Ron Ron Ron

https://www.getlinkgroup.com/uploadedFiles/assets-uk/Media/Press-Releases/2017-Press-Release/171120-Groupe-Eurotunnel-becomes-Getlink.pdf https://www.getlinkgroup.com/uk/home/ https://news.sky.com/story/there-is-a-kind-of-logic-in-eurotunnels-new-name-11135596 .

Re: 36-557 Has anyone been using this completely different model of the 36-577 ? How have you found the performance of this rebadged ESU Standard? .

How have you found the performance of these ESU decoders Nick? ...or anyone else who has used them? Ron .

...or if the wheels fall off. .

Next generation control system. BlueRail Trains have just issued the news that a next generation system is in development, in cooperation with another partner. The details are deliberately sparse, for commercial reasons, but it will be completely compatible with the first generation BlueRail Trains/Bachmann boards (decoders in DCC language) and compatible with DCC. .

Those figures given by Hornby, 10 years ago, would relate to sales in the early to mid-'noughties. The situation may be very different today. In that period the Thomas range was a big'ish seller and the Hogwarts sets were a very successful product for Hornby. The former is still sold, but doesn't appear to sell in the same volumes (our trade friends may comment on this), and the Hogwarts line finished many years ago. Also, the number of High St. toy outlets that sold this stuff, has significantly diminished. The concessions in various retail stores have also gone. .

They didn't say at the time.

The "real sellers" ? "Large shop market" ? Hornby themselves told us back in 2007 (10 years ago, just before all the problems began), that 70% of their sales were to the adult collector and modellers market. The popularity of train sets for the toy market can only have declined since then, with large toy retailers reducing the amount of stock they carry, or not even stocking toy trains of the Hornby variety at all. Would Hornby wish to cut off the bulk of their customer base, even if it is declining in numbers? .

I can only try my best. One wishes to fit in with the crowd and all that..... . Oh err ???? Don't go there ! .

Mmmm? Oh come on Mike, surely anyone asking will only be treated to latter? Especially if SK has returned in time to attend the show with Hornby. .

One week to go. My last shower before the show, today and a chance to save on soap, shampoo and deodorant. Not to mention giving the washing machine and iron, a well deserved break. Some vigorous car cleaning and garden tidying tomorrow should have me working up a nice sweat too. All that remains is to pop down to the local Go Outdoors superstore on Monday, to get myself tooled up with a decent sized rucksack. Like this one perhaps?

It does look dire. Without this share issue, it appears the doors might be closing pretty soon. It also looks like most of what funds are being raised is going straight out of the door again and the prospects for the coming market conditions don't fill one with much hope. So it is a wonder. One last role of the dice, put everything on Red? .

According to the show guide, it's also the 50th exhibition staged by the Warley MRC - (1967) - and the 25th at the NEC. .

From my observations, I don't think there's much in the way of redundant stock left at the depot these days. Certainly not like it was 5 or 10 years ago. There appears to have been a big clear out. Lots of WIA car carrying rakes are stored there, when not being used. Same at the works next door, almost all of the old wrecks parked at the rear have long gone. . .

An interesting post Mike. Last year and earlier this year, I spent time delving into the ONS and other statistics myself. The population growth rate (net migration plus net birth/deaths) have meant that the UK population has been increasing by approximately, just under half a million people a year, over the last couple of years. With net migration from the EU having reduced more recently, the rate of increase will be reduced, but even with a larger fall in the numbers (EU & non-EU), the total population growth will still mean an extra million people every 3 or 4 years. So yes, those houses will be needed...and some. The recent talk about the "housing crisis" has lead to calls for vast numbers of new homes to be built. To tackle the present shortage and address the need over the next couple of years, they are talking about a million new dwellings. But that only covers the present and very short term need, if all these figures are to be believed. To put this into perspective, by 2030 (a little over 12 years time), the equivalent of 1.5 Birminghams* may have to be built to house everybody and the robots won't know what to do with us all. ( * OK, I'm waiting for the jokes.) .

It's hard to imagine anyone using the term Azuma, but who knows what Joe Public will call them. Probably "a train", or "I went on Virgin to...", because it's all the same to most people. The Kent HS trains are a funny example. When they first went into service, train enthusiasts were calling the Class 395 a "Javelin", even though originally that was not an official name for the train and it had never been labelled such. "Javelin" was the official promotional name for the (then) planned 2012 Olympic shuttle service to/from Stratford International. It's only after the Olympics that the name "Javelin" was adopted by Hitachi and Southeastern as the official name of the trains themselves. However, a lot of Joe Public Kent folk refer to the trains and to the HS service as "The Bullet". In common parlance, "I got the Bullet up to London", or "I was on the Bullet the other day...". Nobody seems to call them "Javelin". .

Do watch them all and particularly the Julian Coles one, which shows how to do exactly what you are after. Also note that acceleration and deceleration rates for starting and stopping, can be adjusted in the decoders. So operation can be a lot smoother than in some of the videos. Cheers Ron .

We can play pedantry bingo all day long, just for fun. Only joking of course. I did see "owing", but ignored it assumed it was just a typo. There's a big difference between calling something an "IEP train" and calling that train an "IEP", a description which is clearly ludicrous. .

You are lucky that you are not too far away from DCC Concepts, who are located right next to the station in Settle. They can provide advice and supply various related DCC products and control systems. My understanding is that they're working on a system that will be able to provide a degree of automation, without the use of computer control software. .

I also received my copy of the show magazine the other day. Very nice, but if I may make two adverse comments....? Regarding the pull out floor plan - the font used to annotate the stands on the chart is awful. Some are easily readable, but others are hard if not impossible to work out. It's even worst on the online version, where it doesn't scale very well at all. No simple decode list. Decoding who is on what stand from the diagram has to be ascertained from the magazine guide itself, which covers some 43 pages or so. The list on the back of the pull out floor plan, is only useful in finding a particular exhibitor from their name. Apart from that minor moan, I have a question. I missed the last two Warley exhibitions. Is this the first time the Bachmann sales stand has been positioned separately, on the opposite side of the hall from their main stand? .

A further video and one that might answer Nutford's question. A gentleman named Julian Coles, reporting quite literally, from his man cave.........

It's not simply a matter of "looking good" and I think you may have missed Nigel's point that DCC should not be run in this manner. DCC is designed to drive the trains (and operate accessories) and to paraphrase that old cliche again, not to drive the track. This is not a trivial distinction, either in terms of how the control system works, nor in the conceptual way we play with our toy trains. When it comes to routinely switching power on and off, it doesn't matter if it's hidden or in full view. It could be argued that this is effectively a misuse of the DCC system. There are also potential implications from the repeated application off sudden inrush currents for the health of some decoders, with the possibility (it may be remote or not) that some may start misbehaving. There's the added possibly one or two of the less "robust' variety, may eventually tire of life and pack up. Mixing DCC and aspects of DC is a perfectly valid approach, but trying to get a DCC system to behave like a DC system is not the best way to go about it IMHO. May I suggest that you look at some of the practical alternatives instead? For example, I'm pretty certain that asymmetric braking such as used in the Lenz ABC method, could do exactly what you want in the "changeover" sidings. The ABC switching could be activated by inputs from detectors or switches. All that remains is to find a way of automatically switching the points. It might also be worth considering alternative block signalling products, that will work with a form of DCC block control. Unfortunately this is a subject I'm yet to get to grips with (although it's somewhere on my bucket list) and others will be better placed to advise. I don't know if it helps, but here are a few videos (note that track power is not cut at any time)....... In these videos from A&H models, you can see the Lenz ABC modules in action (note since these were made, all Lenz decoders now have ABC)....

No TOC "owns" stations. They only get to operate and manage them. Pedant hat off...... .

http://www.schiit.com/home

Nutford, my bold on the quote from your last post. "...loco on route 2 now has power, so starts..." Just to assess your understanding of how DCC works (it might help here), may I ask, how does that loco start? .