megatoad

Looking interesting (from an old Leodian). I have always been fascinated by the "Missing Station" since I was a child, I was also fascinated with the concept of the interesting double level goods yard after learning about the existing wagon hoist. Again I was also interested in how and where the canal used to pass under the LNER station back into the Aire after spending much time in the Dark Arches there. There are some great images of the whole centre of Leeds in the 20s and 30s in the http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/ web site too

Looking Splendid

I just stumbled accross this whole subject. Very interesting. The major point I have not noted folk discuss in the posts is that with bluetooth you should be able to reliably transmit control packets much more efficiently to a loco instead of relying on poor connectivity as the wheels trundle along the track. I get frustrated in how often my locos ignore commands and merrily carry on full steam ahead to crash into whatever obstruction you are trying to avoid! One of the other trends in posters initial comments was the idea that the settings would all be stored in a phones app. Well with bluetooth I see no reason why they should not be stored in the decoder itself, then when a handset pairs it would pull down the required settings as and when required. Indeed as for sound I see no reason why the controller could not simply stream audio to the relevent lococs, after all I tend to store my music on my phone and stream it either to my in car audio or blutooth speakers nowadays, gone are all those silly CDs. However just like DCC I find once you have more than a few locos on a layout that trying to toggle them all is a nightmare. I have made a few abortive attempts to write my own software to drive my Lenz based system to no avail. All I would like on my computer screen is a grid of several cabs so I can quickly control 8 locos. That said I have just dismantled my Leviathan of a layout and boxed it all up for the forseeable future (including my Garrett).

Intruiging and most opportune post I just purchased splendidly weathered Bachman Ivatt 2-6-2 which briefly ran around my layout before the leading drive wheels split appart and jammed the motion. I realised then that it was one of the old split chassis jobs and recalled the problems with them. The splendid gentleman who sold me the loco offered me either a return or discount on next purchase, I chose the latter and now have a weathered Hornby Fowler 4-6-2 on its way to join it. I was assuming that when I get round to pulling the Ivatt appart that it will be a problem with these gears, so I have ordered one of these sets to be ready. I will let you know when I get the parts what they are like. Sadly at the moment I am currently beginning the dismantling of my existing layout due to a not too imminant house move.