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Clay Mills Junction

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Everything posted by Clay Mills Junction

  1. That seems a good call on the front wagon. I've browsed Paul Bartlett's photo site but not found an exact match. If containerised then it could be something like a 4 wheel freightliner chassis FBA/ FBB with tanker on top?
  2. 3 more blocks cemented in last night and a base for the transition blocks to the viaduct in tonight. I'll do a smoother 1:4 mix to finish the transition blocks tomorrow evening. There is a tiny bit of adjustment needed with the file when it is all dried but not huge. As people may know I'm a fan of the Chadwick model railway YT channel. The recent video on servo point motors was interesting. The usual way of doing servos seems to be with controller modules that set the limits of travel etc. I was thinking this was a bit complex for the garden, Charlie's latest video introduced MTB MP1 and MP5 point motors - they seem to be a more physical operation with cams operating the cut-off and for adjusting the length of travel. That means just a simple DC power supply and a two way switch to operate. I'm considering. The second thing I'm considering is parapet walls for the viaduct. Shaped block seems a little too much effort given the time I have. My current pondering is whether I could use more aluminium L section as the structure and stone effect plasticard as the decoration. That might be some way off though as getting it running is more of a priority.
  3. Wet Sunday, an opportunity to restart some forgotten projects. Due to the brittleness of the plastic I'm going to stop at 4 wagons. This video shows they were mostly very grubby in the 80s so any detail was almost lost. If anybody can identify the tanker wagons in the rake it would be useful. I have a speedlink VBA but the tanker at the front and the tankers at the rear (TTA?) @15:00
  4. You've still got a lot of OO stuff that does work though? Though, in all honesty, had I been starting completely from scratch now, I'd go with O scale.
  5. As well as starting on the railway, I don't have a lot to update on. I did, on an impulse, book on to the upcoming Cumbrian mountain rail tour on LSL's Scotrail livery push-pull stock behind Crewe Diesel Preservation Group's 47712 Lady Diana Spencer. I think I've said before that the Hornby model of 47712 in 1981 was my first locomotive. I have two more models of her now. I started life travelling on these sets so it will be a trip back in time for me and my Dad.
  6. As the fashion seems to be a post-winter damage update, I'll report almost nothing. I've had a few weeds growing in the stones under the viaduct but it was so little I didn't think to take a picture. There was a rather large mushroom growing there as well. So with the weeding done and some leaves cleared away, I restarted the building phase by mixing some cement for the front row of the passing loop station that I had not previously done a very good job on. I need to work my way along before I cement the ends of the viaduct in. This being necessary because I cut to the blocks a bit too small to lay in sand only; and, as a reminder, I'm laying the rest in sand as I don't want to make the whole thing too permanent in case I have to move. I'm no expert on mixing concrete or cement so I have no idea if my 6:1 ratio with sharp sand will work. I do think I should have used a dribble more water but we learn as we go. I only mixed just enough for 3 blocks but that was enough for the time I had available. I don't think I'll ever have the time to spend a day building it so these little sessions will have to suffice. I had to do a bit of adjustment to the blocks with a file to get them flat enough but I'm happy with them now. So 3 more blocks along the front to do, I hope during this week, and then I can get on to the viaduct during one of the May bank holiday weekends.
  7. I should have come back and thanked you for the info. 518 would be perfect. However, my Dad quite likes 506 as it is (it doesn't fit with his layout time/place either) as it goes with the rake of speedlink liveried wagons. So it looks like it is staying the way it is. I'll probably just give it to him. I think at some point I'll have to get another 37 (maybe a 37/4 from the Inverness stable when someone brings one out).
  8. I wonder if you could get some more course wheels in there to be a bit more forgiving? My Dad had a Hornby Mk2 coach that just would not go around the inside track where it had a negative camber (cork expanded when he ballasted). That wasn't a new model or super fine scale wheels or anything. We took it apart, couldn't find any difference to the rest. It went into the bin I believe.
  9. Sounds good going by the website. Although my guess is there will be a fair premium on the price and it would be nice to see some real world independent reviews. Things I've noticed are a limited number of suppliers, nearest to me is Leicester which is a fair trek. There's also conditions on the guarantees about how the wood is treated.
  10. I think the decoders are larger than the NMRA standard, I don't see many OO locos where that will matter, but I guess where there is a standard then loco manufacturers are only obliged to provide that space. The feature from Zero1 I most liked (I'm a veteran of Zero1 too) was the ability to set inertia in live time. With DCC, yes you can change inertia via CVs but that is for a loco generally. Where in reality a light loco will have quite fast acceleration, join it to 4 or 5 coaches and it'll slow down a bit or join it to a heavy freight train and it'll be much more sluggish. I'm hoping that feature is as useful as it was on Zero1.
  11. Edit: From watching a TT:120 video, it looks like they are designed with an inbuilt enclosure for a sugarcube speaker.
  12. Yes, it's not just a problem for these new decoders but has been going on for a while. Since the advent of sound, Loco manufacturers have been redesigning chassis, PCBs and bodies to make space for speakers. Unfortunately my bachmann class 20 is an older 21-pin (no lights). Looking at the newer model, it has a much lower chassis so there is space for a longer PCB and a proper speaker. I'm not sure what the trade off is, perhaps a bit less weight and a smaller motor? Though that smaller motor might be a better motor with as much power and as good running characteristics, just costs more.
  13. I was going for a Class 20 but its very tight. There is just enough room for the decoder but not for the speaker and the power bank and the wiring. I'm guessing I may have to butcher the body to get the power bank in the cab. ☹️ I believe the decoders are oversize in two ways. 1 the length is greater due to the bluetooth antenna, which I don't see how they can get around, and; 2 the depth due to the two ports for fitting the speaker and the power bank. The plug for the speaker would be unneccessary but I guess with Hornby they want to avoid the need for people to have to solder so I can understand that. It might be possible to chop the port off on the 21-pin if soldering the speaker terminals to the loco PCB. I think I will see about a better speaker than the sugar cube since I'm going to be waiting a while for the app. The other option is putting the 21-pin in a B'mann 150 with a lot more space but I'm doubting there will be a sound file for it initially.
  14. The iOS app is out but the android version could be weeks or months away. Seems a bit silly to me given that market share of devices is 27% iOS to 72% Android. I'm not sure the porting across is that difficult from what I read. I've got my 21-pin decoder and power bank but no way to run it until the Android app comes out. So it's on hold.
  15. I brought the over decking board out of the garage, thinking Spring can't be far off now, A bit of damage to one track so that will need repaced. I think the rails had slid through so were sticking off the end, I'll shorten the replacement so that can't happen again. I have my first Hornby bluetooth sound decoder and the power bank. Unfortunately no app yet but I'm not in a rush. I saw something that suggested the Android app will be weeks behind the one for apple so I'll be waiting on that. I didn't buy anything at Model Rail Scotland other than an extra two car coach pack for the APT, making it now 7-car. KMS had the pack at half price (£58) so that was a bargain and less than the 7-car pack originally. I think the standard Hornby 7-car set looks a bit strange with two power cars, the development coach and 4 passenger cars, I prefer this look with one power car and 6 passenger cars. I'll have to think about what I'm doing with the railway this year. My four year plan is about 2 years behind. I think early on I'll need to re-wire the first board as it'll be a through connection for the bus. Second priority will be to mix cement and fix in the ends of the curved viaduct in the corner and the remaining blocks that need done on the passing loop station. I've rethought and decided I would like control of the points for the passing loop so I'l need to figure those out. I can't see me extending beyond the U this year to create a full circuit, I think I'll concentrate on finishing what I have and making it reliable first.
  16. Hi Paul, This isn't the busiest forum but it does pick up towards summer usually as people get back into their gardens. Barry.
  17. Welcome to the forum Paul. I can't answer all of your questions or thoughts but might be able to give you some info. The second decision you have to make (after scale) is what base material you are going to use. It can vary through the garden and will depend on a number of factors. One of the major factors is how far off ground level you are building. The one thing I'd avoid is any substantial gradients. A bridge over a pond would be a fantastic looking feature. There aren't many limitations on shapes of layout, limitations are more about what is important to the individual. So for me, I wanted to avoid trainset curves and have much more realistic curves and gaps between rolling stock. Other people seem happy with using setrack in the garden. DCC gives a lot of options and seems to work quite well in the garden for controlling trains, you need to be able to access to clean the track whatever control you use. Remember, you don't have to use DCC for accessories even if you use it for train control. Non-DCC point control is still quite common on layouts using DCC for train control from what I see at exhibitions. Good luck.
  18. I asked Simon Kholer today about the HM7000 system, he said it uses a similar system to how Sky boxes send TV signals to extra TV boxes around your house, a system called Mesh? He also said it would launch on 15 March, so not long until we get to find out.
  19. Given Hornby's announcements I'm waiting on the control front for that to come out to see if that works. I have been investigating how I might solve the problem of the awful garage. I've come to the conclusion that the size of the garage and the need for it to be brick or block built will make it too expensive to replace. So that is out of the question. With that, I'm going to have to do something to cover the side of it, maybe climbing plants? That will make running the railway down that side more difficult, but the railway is essential so I will engineer a way. Possibly I will bring the railway out over the path and bring plants out behind it.
  20. I don't know that RMWeb is too much of a loss. 😂 Some snow running with the 37s on snow ploughs would be good but unfortunately it's been too cold here and any snow has frozen very very hard, too hard to clear.
  21. I am thinking that having the control to the locos direct rather than through the track could be a huge benefit in a small garden like mine especially being able to walk around with the controller. If I was starting out completely fresh then not having any signal through the track in a garden setting might be really good as a sole control source. It looks like you can set inertia on locos in live time, that was the one feature of Zero1 I miss in DCC. Especially for making videos it would be much easier to set the inertia for the load and just set it going without having to constantly adjust the controller. As it seems it will work alongside a conventional system, I'll probably keep the two running together and have to decide which locos to switch over. I'm thinking a pair of 8-pin sound decoders to go in the Valenta HST and a 21-pin non-sound for 20090 initially. The two 8-pin decoders released from the HST can then be released for other projects. I'd probably buy an Android tablet for the big screen, I was thinking of getting one for travelling anyway as my laptops are too heavy to cart around the country on my travels. My one big question is will it be closed or open. By which I mean, a) will Hornby open it so other manufacturers can make compatible products and b) will they allow users and others to generate better quality sound files.
  22. Looks like a recent announcement from Hornby is a new app on mobile device bluetooth controlled range of decoders. https://uk.hornby.com/hm7000 I'm tempted to pre-order a couple of decoders to try in the garden even though I'm not fully across the details yet. In the FAQs it says that it requires a 15v supply to the rails which means it will work with e.g. Hornby's Elite or Select controllers providing the power. There's a 15v power supply available separately. Most DCC controllers I've seen use 16v inputs (is that effectively 15v after its been through the controller?) and they aren't saying it'll work with other DCC controllers. Another option I suppose could be onboard power? One thing I've spotted is the range, seems more than enough for normal UK gardens but for anyone lucky enough to have a Mercedes, swimming pool and room for a pony; the range can be extended by having a HM7000 node along the way - nodes include decoders so a loco in a siding half way down could act as that. The sound looks to be a download your own file to generic sound decoder, that could be a shock to the current sound decoder supplier. However, I expect the sound files available initially to probably be of the TTS quality. No idea about the decoders. This could be another "Zero1" but I'm prepared to be an early adopter on a couple of locos despite the price.
  23. Definitely decided I have to have a better means of control. Running back in to stop a derailed train on the laptop is difficult. Even popping back in to control a train is problematic. It gets even harder when trying to film. (I'm trying to re-make Meet the Fleet as one big video)
  24. If I can get there before it closes I will be going. It isn't too bad a journey if I get on the train at Tutbury & Hatton.
  25. I'm considering a new DCC control system. I think having the sprog is a bit of a faff just to set up for a quick session. It'll be even worse when I get to using phone control outside with a separate WiFi hub. I'm also not wanting to break the bank with the way things are going. I'm watching a few videos on the z21 Start or white version, seems a possible option. I would get the multimaus as it seems that is easier for a quick session and a phone could be set up for a second controller for a longer session. Under consideration and research currently.
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