Nick_

If you are unable to buy replacement traction tyres there is a product named ‘bullfrog snot’ which allows you to make your own traction tyres. Bullfrog Snot is available from many model railway supplies, just google it. P.S. I have not used this product myself, but I just know it exists.

I eventually found that my problem was being caused by a restive short circuit. This meant that my eLink was supplying over 3A continuously (my eLink has the 4A supply). Adding snubbers simply increased the current draw further! I have discovered that running an eLink at near its maximum continuously can distort the DCC waveforms and thus cause problems. Once the restive short circuit was removed everyting worked perfectly without snubbers. That's why I suggest it is worth double checking the wiring first...

There are arguments both for and against snubbers. In my opinion unless you are building a really large layout such that your DCC bus is really long (say 20m+) then there is really no need for a snubber. I once installed one on the DCC bus of a 2.8m x 2.8m layout powered by an eLink with a 4A power supply and it actually made things worse!I once had a problem that sounds somewhat similar to yours and it eventually turned out to be a wiring fault so I would really recomend double double checking all your wiring.

From personal experience, I would recommend never using settrack curved points (as you had in your original schematic). They will give no end of problems not least the fact that they have a very long insulated frog section which means that most, if not all, short wheelbase locos will stall on them.

Another ’nail’ was that a significant minority of his models, though highly detailed and looking great, were let down by their chassis and thus were not good runners. Both the 48xx and the 1361 fall into this category. Look great, run poorly. It took 4 attempts before I got a 48xx which ran acceptably and, according to other forums, many other people had a similar problem!

If you haven’t had even an acknowledgement it might be worth resending your question via Railmaster’s built in help request.

Almost certainly the ex-Lima version which is less detailed than the current super detail version, but still not a bad model.

Can anybody confirm how far (or how long) a 2,200 microF capacitor will give With a loco running at a slow speed, but not a crawl? I tried the stay alive supplied with a DCC Concepts zen decoder and at bes it appeared to keep the decoder alive for a few milli-secs and a few mm in distance, certainly less than the distance over a dead frog

Thing is, most commercially available stay alives, such as those available from TCS, are a hell of lot higher capacity than 2,200 microF. Think more in the way of 500,000 microF and also use super-Capacitors rather than electrolytics Which are a lot more expensive. I have one which will keep a loco running for over 30 secs at slow speed! Now whether 30 secs running time is actually needed is another question...

Unfortunatly I think LD is way down Hornby's priority list. If it does ever happen, I don't think it's going to be until well after they are back in profit. I wouldn't be suprised if Bachmann beat them to it with something similar to go with their new Railcontroller system and thus I won't be suprised if LD gets binned entirely.

I have an 9' x 9' x 18" shelf layout around my office. I use lint free nail polish remover pads and IPA (easy to by via Amazon) or 'Track Magic' cleaner. Always surprised how much black gunk Comes off.

58, so looks like I'm around the 'average' age then

The smallest decoder I have come across so far is the Lenz silver mini+ at 11.5 x 7.5 x 2.6 mm, they are a bit more expensive than the X9659 though. It has 7 wires but you can cut off or unsolder the 3 function wires that you don't need /media/tinymce_upload/fb8a7494f2cfb99b2f90ef1753b3c43d.jpg

Dodo and Manchester Ship Canal arrived Christmas Eve. Lovely looking models. Now just need chipping before I can run them because I'm only DCC. A job for later this week when I've finished all my tasks allocated to me by SWMBO 😇

@Jimbopuff Is that the Hornby R8249 you fitted in County of Bedford?