irishthump

7 hours ago, Old Blarney said:

murphaph

I spoke with Charlie Petty this morning.  He asked me to inform anybody experiencing a problem with their order to contact him.

UK Telephone number - 0113 256 3415

E-Mail - charlie@dckits.co.uk

Please note his times for BUSINESS.

My comment - Sometimes we should - LOOK before we Leap.

• 0113 256 3415

Contacting Us
 If you need to reach us, please email us on charlie@dckits.co.uk

alternatively, you can call on 01132 563415  (International +44 

or write to us at 111 Norwood Crescent, Stanningley, Leeds LS28 6NG Yorkshire.

 

 

Monday:8.00 to 13.30& 18.00 to 22.00.

 

Tuesday:8.00 to 13.30&18.00 to 20.00.

Wednesday:8.00 to 13.30& 18.00 to 20.00.

Thursday: 8.00 to 13.30& 18.00 to 20.00.

Friday:Closed

Saturday:Closed

Sunday:Closed

I'm sorry but that's a lame attempt at a defence.

The page says "If you need to reach us, please email us". It's a webpage on an online store with a facility for electronic payments. The absolute first point of contact should be by email which should be answered promptly (within 48 hours, not including weekends). I mean his listed opening hours lead us to believe that he's working 4 days out of the 5 day working week. If it's a case that he can't devote the time to answering emails then he should at least have an automated reply directing people to an alternative form of contact. Customers will accept delays as long as there is adequate communication. As people have pointed out this all happens AFTER their payments have been accepted, to get the silent treatment and to be treated like you're an inconvenience for asking about the products THAT YOU'VE ALREADY PAYED FOR is dreadful form in anybody's book.

56 minutes ago, mmie353 said:

All,

Happy to report, Charlie has emailed me a couple of times and we maybe getting this issue resolved. It seems that there are issues with shipping costs that I was not aware of, I did pay the shipping cost from the website when I was making my purchase, hopefully we get this resolved ASAP and hoping my loco gets shipped before end of the week.

I do appreciate all replies to this thread, once again I am sorry for bringing up bad memories for members on this, I know everyone is trying to help. 

Absolutely no need to apologize. I dare say someone may have lit fire under his arse and that's the main reason you're getting a response all of a sudden!

33 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

Was reading up about him - apparently he had a fire in his premises.......

Was that not several years ago?

I've only bought from them a couple of times. Stuff arrived ok, but the customer service is non existent. I had purchased some DCC soundfiles from the website and had some queries about them, my emails were basically ignored until I managed to get to get in touch with the creator of the files himself. As said, truly dreadful form for a retailer!

Great layout. Lovely weathering on those containers too!

2 hours ago, GNRi1959 said:

The points are fine

Sorry I mean to say point motors!

25 minutes ago, GNRi1959 said:

There is a lot to be learned from mistakes and I just seem to make new ones each time. It isn’t the first layout that went to the railway graveyard!

Well at worst you just need to replace the points, so it’s not a total loss.

Sorry to hear of your problems! I've had similar experiences on my old layout and I would'nt dream of fitting points until AFTER ballasting is complete. I know that's not much use to you now though...

Maybe try removing the point motors from the baseboards and try to free them?

3 minutes ago, popeye said:

Could the pocket be turned to face the other way without hitting the bogie and then attach the coupling.

Unfortunately not! If you look at the bogie side frames they actually wrap around a little so they’ll hit anything mounted behind the buffer beam.

1 minute ago, JasonB said:

Excellent stuff. You can tell that some serious time and effort was put in to achieve that finish. Time consuming no doubt, but always beats just giving the model a blast of an airbrush.   

Not as time consuming as you might think. I used MIG washes on the body and roof, let in run into the crevices then feather the streaks with a brush moistened with thinners. Underframe was stippled with track dirt and brake dust acrylics.

I have used the Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance for years and have no complaints at all. It's very simple to use, I found the Powercab a little more involved when doing simple programming tasks. Gaugemaster also had excellent after sales service on the rare occasions I had any problems.

The only problem now is Brexit has made them difficult to get your hands on so I've been shopping around for an eventual replacement. I think I'll go for a Lenz Set101 when the time comes, I have no interest in iPhone or tablet control and I like the look of the Lenz handheld.

Incidentally, if anyone is selling or knows of anyone selling a Gaugemaster Prodigy please let me know. I'm constantly on the lookout for a spare!

28 minutes ago, David Holman said:

For me, tension locks spoil many a good model and Kadees are probably as good a compromise as any for modern image and indeed most narrow gauge options.

Never ceases to amaze me the amount of modellers I have heard complaining that Kadees are not prototypical for UK/Irish rolling yet are happy to use big ugly tension locks!

That aside, my main reason for liking them is their reliability and the added feature of hands free uncoupling and shunting.

6 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Nice, these really need a subtle weather like this to lift the detail. 

Yes, any photos that I could  find of the prototype were'nt very mucky so I went easy!

1 minute ago, murphaph said:

Very impressed with the boxcars especially. The rusty roof in particular is excellent.

Thanks! The rust effect is simple enough; various weathering powders mixed with thinned down matt varnish and simply stippled on.

Welcome to the Kadee Converts Club!

The operational difference between tension locks and Kadees is night and day. Converting my stock was the best decision I ever made. Did you opt for draft boxes on the wagons or the NEM couplers? Any plans for adding uncoupling magnets?

More from the lockdown workbench!

Dapol Interfrigo refrigerated van. Assembled, painted, weathered and Kadee couplers fitted. 

That's some stunning modelling right there!

4 minutes ago, Old Blarney said:

Good evening irishthump,

 

To answer your question.

The faulty Locomotive was not responding to any commands.

We have identical units to control our Model Railways -Digitrax. 

We synchronised our handset settings,

Reset the Decoder to Factory Default - 08=08

Entered the desired Locomotive address.

The problem (The faulty Locomotive was not responding to any commands) may have been that the desired two digit address (121) had been set as a four digit address.

I hope this is of help. If not, please contact me through this forum or, by a Private Message..

 

 

 

Thanks for the reply, Blarney.

I dont use Digitrax myself but I've heard of that issue affecting some brands of controller.

14 minutes ago, Old Blarney said:

It was my pleasure.  It is good to know a 121 will be running through Portadown again.  Reality in miniature.

White.  

Great news. Nothing more frustrating than having a new loco act up!

What exactly was the issue?

So I removed the bogie mounted NEM pocket and built a bracket and new pocket to fit to the back of the buffer beam….

I used brass angle strip and box section tube to create the bracket. After cleaning up my dodgy soldering it was fixed to the buffer beam.

A quick test proved it was at the correct height.

Although the couple now protrudes further past the buffer than o would like some  black paint should make it far less noticeable. 

So I’m stuck at home now for the next week or so. Both my youngest sons have tested positive for Covid! 
I seem to have escaped it for the moment so that leaves  modelling as just about the only thing I can do right now. A flurry of activity has been the result!

First up some US freight cars got hit with the weathering stick…

Next was something I have been pondering for a while. I prefer to fit Kadee draft box couplers to my all my locos but my Heljan Class 26 was proving to be a pain. As you can see there is no room to fit a draft box on the underframe because it would interfere with the bogies…

1 minute ago, Georgeconna said:

Beats my 160 pairs of Socks big time.....

 

Have to say I never saw it coming! One of my sons noticed me watching Youtube videos of the real loco then found the model on Modellbahne Lippe. Even ordered the correct decoder for it!

9 minutes ago, murphaph said:

Isn't the Class 232 the Ludmilla? Is this one not a Taiga Trommel? (looks similar anyway)

Yeah this is the Taigatrommel.

13 minutes ago, Galteemore said:

Nice to see a Ludmilla appearing here ! 

OK you're gonna have to explain that one.......

A present from the wife and kids, a Piko M62 in DB livery.

Fitted with a Loksound V5.

Still some tweaking to be done with the various sound levels, but overall delighted with it. Can’t wait to detail and weather it as these locos got pretty grubby in real life.

22 minutes ago, Westcorkrailway said:

My first layout looked something like this

 

poor Thomas had to pull a rake of 10 or so open wagons up that gradient!

 

I should have kept some of those red bridges around, they could pull of a corrib bridge type design 

Yeah my eldest son was crazy about the Tomy stuff, he amassed quite a collection. It's still sitting in the attic!