South Coast Flyer

Thank you all very much for your help and info, much appreciated

Planning some platforms on the new layout and am a little puzzled as to scale platform heights A platform should typically be 915mm above track level and a minimum of 12 feet wide which would give a scale height of 7.6mm and 30mm wide Looking at platform sizes available they are all much wider and taller, in fact these dimensions are more in line with everyone’s N gauge offerings - what platform sizes are people generally using for their layouts? Metcalf? Inthegreenwood? and which scale??

Well said RM

Something I have been pondering for a while now - what do I want my layout to do? Does it have to be prototypical? Does it have to be accurate? Does it have to be detailed? Does it just need to display running locos in a fun way? And my conclusion is that I just want to watch trains running around the roomgrinning From lessons learned from the original proof of concept round the room bookshelf model, I have started designing and preparing for a two tier layout combining TT120 and OO gauge I know to many this is a cardinal sin but the new watchword is ‘if it doesn’t make you smile it’s wrong’

looking excellent RMthumbsup

Been pondering what to do with the layout and having passed the proof of concept stage - have stripped it back to the baseboards and starting again sunglasses Same principle as before double level bookshelf round the room And now I’ve written it down it is going to happengrinning

The HST locos and coaches are all I’m waiting for now, and in the meantime I’m finding myself looking more and more at our European cousins offerings, and as my layout is only prototypical of some weird place in my head they should fit in nicely….

Looking forward to pictures thumbsup

Very productive day, cleaned all the building dust off the layout and whilst I was at it, gave the track a good clean with a piece of hardboard. I noticed that whilst rubbing the board round the track there were a couple of instances where the board ‘caught’ on the track - this happened where set track curves met flex track straights, on inspection there was a small lip on the join where one track was a fraction of a millimetre higher than the other side and I suspect is the cause of occasional stalling of locos at that point, running in the opposite direction is fine (going from higher side to lower) - happy to have solved that particular irritation! Also had chance to run and check Falcon after being returned from the paramedics in Margate, and again she is running very well - great customer support at Hornbythumbsup Also managed to run an auto calibration on all 4 of my locos and for the first time get all of them running on the layout at the same timegrinning

Dusting! Just had a new kitchen fitted over the last two weeks and dust has gotten absolutely everywhere , including the office/junk/train room so no ‘playing trains’ for me until it’s all cleaned up which is no mean feet when it’s seven foot in the airface_with_rolling_eyes My advice if your having any home improvements done hermetically seal your train room

As a follow up to this I just received my Falcon back from the paramedics in Margate - with replaced chassis and decoder which sounds as if this error is pretty terminal… Hopefully all sorted now

Hi @happy tt my understanding of the rules are that a consignment with total value below £135 from outside UK is exempt from UK import duty and the seller is responsible for any VAT arrangements

@MikeMart the adapter came from Modellbahnshope- lippe in Germany hopefully this link will work https://www.modellbahnshop-lippe.com/Product+search/gb/liste.html?s=51996 RM I only have the three forward white lights and two rear red operated through aux21 - no side plate lighting though I was wondering which sound profile to use so your class 50 recommendation is much appreciatedthumbsup

Forgot to mention also swapped the couplings over to the Tillig spares I have so now compatible with all my Hornby rolling stock too

Perfect many thanks RM as alwaysthumbsup the only lights I have are the directional ones - which work very well and nice and bright, I think it’s actually a BR131 which probably explains the slightly different livery? But at the price from Germany I’m very very happy (below the £135 VAT threshold)

Thanks RM much appreciated - did you mount your speaker in the speaker box on the underside and route wires through the little hole? These locos seem very well built and the detail is great and it runs so smoothly - wonderful models I may have to get another onegrinning

I have the same on Falcon - deleted the decoder and reinstalled three times to no avail so am sending back to Margate for fixing - all other locos work fine on the track so am assuming it’s not a problem with the layout

The new loco, adapter plate and HM7000 decoder arrived today and all fitted nicely into the BR130 loco and works very well indeed including directional lighting now just have to work out where to put the speaker..

A Piko BR130 PluX16 to Next a18 adapter and Hm7000 decoder Very excited to see if I can make this all work!!

Built upper level to place the next station at the other end of the layout, plus underpass complete with Metcalf under arch workshops/nightclubs, first time scratch building anything and first time using lichen…

Many thanks for the confirmation and info RM, very much appreciatedthumbsup NB I added a new loco to the adapter plate order from the German supplier, postage is much more reasonable nowlaughing

Perfect thanks Gentlemen, RM did you use an ESU 51996 and were there any space issues fitting the adapter plate and decoder in the loco?

Thanks Fishman, an adapter plate I expected and I think there’s one by ESU but doesn’t look like anyone has actually done it with an HM7000 decoder…

Has anyone successfully found a way to fit an HM7000 decoder to a TT120 loco with a Plux socket and control the loco through the App? and if so how did you manage it? Reason for asking is there are several European diesel outline locos that would look pretty smart on my layout but have Plex 16 sockets not Next 18

Looking great Dave, another inspirational layoutthumbsup which is brilliant to see