SRman

I haven't bothered with the speaker clips, simply using black-tack to stick the speakers down, a solution I have used on many other models as well.

No, I soldered the resistor directly to the bases of the pins for the motor connections. I kept the wires to the resistor long, and put heat shrink tubing on the bare wires so the decoder sits over the wires but cannot short out on them. The resistor was bent down slightly to hang in empty space, allowing for any heat dissipation to occur without touching any of the coach interior mouldings.

My LSWR set arrived today. I have posted these pics in my layout topic too, so if you saw that, please scroll on past. After posing a couple of photos of the set out of the box, one with a suitable LSWR M7 loco, I experimented with couplings within the set, settling for the moment on Hornby's shorter magnetic couplings. However, I think the coaches could safely go closer together still, seeing as they have kinematic coupling mechanisms. As someone posted earlier, it should be possible to have the buffers touching on the straights. Ignore the modern stock in the background as I am currently running sectorisation and into privatisation periods.

Nice work if you can get it! 😅 If you look at the photo I posted, you'll see one of my cab handrails had gone missing in action. I did fix that later.

Body-wise, the Lima models are quite good, with the side detailing being excellent, including having somewhat delicate but very fine plastic driver's door handrails, but the cab fronts need the moulded handrails shaved off and replaced with wire to really add the cream topping. You could add flush glazing and lighting if you are so inclined, but the Lima model does capture the right look even without those things (I haven't done them). Mine has a later Hornby RailRoad chassis under it, which didn't have the buffer beam cowlings, so I had to add those from plastic sheet, and this photo shows up the rough edges rather cruelly.

We used to know someone who did that ... can't think who ... 😜

A slight diversion from the garage/hill scene (on which work still continues on the detailing), my LSWR cross-country set arrived from Kernow today. After a couple of quick photos, I swapped the internal couplings from the tension locks to some Hornby short magnetic couplings, which do look better and also close up the gaps a little.

Something to note from my playing around, I tried the 560 ohm resistor trick across the motor outputs, but the LAIS and Imperium decoders were still unreadable on either of the Power Cab or the Power Pro systems. The Zimo decoder I tried was readable on the Power Cab even without the resistor, but not on the Power Pro (with or without resistor).

There were reports of such problems with a batch of ESU decoders (not just the LokSounds, either). Whichever way, it was a fault on my layout that caused it rather than an outright decoder fault. If it had a weak component or two, that would have contributed. The decoder came from Buckambool Model Trains in New South Wales, and Jarryd there is usually very helpful: I have emailed him with the details (only last Sunday evening) but haven't heard back yet. Edit - Tuesday 12 hours after I posted this: Jarryd got back to me earlier and said send it back and he'll replace it. As we surmised, it may well have come from the faulty batches.

So how do the DHL drivers cope with the bright yellow bonnets glaring back at them as they drive? They probably already have the welding masks on board. 😉🤣 (Siku model image from Siku's own website)

Thanks, that was useful. I found 30 a little brighter than I wanted, and settled on 16, but it is a matter of personal taste and also compromise.

Assuming the settings for the Imperium 1 are the same as the LAIS decoders, I looked up the LAIS manual and came up with CV51 = 44 to have the interior lights on constantly dim (green wire equivalent). It works but be warned it introduces a bit of a flicker, rather like a fluorescent light struggling slightly. Here's the other version in blue and grey to show the before and after effect.

All lit up. I'll have to try to find the setting to dim the interior lights a bit.

Echoing what has been said above, I have been buying Black Beetles even in the last year or so, and David who owns the firm has plenty of stocks of the motors (Mashima, from memory) to make the Black Beetles, but has stopped supplying retailers, so they are only available from him at Steam Era Models (URL given above by Bucoops). Of course, being local, I don't have to worry about UK duties or Customs, but for all those outside of Australia, such things might affect your costs a little.

And now a minor disaster: 37 026 and 37 423 were both happily circulating on the same track, when another item derailed and shorted the track out momentarily. 37 423 was unscathed, but 37 026 lost its sound even though it wasn't involved in the derailment or short, itself. Lights all work, locomotive moves, but activating the sound gives a click from the speakers and that's it. I have tried resetting the decoder (which now seems to be locked), to no avail, and tried reloading the sound project completely, but so far nothing has improved. I have a couple of other things to try before I write of the decoder and try to get it replaced or repaired under warranty (I believe ESU's warranty is quite good in these matters).

I am really looking forward to getting 37 609 from Rails of Sheffield. Let's just hope they send me the Australian version so it's the correct way up for me too! 🤣

The only other issue is to do with the headcode lighting, which is set up as a "letterbox" which is smaller than the actual headcode it is supposed to illuminate. Bearing in mind the real things were really not very brightly lit at all, the Heljan model looks fine when not lit up, otherwise do what I did and install an aftermarket lighting modification (mine was from Jason Edmonds / Stickswipe). Heljan did offer replacement chassis for that faulty first batch, but you'll have no way of telling for sure that the sellers of any such models have actually corrected the problem. Many will have done so, but it would be buyer beware.

37 026 arrived a day ago, from AJM. I fitted the Accurathrash speaker and legomanbiffo West Highland sound project on a LokSound 5 DCC decoder, fitted the one-piece triple snowploughs as I wanted to retain couplings at both ends, and then applied some yellow paint to the headlight mount (as per a post much earlier in this topic). I also painted the plastic stretchers between the ploughs black to disguise them. Also, I glued the etched parts to her. Shapfell is seen here posed with the Network SouthEast version of the SR General Manager's saloon from RevolutioN (later Caroline). My earlier purchase of 37 423 Spirit of the Lakes is also visible in the background. p.s. The yellow I used for the headlight brackets was simply Humbrol #69. It is a shade lighter, but on such a small area that isn't too obvious.

The legomanbiffo WH project I installed on 37 026 has the flange squeal working with the sensor. I altered it with a lot of other functions, to work on F11, bringing it into line with Accurascale's own sound projects. I am sure the LokProgrammer updated the firmware automatically on 37 423 (with the Accurascale sound), but the flange squeal still didn't work as intended, so it is currently set to work on F11 only when F11 is selected (on straight or curved track).

My NSE version arrived today. A quick check on DC showed all lights to be working, so I set about fitting a decoder. I managed to put a small scratch in the paintwork at one end of one side in getting the body off (annoying!), but fitted the recommended LAIS decoder, which reprogrammed OK using my NCE PowerCab, but could not be read back. The headcode/headlight at each end works directionally, and the interior lights work, but the searchlights don't work at all. "Right", says I, "Let's try a Zimo decoder". I popped an MX634 in, and found exactly the same thing as far as which lights worked and which didn't, but at least the Zimo decoder can be read back by the PowerCab. When I tried to investigate a little further using JMRI Decoder Pro linked directly to my Power Pro system, but that doesn't appear to have enough "Oomph" to read the decoder settings. I then tried a cheaper Zimo MX638, which behaved identically to the MX634 (both conveniently have six function outputs). I tried switching each of the Zimo decoders from logic to power outputs (CV8 = 3 or 4 to toggle between the settings), with, again, no difference in behaviour. I have stopped work on that for the moment, but tomorrow I'll hook up the PowerCab USB interface to the computer and try that with Decoder Pro, to see what is going on with the various outputs and function allocations. I assume I'll have to go through the same things with the blue and grey version when it arrives, so if I can sort this one out, it will make things a lot easier when the other arrives.

That looks good. I usually thread a few extra pots on initially as there are always a few that go pinging off into the distance as I lay the track. Any surplus ones still on at the end of a length of rail can be simply pushed off and reused.

And I have been at it again with the LokProgrammer. This time, it is with a Legomanbiffo sound project intended for 37 026 when it arrives in the near future. I used 37 423 as the mule to reblow the blank ESU decoder I had for this project, so was able to test it out with the full Accurascale speaker setup. I think it is his West Highland file, and it does sound very good, but I found the lighting functions were all different from the Accurascale, and different to what I had modified on 37 423 the bring some of the functions into line with other locos on my layout (it makes it much easier to remember without having to dig out the function lists). Because the changes were a major rearrangement, to avoid confusion during the operation I created a spreadsheet with the existing functions listed and an extra column showing the intended function number after swapping it all around. I still had to be extra careful where multiple functions were involved for particular conditions, but I think it has worked overall. I also put the brake function on F2, again to bring it into line with 37 423 (amongst others), which meant reassigning the horns to F3 and F4, which meant reassigning the coupling sounds from F4 to F14 ... you get the gist! F11 had to be the flange squeal, again to bring it into line with 37 423. Just in case it all went wrong, I did the belt and braces solution of saving the modified file under a different name as well as keeping a full reset in reserve. Thankfully, I don't think that will be necessary. I haven't even looked at the Jamie Goodman file I have for 37 609 when that arrives. I have been making the rod for my own back, but I think it is all worth it in the long term, plus it has kept me on my toes, mentally.

Accepting that any Mirrlees engined versions will of necessity have compromises in the sound files, I will seriously look at upgrading my 30/31 when it arrives. In the meantime, I have an earlier Hornby "skinhead" and a later headcode fitted version, both now with Mirrlees engine sounds derived from the 37/9 recordings. The original one came about from a challenge I accidentally set Bryan from Howes, so I got the first one of those released on a LokSound v3.5. Bif has now done the improved version for LokSound 5 decoders quite independently, and I bought the sound project from him only a week ago, but it does sound good with a half decent speaker wedged under the butchered fan mechanism (25 x 25 x7 speaker from Roads and Rails - they are good speakers, it's the size that is limited by the Hornby chassis design). I assume the sounds from the Accurascale version will be even better, not least because of the space for their really good speaker setup.

As far as getting to the bogie pickups goes, all you need to do is pull the side frames off - they simply pull horizontally away from the bogie chassis. You can then reach the pickup strips very easily to tweak them or clean them.

Well, I'm safe ... they post to UK addresses only!! 😅