Si2020

It's crazy and as you say as they bring out more buses then it will change. They just don't know what they are missing in the mean time. Plus you can add the 'heft' by making the wheels look natural with a sanding stick to make the tyres look as though they have weight on them. plastic ki modellers have been going it for years. I did to the two bachmann BE enginnering buses they brought out.

Just to give you a bit of brackground, Jason the boss at Rapido went to Uni in Birmingham and being the transport nut he is spent time riding the buses and has an intrest in them, owning his own in Canada. There are several reason for using plastic but the main two from memory are better body detail and thinner body sides, which woud be more difficult to do on a diecast body.

I heard of that etched model but didnt know any more about it. May have to sit down and draw up my own etches for one. Best add it to the project list. You never know what might turn up from certain manufacters these days but if one certain one brings out a 4mm verison before I've built mine there will be trouble

Hi, Thanks for the kind comments. If someone did a kit of it in 2mm then I would give it a go (with the lights too), but for me personally its too modern for my eras that I model. Having said thst I still have my 2 to build. Now if a 07-16 was in 2mm then that would be a must to add to the collection. Got a couple of those to build in 4mm but thats for another post.

Another view of the tamper with the upper light fitted and under going testing at a recent show that I demonstrated at. Now making a start on another one which will be one of mine for a change.

Morning, I haven't got the new function list on the phone (I'm sure the IRM guys can point you in the right direction of it), but off the top of my head i think the following are the Function keys you need to press to get the ones you list to work: F0 Lights - if you mean the marker lights F22 - head light F23? - Cab lights - this is one of the ones that changed so I may be wrong so sorry in advance. F25 - engine room Hope the above helps and there is a Fucntion list on the back inside cover of the manual. Thanks Simon

Hi, Hope Garfield doesn't mind me popping up to possibly help. Having had a play with the decoder and I apologise if im teaching you to suck eggs as they say, but the functions you mention are sound ones and not physicle ones. So pressing them and expecting to see something happen, wont get a result you could see in say a light lighting up. F5 is listed as drive hold, so when the loco is moving you press F5 which keeps it at that speed and then when you increase the speed steps then the engine revs up but loco stays a the same speed. F6 - you would only notice if you move the loco forwards and then stop straight away. Ie it will stop suddenly and not roll as per normal operation F7 - is down as flange squeal so you wouldnt hear that unless the loco is moving and im guessing it may only trigger after a certain speed step. Hope this helps a bit. Thanks Simon

Been a while since I've updated this thread and not one to take things seriously....... So occasionally at shows for the last hour or so we sometimes get some of the other EM stock that I own out and give it a run as I can't always have the layout set up at home. So here we have, well I think the photo explains it all.

The track work is progressing along. A couple of bits need tidying up and then on to the electrical testing.

These things are like Gremlins, detail and weather then after midnight and they multiply!! This was taken whilst the PW team were testing the rack in the yard as being the crazy bunch that we are......... we plan on shunting a rake of grampus (or is it Grampi?? ) into the yard!! Good job we have a breakdown crane!!

I wish it was that easy Robert, The model has a sound decoder and a function decoder fitted inside what would be the engine housing. The main issus is the sound decoder only has a few powered outputs with the remaining ones being logic and there isn't enough room to fit a ESU 21 pin board that enables the logic ones to be converted into a power ou put. Plus the marker lights are controlled by the sound decoder to make best use of the outputs as this thing looks like a christmas tree when its lit up

Thanks Robert, Yes its for lights with each end having the following 2 x Marker lights 1 x Day light 1 x Night light 2 x Tail lights 1 x Cab 2 x external working lights 1 x Top light So around 20 wires for the leds to be threaded back to the decoders. There are some more wires ie pick up etc to add even more in to the mix. The job has been made a bit more difficult as it was sent to me to install the lights with no thought to how the wires would run etc. When i get roud to building my two then it will hopefully be a little bit a lot easier to install the lights. Thanks

A bit of wiring going on

Hi all, So not much has been happening on the layout recently as I've been busy with work and doing a couple of extra bits that I do. But you may have noticed that the layout now has a name, No Place. Now you are probably thinking he's lost the plot, (well I might have but thats a whole other story) but No Place is a small Village near Beamish in the north east corne of England. Just below the area seen on maps of dragons and other mithyical beasts!! Its ideal as I wanted to be able to swap the buildings on the layout to move the layout to different areas of the country to enable me to run different stock.

MIne was seeing Bath Green Park at one of the Exeter shows which i was exhibiting at and their fiddle yard got a hump in it. At one of the Railex shows whilst helping on Mini M-S-W with Alan we had all but one loco shunt down with the heat in the hall. It can be a strange one with the effects. Totally agree with the clearances on the FR and as you say best to leave the track to settle on its own as it normally returns to its starting point with the occasional help need. I'm tempted to do a test peice and het it up to see what happens.

Im the same, boxes of random stuff that has been "gifted" to me over the years and one day I will hopefully get to use it all. When I started building this the brass chairs hadn't been thought of so I used the copper strip and will probably leave them at the board ends as I have put down small sections of rail of about 1 cm long to act as sacrafical bits incase they get knocked plus they will be covered by some of the scenery. At the end of the rail sections on the rest of the layout, I will be doing the same as you and using them as anchor points for the ends. I did contemplate about soldering them to the rail but want to have the rail to have the abilty to move with heat. After seeing a few layouts developing track buckles and witnessing the effect of heat on real rail it makes you think. I may be going slighty over the top but when you have seen fishplate bolts loosened and the 65-lb rail expand to fill a 1/2 inch gap quicker than you can blink its made you think about how it effects the model.

HI all, The track laying was progressing along. To try and get nice flowing curves it was case of pinning the rail in place and then gluing the chairs to the sleepers whilst keeping an eye of the curve. The photo shows the entry and exit points in the fiddle yard.

HI all, Had these come in on the bench to be cleaned up, painted and mounted on custom cradles.

Hi, I saw that one as well. Not seen any photos in this direction before and its an intresting view with lots of detail information on it. Things like the run of the telegraph poles and the stay on the down signal. Not sure that we can add it as the embankment on our model isn't deep enough at this point, plus we will probably catch it when cleaning the track.

hello, So had a few of these to make next There was about 60 odd in total which kept me busy for a few days.