brossard

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

My layout is DCC, so yes, absolutely the Peco slip will work on DCC. Impossible for me to say if your configuration will work, I think it implausible that it wouldn't. My mates who have experience with Cobalt say that they are not all that great, but I couldn't be specific since I haven't studied the insides. I have stuck with Tortoise, mostly because I have them from previous projects. These are reliable with one exception and that is the internal wipers can come loose. I have opened all mine and found a few with that defect, these have been repaired. If I were to need additional point motors I think I would go for MTB. John

A condition of exhibiting the layout at GBTS is a track plan. One of our younger club members kindly agreed to do that: A lot of tedious structural and wiring work has been going on. Still a week or so before the layout can be erected. Then on to the fun stuff. John

Wiring looks sorta similar to mine using Tortoise and Wabbit and NCE. Have you completely isolated the slip to avoid any interference from the turnout? I thought of showing a picture of my wiring but it would only scare you I fear. John A main line should have a single slip to avoid the facing point, only Peco don't do one in 0. I tried making a single slip - twice, and eventually gave up.

I did 00 for nearly 30 years and early on settled on Kadee for my couplings. I now do 0 gauge and all my stock has prototype couplings. I love it along with the near scale gauge (scales to 4'5"). My advice is take things slowly. Convert two wagons with 3 links on one buffer beam each. I also suggest you confirm that you can couple and decouple. I use a homemade tool for mine. It can be a faff but the look of proto couplings can't be beat. Then, run the coupled wagons through your layout both pulling and propelling. If you can propel the wagons through areas with your smallest radius curves and ess curves your proposal is feasible. Prototype couplings work best if the hook is sprung along with the buffers. John

In keeping with my occasional postings of club layout activity, here is a video taken last Sunday. This a test run of the fiddle yard: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1060709741946473 Obviously a great deal more work to be done. John

Looks like a good, cheap and simple system. The only drawback I can see, and this may apply to exhibition layouts more than static ones, is the inability to adjust tension. John

I find it odd too. I have taken my British 0 gauge layout to the local Railroad museum model train weekend in the Montreal area. There are a diverse number of layouts and a fair number of American 0 gauge ovals. Looks really dire to my eye. There are two rail options I understand but these are not common. I have had odd looks from American 0 gaugers who look at my layout and perhaps think there is a rail missing. Then again, 00 gauge lives on as strongly as ever despite the obvious inaccuracy. John

Loose running boards is a common fault with these. Repair is not difficult, just annoying. John

Nice work, reminds me I have one to repair. John

I am happy to hear you are tempted to do a small industrial layout Stu. The Scalescenes industry kit would be ideal and the buildings are easy to scale up. I've done that with a number of Scalescenes kits and, notably, the Canal Dock kit. See the link below. I have had to prioritize my main layout because we have caught the exhibition bug. John

Some uniformity, yes, I suppose. I like my trains to be a mix of wagons of all shapes and sizes. Block trains where everything is the same don't turn my crank. As far as weathering, I have a style and I'm sure you do as well. So there's a uniformity in how we do that. I agree you want to start with as close a base colour as you can get. These days with restrictions on postal delivery of paints and paint manufacturers discontinuing brands, sometimes you're on your own. I haven't built a wagon for quite a long time. I have done a lot over the last few years and find now that I almost have too many. I'm waiting for that special wagon kit. John