jpendle

Dapol's next offering then 😁 John P

You only really need a booster if the number of locos or accessories is going to exceed the capabilities of the PowerCab. So how many locos, what scale, are they sound equipped, and are you operating point motors with DCC. As an example I had to add a booster to my Z21 3A powered N Gauge layout when I got to 40 loco's (non were sound equipped) and 70 Tortoise motors controlled by NCE Switch 8 decoders. Regards, John P

Assuming it's a 01298 number then it should have 6 digits after it. And while everyone's off down memory lane the original 4 digit area codes e.g. 0942, 0204, 0298, etc,etc, where set up somewhat alphabetically based on the letters on a very old rotary or brand new mobile phone. 942 Wigan 204 Bolton 298 Buxton 223 Cambridge 774 Preston Regards, John P

As long as you understand how live frog points work then I would recommend that you use them all the time. If that's not the case then Insulfrog would be easier. Of course Peco have now released their Unifrog points as well, which are designed for ease of use in DCC. I haven't used them myself as they haven't released short or lng radius N gauge ones yet. regards, john P

From my perspective it's been a race to the bottom since the late 90's. Around that time I moved to the US where I think they were always worse than Europe, but my pet peeve is the way the frequent flyers on busy routes always get the cheap seats unless they pay for first or business class. So as a Gold member with SAS and BA in the 90's, seats were assigned at check in, not 4 weeks before the flight leaves, meaning you got a halfway decent seat near the front of the plane when you'd booked your ticket 1 day in advance. Travelling with children, REGARDLESS of status, you were always seated together. The only things in the overhead bins were briefcases, remember those, plus heavy coats, etc. Nowadays, sitting in the cheap seats at the back of a United flight because I booked my ticket less than a week in advance; having to pay extra, even with airlines like BA and United, to have my son and his family sit together; or being able to check a suitcase for a two week vacation. Mind you the time in the 90's when one of my colleagues was bumped from a BA LHR to MAN flight, because it was overbooked, ended in some amount of embarrassment for the gate staff and the bloke who got his seat because said bloke ran up to the gate about 30 seconds after my colleague had been bumped, and said "thanks for finding me a seat at the last minute". We all knew that kind of thing happened, but letting the two of them meet at the gate wasn't the best plan. Regards, John P

Why not get them to use a slide rule instead of a calculator, or have a farmer plough a field with a horse instead of a GPS guided tractor, or make copies using a Gestetner/Roneo machine, or send a Telex, or use Ceefax, or ............ I could go on. And on the subject of rotary dial phones, why 999, instead of 911, or better still 111? To give you time to think if your call to the emergency services was actually that important? John P

Remove the blanking plate!!! It is basically connecting track power direct to the lighting circuit. Hopefully you've not blown the relevant decoder function outputs. If you still have issues then we'd need to know the decoder model to provide any more advice. Regards, John P

Sorry Bob that’s not correct. You can always read CV8 as it contains the NMRA Manufacturer ID. But you can’t write anything other than a reset command to CV8 and that doesn’t change the value in CV8. Regards, John P

But still pretty good as that involves a reversal at Adlington AND Blackrod🤔 Regards, John P

Hi, When programming the decoder you need some sort of load, as Iain suggests, to simulate a motor. Once it's programmed then it should work as normal without a load. Alternatively you can put a loco on the programming track at the same time, program both decoders to set up the tail light and then program the loco decoder back to it's original settings. That's my preferred method for MU's. Regards, John P

Times change. How many members of this forum who are under 60 have ever had to double de-clutch? As I understood the article, it is the restored GWR stock that's the issue not so much the slam door stock. There's no point ridiculing people who have never seen stuff before. Regards, John P

I used to fly regularly around Europe on business before I moved to the US. I used SAS and BA the most but some of the more interesting service experiences were with the smaller regional airlines that operated back then. Ronneby to Copenhagen with Golden Air on a Saab 340, if my memory serves me right. Sitting waiting for the flight at Ronneby where there was a LARGE sign over the door to the plane which said "No Foreign Nationals Beyond this Point" Watching, as everyone in the waiting room boarded a SAS flight to Stockholm leaving just me and one other bloke behind. A lady in flying officer uniform wandered into the waiting room and told us to follow her with our luggage, She loaded our bags onto the plane, said "Help yourself to coffee and cake" and went up front to sit next to the Captain! After takeoff the bloke behind me tapped me on the shoulder and served me the coffee and cake. Geneva to Genoa with Air Dolomiti in an ATR42. Fruit salad served on REAL china. A surprisingly good food offering for such a small airline. And a final approach to Genoa that felt like we were coming into dive bomb the airport not land there. The approach is basically fly over the last Alp and then bank and dive to the airport which is out in the harbour. Flying out is much less fun. Take off and circle a dozen times to get enough altitude to get back over the Alps. And finally: Manchester to Billund with BA, actually with Sun Air on a Jetstream 31. When I checked in I was told it's a 2.5 hour flight, there's a full meal and drinks service, and there's no toilet! Regards, John P

Big Boy in a park in Cheyenne, not my photo.

If my N Gauge loco's DON'T move when I'm programming them, I know there's something wrong. John P

I think Toni Collette would be very upset about that 😁 John P

Salford Crescent has I believe been subject to HSE inspections because of it's narrow platforms. John P

Hi, On my last layout I had two crossovers and a reversing loop, I used a Tam Valley Hex (6 way) Juicer for the crossovers and the loop. It worked perfectly. The DCC80 uses a relay whereas the Tam Valley juicer is solid state and therefore a lot faster. Regards, John P

All the rest are mucky black!! John P

I use single core wire stripped from Cat5E network cable. Over here it's 26AWG, I'm not sure what the equivalent UK size is. Regards, John P

Not really. Mini Van That's not a van ....... This is a van. Vans are very popular in Utah for some reason 🙂 John P

I would hazard a guess that the important stuff is on the other side of the PCB, what does that look like? Regards, John P

I would imagine that the only exception is when one's been used or returned, and put back in the box without a reset. Assuming that it works the first thing I would do is a full reset of the decoder. Regards, John P

WOW!! 500 quid for a WHOLE YEAR !!!!!! Here is the good old US of A, people would be biting your hand off. Our house insurance started at $3000 pa when we bought this place 6 years ago. After one claim for a burst pipe it went up to $6000 and last year dropped to $5500. I can't shop around for a bargain as the big insurance companies won't write policies for anyone who has had a claim in the past 3 years. Even for a small property you're looking at over $1000 per annum over here. Regards, John P

And as far as I can tell the only duplicate livery being offered is Evening Star. John P

They are out of stock worldwide and that will always be the case as they are now obsolete. The new Zimo MN non sound decoders are starting to arrive in shops in Germany so they should arrive elsewhere soon. I expect these will be at least 30 quid. Regards, John P