You can install unsigned drivers in Windows 10 by following this procedure - http://packard-bell-scandic.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/38288/~/windows-10%3A-disable-signed-driver-enforcement

Looks like it's an unsigned driver and since Windows 10 Anniversary Update it will no longer install them. Try a different tack: instead of pointing the dialog box at the downloaded files, get Windows to scan online for drivers (the other option). Ths device uses a generic FTDI driver and Windows will find it. I don't have the 23150 LI-USB any more, but I still have the 23170 Decoder Programmer which uses the same chip. It installs fine on my laptop following this method.

I would suggest you go back to the Lenz website as I documented in post #18. Two lines above where the drivers are, is the installation manual (marked as "overview"). I would suggest to download that and try following the instructions there. Basically when you plug the device in, Windows should recognize new hardware has been installed and prompt you to tell it where the drivers are.

It's just a zip file. Right click on the file and select "extract all".

Has anyone tried this Bare Conductive paint for making resistor wheelsets? https://www.rapidonline.com/bare-conductive-electric-paint-pen-10ml-70-0873

List here - http://www.svmrc.co.uk/news.php

An alternative is to mount the Peco motor below the baseboard using a PL-9 mounting plate (see http://www.hattons.co.uk/7538/Peco_Products_PL_9_5_Mounting_Plates_for_use_with_PL_10E/StockDetail.aspx) and PL-10E motors with extended pin. The advantage of this method is that you do not need to cut a big hole in the baseboard, just a 10mm circular one. I originally used PL-10E motors this way, but subsequently upgraded almost all of them to Tortoise slow-action motors. These require the same 10mm hole in the baseboard, so it was a straight swap without the need to somehow fill in the cut out.

You just bend the tops of the prongs over to hold the motor tight.

You could also argue that the original design was pretty poor in the first place ...

Simpler detection will also detect the presence of any vehicle on the track drawing current, ie locos, vehicles with internal lighting, or just any vehicle with a resistor wheelset. For example, a Bachmann 4-car EMU will have a powered car with the decoder, plus 3 trailer cars wired only for lighting. If the unit is running with the power car at the rear then an occupancy detector will detect the presence of the train when the first trailer car enters the section. However there will be no decoder for Railcom to see until the 4th car is in that section. Detecting "coupling malfunctions" is one area where having simple detection + resistor wheelsets on last vehicles in a train is another area where simple detection comes into play. All automation software that I'm aware of (and I run RR&Co Traincontroller) use a form of train tracking to detect trains moving around the layout. In other words the software knows the starting point of a train, it knows which way the points are set and therefore is able to follow the train round the layout without needing any other form of detection such as Railcom. RR&Co might seem expensive but it can do a great many things in software that cheaper packages may only achieve by additional hardware. If you have a large layout, you have to weigh up the total cost of each option - software + hardware - before making a choice.