jpendle

You didn't trade in a GBRF CL66 in Europorte livery at Hattons, did you? John P

Well the clicking might be a split gear, does it do that in both directions? As you have more than one 47 then I would suggest switching out bogies to determine which bogie has the issue. You can get spare gears from Peter's spares and from BR Lines https://www.farishnspares.co.uk/. Alternatively you can buy complete bogie assemblies from Bachmann. Regards, John P

And perhaps we should ask, do you have a z21(White) or a Z21(Black)? Regards, John P

Hi, I've installed it on my Z21 and have had no issues either. Regards, John P

But not at all nasty The 20 pound Zimo decoders are excellent decoders and excellent value for money. They are the only ones I use in my N Gauge locos. Regards, John P

Hi, I don't know why this is being compared to DCC, the two are like chalk and cheese. The Hornby system is more like the Lego "Powered Up" system. The main differences being that with Lego the trains have their own bluetooth receivers, so multiple trains can run on the same tracks, and that there is no accessory control in the Lego system. Regards, John P

Roco don't have any yet. But other smaller European manufacturers may have stuff. Regards, John P

Roco's Z21 system uses CAN on their Railcom feedback box, and they also make a CAN hub. I suspect more CAN control stuff will be coming from them in the future. Regards, John P

I think you mean 1 in 25 which is 4%. Anyhow, in my experience running long diesel hauled trains in N then 2%, on a straight run, is the max gradient that I can use. On a curve the gradients would have to be less steep. For track spacing, in Scarm, I just use a couple of Peco Code 55 points forming a crossover to get the spacing right, and then delete them after the fact. Regards, John P

Its the other way round. The Tortoise is the older design. Regards, John P

So which software solution did you end up choosing? John P

The OP says it was bought second hand. Much more likely that the previous owner turned off DC running in the decoder. This is sometimes done to help prevent runaways. Regards, John P

Depends on which fictional bit or Yorkshire you are talking about! Both the LMS and LNER had operated there. The East Coast Mainline would have been LNER. The cross country lines more LMS (ex L&YR). Regards, John P

OK. All RTR N Gauge around the world uses 9mm track. But the scale of the models varies depending on location European and American outline RTR N Gauge models use a scale of 1:160 on 9mm track, which is pretty much a correct scale to gauge ratio. British outline RTR N Gauge models use a scale of 1:148 on 9mm track. So the track is too narrow. Japanese outline RTR N Gauge models use a scale of 1:150 on 9mm track. There are historical reasons for this in the same way the British outline models are OO not HO in the larger scale. If you don't get an answer here then try here instead https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/ Regards, John P

Hello there I don't modify my points and ............... I model in N Gauge and as the points are much coarser scale, the mods that are recommended for OO points aren't necessary. But back to the OP. If money is to be spent on anything at this stage. I would recommend buying a multimeter. Then it can be determined if the point wiring mods have been done correctly, ie no bad solder joints or missing wires. The fact that the auto frog works when triggered from the point V but not the point frog would suggest to me a point issue, rather than a DCC system issue. Regards, John P

Because using blade contact for polarity switching is inherently unreliable, the point blades have to be kept scrupulously clean. Regards, John P

What's a gaurd rail? Some kind of fruit? John P

Hi, The Gaugemaster Autofrogs use a relay, so by DCC standards they are very slow, as a backup for other types of frog switching they are probably fine, but as your only method, I would expect the behaviour that you are seeing. Your wiring won't be the issue. I don't use Autofrogs or Frog Juicers on my points, but use auxiliary switches on my point motors to switch frog polarity. If you want to eliminate this, then, as long as you have the cash, I would recommend using the TAM Valley series of Frog Juicers, these are solid state frog polarity switches and therefore work much faster than the Gaugemaster Autofrogs. Other solid state frog polarity switches may be available. I have the six way version (Tam Valley Hex Frog Juicer) that I use for reversing loops and for switching the frogs on diamond crossings. Regards, john P

Hi, So first of all you don't have a short circuit, if you did the autofrog would change the polarity of the frog, that's how they work. So the problem is that you don't have a short circuit when you should! When you first switch the point the frog polarity will not have changed, so A will still light up while B doesn't. What's meant to happen is that when the loco wheels contact the frog a short circuit will be created, both the frog and the other running rail of the diverging route will be at the same polarity, both connected to the red power feed. The auto frog should then detect the short and automatically change the polarity of the frog to "black". This should happen so quickly that you don't notice and the loco doesn't stall. You then say that if you manually connect across the insulating gap at B, presumably between the stock rail of the second point with the "black" power feed, that the autofrog works and your track tester lights up at B, and presumably does not light up at A. If that is the case then it sounds like you may have modified the upper point incorrectly, and that the frog rails are NOT CONNECTED to the V rails, but your Autofrog is connected to the V rails This would mean that a short on the V rails (like bridging the insulating gap, would trigger the autofrog, but a short on the frog itself would not. One simple way to test this theory would be to run the loco along A as before, buit after changing the points, start the loco from the bottom track and run it over the points in the opposite direction. If the loco runs through the crossover without stopping then the upper point is the problem. If you have a multimeter, and with the DCC power turned off, use the multimeter to test that there is continuity between the frog and the V rails of the upper point. Regards, John P

Not really. With DCC you wouldn't need the section switches (for CAB control). BUT you can still use a control panel to control point motors, rather than use the DCC system. Regards, John P

Hi, Hattons are NOT DCC specialists. I buy a lot of stuff from them but they do not sell a broad range of DCC equipment, decoders, DCC systems, DCC accessories, etc, so I wouldn't recommend trying to trade in your DC controllers to them in exchange for a DCC system as the choice will be very limited. Again, before you buy a DCC system, you need to consider what you want to do with it, and do you want to constrain yourself for the future. If you have money to burn then that's less of an issue, if not, then time invested now will pay dividends. Once you ask which DCC system to use you'll get as many opinions as there are systems out there to buy! The only correct answer is to do some research and make sure that your chosen system will do what you want now and in the future. And ask specific questions on here about the systems you are considering and the DCC functionality that you need or may need in the future. Regards, John P

Hi, First, Peco Code 55 is much better than Code 80 as it is more robust and has a slightly more accurate profile. Setrack points are very unrealistic and some longer N Gauge locos may not like them. Second, DCC wiring is no more or less complex than DC wiring, the "only 2-wires for DCC" thing is a gross exaggeration. Having said that, my N Gauge layout uses DCC and I would strongly recommend DCC for anyone starting out from scratch. As far as the wiring goes, then we really need to get an idea of your level of expertise with electrics as that will determine our answers. Also a minimum radius of 12" is good, some loco's will struggle below that. Regards, John P

Neck duly wound back in John P

Hi, So first of all I am clueless compared to Nigel, but reading the posts, my understanding is this. Ignoring what the couplings are doing AND which end the wagons are coupled, the loco is behaving exactly as it should. Here's quote from the Zimo manual "The driving direction for the train disengagement is always according to the cab setting; directional settings in the “special effects” definition for uncoupling (Bits 0 and 1 of CV #127, CV #128 etc.) will not be applied." So I'm going to stick my neck out and say that CV's 132 & 159 SHOULD be set to 48 because setting them to 49 or 50 won't make any difference. So you PROPEL your train into a siding. (the decoder software is assuming that you are PULLING the train and moving forwards) You stop it and press F8. The loco then reverses a little (This is to release the slack on the couplings, remember decoder software assumes that you've been PULLING the train). The coupling lifts, and then loco then runs forwards to disengage from the train. This behaviour is exactly what Nigel describes and what is described in the Zimo manual. So the loco movement seems to be correct, but the coupling operation is not, and to further confuse matters you want to PROPEL your train into a siding and uncouple it, rather than PULL your train into a run round loop and uncouple it. So assuming that this is a brand new, shop bought, loco then according to Nigel and Zimo the rear coupler should be activated when you press F8, not the front coupler. Or, to put it another way, the coupler at the end of the loco which is NOT facing the direction of travel should be the one activated by F8. If this were the case then you could perform your uncoupling action by. PROPELLING the train into a siding Stopping the loco CHANGING the loco's direction of travel. Then pressing F8 to uncouple the loco. So a couple of questions. Could someone have reprogrammed the decoder and changed the mapping of Function outputs FO6 and FO7, or done something else? What happens if you PULL a train along the track and then press F8? And what is CV42 set to? Regards, John P

Yes, I stand corrected, I believe that you are right. Regards, John P