amdaley

Due to arrive in the next day or two according to Rails. 

On 21/10/2021 at 15:12, amdaley said:

Unfortunately my replacement railcar from Hattons never arrived.

Hattons no longer have my model in stock so I'm now going through the refund process.

Pity as I already have a Sound decoder waiting here for it 

Once I get my refund I may be able to get one elsewhere.

Update on this saga.

It arrived eventually with the outer packaging battered & bruised.

Fortunately the model was ok in its box.

Only took a month to arrive 

Fitted a sound decoder from Roads & Rails.

Excellent runner & very smooth.

Its all to much for Charlie 

Rails say they hope to have the model in stock by the end of the month so any Rails official photos will have to wait until then.

1 minute ago, JohnR said:

People seem so keen to rush to judgement based on a single photograph is all I'm saying. 

Time will tell? 

Rails were going to put up some offical photos of the model but their version of Photoshop is out of date. 

I contacted Rails about the questionable details which showed up in the photos & below is the reply I received.

"Thank you for your email, this is only snap shots from the youtube video and not actual footage. We are hoping to release some images ourselves fairly soon.

You are welcome to cancel the preorder but as stated on the website in the terms and conditions deposits are non refundable, please let me know if you wish to go ahead with the cancellation?"

I will wait until I see the Rails photos before deciding whether to cancel or not.

If having seen Rails photos I am still unhappy then I will cancel.

Yes I will lose the £30 deposit but that is down to me for having trusted Rails / Bachmann to get the model right. If I do have to cancel be assured it will be the last time I will be pre ordering anything from them.

On a side note & to illustrate what can be done I recently purchased one of these A/001 Class  Diesel Electric locomotives from Irish Railway Models https://irishrailwaymodels.com/collections/a-class-locomotive

The level of detail & features would put other manufacturers to shame. Below I list some of the features & details.

Common Features:

Highly detailed OO scale model

Heavy Die-Cast metal chassis

Separately applied steel detail parts, including grab handles, steps, wipers and more

Correct height mini-tension-lock couplers with NEM socket

Five-Pole motor with two flywheels

Metal Helical Gear box for maximum performance and slow speed running

Gearing arranged so locomotive can achieve a scale top speed of 130 km/h

DCC ready with PowerPack capacitor for uninterrupted power

Two quality speakers with large sound capsules for best possible sound

Fully detailed Lighting Pack, including:

Directional lighting, DC and DCC

Marker lights can be turned off when train is coupled to loco

high beam headlight function

separately switched cab lighting and illuminated, details driver’s console

Engine bay lighting

RP25-110  OO wheels with provision for re-gauging to 21mm gauge

Rotating axlebox hubs (with alternate axlebox covers for earlier versions)

Fully sprung metal buffers

Extra fine factory-fitted pipework

Extra fine factory-fitted plastic and etched steel detail parts

Minimum Radius 438mm (2nd Radius Set-track)

Length over Buffers 203mm.

That was all achieved for a cost of approx £160 / €189 which shows what can be done if the will is there.

To say that the model ran like a swiss watch out of the box would be an insult to the model which I'm sure that anyone on here who has bought one will attest to.

This is the level which must be achieved if people are expected to shell out £200 with non refundable deposits.

I have no connection with this company other than a very satisfied customer.

On 08/09/2021 at 14:15, Oliver Rails said:

Update from Bachmann:

 

We are pleased to report that production is complete on all our exclusive models of the Caledonian 812, LNWR Precedents and LNER V2s.

 

Due to the current shipping / container issues happening in China they are simply waiting for a container for all three models to shipped to the UK. A container is booked towards the end of the month. This means that if all goes to plan we are likely to see the models arrive with us towards the end of November.

 

Further updates will follow once shipped and we should be able to share the ship tracking information so all can see the current location of the models.

 

Order books are almost full so pre-ordering is highly recommended. A big thank you to everyone who has ordered so far.

 

Oliver

 

 

I've just seen close up photographs of the Bachmann Caledonian 812 which you are bringing out.

What happened with the tender top which is far too thick & bears no resemblance to the prototype ?

As for the cab handrails, they look like scaffold poles ?

Someone obviously wasn't paying attention.

Very disappointing, so much so that I will be cancelling my pre order.

1 hour ago, Wheatley said:

If I'd ordered a black it would be getting cancelled too but Mrs Wheatley wanted a blue one to sit in a case because 'it's pretty' and she won't notice the tender top or the Stillbrew cab sides. Also I thought I really ought to do my bit for Scottish RTR. Won't make that mistake again, not by pre-ordering anyway. 

 

My existing Caley Coaches one and the as yet half-started Caley/Sparkshot hybrid one will do for my layout needs.  

I'd say you won't be alone 

17 minutes ago, Mad McCann said:

While the loco looks ok, that tender coping is a bit 'wtf?'

 

We've waited nearly four years for this...

 

Davy.

It's a very elimentary mistake for the price being charged. 

Whatever about the cab thickness that tender top edge is a disappointment.

It might be possible to relieve that sharp tender top inside edge if only to get rid of that square look.

This shows one of the problems of pre ordering models especially if you have to pay a non refundable deposit.

Pre ordering is often made on the basis of a few photographs.

Tony.

Unfortunately my replacement railcar from Hattons never arrived.

Hattons no longer have my model in stock so I'm now going through the refund process.

Pity as I already have a Sound decoder waiting here for it 

Once I get my refund I may be able to get one elsewhere.

I have now sourced a supply of these.

Thank you.

Tony.

Anyone help on this please ?

Hello Everyone.

The reason I'm restricting this request to modellers in Ireland is because of the present postal difficulties between the UK & Ireland. I've got several packages stuck somewhere in the postal system.

I'm looking for NCE Mini Panels & a quantity of SPDT Momentary Toggle Switches.

If any modeller on here living in Ireland has any of the above that they wish to move on then please let me know.

Thank you.

Regards.

Tony.

I'm still waiting for my replacement Railcar from Hattons but in fairness to Hattons its not their fault as they sent it last Friday.

The problem is the crap postal service An Post that we have in this country.

They're having problems with Customs declarations sent by postal services outside of Ireland.

Instead of contacting the sellers or recipients as per the rules that are simply sending the mail back to where it came from  

All I'm getting for a couple of registered signed for packages from the UK on the An Post site is

" 22 September 2021 17:09

We have your post in DUBLIN MAIL CENTRE, DUBLIN 12"

They've had it since last week with the same message repeated every day.

If they have it why don't they deliver it to me 

On 11/09/2021 at 00:11, Ron Ron Ron said:

I don't know if this one would be practical or not....

If there is difficulty in incorporating the panel LEDs  into the MiniPanel switching, why not have the LEDs independent of the switching, driven by a separate Alpha Mimic** module, with no connection to the switches or MiniPanel ?

If the Alpha Mimic is installed under or in the panel, then the only wires that need to connect this with the rest of the layout, are a pair of wires from the nearest place on the track power bus.

This would also eliminate the problem of disparity, or false indications given by the panel LED's if points or routes are switched from the handset.

 

 

Any thoughts on this, or is it a non-starter?

 

p.s. ** Alpha Mimic simply eavesdrops on point switching commands being sent out on the track or accessory bus(es) and uses that information to illuminate the appropriate LEDs on a mimic panel.. It doesn't matter where the points are controlled from, from a control panel, DCC handset, computer control program or any other form of switching. If it's by DCC, it's all the same to the Alpha Mimic. 

 

 

 

 

 

.

I heard back from DCCconcepts & the Mimic panel will do what I need so the required hardware is on its way. 

I need to sort out the Mini Panels first. 

I've started on installing the SPDT momentary switches on my diagram panel. 

50 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

IS Fudge related to Grumpy Cat? 

There something about that face that seems reminiscent of a bulldog.

He's always looked like that. 

Ten years old now is Fudge. 

On 11/09/2021 at 22:35, DCCconcepts said:

 

As Ron says, Alpha Mimic reads the same commands sent to the accessories.

It is a 12-channel decoder driving LEDs.

 

You might also want to look at Alpha Encoder. It uses normal switches and encodes them into digital signals for the DCC system.

It is a direct plug-in to the NCE cab bus via a RJ12 cable.

Whilst it doesn't yet do route setting, it is a very simple method of making a control panel diagram with switches on a track layout and add Alpha Mimic to repeat the point positions.

Drop us an email or give us a call next week.

 

Best Regards.

The DCCconcepts Team

Thank you.

I sent an email on Sunday so just waiting for a reply before proceeding.

Tony.

30 minutes ago, jonnyuk said:

my was damaged decoder end as well. before purchase i did ask for more detailed pictures and also a test run which Hattons did for me, thats great custome service. to secure the purchase i used the trunk service (i asked before i purchased if i can cancel trunk items and they said yes).

if it was a new purchase i would send it back, it was only because it was bought with a known issue that took it to bits and do a repair.

I just wonder if the weight of the electronics at that end is too much for the bogie connection. 

Hopefully it's just bad luck & my replacement will be fine. 

After the Bayer Garratt disaster I am suspicious of anything Heljan

1 hour ago, Nigelcliffe said:

Low Cost methods: 

 

1)  Displaying LEDs  using a DCC accessory decoder which is set to the same addresses as the turnout devices.   There are numerous Arduino projects on the internet to do this.   Cheapest options will be to use either a couple of Nano's or a Mega (one) to get the required number of LEDs controlled.      

 

2) More Arduino.  There is an Arduino library for the NCE Cab-Bus available.  So, a handful of components to connect the Arduino to the Cab-Bus, and the Arduino can do anything possible on the Cab-Bus.    

 

3)  Use a Raspberry PI and a display screen on the PI to show the track diagram.   There are about 20 input buttons direct to the PI, with options for additional hardware to extend this to a larger number.   Output to a small LCD screen.  

 

 

- Nigel

Thanks Nigel.

I'll take a look at Arduino even though I know absolutely nothing about it. 

2 hours ago, DCCconcepts said:

 

As Ron says, Alpha Mimic reads the same commands sent to the accessories.

It is a 12-channel decoder driving LEDs.

 

You might also want to look at Alpha Encoder. It uses normal switches and encodes them into digital signals for the DCC system.

It is a direct plug-in to the NCE cab bus via a RJ12 cable.

Whilst it doesn't yet do route setting, it is a very simple method of making a control panel diagram with switches on a track layout and add Alpha Mimic to repeat the point positions.

Drop us an email or give us a call next week.

 

Best Regards.

The DCCconcepts Team

Thank you for that.

I'm looking at the DCCconcepts products at the moment but I've also go to keep a grip on costs.

This could get very expensive very quickly.

Regards.

Tony.