Matt Roe

Another vote for Wickness from me. I've bought a couple of decoders from them (Digitrax DN136PS) an the service has been excellent. The last one I bought arrived next day and the post & packaging cost was very reasonable - it was either cost or slightly less than cost. Good price on decoders too.

First order from Kernow arrived this morning - as everyone says, very speedy service. The order was dispatched in under an hour from delivery and arrived around 20 hours later. It was well packed (interesting to see the recycling of a Airfix catalogue!) so everything is in order. Sadly no signed receipt as they seemed to have moved to printed e-commerce printouts instead of till receipts. I can't blame them as I write and e-commerce system for a living so it makes more logistical sense! I'll have to see if I can 'engineer' a slight diversion through Camborne next time we go on holiday to St Ives.

Ha, sadly due to the current austerity measures imposed on the network Thomas is currently too expensive to be added into stock. The cost-to-benefit ratio is not high enough for the reward to outweigh the financial demand. Although a certain cousin would be most pleased if this decision was reversed; but as he is not supplying any funds to the TOC his opinion was ignored. The Fat Controller (aka Dad) has decided to supplement the existing 0-6-0 Pannier tank with a 2-6-2 Prairie, although in a used condition from the Lima works. The prejudice toward GWR is almost mandatory in this house...

Looking at the picture of the layout, from left to right, there is one 4x4' baseboard and then two 4x2' boards. The 4x4' board has a leg at each corner, the middle 4x2' board has no legs and the end 4x2' board has two legs at the end. The main reason for the leg configuration is that in it's largest configuration the layout will most likely have to span a bed of some sort. The join between the 2nd and 3rd boards holds well enough but it's not flat enough so I'm going to brace it with some more pieces of timber. I need to order some coach bolts that are long enough.

Thanks for the replies. I think the nomograph you were mentioning eastglosmog was something like this: http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/misc/misc_equip195.htm#inclines thanks for the tipoff. So for the most common locos on the level the haulage capacity of 10 tonne wagons and coaches (I'm kind of guessing here) would be: Loco ---------- Class ----------- Wagons ------------ Coaches King Special Over 90 13+ Castle D 75 11 Hall D 75 10-11? Collett Goods B 52 5600 Prairie D 75 4500 & 4575 Prairie C 54 5700 Pannier C 54 1400 Tank <A <46 Seems like some good numbers to start... Another table in the link above shows that on some routes locos hauled unto 100 empty wagons on some routes. With the limited amount of stock I have for my layout it does not seem that any locos I have will have any un-prototypical problems of hauling the various combinations of stock.

Hi, Can anybody tell me if there is a ready reckoner to covert loco Power Classifications into the number of coaches or wagons that can be hauled? I was just wondering what a reasonable number of wagons something like a GWR Prairie or Pannier tank could pull. Hopefully someone can help!

Track Laying I bought myself a pin pusher to make the track laying easier, however things did not go well when I tried to use the Peco SL-14 pins; they were useless with the plywood top. This delayed the track laying until I could get to the shops to buy some replacement Peco ST-280; these worked like a charm. Using the pin pusher was loads easier than trying to hammer them in, I didn't even bother drilling the sleepers - although it you wanted to make sure that you didn't deform them, then you would need to drill holes. All the pointwork had previously drilled holes. In the end it only took about a day to lay the track. I installed an aligned the point motors at the same time as laying the points, this made things much easier and was necessary because I used some M3 screws inserted through the baseboard to secure the point motors underneath. I'll post some photos later. Everything went OK, and I used a 21" Tracksetta for the outside track, but I got the inside track geometry wrong so had to re-lay it (coaches would clip each other). I used an 18" Tracksetta to make sure I didn't create too tight a curve. I hadn't laid track for over 20 years, so I'd simply forgotten about all the required clearances etc. This is how it all turned out: Next time: wiring.

Baseboards I decided upon just using 2x1.5" unplaned timber to provide the support, with a 9mm plywood top. As the baseboard was going to split into three pieces I ordered some alignment dowels to keep everything straight: It seem strange that considering the low price no local model shops stocked these - but maybe baseboards that separate are in the minority? In order to make the attachment of legs easy I decided to give these style of bracket a whirl: They seem to work out OK - it doesn't make for the most stable table, but they are fine for the purpose - with additional bracing I'm sure things could be made rock solid. To finish things off I gave each of the legs an adjustable foot. Here's how the top turned out: I'll add some pictures of the legs/feet and the baseboard joins when I take it all apart next.

Just ordered the King from KMRC for £69.99, could resist (another) shunters truck too for on £5... let's see how it all turns out!

Well, my 'proper' layout in Code 75 track has been stalled for quite a few years now, and in the meantime we have moved house and welcomed a daughter - with another one on the way! My daughter is now 2 (time flies) and she has a collection of cousins. Because of our proximity to Beer we have Annual Passes to Pecorama, and she has always enjoyed the 'choo-choos' and finds the exhibition fun. I've been keeping all my old Code 100 track and basic rolling stock, controller, point motors etc up in the loft waiting for 'a time in the future' to build a layout for the kids. This Christmas, to keep the cousins amused, I laid 5 yards of flexi down on the carpet and ran a train back and forth. It then struck me that it was silly to wait for a later date, and I may as well make use of the things I had now to allow the kids to get maximum enjoyment from the trains! Also the notion that trains are just for boys is a bit last century - my daughter gets very animated when watching the train pass by! After messing around with some track plans I came up with this: The idea is that it will split into three pieces, one 4x4' piece with all the points, then two 4x2' pieces. The middle 4x2' extension piece will be optional allowing two layout configurations: a smaller 6x4' layout and the full 8x4' layout. Next step - baseboard building...

Hattons may want you to do this, but under consumer law (Consumer Rights Act) your contract is with the retailer - Hattons. If something goes wrong in the first six months you are entitled to a full refund, after this a repair can be done or a partial refund given. Really you should return the item to Hattons - it is up to them (and their expense) to get it repaired themselves or send it back the the manufacturer. The limit of this is 6 years - but the fault has to have been there from the manufacturing process - I guess most model trains are going to break due to 'wear and tear' which is not covered.

I agree Johnster, and £5 is about right for the model you describe, but when others seem to want to charge £30 for models that do not run and 'need work' it seems to be getting a bit silly. But then if you are of the mindset that you must have that particular model - then I supposed someone will pay the asking price.

I know that I am resurrecting a two year old thread - but on the subject of secondhand prices: I've recently (finally) built a simple test track / round-and-round layout so that I can run locos round for my daughter and her various cousins etc. I have a collection of locos, but all of them are converted to DCC apart from one 20+ year old Hornby 0-6-0 pannier tank that I left as analogue. The pickups are a bit useless so I started to look around for something a little larger with more pickups so that running would be smoother. I've been really surprised at the price of secondhand models - they all seem to be fetching a premium. I can only put this down to (a) the price of new models and (b) the larger(?) number of people wanting to 'collect them all'. When you can buy a Railroad A1 from Hattons for £55 and a King from Kernow at £70 then some of the secondhand prices seem crazy. Admittedly the prices mention are at discount, but if you are just looking for a larger loco (as in my case) it makes anything secondhand seem unattractively priced. But it also seem mad to buy a new model, because surely a secondhand loco should suffice. It seems you can get nothing decent for less that £40-45 - the amount of what I would regard as 'tat' that is listed for £30+ on ebay and the big box shifters sites is plentiful. Am I being wishful here - but where are the decent secondhand locos for £30? It seems that if you own locos that you bought 10 years ago they will give you a good return - because new models have increase in price so much. However I agree with RANGERS - it makes the price of entry high for new entrants to the hobby. Am I missing something here?

Regarding the "King James I" R3331 - am I missing something, is there a reason no-one is buying this particular model? Did Hornby over-estimate demand, is everyone 'Kinged out'? At £70 it seems rude not to get one - in these times of more expensive models it is almost the cheapest new large model you can buy - apart from the Railroad A1s.

Thanks Ian - I'm not sure if you can get replacement connectors stand alone, but eBay will probably allow you to source a replacement lead - usually it has short length of Roco track attached. Suzie - yep I was aware you could gang together a couple of boosters/amplifiers, just forgot to mention it. And having looked inside, yes they are the same but without the sockets! As Ron said the 10785 and 10772 are rather rare and when I have seen them they are rather expensive - that's why I didn't mention them - a SPROG is the cheapest addition to the Multimaus for this IMHO. Ron - fair point on the consists - I've added 'automated' to the review to clarify, that's what I meant away - obviously anything that allows you to program CVs means you can manually setup a consist - although this may be too long winded for most people! Glad someone read the review ;-)

Roco/Fleischmann Multimaus Introduction The Roco Multimaus is a walk around type of DCC controller. It is also available under the Fleischmann brand as both are subsidiaries of the parent company Modelleisenbahn GmbH. It offers a good entry into DCC, and can control all 9999 loco address and 1024 accessory addresses. It has the ability to store 64 locos into an internal library, and each loco can have a 6 character loco identifier. ​The Multimaus can control the first 20 functions of a decoder, and offers simple CV programming on the main track. However it does not allow you to read back programmed CVs, nor does it offer a programming track output. Loco speed steps of 14, 28 & 128 are possible. A wireless version, the Multimaus Pro was also made. This offered the ability to read CVs, although I'm not sure if it is still available to purchase and was significantly more expensive than the standard Multimaus. Loco Control User feed back is given by a large custom backlit LCD, and speed and direction control are done by a traditional rotary control. The rotary encoder has hard stops. It not a continuous type like some competitors, so there is no way of seeing a readout of the speed for a previously selected loco; you have to move the knob until the speed changes. ​Loco recall is either done by using the keypad (loco address), or by recalling the loco from the library using the arrow keys; the latter is the easier and preferred method. You have to select whether you want to use the loco address or library by pressing the loco and shift buttons together. Loco decoder functions are simply toggled by pressing the relevant numeric key on the keypad. Functions 11-20 are accessed by using the shift key. There is a dedicated loco lighting button as well. There is no automated way of building a loco consist using the Multimaus, you can however manually set the relevant CVs if you wish to control a consist. Accessory control The controller is switched into accessory mode by pressing the turnout/point button. The accessory decoder is recalled using the keypad, and the position of the point is controlled by the arrow keys. There is no facility for programming routes. Programming and settings Pressing the shift and menu keys together allows you access to three menus: Loco, Program & Settings. The loco menu allows you to store your various locos into the library and change name, speed steps and address. The program menu allows you simple programming of CVs, although with no ability to read back what you have programmed. You first type in the CV you want to program and then the value you want it programmed with. As there is no programming track you have to make sure you only have one loco or accessory connected to the DCC buss - otherwise you will program every attached device! I have not found the lack of being able to read CVs a problem in any way. You just have to remember what you have done and write it down. All my loco decoders respond with a 'jolt' to show that programming has been accepted - so at least there is a visual response. There is a specific menu option to enable the programming of long decoder addresses. Finally, the settings menu allows you to set the language of the Multimaus, change the display brightness and contrast, access various child lock features and rather helpfully allow the transfer of libraries between two Multimaus. Booster & PSU The Multimaus needs to be attached to it's relevant Booster and PSU. The Roco 10764 booster allows connection of a master and slave Multimaus and also provides connection to further boosters if need be. All that remains is a PSU input and connection to the track. The track connector is a Roco specific two pin plug, but a track connection lead should always be provided. The supplied PSU will most likely be a European two pin switch mode wall wart type. It provides enough power to give a track supply of around 1.5A. The Multimaus connects to the booster via a 6 foot lead terminated with RJ12 connectors. You can use any suitable lead if longer lengths are required. Flashback Cables on eBay are a good source. Connectivity The Multimaus actually talks over the XpressNet standard from Lenz. Looking at the inner two wires on the RJ12 connector, these are the serial RS485 XpressNet connection. The next two outer middle pair of wires are the 0v & 12v supply to the Multimaus, and the outermost pair of wires are the actual DCC voltage provided by the Multimaus. Although the Multimaus can be used as an XpressNet cab on any compatible system, it is actually a DCC command station in it's own right. The supplied booster has no DCC specific circuitry in it, it simply 'boosts' the DCC output that comes from the Multimaus itself. Because most other XpressNet systems use a dedicated DCC Command Station, only the inner four connections of the Multimaus' XpressNet bus need to used when plugging into another manufacturers command station. Expansion As already mentioned - you can expand the system buy using a suitable XpressNet compatible command station, such as the Lenz LZV100. In the case of the Lenz this gives you the ability to read CVs, a program track output and a higher track current supply. You can also use the Multimaus as a wired cab controller for the Roco Z21 & z21 systems. If you are not worried about the reading of CVs then a cheaper way of getting more power would be to use a dedicated DCC booster, such as the excellent unit offered by Tam Valley Depot for around £40. Availability Although not a popular brand for UK modellers, Roco is well known on the continent, so it is often easier to buy one of these systems from mainland Europe. Indeed the easiest way to pick up a Multimaus is from eBay, although be sure to make sure you include European and not just UK results in your search. Most units are sold split from starter train sets, and therefore offer a cheap way of entry into the world of DCC. Although not commonly available from UK dealers the price would usually be at least £200, but when split from a train set they can be purchased for as little as £60 or so from eBay. Conclusion For Low Cost Rotary Control Clear Display Loco Library Against No program track output Cannot read CVs No automated loco consists No accessory route programming If you are after an affordable handheld DCC controller with a good display then I'd highly recommend the Multimaus. I was so pleased with it I bought a second one! Don't let the inability to read CVs put you off, it is easier to do this by using something like a SPROG. I've managed to program all by 7 locos successfully without reading a single CV, and that's not just programming the decoder address either. On average I'd guess I've had to program an additional 5-6 CVs for each decoder. If you are going to buy a power booster anyway you can use the really inexpensive SPROG nano. For me, buying the Roco and Fleischmann Multimaus' and the Tam Valley Depot booster still left me with enough change from £200 to be able to afford a SPROG nano as well - that is next on my list. If you want to know more, the Roco Multimaus manual is well written and shows you all the different functions and screens. http://www.gaugemaster.com/instructions/RC10810.pdf

VRR, glad you got it sorted, as Dutch_Master and Nigelcliffe had pointed out connecting something to the WAN port of the TP Link router was the reason for all the problems, hence why it was number 1 on my list. Have run with DCC, as for me I'm happy with my couple of Multimaus ;-) Matt

Hi VRR, Hopefully I can help you sort out your problem, and save you a 4 hour round trip! Also if my hunch is correct then miraculously everything will work when you visit your dealer and then break again when you get back home (if you plug everything back in as shown by your pictures). Sorry if I'm telling you to suck eggs or you have tried what I suggest already, but I know how frustrating computer networks can be and I do internet/web/network stuff for a living! Nightlife and Dutch_Master have provided all the answers and your pictures point to the problem, so hopefully this will help join the dots. If you want the simple solution, just follow the list in order (only completing it will make everything work), the reasons are listed as well if you are intersted but if it's all seems like a foreign language then ignore! The simple route of your problems: your home Belkin router. 1) unplug the grey network cable connected to the TP Link router WAN port (I'm guessing you've plugged the other end of the grey network cable to your Belkin home router) Reason: By plugging in your own home Belkin router to the WAN port of the TP Link router you are in a whole world of hurt. The TP Link knows that the network it sees on the WAN port needs to be isolated from the network that it will be providing, it does this by using a different subnet. A subnet is a different range of IP addresses (also called network addresses), defined by a mask (called the subnet mask) which is usually 255.255.255.0 for small home networks and routers, so it means that IP addresses that have the same first three sets of numbers are in the same subnet. Because you have plugged your home Belkin router into the WAN port of the TP Link and because the 192.168.0.x subnet is the most commonly used subnet for home networks it sees that the Belkin (plugged into the WAN port) is using the 192.168.0.x subnet already. So to play nicely the TP Link automatically uses the next available subnet of 192.168.1.x. Now because of this, only addresses in the subnet 192.168.1.x are able to be used by the TP Link and because the z21 has a fixed IP address of 192.168.0.111 it is not able to be seen by any network because it's IP address does not match the subnet mask. So I repeat, unplug the grey cable from the TP Link, in so doing disconnecting it from the Belkin router. 2) (optional) reset the TP Link router. Reason:You may want to skip this step because it is possibly not needed (and could wipe the settings programmed by Roco), but: if the TP Link has stored the fact that is has previously used the 192.168.1.x subnet it may continue to do so, this would prevent it 'seeing' the z21, even through you have disconnected the TP Link from the Belkin router. 3) cycle the power to both the z21 and TP Link. Reason: Just to make sure, switch it off and on again ;-) Hopefully when everything comes back on the TP Link should be using the 192.168.0.x subnet by default and be able to 'see' the z21. 4) connect your Samsung tablet to the wireless network provided by the TP Link router - NOT your normal home wireless network. I think the name of the TP Link wireless network suffix and the password are listed on the bottom of the TP Link router (not sure - don't have one!). I think the network name should start with (Z21_ or z21_) and be followed by 4 digits (the last 4 digits of the serial number of the TP Link Router. Or alternatively you could just look for the wireless network that appears when you turn on the TP Link router - this may be needed if resetting the router also reset the TP Link's wireless network name. The password for the wireless network is listed as the PIN on the bottom of the router. Reason: The z21 is only connected to the network provided by the TP Link router - your tablet needs to join the same network as the z21. ----- OK hopefully things should now work. If it still doesn't work: Find out the following things as they will help troubleshooting: a) what is the IP address of your tablet when you connect to the TP Link wireless network? b ) can you check the IP address of the TP Link router - what is it? You can always plug a laptop into the other network LAN ports on the TP Link router if you want to use software to find out the above, but you should be able to see the addresses on the wireless setting page on the Samsung tablet. Let me have the answers - and we'll fix things together from there. If it does work but you have questions: ​a) how do I connect to the internet and the z21? Simple answer - you don't. You connect to your home wireless network for the internet or the TP Link network for the z21. To make things simple that is why Roco gave you a separate router. The TP Link is totally unnecessary if you know what you are doing with your own router, but if not then the simple solution is to use a completely different one. b ) no, but what if I really want to connect to the z21 and my home network - how do I do that? The Roco manual is a little too simplistic in some areas and doesn't make sense in others - so I can understand the confusion. They even say you can plug into the WAN port OK, but then their router configuration manual (in German) says not to use the WAN port at all!! First - throw the TP Link router in the bin - you don't need it. Next a quick bit on IP Addresses: there are a limited number of IP address in the world, and indeed in the world of your home network of only one subnet you only have 255 addresses available. You router uses one of these so you only have 254 left. Because you will want an easy life, and because it's never good to run out of IP addresses, routers come configured to dynamically allocate IP addresses to devices by default. This means the router acts as a DHCP server. So every time a device connects to the home network it gets given a dynamically assigned IP address. But here is the problem: every time you reconnect you may get a different address - even if you use the same device. For 99.9999% of the time this is not a problem as everything will still work, even if your IP address continually changes. However - Roco decided it would be too hard to have the IP address of the z21 changing all the time - how would their tablet software know how to talk to the z21? So they took the easy option and gave the z21 a fixed IP address. This is 192.168.0.111 by default (it would seem). A fixed IP address may cause havoc with a router using DHCP that has more devices connected (like your home router) so hence why they took the simple route and gave you the TP Link router. If you want to use your z21 on your home network you need to check several things - then (according to the theory) everything should work just fine. a) plug your z21 into a spare LAN port on your router. b ) make sure your home network router uses the 192.168.0.x subnet as default. c) find out the MAC address of the z21 - you'll need some network sniffing software for this - or it could be written on the bottom of the z21 (I don't have one to check). The MAC address is in the form of 6 hex octets (some thing like 6f:a4:76:0c:e4:bd) it is a unique physical address for the network port on the z21, because there are so may combinations of MAC addresses I really mean unique. Every device/port in the universe has a different MAC address - no single one is shared. So your z21 will have a different MAC address than someone else. d) You need to reserve the IP address 192.168.0.111 in the DHCP server settings of your router - you need the MAC address for this. You are basically saying 'reserve the IP address of 192.168.0.111 for the device that has the MAC address of {your z21 MAC address here...}'. Every router is different - but I hope you get the idea. e) Now your z21 should live happily amongst all your other network devices, and when you connect to your home wifi network your tablets should be able to see the z21. Don't worry about any network overloading or conflicts or that you are going to slow down your home network - that'll never happen. And here endeth the lesson ;-) Hope that is useful to people and more importantly it sorts out VRR's problem and that the enjoyment can begin. Cheers, Matt