TEAMYAKIMA

Firstly, let me say that I know VERY little about DCC or electronics in general. I have just built a DCC powered (DIGITRAX) 26ft x 10ft exhibition layout with an 18 road fiddle yard and four tracks leading out of the fiddle yard. Some of the points are controlled by DS64's and some by CML DAC20's. I have gone DCC and Digitrax on the advice of a long term friend who favours DIGITRAX - so far so good. However, the plan is/was to use route selection rather than individual point control - and herein lies the problem. I have put all my eggs in one basket - only my friend knows anything about the route selection process. I know it's not MERG based. Now due to unforeseen circumstances my friend may not be in a position to write/programme the route selection and we have an exhibition looming. I no less than nothing about the subject and yet I want a PLAN B, a fall-back plan . Could anyone offer advice/help - maybe a PM would be better than a discussion within this thread. This is a very delicate matter as on the one hand my operating team are demanding I get the route selection in place before our first exhibition and on the other hand I have no wish to annoy/alienate my friend. Thank you for reading this

Funny you should say that. I apologise for going slightly off topic, but .... I realised early in the planning stage that my new exhibition layout will turn off many established modellers - it's foreign - VERY foreign - and so I know from experience that many established modellers won't give it a second look at shows. And so, from the early design stage, I decided that I would need to introduce 'gimmicks' to attract/interest the non-enthusiast show attendee. It's a fine balance - gimmicky enough to attract the family market and yet not so 'gimmicky' to put off the more broad minded wing of our 'serious hobby'.

Have been incredibly busy over the weekend - getting ready for the house move and selling my unwanted British OO on ebay. Still found time to work on the depot. The sign is just a trial one.

I sincerely hope my comments are not taken as being hard on the Fawley team. I totally accept that in 'normal' model railway terms their two layouts were the best - no question. But lets face it what we serious modellers might call 'normal' is not winning us many converts out there in the wider world. And so this programme comes along and attempts to sell our hobby to a wider audience by going beyond the 'norm' and I feel that although they might have had the best traditional layout they chose not to step outside the accepted norm and therefore I don't think that their layouts would attract many outsiders to our cause. So to sum up I think that people within the hobby might vote for it as being the best, but outsiders (the wider TV audience) would not.

. I regret that I felt that the Fawley team just didn't seem to adhere to the spirit of the programme. Don't get me wrong ... in traditional model railway terms both of their layouts were excellent but I think that the great thing about the programme was that it went outside the norm and encouraged teams to work outside their comfort zone. Fawley were the only one of the 15 groups that stayed in their comfort zone and I regret to say they didn't seem to 'get' the themes.

A fantastic winner - looking forward to seeing it at Warley - if I can get close enough to it to see it. Aberdeen's layout showed the most imagination and that's what potential newbies want/need - to have their imagination stimulated - concerns about the number of rivets on a GWR smokebox door can come 20 years down the line.

Here is an update ....

As someone who is very impressed with GMRC and who is delighted our hobby is getting such high profile exposure I would be interested to read these negative comments that are posted elsewhere - if only to reply positively to them. I accept that it would not be acceptable to post a link here to such other forums but I would request anyone sending me a PM with such a link. Thanks

Please forgive my ignorance, but can you post a link to this topic please? Thanks

I totally agree. I watched it just for the comparison to GMRC. The C4 programme was quite patronising in places - just the kind of thing that some here on RMweb had been worried about before GMRC was screened - just the kind of patronising attitude that Knickerbocker TV has avoided to their great credit.

Oh, and I totally agree about the 'station announcements' - the only feature that I think should go. My wife finds them particularly annoying and generally she loves the programme.

Having thought about your post, I'm thinking that maybe the success of the programme has been that there has been little emphasis on the railway aspect of the project. In no particular order the emphasis has been on imagination, creativity, modelling craft/ability and teamwork. There has been virtually no anal railway discussion about liveries or loco types which can be a real turn off to many.

Ok, I have deleted last night's post which had a poor photo and here are two better ones taken today. Depot now with balcony - couldn't find the roof of the annexe this morning.

'How is the balcony progressing?' I hear you ask. Progress is being made .......

Ok, perhaps not quite as the prototype photos, but the balcony is happenning ......

I'm building a balcony onto an office/factory and the edge will show - how thick would it be - a foot? Thanks Paul

Here is a link to the scrap load ............ https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crushed-Baled-Scrap-Metal-ALUMINIUM-Fits-Athearn-HO-Scale-50-Foot-Gondola/323512345537?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=512555134049&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

Here's the link on ebay. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Baled-Scrap-Metal-STEEL-Fits-Athearn-HO-Scale-50-Foot-Gondola/323499687754?hash=item4b52157f4a:m:mpdHwAw11z3WDARVRVAfItg&var=512546073702

One issue that has never been addressed is the scrap train going uphill to the steelworks. So far it's been made up of empty 40ft gondolas. With the pressure off now (a bit!) I have begun looking into this aspect. I've found resin castings of steel bales for 50 ft gondolas on ebay and I bought a 'sample'. A bit of work with a X-acto saw produced this ...............

I think I've found my solution. Not a completely finished item quite yet, some weathering to be done. Bought off ebay... It was made for a 50ft gondola, but was easily cut down to fit my 40ft ones. Please note that there is a bit missing from the top righthand corner - it's on the floor of my workroom somewhere!

Have just found some photos that Peter took on Monday ..... it shows the two brass QJs running .... a first! The train is running anti-clockwise and 6911 (the lead loco) was happy handling the train as a single header. We added 6165 for effect, but it doesn't like running through certain curves in that direction and so will run only clockwise - the very thing testing is designed to discover!

Have just recovered the only photo I managed to take over the two days - and that on my phone! Shows the two flags. I thought the display was 'too grey' and needed a splash of colour to 'sex it up'.

ok ............... First of all a big thank you to all my 'helpers' who came on Monday for the designated 'running test day' ..... Gordon, Martin, Peter and Terry. And a particular BIG thank you to Alan who also turned up on Tuesday for the work day. I did both days (obviously!) 6am to 7.30pm …. 27 hours in total over two days ….. I was so busy that I literally had no time to take photos …… just one on my phone and I'll try to post it later. Achievements..... 1.Layout facia repainted all round, front, back, in, out.... doesn't make it run better but it makes the layout look more professional. A better looking static display! 2.Trackwork (Peco points) slightly altered to improve the running of the brass QJs. Two brass QJs (6911 and 6165) now passed for running although one (6165) prefers running clockwise to anti-clockwise. 3.Various diesels that ran 'backwards' on DCC now corrected along with getting lights working properly - serial offenders taken home by Peter to sort out. 4.Five working 'gimmicks' now being controlled by the STEAM (not diesel) locos themselves. Steam locos have magnets fitted underneath that trigger reed switches which in turn trigger the 'gimmicks' - railway photographers that 'pop up' to photograph the steam trains and the disappear once they've passed. 5.Layout nameboard relocated in more prominent position 6.Chinese flags fitted to really show exhibition visitors where the layout is set 7. New 'basic' operating sequence for the industrial railway tested and approved by the operating team. 8. Various repairs to bits of layout found to be damaged after the Bristol show Failures 1. Failure to get the level crossing barriers working automatically - triggered by an IRDOT device. 2. Testing more advanced industrial railway sequence. Very stressful couple of days - but definite progress. Next stop - Stevenage in January.

OMG!! Our last ever 'test session' in the church hall across the road from our present house. After we move we will only ever be able to run/test at exhibitions!! OMG!! Paul

To clarify my position with reference to my previous post where I said that 'standard British OO layouts' tend to bore me unless the 'stand out' - well to give you an example : if the Fawley layout had the features listed above then the Fawley layout would stand out for me.