DY444

4 hours ago, ErickMoran said:

I'm sure this has been asked before, but I couldn't find it. Essentially, I'd like to use a few extra decoders to power coach lighting that I can turn on and off. I want to use SMD strip LEDs and accompanying resistors because the decoder function outputs are 100mA. How many LEDs can I connect to a single decoder function output? Also, can someone recommend a good place to get LED strips at a reasonable price?

I buy mine from Amazon in 5m reels.

The last reel I bought was 5m long and the leaflet it came with says it has 60 leds per metre (so 300 leds) and a power consumption for the reel of 18W.  18W at 12V is 1.5A so each led will presumably therefore be 1.5A/300 = 5mA.  No idea if any reel from anywhere will be the same though.

I use them for lighting buildings and under station canopies etc and they are far too bright at 12V.  They start to light at around 8-ish volts and I use a 9V supply to power mine.

4 minutes ago, Southernman46 said:

and referring this back to the original thread subject - the vast majority of the issues with the Hastings DEMU's in the later decade or so of their lives were to do with underframe corrosion

No doubt made worse by them being based at St. Leonards

4 hours ago, Steven B said:

There are plenty of stations that aren't staffed which manage quite well without passengers getting mugged every day. A report on Radio Four said that some of the ticket offices that are closing only see one or two sales a day - surely it makes sense to close these. The same report suggested that current ticket-office staff would simply be redeployed on platforms and concourses to help passengers use the machine - and yet the link to Northern's implementation of the scheme suggests that staff and hours will be cut.

 

A wider problem is it's another step towards a cashless society. Fine for 90% of the population but potentially life changing for the remainder. Do we really want to get to the state only buy a train/bus/parking ticket if you've got the right smart-phone with the right app? Fine for those that can manage the technology but what about the significant proportion who struggle with smart phone or can't use the automatic ticket machines because of dyslexia or similar problems?

 

 

Steven B.

Quite.  The ticket office at my local station was closed in 1986 as were many others around here.  It doesn't seem to have caused much grief even before the days of online buying.  I now order my tickets online and collect them from the ticket machine.   When I went to a larger station with a ticket office to renew my old git rail card (which I could quite easily have done on line but I was passing), the ticket clerk was telling me they sold substantially fewer tickets than they once did.  For all the protestations, at many stations the ticket clerk does a fraction of what they did back in the day.

On 30/06/2023 at 13:11, big jim said:

 

we dont need HS2

 

 

 

 

 

(looks at traffic on motorway in backgorund)

The traffic will be because the railway is on strike.  I'll get me coat.

45 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

The 33 hauled trains to East Grinstead and Uckfield were just that, hauled. I think there was one T&T move, the first ECS of the evening from New Cross Gate sidings.

There was one T&T in each peak.  The last New Cross Gate empties in the morning and, as you say, the first empties in the evening. 

8 hours ago, EddieK said:

Les Ross was the voice on the radio during my years of further education in the West Midlands between 1983 and 1986. Apparently, he always wanted his name on a locomotive, but ruled out that this would ever happen, so on his BRMB Radio breakfast shows he used to refer to the "Les Ross Bus Shelter" that was near the studios.

When I met Les at some sort of event at Crewe Heritage Centre, I reminded him about the eponymous bus shelter, and he seemed rather impressed at my memory.

Mine was the late 70s.  He had a very quirky and self-deprecating sense of humour which greatly appealed to me.

On 21/06/2023 at 16:39, Steamport Southport said:

I had to Google Les Ross as I had no idea who he is apart from the locomotive. Still none the wiser.

The voice of my late teenage year mornings on BRMB radio.  My recollection of him from that time is that he was a sort of West Midlands version of Kenny Everett. 

2 hours ago, DevilsAdvocate said:

Hi Kaput

 

Tried the Hornby 8 pin in a 21 pin adapter and it fried it

Ive burnt 3 decoders in it now, but not trying any more, 1 Hornby 8 pin via the adapter & 2 Bachmann 36-557’s

Thankfully, all 3 were spares so I had no recent outlay for them, although I did originally of course 

 

Your point regarding the excessive solder is one that keeps coming up and is  a good one thanks. 

 

I must admit I’ve never heard of that before, you learn something new every day !

 

Thanks

As others have said almost certainly a short on the PCB.  It won't necessarily be in the area of the socket though - it could be anywhere a component (or wire) is soldered to the PCB. 

I had exactly this on a Bachmann peak years ago with solder shorting out two tracks somewhere on the board.  I sent them an enlarged picture of the offending area of the PCB so they couldn't deny it was the PCB at fault but they refused to accept any liability for the blown decoder.  However the shop where I bought it supplied me with a free replacement which was very good service. 

Talking of which you should take it up with the retailer as the item is clearly faulty and it is their responsibility in such circumstances to sort it out not the manufacturer's (unless you bought it direct from Hornby).  If you paid by credit card then giving them a call might be worthwhile as they are jointly liable with the retailer.

Oh and Hornby's attitude to your problem is exactly what I've come to expect from them so doesn't surprise me at all.

9 minutes ago, John M Upton said:

 

You are indeed right, mind you down here on the Sussex Coast we don't get the 377/6 and 377/7's unless there has been a massive cock up.

Indeed although iirc there was one summer when at least one pair of /6 (/7) had a weekend turn or two between Victoria and Brighton (which I appreciate isn't the Sussex coast in the East/West Coastway sense).

On 21/06/2023 at 00:40, John M Upton said:

Three of the four Southern Class 377 sub classes put to bed for the night down Bognor Regis:

Surely 3 of the 6 Southern 377 subclasses?  377/1, 377/2, 377/3, 377/4, 377/6, 377/7

2 hours ago, SR71 said:

Understand this suggestion but - and I'm avoiding the specific detail to stop thread drift (on rmweb you say!?) - to clarify the reason I've started looking at this is I'm finding regular train set controllers are right on their limit with amps. So then I'm into something more potent which isn't desirable for various reasons, not solely cost.

Well that's up to you but if you don't want to set out the use case then it's difficult to give appropriate advice. 

All I've gleaned is that a cheap controller doesn't have a sufficiently high current rating for whatever it is you want to do and are not prepared to disclose but a controller with a higher current rating "isn't desirable".   Paradox City, Arizona here we come. 😕

.. and if you rectify 12V AC then you'll get about 15V DC.

Just buy a cheap train set controller.

20 hours ago, woodenhead said:

Interesting programme about the 1975 reconstruction of London Bridge, Borough Market and the unified signalling centr.

 

And then 40 years later NR had to do it all over again to create an even more capacity.

 

There was also a fairly substantial rebuild in between when the SE platforms were extended to 12 cars and P7 on the Central side was sacrificed to make room.

On 31/05/2023 at 12:21, Compound2632 said:

But that is to misunderstand the current policy objective with HS2, which is to do it as slowly as possible so as to maximise the cost over-run and disruption to communities, to ensure that no large infrastructure project will be politically viable for the foreseeable future. 

Nah, NR well and truly established the blueprint for that with the GW electrification.  That project had 3 ultimate objectives (electrification to Swansea, Bristol TM and Oxford) and failed to deliver any of them.  As Churchill didn't say "never before has so little been achieved for so long at such great cost".  By comparison HS2 are rank amateurs.

26 minutes ago, St. Simon said:

A signal being a long way out from a Junction is a valid concern, the further the signal is out from the divergence, the larger the opportunity for loss of situational awareness, regardless of the drivers competence, route knowledge or experience.

I don't agree because I see it as no different to say, for example, passing a single yellow in a 3 aspect area and "losing situational awareness" by not braking adequately for the expected red 2000 odd yards ahead and then finding a failed train 100 yards beyond the overlap of that signal.  Nobody would consider blaming the distance between the warning and the hazard in that scenario and so I don't accept it as a justification here.  Unless there is evidence the JI wasn't lit there is, imo, no excuse (and as you will be aware the JI has to be proved lit before the signal will clear). 

Also in a broader context, there should be no excuse for losing situational awareness anyway because not losing it is a fundamental part of the job.

Translation: Urgent Safety Message - Drivers need appropriate route knowledge before driving trains through a given location and to pay attention to signals when they drive through that location.  

When has it ever been anything other than totally understood by everyone that you regulate your speed to that of the divergence irrespective of how far out the signal is?  The only times you don't are if you're not paying proper attention or you don't know the road.  The end.

All this waffle about how far out the signal is etc looks like smoke and mirrors.  It seems to me that the drivers concerned in these incidents didn't know the road properly and shouldn't have been driving over it.  I suspect both being OAO may not be a complete co-incidence.

On 18/05/2023 at 22:40, John M Upton said:

A 1999 episode of The Bill with some night time Class 455 Network South Central action:

 

Not sure where although the Position Four route indicator lighting up as the train comes to a stand is a clue.

 

The train apparently came from Weymouth though, err I think not!

It's Streatham Common

On 19/05/2023 at 10:48, hexagon789 said:

Your understanding is correct, though there were exceptions.

 

There was a Carlisle semi-fast that was a Mk2F working and I think another terminating at Lancaster.

 

Mk2F sets did replace Mk3 sets as required - there's a pic of one on the Royal Scot in around 2000.

 

The WCML services were all supposed to be push-pull, but not infrequent TDM failures meant locos would run-round/shunt release and haul conventionally many times.

A number of exceptions as you say.  I used to work near Euston in 1999/2000 and tended to wander onto the west side of the station at lunchtime.  There was a Liverpool train (1303 I think) which was Mk2s headed by an 86 every time I saw it.

On 18/05/2023 at 19:22, RANGERS said:

The Connect trains were billed as providing vastly increased capacity, which in reality they do actually achieve but only by virtue of them retaining the 3+2 layouts on 8 car sets, not the promised refurbs with Inter-City style interiors and 12 car trains.

Iirc the lack of 12 car trains is down to the RMT.   The 360s operated in 12 car formations on GE with just a driver but (again iirc) on EMT the RMT wanted a guard in each unit.  The joys of the current obsession for long distance units with no end gangways and a union taking the mickey. 

In a more sensible world the 379s would have gone to EMT for the Corbys and perhaps eventually for semi-fasts to Leicester.  The latter when NR finally does what literally every railway company in history would have done and finds a sensible engineering solution to the electrification of the London Road bridge instead of pretending it's impossible.

2 hours ago, St. Simon said:

I was thinking more of the situation such as leaving Paddington (where all lines are bi-directional and all signals are on parallel gantries) on Line 6 and you are routed to Line 3, but as the whole junction has the same speed a speed signalling system will (I assume) show the same indication regardless of what line you are routed on to.

 

In this situation, how does the driver know which line they are routed on to? 

 

There are sort of two answers to that.

The first answer is that some European speed based systems provide route indicators to assist the driver in knowing onto which line the train is being routed.  For example SNCF signals sometimes have horizontal white dots above the main signal where one dot lit means you're taking the left-most route, 2 dots the second from the left etc.   DB signals at diverging junctions sometimes have theatre indicators with a letter that gives route information (not numbers as an illuminated number above a DB signal indicates the permissible speed) .

The second answer, and more relevant to your Paddington example, is that in many countries it doesn't matter which line you're going onto because reading your next signal is not that important until you are quite close to it.  This is because train protection systems like KVB in France and PZB in Germany supervise the train speed and braking curves when approaching a red.  Now this supervision can be relatively crude (especially PZB) compared with systems like ETRMS (or even the German LZB system used on higher speed lines) but nevertheless they make it pretty difficult to approach a red at high speed because you read the wrong signal so there's time for you to get your bearings.  Plus in Germany certainly, there is a tendency to be very generous with the provision of repeaters on the approach to stop signals which can also help.

8 hours ago, Northmoor said:

I don't habitually photograph signals unless using them as a frame or to balance a shot.  This one on the approach to Woking from the Guildford direction, has an unusual three-route "feather":

I'm not sure why you say it is unusual.  It's not as common as single and double feather installations but you'll find plenty of examples of position "124" feathers like this one and its position "145" mirror (as well as the "123" and "456" configuration). 

In fact there is another signal with the identical "124" feather arrangement a few hundred yards away from this one, WK173, on the DS at Woking Jn, and, on the same gantry, DF signal WK375 has feathers "123".

On 09/05/2023 at 18:57, eastglosmog said:

Photos of a two aspect colour light signal on the Midland main line, in the cutting south of Wilnecote, taken during a joint inspection with Network Rail of the cutting slopes in April 2018.

Front view.

 

Side and rear.  Note steel plate on ladder to deter local yobs interfering with the signal.

It has 2 lenses but it is a 4 aspect signal

10 hours ago, Hal Nail said:

Did they work this?

Yes.  Empties between Salisbury and Eastleigh.

I seem to remember the solitary Paddington-Birmingham via High Wycombe was a 50 from time to time and there was a lengthy single line section back then on that route.

Not lengthy and not WR 🥴 but:

Leamington to Kenilworth

Romsey to Eastleigh

15 hours ago, SHMD said:

This is how Stalybridge looked on Friday morning commute into work: -

 

The Unit is in the Bay - Platform 5 - under all this new OHLE stuff.

(I think they must have installed "N" gauge OH wires as I can't see them!

 

Kev.

I've posted before about NR being world class when it comes to wasting money and I'm far from being an electrification expert but ....

... in the middle distance there are two instances of structures across the two left hand lines and separate adjacent structures over the right hand line.  Is it really beyond the wit of man to design it in such a way that the supports for the right hand line are carried by the structures for the two left hand lines and save the cost of erecting 2 wholly separate structures?