What About The Bee

Hi Bulver https://www.wrennspecialist.co.uk/w-30067a-2-car-brighton-belle-set/ The W6001B carriage is all over ebay.co.uk. Search "W6001B Wrenn" Bee

Since the details were rather thin, I went to find some answers. https://news.railbusinessdaily.com/king-announces-legislation-to-see-the-establishment-of-great-british-railways/ Not a terribly long read. What is intended for GBR is in the lead paragraphs. Then a whole bunch of quotes from officials and administrators reacting. Still very informative. Bee

https://community.hornbyhobbies.com/forums/topic/36209-great-british-rail/?do=getNewComment

Hi @Troublesome Truck New members can post, or not, as they see fit. There is no pressure from the community to post, whatsoever. There is no requirement to say anything at all. Look, listen and learn. Ordinarily, new members are welcomed, as part of the response to their first post. There is no thread to "Introduce Yourself". Bee

Then, pray tell, why do we need a "thank you" button? Is that not simply courtesy? The button is meant to encourage courteous behavior, making it easier than typing "thank you". Further, those silly reputation points are accumulated by use of reaction buttons. Thus, getting a "You are welcome" reaction provides a point to the person who said thank you. Further encouraging good behavior. As silly as the points are, they can be a useful moderation tool. They can also be used by the general public to recognize who provides poor advice and who, in general provides good advice. The reputation points are split out by category under your membership data. For example NTP has received 39 thanks, because he is indeed a helpful fellow. LT&SR_NSE has received 45 thanks. I've only got 38, I really need to step it up 😄. 96RAF has 102, which is a testament to helping. Bee

Hi @Davewill If you want to be certain it is chair interference with the flanges: Place the locomotive on the track. Without any power, gently push the locomotive forward. Watch the front buffer. If the locomotive rises and falls, the wheels are encountering an obstruction. Very likely the flanges to the chairs, which you can visually confirm. When you do this under power, the wheels lift, breaking electrical contact with the rails. And so it stops. Bee

@Dukedog. I'd like to read more of your adventures in model railways. The baseboard materials are arriving? This is exciting!! A new layout is launched. Please keep us posted about your progress. Thanks! Bee

You are quite welcome JJ. I hope you can grow your understanding of model railways Bee

Hi Troublesome Truck That's a fair point, we should be polite an courteous. That is the objective of my post. When a member asks a question, that question should be answered, considering the age and acuity of the member. We should be polite in answering the question. Its a quest for knowledge and by providing help, we extend the hobby, which indeed, helps us. In real life, when someone thanks you, you are expected to acknowledge their thanks. "No worries", "It was nothing", "My pleasure", "You are welcome", etc If I was to stand there and say nothing, I would be considered socially inept. As to the behavior of other forums? I can offer the youTube comments, which contain crude insults, snark and argumentative behavior. Name calling seems to be the rule of the day over there. Resulting, how members behave on any other forum, such as the one you offer, is largely irrelevant to behavior here. This is the Hornby forum. Best Practices. Only our mothers and fathers could force us to be polite. No one will force you to use the reaction button that says "you are welcome". So if it is there, and you feel so strongly, don't use it. Bee

Exactly that NTP. Exercise in learning his meter, controller, what VDC is and how model trains work. Bee

Hi JJ There are two thing things to learn The first is exactly where your controller switches on. We found the voltage when the locomotive moves. Now we will find the voltage when your controller gets out of the dead zone. The second thing to learn is about your meter. The vertical slide bar shows the most voltage to expect. When we set the vertical slide bar to 20, we said, no VDC more than 20 volts. When we set the vertical slide bar to 2 (not 5, my mistake), then we expect no more than 2 VDC. VDC = volts direct current / volts. Your controller should easily get out of the dead zone under 2 volts. When we did the experiment before, with the vertical slider at 20 VDC, you got readings around 0.3 VDC to start. Take your time. The task is to learn your controller and your meter. Bee

By March of 2024, the Financial report indicated ~12,000 TT locomotives had been sold. The bit of good news on that number is that its significant enough to catch the attention of any motor manufacturer, especially if we assume most or all of the 12,000 will have equally short lives. Do all the TT locomotives use the same motor? Bee

Hello @andre1d Welcome aboard and thank you for sharing with us. The drawing you present is very well detailed, to include actual dimensions in millimeters. For example, the length of top plate is 10220mm, or 10.22 meters. Have you considered making these yourself? With the dimensions and images, I do think it quite possible. There are free CAD applications and, if you haven't got a printer, 3D printing services at reasonable cost. Bee

I'm very much in the teach a man how to fish camp. It is better to learn the skill and let that man develop the result; than to just hand that man the result. If he just gets the result, he learned to ask someone who knows. If he develops the result, he learns how to do the task. Bee

Hi Dukedog Now begins the real exercise! One way to determine what blocks must be auto reversed and what can avoid this is to color in rails. Use two colors, say red and green. Pick a track, anywhere. Start with a color, say green. Color in the green track, everywhere. How to know? Green touches green, just go around the layout with green. Now pick up red and color the other track red Whenever red touches green, you have an issue. For points, remember that the frog must be isolated and controlled by your point motor, so when red touches green there, you know to isolate it! Awesome sauce. But in a Wye, you will swiftly see that red touches green. And the previous discussion about auto reverser applies. Mentally drive your train through every combination, flipping polarity when auto reversed. Make sure you cover every case. Keep a record, making sure you never short. Make the auto reversed block as long as you can. There is zero substitution for hard work and exhaustive analysis, which fundamentally is up to you. The work will yield understanding of the principles. In my view, if you are going to include auto reversers, developing the skill is a requirement. Up to you lad, I will certainly check your result, but I expect you to do the work. Bee

Hi @ntpntpntp The major objection to auto reversers is that your longest train must completely fit onto or within the auto reversed block. This limits the length of a consist. For many home layouts, that becomes a short consist. The problem exists only because of metal wheels. The trick avoids the metal wheels spanning the gap. The trick isn't the double isolation, it is the dead track. This makes the electrical isolation larger, whilst keeping the mechanical isolation short as can be. The track is there, it just isn't powered. I 100% agree that following the time honored rule is easier to obey. It works for DC and DCC. But if you want a longer consist..... I would like to hear about a technical objection to the solution, if one exists. Like: metal bogie frames will short it, if non-isolated wheels are used. Why did I come to this trick? I designed a back to back Wye, just like Dukedog's. I struggled to get anything more than 3 carriages into the auto reversed blocks, when I included other block detecting blocks. I obeyed the primary rule, found it limiting. Sure, Hornby's LMR locomotives struggle to pull larger consist, so why do I care? The LMR double and triple headed; so can I: https://youtu.be/JJPPQ-4qeGk?si=ciWrdMdlVT7-EaEX I cannot have back to back Wye if I follow the baseline rule with this consist. Sticking two tiny dead tracks, one on either side of the auto reversed block permits this consist without fault. All the Hornby LMR rolling stock uses isolated tires and plastic frames. Accurascale chaldrons are similarly configured. So the only concern is the locomotives, IF the trick is utilized. Bee

No one appreciates it when I wear my school girl outfit

Hi Dukedog Wye formations always involve auto-reversers. Plenty of online resources to show you how to do it. The same restrictions apply as before. About that keep alive trick, auto-reversers and metal wheels. It is offered as a rule that the auto reversed block must be longer than your longest train. The reason proffered is that a metal wheel will span the gap between the auto reversed block and the fixed polarity block, causing issues. The trick is really quite simple. Install a block of dead track (magenta) betwixt the fixed and auto reversed tracks. The dead block should be on the order of 12 to 18 mm (½ to ¾"). This means that a metal wheel can never bridge the gap between the auto reversed and fixed polarity track. Typical rolling stock uses plastic bogies, the metal tires effectively isolated. So now, we only need concern ourselves with powered stock, locomotives and lighted carriages. Unpowered carriages and waggons have no affect on the auto reverser. Only powered stock will span the dead track, causing the auto reverser to swap polarity as needed. To obey the now modified rule: In consist, it is the length from the lead axle that draws power to the trailing axle that draws power. In the case of steam, from the lead axle in the locomotive to the trailing axle in the brake van, should that be lit. Or to the last carriage that is lit from the track. This is quite similar to an insulfrog. There is a tiny section of dead track. In this case deliberately injected. The isolation isn't 1 mm or so from an isolating track joiner, rather, it is 12 to 18mm, with two isolating track joiners. You may require the keep alive to cross the gap. Deliberately removing power from an axle may halt its forward progress. THIS DOES NOT WORK FOR DC, obviously. Bee

Is this is an alarmist post, unsubstantiated by fact? I say it is a 100% price increase, do you believe me? It must be true, I said it. Now it can be repeated. Until there is substantiation, this 20% rumor remains as it is: A rumor. Perhaps it is true. Perhaps it is not. Perhaps we should panic, and run like little girls in circles, screaming our little heads off. Bee

Hi Dukedog You were so close!! A big part of this hobby is the personal victories and finding the solution. To conquer the problem on your own. That's why I held off. Move crossover A to A. Move crossover B to B. Centralize scissors double cross over Sc. Make auto reversed leads 1, 2, 3 and 4 as long as you can, and likely equal length, to support the longest train through all of them. There is one further trick we can do, but only if you intend to install keep alive. Bee

Welcome back Alberto 👋 I like the way the background blends into the layout in this video Bee

Hilariously, I forgot that a metal wheel can bridge the gap between an auto-reversed block and a fixed polarity block. My error! Bee

Agreed NTP. I used the 9F as an example only. Wheelbase extends to rolling stock, for example, lighted carriages. Bee