A Walk Among the Sleepers

Overheard at Pixvalley today between the chief engineer and the fat controller!

 

BR 15xx Pannier Tank Part 1

 

15/09/2023

BR 15xx Pannier Tank - 1501 Lined Black Early Crest arrived from Rails of Sheffield.

I am very disappointed with the finish. The chimney with a gap glue marks on cab front and the whistle wonky front steps fell off in the box!  Although this is not unusual for fine detail to "fall off"

20/09/2023 Returned to Rapido under warranty

27/09/2023 To say I am disappointed will be an understatement; I received my 15xx back today in a worse condition than it was sent! The whistle has been reattached resulting in more glue marks and discoloration from the Cyanoacrylate the smoke box door looks as if it has had some action taken resulting in scratch marks. 

I cannot accept this repair and want a replacement locomotive.  

15/10/2023

I received my 15xx back Rapido did not replace the loco merely the body shell. It arrive back yesterday 14th when I was at the GETS 23 in Milton Keynes tried running it this morning it won’t run; reading the address on the program track errors out a decoder rest failed. I need this loco replaced.

Rails replied

Thank you for your email, we are sorry to hear you are experiencing issues with your 15xx, please find attached our freepost Royal Mail returns label. We have allocated a replacement, which will be checked over prior to dispatch, upon receipt of your return.

Bachmann OO WD 2-8-0 sound installation

 

My Bachmann WD 2-8-0 model was hard-wired for DCC operation. 

Now I’ve decided to upgrade to sound. The loco has no space in the boiler, so I will to take the pickups and motor wires back into the tender. By removing some of the sloping plastic from underneath the coal load to create a bit more room for an 8 pin socket a couple of 15X11mm ESU 'sugarcube' 8 ohm speakers  connected in parallel will give a 4 ohm load sighted towards the rear of the tender my selected chip will be a Zimo MS450 from my preferred suppler YouChoos. 

Check the speaker for a correct fit each side of the tender mounting pillar. I then glued the sugarcubes on a strip of 20thou plastic card stuck down with double sided tape.  An 8 Pin DCC compact socket from illuminated_models  is screwed to the metal weight I tapped the plate with a 3mm thread sitting on some plastic standoffs making sure the underside of the socket is insulated from the metal weight 20thou plastic card stuck down with double sided tape was used.

The route for the 4 wires from the loco to tender is via a hole drilled in the curved back of the chassis pickup assembly I left the wires long roughly to the site where the sugarcubes, having dipped the ends in the correct colour paint for identification! A hole was drilled in front of the mounting pillar then the wires threaded through the large hole in the metal weight. 

Now it’s just a case of plugging in the decoder I used a cheap redundant non sound decoder to test, I guess you could prove the wiring by using a blanking plug.

10/03/2023 Sound chip arrived I wired the speakers and tested on my ESU 53900 rig and reset the chip ID to 3085. All that was left to do was to plug the chip into the tender tidy the umbilical cables between the loco and tender and screw the tender together. I’m very pleased with the end result

 

Arlesworth redevelopment 2023 continuation

 

21/02/2023 Interface boards made for signals tested and fitted under the boards, signals constructed fitted the boards wired up all tested ok.

01/03/ 2023 Laser cut sleepers arrived from Scale Model Scenery. I stained with Topps furniture cover arranged around micro switches to hide the switches

Arlesworth redevelopment 2023

A major redevelopment of Arlesworth station was started in January 2023, an 18” extension to the platforms and repositioning the station building over the platforms. The base is made fro 5mm MDF recovered from an old wardrobe back panel the side arches are repurposed from a broken Hornby R180 Viaduct. 2 Hornby Inclined Piers support part of the upper road level to brick piers support part of the other upper road level disguised as lift shafts for good trolleys. I used the step sections from the Hornby Dublo footbridge (see Hornby Dublo footbridge refurbishment 25/08/2020.)

07/02/2023 LED lighting strips were added. The track weathering and Ballasting completed. Fitted 3 Peco SL-29 De-couplers and screwed down the platforms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rebuild of “Pacer Set” from Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive continues

 

Today 12/11/2022  due to poor running quality’s of the old Hornby model I rebuilt the pickups to enable both case to collect current from all wheels. This has made a vast improvement to the running no more stuttering.