mezzoman253

BIG SUNSPOT ALERT: Sunspot AR3529 is still growing, quadrupling in size since Tuesday. This 48-hour movie from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows its rapid development: The animation is here https://www.spaceweather.com/ With two primary dark cores twice the size of Earth, AR3529 is an easy target for solar filtered telescopes. You can even see it through eclipse glasses--no magnification required. Of greater interest is the sunspot's 'delta-class' magnetic field. Within the sunspot + and - magnetic polarities are pressing together. Magnetic re-connection could produce an X-class solar flare. Any eruptions today will be Earth-directed, as the sunspot is almost directly facing Earth.

I couldn't find a Xmas card thread, so have put it here instead. Now moved here https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/183368-christmas-greetings-2023/#comment-5375282 Have a peaceful festive period and a happy and healthy New Year for 2024. Rob

The "resting" went well. 😢

Yes, but that would be too easy.

Hi Simon, Hope the house move goes well and you're back on the air soon. 73 Rob G8HGN

The lift engines were RR RB612's, for more info' see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornier_Do_31 Rob

EWS steel wagons awaiting pick up.

A couple more from Burnt Mills

A few from my layout, the last one may have appeared before in another thread.

A long while since anything done on the layout, although there have been several alterations, but none really successful. The shed that houses the layout will soon have a 6' extension to one end(to the left of the existing layout) and this will allow longer trains to be run, including 3 car and combi DMU's , plus freight and engineering trains. I'm trying to upload the original pictures, however I renamed many and it's difficult to find the exact picture to replace the original. Those that are obvious will be replaced in time. I'll probably start another topic when things get moving again with some of the old pic's and then the new build. Burnt Mills Mk2, if you will. Rob

The MPC5/0 doesn't feature on their product pages. https://allcomponentsltd.co.uk/collections/on-track-power-controlllers-transformers

Hi, Their website has a page for contact, maybe you could ask them what the components are? https://allcomponentsltd.co.uk/pages/contact-us

Does anyone actually buy this type of stuff?

I would think it one of the hardwoods.

If the seller has an offer button on the listing I'll try a bid at what I'd like to get it for. A bit lower than the price shown, but not insultingly low. Mostly the seller will come back with a counter offer that's acceptable to us both and we make a deal. I've not had any adverse or rude comments though. I get it at under the price advertised and the seller, presmably, is happy too. Of course this doesn't work every time but mostly it does. What does amaze me is that sometimes a brand new item will sell for well over the price you could buy one new from a retailer for. Bidding fever or just plain bonkers.🙄

Hi, The controller feeds DCC power plus the DCC signals, to the track, to power the loco decoders and also accessory decoders(if you decide to use them). Some types of accessory decoder are available to power and switch points. However that is not the only way to switch points, and it can become expensive. An alternative is to run the point motors from a separate supply. Sometimes this is desirable as too many accessory decoders can take power from the controller leaving not enough for the loco's to be controlled. From your pictures you appear to have set the points up as "DCC friendly" which will aid smoother running. That's good. One wire, red or black in your case needs to go to the outer rail and the other of the two goes to the other outer rail. Feed them at the toe end of the point(Narrow end). The frog (green wire) needs to change polarity dependent on which way the point is set, you need a switch to do that. This is usually attached to the point motor and as the point motor throws, the switch changes the polarity of the frog over. That covers the track feed and polarity switching, but you also need to power the point motor, and, a separate switch to throw the point motor(PL26B), which in turn moves the switch attached to the point motor to change polarity over. You seem to have all the components to achieve this, except for a PSU for the points power. Hopefully that helps a bit, but I second the recommendation of studying Brian Lamberts' webpages site, as mentioned in the previous post. The diagrams and pictures there are very helpful. It took me a while to get my head around it when I first started in DCC, but take your time and you'll get there. Good luck, Rob

I can't see how dropping a loco would alter the CV's in the chip. It's more likely to be something touching where it shouldn't. It could be the decoder/decoder socket interface having been misaligned due to the drop. However turning DC off when running a DCC loco' is prudent, as all manner of strange things can, and do, happen.

Not sure what to make of this. The items seems to be exactly the same from 2 "different" sellers,. The format of the sellers ID, location, and the timing seems to indicate they are the same item. He has bids on both, which will be awkward for one winner. Maybe there's another explanation? Edit: Just noticed they may be different itemsas the upper picture shows some yellow in the upper RH corner. But everything else stands.

Just an update to conclude this topic. The item never turned up (still showing as not dispatched). Went through the eBay process and received a refund OK. So nothing lost. Hope the seller is OK and will be back soon. Rob

Sad to report, Chelsea have announced on their Twitter account that former player and manager John Hollins has died.

The original listing had an estimated date of 3-5th June, it's now showing 14-17th and not dispatched. Perhaps because previous sellers have always dispatched before the estimated date, I've not seen those dates change. This was therefore new to me. Rob

It's been the exect opposite here, our postie is brilliant. But Evri/Hermes very poor. It all depends on who comes to the door where you are. Rob

Just completed the "Item not received" request. Thanks for the general advice from everyone. The dates have changed again today and no dispatch mail as yet. I'm curious as to how he can keep changing the date, but doesn't respond to email too. Hopefully all will be revealed and resolved. I'll update as and when. Rob

Thanks for the advice, I'll do that tomorrow as I've now had another change of due date, see pic'. I'm fairly sure this is some kind of personal problem/family problem, as the seller had many transactions all 100% feedback. But you never know. I've only had one bad experience before on eBay, and I left it too late then, so will act now.

Now I have another change of due date to 14th to 16th June and still not dispatched. See screengrabs. Original listing 1st Change of Due date 2nd change of due date