SRman

Sorry d00m, I missed your comment until now. I have wired these strips directly to the track pickups, so no intermediate decoders ... For an underground train I figured there was really no need to be able to switch the lights off. There's no reason why you could not add decoders, apart from expense - for this six car unit, there are already two decoders on board for the DM cars, so four extra decoders would be required. For modern units with fluorescent lighting, the colours tend to be colder than older units with incandescent bulbs. Even so, many operators and builders have now realised the impersonal feel cold-coloured lighting and cold internal decors give, and are tending to warmer lighting and colours nowadays. With the cheap lighting strips I have used, it is a relatively easy job to swap them over and experiment with effects. These cheap lighting strips come with the LEDs wired in sets of three with a built in resistor for each triplet. They still come out extremely bright on 12 volts.

Since only one panto would be raised at any one time, have a changeover switch underneath to select one panto or t'other - this would be worked by a single function on a decoder. It would still require two servos, but gets over the problem of using two functions.

Speaking only for myself (selfish, or what? ) I don't need anything more than a dummy pantograph. Now, working third rail shoes might be more useful to me ...

A very small but important improvement to the corner shop in Newton Broadway village: I have used a little Wills stone paving to create a door step/ ramp and some Peco stone walling to add an extension downwards from floor level to street level. I still have to add pavements, but these small additions make it look a lot more convincing. This was a 'quickie' job done while waiting for two LokSound decoders to be reprogrammed (for a friend) on my LokPorgrammer. Corner Shop Improvements - 2 by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Note that I am trying out Flickr, with a view to getting out of Photobucket. I still haven't got the hang of their menus yet, but am trying to create sub-albums within a 'Rail' category.

Wot 'e sed was they sound like they suck!!!

Conversely, I renumbered my D5016 to D5017 the same way, by removing the last digit only; I used HMRS (ex-PC Models) pressfix numbers which also match the font well, but are a fraction too short. We need to be able to blend the Modelmaster and HMRS ones and average them out! just a thought: if you could renumber to something with a straighter number, you could cut off the bottom edge of the number. A '7' could be shortened, but that obviously cannot be the number you use (no prizes for guessing why!), but '1' or '4' could also be doctored. I'm not familiar with the Consett number series (I know it has been mentioned before) but could something like D5111 be used, replacing the last two digits with shortened '1's? Or perhaps, D5104? If those aren't suitable numbers, feel free to shoot me down in flames. p.s. That's a really great weathering job on D5107.

My first thought was "Wow! That must have been a very heavy landing!" Then I read on and found Phil had beaten me to it. Oh well.

I may be taking us a little off topic for a moment, but having ridden Sydney's single and double deck trains in the past, I can confirm that the double deckers' ceiling height was adequate for me (at 6' 2" in the old measure), and the immense width of the single deck cars was immediately apparent when boarding through the wide doorways. Ironically, we in Melbourne have a wider track gauge but narrower and lower loading gauge. The one and only experimental 4-car double deck set here was based on Sydney's Tangara trains, but was 20cm lower (approximately 8"). That made a big difference to the interior clearances and even average height passengers were knocking their heads on the staircases! We also had our "red rattlers" in Melbourne, wooden bodied EMU cars, many with clerestory roofs. The first electrics ran here in 1919 (7 years before Sydney's, I think), but some, at least, of the coaches were older and had been converted from steam-hauled stock (which sounds very reminiscent of Southern Railway and their predecessors practises). Getting back to the Triang units, they aren't too bad as models, certainly for the times. They capture the character of the units, albeit without the fine detail of modern stuff. The running qualities will be pure 1950/60s, but the robustness will be unquestionable. They are rare and command silly prices, but ultimately, they are only worth whatever someone is prepared to pay. In this case, that's probably quite a high sum! There are more accurate models available in HO scale from Berg's Hobbies. These aren't exactly cheap either, but do boast some fine detail and modern, DCC-ready mechanisms, and include several different types/designs of single decker, plus the early Tulloch double deck cars that were used initially with the 'Sputniks' (which had four traction motors per Driving Motor), and later with the early Comeng double decker Driving motor coaches. Berg's also have the slightly later Comeng stainless steel double deck sets as two or four car units. I have none of these models and have no connection with Berg's, but thought it might be worth mentioning these for anyone who really wants to model the Sydney suburban system, as opposed to the collectors who would be more interested in the Triang unit. p.s. I am about to break my normal British modelling habit, and purchase an Auscision NSW V set interurban double deck unit; probably the one and only Australian train that could tempt me to part with some cash. I have had some truly great trips on these units for real, north to Gosford and the Central Coast, and west into the Blue Mountains. They were supremely comfortable to ride in, as well as giving lovely views from the upper decks, and they looked quite good too.

PM sent.

They do look good. I wasn't really in the market for a Warwell, but I got to thinking the other day that I could use a slightly more modern camera wagon than the Bachmann bogie bolster wagon I'm currently using. While this has decent, non-wobbly wheels and axles, it has the older style medium couplings, which I can't just change over for use with different systems. A Warwell with the raised floor would fill the bill admirably, and its NEM pockets would allow for tension lock or Kadee couplings to be plugged in according to needs. Well, look at that. I've just about talked myself into getting one!

Certainly true of me ... I had a surge of madness after buying the initial one, and ended up with all three!

There is nothing to stop Hornby announcing another, uncatalogued, run of Pecketts at any time during the year. They have done such things in the past.

Was that a fROYdian slip, there, Roy? A loo-hauled train??

The 8-pin socket isn't a stumbling block at all. I have fitted sound to an 8-pin Bachmann class 24 in the past (chassis all but identical to the 25). Finding space for speakers is not s easy but can be done. In the 24 I fitted a rectangular bass-enhanced speaker on top of the chassis block at one end, with a round 20mm speaker at the other end - this had to have the sound chamber cut down considerably to fit inside the body shell. If I was doing this one nowadays, I would use a sugar cube speaker instead of the round one, or possibly I would have used a 'dumbo' set up with a pair of sugar cubes in a specially designed enclosure in place of both in the previous setup. It may take a bit of experimentation to get the best sound possible, but speakers are relatively cheap to buy. Either ESU LokSound v4 or Zimo decoders could be used. p.s. As Cloggy Dog suggested, I did have to remove the fan assembly.

Precision Labels do some suitable ones, including the headboard for the 71. http://www.precisionlabels.com/

The Lenz has four functions plus a logic function output, which is exactly what the DJM 71 needs. By default, the headcodes will work on F5 , with the other defaults being marker lights on F0, cab lights at #2 end on F1 and cab lights at #1 end on F2. I swapped the cab light ends to be more logical (to me) - F1 works #1 end, F2 works #2 end now.

I have been taking advantage of the long weekend to improve some of the electrics under Newton Broadway, in turn leading to improvements in signalling and lighting. I started by wiring up a 12 segment "chocolate block" connector, so that the two DCC output wires from my NCE Power Pro command station now have five extra loops each on one side of the chocolate block, allowing easy connection on the other side for dcc track, accessory and signalling take-offs. The first use was for three of Train-Tech's new sensor signals. For the LT lines, all are 2-aspect signals. I had experimentally cleared some ballast and used the track contacts on two of these signals, but I really wanted to separate the DCC feeds to the signals. For the third one, I ran a couple of bus wires from the chocolate block at the command station end to the far end of the layout, where a smaller chocolate block (3 segments) provides connection to the signal. I snipped off the under-track connector arms as per Train-Tech's instructions, then soldered wires to the two terminals indicated. These wires were connected into the smaller chocolate block terminal. This signal has a "feather", with five white lights showing (I know, LT tended to only have three lights - I may paint out two light lenses later). I followed he instructions for programming them as accessories, although something didn't quite match my plans: as the feather means this signal replaces a 2-headed junction signal, I intended the main signal to be #18 and the feather to be #19, matching the original track diagram I have. However, the signal decoder had other ideas and insisted on the feather being operated as #18. Not a great problem as I have two of Train-Tech's mimic switches on order to control this and a second similar signal at the other end of the LT tracks (one that was then plugged into the track). Today, I treated the other two sensor signals to the same wiring treatment, and allocated addresses 1 and 2 to the red/green override and feather aspects, respectively (this one worked according to plan!). The remaining one is at the tunnel mouth and is still fully automatic. Later on, I want to insert a couple of these 2-aspect signals in the tunnel sections themselves, feeding back to the previous signals in each direction. That will await a few experiments, as I am not sure they will work properly in the darkness of the tunnels - I may actually have to add a directional light on the opposite side of the track to each such signal to operate the sensors properly. We shall see! I have snapped off a couple of photos on the mobile phone of the initial installation, showing green with feather, and red after triggering the sensor. Sorry about the lens distortion. I am definitely happy with the results so far, even with the slight compromise in appearance caused by the visible electronics and connectors adjacent to the signal posts. Next I'll have to add the ladders and other detailing bits Train-Tech provide. I thought it better to get all the heavy handling out of the way first.

Ditto what RFS said. I found the Zimo decoder gave smoother running but the Lenz decoder, with BEMF switched off completely, works quite well and works all the lights correctly. I have not succeeded in getting the headcode lights to work with the Zimo MX634D. I PM's RFS to see what he had tried, but like him, have had no success with the lighting function for the headcodes. Experiments with different decoders will continue! The best running one which works all the lights correctly too is the ESU LokSound v4; mine has legomanbiffo sounds but it should not matter whose sounds are on it, this decoder works well. However, I have no intention of fitting sound to the second of my class 71 models, which is why I am trying out different non-sound decoders.

I think I get the second sentence - forgive me if I'm wrong - but I think it suggests that Hornby have modelled locos in the overlap period where some were in original form and some were in rebuilt form. Yes, Hornby have done that with some of the locos. The MNs, in particular, though, had quite a lot of minor modifications that limit the period of time each model represents: things like the cabs, as mentioned, being rebuilt to the 'Vee' fronted form (except the last 10 which were built with that cab style), the front fairings in front of the cylinders being removed (early 1950s), safety valves being moved behind the dome, smoke deflector modifications, etc., and that's not even touching on the tender variations, modifications and swaps! It is quite feasible to accurately run original and rebuilt forms side by side for the MNs, as Ian Hargrave indicated, because the last in original form was not rebuilt until late 1959 (35028, Clan Line), whereas the first was done in 1956 (35018, British India Line). With the light pacifics, only 60 were rebuilt out of the 110 in service, so it is quite possible to have rebuilt and originals side by side right to the end of steam, from around 1957/8 (I can't remember, off the top of my head, when the first rebuild was done). I hope that answers the question, at least in part.

Another fictitious industrial livery from me: this Hornby Sentinel started off as a lighter blue with yellow stripes on the buffer beams and coupling rods, and bright yellow buffer faces. I have used a darker blue, red buffer beams, cranks and coupling rods, grey roof and LNER white/black/white lining, with Bulleid 'sunshine' style numbers. I did leave a little of the blue 'wasp' striping on the lower parts of the buffer beams. It will eventually gain a fictitious name as well.

TWO coats of varnish??

I'm going to tell my wife on you for giving me ideas!

Mine is a fairly low speed layout, with the intention being to allow viewers to see the trains glide and snake past. When the upper level is eventually operational, the trains have a length of viaduct to wend their way along too. Even so, with the discussions on top speed at the back of my mind, I decided to video trains running at what I consider "reasonable" speeds for my layout. Using my NCE Power Pro system with a 15 V power supply, the two DJM class 71s are seen here with E5004 with Lenz Silver+ decoder on a Pullman train with lights on speed step 91 (out of 126), while E5003 (edited to correct a typo), with ESU LokSound v4 decoder is on a milk train at speed step 43. While they could both go a little faster than this, it wouldn't look particularly comfortable in my layout's setting. I'll let others be the judges of what would suit their wants or needs.

I'll give it a go, but it wasn't the Java that was the problem. I just couldn't get the COM port to communicate correctly. Given more time I could probably sort it, but, to be honest, I wasn't too bothered because the existing system works, and works well without too many glitches.

I have just upgraded to v3.10 but cannot use v4 or above because that computer is on Windows XP. I set it up specifically for me to use with the trains and programming, and was built from leftover parts, so is fairly geriatric itself! p.s. I also use it for testing and rescuing other peoples' computers. If it gets a virus or something like that, there is nothing of real value on it so it can be reimaged or restored with no real loss to me. It also boots into Windows 2000 for a very simple but robust interface when I need to do a bit of computer programming. p.p.s I did try the newer version of Decoder Pro on my Windows 10 laptop but it didn't want to communicate to the serial port on my Power Pro system using a serial to USB converter cable which does work with the older computer; I tested it just to check - the older train room computer has a serial port installed anyway (I put it there myself!).