davetheroad

I have an island platform with a taper at one end and want to scratch build a platform canopy. The scale is 00 and the platform is 153mm wide tapering to 142mm over 100mm.

How to construct it,  stepped edge on one side or a tapered edge?

The canopy would have been constructed in the Victorian period

Cumberland, 'north west main line', sort of Penrith/Oxenholme ish

The layout is called Penholme, mid 1950's to mid 1960's

45mm spacing looks great on straights & very gentle curves.

50mm spacing is a nice compromise & I can see why Peco have chosen this as their streamline standard. I find it intriguing that when a crossover is fitted with insulated rail joiners, these take it slightly wide of this standard.

67mm may be wide but for sharp curves, it should provide adequate clearance. I notice that Mk1s & pacifics have been mentioned. A Mk3 is much more demanding, both inside & outside.

Worst of all for outside overhang is APT-E, so if you are likely to run one of these...beware. The real one had very limited route availability on BR for this reason.

Those 50mm centres are just nominal, maybe it should be 50.8mm which is what Shinohara use for their fixed radius curves which go in 2 inch increments up to 36 inches. With my code 100 trackwork I put a small length setrack straight between the points. This gives approx. 60mm track centres which suits me fine and I don't even notice it is too wide, after all, the distance between the rails is too small!. I use setrack curves in the fiddle yard.

Adding a setrack ST202 79mm straight takes streamline turnouts to almost setrack distance

Chain? Is 00 scale stuff available!

Thanks for the conformation, the models won't have a working water level indicator though!

I am scratchbuilding a couple of platform water tanks for my 00 scale layout.. i have photos of  a couple of prototypes which show an outside gauge with the indicator at the bottom. Do these gauges measure the water level the 'wrong way'? When the tank is full the indicator is at its lowest postion and when the tank is empty it is empty. One appears to have a pully wheel above the gauge guide.

Hello,

      The 2 wire scenario with dcc can be summed up like this.

One long straight length of track with 2 wires and X number of dcc locomotives all able to run together or alone independently of each other at same time.

One long straight length of track with 2 wires and X number of dc  locomotives NOT all able to run together or alone independently of each other at same time.

Then again one could revert to clockwork

trustytrev.

Or use radio control and onboard battery power with the advantage that you don't need ANY wires!

I am still waiting for the “Concentrator”, promised for 2013. To my mind, having this centralised command system is key to maintaining order with the confines of a U.K. exhibition, otherwise people will be picking up locos on other layouts, and unscrupulous members of the public will be driving locos from the wrong side of the barrier.

 

There is much which is good around the design, and I appreciate what they are trying to do, but I think it a pity that they didn’t concentrate on a reduced number of components, viz:

 

A loco board which combined power management and the reception of commands via WiFi, combining these to produce a DCC signal over two wires , for plugging into a standard DCC module;

A combined base station/transmitter/WiFi hub, or code to run on something simple like a tablet, combined with JMRI, to create a base station. (The concentrator.)

 

This would build on the existing market, and provide a simple conversion route (similar to the Tam Valley DRS) that was more plug and play.

 

Maybe also a really nice controller, a bit like the http://www.protothrottle.com, but in two versions: one for U.K. diesels, and for for steam, with easy to access controls for regulator, reverser, (train) brake and whistle, arranged to make the driving experience more like the real thing, and to dynamically alter some of the CVs to modify the sound profile to further enhance the operation of really well programmed sound modules, such as Paul Chetter’s Designs.

Does Protocab use the 2.4Ghz band? If it does the controller should have a unique identifier code and loco receivers should, once bound to that transmitter, only obey commands from it. That is how my Deltang gear works. Binding a receiver to a transmitter requires physical intervention, in Deltangs case, switching the receiver on, waiting for the LED to flash rapidly, then switching on the transmitter while holding down the bind button. I suppose there are ways of hijacking and mimicking the transmitters identity code but that would have to be a deliberate act involving specialist equipment.

there could be situations in large very busy exhibitions where the 2.4Ghz band was saturated with traffic, especially as smart devices can use the same radio band. Dozens of people streaming video over their phones might do it. That saturation would of course affect all traffic including use of concentrators etc.

Rule of thumb for large very busy exhibitions,

Get there early

Have all your locos bound before you get there

Switch on all your transmitters as soon as you get there so they have all the bandwidth to select their operating frequencies from

Consider using higher power transmitters

Consider using more secure transmission protocols such as DSMX rather than DSM2 (DSM2 devices hop between 2 different frequencies, DSMX hops between many different frequencies.)

I too get wobbly moments, not that RC does not work but that I lack the precision to make a neat installation. The insides of my locos are horrific!. I have a large 00 scale 2-6-4 tank loco that I know is convertible but would need special battery sizes. I am deep into scenery and building construction at the moment but want to revisit my installations to tidy them up

On a somewhat related topic BPRC has gone a bit quiet lately. Deltang continue to extend their range and the stuff works, however they are essentially the only provider in the UK, at least for me.

BlueRail's first board showed considerable potential and I look forward to the new smaller version, if it is ever released. Their web site says watch summer 2018 but that has gone. Promised new product from Protocab has failed to arrive as well and with their existing stuff very expensive and woefully under specified IMO I could imagine little progress there

See http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/137756-stay-alives/

I have sort of ground to a halt at just over 50, 33 steam and 16 diesel including 2 DMU, plus 3 not converted to radio but they are out of period so no hurry. Thing is it only needs about 12 for an operating session

Hi, I have converted some Lima motors using the CD/DVD motors. My usual method is to take an old Lima pancake cog, which is integrated into the pancake armature, trim away all the unwanted bits of plastic, leaving just the cog. I have then used the sheath from some mains power cable to act as a shim between the cog and the drive shaft, as the drive shafts are a smaller diameter than the original Lima ones. This gives a very solid connection, and I have never had any issues with loosening or slipping.

When I converted my Hornby Class 25 with a CD motor I used insulating shrink tube to widen the motor shaft. It appears to work well. I also have several Lima diesels including a class 08 converted using diesel-trains kits which at £12 odd I think are good value. I don't get pickup problems cos I don't have pickups, I use radio control and batteries.

The original Lima pancake motor can be serviced and if you fettle the gears by removing the moulding pips it reduces the noise.

Putting tail lamps  on my Express trains was easy, I have 2 express trains and just fitted Springside tail lamps to one brake 2nd coach on each. there is also a full brake with lamp fitted for variety. They do make the train look so much better.

The loco hauled branch passenger is the problem. It is a 3 coach non corridor brake 3rd/composite/brake 3rd. It arrives from the fiddle yard with the lamp on the rear, the loco runs around and turns on the turntable, then reversing onto the front of the train, with a tail lamp nice and visible, at the front. - aargh

Ah! a misunderstanding, I was only considering the electromagnet and not the coupler. I would be using it with Brian Kirby system modified tension locks

It may not have been emphasized above, but there must not be a tail lamp on any but the last vehicle in a train. This lets the signalman or fireman know that the train is complete. (I know, some idiot glued a lamp on the end of the brake-third.)

exception being special lamps on slip coaches.

It would not be idiotic if that brake third was always going to be on the rear of a train. It would not be correct but not idiotic if that brake third was in the middle of a train because who wants to fit detachable tiny lamps to coaches? After all it is a model railway, there are no safety issues involved!.

I have not tried it yet but there should be no problem with bogie stock as long as the tension lock was attached to the bogie and not the chassis?. I have substituted bogies with couplers attached to the ends of my Bachmann Mk ! rake or when they couple to Hornby coaches.

If you want a simple layout take a look at Kato Unitrack, a bit like Setrack but with ballast included. A plus is the points have the motors included and there are point switches to match

Except for fully fitted trains; they only need the tail lamp.

I only appear to have one fully fitted, the milk train and that has a StoveR 3 from the rear so a single lamp on the rear tank?. Apart from the coal train my freights are part fitted. Question, when does a unfitted become a part fitted? My 'long' freights are 36 wagons, mediums about 24 and shorts about 12.

I presume you can stick a fitted brake van on an unfitted train?

Thanks, so fitting 3 lamps to each brake van is what it will be.

Maybe a daft question but these brake van lamps were lit at night but what about during the day, were the 2 side fitted lamps mounted on the brackets all the time or only when needed?

Deltang Rx65 and Rx66 receivers can control a sound card. I have not tried it though

Here's mine undergoing mods. The tender was originally a Bachmann shunters truck. It is radio controlled and battery powered with the battery in the tender. Or you can have a smaller battery in the loco for shorter run time. The receiver is in the loco. The loco will perform a cameo role trundling gypsum wagons around

I found with extensive testing of my 00 scale locos (I have converted almost 50 of them) that the conversion efficiency of a step up voltage regulator falls below 80% if the loco is drawing more than about 300mA. This is with a single lipo delivering a nominal 3.7V and a 9V regulator. For locos over 300mA or with a 12V regulator I use 2 batteries in series giving much better conversion efficiency.

To calculate the loco power requirement I run  an endurance test on a circuit of track with the loco pulling its normal load at the scale speed I require. for a pacific loco this would be 12 coaches at scale 60mph. If it was a pacific I would use 2 fully charged 100mAh batteries in series. Set it running and time how long it takes for the receiver (my Deltangs have low battery safety cut off built in) to cut the power, 6 volts for 2 cells or 3V per cell. Those cells can deliver 1 amp for about 12 minutes so you can calculate how many milliamps the loco is drawing. Scale up the run time for larger capacity batteries to suit your requirements. For example my requirement is 30 minutes run time in a 3 hour operating session. That pacific loco draws 400mA per hour so it will need 200mAh from the batteries. The receiver and regulator draw 20mA per hour when the motor is not running so 2.5 hours needs 50mA  - minimum battery requirement = 250mAh. Add a comfortable reserve and a pair of 160mAh or 180mAh should be OK. I also use a pair of 250mAh giving 500mAh which should be plenty.

I remove all my batteries to charge them and have modified the tender internals to make it easy to just pop the top off. Same for the diesels. With spare charged batteries this means I can 'recharge' a loco in less than a minute.

Just found the link to this topic on the Radio control page.

I see you are having problems with brownouts, probably due to voltage sag. One way to reduce voltage sag is to use the biggest batteries you can fit as larger capacity cells sag less under high loads.

All the components need to handle the highest loads and be rated for at least the highest voltage but I guess you know this

I tested for voltage sag with my 00 scale locos by fitting a low voltage alarm. The results were interesting and alarming (sorry) There were a stream of alarms through out the run, they were random. my conclusion was that there are transitory spikes in the locos current draw demanding sufficient amps to make the voltage sag a long way!. The solution was 2 fold, first fit bigger batteries and second remove the alarm!. It did not brown out my Deltang receivers which would only shut down if the voltage dropped below the safety cut off levels for an appreciable length of time.

My experience is with Deltang equipment in 00 scale so I am guessing for 0. If I was converting a large 0 scale Pacific I would buy

a deltang Rx 65 with the piggy back board to handle 6 amps or the new Rx 66 which handles 4amps or 6 with a heat sink. they are both bulit with 20v components and are rated for 18V

A large amp rated voltage regulator, for example the Pololu U3V70x has a version that delivers 15V at up to 5A at 95% efficiency from 3 lipo cells

2S or 3S lipo cells connected in series.

Interesting. I have over 100 ready built Dapol wagons and have spent some time making the couplings stiff. I found having the bar rigid gave less derailments when propelling wagons over points. The main problems with Dapol couplers is they are too floppy and the hook can easily detach so I am considering converting them to either Bachmann or Hornby

It is enough to make common mortals weep in frustration!

Brilliant