johnb

A little powdered graphite or trace of graphite grease can work wonders. That white grease if it's anything like the stuff that can be found in some locos it can be more of a hindrance than hel,p it can be a bit thick and stodgy for small bearings or for something approximating a bearing. John

Ooops! Keyboard can't count! John

AS far as I can see the bottom has dropped out of the secondhand books market. Mid 2019 I tried to sell some of mine and also a collection that I knew of, I couldn't find anyone to be interested. Unless it's a rare book when someone MIGHT be interested. John

People are people and they do vary a lot!! However, I am always willing to chat and discuss with visitors. At busy times we do try to have a spare operator whose duty is to be a 'talker' usually positioned at one end (my layouts are quite short) so that chats can take place without stopping viewing. There have been times when I felt that I have done more talking than operating during the show! I have had some fascinating conversations on almost any aspect of the layout, general railway matters, met some interesting people and learnt some new stuff. Yes one gets the occasional, "You've got that wrong!" muttered before walking away, but that's usually rare. Other times it's quite suprising chats, at one show in East Anglia al lot of visitors said, "I went to school on one of those." pointing to a green 2BIL! Obviously they had all retired up that way! John

Er ...... No! It is HO I'm afraid. OP corrected. John

I noticed the same thing, then I saw that it's in the topic heading!! John

If you are working in OO (4mm) then it all seems a bit tight to fit satisfactorily in 6ft. In my view it's more suited to an 8ft layout across 2 x 4ft boards. Might I suggest that you lay it out full size using Peco point templates and sitting stock and locos around, before you go too far. John

Thanks CloggyDog Have now highlighted the address and post code in the OP John

Marlow, Maidenhead and District Model Railway Club's annual exhibition will take place at Cox Green Community Centre. on Saturday 6th January 2018, from 10:00am to 4:30pm This is the 12th year our annual exhibition has been held at this venue and we hope you will be able to attend and enjoy the wide variety of both exhibitors and traders we have assembled. Entry Prices: Adults £5.00, Children 5 - 14 £3.00, Under 5's free, Family (2 Adults + 2 or more children) £13. Please Note: There is limited parking on site, it may be necessary to park in the side streets during the morning period. Location Cox Green Community Centre, 51 Highfield Lane, Maidenhead, Berkshire, SL6 3AX Layouts. Barton Hill - British N gauge. Coleford - British (forest of dean) 9mm Gauge 4mm Scale. Cromwell Road Bridge - British O gauge (Club Layout). Eastwood Vermont - Minuteman to McGinnis- American HO gauge. Hayning Island - British 4mm EM gauge. Kidmore Coalhouse - British OO gauge. Lower Craggmere- Southern region OO gauge. New Brushford - British OO gauge. Sankie Kansen - Japanese Z gauge. Schwungischerplatz - German N gauge. Traders. Freestone model accessories. Joe lock model railways. Railwayania. JB model world. Berkshire dolls house and model shop. MMDMRC members second hand stall. Societies/Demo stands. RCTS.

My take on this is that they are solidly built, simple diesel engines with bomb proof electrics. Probably every component was underrated, so that whatever the loading, track or driver did to them they couldn't be overloaded. Unlike today's builds where it seems every item is run to its max to save weight and money John

Your disconnection and re-connection could have cleared the poor connection, you don't say if you have soldered connections or screw terminals or the standard connector, but hopefully it has cleared. As for the temperamental decoder, first thing to try is a reset to factory defaults, often setting CV8 to 8, but it does vary between manufacturers, check the decoder instructions for this. John

A connector that is not making proper contact, through dirt, corrosion, or simply poor contact for some reason will result in a high resistance locally to that connector. Then to get the power through requires more power from the controller, enough high resistance will result in an overload when trying to run something. Does the connector or maybe a fishplate get warm? If so that is taking power over and above what the loco is pulling. John

Good point!

Possibly to hold the door shut! Or to cover up a big hole in the door and stop the draughts(well more or less)

I suspect the chip has the 'run-on-DC' option turned off. If you are going to stay with DC then I suggest that you remove the chip and fit a blanking plug. It is quite possible for someone with a DCC system to get the DC option turned on. However the loco then takes quite a bit of power to wake up the chip and get it to run. Personally I would not risk supplying DC to the motor with the chip plugged in. Hope that helps John

Internet is temperamental here this morning, looks like overload on the local 'net. Anyway, a great set of photos Ian, many thanks for persisting to get them working, well worth the short wait to see them!! It's very good to see what happens behind the nice shiny new trains. All the best John

Hi Ian Links don't work on any of the posts, suggest you have word with Andy Y Merry Christmas John

I've got a DC Kits Tadpole unit part built and it's going together pretty well. It all lines up nicely and looks the part. As it's a 3car unit I'm using a Tenshodo power bogie, which will move it quite happily. I've a 6car long chassis Hastings unit to build and I doubt one Tenshodo will be sufficient, so it's either a Black Beetle or use a second Tenshodo. I've other DC Kits models in progress mainly EPB units and I like them, go together well provided one uses Butanone liquid adhesive, as far as I know it's the only stuff that will stick them. They do need care and patience to build but the end result is well worth the effort. Not certain on the current ordering position from DC Kits though, check with Charlie Petty. John

Indeed they are still very interesting Ian. Keep them coming Good sets of photos John

Was it sold as 'OO' ballast? That can tend to be a bit on the large size. The answer is to use 'N' gauge ballast. Colour isn't bad for brand new ballast, trouble is that on the real railway it doesn't stay clean for very long at all. Needs weathering down for models, I use a weak wash of grotty colours, based around a mix of brown, with some black and a touch of some rusty colour. Over the years I've used enamels or acrylics or even the cheapy poster paints, all can all look quite passable. I need several washes as I start light and gradually darken with successive washes, letting each one dry first. John Edited for typos

Cannot add anything useful to Phil's comments, looks ok but do pull out those wires tucked into the decoder sleeve. John

I've some Atlas US locos ready fitted with DCC and for most of them the instructions indicate that operation on DC is already set up. I have run some on DC from a Gaugemaster hand held controller without problem. I simply put them on a DC operated layout and ran them, yes as Phil says above it does take a few volts to get them moving, but they are fine. John

I'm getting to an absolute stand here. As you will have seen there is no complex, or indeed any, protection on an out-of-the-box Tenshodo, just the hard connection between pickups and motor. Tenshodos should not draw anywhere near enough current to trip any reasonable decoder. If it was that faulty the DC supply should have tripped or the bogie would get very hot. Phil has mentioned a point, you have removed your dc wiring links haven't you? John

That sounds a real possible. But, have you tried running the bogie with only the decoder attached? One other point, are you sure that there isn't a whisker of wire or a whisker from the brass pickup strips bridging somewhere. You mention some earlier DC wiring, I assume that as you are DCC/DC savvy that there isn't a strand from that bridging something. Just clutching a straws here, but been there done that!! John

Yes to pull the tension lock coupler out of the NEM pocket does need a bit of determination, but it will come out. John