irishthump

**sold**

No - Scotty went ten years ago...

We lost Bones in 1999.

Still available!

Lads and lassies,

Have a 071 and 201 chip for sale. These are Zimo chips bought from Model Shop Belfast, both in perfect order.

Looking for €200 for the pair.

Based in South Dublin so can arrange for them to be picked up if the buyer is local. If posting I'll only send them registered and insured so that will add about €10 to the price. Can accept Paypal if needs be.

Here's a couple of videos of the decoders:

[video=youtube;oDiEKnC-Q-I]

Try isopropyl alcohol if you can get it, it will lift just about any paint finish. Soak it overnight then scrub off with a toothbrush.

If you can't get the isopropyl alcohol then you could try using T-Cut and a cotton bud to remove the signage then just prime the wagons then repaint them.

Many Happy Returns, Sir!

Just having a look at above,there's a better way of doing the coupling on the loco,have a look up flying Scotsman 4472 work bench he's the man when it come's to these couplings.

Yeah but he mounts the coupler to the body of the loco. If you have a body mounted coupler on the loco you need to body mount it on the coach as well. Body mounted and bogie mounted don't mix well.

The purists will tell you to body mount the couplers and this is how they are designed to work, but this can cause a lot of problems if you have tight curves/points on your layout.

My now defunct layout had tight curves so I mounted them to the bogies permanently, but it's easy to mount them so they can be removed at a later time if you want.

Body mounting the coupler (using the kadee draft box) is even easier and they are easily removed later if required.

Or is the whole idea of plug-in replacement Kadee's and NEM a myth. It looks like I am going to have to stick with tension lock because there is no way I am prepared to cannibalise my MM coaching stock to get Kadee's to work.

Yes, Noel. I'm afraid it is a bit of a myth! The whole Kadee/NEM process is a bit of a mess, the pockets are often WAY off the correct height and I find the swivelling cams that Murphy and Bachmann use don't play nice with Kadees either.

If you're really serious about switching to Kadees I think you have to bite the bullet and fit them permanently, either to the body or to the truck/bogie.

As a former software designer I find all of the DCC systems have a rather awkward and jurassic user interface that is hardly friendly. The ECOS at least makes a decent stab at making all this guff a bit more user friendly, but jeapers we've been living in a smartphone era for 7 years now and the DCC manufacturers are still living in the MS-DOS era of the early 90s. Technology should be invisible and intuitive. Believe it or not NCE is supposed to be one of the less cumbersome old style system to configure. DCC needs a redesign and a new NMRA spec - it is jurassic. All of this stuff should be setup using smartphones and tablets instead of expensive dedicated and proprietary hardware.

Have to say the Gaugemaster Prodigy is dead simple, that's why I chose it in the first place. I had watched several videos showing how to programme with systems like the Powercab and Digitrax and it's seems needlessly complicated.

I ran a sound 141 on the main track and it worked fine

Going to drag them down to the MRSI this evening and see if there is anyone there that might know something about them

(Have to wake them up first)

We use Gaugemaster controllers so should be somewhat similar to the Power Cab

It's a much simpler process with the Gaugemaster controller but you need a programming track.

With the loco or decoder on the prog track

 

- press prog four times

- press enter

- press 1

- press enter

 

You should now see the set address.

And there you have it!

While I have you there Thumper

I have some chips that came from locos that were chipped but the buyer wanted them DC

How do I find out what the previous address was to reprogramme them

I use a Power Cab Pro, it has aprogramme track.

Well I have one, I dont use it very often

You've got me there... I don't know the process for programming with the Powercab. That's the thing, it's different for every DCC system.

While I have you there Thumper

I have some chips that came from locos that were chipped but the buyer wanted them DC

How do I find out what the previous address was to reprogramme them

I use a Power Cab Pro, it has aprogramme track.

Well I have one, I dont use it very often

Well you can either put them into a loco and read back the address on the programming track or you can just reset them by writing 8 to CV 8 which will set them back to default which is address 3.

Irishthump of this parish might be your man, Noel

Clever little chap for a drummer.......

Thanks...I think!

The trouble with this is that some manufacturers publish comprehensive lists of their version numbers and some don't. This link might help you:

http://jmri.sourceforge.net/xml/XSLT/pages/DecoderId.html

It's incomplete and some of the info may be out of date but it's a start.

I admire your positive outlook. Having just re-read the entire thread and seen the stunning effect you had achieved it is hard to comprehend how any of us would feel having to tear up such workmanship.

Well my attitude there is that if I built it once I can build it again! And I really enjoy the building process.

A new canvas!

 

Consider it the conversion of the Atmospheric to the DSER via the intermediate stages!

To be honest I was almost glad in happened. I had made a few blunders with the track plan which resulted in the layout not working well for operation. Also, with all the rubbish finally being gone from the attic I'll have a lot more room.

Yikes IT sorry to hear you had to do that. I know what that feels like.

 

I hope you were able to salvage much of the amazing work you had done.

No such luck.... All I managed to save was all the peco pointwork ( I binned the Hornby ones!) and a few sections of flex track. All the ready-to-plant bits and pieces like figures, small platform details and lighting were kept and I managed to save the point motors and they're toggle switches.

Everything else went in the bin!

the thread above needs the title

 

"Warning - contains graphic content"....

Yep, pretty traumatizing!

Well I wouldn't call this an update but anyway...

The layout is history! My attic had to be cleared in a hurry for insulation to be installed, so everything had to go. To be honest, I was thinking about making some major changes

so this really forced my hand...

Anyway I'm looking forward to getting started on the new layout, hopefully it won't be too long!

Views on the merits of the Silverfox Metro Vicks are currently spread across a number of threads, so there's no need to start on about it here, too, especially when nothing new is being brought to the discussion. If you have an issue with this, feel free to take it up via PM with the mod team.

Not trying to start anything here but in fairness, Garfield, the threads you mention are being hijacked by the same individuals. Expressing any kind of satisfaction with a Silverfox product is like a red rag to a bull with these people.

Filmed under fluorescent lights along with compression, hardly judgeable. Also the loco is the one in repainted CIE orange rather than original. Decide when the models are infront of your own eyes....

Actually, they were filmed under regular, incandescent bulbs....

But anyway here's some more pics of them from my workbench thread http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/77-Graham-s-Workbench/page4 These were taken in more natural light.

Hi Alan, Paul

Sure I will let you know as soon as the 8 pin Lenz is installed. Will try and video the loco at various transition speeds over insulfrog point work which is the real test. Crawling on straight track tells you nothing, crawling over insulfrog points tells you a lot about the chassis (and decoder). I tried adjusting CVs but the basic Hornby decoder doesn't support most of the usual CVs so it was a rather fruitless exercise. It doesn't even support CV5!!!

Noel

 

PS: Paul, what livery did you go for? and if you get a chance to post a pic that would be great.

I would highly recommend the Lenz decoders myself. I use Lenz standards when hardwiring old Athearn Blue Box locos and the slow running is absolutely perfect, even with the crappy old open-frame motors.

Burn, the one I got came DCC ready, to fit the decoder you have to lift the body off by cutting the glue line between the body and the chassis. I tried a bachmann 4 pin decoder and it jumped around the track. I then tried a standard hornby decoder, it was ok but not good at slow running. I then tried a hornby sapphire decoder, there was an improvement, and i'm sure if a mess with the CV's I could get it better. I hope this is a prompt for Noel to row in .

 

P.S. mine has rubber tractions tyres, and as its not all wheel pick it can stall over X crossings. I'm reluctant to take them off, anybody any thoughts on this?

Depending on the chassis you could probably replace the wheels that have traction tyres to ones without them. I recently did this with a Hornby deltic chassis. It's an improvement but you have to add a lot of weight to get any traction.

Hi Alan. Yes it is an SF purchased direct as an RTR. Delivery was about 8 weeks as promised. The gentle weathering was included for the list price, and the Hornby decoder was fitted for an extra £20 to the Hornby chassis during build by John in SF. I haven't had time to play around with CVs yet as it's just out of the box, so only changed its address to 20 for a quick test run, but I expect to reduce CV5 to reduce the top speed, and also give a little more inertia using CV3 & CV4 so make it less responsive to throttle changes. Initial test run last night was it ran well on the Hornby class 55 chassis running slowly over Peco code 100 insulfrog points without any stalling. Over all I am pleased with the model which is a vast improvement on my Lima 'A class' locos which were repainted BR class 33s. Its not up to MM standards of detail, but for a resin body it ticks all my boxes for now and looks well with my CIE coaching stock. All the best. Noel.

 

PS: I also ordered a weathered Dutch GSV in Black and Tan livery which looks great with Cravens or Park Royals.

Bear in mind that if it has the standard Hornby decoder you won't be able to adjust CV5. Basic Hornby decoders offer very little adjustment, CV's 2, 5 or 6 can't be changed.