Lb101

Do you have a flat run up to the start of your incline? Your original idea of slotting wood underneath the track might work. Effectively you would need to raise a fair bit of your track elongating and levelling out the incline where it currently is, providing a more gentle slope down to your flat part of your layout but partway down it (with progressively slimmer pieces of wood/cardboard). Downside, fiddly, involving lifting up track and you’ll need to be imaginative about scenery at your trackside to hide it (ballast to where it gets too high to continue, then thin strips of wood either side of the track and ballast for the rest, wood painted and weathered grey to look like concrete etc). BTW I have an incline and what NormanQ4 identified above was my problem, thin piece of plastic under my track underlay on one side of a joint fixed it. Also, you say you lift the track a little locos zoom up. Sounds like it could be an electrical connection problem to the loco rather than an incline problem if it’s at a joint not properly shut off perhaps?

Thanks everyone. I prefer the scenery making and prefer weathering old buildings, woodland and roads I make. I use scatter, crayons and all loads of stuff. As it’s a hobby for life, I will get around to painting my track and it’s side infrastructure. This is helpful information and I’ll no doubt read into it more when I get around to it, this all certainly answers my original question. I have noticed on the Tyne and Wear metro system which only uses electric Powercars, that the concrete sleepers are usually black with presumably oil/lubricant especially in the middle at station stops.

True, I guess I’m a bit lazy on the painting side of things. I’m being a bit of a diva on sleepers.

Mostly I just tinker until it works. My older stuff derails less, maybe because it’s heavier. I’ve loaded problematic wagons and that seems to work too after putting them up against non derailing stock and ‘approx’ adjusting (for want of a better word) as mentioned. that said i had an old class 37 that was very front weighted (circa late 70’s) due to the motor placement and that derailed more. maybe weight is harder on the track though but no problems as of yet (4 years, the blink of an eye to some people’s layouts 😉) ??

Thanks Fazy. I bought a second hand book for about 20p on the history of LNER, no idea where I‘ve put it. this will give me a challenge to find it tonight and a read I’ve been meaning to do for over a year. I had no idea FS was an A10 for a while (Or why I put FC in my last post as an abbreviation, maybe I’m thinking of fish and chips, I’m sure FS wont mind my mistake 😇). This would all make for a great pictoral timeline poster, with photos/livery colours/emblems. Unless one already exists!

Fascinating history. Probably a simple answer To this one but I’m interested to know. At what point during lc&dr’s list did Gresley‘s update/overhaul occur and FC change from an A1 to an A3?

Thanks for that Eric0hff, relatively new to the little n gauge locos, feels like dealing with little fragile clockwork parts 😆

Thanks for that Eric0hff, relatively new to the little n gauge locos, feels like dealing with little fragile clockwork parts 😆

Thanks both. That helps. I know the concept of PWM EricM0hff, will have a look at what is out there which doesn’t use it. As it’s a new loco, hopefully getting it going won’t be an issue without PWM.

I have an n scale layout DC, running a couple of locos made by the uk leading manufacturers. One says in the instructions that I should use a suitable controller for n gauge locos. The Arnold n set I bought ages ago came (and don’t use as the track was incompatible with mine) with the standard Hornby R8250 controller. One loco blew and smelt of electrical burn when using this controller, shop replaced it immediately. Not sure what was the cause, controller or loco. Ive looked online and there is broad consensus that most newer controllers designed for OO gauge are ok for n and A small plethora of opinions of which is best. I’ve been using the Hornby one since, usual cut outs associated with it ensue but no problems otherwise. I’m a bit reluctant to run on full power since the blowout and as I’ve just forked out a fortune on an hst rake wondered whether a different controller might be better, I want to run this on full power without the need to whince ☹️. For the teccy out there do these controllers use PWM and does that have a bearing on these little motors? Or looking for a brand Which is best (I guess against forum rules), just should I be using a better controller. I have the hm2000 but that’s used on my OO gauge tracks.

i think they say in the instructions you can add another speaker output to the non plus one (might eat batteries). they’ve now added another themselves, or a louder adjustable one, as Chrissaf just posted.

Looking further I believe I have the SFX10 whic h is the latest steam one. It has 1. idle, if train is stationary (move loco just a touch and stop to enable it), 2. speed up and coast once loco moving, and 3.slow down and stop but this only kicks in once fully stopped. So no speed detection. Still like it though. Their website has a YouTube video which highlights the sounds, hope this isn’t advertising, have simply reviewed what I think of it above. Not sure Andy if there is a newer version than this available as you mentioned. I seem to remember paying £40 (now they are £45).

No problem, as a DC person, it would be good to get your feedback on the newer more controllable ones, should you buy one. I like the one I have, despite the expense, it might actually be the latest and have a speed detector come to think of it, I I seem to remember slowing down and it switching to stopping mode but i can’t remember (my young son doesn’t like it so it doesn’t get used much). Anyway, assuming it isnt the latest it would be great to see what these newer ones are like.

Hi Andy i have one for a steam loco. I assume you mean the one with a motion detector running off a button/coin size battery. Yes it works well, good sound fx when starting and stopping with a whistle intermittently whilst running, then turns itself off once stopped (Though I remove the battery when not in use). Doesn’t mimic the actual loco I have it in, no control over whistle and start stop routine/length is fixed (just works on movement, not speed of movement). It uses a plastic/fabric tube to amplfy the sound. It isn’t very loud so I have mine in the back of an open wagon on a new nice quiet running tank engine (noisier locos and wagons drown out the sound a bit). But overall I’m happy as I run DC and as such don’t have same the benifit of sound control as DCC hobbyists. It might be possible to amplify it yourself more (perhaps if you can get it into a loco which acts to amplify it through its body??), I haven’t tried that, simple open wagon behind the loco, hidden as best I can with whatever’s to hand.

I made a bit of a hash up when I first started. I bought second hand track in a job lot and realise now some wasn’t the best (was a mix of steel and NS), but seemed to clean up well with a track rubber. I kept getting derailments and made a few changes to the layout shape to get things right. After buying some new parts of track which I needed to make the shape right (nickel silver) and comparing with the second hand stuff, I decided to pull it all up and buy all new. It feels better (maybe just me) to know you are using new track and not trying to improve something used (That goes through my mind whenever I’m cleaning my track, which should be done regularly, it has become a bit of an obsession but I have clean running locos without (many) derailments). The knowledge only I’ve used it. I’m all for reuse and recycle, and I’ll happily take a risk with a cheap decent looking loco I can service, and I actually prefer dirty well used scenary/buildings, but I’d always purchase new track now (even though it cost more than an expensive loco). I suppose buying used is a risk with anything, especially if you can’t see it first hand when you do. I didn’t get lucky. At least I learnt what shape I needed and was able to get the new track down without having to handle and fiddle with it too much. oh, and Hi Harry, welcome!

I’m using ultrafast (well BT use that name, apparently it’s up for debate depending on how you define it). It uses this new G.Fast technology. Fibre to cabinet followed by a clever way of pushing more data down the existing copper wire. I’m using the new smarthub 2 and as I use an iPhone, iosx 12.3.1 (latest on the latest iPhone XS). I’m using IE 11 on my laptop and no problems. So might be the browser then as you say Chrissaf (or that I’m using a smartphone and something else associated with that can’t be ruled out). If I can find Chrome on my laptop I’ll give it a try And see if I’m seeing a difference. Trial and Error, I like it.

On 4g no blue bar. On bt blue bar when browsing any part of the site (tested the forum and browsed the shop section). Looks like it’s a bt thing then (if it doesn’t happen with other IPs that is, I can’t test that). As I said though it thinks but doesn’t effect The speed to a degree I noticed until now. 4g seems to be loading pages faster though than bt ultrafast. Well spotted but who knows why (personally it doesn’t bother me).

Carltonf - Bt and the Hornby site Together I guess then maybe. But as I say and as I browse the site now I just get the blue thinking bar (not sure how better to explain it), and I’ve just noticed moreso when posting, but loading speed not an issue (perhaps a little slower than other sites). But I am using a very fast broadband connection. i have all the family filter stuff on as I have kids, maybe that’s effecting it but I’m speculating. It’s not the free mcaffee you get with bt as you don’t need that on an iPhone. I’ll test it on 4g now

...and testing by adding a new post. Edit. The blue thinking bar only appears when adding a new post. It appears straight away but then thinks for ages. Doesn’t effect my using pages, all speedy enough

I’m on BT ultrafast (guaranteed 100mbps but usually works at 120-140 mbps which is fast). The page opens fast enough on my iPhone but seems to sit thinking (blue bar at top of page) for what seems like ages (when I’m on the forum only). Doesn’t impact viewing or posting. Seems ok on my pc Doesn’t do the same. im Editing this post as a test as I think it might only occur when I upload a post which is always slower over the internet.

I have an old 0-6-0 tank engine like this which is heavy and literally does jumps over points on new track. I ain’t touching my track for one loco (though you say you have quite a few of these older ones, how many newer ones do you have, I guess that has a bearing on what you do). I’m with fazy, when I get around to it I’m getting someone who has the skills to do whatever needs doing to the loco (will take it to my local modelling shop, I dont Mind giving a local business like them my money for something like this, hopefully they can either do it, send it away or advise who can do it and I’ll purchase a little something as a thanks for the advice)). It never derails funnily enough, but whatever it’s hauling does (I ran it only a couple of times as given the amount of effort it took getting my track right, I don’t want to damage either).

...actually it’s quite a good username, even if unintentional. I’m always running 2 my locos whenever I get a chance 😆

Does anyone know if there are any (working) cable car models on the market (the type that carry skiers and tourists up mountains). I’ve found a kit produced by ’’Brawa” which would need to be bought from Germany and that seems to be it. It looks good but I wondered if there were any others out there and if anyone had/has one and has any thoughts on how well they look and work. Think it would make a good addition to my scenery but I don’t want anything too noisy when running (I’m thinking how noisy turntables can be) or if they look a bit to unrealistic due to the number of visible moving parts (though I dont mind doing a bit of weathering here and there). If non others available, will save up for the Brawa one.

Yes, End

NormanQ4 - fine and simple idea 😀Sometimes the labels aren’t on straight, just need to be careful one doesn’t scrape the inside side of the rails.