morairamike

In my case I use the last two digits of the loco. Mallard is 68 Falcon is 84 Class 20 is 58 Etc etc

My boards are 12mm ply. The layout is in a double bedroom, with radiator and double glazing. It was made starting in 2017 and NONE of the surfaces are sealed. It has a lift up hinged flap which still operates correctly. It is hinged on kitchen cupboard hinges, they failed and caused problems but we're replaced and supports added at the hinge edge so the hinges don't support the flap in the closed position.

I use small DC to DC PSUs. They are cheap and easy to wire up. I split my street lights into sections, my houses and shops into zones. By using these PSUs you can set the brightness of the lights to different levels for more realism.

Post 3 This was taken at Langstone, South of Havant, on way to Hayling Island. Again using PANORAMA and POSTERIZA. It is 7.25" above the track bed and is 67" long. Trying to find a decent scene in the shops is difficult.

Post 2 This back scene was home produced. It was taken at Stansted House West Sussex. I used PANORAMA setting on mobile phone. Then loaded it into POSTERIZA on my laptop. Adjust the size and then printed it out on 6.5 sheets of A4 MATTE photopaper on an EPSON XP-8600 printer, it has 6 ink cartridges. The top of the scene is 13" above the lower track bed, 11.5" above the upper track bed at right hand end. As the upper track is inclined the scene top is 10" above the track bed at left hand end.

My layout has 3 back scenes at present. One is a shop bought scene, but although my layout is OO it's N gauge to give a better perspective view. The top of the scene is 6" above the layout road. This is it. The next two posts will show the others.

I have a Sharge track cleaner. When I use it I put 100% IPA in it. I also have a truck rubber. But and it's a big but, since I started using 100% instead of 75% I don't need to clean the track so often. I hoover the model every so often but not regularly.

My track is pinned down. Yes I found the pins bent but by using a small twist drill to make a pilot hole, the problem goes away. My track is laid on pre-ballasted foam. Now, yes, I thought it would degenerate but it is now 4½ years old and still fine. The shoulders are loose ballast laid with ballast glue, a kind of PVA. Pins do allow for easy track vertical alignment if required.

On my layout I have many street lights, House lights, signals etc and to give a better realism to them by not having all lights in same area bright or dim, I use these . You get 5 for £6.99. Some even have built in voltmeters for a few pounds more. Yizhet 5 Pack Buck Converter DC to DC Converter High Efficiency Voltage Regulator 3.0-40V to 1.5-35V…See more Amazon's Choice for "buck converter"

Yes the rails on the flap are powered from my DCC bus. However to make life easy if the flap needs removing, the DCC bus join from the main layout board to the flap is by a coaxial plug and socket. Power on the fixed board on hinge side of the flap is not interrupted when the flap is raised as the flap itself will stop any trains progress. On the other side of the flap, the fixed board power is killed by a micro switch that the flap leading edge operates.

I have the 75th Anniversary Mallard which is gold plated and came with a R601 gold plated straight. This was my retirement present from my last company. I run the Mallard on my layout and I use the gold plated track as my DCC Programming track.

I was lucky enough to find a 5pole armature that had been modified to replace the 3 pole in my 9F on eBay about 5 years ago. It improved the running and the low speed was greatly improved. Eventually I changed it to CD motor and now it's excellent at low speed. I run using Gaugemaster Prodigy DCC.

Many thanks.

Sadly the app decided to post two of the photos wrongly orientated. Be that as it may the original hinges were the type that allow cabinet doors to be removed by the operation of a small level catch. Where they went wrong was that I left the in open (raised position) for at least 9 months as I entered and left the room (but didn't run the trains) to gain access to my electronic tools. Since the fitting of the new hinges and the "rests" I now leave the access flap in the down position. It is supported by the rests at the hinge end and the original rests at the leading edge. Hopefully this will resolve the problem.

Hi all been a while since I posted on here. Back in 2020 during covid lockdown I worked many hours on my layout. Life since then has been full on and yes the layout is 98% complete but I have to admit I have not spent many hours working or even running it, till yesterday that is. I powered it up and set two trains in motion. However at the access flap disaster when both trains derailed. I cleared the wreckage and examined the flap. The problem was that the two hinges had dropped causing a step in the track. Now I constructed the flap using kitchen cupboard door hinges. These were the quick release type. I decided to replace them and bought new ones but non quick release. These have moving parts. I fitted them and adjusted the alignment, problem cured. But I decided that it would be better if there was a support under the hinge end if the flap so that the hinges are left to support the flap. The other end rests on adjustable stops already. So how could I do that. In the end I used two right angle brackets and domed bolts and lock nuts. The bolts sit in the holes in the brackets. With the flap closed the bolts are adjusted so they support the flap. To do this the hinges were released from the flap. Once the bolts are adjusted so the track is aligned the hinges are again attached to the flap so all they do is allow the flap to raise, not support it.

A bad connection increases resistance that resistance causes a voltage drop and heat is generated across the resistance.

The cheapest supply of LEDs I found is Christmas tree lights. For houses use warm white. I split my houses and buildings into random groups and fit the lights in random rooms as not all rooms in a home are lit at the same time. Then to power them I bought adjustable power supplies these are cheap. Supply them with 12v and adjust the output to the voltage of the lights. Now connect the lights to the output. Turn out the room lights and fine tune the output of the supplies to give the effect you want.

WD40 was invented for the USA space program it's primarily a water dispersant. Hence WD. It evaporates then it attracts dust and become crud. Wouldn't have it within a mile of my layout.

Dremel (or similar);with cutting disc, works a treat.

Trying to pull 9 coaches on an oval will take a lot more effort than on a straight. As well as the friction of the pick ups, there is the added effect of the coaches being pull effectively sideways against the edges of the rails. Once you get a straight built I think you will find totally different results. On my layout the curves make a difference to the loco and train speed.

How much lateral movement is there on the 4 driver wheels. Move them sideways and look at the wipers on the rear of the wheels. With the drivers pushed one way do the wipers still touch the rears, now try the other way. If they do not then the loco will stop randomly.

Have look at your points and check that the driver wheels not hitting small guides that ensure the flanges are held over to the outside rail. If the gap between the guide and flange is too large OR the back to back is out then the wheels can hit the guide and derail. See the guides X in attached photo highlighted in purple. Some members added thin card to the guide in the rail side to reduce the gap.

Gently push the loco over the points and look at the wheels. Are the flanges too tight against the rails or too loose. It sounds like the back to back measurements are out of tolerance. Other problems could be: a) that the points are not flat. b) the front bogie is pushing down on the rails to much and lifting the driver's off the track.

If you've got the rolling stock then try it. On my layout I only run A4s with 3 carriages as any other length looks out of scale to the layouts size and station lengths. But as they say it's your layout so do what takes your fancy.

When sheared crank pins I bought new wheel sets for the loco which came with the pins.