brossard

I have no experience with these suitcase connectors. Using the screw terminals (pictured) is also easy and doesn't require soldering. Getting the wire to be the right length is important and I spent a fair bit of time doing that when I refurbished the wiring recently. One drawback with screw terminals is that wire can come loose and this has happened regularly. The solution is to crimp ferrules to the wire ends giving a more positive connection. I don't know about DCC Concepts. I get their emails but rarely see anything I want or need. My impression is that sometimes they produce solutions looking for a problem. It is usually pretty expensive too. My layout is DCC but as simple as I can make it. John

OK, you know best. As far as stock, don't assume older stock is incompatible with code 75. At our club we have discovered most of the older stuff is fine. Unless the stock is Horby Dublo vintage with really coarse wheels, you might be pleasantly surprised. Before committing, get hold of a piece of code 75 track and do some testing. John

I hope you are going to tidy that up. Here's a board of mine before all the detail wiring was added: DCC buss is the copper coloured speaker wire (18GA). Droppers (22GA) are initially connected to screw terminals (or whatever you like). It's all really a join the dots puzzle. This method holds for both DCC and DC. Here is the same board today: Now with a point motor and lamp wiring (red/black) wires. This is actually the simplest of my 4 boards. I have used a lot of plastic loops to keep the wires from flopping about. John

I don't understand why folk have to go for huge straight out of the blocks. My advice to people starting out (and let's face it, after such a long hiatus, you are starting from scratch) is to start with something small, like a "plank". Build a country station with the infrastructure (signal box, engine shed, goods shed etc). This will allow you to get boards quickly, gain experience with track laying and wiring and, most important have somewhere to run trains while the opus magnus is being built. What control system? I don't think you have said. DCC is where it's at and ideal for small or large layouts. Why code 100? I might assume it is because you already have it. Nothing wrong with it but code 75 is finer and looks better. All modern stock is compatible with it. Peco now have Bullhead in code 75, far more typical of British railways than flatbottom. Wiring: for the sake of your sanity and back, try to design the boards so that they can be put in the vertical. Terrible torture to have to do the job lying on your back. John

Such a lot of choices, hard to know what's best. Actually, I needed the Wagos years ago. The ones you posted look like they could be useful. Amazon is a wonderful place, great choice, good prices, free shipping and often delivery the next day. There isn't much the brick and mortar places can offer to compete. A shame really. John

All interesting stuff and likely useful to those in the throes of building a layout. As for me, it's too late. You will have seen the pictures and my method is old school (I've had the choc blocks for literally decades). I just spent several weeks refurbishing wiring among other things with the goal of making the layout more reliable and speeding up erection at shows. Perhaps if I do another layout these Wagos may come in handy. John

When the clocks go back, I do what my dad used to do with the car clock - leave it alone. Until the clocks change again I can just about do the math. John

OMG! I tick all those things off. John

Several years ago, at a show, an acquaintance of mine thrust three kits into my hands as a gift. Two were branded as "Precision" but I never did find out their history. The third was a GWR wagon from ABS. This was surprisingly good despite being whitemetal. I still had to replace some things but it turned out well. Some etched parts and lot of really bad castings. I ended up replacing many of the parts and making some myself. The end result wasn't bad but it is beneath my standards: An interesting experience but I'll take a proper kit any day. John

After about 30 years doing 00, (and dabbling in EM for a short time) I got teed off with the whole business. The narrow gauge of 00 can only be fixed by converting everything to a more accurate gauge. Life is too short for that I think. The other thing about 00 was the dreadful couplings. I settled on Kadee early on but everything looks unrealistic. I know people have done prototypical couplings on 4mm, and I did take a couple of weak stabs at it, but it was too much of a fiddle for me. 7mm is a revelation with near correct gauge track and prototype couplings that can be used although they can be frustrating. It's a bit of a chicken and egg thing - do I build/acquire stock first or do I make a layout? A browse of this forum will turn up a lot of "micro" 0 gauge layouts. John

Good to know, I had never heard of them. https://www.amazon.ca/s?k=wago+connectors&crid=2Z8VJ5E3NT7BI&sprefix=wago+connectors%2Caps%2C88&ref=nb_sb_noss_1 I got some automotive connectors from Amazon for connecting the boards of my layout. The 2 pin connectors are factory assembled and work fine. The 4 pin connectors require the user to assemble and that is not straightforward. Those I made were not reliable, probably due my mistakes, so they got ditched. I finally got some factory assembled four pin connectors from an electronics store which seem to be great. John

Thanks. I have bought bits and bobs from Slaters that are not listed. They are quite good in that respect. Then again, I have done the same with Parkside. My friend got the brake bits from Peco/Parkside for his Peco Toad. Peco kits, I was astonished to discover, don't include brake detail. Parkside and Slaters are pretty evenly matched with my preference slightly on the Slaters side because of the castings and etchings. John

It was looking impressive until the smoke started - aaarghhh! What's the red light between the express passenger lamps? John

Terminate the buss wires on each board to connectors that will carry the power from one board to the next. Then follow the instructions of your system to connect the buss wires to it. Should be something like "Track Power". My system is NCE smart booster so I don't know anything about yours. Here's a picture of the board above before all the detail wiring was done: You can see the droppers terminating at screw terminals. The bus is copper coloured speaker wire and connected by screw terminal to a connector that goes to the next board. I use a lot of screw terminals because they let me keep the wiring tidy and I don't lose track. Since this picture was taken there have been a number of changes and mods to the board, evidenced by the picture above.. John

I don't think you've told or shown us your track plan. Is it just one board or several? Refer to my picture above for clues on wiring up the bus. John

Good to know, Parkside kits only have plastic ones which are pretty useless if you actually want to use them. What are those brackets at the top with 4 pins? I should know since I built the kit. John

If more people did model railways there'd be a lot less strife in the world. John

I tried the springy beam thingy but it was a real faff for me. My go to system was the beam compensation method. Frankly I never trusted myself to get a non compensated chassis perfectly square and flat. Iain Rice's book on etched chassis was a real godsend and I don't think I have seen anything better despite it's age. I gave up on 00 in 2016 and I've been doing 7mm since (what a great decision!). I have a lot of wagon and van kits under my belt but haven't tackled a loco yet. I do have a "pre-owned" Slaters 1F and I promised to build a Connoisseur J83 for a friend. Building a layout means that other stuff gets put on the back burner, especially when shows are on the horizon. John

Well, I think you should be proud of the 43xx at least. Haven't seen the Dean Goods run, but I imagine it's as good as the 43xx. The High Level kits are highly regarded as are the gearboxes. I'm trying to work out if you compensated the 43xx, I see horn blocks. IMO always a good idea to compensate. John

Quite right, I had a set and they were beautiful, but neither chalk nor cheese. I don't think there is anything, even today, to equal the lovely fully lined Midland livery of the coaches. John

Redutex springs to mind. Self adhesive. I haven't used it myself. For my 0 gauge buildings I have used non embossed Scalescenes printed brick. John

Great news. I've had seemingly insoluble issues before now, only to eventually figure it out. Usually my dumbass wiring errors. John

Yes, I agree, 0.020" thick so easy to cut and large sheets. Slaters are equivalent. When I have used this, I glued to 0.040" plastic sheet. Wills are nice but hard to cut and the sheets are pretty small. Tip for Wills is to score the backs and snap. John

I had a flutter with EM when I was doing 4mm/00. Wagons are quite easy to convert but steam locos, for me anyway, were another matter. In the end I gave up on it, going back to 00. This was short lived because about that time Dapol came out with affordable 0 gauge. I was thoroughly fed up with narrow gauge trains and the rubbish couplings so switching to 0 was really a no brainer. With finescale 0 you have a gauge that is very close to 4' 8.5", sort of the 0 gauge version of EM. You also get consistent wheel standards along with back to backs. Really the best modelling decision I ever made. I don't see 00 going anywhere despite the attempts of some, like Marklin recently and Rivarossi many years ago who have tried to make inroads with H0 ish British stock. John

When I Google, the only credible hit I got is this: https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/100x-brass-chairs/ You likely don't need 100. I dabbled with C&L LWB chairs in 0 and found them a PITA since they needed fettling to allow the rail to go through. I'm surprised not to see plastic chairs. I know C&L do them but after being ignored when the ownership changed hands I have, in turn, ignored them. The Scalefour society (https://www.scalefour.org/) likely have track making components in their shop but I think you have to join. John