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mekydro
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Jun 29, 2017 9:53 pm

Another new member

Post by mekydro »

Hi everyone

I am not new to railway modelling per se, but I feel like a newbie in today's railway modelling world.
I was given my first OO-gauge trainset in 1964 - a Tri-ang 2-car green SR suburban EMU (expandable to a 4-SUB by adding 2 trailers) and although the EMU has long given up the ghost, the P4.5 Power Controller from this set soldiers on as on of my two main controllers. This set had steel rails mounted on rigid plastic bases, a type of track that was unique to Tri-ang. I then also inherited a cast-off hand-me-down from a relative, a green Hornby Brush Type 2 (D5572 IIRC) and a freight train, with a layout ready-mounted on a board. Although this took me up a notch or two, I still loved the old EMU more than this interloper! Some of the track sections from this board survive on my present layout, though they are now few in number.

Here is why I feel like a Newbie:
I built my present OO-gauge layout in my loft in the late 1980s/early 1990s to my own design. I am now retired but spent all of my working life in various electrical engineering roles (First 9 years with BR working on S&T equipment) and so had my own ideas about model railway design. The panel that I built still serves me well, and has all-electric points. Having built and completed the layout, family illness and other commitments then prevented me from using it for nearly 20 years. When I built my layout, DCC was only a gleam in some engineer's eye and so I built in a multiple-section segmented power supply arrangement as a kind of 'second-best'. The trackwork is mostly PECO flexible 100 type (concrete and wood) with LIMA electric points, and the locos/stock mostly LIMA.

Returning to modelling only recently, I have found enormous changes. LIMA have gone, swallowed up by Hornby, and DCC is very much in vogue. I have found to my considerable annoyance and cost, that many modern models will simply not run on my layout due to wheel profile differences. I have had to relay some sections of my layout due to heat/cold damage and general deterioration, but am not able to relay it all just to suit certain models :(
I can live with all this, but it has been quite frustrating at times! I have now repaired everything that had broken/failed and so have a working layout once more. My theme is now BR/WR circa 1969, i.e. post-steam but before HSTs and the general introduction of diesel-electrics. I am happy to run older locos that will not derail; thankfully there are still quite a few available. In a total reversal of the real railway's experience, my most ultra-reliable loco is an NBL Warship D838!

One big and welcome change is the internet. Never having been one to subscribe to modelling magazines, I felt somewhat isolated. Now there is a huge pool of knowledge and help available from places like this forum.

If any of my old-school knowledge is useful in this digital age, please feel free to ask me!

Cheers
Mekydro
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End2end
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Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2014 9:58 pm
Location: At the end....... and sometimes at the other end

Re: Another new member

Post by End2end »

Welcome to the forum and welcome back to the hobby. :)
Thanks
End2end
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shunter68
Posts: 46
Joined: Thu Apr 27, 2017 8:27 pm
Location: County Durham

Re: Another new member

Post by shunter68 »

Hi welcome to the forum. :D
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mekydro
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Jun 29, 2017 9:53 pm

Re: Another new member

Post by mekydro »

Thank you both. I am finding my feet again and re-learning a lot of things that had lain forgotten in the corners of my (ageing) brain for many years. One thing that I never did was to make a wiring diagram of the main control panel - time got the better of me. I can now do this but its a job for a cooler time than June, due to the loft being quite warm at the moment! Thankfully I numbered all the wires where they go out via the I/O terminal blocks, so the task shouldn't be too taxing.
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Bufferstop
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Joined: Thu Mar 11, 2010 12:06 pm
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Re: Another new member

Post by Bufferstop »

A slightly belated welcome, I'll blame PhotoBucket they're getting blamed for everything else at the mo' I'm intrigued by your wheel profile problem, it's usually the other way around, the older profiles with deeper flanges not liking modern track. The only thing I can think of being that the flange ways on your points are wider than current standards, leading to the narrower wheel treads falling into the gaps. What track did you use all those years ago, in today's terminology it's probably around code 125. (the rail height in thou's). It will at least be a different set of problems for you to tax our brains with.

John W
aka Bufferstop
Growing old, can't avoid it. Growing up, forget it!
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mekydro
Posts: 19
Joined: Thu Jun 29, 2017 9:53 pm

Re: Another new member

Post by mekydro »

Thank you John.

You are correct that the point crossings appear to be the main problem. I did some testing whilst watching the bogie wheels of a Heljan Class 35 at dead slow speed. It ran fine until the leading wheels came to the 'X' of the points, then there was just too much clearance/not enough guidance and the wheelset derailed. It did this consistently and on most of my sets of points. I have mostly Lima 3050 electric points (with a couple of Hornby sets); older models are fine on them. Even operating at crawling pace made no difference to the derailing results.

I have seen some of the correspondence relating to older models on newer types of track - i'll just stick to PECO Setrack 100, on which my older models run fine. I must admit that back in my early days of modelling, I always assumed that there was a standard wheel profile that all/most model manufacturers used, so as to give compatibility with standard track. I do remember 'magnadhesion' that Tri-ang brought out, those wheels looked different but I think they were a normal flange depth - unless anyone here knows differently, of course. My very early Tri-ang EMU had milled edge driving wheels so as to give some grip - no traction tyres in those days - but it still ran OK on Hornby track. Of course, over time the milled edge wore down, with less grip as a result!

I also had similar results on my Lima pointwork with some DAPOL wagons - they looked beautifully detailed, but their fine-profile wheels didn't like it either. Since I am really in modelling for the enjoyment of operating a layout and maintaining it, rather than superfine detailing, i'll live within its limitations - but it would have helped if I had done some research on the subject of wheels & flanges first!
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