SwannyUK

Hi all, Any of you green fingered fellows recommend some easy to maintain bushes / plants to liven up our garden a bit? Preferably some big enough for our cats to dive in and chill out on a hot day. South Devon and south facing garden that sees the sun most of the day. Cheers

Another nice day so the Class 37 is doing a spot of track cleaning for me whilst I cut the grass. That's after a session with the track rubber and my super duper "get the bits of left over rubber off the line tool" haha

Thanks for taking the time to give me the numbers Mick, much appreciated.

Thanks chaps. I'm using the two I got from eBay as testers for now. I've removed the wheels and found both sets are 14.1 already. I've ordered replacements along with nem connectors and coal loads. It's nice to have a mini project on the go but I don't fancy doing this every time so will be keeping an eye out for the newer version mgr.

Thanks Mick, I'll keep an eye out. I'm currently using these two as guinea pigs. Replacing the wheels, replacing the massive couplings and adding coal loads. Would you happen to know the product number for the later Hornby version so I know what to look for?

So, with the nicer weather (well, not today typically) I've been flicking through eBay listings for bargains. I stumbled across this DCC fitted 37 for a very good price so snapped it up along with a couple of hopper wagons. I'll be keeping an eye out for more of those wagons over the next few months. I did post in the rolling stock section about these wagons but will mention them here too. One has plastic wheels the other metal. The plastic wheels don't really turn very freely and the metal ones have a good wobble to them. Any idea on replacement metal wheels?

I've just picked up a couple of these hoppers. One has plastic wheels which aren't turning very freely. The other has metal wheels but wobbles quite a bit. Any advice on maintenance and replacement metal wheels? Cheers

Sure does Mick. Touch wood we've had a good enough run of weather to be able to get 80% of what I wanted done. Last 20 or so connector wires to go but we're now at a stage where we can run locos! Also decided to get rid of the point just after entering the garage and opted for a nice 3rd radius sweep instead. More reliable and gives more room for my station building. Before and after

It's been a long winter! Post crappy weather maintenance is now under way. The bridge is being given a fresh coat and I'm slowly getting through soldering on the track connector wires to ensure smooth running. Over winter we got the Hornby HST set to keep us busy. Lovely little set and easy enough to drop a decoder in for outside use. Hope all or safe and well.

I'll try and get around to posting a proper update. All points are now wired up and working via the z21 app which is nice.

The main advantage I have found is just having everything on the one network. With the z21 on its own WIFI I had to manually disconnect from the home WIFI then connect to it. Now I just turn the z21 and router on in the garage and after a few seconds the app finds the z21 box.

Been a while, hope you are all well. The Z21 arrived today so we can finally run a few trains around at the same time. Impressed with the system so far and I've managed to set up the supplied router as an extender for our home WiFi which means I don't have to manually connect to the Z21 network and now have home WiFi coverage in the garden.

The Class 25 was out on cleaning duties this afternoon. With a light rub over using the DCC concepts track cleaning block and then a run around with the track cleaner (with a few sprays of IPA on the track here and there) the rails have come up lovely.

Interesting Topic Mick. I've got a good track cleaning routine but just looking in to the loco cleaning now when I found your thread.

Some running today

One just sat on the track and happily watched as it ran in to him, daft as a brush

I timed one circuit at a good speed, 1minute 20. We could in theory have 6 locos running around with about 20 seconds between them but 3 would be a good manageable amount at any one time.