rpjallan

Where in Australia are you? I'm Adelaide...

If you aren’t going to be running more than 4 locos at a time, are not using sound locos & are not using your DCC power to operate your points, I don’t think you will come close to needing a booster. What I would be concentrating on is making sure your wiring is up to scratch.

Well done! I have heard a few YouTubers who do model railway stuff say that it is often surprising to them which videos go really well & which don't...

I don't think Hornby really care about stuff like that. All they are interested in is selling you their new items at an outrageous price & then once it's out of warranty, if it's not an easy fix, you're on your own. They have all these new locos coming out with 21 pin sockets, new "smoke systems", new 21 pin decoders & they can't even supply controllers to run them! I live quite near Hornby's Australian distributor here in Adelaide & I know for a fact that they no longer do any repairs whatsoever. I also know that they raised their prices by 40% at the beginning of this month & the largest model railway shop here has decided not to stock their products from now on...

What is your current system?

Not if you want to use Railmaster software…

That happened to me at Hattons. I initially blamed them but it didn’t take long to realise it was actually Hornby’s fault…

Well you must be more tactful than me because your post hasn't been deleted! Yet! grin I don't think Hornby's prices are the problem when you look at other brands. Value for money is another thing though. The biggest problems I see are, as you said, questionable marketing decisions and how they are treating their retailers & customers. Look at Rails Of Sheffield for example. They haven't looked back since splitting with Hornby...

I agree ColinB. I said so earlier in a shorter post but I wasn’t as tactful as you & it got deleted!

I have Kadee NEM #19 couplings fitted to my Peckett. The Kadee height gauge is an absolute must in my opinion as are the adjusting pliers. Also something to be aware of is that the couplings can often droop in the NEM pockets. I jam a small piece of thin plasticard under the coupling to rectify this. I use a combination of small round neodymium magnets under the track & Kadee between the rails magnets for uncoupling. Also, I have found the whisker couplers to be better than the #5's. Often I attach the box to the wagon, or whatever, with Milliput.

I liked your previous idea better but it's really up to you. What you need to do now is get some track, put it together and have a play...

Or any other brand of decoder with an 8 pin socket...

I have been running Railmaster with my Elite under a virtual machine on a Mac for well over 10 years. And I really can't remember having any problems whatsoever! As far as the "New Zealand guy" goes (his YouTube channel is Station Road I think) he said he didn't like the clicking noise the Elite made when pressing the dials. He didn't mention any other problems with it. As far as I know he was not using Railmaster with his Elite. It made me laugh really because he is using solenoid point motors and they make a louder click than the Elite!

I'm not saying that by any means. I have a Hornby Elite that I use with Railmaster. It does everything I need at the moment. And I can't see me needing any more than this in the foreseeable future, apart from some things I can use from other manufacturers. However, it is disappointing to see a manufacturer, who's not inexpensive products you have invested in, showing very little interest, if any, in the product line you use...

What software do you use to run this system? What do you see as the advantages of this system compared to say the Elink & Railmaster. I have seen the video by the New Zealand guy. The short bit he showed with software it seemed a bit clunky to me.

Any chance you can hurry them up a bit! With people such as ColinB (among many others) jumping ship, there will be few customers left to make use of the "new stuff". I am on a few other model railway forums & also belong to a club & (other than this forum) I don't know anyone else who is using Hornby DCC gear...

I had a similar comment in another Topic... https://uk.hornby.com/community/forum/elink-and-rm-back-in-stock-at-discounted-price-324272?ccm_paging_p=1#end-of-replies

So is it ok to have the Elite connected to a programming track & the main track (via Railmaster) at the same time? I have never tried this...

The "fiddle yard" at the top - I would run your two loops (main lines) through the middle of it, not on one side. Again, this is from experience. I don't know why you want the wye as well as the reverse loop! More trouble than it's worth I think. Then you can have longer station platforms (don't really know why you would want the 2nd station either really) & maybe a passing loop inside the inner platform. If you really want to have the 3rd smaller loop, could be worth experimenting having the reverse loop coming off that. What size is your space? Are the increments on the plan 1 foot?

For a steam era layout I think the reverse loop is a great idea. Locos were changed all the time back in those days. With a reversing loop you can turn complete trains, just the coaches or just the loco. In my experience though a reverse loop is much easier to operate if it doesn't connect to anything else in between. Don't over complicate things. Also, in my experience, two or three long storage loops are much more useful than a whole heap of dead end sidings.

Well, that's the big question, isn't it! Having linked to an eLink/Railmaster special I was mainly commenting on DCC control, not their upcoming locomotives. The last couple of years at their new product announcements there has been little, if any new DCC products. Their new accessory decoder is so complicated & so expensive I wonder if anyone is buying it. I just think since the loco detection debacle they have really dropped the ball. Maybe intentionally...

Is it just me or do Hornby not seem so interested in DCC anymore?

I think you have way too many dead end storage yards! I say this from previous experience! If it was me, I would completely get rid of that loop that runs through the middle. You only need one reversing loop (also from experience). I would get rid of the storage yard inside the reverse loop & have several storage loops on that left hand side where you can store full trains. I would probably thin out the number of storage tracks behind the station also. Whatever you do, before you lay your track permanently, run a lot of trains on it! After just having another quick look, I certainly wouldn't have the reversing loop connecting back up to the inner main loop either. Anyway, just my opinion/advice...

Not wanting to hijack this thread but just wondering, 96RAF, why you recommend this method rather than method 2? Also, I know these boosters haven't been available for quite a while. I saw one recently which I assumed was new/old stock for A$100. Just wondering if this is good value? I know just the power brick itself is worth a bit. Also, if a booster is required are there any other recommended ones that work well with the Elite & Railmaster?

Have a look at this: I guess there are people do similar things with Raspberry Pi...