jpendle

Don't forget that the socket will have a 'blanking plug' in it. This is to allow DC running, it is NOT a DCC decoder. Regards, John P

Revolution are doing these in OO as well, for which there is a seperate thread. John P

They made 4 announcements today! Luckily for my wallet and my Caledonian sleeper desires, I only need (want) the Ecofrets and the Holdalls/timber wagons. Regards, John P

Ing means Engineer, Ingenieur. John P

NCE Switch 8’s. John P

Pedant mode on, or electronics engineer mode on, if you prefer A transformer converts AC to AC. A rectifier converts AC to DC. Gaugemaster should know better than to call a Power Supply a Transformer. Regards, John P

So you can use whatever you used on your last layout to control the point motors. Regards, John P

What point motors will you be using? Regards, John P

The GaugeMaster documents are out of date as there is no mention of the new app. Also why do people persist in calling a DC power supply a transformer? A transformer converts AC to AC, not AC to DC. Regards, John P

I believe that the TPE 68's in both scales sold pretty quickly, especially after the Accurascale/Revolution announcement of MK5a carriages. Now it's fingers crossed that Dapol do another run of TPE livereied ones with different names/numbers. Regards, John P

Its working today John P

I did exactly what you are thinking of on my old DC layout which used Tortoise motors. BUT I didn't document what I did. Anyhow, I used double pole double throw relays to switch the Tortoise motors. These were hooked up through additional relays to control route setting and it was all controlled from a 16VDC laptop power supply and a 16 position rotary switch. The rotary switch outputs were wired to the control relays such that if siding 4 were selected the relays controlling Tortoise motors on sidings 1 - 3 were set to the 'through' route and the Tortoise motor on siding 4 was set for the siding. I still have the board but probably threw the wiring diagram away. When I went to DCC, I selected a system that allowed graphical route setting (Roco Z21 Black), and that made the relay board completely redundant, as on the Z21 App on my iPAD I could set as many routes as I had sidings in software and when I selected route 4 (for example) the Z21 would know which points to throw. If you do go DCC with Tortoise motors then I have found that the NCE Switch 8 is the easiest thing to use to control Tortoise motors. Regards, John P

And for the dunces amongst us, what does NWT stand for? John P

Can't access from Colorado

OK mine's N Gauge so it uses a different decoder. Have you tried F1,F2, or F3, F1 & F2 are the culprits on the N Gauge version. Also is it a Dapol factory fitted decoder or did you fit the decoder? Regards, John P

OK let's get back to basics. First why did it take so long to get your iPad connected to the z21 with its WiFi router? When I got mine a couple of years ago, it was very simple, just connect the z21 and router together using the supplied LAN cable, turn them both on, and then connect my iPad to the Z21 network. I then added a decoder to a loco and it ran at address 3, this took about half an hour. Second do you have a blue light on the z21 and on the app on your iPad when you are using it? Third, have you tried to read back the loco address with the z21 app? Regards, John P

Also is it a z21(White) or a Z21(Black). The capital Z is important. The Z21 has two track outputs, main and program. The z21 has just one track output which can be switched between a program track and the main track. Regards, John P

N Gauge or OO? John P

Are any of these running through Westhougton or do they all use the Atherton line? John P

On the real thing I've never really noticed how much like an insects jaws/mandibles the front end looks!! I'm glad my layout is in the workshop, cos I might have nightmares if one of those were in the house at night. I've got two on order, what do they eat, I wonder? John P

That looks really awful!! Just like the real thing John P

How did you get your reply to one post to appear in a different post??? John P

I would use Code 55 throughout, it is much more robust than code 80 as the rail is buried in the sleeper webbing. To save space in my fiddle yard I use small radius Code 55 points. Th only draw back being that my fat fingers don't fit between adjacent trains in the FY when its full. Regards, John P

I'm a bit baffled by this. 1Mx 3M is 3' x 18' regardless of the scale of the model! Why can't you hide things in a tunnel and stick a branch on the top using DCC? Regards, John P

By crossover, do you mean a diamond crossing? This will need 4 dropper wires to get it working. 2 for the stock rails and 2 more for the frogs in the crossing itself. The frog wires will need a frog juicer each or a DPDT switch so that the polarity of the frogs can be switched appropriate for the route being taken. You might want to disconnect the crossing wiring from the DCC power bus to see if that's the problem. You might also want to invest in a low cost multimeter, that would allow you to check for shorts across the power bus. Regards, John P