GoingUnderground

Sorry but I disagree about the cause being poor education. I put it down to the low status given by people and governments to engineers, designers, technicians, and people who actually make things allied to the get rich quick mentality of the 70s and 80s, and the "I want to be rich and famous without actually doing anything to earn it" attitude of the 90s and 00s. It wasn't helped by the importance given by successive governments to service industries to cover the loss of good, well skilled engineering and manufacturing jobs caused by the attitude of both governments and companies that it doesn't matter where it's made as long as its cheap. This has resulted in so many skilled jobs being exported out of the UK leaving us both underskilled and the skilled people under or even un-employed, not undereducated. Another nail in the coffin has been the low status/value/worth given by many people to items made in the UK compared to the same items made overseas or with the name of an overseas company on it. Remember the "I'm backing Britain" campaigns to promote british made goods as opposed to british badged goods? It always makes me laugh to see people driving around in foreign made cars waving the Union Jack for the England Footy Team. So I do agree that this country has gone totally loopy.

I'm not sure if my link to firmware 4.0.0 above still works, so here is another one which should take you to the right place on the ESU web site: http://www.esu.eu/produkte/digitale-steuerung/ECoS-50200-zentrale/ECoS-public-beta-firmware/

For the ECoS users out there, you might be interested to know that ESU have released a Public Beta Test version of Firmware 4.0.0 (4.0.0 RC1) for the ECoS, both versions, and the Maerklin Central Station 1 Reloaded. This time there are 3 versions, one for the colour ECoS 2, one for the B&W ECoS 1, and one for the CS1 Reloaded. There is a new Rescue system which must be installed first, after which you can then install firmware 4.0.0 proper. You must be running firmware 3.7.0 before you start the upgrade. The upgrade is a 2 stage process, first install the new rescue system, then install the new firmware, virtually the same process as when us ECoS 1 users upgraded from version 1.1.3 to 3.0.0. The upgrade is a one way trip, no going back to 3.7.0 if you don't like 4.0.0. It can be downloaded by registered ECoS users from the german language part of the ESU web site. There's a translation of ESU's announcement here http://www.esu.eu/en/forum/forums-overview/topic/ecos_support-1/ecos_firmware_400_rc1-2/ on the ESU web site, accessible to registered ECoS users only. If you're a bit worried about the idea of upgrading to a Beta version with no way back to the old version then I would suggest waiting until the official version is released, which will probably be in the next couple of weeks.

The BBC, no obvious friend of HS2, say on their web site " Sir David questioned plans to link HS2 to the HS1 Channel Tunnel high-speed rail link at St Pancras. He said: "The current proposed HS1-HS2 link is, I believe, sub-optimal and should be reconsidered." "It has functional limitations. Let's scrap this, it's a £700m saving." There should be a study to look at other methods of linking HS1 and HS2, he said, ranging from a whole interchange at Euston and St Pancras through to "a more ambitious high-speed link". To me this says that the current plans for Euston and the HS1-HS2 link are not worth implementing as they stand, and should be redesigned, not that there shouldn't be a link.

So, did your source say where that left the release of the 611 and the 505/511 upgrade - full steam ahead, or on the back burner pending agreement of sale terms?

David, With the information coming from a "reputable" retailer, you had no reason to doubt it and passed it on in good faith, and that was good enough for me. However as Peco have now said that IL-1 remains in production, I wonder what made Hattons think that it was being discontinued?

As I hadn't got a 2013 or 2014 Peco catalogue I looked on their web site where they list it under N Gauge - Narrow Gauge.

Just realised the solution. Peco N gauge track SL200 uses Code 60 rail. So we can still get Code 60 rail but have to buy the SL200 yard lengths and discard the sleepering. However that still leaves the question of the insulators if you don't want to use the Scalefour ones.

That's definitely going to be a bit of a problem. More so if they stop the insulators as well.

I won't be surprised if we hear before long that HS2 has been cancelled, or at any rate put on hold, because the money is needed for improving flood defences and flood relief schemes.

Whoever it is they would be mad not to unless the 611 is a turkey. The development work is already done on the board and firmware and ZTC is probably not worth buying if the purpose is to continue with its current range. But that makes any decision to sell look unusual, why quit now when the good times might be just around the corner, unless the prospective purchaser has made an offer that can't be refused financially.

I wonder if "it" begins with "B"?

I was listening to the former Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, talking about Niccolo Machiavelli's book "The Prince", which was intended when it was written five hundred years ago to be a primer on how to be an absolute monarch. It is generally thought to be the first book on political theory and applies to modern day politics. One of the principles that it sets out is that to make the changes you want to your kingdom, or your society, you have to be in power, and that therefore you should say, and do, whatever it takes to get that power even if after you get that power it means going back on what you may have said previously. As the election starts to loom even larger on the political horizon, you can bet that the politicos of all parties are working out how to be all things to all people in an effort to get elected, and that will include infrastructure projects like HS2. So don't take anything, for or against HS2, for granted.

Mike, You may not have noticed but Nottingham, Leicester and Rugby were on the line, or perhaps they don't count a major connurbations in your view. You've also ignoring the excavations for Nottingham Victoria station and the tunnelling works north and south of Nottingham Victoria, the bridges over the Midland Railway station in Nottingham, the bridge over the Trent in Nottingham. Bridging over the Midland Railway main line again at Loughborough, and over the LNWR main line at Rugby. All these crossings had to be done over rival companies lines with no disruption. You also forgot the viaduct at Swithland. It was built with no level crossings so there were substantial numbers of accommodation bridges all requiring embankments. They also had to build the freight handling facilities, and connections to other companies lines. The stretch through London isn't that different, Marylebone to Canfield Place in tunnel admittedly not deep tunnel, but they did have Lords Cricket Ground to contend with. Another bridge over the LNWR at South Hampstead. The dedicated tracks built from Canfield place by the Metropolitan had the skew bridge over the Edgware road at Kilburn, and yet another crossing over the LNWR south of Kenton. They didn't have modern construction equipment, and did it all using private capital. If you're going to make comparisons at least get your facts right.

We do have a precedent for the timeline of building a double track to main line standards through the Vale of Aylesbury to the Midlands - the GCR London Extension - Parliamentary approval 1893, building started 1895, opened for coal traffic in 1898 and for passenger and freight traffic in 1899. Admittedly the Metropolitan built the Harrow to Quainton Road stretch, but they didn't take 9 years construction time to do it. So you are absolutely right, they did build it quicker, and they didn't have the advantage of being able to use part of pre-existing trackbeds.

Bet the local paper won't print it at all, leaving the untruth unchallenged and uncorrected in people's minds and becoming accepted as true. The paper could even turn it into a good news story if it wanted by saying something like: "The construction plan for HS2 in the Aylesbury area has now been published and shows that it will only take three years, not the ten years as previously reported in the media." But it won't.

As has been pointed out above, moving muck/spoil/excavated material from tunnels and cuttings to form embankments is very expensive. Therefore, every engineering project, road or rail, has at its heart a "mass-haul diagram" which seeks to minimise the cost of hauling around excavated material and at the same time minimising the gradients of the road or line. Thus the diagram will have an effect on the height of embankments and depth of cuttings. The wish to make the line as unobtrusive as possible may well skew that calculation by forcing a greater use of tunnels and cuttings and lower the height of embankments and bridges. The net effect therefore may well be that excess spoil will be produced. However, that still doesn't mean 9 years of disruption. Newspapers never let the truth get in the way of a "good" bad new story. I do find it ironic to hear people living on the proposed route complaining that they will not be able to use roads or rails at will during the HS2 construction programme. They are neglecting the disturbance suffered by the people alive when those same roads and lines were being constructed 25, 50, or 100 years ago for their convenience today. Don't we owe it to future generations that we suffer some disturbance in our lives for their benefit?

I've just come across the ECoS Cab app for Windows Smartphones http://ecoscab.at.ua/. It looks similar to TouchCab, but uses a Windows phone as opposed to an iPhone. Apologies if this has been raised before but a search of the forum didn't find it, so I'm assuming it hasn't. Has anyone tried this app? If so, what did you think of it?

A DCC controller is a totally different animal to a vintage DC controller like a Safety Minor.

Sounds like dirt or damp in the throttle control. Did you try recalibrating the throttle? If the upgrade uses the existing throttle, brake and reverser units from the unit being upgraded it might not cure your problem. If I were you, I'd check on this with ZTC before buying the upgrade.

Someone somwhere should have prepared a detailed specification for the new 611 and its firmware. This is even more essential if the development work, including writing the new completely new firmware, is being done outside of the ZTC company itself. The programmer will work to the specification. If it's not in the spec then it won't happen, unless the programmer uses his initiative or experience, not always desirable as you can end up with the program doing something that you don't want. He who pays the piper calls the tune, but that doesn't have to be Neil if he has someone knowledgeable doing all this backroom stuff for him. But if I were funding it through the company that I owned then I'd want to make damned sure that I knew exactly what was going on as it would be my money that was being spent. I hope the 611 is successful, but I shan't be selling my ECoS to buy one - once bitten twice shy.

I'm sure that the old ZTC user forum was free as I don't remember having to paying to use it when I had my 505. In theory dedicated user forums should be better than RM Web, sorry to have to say that and no criticism of RM web or its members intended. But on open forums you do find at times misinformation about products being posted by people who don't use them. I have to admit that I've done that myself in the past, and hopefully have learned my lesson.. Such postings are not intentionally wrong or malicious, just based on incorrect assumptions or misreading of manuals. If access is restricted to actual current users of the product then you ought to get better informed answers. Famous last words, watch me crash and burn. Yes only one programmer if the program is not modular. But you need many testers as no programmer is going to spot every error or problem, or there'd be no need for Beta testing.

You've raised some very good points, Colin. I think someone has already commented earlier in this thread that the innards and firmware program are new, just the casing, controls and display remain unchanged.

The omission of Railcom is surprising given that some of the decoders from the 255 and 4007 onwards are Railcom (ZTC Talkback) capable.

Was he offering a free upgrade to a 611 for any 511s purchased at the show, or selling the 511s at a discount? That would seem to me to be the only way to move 511s with the 611 on the way. You'd have to be mad to spend GBP400 now on a 511 only to have to lay out another GBP200 to upgrade it to a 611 in a few months time. I see from the web site that fixing the directional lighting "bug" and the startup voltage stability issue are now being publicised as new features. It is unclear from the web site whether the prices of the 511 and 611 at GBP399 and EDIT [GBP499 sorry should have read GBP449 apopogies to all], respectively include a PSU, with a mail order price of GBP49. This is a significant extra cost to get either model up and running if the PSU isn't included in the price. Despite my comments, I do wish Neil well, but I think he has a very big credibility mountain to climb, and the 611 will have to be near perfect on release if he's to succeed with it.