DJ Dangerous

Damp? I don't remember what that is!

Where's that George fellah gone, skulking around in the background but never doing repaints? Only one of the four still available from Hattons...

They were gone within minutes... Four more live just now: https://www.hattons.co.uk/stocklist/siteresults.aspx?searchfield=auto ballaster

Five Bachmann Auto Ballasters up on Hattons right now, second-hand, Network Rail, in case anybody wants some for repainting: https://www.hattons.co.uk/stocklist/siteresults.aspx?searchfield=Auto ballaster

Murder, you mean.

I'd second what @murphaph and @Irishswissernie say. Starting online to test the water before opening a physical shop is a no-brainer. I'm sure that there are rules of thumb as to how many years of losses it takes in various industries before breaking even, so you'd need to look into that. If it's five years and €500k invested before you break even, for example, you'd need to have that time and capital to spare, while also having means to survive personally. You'd also have to ask yourself why people would shop with you over the competition. Why would a customer of Marks Models for the last twenty or thirty years drop them to shop with you? What are you going to offer that is so much better? Marks Models website is rubbish compared to Hattons, so having a decent website that is updated daily would certainly be a good reason. Ditto the search facility. Search for something on Marks Models website and you get no images, no alternatives, just a list of text-only entries. The easier it is to buy from you compared to your competition, the more likely that people will spend more, and will return. A well laid out website, a great search engine, regular updates, clear and accurate photos and descriptions, and you are certainly part way towards success. An example of another great online shop is the IRM store. It's so well laid-out that you don't even need a search tool, but there is one, and it is excellent. Either way, best of luck with the venture!

Rakes of 12 were not that uncommon:

Thank you! Wow, incredible sales so far!!!

Will we get a heads-up here on the forum if any of the thirteen wagon packs are running low on pre-orders? If I recall correctly, the website stock level countdown doesn't start working until the packs are actually in stock.

They were probably hauled along the rails by some sort of locomotive?

I had been trying to find some "today" 071's as well, but they appear to have been very small runs of 250 each, and now command insane money online. Try contacting Chris Dyer, who has commissioned some 071 re-sprays into grey for me. For the InterCity 201's, it might be worth checking with Chris, and also with @WRENNEIRE

To simplify for idiots like me, a "DCC Bus" is a fancy name for a power cable running underneath your board (usually), from your controller, following the route of your tracks above, and "Droppers" are cables passed from your track through your board to this cable. And, "Frogs" are the blades on your points.

So an Advanced Consist is where the two decoders are set up so that the locomotives have the same running characteristics, but the controller doesn't actually know that the locos are running in consist? Whereas in a Command or Universal Consist, the individual decoders don't have to be configured to match each other, as the Controller manages both decoders to keep the locos running smoothly together?

I never thought of that. For Insulfrog type points, surely you'd need to somehow liven up the insulated blade or run a feed to the track off the dead blade, as the whole idea of DCC is that everything is always live?

Excellent, thank you! I sent them an email a week or two, so will also ask about that when I get a reply.

And what a lovely back-scene of ScaleScenes cardboard containers you have in that photo! Totally off-topic, but where does one source the gauze to model the platform around the cap on the centre of the oil wagon?

And that's why the trackwork and pointwork looks so clear and neat!

So for example you could turn the headlights on or off on the lead loco, or blow the horn, while using an advanced consist, but if both had the same address, both would receive the same instruction?

Tortoises are mounted underneath, I guess?

So as opposed to giving both locos the same address, which is a basic or universal consist (?), your controller acknowledges the advanced consist and sends the same signal to both addresses?

What is an Advanced Consist?

That is breathtaking! You even have fans installed at the back!

I saw a video of Thorne Yard on YouTube. Are they tiny little surface mounted point motors in the video?

I believe that block sections are required if one wants to take beginners DCC to the next level, as per @murphaph's test loop, and droppers required for current / occupancy detectors, so I'm not sure that the wiring is any simpler. I think that it was @warb's Barrow Street where I saw a photo of a massive amount of DCC control equipment and cabling, but I'm not sure. But this thread is not about that... Yet! Just to try help frightened people like me make the leap from DC to DCC. The ability to double-head trains and to run locos right up to one another with no isolation rails must look and feel awesome!

After typing something on the A Class sound thread, I thought that maybe other people could benefit from the few simple things that I've learned about DCC, while preparing to make the transition from DC to DCC. It seems like such a minefield, sounds incredibly expensive, and when people write about it on here, they tend to assume that everybody knows what they mean when mumbling about CV's and other crazy stuff. From speaking with @murphaph, who is quite the DCC guru, and reading posts from @irishthump and @NIRCLASS80, there are cheap and simple options for making the progression from DC to DCC, such as using a LokProgrammer (€150 EURO or so) and some very basic LokPilot chips (about €24 EURO each). These chips only offer four functions, and don't offer sound, but do mean that your DC locos will become DCC locos without spending €100 plus per loco. This is the route that I intend taking, slowly, with a mix of some DC lines and some DCC lines, gradually moving to all DCC. I have a Bachmann DCC set which I'll steal the controller from. It only has ten functions, so I'll miss out on any other functions on the pre-programmed chips for now. I'll eventually upgrade to a better DCC controller, but it will facilitate the transition with minimal cost. Sorry for embedding URL's to Spanish retailers, but they were my bookmarked ones. The reference numbers will be the same for the LokProgrammer and LokPilot chips so you can find them on eBay or wherever. If anybody would like to add to this thread, in simple terms, aimed at begineers, please do so! You can see @murphaph's test loop by clicking here. The way he has set up RocRail to run his locos is breathtaking. You can see @irishthump's video on how he set up the new Murphy Models 121 Class decoder by clicking here.