New Railway Modellers Forums

Cheapest but very limited: Hornby Select
Slightly more but NMRA compliant: Bachmann E-Z Command (not dynamis)
If you already have a laptop and think you could end up doing programming: SPROG II (A bit more technical though.)

Passenger numbers have risen dramatically since privatisation, this is not in doubt. What I want to know is how the proponents of privatisation can be so sure that privatisation was the cause of this. Surely in a world where more people are on the move than ever before by every form of transport and...

If they run quite well on DC then they should convert OK, if they are poor runners then it could be worth converting to CD tray drive motors before you go to DCC or sometimes a new magnet in the ringfield helps. Plenty of YouTube videos on converting to CD tray motors.

Hi I was thinking adding another 6 mm sheet on top to take flex out ? What are your thoughts? It depends what is causing your flex? What and where your weight is. Is it flex in the middle of each quarter, flex across the whole thing or dipping in the middle? If it is flexing where you lean on it to...

I think the most likely explanation, since the lights are working is that, in cutting the capacitors the movement has caused one or more connections to fail. This is quite common with older Bachmann locos in my experience, the wires to the motor are very fine and break easily or the solder may have ...

I don't particularly enjoy sound fitted trains, I find a lot of them too much. Perhaps I'd try one if the volume can be turned quite far down.

And I'm not even old but definitely a git.

The pivot point of a steam loco tends to be the front and rear main driving wheel, problem locos will be those with a long overhang infront or behind the driving wheels (like a Pacific). The collet is an 0-6-0 so won't be anywhere near the overhangs on your longest coach or DMU which will be 23m. Th...

Using the short straights will increase the clearance but I'm afraid it is again down to experimentation, you can use maths to work out the loading gauge on a given curve radius and therefore the required structure gauge but it gets complex at the transitions. What is your longest bit of stock? Is i...

Is your layout still this one?

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=51954&p=634622#p634622

It sounds to me like you are getting shorting on the wheels crossing the frog. So I would use insulated rail joiners and put power feeds in beyond the point then get rid of the clips in the points.

The Bachmann EZ one does seem to be the Bluerail items rebranded.

I suppose it depends then how satisfied one is with the standard lights. For me the Yellow is just too awful to live with as a headlight. I've not tried the Express models kit though I thought I could do better myself.

I recently did a 158 with 2 decoders, warm white LED for the headlight instead of the yellow original. It would be easier to have used the Espress models kit and dimmed the lights using the decoder I think, if more expensive. Some info I found useful here: http://s374444733.websitehome.co.uk/class-1...

If I was going that high, I'd go N-scale to keep things light.

Might not be suitable for dwarfs and midgets though.

I like the idea of self containment for a garden railway. If I ever get around to putting a line around my garden I would limit the number of locos that can run on it and use bluetooth and on-board battery power to save reliance on the rails. Hopefully the implimentation will be a bit more advanced ...