SRman

Manna, does that mean that the news headlines saying "Shark scare" should actually read "Sharks care"??

That's one of those strange English spellings: it's spelt M-A-R-C-H, but it's pronounced "AU-gust"! p.s. I am looking forward to getting one of these myself. The longer it takes, the better condition my wallet is in, though!

In Britain, the Model Bus Federation. In Australasia, the Model Bus association of Australia. The MBF also has a presence on Facebook.

For anyone reading this in Australia or New Zealand, we have the Model Bus Association of Australia. Only a small group but it gives us an outlet for our interests.

Vents for the traction motors, I think.

Following a little advice in another topic, I played around with the settings for CVs 4 and 349 on the Zimo sound decoder in my Hornby 700 class 30693. This has YouChoos sounds with the brake function on F2. With the default settings from the shop, I felt that the braking was a bit too sharp, meaning I had to achieve it with a series of short dabs on the function key. I prefer the idea of being able to hold F2 (or rather, the momentary-acting 'Whistle' key on the NCE cabs), meaning I had to reduce the braking effect somewhat. Setting a higher value in CV 4 (it was already set to 100) is then balanced by setting a lower value in CV 349. At present, I have CV 4 = 120 to 130, and CV 349 = 35 to 38 (depending on the individual loco's characteristics), which allows me to bring the locomotive to a nice progressive stop. I think I need to tweak it slightly further, but it is close to what I had in mind. Next, I'll do the same with the S15, 30830, and the LBSC E4 which also has YouChoos sounds and the F2 brake function. Then I'll move on to the two Sutton's class 24s with Zimo sound decoders. I'm on a roll! Edit: I forgot the S15 was an earlier YouChoos project and doesn't have the F2 braking function. Still, I tweaked CVs 3 and 4 to higher values while I was fiddling.

I believe it was a "Thunderbird", used to rescue failed EMUs (or other stock), but also on occasional engineering train duties too. The latter is what mine will be up to. Eventually, I may buy a Southern liveried class 455 or 456 from Bratchell Models to form 'companion' trains for this locomotive, seeing as it is a little bit of a 'loner' on my layout at present. I do have some South West Trains EMUs, which are contemporary, so the Southern ED won't look entirely out of place.

Hmmm, I agree, that upper green does look a bit intense! It could be the lighting, although Dapol don't have a great track record on colours for some of their models.

Thanks for that information, Pete. I really must try it out. It can't really go wrong as long as I read the original values first, so I can restore them if it doesn't do what I want.

I agree, Pete. I have a few Zimo sound projects with the brake on F2 function. However, the brakes seem to me to be too effective, and I would like to make the trains take longer to stop if the F2 key is held rather than jabbed every so often. I'm sure this braking rate is also adjustable, but I haven't yet investigated this properly. Going back to the high inertia/momentum settings, the first demos I did at an exhibition were done with a couple of lengths of flexible track along the front of our work/demonstration table. I had the Heljan Hymek fitted with Howes' sound (ESU v3.5) and had tweaked CV4 even further. Every so often i would overcook the Hymek, misjudge the braking distance and have to ask my fellow BRMA member sitting beside me to please rescue the Hymek from the desk top after I had managed to drive off the end of the tracks!

Agreeing with what has been said before, DCC allows you to tailor the acceleration and deceleration to whatever suits you, plus the top speed and speed curve if you so desire. Sound projects work much better when set with the higher values for acceleration and deceleration (or inertia/momentum if you prefer). Even the most basic DCC systems and decoders usually allow these things to be adjusted. Setting inertia and momentum to very low values, or zero, with sound projects really doesn't synchronise well. I have quite a few sound locos and units, plus many more without sound, but I set all of them to use higher values for acceleration and deceleration, not just the sound ones. Sound projects usually come with high settings anyway, but i still tweak them further sometimes to get the characteristics I want from them. Top speed is something that I also play with sometimes, particularly with small shunters and the like, where I don't want them to be able to do 150 mph. Speed adjustments may also be useful if you want to run two or more locos or units together. DCC allows you to match different characteristics more closely. In another topic there was a recent discussion on running multiple units together, and we got to Bachmann's class 150, which tends to have quite a low top speed, and Hornby's class 153, which has quite a high top speed. I haven't done this with mine (yet!), but the easy solution is to lower the class 153's top speed until it matches the 150 (which cannot be made to go any faster). I won't go into any further detail unless asked to, but I hope there is some food for thought in there, in mine and others' responses.

A fairly comprehensive list, but here are a few more for you, sem34090: SR-style 2 HAP from Ayjay Models SR 4 SUB (4111 onwards) was also available from Blacksmith Models. I wonder how many of these etched brass kits have actually been built - my own has not!). 5 BEL from Hornby (you mentioned the possibility of one of these Pullmans going into a 6 PUL , but forgot to mention the Brighton Belle itself! ) 4 VEP from Hornby 4 TC from Kernow Model Railways

I received a 'ghost sign' transfer for Lipton's Tea from Scale Model Scenery yesterday, and couldn't wait to apply it seeing as I had a spot already planned for it. Here's the result, on a Hornby Skaledale terrace house building. The instructions say these stick-on transfers are designed for card models, but I had no problems applying it to the resin building. P_20190730_175049_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

Inspired by the 'driving' experience most sound decoders give, I program all of my models with high inertia and momentum values to match. It does mean I sometimes misjudge stops and crash heavily into rolling stock or buffer stops though. It's all part of the learning experience for driving my stock! It is enjoyable, even with silly mistakes. It does make for more realistic starts and stops in normal operation, though.

[Pantomime mode] Oh no you're not! [/Pantomime mode] You are just a figment of my tortured imagination, Boris.

Hi Steven: I am absolutely certain I was programming short address 8: The Power Cab always asks for a short address value, then a long address value in that order, then one has to press enter to move on, or 1 to activate that address. I also repeated the steps quite a few times during the process of trying things then resetting the decoder. To use the address 8 as a long address on the tracks, one has to select loco 08 and press enter, which then displays an asterisk to indicate a low-numbered long address has been selected. The Power Cab/Power Pro systems can address 1 to 127 as short addresses, and 0 to 0127 as long addresses.

You seem to have had a far worse experience than I have with the Lenz decoders in Bachmann units, Robert (RFS). I have standardised on the Lenz decoders in all of the Bachmann Southern Electric units - six MLVs (as mentioned earlier), seven 4 CEPs, five 2 EPBs, and two out of three 2 H DEMUs (the third has an ESU LokSound). Of those, only this one MLV has played up, so maybe I have been lucky with the combination I chose ... or maybe I just haven't hit the 'unlucky' numbers for each of these units. Incidentally, with the MLV that prompted this topic in the first place, trying to turn the lights on exacerbated the problem. The lights would flicker momentarily, then the decoder would play dead again.

Now that's interesting, because I noted similar coils under the PCB on the MLV. As a matter of routine I remove any accessible capacitors (one remains in the MLV because I cannot get at it without dismantling the motor assembly even further than I already went, two were removed), but I only remove and bypass those coils where a more drastic solution is needed, such as hard-wiring. As such, none of my N class 2-6-0s have those coils any more. In fact, they don't even have PCBs any more! As the MLV is now working properly, I'll leave well alone, but if it plays up again, I'll remove the coils and replace with straight wire and see if that makes a difference. I have six different MLVs, all with Lenz Silver+ 21 decoders, and this one was the only one that has played up.

Thanks guys, so it isn't just me! RFS, I did consider there might be a short somewhere causing the decoder to shut down, but working on address 3 proved that wasn't the case. What really got me was the fact that the same thing happened with two different decoders (albeit both the same type), indicating that there was some incompatibility with the MLV's circuits but only on that particular address. Weird!

The comments on resistance to change remind me of problems London Transport and its predecessors had with the Metropolitan Police. Vehicles elsewhere in the country got windscreens to protect the drivers (a bit), but the Met decreed that London's buses and trams should do without because they might obscure the drivers' vision. Windscreens eventually came to London buses and trams in the 1920s (if I recall correctly), but always had to have an opening section until the 1960s regulation changes. Doors were another feature the Met refused. When LT bought the 700 RF single deckers, all of the red central buses had no doors fitted (Green Line and country area buses had doors). Later on, LT fitted doors to a batch of these buses in 1959, the police refused to certify them until the doors were bolted in the open position. It was 1965 before the Metropolitan Police allowed operating doors in central London. Talk about resistance to change!!

Has anyone experienced odd behaviour, or items becoming non-operational simply because of a particular DCC address? I have experienced this twice in all the years I have been using DCC. The most recent one was only fixed today after causing me some frustrations over the last few days. It is a Bachmann class 419 Motor Luggage Van (MLV) in London & South East 'Jaffa Cake' livery (not that the livery has any direct effect here). I pulled it out of the stock drawers for a photograph, but when I went to drive it and turn on the lights, using my NCE Power Cab, it was totally unresponsive. This unit has a Lenz Silver+ 21 pin decoder installed. I tried reading the decoder, but that just came up with errors. I tried resetting the decoder several times, with mixed success leaving the default address as 3. I cleaned the wheels and tried again. Programming stopped after I selected short address 8 (for unit 9008). After that it would not read or write when it got to the long address (wanted to set as 9008). I tried swapping decoders for another Lenz Silver, with exactly the same results. I dismantled and reassembled the model several times, looking for poor connections, loose wires, or anything that might cause problems. All was OK, and I put a blanking plug in and tested on DC, where it ran perfectly with the headcode lights also illuminating correctly. Inserted the decoder again and nothing useful occurred. No lights, and one flicker of movement, then nothing at all. Reset the decoder and left it on address 3 and it all worked properly. This time, I left the short address as 3 and programmed the long address as 9008, and it all worked perfectly, lights and all. Intrigued now, I tried putting short address 8 in, and sure enough, it stopped working. Reset the decoder again, left it at short address 3 and long address activated as 9008 and it worked. The previous occasion I struck anything like this was with a friend's Heljan Hymek D7093, with a LokSound v3.5 and Howes' sounds. It absolutely refused to work with address 7093. Programming addresses either side of that worked fine, as did short address 93. I cannot see how it is possible for the locomotives circuits to block a particular address - the fact that this occurred with two separate decoders in my MLV's case seems to indicate this. Can anyone explain these anomalies, or relate similar experiences, please?

Some more Southern Electrics, this time looking at Motor Luggage Vans (MLVs) of class 419. I have six of these in various liveries, representing five out of the 10 members of this class - one unit is represented twice, in early and late liveries. As you can see, for a small class of unit, they have been in many different liveries over their long lives, something ideal for a model manufacturer to take advantage of. The earliest livery I have is 68006 in Southern Region green with small yellow panels, from the mid-1960s. Originally they would not have had the yellow when they first went into service in 1959. P_20190727_224613_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Next is blue and grey 68009, with slightly earlier 68004 in plain blue behind. P_20190727_224435_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Then we get to more modern liveries, although the blue and grey lasted for over 20 years: 68008, as unit 9008, is in the fairly short-lived London & South East 'jaffa cake' livery. P_20190727_223236_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Another short-lived livery was the Royal Mail red applied to a couple of MLVs, with 68004/9004 (again) showing this livery. It was soon realised that this livery made them attractive targets for thieves, so those so treated were repainted quickly into NSE livery. P_20190727_223749_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Which brings us to 68002/9002 in Network South East livery. P_20190727_224122_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr They were originally used with 4 CEPs and 4 BEPs on London to Dover trains to cope with passenger luggage for the ferry and cruise ships serving Dover. As such, the earlier liveries can be run in model form with Bachmann's 4 CEP units, or even Hornby's 4 VEP units, but as there are no models of refurbished 4 CEPs, the later liveries have to be run on their own or in pairs (which did happen quite regularly in their later years). The MLVs were versatile in that they could run for short stretches off the electrified third rail, using on-board batteries. They also had both vacuum and air brakes, and could convert braking systems if sandwiched between stock with the different brake types, as well as being able to multiple with the EMU stock with the standard SR electro-pneumatic brakes.

These diesels used an air whistle very similar to that used on all of the electric units and DEMUs until they were gradually replaced on most from the early to mid 1960s, although I don't think the Bulleid diesels ever lost their whistles. Legomanbiffo's sounds for the Kernow model do feature the air whistle, although I didn't like the engine sounds and had Bif put class 40 engine sounds while retaining the Southern whistle and compressor sounds. I know the turbo charger whistle from the 40 is probably too prominent, but I preferred this to the original supplied sounds. I did a 'cab ride' video around my layout with Kernow's 10201 but I never used the whistle in that video. However, Bif's sound files for the class 71 electrics also feature the air whistle, and my video below demonstrates this right at the beginning.

Having now received my Southern liveried 73 202 from Amanda Jane Models, I agree the instructions are very poor. The body lifts off easily after undoing the four screws, one at each corner behind the buffer beams. The switches are easily accessed with the body off. Mine was run-in on DC, so, apart from making sure all lights were working, I didn't initially make any adjustments, preferring to wait until I fitted a decoder. Once I fitted a decoder, a Dapol Imperium one, I tested again with the body off and set all the parameters I wanted to, then put the body on with no screws, and tested the lighting functions. All lights still worked, but not quite as I would like, with the directional headlights and cablights coming on simultaneously on F0, while the headcodes worked independently on functions 1 and 2. I eventually worked out that moving the three-position switch to the centre position fixed this (no thanks to their instruction sheet!), so now I had the following functions: F0 = headlights, directionally working F1 = headcode at #2 end F2 = headcode at #1 end F3 = cab light at #2 end F4 = cab light at #1 end. All my other class 73s (Dapol and Hornby ex-Lima) treat the radiator end as #1 end, treated as forwards for DCC purposes. This one treats the #2 (non-radiator) end as forwards. I will swap that so it follows the usual convention as per the other models (changing CV29). I may also swap the function allocations to reflect that, so the lower numbered function of each pair operates the #1 end lights. This will be more easily accomplished using JMRI Decoder Pro on the computer. Anyway, here is 73 202 with headlight and headcode lights on but cab lights off. P_20190726_210720_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr

More Southern Electrics from me. These are all 4 CEP (class 411) units illustrating the transition of liveries from the mid to late 1960s onwards. Green unit 7126 with small yellow warning panels is seen with blue and grey unit 7113. P_20190727_102015_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190727_102045_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Later on, 7113 is seen in multiple with plain blue unit 7119 with full yellow ends. P_20190727_101534_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr P_20190727_101608_vHDR_On by Jeffrey Lynn, on Flickr Other intermediate liveries (not modelled here) included green units with full yellow ends, and plain blue units with small yellow panels. All of these liveries could be seen together in mixed formations of up to 12 cars (3 x 4 CEP, or 2 x 4 CEP and 1 x 4 BEP - the Buffet units have not yet been released by Bachmann but are on the way). They could also have one or two Motor Luggage Vans in green, blue or blue and grey attached. Also around 1968 or so there were some converted standard BG (Full Brakes) in blue and grey as TLVs (Trailer Luggage Vans) that could be sandwiched between an MLV and a CEP or BEP unit; these saved on having all the extra traction motors and current consumption, but made shunting them in and out awkward as they had no driving controls.