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Mick's Drivel


mick
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:lol::lol: I'm painting the stairs today in between looking on the forum and dreaming of grand outdoor railway designs! :lol: Why is it when the weather is rubbish our better half's always think we want to paint?? :lol: I'm collecting my new "toy" at 5 so need to have the painting finished by then!!

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Beautiful weather up here in South Yorkshire today and so I spent most of the day tidying up the garden, cleaning out the greenhouse and sorting out the shed. All things that need doing before I feel able to return to working on the layout. At the bottom of the garden I was reminded that I still have a gravel pathway to lay along the fence before I start erecting any boards for the final sections of track.

I'm still waiting for the return of my sound decoders as well as a new loco that I decided to order. We've come to expect prompt delivery as the norm these days so it's a bit disappointing on occasions when we have to wait. :( The loco isn't from the same retailer as the sound chips but it's from someone I've dealt with before and I've gotten used to their none too quick service. Never mind - I did say it would probably be next week and that's the way it's to be.

Tomorrow I have some work to complete in the attic and I might even be able to make a start on my small portable layout just so I have some track available for testing loco's. At the moment I'm managing with a metre length of track fastened to a piece of plywood which is far from ideal. It's time I got myself better organised and better equipped.

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:lol::lol::lol::lol: Yes Mick, come on get your finger out!! :lol::lol::lol: You're our leader! Our inspiration! The one we nick ideas from!! :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: You're right tho about today's weather! Hasn't it been lovely? Managed a few hours in the garden, planting, and ran a 'test train'! ( or two ) :lol::lol: Here's hoping tomorrow is just as nice! :D:D:D Regards. Mark

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Baimor said:

:lol::lol::lol::lol: Yes Mick, come on get your finger out!! :lol::lol::lol: You're our leader! Our inspiration! The one we nick ideas from!! ....

I know, I know... I've been slacking, but please, don't wait for me just get on with it yourselves :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

With decorating out of the way for now and new carpet laid, it's been time to get back to thoughts of operating a model railway. A trip to the DIY and back with a load of timber battens and I have a choice of indoor or outdoor. It's raining out there and blowing a gale at the moment and so I've sensibly opted for the indoor. The forecast for the coming week isn't good either so it may be indoors for the next few days. But as I said, I did get some battens to fix along the edges of the outdoor boards too so as soon as the weather permits I will be moving forward with that too.

It's been an exciting week with the delivery of the new Rapido APT-E. It looks superb in the box so I'm hoping it looks as good when out on track and by all accounts it sounds good too so I'm really looking forward to that. The manufacturer suggests that once it's coupled together it's best to keep it that way so for now I'm leaving well alone until I have somewhere it can reside permanently. But speaking of sound I also received another sound-fitted loco this week, a Deltic in BR Green. I'd never heard it before but decided to take a chance simply from what I'd previously read, as I remember the magnificent sound as one passed though Doncaster station. I was gob-smacked. When it roars into life with its custom installed speaker housing you can actually feel the vibration. It's loud, in fact perhaps a little too loud, but those deep tones really do come through. Now why can't they do class 37s like that?

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I have a brilliant attic for any sort of activity. This house was built mid 1930s when timber was plentiful. My floor joists downstairs and upstairs are 9"x3" which is huge by today's standard. The attic measures 22ftx 20ft and is uncluttered except for a heavy A frame about 2/3 along it. But there is always a drawback isn't there. The floor joists in the attic are only 3"x2" which is sufficient to hold the bedroom ceilings, but not a floor. Insulation has been piled in there to a depth of well over a foot, so clearing it all out and then flooring it would be a huge undertaking.

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Roddy's attic is similar to mine I've huge trusses with dimensions like railway sleepers either end of each loft, but with tiny ceiling support beams . That's one of the reasons I've built the huge shed..

I must admit I am impressed with much of the sound on many locos these days, but when attending shows with too many sound chipped locos it becomes very annoying.

I'm not sure if I had something like the ATP and somewhere to run it I could resist!!!

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  • 3 weeks later...

There were a number of attempted break-ins nearby a few weeks ago and it serves to make you more conscious of the need to keep your property as safe and secure as you can. Because of that, I've spent time upgrading our security over the past couple of weeks and had very little time for any railway modelling. The trouble these days is that people seem to accept burglary as a fact of life and the people affected didn't wish to report it to the police for fear of it increasing their house insurance premium. They also seemed put off by the fact that burglary doesn't seem to be a serious crime anymore and they didn't think the police would be all that interested. I disagree. It's a terrible crime and those responsible should have their hands chopped off. I'm sure the police see it that way too - perhaps not going so far as the removal of any hands but certainly the seriousness of the crime. Although unreported, clearly word has got round because we've had some early morning police patrols which offers a degree of reassurance but it'll only be a temporary measure for sure.

The one responsible, and I believe it was just a single individual, clearly had his sights on easy pickings. A patio door, a kitchen window with exterior glass beading, and an open bedroom window. I don't believe anything was actually taken but there was some damage caused. I've certainly been more vigilant recently.

Another project that I've taken on is to install network cables where required in the house. I've just got fed up of the wireless connection dropping just when you're mid-way through doing something on the PC so as a temporary measure I've run a cable from the living room router to my PC at the opposite end of the house. Normally I get around 40-60Mb per second via wireless but with the direct connection I'm getting in excess of 170Mb per second and I've measured in excess of 190! It's also much more stable. Just need to start channeling the walls now to install the cables properly but at least we've got plans to decorate the living room which is the only room that will be affected to any large degree.

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You're quite right Mick about the seriousness of burglary. The people burgling are pond life scum and they should have they're hands chopped off to stop them doing it again. Touch wood we've never had the house broken into but I've had the van and the garage done over a few times over the years. I'd like to point out that I've been offered lots of tools over the years but, even though I like bargain as much as anyone else, ive always turned down tools of dubious origin. I personally think the people that buy goods without provenance are as bad as those pinching them! As long as there is a market for stolen goods people will keep stealing. If everyone stopped buying then there'd be no market so stolen stuff would be worthless.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'd been keen to get something done with one or other of my layouts this week but the disappointments I've had with a small number of my DCC sound loco's has dampened my enthusiasm. I'm just taking a step back for a few days in order to take stock of what I have and what I want to do.

However, my DCC sound problems aren't the whole story by any means. I just get the feeling that there are certain people involved in the hobby in a business capacity who don't always have our best interests at heart. I'm sure that most people won't have encountered the same problems I've had recently so I do hope that my experiences are in the minority, but the few, relatively minor, things I've had to deal with have set the seeds for my current discontent.

As you may already be aware I am a big fan of DCC sound so I'm always on the lookout for the most highly recommended sounds. In recent years there has been an improvement in overall sound quality though unfortunately little reduction in the overall cost. At one time if you wanted a soundchip reblowing you sent in away to Howes as there were few alternatives but today, thankfully, there's a slightly wider choice.

Going off some of the recommendations, I chose to try some of the soundchips put together by Legomanbiffo and available through DC Kits in Leeds. I found it to be hit and miss, in that some of the recordings were very good (as in the class 26) whilst others were personally disappointing (class 33 in my case). I also tried out a couple of class 37s which are reasonably okay but slightly on the quiet side. I fully understand that speaker installation plays a big part in overall sound reproduction and that my disappointments may be down to my method of installation but then that gives me another point to raise and have a moan about - the fact that there's often very little room for decent speakers.

But it wasn't just the quality of sound that disappointed me - it was the overall customer service from DC Kits. Their online webstore isn't great in the first place but it also doesn't calculate correct postage rates. Each item you add to your basket increases the postage cost until, as in my case, you're left with a postage bill amounting to £13 for just a few chips. I honestly thought they would amend it when charging my debit card before sending out my order but alas they didn't. If I had contacted them "they would have" but even after I'd raised the point they never refunded the excess cost.

Undeterred (or a fool, you decide) I submitted a further order to DC Kits, this time for a couple of chips and a selection of speakers and housings. I thought I'd try out some different installations to see which worked best for me. This time I kept a careful eye on the postage costs and managed to keep to approx £8. I had the option of paying an additional amount for SPECIAL DELIVERY but the amount I had already paid was sufficient to cover that. A couple of soundchips arrived in good time after just a couple of days or so, which was excellent service, but there was no sign of any additional speakers and the speaker housings included with the chips were not the ones I had ordered. The ones I had been sent were larger and also cheaper than the ones I'd ordered. The cost of sending out these chips was also a mere £1.84p by Second Class post - remember, I had paid almost £8.

I gave it a few days to see if the remainder of my order turned up but ended up having to contact Charlie Petty by email on 24 March. I was told that they would be following shortly and apologies for the delay. By 7 April there was still no sign of my order so I contacted him again and stated that if there was to be any further delay could I have a refund and I would order elsewhere.

I received another prompt reply stating "For some reason (My Fault) the speaker item have not been sent, this will be shipped to you shortly. Sorry for the delay. Charlie" I replied right away asking for a full refund if that was indeed the case but it was the early hours of the following morning before I received a reply which stated "Your item was posted today at 13.15, I have just.... read your E.Mail. Cannot cancel, sorry. Charlie" To be blunt - he's pi**ed me off.

I'm sure Charlie Petty has a large appreciative following on the exhibition circuit but that's certainly not reflected in the way he conducts his online business. And heaven forbid my APT-E should ever need attention!

So that's just one recent instance of some of the 'players' in the hobby letting me down. Add to that my recent experience with Hattons and it's fair to say that I don't feel as excited about the whole thing as I once did. Yesterday I cancelled over £500 worth of pre-orders with Hornby because I don't feel I want to waste any more money on products that I can't do anything with. My latest class 60 has a non-working speaker, a speaker I recently purchased from Howes doesn't work - the hobby just seems to be littered with inferior products that aren't fit for purpose being sold by people that just don't seem to give a damn. It's time for me to take stock and reassess my objectives but I will be back.

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I think the problem is the same with everything these days Mick not just our hobby! There's that much cheap Taiwanese crap on the market today that people are selling as good quality and there's so many people hoping to save money by buying the crap that it's allowed most markets, be it railway, motoring, electrical,etc to become flooded with inferior products! Time being as valuable a commodity as it is today, lots of people are either of the opinion that if they buy something and it's rubbish it's often easier to buy another rather than complain, or they think it's to be expected as it was cheap in the first place. This just allows those selling the crap to make money and some unscrupulous individuals to pass the junk off as quality. I'm not saying for one minute, by the way, that you've bought cheaply, I'm just saying that we, as consumers, have allowed this to become the norm for the most part. This seems to be giving some retailers the " if you can't beat em, join em" attitude which doesn't help us, the consumer! While people are not returning goods they aren't happy with the traders are getting away with selling inferior products. We all need to return absolutely anything substandard and stand up and be counted so to speak. Rant over. Anyway, other than that, how's things Mick? Hope you're well. :lol::lol: Regards. Mark

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Would'nt it be nice to stroll down the road to your local model shop at talk to someone about what you want and they will advise you what to buy. Right, never gona happen if it ever did anyway. Something like sound is very much a personal thing, peoples expections are differant, probably even how they hear things may differ. Some may think TTS sound great until they hear somthing better. Many years ago l was happy with my Amstrad stero till l heard a Bang & Watsit one. Having said that if your paying top dollar you expect the customer service to go with. I wonder what the profit margin is on each sale?

OK it has to be said that l dont like sound in engines, really it for the reasons Mick says. You have the choice of the good the bad and the down right rubbish and lets be honest you dont know what your going to get till it arrives. Do you know just who are you dealing with, l used to deliver to "London Internation Finance Ltd" which was a bloke working from a shed in his back garden, not some flash home office but a 6x4 B&Q jobbie with an extension lead from the house yet out of interest l looked up his web site which showed a great ariel veiw of Canary Wharf.

As for p&p you would think for the money they charge they could do that free.

Sound like all of DCC still has a way to go yet and I'm happy to wait.

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I've spent a good few hours pottering around the garden today, tidying things up, potting on a few plants, that kind of thing. I'm not at all sure why I find it so relaxing and enjoyable but I'm sure the sunshine and warmer temperatures have something to do with it. The greenhouse had once again become a dumping ground for things that should have been put elsewhere and likewise the railway shed, so I set to and sorted them both out. It's much easier to get yourself motivated to do something when you have a clean workspace around you.

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