Dave the Busker

Sometimes the controller can cut out, but when unplugged and left a wee while it will come back to life. The controller is the weak link in the train sets though, built very cheaply. Worth replacing with a better one when you can. I've replaced mine with a Gaugemaster I found on eBay. The trains run much better and quieter with that.

Yeah, totally. No rush to do anything much more now. I've got some software I've been playing around with track plans (RailModeller Pro), so I've got some idea how things could progress with the extra space. After the teething problems I had with Blink Bonny having to go back twice I'm just enjoying watching everything running perfectly just now. Looks like everything's doing exactly what it's supposed to and long may that continue! I did have a look at the shop to get some extra straight track, but saw it's sold out just now. I'm choosing not to see that as a frustration slowing down progress here but as a great sign of how many people are getting into the TT120 line.

I've got the track set up on the new board in the configuration it was in on the old board. I'm not pinning anything down just yet or adding much in the way of scenery until I've started expanding the track and made a final decision on how that's going to be set out here. After all I've spent in the last wee while I might have to take the next steps a bit more slowly, but here's how things are looking at the moment.

Well I don't think any carpenters will be losing sleep at the thought of me taking their work, but for a first attempt at anything like this in years I think this new baseboard table has turned out not too bad. 8 foot by 4, so plenty of space to get a really good layout set up.

Cheers, and glad to hear you got someone a bit more helpful!

Well, it arrived... A two man delivery team just dumped an 8 foot by 4 foot plywood board and all the timber joists for it on the ground floor, buzzed my flat, and legged it. Left me to carry everything up three flights of stairs on my own! Raging doesn't even begin to cover it. Nice one Wicks/CitySprint delivery face_with_rolling_eyes A new baseboard project will begin, just as soon as I've got my breath back!

All the plywood and timber to make my first proper layout baseboard are out for delivery today! Once I've got it built, so long as my woodwork skills turn out to be up to scratch, I'll have twice the space for track as I have now, and somewhere underneath it to store all the guitar cases that are cluttering up my spare/music/railway room.

I see they've got the diamond crossings listed as being available with 28 days delivery. Hopefully means they're going to be in stock soon on the Hornby website, needing one for my track plan.

I think it was the spring one (was a wee while ago and now I'm not certain I'm remembering what I did exactly)

Adjusting the tension on the screw holding the bogie in place helped on mine. It should be tight enough to hold it on but not so tight that it restricts it moving in the right way.

That's really cool, one thing I love so much about this hobby is how you can put so much personal detail like that in. Like the sound of the band too grinning

If anyone spots a scale figure of a bloke with an acoustic guitar let me know, I'd love to get a busker onto my layout! (Fine if it's a bit over scale, I'm almost 6'5 anyway, over scale for the real world! smiley)

"In contrast, if you buy a musical instrument, there is a heavy initial outlay, and then you either buy a book of music, which will take you years to learn, or download something. Add on cost is minimal." Add on cost is minimal.... Oh you could not be more wrong. Let me show you my guitar collection and pedalboard some time... joy

Aye, that's the problem isn't it? Probably underpaid overstressed workers subcontracted by factories in China to keep costs down because we can't wait a bit longer or pay a bit more. Not just Hornby, pretty much everything.

Remember we're dealing with the very first batch of TT120 from the factory still. I'd hope that the teething problems will be sorted, Hornby should be watching the factories like a hawk after the issues they've had so far.

Wow! How thick are your carpets?! joy Glad to hear it survived!

Here's a photo I took at the Glasgow show yesterday of the prototypes they had out on display:

Yep... those would have been good questions to have thought to ask... Sorry!

I think my last comment went awry, I keep forgetting just how strict the text filters are on here! YouTube seems to have got stuck in processing h*ll and stopped at 360p. Hopefully at some point they'll get it up to 4k and you can see those cityscapes in more detail! Loved those ones too, it's what I'd love to get mine looking like if I had the talent!

Cheers! Ah, good to hear they're working 08s. They were sitting in the sidings with Blink Bonny going round at the point I was looking. I've just put up a quickly edited wee video of some of the layouts in all scales I was looking at (sorry I didn't catch the details of who they were by, it only occurred to me I should have been noting that down when I went to edit, d'oh!). The Hornby and Peco stands are at the 5:12 mark.

I'm just back from the Scottish Model Rail Exhibition in Glasgow today, and the new TT120 products are looking really good. Hornby had the Class 08 shunters in every livery sitting on the display layout and they look fantastic. (I think they were static prototypes, didn't see them actually running, but they look the part). They're saying they'll be out very soon, hopefully early Spring. I was also speaking to someone from Peco. I can't remember which thread it was that talked about Peco's wagons seeming to have vanished. They had the TT120 wagons out on display today, shipping in the next few months all being well. Signals were on show too.

I am indeed having a lot of fun grinning Not me in Elgin though, I'm down in Glasgow. Which will be quite handy this weekend, for the first time in years I'm not working the weekend of the Scottish model rail exhibition.

I've got Blink Bonny back after something glitched last week. Everything's running beautifully at the moment so fingers crossed it's all good. I've been getting some ideas for the photography competition in the 2nd issue of the TT120 magazine. Deadline's not till September though, so plenty of time to add more detail and finish the scenery off. (Apologies if this double posts, internet connection's been funny today)

Sounds good! Think I'll be getting one, once the annoyingly massive plumber's bill that's just landed here's been paid off.

gc4946, how's Night Hawk looking? I've been considering one of those while waiting for the wee issues on the A4 locos to be resolved.