34theletterbetweenB&D

Possibly because one of our number was the son of a bookie? It was years later that I learned of the naming association with the Gees. What we most wanted of course was 'Streak!'

In which case, worth trying a reset on the problem decoder, until it reverts to address 03. Always worth a try.

I too have transitioned since 1999: from Bachmann the only serious game in town for RTR OO, to about 40% of my spend, with purchases to date from eleven RTR brands, and any new entries not yet sampled only because they haven't produced anything of interest. The significant underlying question is whether the customer base is expanding to absorb all this commercial activity. I guess that it must be, or it wouldn't be happening...

Alternatively: Racehorse! That's what the little gang in short trousers that I was part of would have been yelling. This so typical scene led to a love of Doncaster's finest, which produced the 'Grand Parade of Flamboyant Velocity, placing the ECML Miles Beevor all other lines'. Sigh. For Tony's benefit, I used that arrangement of pacific names in an essay on the topic 'memories of childhood', and dear JAG Walker graded it A+.

It's a good plan: local supermarkets usually offer a good free 'first cut' assessment. Go to the DIY checkouts. If you find them near impossible to use because you hear all the user instructions from each of the checkouts in use, your hearing is performing beautifully. And back to model railways, this is just one of the objections to sound effects at exhibitions. The sound doesn't stop neatly within a foot or two of the layout edge...

It doesn't help the case, but the explanation is simple. The DCC system protects against a short on the rails and up to the decoder input, by detection of a large 'instant' rise in current draw. Failing electronics usually don't generate this effect, and the DCC system has necessarily to tolerate current draw variation up to its rated output. Honesty time, I have been very pleasantly suprised at the robustness of DCC decoders and the like: these are low cost consumer electronics. The occasional failure has to be accepted in my opinion. Not long had a Zimo MX 618 go 'phut' pretty spectacularly, my first ever failure from a Zimo decoder after over 15 years using their product. And the DCC system didn't trip out as the magic blue smoke escaped and the loco slid to a halt, while everything else running kept going. As suggested by Kev return to manufacturer for repair is almost certainly uneconomic...

I would suggest that the better signs on this front have been the Bachmann SECR birdcages, Dapol GW toplights and now Ellis Clark's announcement of the GNR/LNER 'Quad Arts'. Let's have 'character' stock true to prototype. There's plenty enough choices to go round all the brands competing in 4mm...

Likewise, lost more than I have produced by 'outdoor exposure' to obtain the silvery grey tones of really long term bleached wood!

I too will be in that position soon enough, but no worries. So long as the TV speakers manage effective solo voice production, that's good enough for news and serious documentary productions. Everything 'entertainment' is routed through the stereo system, the primary role of which is music reproduction. (I tried surround systems years ago; rejected because there were too many weird artefacts, which it appears those involved in production simply cannot resist. The resulting garbage made of what might have been fine theatre and opera perfomance recordings was a great disappointment.)

Useful statement that. We would talk straight past each other in respect of what matters to each of us. My Morley DC gear worked straight out of the box, good DCC decoders likewise worked out of the box. Thus far, no benefit from making the change to DCC What sold me on DCC was the customisation it enabled. Adjustment of system output, motor control characteristics, speed curves and inertia settings enables matching of locos into groups that operate uniformly. Every loco starts with a dead slow creep into motion, and likewise stops smoothly. By matched group all the locos are uniform throughout the speed range up to scale for maximum speed. That was the step forward in control that DC could not deliver when using a mixture of kit and RTR mechanisms from multiple sources.

The first essential in any sound replay system is the ability to reproduce the human voice accurately; because this is the primary function of our auditory system, and it is typically initially 'calibrated' by parental input, mother's typically dominant. In an ideal world we would all possess some good quality recordings of people we know speaking, and for the most effective evaluation among competing voices, as that quickly identifies whether the replay system is good enough. Entertainment is to the fore, the facts can take a running jump! Take another recent film from this era: 'The Imitation Game'. Terminally flawed by the savage misrepresentation of Alastair Denniston; for any that know the scale of what he, with Gubbins and de Wiart - among many nameless others - achieved, in making the deciphering operation possible.

It's heavily dependent on each purchaser's unique interest set. My actual spending over the past 12 months and planned purchases (hopefully in the 12 months to come) is in order of value: Bachmann Hornby/Oxford Heljan Rapido Ellis Clark

But what happens when you adjust the basic motor control CV's? That's what's crucial, does it have a useful adjustment range?

Heljan's regular motor in full body width models was current hungry (and the more so in many of the earlier models with less than free running gear towers). I have zero direct experience of the ViTrains product motors, but don't recall any report of great problems with current draw when these were first on sale. Back then (2007) many, myself included, were still in the habit of performing a stall test on a 12V DC supply, to obtain the peak current draw in order to select a decoder rated for a larger curent output, but after a couple of searches elesewhere I have drawn a blank on a report of any results. If you have a 12V DC supply - ideally from a simple resistance controller - and a meter, you could perform the test, simplest with this type of drive by having the body off and stopping a flywheel turning.

Assuming this is nickel silver rail, it does tarnish, as leaving a length of it outdoors for a couple of years will confirm, typically a mid brown colour. High humidity and the presence of any agent that is slightly acidic will accelerate this process, indoors or out. The best 'cure' is running as noted above. Run sufficiently, and the copper depletion in the rail surface slows the process so that there is no visible tarnishing - only takes about 3 years of daily operation for a couple of hours.