What About The Bee

@Official Hornby Hobbies Thank you for making these forums a better place. Your recent decision to relax the rules around YouTube creators will bring more enthusiasts in, happy to participate within the community. Well Done! Bee

Going Spare There are entirely too many variables to determine why the voltage on one is higher that the others. Friction and Stiction in motor/mechanism Cogging of motor Cleanliness of track / wheels / commutator / brushes As JJ points out, different motor = different characteristics, like nominal resistance What JJ's questioner wanted was the base voltage of the controller, with a locomotive on track, slow speed. That fellow is looking for the best controller to get slow speed and thinks this is the way to find it. Bee

Extending the fleet. Accessories are two finescale couplings. No "instructions". Ice cube packaging in white cardboard sleeve (right). Bee

Good job JJ. I knew you could do it. Bee

JJ What is the lowest VDC you get, with the locomotive still moving? That is what your question on youTube is Bee

@Aussie FredApparently, I am misunderstood. It was not my intention to say "we cannot have [Lendon's .... etc]" Rather, it was my intention to promote the idea that the rule is a bit strict. The fig leaf of another correspondent informing us about [Peachy, That Model Railroad Guy, 81F.....etc] is just that, a fig leaf. It works around the rule, mooting it. The rule is honored in the breach. Why would I not want to see what other correspondents have to say. They have produced videos including competitors products. If not mistaken Fred, even you have shown us some interesting stuff. Are the products in your videos exclusively Hornby? If that isn't showcasing a competitor's product, I don't know what is. Product placement, like a can of Coca Cola in a movie. Again, this isn't a knock on you, its three hearty cheers. Crack on Fred. I do understand shamelessly promoting a product. I would not want to see Accurascale on these boards, like they are on other message boards, flogging their product. Bachmann? No. Cav-Alex? No. But if Jenny wanted to have an account here, why not? The ability to have a conversation with a youTube creator, here, seems quite reasonable. Even if it is their production account. Just as now, speaking with you. Bee

About the negative / positive. This is polarity. Forward / reverse! This is just a fine point. Right now, we only care how big the number is, not the sign Bee

The top photo shows 15.88 Volts, direct current (VDC). The bottom photo shows 14.84 VDC. Well done JJ. Now, do you have a locomotive on the track? Slow it right down JJ, then see the reading. It may be as low as 2 VDC. The voltage is related to speed. The higher the voltage, the higher the speed. The lower the voltage, the lower the speed. You are getting there! Bee

Point accepted without rancor @LTSR_NSE I recognize the distinction, of course. I am suggesting that the "rule" is so narrow and so readily avoided, that it is functionally useless. The movie "Miracle on 34th Street" shows the benefit of recommending a competing product. Instead of losing that one individual sale, the good will generated by the recommendation comes back 10 fold. Bee

https://community.hornbyhobbies.com/forums/topic/36000-smaller-power-bank/?do=findComment&comment=387374 Jenny Kirk's videos are commercially sponsored. Obviously so. Clearly so. It is so stated within the video. Additionally, Jenny does product placement. This video is one, a tiny keep alive. Obviously so. Clearly so. She also has merch, which is shamelessly promoted within the video. Obviously so. Clearly so. So any reference to a Jenny video contains commercial content. If @That Model Railway Guyviolated terms of service by referencing his video, than so does any reference to Jennifer Kirk. Full stop. ÷÷÷÷÷ Its always to be a judgement call. If the moderators think it self promotion, it will be removed. If they do not think so, it stays. Its tough being a moderator. A decision has to be made. Nobody is perfect. Sometimes there are mistakes. You usually cannot get 100% agreement in marginal cases. It's easy when the post advertises language classes. Removed. Its easy when JJ asks about a voltmeter. It stays. Gray zone cases are not so easy. Do the moderators delete my post when it references SOT's motorized level crossing gates, which he has clearly stated will be a commercial product? I should hope not. I want one. Judgement call. Bee

A brief update. Firstly, the author of the 1923 book is J.G.H.Warren, not Marshall. When searching for the book, I used the full title and "Marshall" as the author. Google found the book, and I never noticed I had the wrong author. Whoops! I've installed the scale 4 foot (16mm) wheels and adjusted the valve gear to match. Various ratios were used to fine tune the model After a great deal of thought and examination of the Robert Stephenson and Co Ltd drawing, I think I have a solution to the reservoir system. In my drawing, it is clear to see that steam rises from the two main boilers and goes into the dark blue horizontal reservoir, via the pink pipe. Its behind the chimney in the Stephenson dwg. Yet in the Stephenson dwg, there are two vertical risers, internal to the horizontal reservoir. Ah ha! Steam may condense back into water. If it does, it flows back down the pink pipe and into the main boilers. It cannot flow up into the risers, water flows down, not up. Steam does flow up into the vertical riser and down into the light blue vertical reservoirs, my drawing. From there to the piston steam chests, not shown. There is likely a blow down valve at the base of each vertical reservoir. There will always be a little condensation. Not terrifically relevant for the model, but helps to understand how Twin Sisters really worked. Bee

Don't go off in a huff. Go in a minute and a huff - Groucho Marx Actually, please don't. I do think this issue will be sorted in a reasonable manner.

@RB51 I note you are confused by Colin's statement. Permit me a moment to clear this up. Firstly, this isn't Hornby specific, rather it is a common thing. It has everything to do with how a shipment is treated at the Shipping Department. When Shippimg Department packages an item, they prepare to ship. They register with the carrier and obtain a shipping number. This is entered into the database. The item placed on the loading dock for carrier pickup. Many computer systems treat this as "Shipped". Yet if you go to the carrier's webpage and enter the shipping number, it is marked something to the effect of "waiting for package". That is, the carrier recognizes the number but does not have your package yet. When the carrier takes possession of the package, the status at the carrier will change to reflect. However, this does not necessarily result in any change at the origination, as the item is marked as "Shipped" This gray zone was the subject of a bitter fight over at eBay. Vendors were gaming the system. We finally convinced eBay to install this step in their accounting of shipments and the community is the better for it. Hopefully, this clears up any confusion. Bee

I agree with @LTSR_NSE We discuss Lendons, Peter's Spares & etc. We discuss all manner of commercial entities. They are all clearly profit motivated, all wish to stay in business. If an Enthusiast wishes to discuss how their automated level crossing gates are coming along [for example], and they are a known and respected member of the community, I see zero violation. I also have observed and reported crystal clear violation of this rule. For example, some person decided to advertise his language classes(?) in the middle of the UK night. Reported and Sorted. When it was observed that @81F has a store, we discussed it. 81F did not promote it. Specifically, I did as did others. That is not a backdoor, full stop. That is the community, talking about a vendor and a respected member of our community. If Hornby towers decides that any commercial competition may not be mentioned under any circumstances, then @Going Sparewill have little to do, as he cannot refer them to the appropriate spares. That goes for any references to spares or tools on eBay as well. Bee

Agreed Colin. Many companies state "shipped" when it is ready to be picked up from their loading dock. Not when the shipper has it in their possession. It's a fine point, I know. But you are spot on Bee

Part of the fun would be the classification of the cars, at least for me. Watching the hump yard work by itself may be fine for exhibition but on a personal layout, I would think operating the hump yard rail network manually to be the thing. I would set N switches for N classification lines, independent of the number of points. Then each switch fires a group of relays which cause all points from Hill to selected siding to properly configure. Example: a tank car is about to come over the hump. Press button 4 for siding 4, all tank cars. The points along that path configure for siding 4, leaving the others alone So backing the cars over the hump is via your controller and selecting sidings is via your panel. That actually looks to be fun!! Bee

After a bit of conversation with the gentleman, he just wants to know the dc voltage across the rails when your locomotive just sets out in motion. I pointed out that this is more a measure of your track and the locomotive you select and not really a good measurement of the controller. So many variables. He agrees He wants very slow constant motion. Set the slider bar to the second from the left. That is the V with the straight bar over it, meaning DC. The V with the wiggle line is for AC, like the voltage in your wall. The third from left is amperage while the fourth from left is resistance. The up and down slider selects the range of the measurement. So you would set it for the second one from the top, or 20 volts, because we expect your controller produces less than 20 DC volts. If you are unsure of what I said, set it and post a picture. I will help you to get the correct setting. Make sure you put a battery in the voltmeter!! Touch the red probe to one rail, the black to the other rail. The number you see in the display is the DC volts. Run a train, and measure the rails at different speeds. Your guy wants to know the voltage when it just starts out. Determine the controller setting that causes motion to start. Then measure like I told you. You can do this JJ. Bee

When a question is asked and answered, the person posing the question will likely thank those who answered Aside from typing "You are welcome", it would be nice to have a reaction button that does the same. It rewards the person who said thanks with reputation points. This also encourages good behavior in all. Its just a thought Bee

3 coils of wire 6 blobs of solder Attached on opposing pads on commutator

Fair point 96RAF. It was just a concept, not a detailed specification. I do suppose that the decoder could drive an auxiliary relay (separate board?) that could handle the load. The lighting will be on or off, likely not pulse width modulated. An auxiliary relay would be a sensible choice here. Bee

The very thought that springs to my mind is coach lighting. No installing a decoder per coach. Have the lighting circuit pass through many cars via this coupling. One decoder or one magnetic wand for the entire rake.