irishthump

I'm glad I run DCC!

But if you have one controller set forward and the other set backward if both are turned on you will have a short at the common rail. You will have to be sure to never have both controllers powered on at the same time. By powered on I mean with the throttle above zero.

Congratulations and the best of luck with the new layout, 14x10 is a nice amount of space!

If you simply want to switch between the 2 controllers then you can just use a SPST wired to the red rail as in Broithe's diagram. Then you wire both controllers using the black wire as a common return. This won't cause a short.

I used an old Lima parcel van to make a rough approximation of a Dutch van a couple of years ago. It was just a straight respray with an added grille on each side. I think the chassis is around the right size, but the bogies are all wrong. http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/77-Graham-s-Workbench However the original Lima wheels are a bit rough. It would probably be easy enough to buy the correct bogies and scratchbuild a chassis.

Got the track for the main loop laid over the last week. It's all Peco flex track with Peco streamline points (won't touch Hornby ones again!) I fixed the track down with No Nails (clear variety) and I'd highly recommend for laying track. It holds the track down without the need for any pins, even on curves. By the way the points are all insulfrog, I used them on my last layout and never had any stalling issues with them at all. Anyway here's a short video of me testing out the loop.....

With a dirty great Hornby tension-lock coupler sticking out of each end!

What's really funny is that some people are getting more worked up about the fact that some people don't care about the inaccuracies rather than the innacuracies themselves!

I had another listen to 74460, and it appears I was thinking of a different file altogether! It actually does sound quite good.

It would be pretty hard to come up with a "one-size-fits-all" solution I would think.

I look forward to hearing any results you come up with. And that's the beauty of having the Lokprogrammer; you can chop and change to your heart's content! And in the end the sound only really has to make YOU happy.

That's what I was thinking. The notching seemed much more gradual, maybe the throttle arrangement is different on the A class.

I didn't realise they were so limited notch-wise, I only listened to the files using the virtual throttle on the Lokprogrammer software. But like you say the sounds aren't too bad. I just think 74460 just sounds completely wrong for the A class. Are you thinking of modifying the sound file?

I've spent some time looking too, to me the A class didn't really sound like the other EMD locos. There are 2 files that I could find that have Sulzer prime movers that I think are in the ballpark anyway. Try files no: 56451 and 54457.

Gotcha. What sound decoder are you planning on using?

One question; I assume since it's basically an Athearn design that the chassis is live?

Fantastic job! I myself tried to fit Athearn CoCo bogies to an F7 chassis a while back, but just couldn't make it work. This is an excellent solution, I'd love to see a video of the completed project.

A little more progress..... I've spent the last few days hand painting lengths of flex track and most of the points. I decided to hand paint the rails before laying the track as I didn't fancy spraying all the track with my airbrush in the confined space of the attic with no ventilation! With the track plan pretty much finalised I went ahead and fixed down the trackbed. I used Woodlands Scenic foam trackbed partly because it seems very easy to work with and it also worked out cheaper than cork. I fixed it down with "No Nail" adhesive. Here's what will eventually be the main terminus: The two tracks on the left will be the terminus platforms and will be mostly covered by the station building. (I'm going to have to figure how to deal with that ugly wooden beam on the left! I'll have to either hide it or make a feature of it.....) The longest train that can be accommodated is 5 markIII's with a 201. That's shorter than I would like but I can live with it. The two tracks to the right are for freight and coach storage. I've placed a point to show where I'll be putting a loop which will allow an engine to run around it's train and will provide access to the freight/container yard. Here's another pic looking towards the entrance to the station yard: You can see how the track on the far right leads out of the station yard and around to the right which will allow access to the engine shed or to link with the main double track loop. Here's the mail line and on the left is where the engine shed will be placed, pretty much where that Peco shed is standing. There's no underlay here, I plan to lay the engine shed tracks directly onto the baseboards to have a little height difference from the main. Here's a shot of the removable section: Hopefully I'll get some of the main line laid before the weekend.....

I don't think there's any need. "The Weather" will do all your weathering for you!

That was a joke!

I would've had a punt on this, but the seller doesn't post to Ireland....

Ha! Those wagons better have sprung buffers or they'll be nothing left of them after a while! Seriously though, that's impressive. Something to slow the wagons down would make it perfect.

If the loco runs on DC then it can be converted. With a metal model it really depends on the way current is collected, I'm not familiar with SSM kits but some models with metal frames use it to conduct current to one side of the motor. If that's the case extra care has to be taken to isolate the motor from the frame or chassis. You also have to be careful that the decoder will not come into contact with any metal parts.

This guys has an interesting way to slow the cars..... [video=youtube;-YY55xmNXfQ]

Glad you like the idea, I actually think it would work well. Small neodymium magnets could be placed just inside the rails. It's the magnetic pull on the axles and not the wheels that has the most effect.