37lover

Welcome to the forum Patricia, I had to read your post a few times to try and understand your complaint, unlike WATB. I think you are saying there are only two carriages in the pack but I am not sure what you mean by "full livery". If you are talking about the set R30258 (this is currently only available Pre-order) then this website clearly shows and lists three carriages/wagons. Why do you think there are only two, not three?

Topcat, I know from our previous exchanges you are very experienced with electronics and presumably electrics. Whilst I agree with your comment above haven't you overestimated the resistance of a 5 amp fuse in a mains circuit. Philip in his posting in Feb 22 suggested for 6 turns you would have 2.3" of wire, SoT originally recommended 4 turns, so let's say 4 turns is 1.5". It's a very long time ago that I saw wired fuses but weren't they more like 1/2" between contacts, or even less. Bottom line is resistance would be at most a third of 33 ohms and the voltage drop "only" 55 volts -still far too much to make sense.

DtB, Generally [not specific to Hornby], unless noted otherwise, I believe periods are working days so exclude weekends and Bank Holidays.

96RAF, Thanks. I exchanged messages with Stingray many, many months ago [well, probably a couple of years!] about his system but other things have kept me busy plus my ill placed belief that Hornby would get round to releasing their LD software. Or they might acknowledge defeat. I firmly believe my layout, and enjoyment, would benefit tremendously with LD. My interest is rekindled! Regards Martin

96RAF, What is TGG please? I do not get any relevant results searching the Internet for TGG!

I can only offer some vague background info. I built and sold a couple of double track 00 helix. I have a template buried somewhere in my garage. I think it was about 1.2m ID and of course each full turn had to clear and pass over the lower. From memory I believe each turn had an 80 mm rise/fall and this gave a gradient of a little over 2%. Make no mistake a helix takes up a fair bit of room, albeit TT will be smaller in plan but my recommendation would be, space permitting, keep the gradient less than 2% and aim for around 1.5%. As a previous poster has inferred you will be much better off using flexible track not standard track pieces.

DRC, £1000k ? No, I don't think so, slight typo. Try £1,000grinning

Deem, Try searching for pcb breadboard on Ebay. I've used both the plain ones with strip connections and with individual holes; cut to suit whatever size needed.

Vespa, I have started using EverBuild [stick2] Industrial Grade Superglue GP 50gm bottle on plastic models and so far it has proved very effective, worth checking out I think.

Robcat, I didn't! I did fit passengers and they help with the overall impression but unless I am viewing from only a couple of inches I would never notice the central pillar

Robcat, Unfortunately I cannot find any of the original photos, I am reasonably confident that I did upload but have no faith in Hornby ever recovering despite their claim that they are working hard. Sorry but I don't want to take a coach apart to take another set of pictures, hopefully the text will give you sufficient guidance if you wish to proceed.

Robcat, As you will recognise I am the original poster, and as you state it is an old post! I don't think I still have the photographs but will check later [as I have to go out right now]. I've still got the coaches.

BM, A few photos sent, have to wait for the due process!

Trying again to upload photos The booth is about 650mm wide; the second photo shows how I can access the filter to replace if necessary and also the fan behind, the third shot shows the side view.

BM, Depends on your skill level and desire but I recently built my own spray booth. The "box" is built from 3mm thick hardboard [that was already primed on the smooth side] and several lengths of 20mm x 18mm wood batten. Biggest cost was the filter [£7.99] and a six inch extractor fan [circa £16]. I haven't fitted a hose on the rear [yet] as I only spray acrylics. I also fitted a few rows of strip led's across the top but have not needed to turn these on. I already had a "lazy susan" [manually rotated]. I'll post a photo if you're interested.

Topcat beat me to the calculation but seems we agree.

Interesting! My gut feeling agreed with BM & PH but consider the following maths Diameter of snooker ball 52.5mm, thus radius is 26.25. Take a chord length between the tops of the sleepers as 16.5mm. You can determine the distance from the ball centre to the mid point of the chord by pythagoras theorem, that is the cxc = axa + bxb. I can't work out how to write c "squared". c is 26.25, b is 16.5/2 = 8.25. Solve for a, I think the result is 24.92mm. Thus the depth of the ball below the top of the sleeper is 26.25 - 24.92 = 1.33mm Height of sleeper at 1/10" is 2.54mm. Result >>> bottom of the ball will be clear of the sleeper!

Topcat, Success, of sorts! Embarrassing that it has taken me so long to get round to trying again but I've been busy. I still had trouble getting the original 555 circuit to work [but I suspect I now know my mistake] but did get a simple 555 Oscillator circuit to work - this effectively gives out high/low ratio at 1:1 but only uses one resistor. I fed this to the 4017 and tried a few different resistor values to get a suitable frequency flashing red/white on the bi-colour led. I connected the led legs to the 4017 outputs 0 and 2. This is all on a "stripboard" for now. Next step is to try and measure the current through the led. Originally I was going to use three leds; one in the tail and one each side of the fuselage but I've managed to take two fibre optics from one led to use in the fuselage sides. Thanks again for all your help.

Brew Man, Not everyone likes Ebay but I have bought lots of card from Suppliers on there, search for Greyboard - various thicknesses on offer.

I have this problem, still have this problem. I have raised a query by email, followed up by speaking to Customer Support and the person didn't know the process to change my Account email address, promised to get back, and never did. If I didn't have a couple of Pre-Orders I would simply close my account, and maybe open a new one

Lots of forum members offer their thoughts/criticism on Hornby's business strategy, and as some National recent events have shown things are not always done correctly, but I really hope they have done their market research to support a price like that. For me that is simply not value for money, even if I had the spare cash.

Loco detection finally ready? I wish!

DRC, I have never tried the Skaledale range, but did buy a few Scenix buildings which are also of a resin type construction. I don't display them and will eventually try to sell and recoup my purchase costs as I think they are expensive for what you get. I have a couple of Metcalfe kits on my layout and agree they are good. However, if you want more than one type of building then may I recommend Scalescenes. You buy and download the plans once; then, print, stick to card, and assemble as many times as you want. It does take time to do all this, I spent several months in the first lockdown preparing terrace houses for my "Village. You can see these in front of the low relief Metcalfe & Superquick buildings in the background. The other photos show a mixture of Metcalfe, Scalescene, and scratch built structures. The Footbridge is Hornby R.481, not a card kit.

Topcat, Sorry, I didn't think your previous two postings needed a response. I have purchased an anti-static mat and wristband, plus some new 555's. I do not spend enough time on electronic projects to warrant purchasing a variable voltage supply with a variable current limit. I have not yet had the opportunity to assemble another circuit but please be assured I will post the results, good or bad, once I have done it.

I think I've spotted my mistake, or at least one. On the rear of the circuit board it looks like I've soldered right across the R1 terminals and effectively bypassed it.