SRman

Hi Peter. No, that's not quite what I meant. CV2 sets the start voltage. What you need is to get both of them to just start moving on the same speed step on the controller, so adjusting CV2 up or down on each loco will allow you to do that. My suggestion is to have them both on the track and set them moving at the same time - ideally with two cabs if you have them. It's a little more cumbersome if you have to use the NCE recall but it can be done. Once you have some initial values you can read off the programming track, you can reprogram the locos on the fly using Programming on the Main (POM). The Power Cab will remember and show you the last value you entered, but cannot read back while using POM. As an example, you could set speed step 1 on the Power Cab and if the loco doesn't move, press esc then enter for the first choice (POM), select the loco number, then choose CV2 and bump the number up slightly - I usually choose increments of 3, before homing in on a usable value that gets the loco just inching along on speed step 1. Repeat for the second loco. I have seen it written elsewhere that some modellers have to disable BEMF settings to reduce locos 'fighting' each other while using consists, but I have never found this necessary myself.

Yes, I think you were. CV2 start volts, CV5 max volts (top speed), CV6 mid-volts (mid-speed), CV3 acceleration rate, CV4 deceleration rate. They're the simple ones to try to match things up. As Rich said above, you could reset both of them, then start with CV2 to get them moving on the same speed step (ideally step 1 or 2), change CVs 3 and 4 to 1 after first noting their original values, then match top speed using CV5. After that, play with the values in CV6 to match the mid-speeds, then restore CVs 3 and 4 to the same values (either the default values you wrote down, or new values you prefer). Also, make sure both are running on 128 speed steps on the Power Cab, before trying to consist them again. The reason for reducing CVs 3 and 4 while setting the top and mid-speeds is so they both reach those speeds before running off the end of your layout!

Usually those should work very well together. If you change them both to use a speed table, you can fine tune the behaviours, although that will take a fair bit of time and fiddling about with the settings. I use JMRI Decoder Pro for such things as one can adjust the speed steps using sliders then just tell it to write the settings to a decoder.

What decoders are in the two 25s, Peter?

I have now made a proper start on the 4-car A60 Stock train. Initially, I had sprayed the body shells in a metallic silver, but I really didn't find the effect convincing. The A Stock in original form had actually quite a dull finish, so I have experimented with shades of greys, settling on Humbrol colours #129 for the main body, #126 for the corner castings, driver's doors and communication doors, and #67 for the roofs. I have included some before and after photos of the bodies to show the effects of the different colour schemes. Grey #126 is not perfect; I feel I need a slightly bluer shade, but I really don't want to mix it as that makes touching up later much more difficult. As the photos show, there are a few touch ups still needed to the lighter two greys. I have also started on the bogie assembly, but the axles are a little too long, and the bearings are already countersunk enough, so work on those has had to be paused pending an order for some steam Era wheels on 25mm axles. The Tenshodo SPUD motor bogies have been in storage for a long time, so were oiled and tested on DC. They ran fine so I have prepared them for DCC conversion and also added the adapters for the side frames and couplings. I glued the bogie stretchers to one side frame for each bogie, but the rest of the assembly has to await the correct wheels/axles arriving. The old Hornby Collectors Club card is now serving as a mixing palette for the Araldite 2-part epoxy glue I am using!

I think 4248 is the one preserved in the LT Museum.

I have given each of the five cars in the Q Stock train a coat of satin varnish to seal the transfers and also to tone down the high gloss finish (which has the added benefit of hiding some of the blemishes in my paintwork!). This is a combined photo of the two Q27 cars - the mixing of the two photos into one can give a few minor odd effects. Note that I have yet to fit the shoebeams to the DM at this end of the train.

The Replica chassis has heaps of power. It has no difficulty whatsoever with the five coaches plus itself (4-car class 455 plus 2-car 456). I haven't tried it on any gradients but I really don't think it would have any problems. I also don't think it would have any problem with a second 4-car unit (i.e. seven coaches plus itself) - I'll have to try it with a couple of coaches from my Bratchell class 319 unit (which also has one of the Replica chassis powering it). The Replica chassis has a reasonable amount of weight and two motors driving one bogie each, so boasts 8-wheel drive and electrical pickup. The only fly in the ointment at the moment is that the 64' chassis are unavailable (the 57' ones are in stock). I have asked Replica to advise me when the 64' chassis become available again, with a view to purchasing and powering another Bratchell unit. I did post a short video of the units running, although it's not of particularly good quality. With apologies to Darius for hijacking his thread.

Very nicely done, Darius. I am still to detail the ends on my NSE 456, but the end details on your units will provide me with further inspiration. I have been debating the best way to do those jumper 'hoods'. My unit remains a 'dummy' unpowered unit, although, like you, I intend to fit lights. Power for mine comes from a Bratchell class 455/8 unit with a Replica Railways motorised chassis installed. I do like the Bratchell kits; they make up very easily and quickly, and the basic shells are very robust, but they do require quite a bit of extra detailing to really bring the best out of them. The difficult livery bits are taken care of for the modeller, though. I know I baulk at the thought of painting NSE liveries!

Thanks Peter, that would be really terrific. It will save me a bit of modelling time fabricating one myself.

I have just had a long session adding transfers to the whole 5-car Q Stock train. Using ModelMaster's Q Stock numbers, I have been able to number the Q23 cars and the Q38 trailer correctly, but there were no suitable numbers made up for the Q27 cars, so, being lazy, I used existing (incorrect) pre-made numbers; for the Q27 DM I actually used an R Stock number inverted with a '2' cut off, to get 6011 (which was 21109). The Q27 trailer received a Q38/O/P Stock trailer number starting with a '0'. I can live with the compromises! Also added were 'London Transport' underlined fleet names on the DM cars only, and 'No Smoking' roundels on appropriate windows, gleaned from photos in various books I have.

Adding to the above, I finished the job today, wiring in the remaining three switches. After testing the sections and isolating trains while driving others on analogue power, I went to change the points and nothing happened. I had to do some delving under the layout with all my messy wiring, but eventually traced it to the main return power feed to the point motors through the stud contacts had dropped out of the chocolate block connector, as well as breaking the end off one of the multiple wires. A quick trim and stripping of the wire ends, followed by twisting them all together again and reinserting them into the connector fixed that problem. I'll solder the collection of wires together next time I have the soldering iron turned on again, but in the meantime this works fine as it is.

Thanks for that offer, John. Part of me wants to expand he rake to six coaches, but my platform and loop lengths really preclude this as six coaches plus loco (short as that is!) may not quite fit, or, at the very least, would be a very tight fit. I will give you a call if I do decide to take any, and will pay you whatever the cost of the model plus postage. You have already been very generous to me with the Great Western transfer sheet you sent. Somewhere in one of my storage boxes I have a rake of five of these Farsh coaches, with four in Southern Railway lined olive livery and the fifth just painted plain olive. That fifth coach could be a candidate to go into LT brown if the train length does fit.

It is correct: the U.S. power supply does the circuit-breaking for the unit, but Australian and U.K. ones probably don't. It is a better idea to incorporate an overload trip or current-limiting device in the lines feeding the tracks. While this adds a little cost to the base unit cost, such things are not expensive anyway. An earlier solution I used was to put a very cheap light unit intended for trailers in the circuit. If there was an overload, the light took the current and lit up, leaving the tracks and locomotives/decoders protected from the high current. The cost of the trailer tail lights at the time was around $AUS4 (approximately £GB2) each. I think they are dearer now, but still not expensive. My present solution is to have 3 amp pop-out circuit breakers bought of eBay, and again not expensively. I use one circuit-breaker per track circuit. That means that any short on any part of the track circuit trips that entire line but leaves the other one(s) running - I presently have two tracks (inner and outer circuits) but this will be expanding to four tracks soon (upper and lower levels with double track on each). I use an NCE 5 amp Power Pro system, expanded from my original single Power Cab, originally bought back in about 2005. I replaced the power supply with a laptop power supply with a 16V AC 5 amp output. Laptop power supplies are stabilised and provide a bit of capacitance to smooth out any fluctuations, so make very acceptable supplies for our purposes; they can be bought cheaply online too. Just be careful to choose those with suitable voltages and amperages - 2.2 amps is the safe limit for a Power Cab, although they do have a bit of leeway. Using the ammeter built in to the Power Cab, I have checked power consumption on a display layout at an exhibition, with six sound locomotives turned on (including some Heljan ones) and two under load, and the power consumption didn't go over 0.8 amps. Modern locomotives (including Heljan ones) really are quite efficient. Double-heading may tax the power a little more. As others have said, try handling each system before buying, and look at the future expansion options. There is no redundancy with developing the Power Cab into a larger system later. I can't speak for the Prodigy system as I have no experience with that at all.

Also work in progress is a set of coaches for LT loco-hauled services. As I cannot justify the costs of a train of LT Dreadnought coaches from Radley Models, I have been using old Graham Farish OO non-gangwayed 'generic' coaches painted brown instead. I recently purchased off eBay sellers two more all-seconds to go with the two brake coaches and one all-second I already had. One of the 'new' coaches was in fully lined Great Western livery while the other had been very well repainted into BR blue with a first class section designated in the centre. It was a real shame to paint over the lovely finishes on these two but it had to be done. All five coaches have only had one coat of brown so far, but they are starting to look the part. The two brake coaches have Cherry Paints' LT brown, while the other three have two different standard Humbrol browns while I assess which colour best represents the rather dirty brown these coaches ended up in. The Humbrol leather #62 used on the two most recent ones seems a little light but may actually weather down better. Anyway, here is the full train posed with Heljan LT ex-Metropolitan #8, Sherlock Holmes. Also off the workbench is a class 25 which has been on the bench for a very long time. It is a hybrid Hornby body on a slightly shortened Bachmann chassis. The underframe still requires me to build a new boiler water tank, because the Bachmann model was a later style locomotive built without this feature. It has been numbered as D5183, which I have photographic proof of having visited the Southern Region. It was also a complete repaint from a blue TOPS numbered body shell. D5183 is seen here at the end of a line of Derby Sulzer type 2s, on the viaduct over Newton Broadway LT station, with the other two locos being Sutton's Locomotive Works class 24s, D5017 and D5000, which were both Southern allocated locomotives between 1959 and 1962.

With the ability to switch the Underground lines to DC or DCC in mind, I wired it initially with ease of isolating certain sections to allow for easier DC operation. Up until now I have had to move trains off whichever circuit I want to run on analogue to prevent them from moving while other trains run. I have commenced the operation to incorporate isolating switches (simple on-off toggles) on all four of the station loops, plus on the branch. I succeeded in doing the two loops on the outer circuit this evening, while the switches for the inner circuit loops and branch remain unwired at the moment. What it means currently is that I only have to shift one train to clear a track for running on DC, while I leave the other train in one of the loops (either the platform line or the passing loop). There are a few stray bits of plastic swarf trapped behind the clear acrylic that I will have to blow out with a bit of compressed air later.

Thanks for that info; very useful to know when I get to weathering both of the Bachmann panniers ... and the old Hornby one I tarted up a long time ago but have to reline now. The Hornby one has separate handrails and Romford/Markits wheels fitted, and will eventually go onto DCC with a refurbished X04 motor with a neo-magnet fitted. It does make some sense of the various close-up photos of the LT pannier tanks in several of the colour albums I have on my bookshelves.

I can't help with the TTS 31, but I ave a 37, which I removed from the Hornby model and installed into a ViTrains 37. It's not too bad, certainly for the money, anyway.

As detailed in my workbench blog, I have been working on glazing each car of my London Transport Q Stock train. Flushed with success, I have videoed the Q and CO/CP Stock trains circulating on Newton Broadway. Note, the Q Stock still doesn't have any number or fleetname transfers yet; those are the next items on the agenda. The Q Stock train consists of the following variants: Q23 DM + Q27 T + Q23 DM + Q38 T + Q27 DM. At a later stage I want to add one more trailer (T) car, preferably of Q31 or Q35 types.

Another recent project on my workbench: an LT pannier tank, L91. This is actually a new locomotive wearing old clothes! L91 was an earlier release from Bachmann with the dreaded split chassis. I hard-wired a DCC decoder into ti, and the running was good apart from a constant waddle. I replaced several of the wheelsets, but still none were entirely concentric. Eventually, I managed to get a much newer pannier (BR black 9759) with a decoder already fitted. With some very minor modifications, the old pannier body sits very nicely on the new pannier chassis. I replaced the cheap Bachmann decoder with a TCS DP2X-UK decoder for better running (not that the Bachmann one was too bad, but the TCS one allows a lot more fine tuning). I need to repaint the wheels and coupling rids on the new chassis, but that won't take long to do. L91 is seen here with much newer DCC-ready L89 behind. The shades of red are quite different, but looking at photos of the real ones, it seemed to darken considerably over time with age and weathering. I may try to sell off the old chassis and the black pannier body later. The new body doesn't fit the old chassis particularly well.

Glazing of my Q Stock train continues apace. The Q31 DM has now been completed, leaving only a Q23 DM to be done. The latter is also the only motorised car in the train, with two Black Beetle motor bogies wired together through a TCS T1 decoder.

I get the feeling that Paul has some idea of what is coming next, but wants to tease us. Obviously, he cannot tell us though.

I am making progress on glazing my Q Stock train. The latest addition is the Q38 car. I tried Phil Radley's moulded flush glazing but didn't like the effect at all. I pulled the bits I had already done back out, and started again from scratch. The four large windows in the middles of each side were glazed as two pairs, and will have the window pillars painted back on from the outside. Likewise, the angled vent glass will have the dividers painted on by hand. The Krystal Klear I used as the glue was still wet and milky coloured in places when I took the photo.

I agree, especially for the lovely teak finish, but the next best thing is a rake of the old Graham Farish (OO) generic non-gangwayed coaches I am using. Painted in LTs brown, they look reasonable behind #8, Sherlock Holmes.

I took my Sherlock Holmes over to DougN's layout last year and ran it with his Hornby teak Gresley non-gangwayed stock, and it looked quite at home.