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I'd agree with the 170, I also have the 221 version and will probably install my own LEDs into my 220. I'm hoping the 66 kit is similar to the 170 which means the board will be a simple slot in affair. I think I'll order one and have a look. Cheers

Hi, I'm looking at using an Express Models Kit to improve the lighting in my Bachmann 66/4. My question is firstly, is Express Models still trading? I've used the contact link but had no response. Secondly, is the kit easy to fit? I'd usually make up a replacement lighting assembly myself but if this is a replacement board that just slots in where the existing LED board is then I'll take it! Cheers

I use mine with just water. The only modelling related use it's had is cleaning the weights from a Ringfield 56 which were soaked in oil and grime, they came up a treat. They did take 5 minutes or so though. It also works wonders on my glasses, cleaning bits that are difficult to get to. Maybe it's worth giving it a go with just water. Cheers

Creating a Class 159 in South Western Railway Livery - I had some help with the painting! Introduction I was in conversation with Andrew of Cairns Road Works regarding some First Great Western repaints and got talking about an SWR repaint. So I decided to jump onto eBay and find a used 3-car 158 and set to work. There are no transfers available for the SWR livery at the moment so Andrew got in contact with Railtec and got an agreement in place. Living at the right end of the country meant I was to provide some detailed photographs. I am also going to upgrade the lighting on the 158 to include prototypical LED marker/tail lights, saloon lighting & bodyside indicators - I'm also planning on adding some roofing detail where I can to better reflect the current prototype. Most of the information here will be about the lighting and detailing as this is the part of the project I am completing - I want to make it nice and clear that the credit for the painting doesn't rest with me! Research The research from my end consisted of hopping on a train to Salisbury and hoping to find a unit in the correct livery, as it happened, there was one on depot and one stabled in the station so I spent some time taking some photos before getting some lunch and heading home again. Easier than I had expected. The photos can be found at: https://fredboniface.co.uk/railphoto Lighting After disassembling the bodies and removing the original lighting boards I found that the holes in the cab end were 2mm holes - perfect for some 2mm tower LEDs. I've sourced my LEDs from DCC Concepts - I have tried cheaper LEDs but none of the Bi-Colour LEDs are of the correct polarity and none of the 'headlight' LEDs are of the right tone. I am going to fit a headlight on each side of the cab so I can use a night running headlight or if the prototype ever gets fitted with the new type of 'dual' headlights I can easily model it! For the bodyside indicator 'hazard' lights, I am planning to use DCC Concepts Micro LEDs stuck to the body with the wired fed through a 0.5mm hole drilled through the body. The internal lighting will either be formed of 12v LED strips or individual small LEDs mounted on the roof. This is one of the early versions of the Bachmann 158, the front cab piece is molded in clear plastic and painted rather than glazed, this means that I needed to paint the inside and the inner surface of the LED holes to prevent the entire front of the train glowing as it does in the original model. The LED's are held in using a replacement lighting board made with Veroboard, I will attach a 4 pin & a 2 pin (I don't have a 5 pin) micro-socket to the board to facilitate easy removal of the body in the future, I bought my micro JST connectors from RailwayScenics for £0.65 each. The board doesn't protrude outside the bodyshell as much as the photo suggests so a quick trim should keep it inside. I will use a short jumper wire to join both common tracks together and then use the top strip to connect the marker light tracks together. I've used the space available towards the bottom of the board to fit resistors for the tail lights. I have only fitted 10K resistors so this will need testing before I make the board for the other end to save switching too many components around. Due to the improvements, the new board is quite a bit bigger than the previous board which means I will need to carefully construct a cab interior around the board. The board is also a little bit thicker than the previous which will mean the glazing unit behind the cab will need some minor adjustment to fit back in place. I wired up the lights for a quick test using 1K resistors for the marker & headlights. I have dimmed the marker lights and the tail lights through the decoder. I am happy with the tail lights, but, not the marker lights. I will swap out the resistors on the marker lights for something a bit more resistive. Marker Lights, Tail Lights, Day running, Night running. (Click on any of the photos for a larger view). I now need to make up a lighting board for the other end before moving on to the next stage. Next, Part 2: Disassembly & Interior Detailing

Using a Hornby Class 66 Motor bogie to re-motor a Hornby Ringfield Class 56 - and exploring the concept for future upgrades. About The motor in my Lima Class 60 has seized and is in need of replacement, I have seen all of the topics about using CD/DVD Drive motors but I'd rather have a motor rated for 12v. Although, if the need ever arises to re-motor some of my other stock I may have to look further into this. I decided however to complete my Hornby 56 first as I have just added lighting to this model and would like to get it 'finished' before moving on to something else. I started comparing bogies with some of my other stock with motor bogies available and noticed that it is close enough to my Hornby Class 59. While not an amazing motor, my Hornby 59 does run fairly smoothly at low speeds, something that cannot be said of Lima or Ringfield motors nowadays - even with a quality decoder. I managed to source a Hornby Class 66 on eBay, I bought a 'non-runner' (which incidentally runs just fine, I suppose it was tested on DC as the decoder was set to only work on DCC). The Hornby 66 cost me just £38 and although the body is not in a usable state, it did include a Zimo MX645 sound decoder with YouChoos Class 66 Sound. Construction To be honest, construction was much simpler that I had thought it would be, mostly because I had a donor chassis so I didn't have to build anything. The Class 66 power bogie is held in with a clip on the top of the motor, both the Class 56 and 60 power bogies are held in place with a clip at the front and back of the bogie. I will need to look into building a fixing into the Hornby body. Possibly by cutting out the 66 motor fixing and building this into the model. I will also need to dismantle the bogies so that I can fit the correct side frames to the new bogies. This is the Class 66 Motor Bogie once removed from the old chassis, I have de-soldered the noise suppression capacitor. Because I managed to find a donor loco for the motor bogie, it means I can cut the donor chassis down and retain the same motor mount. When I get around to doing my Class 60, I'm not sure I'll have that luck so it will be more work. Photos top left: The motor bogie with the mount and the original side frame. Photos top right: The motor bogie sitting in the 56 chassis, I needed to open up the hole on both ends for it to fit. Photo bottom: All put together, I secured the motor mount to the chassis using liquid poly, liquid poly did not work when attaching the side frames. Now I need to get the side frames attached with Araldite, the photo does exaggerate the offset between axle-boxes & axles. And then all that's left to do is fit a sound decoder. Conclusion Cheaper than a new version of the 56 and it means I don't have to re-weather. It also means that if I want to change the speaker for a larger & better version, I have plenty of space and more options to choose from! If I was looking to buy a new Class 56, based on the current prices, I would buy a newer Hornby version. But I'd rather do this work on an existing model than sell it and replace it. I was going to post a video here to show off the lighting effects working with the sound, however, the Legomanbiffo sound project is on a LokSound 5. There is no definition for this decoder in DecoderPro yet so I can't remap the functions as I don't have a LokProgrammer. This means the lighting is all over the place - but, when I have remapped these functions, I will post a video in the comments. For now: The cab lights which are now working off of the LokSound, the rest of the functions are working off of a LokPilot FX which you can read about in my previous blog post. Up next will either be sound fitting a Bachmann 170 using conductive couplings or a lighting upgrade on a Bachmann 158 soon to be repainted 159. We'll see which gets done first! Cheers

To be honest, the coupling distance would probably be perfect if I was to remove the plastic gangways and replace them with something more flexible. Cheers

Hello I am looking to use conductive couplings on some Bachmann multiple units, currently a 3-car 158 & 170. I have bought some Roco and some Veissmann conductive couplings but have found that they are a little too short to provide any clearence between the corridor ends. My question is; it is possible to replace the NEM pocket module (the fishtail type fitting) with another that sticks out a bit more? Cheers

Hi all, The Roco couplings have also arrived and are also too short to couple my 170. I will now need to look at ways to extend it. I have two pairs of each Veissmann and Roco couplings and I have a 3-Car 158 & 3-Car 170 to (Re-)DCC Fit so I will give both of them a go. Cheers

I have managed to source some Veissmann conductive couplings. Without moving the NEM pocket, they are too short for the Bachmann 170. I have not yet tried them on any other MU's but I'd imaging it would be similar. I have also ordered some Roco couplings, when these arrive, I'll give them a go and decide whether I need to modify any coupling mounts. As a side note: The Veissmann couplings need pushing from underneath to uncouple, it does feel a bit tight so I'm not sure if an uncoupling ramp would me up to it. When I tried to uncouple two vehicles the coupling came out of the NEM pocket before they separated! Cheers

@Vecchio Thanks, certainly something to think about, I'm sure 6 poles could come in useful somewhere and I see each pin takes 1.2A so enough to supply a whole train of lighting or a fairly large motor by OO/HO standards! Cheers

Thanks RexAshton, I do use mini-sockets in some installations, I find that in some cases they are difficult to hide. I use 4-pole plugs which cost £0.65 each from Railway Scenics.. Cheers

The Heljan couplings look very similar to the Veissmann pair, they're 'temporarily out of stock' at the moment so I will keep an eye on them. Andymsa - I intend to use them in multiple units to improve pick-up and to have a speaker in each vehicle, it will be particularly important to make sure I wire them correctly or I will have a blown speaker and decoder! Cheers

ColinK - I have seen them online before, they have been around for many years but I haven't seen them used anywhere, and they are a little expensive at £15-£20 per pair but for some models it is much easier to use these rather than miniature plugs between vehicles. If there aren't many people with experience with them, I might just buy some of each and do a brief write up of them on my blog. Cheers

Hello, I'm looking at installing conductive couplings on a 158 before maybe expanding them to other units. Currently I am looking at using a 4-pole coupling so I can wire up track power and speaker wires, using a separate decoder for other functions in a trailing vehicle, my standard DCC installs use 10 functions anyway. I have come across the Roco 40345 Electric Coupling and the Veissmann 5071 Conducting Coupler. Has anyone had any experience with these that they could share? Does anyone have an idea of the current rating for the Roco coupling? Does anyone have any other recommendations for a conductive couplings with at least 4 poles, more could be useful? Thanks in advanced for imparting your wisdom.

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I've been in conversation with Andi of Carins Road Works and I've been on eBay and decided on a different project for now that will be appearing from him at some point. I will get onto the FGW units at some point, though due to the complexities there are people who aren't able to take it on because they feel it wouldn't do justice to the prototype livery. Thanks again

After watching numerous videos and looking at mapping I have concluded that this is a YouChoos project. Now to decide, reblow or not! Cheers

Thanks, I found them and have emaoled, but might have a search on Facebook as I haven't had a reply. Cheers

Looking at the start up sequence on the Digitrains website I can tell it isn't that one unless they offered an older project in the past. Thanks

I've been in contact with YouChoos, Coastal & Digitrains. YouChoos have said if I send a recording they can tell me if it's their's. I'm still waiting for a reply from the others. Out of interest, does a LokSound have any 'Project ID' CVs to easily identify a project? Thanks Edit: Thanks Paul, I was looking for that on the DigiTrains website but couldn't find it! I would like to think no commercial provider would offer a conversion quite like this! The speaker opening is gunged up with double sided tape.

Here it is: The body has had some slightly non-prototypical lighting fitted, however all I was after was the motor bogie and the sound chip. Though after seeing it I have decided that I quite like the livery but there is no hope of recovering this body. I did manage to buy it for £38 though so I am still pleased - the motor itself costs £16 and I need a couple for another project. The sound chip has been identified as a Zimo MX645. The sound project definitely sound like a class 66, I've not used Zimo chips before so I'm sure there'll be another thread popping up about remapping sounds! Anyway, now the decoder itself has been identified, are there any ways to identify the project? Cheers

Lee's Locos are unable to take this on. Does anyone have any other recommendations for this? Cheers

Rainbow Railways no longer offer custom resprays. Cheers

Thanks I’ve contacted them both Cheers

Hello, I have a 153, a 150 and two 158s with Electra Railway Graphics vinyls in FGW livery. The vinyls are looking a little worse for wear - the vinyls are starting to peel in places. Can anyone reccomemd somewhere I can get the models resprayed to a high quality for a reasonable price? To be honest, I’m not completely sure what a reasonable price is for a respray so if anyone can guide me on this too it would be great. Cheers

I’ve put internal lighting in one of mine using 12v LED strips. I have two more and this time I’m planning on using warm white LEDs. I don’t have any photos I’m afraid and I can’t help with a source of transfers. Cheers