brossard

Decoder is easy, Zimo MS440C. It comes with a stay alive unit. The stay alive that was attached to the fried decoder is DCC Concepts. Here's a lousy pic: The stay alive in the packet is labelled 1000 micro Farad. (I like that the wires are pre-soldered, I never like having a soldering iron near a decoder). The other one has no indication of its value. I do remember that the railbus would stall from time with it's old stay alive so think more capacitance might be the answer. I don't have a feel for what the capacitance should be. However, I've never seen doubling up on stay alives discussed before, perhaps it's taboo. So, can I wire the two together? Would that be in parallel, as mentioned above? John

I have two stay alives, one with a fried decoder and the other with the new decoder. I guess I can daisy chain them. I want to make sure there's enough capacitance to keep the vehicle going (Heljan 4 wheeled AC Railbus in 0). I don't get the last part of your comment. Anyway, thanks for commenting. John

I've done a couple of quick searches on Google and here, but nothing leaps out. It occurs to me that putting two stay alives on a decoder might offer benefits. Anyone done this? How is it wired? I sense eyes rolling but humor me. John

You are in the perfect position to restart your model railway adventure in 0 gauge. The choice for RTR locos, coaches and wagons is continually increasing. 0 is not cheap but I note that some 00 models are creeping towards 0 gauge price levels. John

Given that the railways were disinclined to tip stock over so as to photograph the underframes, getting this right can be a challenge. The pdf supplied by Miss Prism is incredibly useful and I have used it more than once to detail a wagon. I did build the Parkside Beetle but my pictures are poor and I didn't show the underside. My efforts at detailing underframes have evolved over time. Parkside underframe parts should probably be replaced by brass wire and other brass parts if you can find them. The ex Mainly Trains range of etched brass frets had some excellent brake detailing. I think you might still find these at Wizard Models. John

I like how you've progressed with this kit Daniel. It is looking really good. The valve gear looks stunning. I hadn't really considered an RSU before although I had heard of them. A friend of mine offered me the one he has so I better get my skates on and grab it. John

Here's something: http://petebevans.blogspot.com/2013/09/k-kits-gwr-low-siphon-completed.html K's kits are pretty old and the material is white metal. You may find one on the second hand market. Also I see a D&S kit of the Dia 04. These are etched brass. Found this: https://www.hattons.co.uk/281829/d_s_models_ds525_gwr_6_wheel_siphon_high_etched_brass_kit/stockdetail Google 6 wheel milk siphon for more. John

I have said before (and been shouted at for it) that Heljan prices are at the top end of the spectrum. Antics quote the price for Lionheart 45XX to be 550 GBP with DCC sound. The 3MT is quoted at 628 GBP, again with sound. So, there's a reasonable price range that we can expect. John

Not done before in 7mm RTR was the quote. Since the field is fairly new, that doesn't narrow things down much. LMS, LNER and Southern have little presence at the moment, so lots of choice. I've no idea of how many 0 gaugers have garden layouts. My feeling is that it is the smallish end to end layout that dominates. Manufacturers should cater to the dominant layout architecture. Producing A4's, as Hatton's/Heljan some time ago, is going to limit sales because the loco is too large for a shunting layout. Hal mentioned above that prices for these have been slashed. Same goes for an 8F I think. ECT are about to release their Black 5, a beautiful model but probably too large for me. John

Terrier is sensible, so much so that it was Dapol's first 7mm loco. John

Not surprising Hal. 779 was the starting price and the market tends to dictate where the price ends up. My mate has the Mogul and it appears to be a fine model. More than a year later and he STILL hasn't installed the sound system, GRRRR! A shame that Heljan have seemingly given up on steam, the Collett Goods is a fave of mine despite my antipathy for GWR. We seem to have Dapol and Minerva doing mostly steam and Heljan doing diesel. John

An article in Key Model World puts the price of the Heljan Mogul at 779 GBP. This is likely to be MSRP so knock 15% off for the retail price. I'm still plumping for a buckjumper. John

It probably could Pete. Frankly I got a bit lazy because I know PVA. Tacky Glue is an unknown to me when it comes to diluting. I'd love to hear from others who have used Tacky Glue or similar (I suspect it is very much like WS scenic glue) for ballast. You mention Copydex. I've never seen that here but from what I have read, Tacky Glue may have similar properties. I am a bit skeptical about the value of cork for sound insulation (like most people I have used cork for previous layouts), but it is a certainty that any value is lost when track and ballast are glued down with PVA. John

For my layout, which I started in 2017, I used Woodland Scenics closed cell foam. It comes in beveled strips and sheets. I glued it to the board with Aileen's Tacky Glue (looks like PVA but dries rubbery). I also glued the track to the foam using the Tacky Glue. I haven't done any noise tests and my layout is a BLT where stock moves pretty slowly. For ballast I used Woodland Scenics Fine with dilute PVA reasoning that the foam and Tacky Glue have acoustically isolated the track from the board. Here's a video of my layout taken back in August. I can't hear any track noise but then the loco sound may be masking it. The club, for their extremely large new layout has used what looks like 3mm foam that could be what you are talking about. The foam has a minimum buy. Here's a pic showing the foam: Having reread your post, I might have missed your point. John

Hi Graham. The ferrule size depends on the gauge of wire you are using. In my case I use mostly 22 gauge with 18 gauge for bus. The ferrules come in assorted sizes: I bought this selection box initially and you can see the array of ferrules. The larger ones I will never use so a bit of a waste. Note the crimper which really is required. Mine was $35 but I have seen cheaper. You can get bags of ferrules in quantities of 500 or even 1000. All from Amazon. https://www.amazon.ca/Uxcell-Crimp-Insulated-Ferrule-Terminal/dp/B00W8UBJDM/ref=sr_1_67?crid=DDAKCSUWEDNI&keywords=wire+ferrules&qid=1694868420&sprefix=wire+ferrules%2Caps%2C103&sr=8-67 HTH John

What astonishes me is that layout operators get their travel expenses paid. Here, for most shows, we get nothing. Those who exhibit do it because they want to share their work. There are exceptions, in August the club exhibited my layout at Exporail, a very good railroad museum. We were paid $450 for the weekend. Back in June we did another show where there was nothing at all. The big British Show here, GBTS, pays exhibitors something towards gas but that actual amount is dependent on the show take. For my group that means travel to Toronto with all the gas that entails, hotels and meals, all on our own dime. We do it because it a chance to see friends and colleagues in the British Model Railway community and also to show off our work. John

The underframe detailing does look pretty good although the pic above is a bit dark. I built the JLTRT kit and they pretty much said if you want underframe detail you're on your own. So, I did it with a lot of help from members here: Picture taken during build obviously but it does show the detailing. John

Agree with Andy, putting the boards on their side makes wiring as easy as possible. I just basically rewired my layout to neaten things up and get rid of solid core wire which has caused problems. I also use copious amounts of "choc blocks". These make it easy to make wiring runs modular and provide test points. Wiring repairs are easier too. I also installed "ferrules" into which the twisted wire is inserted and the end crimped. This improves the grip in the screw terminal of the choc block. Don't know what layout shape is, mine is BLT. Anyway, better to make the layout modular so boards can be removed if needed. I also advocate the use of dowels. This is one of my simpler boards: DCC control, bus is copper coloured wire. Droppers can be seen coming out of holes in the board. A lot of the wiring is for lights, red/black pairs. Tortoise motor in the middle. I hit on the idea of mounting two boards side by side so I can do the interboard wiring without getting confused and ensuring the wires are long enough. Nevertheless, there will come a time when something happens and you have get on the floor under the layout, the law of Sod. John

These wagons are coming along very well. Interesting about Railtec, which I have no experience with (HMRS and Fox mainly). I use spray gloss varnish first (used to use Glosscote but I think that has been discontinued). I also use MicroSet to "prime" the surface and, after the decal is on use Microsol to make sure the decal is flat. When dry, I use a coat of spray matte varnish. I don't get on well with HMRS because there is very little wiggle room. I prefer water slide (like Fox) so I can poke the decal into place. A sterling job with these. Given your learning curve, I don't think kit manufacturers have a lot to worry about....yet. John

Dowels between the boards make getting track ends lined up easy. Make as good a job of the wiring as you can. If my layout is anything to go by, it can get very complex. Wiring issues are a common theme on this thread. My boards are all white underneath. Don't know what you have in mind for a layout, or if you are alone or have a few friends to help. Keep the layout a modest size which means, to me anyway, something like a BLT. My layout is 21' x 2'6" and is a BLT. Not sure about the 15mins but it is fairly quick to assemble. There are usually about 4 of us. John

Lionheart are due to release their BR 3MT at the end of the year. John

Well, I seem to have what I want. Having confidence that the decoder is in fact Zimo, I accessed CV#266, which still showed 255. However, I changed it to 65 initially and got a change in volume but not enough. Ended up with a setting of 150. Weird thing is when I access 266 again, the value shows as 000 or 001. Still I have the volume I wanted and the loco works so I'm happy. John

Thank you Paul. I wanted to be sure I was dealing with Zimo before playing around with CVs. As I say, it was bought second hand so I don't know if sound was factory installed or by the previous owner. The CV#266 value of 255 that I got was very suspicious. John

OK thanks Nigel. I will continue to check tomorrow. Not much to fail really, a piece of plain track with alligator clips for DCC power. I'll try a different loco. John

OK, I know I posted them here at one time but no idea where now. Cheers John