jimbob

Sorry if you thought l was putting Sam's Trains down it was not my intension. I actually found the underwater running very interesting, it certainly dispelled a few miths. Railway modelling comprises of a very broad church of people, those who want the minutest detail to be correct to those who just like to play trains (me!). Each to there own. I have my pet loves and hates within the hobby, especially on you tube and unboxing videos are one of them! Having said that others love them and who am l to disagree with them if they are promoting interest in the hobby then more power to them.

Amazing stuff Tony, it takes me all day to wire up a point! All those wires and lights make it look like something out of an old Flash Gordon film. At least all those transformers will keep you warm in the winter. As you say Tony, keep on moving ahead.

Tony If your free in December can you come and sort out my Christmas lights? Well done amazing stuff.

Must admit l don't have much time for these "celebrity " vlogs either. I always wonder if they buy or are supplied (free?)the items they review. If the latter shouldn't they agnloigise that fact? Never seen anyone say the reviewed items rubbish either.

None garden railway modellers always scoff that we can't run trains in the wet. Has anyone else seen the latest you tube video from Sam's Trains where he is running a Heljen Tango underwater in an inflatable paddling pool. Maybe not recommended but it proves a point.

O K, electrical idiot here. 1. How do you disable DC on a decoder? 2. Can someone explain pulse power and feedback controllers.

Only going on what I've read/been told. Could it depend on what equipment you use? Controller/chip? Could be a experiment to try though.

Some DCC controllers allow you to use a DC loco on them, not all though, and the "experts" say that doing this can cause damage to the loco. What l do know is that DC on DCC makes a loud humming noise! Don't put a DCC chipped loco on DC powered track, disaster! I would advise against the use of infra red controlled walkabout units in the garden, sunshine plays havoc with them.

I have used pre wired fishplates in the past, shop bought are expensive, and even made them myself, burnt fingers and ever rising blood pressure allowing. Anyway the wireing "error" is being left at present. I shall continue to wire up as is, at worst it will mean switching a couple of feeds round on the old part of the layout or l have a couple of reverse loop thingies in the shed somewhere. That aside l have a couple of H & M DC controllers that have stopped working, l thought l saw an advert in one of the rail mags for someone who repairs them but of course cannot find it now. Any ideas? I suspect it will work out cheaper to by a new one but l do like a bit of Nostalgia.

I HATE ELECTRICS!!! Despite an ominous weather forecast it's a loverly morning so pressed on with fitting droppers to the bus wire. Trying to do a proper job with no wires snaking across the baseboard etc. One problem being that l cannot solder to save my life, people gave tried to show me how its done l just end up with melted sleepers and burnt fingers. Anyway pressed on with it and have to say was quite pleased at the results. That till l realised that l have wired them up the wrong way round, positive wire where negative should be etc. Time for a beer and Sunday lunch l think!

Thanks for that. Think (Hope!) I have traced it to a point, removed it and everything seemed ok but am not convinced and can't see anything obvious . I do have a second Dynamis control box, and may swop them over in case there's a problem there

Long time since anyone posted here so l hope someone notices the smoke signals ! I am still ploding along with the old style Dynamis, you know the one that was supposed to do everything the new one now does but didn't. Anyway, the handset keeps showing a "short" and stopping everything. Switched to DC controller and no problems there, back to DCC and up it pops again. Tried differant locos, problem still there, even disconnected track into sections but no change. Nothing on the track to cause it either. Any suggestions ?

Although not powered up yet l couldn't resist a test run in between the showers so l fired up my battery power 08 , an old Tri-ang/Hornby one with a 9volt battery strapped to it! Found a couple of places where it kept coming off ( bird poo on track!) Then tried it round on the other track only to find that the point where the track flyover is is about 3 mm to low on that side and hits the loco. Lots of muttering and lying down trying to unscrew and adjust brackets, and yes it did start rain just as l reached the point of no return and yes l did get wet. How l laughed (not). Anyway l will test it out again weather permitting over the weekend. Yes there is a trianglar junction in the corner this when completed, again maybe this week, runs into the shed to a through station, then loops round outside the shed and back in side to a terminus station. This is the old part of the layout which is in need of a bit/lot of tic at present. That's a lot of track to clean l hear people say and yes it is but l am experimenting/researching with battery powered/RC controlled locos at the moment. Not cheap but solves a lot of problems. Trouble is at present some systems will only operate DC locos and some only DCC. So it looks like a lot of wireing and cleaning for now.

Well l am still here, and yes so is the garden railway, just that life gets in the way sometimes. Anyway, a brief catch up is in order. Last year was a bit of disaster to start off with. Several sections of baseboard had sagged over tbe winter due to quality of material and poor construction, all down to my budget and poor DIY skills ! Some extreme measures needed to be taken and a planning rethink undertaken. Well l say planning, not my strong point, more a whack something up and make things fit! The result was by the end of autumn 75% of an entirely new railway was built in front of the existing shed. Proper thick ply was used and support posts concereted in and some track laid before the weather turned. So the early spring weather saw me back out and the last bit completed, sort of, today. Still lots of tidying up work to do but l do have a runable railway again. It is a very humble effort , more an out door train set or railway in the garden than a garden railway. But that's what l wanted, somewhere to sit and watch the trains go round and round and relax. The old section when back up and running will allow me to play "Proper trains" or just watch have some fun on the new bit The link from the shed to the new section needs to be completed along with a final two sections of the old line which gave up this winter. Still lots more to do including the wireing which l hate, but it's a sort of running railway. And yes there are pictures, but please 'scuse the mess coz l am an untidy bigger!

Excellent photos as always Mick and the viaduct and scenic shot looks even better now they have weathered a bit.

A happy New Year to you all, shows how long its been since l've been here! So not a lot happening in the garden, has been far to cold this winter and every time l go to do something it snow lately. But a sunny day today has tempted me out to assess the winter damage. The windy weather has finally done for the fence behind the shed and l have decided to abandon that bit of the line, it's geting a bit tight for a rotund gent like my self to fit down there so l've salvaged the track and boards and the plan is to have a loop in front of the shed instead. Inside the shed it's a mess. So first off l need a clearout to make some space. The station baseboard has developed a bit of a bend in it and needs to be screwed down as it appears l forgot to do that when l rebuilt the frame work it sits on !! The long run down the side of the garden will be mothballed this year probabilly, to concentrate on the shed circuit which l hope will mean that provided l am prepared to brave the winter cold l can operate a short layout without problems throught the year. The experiment with radio controlled battery power still sits expensively in its box taunting me to wreck a loco with my soldering and electical skills...... So all in all a busy summer lies ahead l hope.

In many cases it not what they take but the damage they cause. I have been burgled twice, after the first time we started locking the internal doors down stairs but when it happened again (years later) they tried to prise the door of its hinges and in the process pulled the door frame of the wall!. The cost of getting that repaired was more than what l lost. I also had my business premises robbed, that would'nt have been so bad but as there was nothing of value there they set one of our vehicles on fire and smashed allt he windows on several others. The police arrested a couple of teens but they had an alibi, the local pub landlord said they were drinking there all evening. Two years later he was arrested for reciveing stolen property, oh hum. My rule now is if you can't afford to lose it, dont own it !

Why is it that foreign trains look so much cooler than British one's? I suppose some of the newer stuff is getting close but there rather stayed liveries lets them down. All there interested in is packing them and getting your money over here. Great example is the seats on the HST sets that dont even have a window to look out of.

Marcs models still do the sleeping cars and forgons as unbuilt kits or they can supplied built, both either challange my kit building skill or my wallet so it looks like one of those "if only " projects. Still it was an interesting to do a bit of research on it. In my minds eye a bit like the Orient Express l imagine spies in dinner jackets and glamours women in evening gowns although in fact it seems far from that and being woken up in the middle of the night by burly dockers chaining the coaches down on the ferry and again at the other side probably did'nt make it the most restfull a nights sleep either.

Thanks for the link Roddy, very interesting. Followed the link to ls models in Belgium as well but the google translate does not understand railway talk very well ! Trouble being that everything is HO anyway. Its an interesting train service that l have never seen modeled here. Probably to much of a niche market for commercial production as well.

The only thing l can discover was that the SNCF vehicles were specialy built for the British loading gauge in the fities. There were sleeping cars (wagon lit) and day cars, normal coaches on the train and one or two luggage vans with birdcage style roofs. There was also an advertised resturant car for sleeper passengers and buffet car for the plebs. I know at one stage they used Southern utility vans on the service instead of French one. Would this have been the only instance of UK vehicles being used in Europe at that time? Apparently the service was often double headed in steam days due to the weight of the train. It took eleven hours London to Paris, 9pm departure London arriving at 9am Paris time. Now you can pop over for lunch and be back home for supper. The Golden Arrow was the daytime version of the service, all British Pullmans, and passengers alighted at Dover for the ferry rather than the train going on the ferry its self.

Does anybody know the train formation for the old London - Paris night ferry service ? The British locos are easy enough to find but are the suitable French stock avaliable from European model firms ? Any ideas anyone, just one of those silly projects that enter your head when you have nothing to do !

I belive the rule of thumb is 1 in 60 for OO gauge so thats one hell of a length to get to near ground level! To me the guide would be can your weakest loco haul a resonable length train up the slope, thats then your maximum gradient. Summer Hampton has a video on you tube on how he has improved the problem on his line.

Re gradients, friend of mine cut a load of small groves in the track and then filled them with bulldog snot so the loco got power from the track grip from the snot. That was indoors though. Replica Railways now do a powered carrridge underframe DCC or DC, which may solve the problem of underpowered steamers.

So just like Network Rail the garden railway is closed for the bank holiday for najor works. The loop at the far end of the line has been rebuilt after the tree fellers knocked it over, now l removed the track and placed it so it would go back as before, the new base boards, are the sane shape and size as the ones they replace, does it all fitt back together, does it hell!!. So several hours and a temper tantrum later its finished. Just need to to compleat the loop back into the shed where the ants ate the plywood base (they seem to love the glue) and l should be back in business. In the last couple if weeks l've been round the layout closeing up gaps that have appeared at track joints, just putting stuff away and noticed that a section that l closed up has reopened again in three places. May have to resort to soldering them up if this keeps happening. Any suggestions?