Magstheviking

7 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

With due respect, I think you may be confusing this with putting analogue (non-fitted) locos on DCC powered track.

Something that will lead to a motor burning out. Definitely not recommended.

 

There was an issue with some coreless motors when fitted with DCC decoders, burning out being run on DCC powered track, but I understand this might not be such an issue these days.

This one isn't in my area of experience or knowledge, so someone else might be able to elaborate on this particular problem.

 

Ah yes, apologies, it was a club member who warned me about coreless motors and I misremembered. 

Thanks

I think it's really a mixed bag in my experience. Most DCC fitted locos, with Hornby and ESU decoders are generally fine on analogue. Bachmann decoders, especially the older ones can be a bit less consistent and have witnessed some not working at all, to juddery running at lower speeds. 

I do believe however, that some decoders have a propensity to burn out if left on analogue too long, but haven't ever seen this personally. 

If you do find a dcc  fitted model which you want to run on dc however it might just be best to buy the blanking plates for the socket, if its a dcc ready model. These can be picked up for a few quid for a pack of 4 or so. 

Hope this helps!

14 minutes ago, Covkid said:

The problem for me as a transition modeller who would much prefer green DMUs - would a class 180 be a more profitable choice than say a Swindon Cross country unit to Accurascale ?

I think a Class 180 would sell pretty well in my view. The market is crying out for more modern DMU's/EMU's. 

There's so many gaps in the modern image market. As long as it compared favourable with recent Bachmann 158 or realtrack 156 offerings then I'd certainly be in. 

There's plenty of options out there for sure. 

Slochd would be superb mate! A wonderful piece of railway. Always great to see locos working hard up the hill too!

It gets absolutely battered by the weather up there, so there's real scope for recreating some pretty desolate scenes. You'll have to get the famous sign in the scene too.

I think having that much viewing would be more than sufficient, especially if you could get full length trains in the scene. As others have mentioned, the scope of traffic is varied and as you say, modelling a spot like Slochd, which has never really changed, would enable recreation of almost any era. 

I'm also in OO but this seems like a really interesting brief. I looked myself at potentially building something from the 60s based at Kincraig, just south of Aviemore. it was simply too big to be achievable however. 

In N however, this seems much more feasible, the old station at Kincraig is still double track I believe, operational as a passing loop. Furthermore, it grants superb scenic prospects with the cairngorms and Loch Inch as the backdrop. 

For operational interest, I'm sure a few sidings could be easily incorporated for the lumber trade or as storage for maintenance stock. (network Rail often does this at Dunkeld).

Dunkeld itself would also prove interesting, but maybe rather more ambitious, there are still a few sidings in operation there. 

I look forward to seeing how things pan out. I use track planning software intermittently, but think nothing compares to grabbing some track and messing around on the board until things look right. Something in your head can end up being all wrong when replicated in reality.