irishthump

No problem, Mark. But those pics from Scahalane are better images than the one I remember from the book!

I believe there's a picture of the unloading station in the book "From CIE to IR", I'll check when I get home. Is it ok to reproduce photos from books on the forum?

Sewing machine oil is a good substitute for the name brand lubricants. Use light oil on the motor bearings (important but often overlooked, just needs the tiniest amount) and on the worm gear bearings. Some light grease is best on the worm gear itself and the drive wheel gearing.

This has me considering replacing all the other speakers with the sugarcube ones. They seem to sound the best of what I've tried so far and since they're suitable for N scale you'll never have an issue with installation space. I'm also going to try wiring a couple of these speakers together in the larger locos, such as a 201 and see how it sounds.

I know what you mean, I'd like to show the locos running round the layout but you'd never get a decent comparison if they were moving!

Cheers, Weshty. I was thinking that myself, but I've been listening to so many different speakers it's getting to the stage I can't tell the difference anymore! Nice to get some opinions.

As I mentioned I bought a couple of "sugarcube" speakers and I installed one into B141 to see what they're like. Here's how the speaker arrived. As you can see it comes in 2 parts, the speaker itself and the plastic baffle which fits to the back of it. The baffle MUST be attached, I tired it at first without it and the sound was dreadful! The baffle was attached with a tiny amount of CA glue and care has to be taken to get a good seal. The wires are then soldered tot the 2 connections on the back. When assembled the overall dimensions are 15x11x11mm and is an easy fit inside the body of B141. I simply fixed it to back of the cab detail with some mastic tape. So here's a video. B141 is fitted with the sugarcube speaker, while B165 has the Maplins speaker which I reinstalled by fixing it to the roof of the loco rather than using the speaker cradle as Anto suggested. I then sealed around the edges of the speaker with mastic tape to make it as airtight as possible. Ypu can compare with the first video to see if you notice any improvement. Once again the soundfile and volume settings are the same for both speakers (ignore the different horn sounds!). But I have to say I'm impressed with the sound from the sugarcube speaker, it definitely has more low end than the other speakers. Oh, and just for Noel there's a shot at the end of the video showing the brake squeal function on the Loksound decoders!

Yeah dead right. I glued some old nuts and bolts into mine.

Had the same trouble with mine and it appears to be the crappy wheels that Dapol supply with the kits. I switched mine for Hornby wheels and the problems disappeared.

Patience! When my old man worked as a tailor and a customer ordered a new suit and wanted it in a hurry he woul say to them - "Quality - Quick - Cheap. Pick two!"

Glad you found the source of the trouble! The leds are mounted on a flat circuit board that fits underneath the cab, it may be stuck to the bottom of the cab detail in those photos. If you can't see where to solder the wire you may have to remove the other cab and check the wiring on the opposite end's light board. Anyway, it's a simple enough fix.

Wonderful work, sir!

I'm no expert, but is this not a tad expensive? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/331422674305?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The 141's use leds and these usually don't flicker before blowing they usually die suddenly! I have a feeling it might be a dodgy PCB which I believe was an issue with a few of these locos. I've never stripped one of these locos down completely but I assume there are 2 leds at each end of the loco. According to the service sheet there's an led board that sits into each end so I imagine the leds are wired onto this. It may simply be a loose wire so check that out first. To check the led would require it being removed from the loco or you may be able to apply power to the ends of the wire feeding the led but be careful to use the correct voltage. If it's the PBD that's at fault then the printed circuit powering the cab 1 lights may have burned out. It's possible to insert a jumper wire once you can identify the circuit but it would require some delicate soldering work.

Although it's not in the picture I sealed around the bottom of the speaker with black mastic. But I will try mounting the speaker directly to the inside of the shell.

I also have some "sugar cube" speakers which sound incredible for their size, I installed one in a US loco and it sounds great. I plan to try one in a 141 soon and I'll post a video when I can.

I stand corrected on the horn sound! I programmed different horns for each engine so that explains the difference in tone. You're right in that any individual sound can be removed and switched with another from the ESU sound library. The sound file is the 071 file and I just switched the engine sound. I'll do that when I get the chance, Noel. I presume you mean the braking sound as the engine comes to a stop? I deliberately filmed the locos standing still and used the manual notching function so as to give an accurate comparison between the two speakers.

I recently installed sound decoders in a couple of my MM 141's and I thought I'd post this little video comparing the sound from different speakers. Both locos contain the same Loksound decoders and are both loaded with the same soundfile. The volume settings are identical on both. MM142 is fitted with a bass enhanced speaker that can be bought from several suppliers. I removed the back from the housing to allow it to fit into the body without any surgery to the loco. MM165 used a 4ohm speaker from Maplins and was a perfect fit into the cradle on the loco frame. These speakers are available from several other suppliers but I just happened to see them for sale in Maplins and picked up a couple at €4.50 each. The part no. is ABS-224-RC which is a 4ohm speaker but they also sell an 8ohm speaker (part no. ABS-216-RC) which is also suitable for the LOksound V4. (Both speakers will also work with Zimo decoders.) One thing with this speaker is that you have to secure it into the cradle either through the screw holes provided or with some sticky mastic or Blu Tac. Otherwise the speaker will rattle like crazy! Anyway here's the video, decide for yourself which sounds better. But I think the Maplins speaker as a but more low end to it.

From what I know their uncoupler is simply a small ramp that is raised by a solenoid or servo. There are neater was to uncouple stock to be honest.....

Yeah, but it should....

I think Boskonay has used them on his layout.....

I just thought a capacitor might be a good idea as the Lima 201 has such poor pickup you might get some flickering, especially over pointwork. Another issue is that I installed tail lights on a brake van which I controlled with a Hornby decoder. The lights were linked to F0 but every time there was a break in the pickup the lights would go out rather than flicker and you would have to turn them back on with F0. Apparently, some decoders "remember" function settings after a power interuption but some don't. I got around the problem by wiring the Leds to the motor outputs on the decoder instead and using the throttle to turn them on and off!

I like that idea! Are you going to use some form of "stay alive" for the decoder?

Have you tried different speed step settings? I have found that with certain decoders CV2 changes only work when the loco was set for 128 speed steps as opposed to 28.

That was me, here's the link - http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/77-Graham-s-Workbench/page12#120 It's actually the Hornby HST. The running is vastly improved but it still suffers from poor pickup (although it has slightly better pickup then a Lima).