Torper

Beyond My Wildest Dreams - Mark Knopfler & Emmy Lou Harris

Far Side of the World - Tide Lines

Best modellers show in Scotland - really looking forward to this!

Darling Pretty - Mark Knopfler

What I rather fear is some kindly and well-meaning relative thinking "He likes trains, he'd like one of these" and presenting me with one. One such relative did once hint along these lines and had to be rapidly (and as politely as possible) disabused of any such option.

Roll Away the Stone - Mott the Hoople

One Thing - Runrig

Come Outside - Mike Sarne and Wendy Richards

Woman - The Anti-Nowhere League

Get Lost - Tom Waits

There are lots of things I might not buy because of their or their country's misdeeds - for example, I used to apply a strict embargo on South African goods, but once apartheid was consigned to the history books I was quite happy to purchase South African. Lais decoders are now sold all over the world, including in countries that take a pretty dim view of Chinese counterfeit goods - indeed, I understand that there was a ban on their being imported into the UK at one stage. As they are now so generally available, including in the USA, I can only only assume that any dispute with TCS has now been settled, and certainly the current generation of Lais decoders are very much their own products and they are sold by retailers whom I'm sure would not countenance selling them if there was an ongoing dispute about piracy. Presumably you wouldn't buy Lais Stay-Alives either?

Walking On The Waves - Skipinnish

So do the Lais and they're only £13.50. However, neither of these have F2 braking which I feel adds considerably to the fun of driving one's loco. And as Bob points out and a little rearch confirms (thanks Bob) many Zimo non-sound decoders have this facility, but it does require a bit of fiddling around with CVs . It's a pity they don't mention it - I've just had a look at Digitrain's selection of Zimo non-sound decoders and there's no mention of F2 braking but there are articles on this site that show how it can be done..

I'm not sure what you mean by the "circular file", but if you intend to bin all four that you bought I'd first test another one on your loco just to ensure that the first one wasn't faulty. In any event, if you've bought faulty products for £50 you shouldn't just accept it - take it up with DGElectech. Did you buy the decoders from them at Warley? If you did you have additional rights against them as the retailer as decoders that don't work are not fit for purpose. All too often railway modellers are not very good at asserting their consumer rights. I've just had another thought. DGElectech sell their ANE manufactured decoders at £20.99 each, five for £99. At £50 for four, you got ypour for £12.50 each. I wonder if they're fakes?

It would appear from Bachmann's website that their latest 21-pin decoder is the 36-557A which is made by ESU. They retail it at £39.95 which seems expensive for a non-sound decoder, but it apparently offers F2 braking - I have to confess that I wasn't aware that any non-sound decoders had that facility. On that basis I'd be very tempted to go for it, but I wouldn't buy it from Bachmann as you can get it for about £31 from some retailers, e.g. Rails.