BagEndJct

Rob, sounds very complicated. Good luck! Can I ask a slightly relevant question: when you are in Cyprus, do you have any problems getting program authorisation/activation or trying to send a report to RM support from within the program? I have huge problems here in Spain to the extent I'm terrified of trying to get RM activated and working on a newer laptop. I used to manage to connect via my mobile phone Internet connection but even that seems to have stopped working.

Lucky boy! I remember getting my first Hornby Dublo train set. I've never been more excited. Good luck. The more sidings the better. I've always loved shunting too. I'm now 73 and still "playing trains"!

I too have stopped using scale speeds. I was getting particular problems with recent locos I have bought which have been fitted with Loksound v5 decoders.

Thanks Rob! I had been looking for these though I did manage to find some on EBay (still waiting for them to be delivered).

There are now new Hunt couplings ("Elite" ones that don't rely on getting polarity right). So those old ones are now reduntant (wish I'd know before I bought them! Having just bought a mix of the new ones, the cost soon mounts up). The new ones do not depend on getting the "A" and "B" right. They just have to be the correct way up, which makes life simpler. Mine arrived yesterday and I have to say it look as if the production quality is better than the original couplings. I have yet to get round to fitting them..... Among the various types I ordered are those that have screw fixtures. I'm hoping I might be able to adapt these to fit the Mk1 bogies, which was the original point of this thread!

I promised to report back after updating RM. Well.... the leak has been fixed, my phone screen is being replaced, the wasp stings have gone (apart from the odd scar), we did catch a rat in the outbuilding BUT since this update to RM, I can report that there have been a lot more derailments and crashes than there were before. I KNEW I should have left well alone!!

I have had two of these (too complicated to explain why two here!). I have had DCC sound as well as ´stay-alive' fitted and neither runs very well, even after a long and smooth run-in. They derail or stall at odd places, places where none of my other locomotives experience any difficulty whatsoever. I have checked the back-to-back measurements on both of them which seem OK. Mick 39, I was wondering how you found out that others have also been having problems with this loco. I have to say, I am not surprised.

Rob and others, thanks for the gluing tips. Going back to my Airfix model days as a kid, glue and me have never got on! Mac As it happens I have a spare bogie to play with. I had to replace one following a previous botched modification on my part. So I can play with the old bogie to see what I can get to work. But thanks for the tip. Colin, I'll Email them too. I was disappointed when I suffered a derailment when pushing some Hunt coupler-fitted coaches over points into a siding. I'll take a look to see what was happening.

Fishmanoz, 😀 I will and I'll let you know! John

Yes I find they do differ (as do some pockets). I usually find one to fit. But some pockets have been just too slack. At the moment I'm "fixing" these with a tiny blob of 'black tack'. So useful that stuff!

Thanks Rob, I was thinking along those lines. I'll have to look through my old stock for a pocket. What glue would you use? Glue and me don't mix(!) and Spanish glue just doesn't seem to stick! Maybe it's the heat. I lashed out and bought a bottle of Plastic Magic and have yet to find anything it will stick. Superglue just doesn't seem to hold. I know, pathetic, isn't it?! Cheers. Here's one of the little couplings. I'm liking them!:- /media/tinymce_upload/27a6f427db0eebe761ed5028af26fae1.JPG

Just to confirm that I too receive "rm_setup.exe can't be downloaded securely" on my Windows 10 laptop. I've never seen this alert in Windows before. Talking about dripping taps.... we have a leak in our mains water supply, I dropped and cracked the screen of my new phone, there's a rat in an outbuilding, I got stung twice by wasps, I don't think I'll install this just in case things start going wrong!

I'm going through a selection of my stock fitting one the "new" magnetic coupling systems (the simple type where you pull stock apart to uncouple. I've given up on anything more complicated). I've done quite well with both Hornby and other makers' locos, wagons and coaches where they have NEM pockets and everything has matched up quite nicely. But I have a couple of suburban Bachmann Mk1 coaches without pockets. Can anyone help with a fairly simple method to convert these as I'd be loath to leave them out. I've spent quite a bit of time searching online but have drawn a blank. Thank you in advance./media/tinymce_upload/f5a6aec76de9b86f8c3b59f910774143.jpg

Update: I contacted Key Publishing and was able to sign up for the online content so thanks for that tip!

I gave up on my first DCC layout due to constant stalling on points and elsewhere. I started with a new layout which happens to be Railmaster controlled. I found isopropyl alcohol applied with a microfibre cloth to be the most effective and I give the track of my layout a Spring clean (removing buildings etc) every few months. I live in Spain and get a lot of dust blowing in to the old goatshed which houses my layout. And gecko deposits don't help. In between Spring cleans I've been using Track Magic whenever and wherever stalling occurs. It does work like magic but can build up on the track, hence the regular Spring cleans.

Ok, thanks very much. So it looks like I didn't miss anything! I subscribed to the online version via 'Pocketmags' and I don't think I qualify for any online extras.

I live in Spain and, until the present crisis, was receiving hard copies of Hornby Magazine, brought out by kind friends, even though sometimes they were a couple of months late! As this was not going to be happening for a while I subscribed to the online version but found that, what has been appearing inside the front cover of the printed magazine (a useful couple of pages on Railmaster features) does not appear in the online version. I think the last printed copy I can find is the January issue. Can anyone confirm that this feature continued? And I wonder if it's available anywhere online (I have my doubts, I must say!). Thank you

Thanks Ray. I will read, digest and experiment... and let you know! Things heating up here now and time spent in the Train Shed is a bit limited but I will certainlly have a go.

Thank you, thank you! For the buttons, I use dabuttonfactory.com, Rob. It took a bit of getting used to but they suit me. I like the idea of the label next to an icon. Without exploring too far, I don't think there is a limit on the number of icons, it's just that you can only access the number allowed by the width of the scroll bar in the "Programmable Button" window within Layout Design. As long as I don't wish to access "old" buttons I do believe I can go on creating and using new ones as long as I keep them at the top of the alphabetically sorted list. It just offends my desire for things to work properly, really. Clicking a button on the layout is so much quicker than scrolling down through the list of programs in the main window but it is certainly an option. I really think these announcements add a lot to the operation of the layout. I have tried running things using programs, Ray, but find my trains keep stopping in the wrong place! As I am also a keen video maker and editor, I have a good editing program (Vegas Pro) and I record and apply effects within that. Thanks for the advice, as ever. It is much appreciated.

I've been happily making station announcement recordings for various scenarios at my 4-platform main station, even recruiting a female neighbour with a good voice for some recordings. I add a good echo and place the recordings in the RM directory. I also create icons to go with the annonucments, and programs to play each announcement. I then go into Layout Design and use 'programmable buttons', placing the icons and associating the button with the program. eg "2AW" plays the announcement appropriate for the train arriving at platform 2 which is for Weymouth. I've been going along happily extending the library of announcements but suddenly hit a snag. The number of icons displayable in the window that pops up to place an icon (see my screenshot here) is limited by how far you can scroll to the right in that window. It is not infinite. So far, I've overcome it by giving names to the icons alphabetically "higher" than the others, eg the name starts with a @ symbol. But it means I can no longer access icons towards the end of an alphabetically sorted list. I wondered if anyone has a more elegant solution fo achieving what it is I'm trying to achieve? Many thanks. /media/tinymce_upload/a0a293fbae2b60f3456a33518aa25280.png

Rob. I was very interested to read this. I use a number of TT signals, some with direction feathers, and if these now work properly within RM I will be a very happy bunny. Are you aware of any documentation on this? My layout is out of action at the moment for a Spring Clean so I cannot test this. I have dismantled everything and first need to clean the track. However, weather is cool and damp as is my enthusiasm to get going on this at the moment! As soon as we're up and running again, I'll test what I can and report back!

Thanks, Rob, for the VV2 sounds list. I had pre-ordered mine and it arrived yesterday but it's been snatched away to go under the Christmas tree. My layout is not in operation anyway (for Gecko mess-removal. See posts in "Off Topic"!), so I could not have tried it out anyway!

To quote David Coleman, "quite remarkable". Or even a minor miracle that King George I is back together again and working as well as before. A couple of minor bits of damage, most of which I have repaired with the odd tiny spot of superglue. Getting tiny screws back into tiny holes is not my forte but the main body screw was still in it place and I merely had to loosen it and tighten it with the body in place and it held. The plate that connects the tender was bent and I had to loosen that and finding a screwdriver for those narrow-slotted screws was a bit of a problem. I finally did it with the tiny screwdriver that comes with Hornby Accessory Decoders! Thank you for your help and suggestions. /media/tinymce_upload/273a894fa2e56eb520775e2b39e88a9a.jpg

Thanks all! Yes, I agree, I did get off lightly. I see from the instructions (gosh I find those diagrams difficult to follow!) there is one main screw below the bogey (which needs to be removed) that secures the body. So I think I'll remove the bogey (helpfully, 'as shown in Fig 11') then pop the body back on and see if the screw will bite? It doesn't look as if the screw has snapped off. Thanks, ellocoloco, I can see the sanding pipes and that is what they are!

My Hornby King George I TTS (R3384TTS) just jumped the tracks (I have no idea why) and fell about 4' on to concrete tiles. The case has come off and a couple of cosmetic bits are broken. Amazingly, it still works, as does the sound. I have never been any good at taking apart or reassembling such things, leaving it to those who can. I have the original instructions which will help. I think I will have to glue the holding screw back into its socket but my main question is, what are these two thin wires hanging down from the case (see picture). Do they go inside or out? Oh, and the NEM coupling came out of its socket and I am having some difficulty getting it back in again. It seems too wide to fit, but it must have fitted in the first place. And any other tips please in getting Humpty back together again would be much appreciated and please forgive my ignorance. After all, I have only had Hornby trains, on and off, for about 60 years now.....! /media/tinymce_upload/db727986e01d859c726b9c7934b75860.jpg,