trevorsmith3489

The platforms for Jarrow are in production.

plasticard, foam board, Evergreen moulded sheet and rod, spray paint from Hobbycraft, images from the internet and name boards designed in word with a downloaded font - printed out on glossy photo paper.

1 hour ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

A thou makes that much difference?

 

Mike.

Yes

It does!

On Roundtrees Sidings we glued a length of Code 83 rail into an old file handle and “reamed” the pandrol clips on each section of sleepers before sliding the rail in place.

Code 82 slides into the pandrol clips easily.

If the loco works OK and you have tried 2 different decoders -

have you considered your NCE Power cab could be the culprit? Perhaps a reset might be tried.

could the loco address be part of a consist?

Have you tried removing the booster from the system, and just running two wires from the NCEPowercab to a short length of track to eliminate a track fault/booster fault?

Does the loco work OK upside down on a cradle, ie eliminating any load

How does the loco perform if you use address 3?

Trevor

Where has everyone gone? 
 

For me. Too much reading on forums, too little posting.

My personal layout continues to evolve

https://kaleyyard.wordpress.com

and I am exhibiting California Surfline at ModelRail Scotland in Glasgow this weekend.

https://www.btmrs.co.uk/california-surfline

Still enthusiastic about modelling the US, perhaps forums and Social Media are loosing their edge for modellers.

Trevor

14 hours ago, GEOEng03 said:

Thanks Trevor, how many do you have? I've taken the view that the weighting of negative to positive is usually disproportionate... so would like to give them a go

I have just one. Has run fine for about four years. Good range of functions, remote uncoupling I thought was a good idea and uncoupling works fine , just requires a scale 30 mph to couple!

Does not liked being dropped on the floor so no longer working.

I use a Lenz DCC system and had no issues at all.

just follow the instructions to change the DCC address to the cabside number.

Trevor

5 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

I hope we get to see an RMweb page about this superb layout. But the wordpress blog is also very good.

The Wordpress blog was started a number of years ago before RMweb was the platform it now is.

I don't have time to do both, so I am staying with Wordpress.

5 hours ago, GEOEng03 said:

Thanks Trevor, Great video. Favourite bit is the race alongside the BNSF loco

 

Have read and thoroughly enjoyed the article as well and was a swing point and timed very well for my foray into US HO.  Were the helixes built by yourself, or are they RTR. 

Cheers

The helix is all my own work.

Code 83 by Peco is my way to go. 

Easy to lay, looks good and reliable.

The concrete tie variety has a slight issue with tie spacing, but once ballasted looks really good.

My home layout has just featured in Continental Modeller and I have received many positive comments about the trackwork.

https://kaleyyard.wordpress.com/tracklaying/

https://kaleyyard.wordpress.com/ballasting/

and a short video of the completed upper deck with some clips of the real thing

A mixture of layout videos and the real thing used for inspiration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzY_iuQ0e5I  (made by my 8 year old grandson with a Go Pro camera - watch for his jump to see if the loco is moving)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNMmwwnFFb0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMvfrAqQs8A&t=14s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e3WBCCl1m4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CdW_NtnE_w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7fjFyJR1Ak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti_6Cqcm3GE

Trevor

An introduction to my HO garage layout has just been published in this month's Continental Modeller.

A sample of photographs from the article. Part two to follow next month. 

As the title says I am wondering how close should I be putting a building loading platform to the track?

 

Thanks

Johna

Tape pencils to the middle and both ends of your longest vehicle and run that on the track so the pencil points make a mark on your baseboard. This will be the edge of your loading platform or will mark how close a building can be to the track. The process works for both straight/curved track. 

Thanks Dave and Gilbert for your replies.

 

What's the best manufacturer for locomotives, I have heard of Bachmann, Kato, atlas and Arnold but I don't know what quality is like from them, I'm going for either N gauge or Ho depending on what bargains I can find and availability.

 

Also where can you get road vehicles from, I have a lot to learn.

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Jerry.

Contikits had a stall at the Perth Green exhibition on Sat/Sun

I model in HO and dabble in N

Contikits had a wide range of second hand stuff ranging from £5.00 upwards for freight cars and locos from £25.00

In N gauge, freight cars from £4.00 and locos from £18.00

In my experience, Kato locos are always good quality, in both HO and N

If you are creating a switching layout, running quality is going to be important. so issues like slow running, controlabiity, and couplings are all going to be important.

T

Re the wheels, even just a simple coat of "rust" makes a massive difference with any car. Even brand new, US stock seems to get fitted with wheelsets that have been outside for a long time!!

 

And no, I haven't got round to painting all my wheelsets yet...

The steel brake discs on my car can turn a rust colour within an hour of them getting wet when I clean the wheels - indicating that rusting can take place very quickly. 

The Standard for the Manufacture of Wrought Steel Wheels for Passenger Cars and Locomotives in the USA states;

"Wheels shall not be covered with any substance to such an extent as to inhibit the detection of defects."

I imagine similar specs exist for all railroad wheels and will mean without any surface protection even new wheels will turn a rust colour very quickly. This is by design presumably to aid the visual inspection of wheelsets to detect flaws or cracks.

Out of interest, did USA railroads have the equivalent of the "wheeltappers?"

Trevor

Hi all,

 

Off to Disney in October, just wondering about model railway shops near to Disney?

 

Regards

 

Craig

I used Orlando as a base in 2004 to watch, photograph, ride trains and visit model shops in Florida. Colonial Photo and Hobby in Orlando together with Ready to Roll in Miami were like an Aladdin's Cave - well stocked shops, cheap prices (locos @ $25!) and with a $2 to £1 exchange I was able to "fill my boots." I bought another suitcase just for model railway stuff for the flight home.

I was in Florida two weeks ago and my rail related plans were curtailed by Hurricane Irma. (No rail movements from 2.00pm Friday 8th and still no train movements on Thursday 13th the day before I returned.) I visited Colonial Photo and Hobby and was very disappointed. They had generally poor stock levels and their loco/rolling stock choice was limited. The prices seemed expensive when I converted $ to £. Came away with 1 loco @ £84 that will need a sound decoder and some scenery items.

Of much better value was a trip on SunRail, Sand Lake Road to Debarry and return for a seniors fare of $3.50. Virtually no other passengers during a mid day trip and you can sit at the front of the cab car with a driver's eye view.

Trevor

I wonder if anyone can advise.. It's probably the heat and hayfever melting my brain this evening.

 

I have a fairly basic Athearn GP40 that I picked up cheap and using as an experiment - I want to try stripping, painting and applying decals.

 

I've stripped the engine out and tweaked the gears so it is a dummy unit. However, I was thinking about adding a decoder to at least have lights for when it is doubled up with a 'live' engine. I may even add sound, although it's likely to be coupled to a sound-equipped engine so that may be overkill..

 

Anyhoo -

 

A. Simpler option: I'm guessing that I could take a fairly basic decoder, connect track power and lights and then consist it with the powered unit so that the lights are directional etc? Is it that simple?

 

B. For sound, I suspect that things might get tricker, as there is no motor and it needs to be 'synched' to the sound engine that it's consisted with. Any advice on sound-only decoders ?

 

Any advice appreciated,

 

thanks

I have an Athearn DCC sound loco that has developed a fault.

There is full sound, but no reaction from the loco's motor. When the throttle is advanced, the engine revs rise and the bell/horn still work.

The loco is about 7 years old and with other locos in my fleet the fact it does not work properly is not an issue for me.

What is probably relevant for your scenario is that I will leave the motor and decoder in place and just remove the drive shafts from the motor to the bogie.

The throttle will advance the engine revs, lights and sounds will still be there. I will have no need to re-programme the decoder

My intention is to have the loco as a DPU in the middle or end of a train. The loco will be consisted with the lead locos.

Without a motor, a momentary stall will not result in string lining!

Leaving the motor in place avoids the issue of no load to programme the decoder properly. BEMF might be an issue, but more often than not I disable this feature on my locos anyway.

Trevor

Trevor - I really don't know why - but I seem to have missed out on your excellent Kaley Yard weblog - the omission has ben rectified and is now added to "My Favorites"

Missing out would certainly not be an omission on your part!

I started the original Taft Yard layout in 2009 when the internet did not have forums such as RMWEB . My original internet provider gave me web space with an appropriate web address and I used Fotopic to host about 5,000 photographs. A change of provider and the collapse of Fotopic saw me migrate to the Wordpress site, this seemed the best (and cheapest) option at the time. The Wordpress site is not an ideal medium for sharing images and ideas with the modelling community but with so many photographs and text it becomes very difficult to change.

Trevor 

Thanks Ray. I have to agree with you, I had also noticed a reduction in postings in recent months. Where have all the US modellers gone?

I haven't gone away, just busy modelling!

My failing is not really keeping the forum informed of my progress. It has taken me four years to bring the top deck of my layout to "completed" status and I have now made a start on the lower deck.

https://kaleyyard.wordpress.com/31-the-lower-deck/

Trevor 

The Z21system from Roco.

I have had a Lenz system since 2005 and have used the USB interface for the last four years enabling me to use an I phone to control locos.

https://kaleyyard.wordpress.com/14-control-system/

3 months ago I purchased he Z21system from Roco to use with a small layout that was exhibited at ModelRail Scotland last weekend. The system took about 30 minutes to set up out of the box with six locos and six switches added to the roster and this included taking photos for loco and track plan identification. The system worked perfectly for 24 hours over the three days of the show.

Works best with my I pad - track plan with touch screen for switches on one half of the screen and throttle on the other half with locos chosen from a photo library.

Excellent system!

Just returned from Shildon.

An interesting day with an opportunity to look inside three of the cars - pity my wife pulled rank on the use of our digital camera for grandchildren photos and I had to manage with the phone.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/90963457@ ... 388576443/

For those interested in buying, I had lunch alongside a member of Locomotion's board and had a discussion about the philosophy in creating the model. 
the Locomotion exclusive editions had made £250,000, (?profit?) for the museum in the last year;
there is a binding contract with Rapido to manufacture the model and it will only be sold under the "Locomotion" brand;
only 250 (?of each version?) will be made;
it will not be made available to other retail outlets;
their marketing method should make sure there are enough pre-orders to ensure the model is actually made.
he knows that by keeping the run small, collectors will pre-order to guarantee they get one and then keep them in display cabinets!

By the time I left at 2.00pm, the scan people had images on their laptop screen


If you really want one - order it!

Trevor