Mr.S.corn78

Hi all,

As above I'm looking for a Slaters MR 8 Ton box van kit please.

Thanks

HI all,

What a great weekend!! It was the first time exhibiting at Perth and at a Scottish show and both my self and the operating team on the layout had a great weekend. The organising club where all very freindly and polite and nothing was to much trouble. Being a Scottish show the Piping in of the first visitors of the day was a nice touch and even the added karokoe on sunday (not the club or centres doing I hasten to add) didn't

The show, for the breif periods I got to walk round was great with something for everyone. I managed to spend far too much money on bits and bobs!!

For those that missed it, its well worth visiting so put it in the diary for next year and the only thing left to say is a massive thanks to Stan and his team for letting us come and play trains for the weekend and look forward to being allowed to repeat the trip soon.

Cheers

Simon

EXHIBITION TASTER 1.jpg

 

Over the coming weeks we shall attempt to wet your appetite by showing 'Tasters' of layouts that will be appearing at WIGAN 2017. 

The photograph above features Simon Howard's 'WAINTHROP BRIDGE' which should feel completely at home in Wigan being as it is a 'Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway' layout set in the 1920's, albeit more Yorkshire than Lancashire. However I am sure that some of the locomotives and rolling stock must have run through Wigan.

 [/b].

More than you would know Eaton, more than you would know.

Honoured to listed as the first taster layout and looking forward to the show as always.

Cheers

Simon

, and that is all that matters.

 

Mike.

Always!!

Hi All,

So to reach the milestone of 100 post on the thread and cause its Friday, here is a a quick video of the aim that we are heading towards

Due to the layout wiring we could only run it on DC whilst we did the testing hence the speed of the loco as the controller being used was struggling to power the whole layout.

But we still had fun

More testing was undertaken during the day and the last one to run was this

HI all,

So after a very successful weekend of testing,  here are a couple of videos so you can see what we hopefully achieve.

If the above works i will post up a couple more in the next few days

Cheers

HI,

Always a nice show and looking forward to attending again to play trains/eat cake, Operate the layout   

Its also a chance to go and watch trains at the other end of the Village.

Cheers

Simon

Looks good and my order is already in.

Hi Mike,

Add me to the list please

Thanks

Simon

I don't know what your plans are for point control, but as you are going DCC you may be considering servo systems, so can I offer a word of advice, don't. Keep the existing "old school" system and integrate it into the new.

Guess how I know what hard work it is to convert a large layouts existing system to servos, although as there are more of you and you'll be considerably more skillfull at electrics than I, it may not be such an issue.

 

Mike.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm of the school if it isn't broke don't fix it

Having said that they may or may not get changed depending on what they are.

The fiddle Yard ones will be left as is as there are quite a few of them

Cheers

Simon

I would love to see it used for some sort of traffic, i saw Charwelton numerous times at exhibitions but never saw the branch used. Was it ever used?

As far as I can tell from the wiring bible it is wired up. Some more investigation is needed

IMHO, if the GC had remained open it would have been primarily used as a freight artery with very little, if any, passenger traffic. Are you applying rule 1, or keeping something like true to real world developments?

Seeing the new owners names, I thought at least one would have had it converted to EM by now!

Looking forward to developments no matter what.

 

Mike.

Cheers

Simon

First let me offer congratulations to the "syndicate" (as described by the op), on purchasing such a fantastic layout, as I was reading through your posts, I couldn't help but remember an MRJ feature on this layout. What was most striking was seeing a picture, of a seemingly endless rake of oil tankers, most of the pictures in that issue of the magazine were in black and white, and while they were very atmospheric, seeing the colour pictures from this post, really offer a different perspective.

 

From the size of the layout in the article, I can only imagine the task in front of you, so good luck with your endeavors. Are you planning on adding to, or modifying the layout plan in any way?

 

Looking forward to following this thread.

 

Tom D

Hi Tom,

The plan is to leave the track work on the senic of the layout alone.

We may moth ball the quarry siding and part of the yard but that is still something that we need to discuss as we have quite a bit of departmental stock so it may be turned over to PW/S&T.

I have a couple of ideas for the non Senic parts of the track work but that needs to be discussed before anything is made public so to speak.

Thanks

Simon

First task has been to start and look at DCC conversion using the comprehensive book of plans and a first look at the main panel. Over to our DCC expert Simon with help (or hinderence)from myself.

image.jpeg

Hi all,

So as I'm tasked with the conversion to DCC of the layout, with help from Andy, I thought I would say hi.

The planning for the conversion are still in a very early stage with a study of the panels, looms and the great wiring Manuel that the original builders did its hopefully going to be slightly easier than first thought.

A few changes will be made to not only the board wiring but also the panels which as you cansee from the photos are awe ok of art and a real advert for the workmanship that has gone in to this layout.

As and when we make a start we will of course pop a few photos up here for you all to see.

As an aside we have already got an exhibition invite so the electrical department best get a move on.

Cheers

Simon

HI,

As has been mentioned its not just about risk. There are lots of things to be taken in to account as has been mentioned. One for example is the specialist knowledge of the insurance company to know what they are dealing with. I'm guessing you use a specialist company for your Theater? or one that at least understands your industry and knows the risks.

Some insurance companies who don't have the knowledge needed won't touch certain items or if they do its for a lot less than its value. I have two layouts and all my model railway stuff and i was told by our household insurance company to get specialist insurance as the most they would pay out for the whole lot was £1000, that wouldn't even start to cover the contents of my tool box let alone 2 layouts and all the other railway stuff.

I have had first hand experience with this as a good few years ago now i have a full race spec mountain bike stolen from inside the house that was worth the best part of £4000 and all i got from the insurance was £1000 as it was classed as sporting equipment. If i had gone with one of the insurance companies that dealt with mountain bikes i would have got back the full amount.

Also the venue may have small print in the contact of hire. I use to organize an exhibition and one of the conditions of hire was to have insurance that would cover all aspects of the event from the venue to public liability and everything in between.

cheers

Simon

I tried to get F10 and above to work on our club NCE throttle tonight with zero success. When I press 'Option' all it says on the screen is 'Programme on Main' or something similar and no F Nos. appear anywhere. I can't even get F10 - F12 to work using the 'Shift' key and the bottom row of buttons.

 

I'm getting seriously frustrated by this now, and I can't find anyone at the club who knows enough about the throttle to help out. 

Hi Kit,

Sorry for not replying to this sooner I've only just seen this and Bruce has kindly supplied the info needed.

Cheers

Simon

Kit this should help took an age to find but it works and is so simple

 

Pressing HEADLIGHT will display “F10 through F19 on the bottom line of the cab.

Releasing the SHIFT key and pressing a digit will toggle that number plus ten. For example: Pressing 6 will toggle F16, with the display returning to normal.

 

Pressing HEADLIGHT a second time will display “F21 through F28” on the cab. Pressing a digit with this display will toggle that number plus twenty.

 

Pressing HEADLIGHT a third time will return to the F10 through F19 display.

 

Pressing  Prog/Esc at any time will abort the operation.

Regards Paul.

HI Paul,

It should be OPTION that you press to toggle up the Function sets not headlight, unless you have changed the key mapping on the handset

Cheers

Simon

Don't give up on her Scott,

 

It's a new model, and still really being tested by us, Bugs will arise, But we all need to say what they are and list them on here so we can help each other.

 

I think your right, taking a break for the moment is the best thing to do, Frustration will only cause problems. Stick a decoder in her, and just run her without the lights for now,

 

If you are having the issue with other decoders then it must be E-Train, you shouldn't need to do any mapping, A lokprogrammer is great, but only works with ESU decoders to get the most out of them, So don't bother buying one unless you have more ESU decoders.

 

Ian may be able to help, but he's the sound guy, and probably can't do anything because  you don't have a lokprogrammer and you shouldn't need to anyway, like you said "plug in and go"

 

Should it not be the case if Rapido recommend a certain decoder, then you should be able to buy one off them.

HI all,

Craig I haven't singled you out other than to try to explain a couple of points in your reply.

The way the lights are set up means that the tail lights are independent to the head lights and have their own outputs on the main PCB. So if you haven't got a decoder that has had the headlights and the correct aux outputs linked you won't get the the lights on the Aux output to work when you press the F0 key.

For example on an 8 pin decoder you would have the white wire and the green wire set to activate when you press and then to get the other set of lights to work it would be yellow and purple wires that have to be linked.

You could if you wish change the settings on a decoder so that you have to press individual Function keys to have all the main running lights turn on.

The lights would also show a problem if you use a normal 21 pin blanking plug from say Bachmann as the various outputs haven't been linked on most of them so it would show the headlights to work but not the tail lights.

As Rob has mentioned in the UK RTR market its normal to have the head lights at one end linked via the circuit to the tail lights at the other so the both light up. Its only the past few years that they have put a switch on the loco to enable the tail lights to be switched off if you wish to have the prototypicaly operated whilst pulling stock. Now this may be fine when the power only has to travel a few cm but from one end of the apt-e to the other is around the 4ft mark so it may need a bit more power to get them to work hence why they are on diffrent outputs or it may simply be the case that this is the way they do it in the Canadian market.

The reason for suggesting a lokprogrammer to do the programming is and i know from experience from fitting a lot of decoders that the other possible programmer (other may be available that i don't know of) and one that i use called a sprog can't work ESU decoders and can do funny things to ESU decoders whilst programming one on it.

Now i understand that your not going to buy over £100 worth of gear to solve one problem and I use mine a lot with work so its been worth the investment for me.

If I had a Lokpilot decoder I would pop it on my programmer and get the CV settings off it so you you could change then/check them on your decoder but unfortunately i only have sound ones and the CVs may be different on the sound ones compered to the normal decoders.

I will try to get hold of a lokpilot decoder over the course of next week and see what i can find out but this may not be till the week after as I'm off to Scotland for a few days with work.

On the subject of selling decoders they may be limited to what they can sell by the terms and conditions set in place by ESU.

Scott, I know things can be frustrating but I'm sure we can solve the problem, it may just take a couple of days to get the settings for you and as Craig has pointed out that unless people post up the problems that they are having other wont know. for example we now know via Craig that if you run an 8 coaches plus another set it will blow the PSU on an ECoS.

Cheers

Simon

Still having issue with the lighting on mine, everything works fine on DC. Rapido says it is a mapping problem and I need to read the decoder manual for that as it beyond their remit of tech help. I have never had to map a decoder before on any of the 40 plus locos I own. Can anyone help with this? 

HI Britfarmer,

Not sure if this has been mentioned but the lights on the apt-e are all on individual outputs i.e.

head lights PC-1

Tail lights PC-1

Head lights PC-2

Tail lights PC-2

Now to have the head lights at PC-1 and tail lights at PC-2 on they have to be activated by the same function button press. ie F0 fwd and the same in reverse.

From reading some of your other posts it sounds like that one of aux outputs that is powering the tail lights in PC-1 is powering up when you press F0 fwd which is doing the headlights in PC-1.

The easiest way is do you know anyone with a lokprogrammer? as they will be able to set up the function outputs in a couple of seconds.

The other way is to work out using the cv table in the manuel which values needs to be in which cv to have it all working correctly.

Its a pity you don't live closer as i would have said post it to me and i would sort it out for you.

cheers

Simon

Morning Simon,

 

The L&Y wagon uses HMRS transfers,

 

http://www.hmrs.org.uk/transfers/transferdetails.php?transferid=1021

 

The LNWR one uses the ones in the kit.

Thanks Paul,

I thought they may be from the HMRS sheet.

I've been on the look for them as a water slide trader but not had any luck so far.

Cheers

Simon

Hi Paul,

Nice work on the loco and wagons.

Whos letters have you used on the L & Y wagon?

Cheers

Simon

Two more order required for the next production run Guys?

HI Pete,

You can put my name down for another one, do i need to order via the site?

Cheers

Simon

Hi,

Thanks for the page correction, I knew it had a 8 in it :-)

Lee

I may have a problem here

If I power everything up I can set a road, set a loco And away we go

All the number keys control their functions and there are 3 repeats on the whistle,bell and lights butons fine so far

pressing the option key on my procab does nothing on the screen

Do I have to do anything before pressing the option key ?????

cheers

You need to set the option key up on your handset. I think (off the top of my head) it's on page 38 of the manual or close too it and this explains what you need to do to change the value for the option key which then enables it to do the extra functions.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Simon