richrua

sooner or later someones gonna start forging these

I would rather spend the £7800 on 62 Murphy 071s....

lol. yea. And Falcon at Cultra too !

For a few years now I have been lucky enough to take my class of primary school kids on the train for their school trip. We go to Cultra to see the amazing collection. Going by train makes the whole thing ten times better.

Today, on this years trip, as we waited for our trains we were treated to a dashing dmu that didn't stop; the yellow class 80 perm way thing (possibly - I was keeping an eye on the safety of the kids too.....) and best of all the 201 enterprise roared past us at breakneck speed much to the delight of the kids (errr and me).

The staff on the NI trains were as always wonderfully helpful.

Great day out.

Hornby railroad are about to release ready chipped sound locos of both uk steam and diesel for under £100. Check them out. That might reduce prices elsewhere....

This will really help me get me hwad round trying to chip my old locos. Thanks noel

I was looking for an Irish signal cabin. Thought I had one but it didnt work out. Mammy always said neccessity is the mother of invention, so i made a start on making my own. One of the things I like about the GNR I is the unique buildings. I came across an old photo on google of knockmore signal cabin. A unique building in many ways - no big window on this one.

I have been working on a small branch line type station. I found this polystyrene roll useful as underlay. On one side it has a durable paper which accepts paint and glue happily. At £10 for 5m2 it is cheap too. Next will be dropper wiring and ballast . Also some buildings of course

I got railmaster and elink for £70 from a shop in England. Running on an old pc. Good system so far! The visual aspects are excellent. Help with easy selection setting up etc

I agree Glenderg. The Chips are way over priced for what are actually a very simple memory storage. They need to come right down in price. hattons in Liverpool seem to be gradually reducing their chip costs.

As for sound.... for me it is way way too dear at the mo.

Basically if I have £100+ quid to spend on this hobby, I would much rather have another 141/181 than a microchip.

That said, I am enjoying DCC. Whole new area.

Yeah. Last night I crawled my b141 and 182 right up next to eachother on the same track in a mocked up engine shed. It was class.

It also seems that because of the huge increase in operating interactivity, I would probably be happier with a smaller layout.

I am impressed though. I have a small trial station/siding set up. It is very good. I was sceptical myself before i tried it...

Ha! Very good!

DCC is brilliant. Just wanted to say that. The wife says"are you still talking about that...."

Guys i read the f.. manual (as a boss i once had used to tell me to do!) And after a few minor setting adjustments i am up and running. Many thanks for all your advice. DCC is new to me. Now that i can work it i must say it is impressive. I know it is a hornby product but the railmaster program is very detailed and the possibilities are huge_ way beyond trainset stuff. The big plus was the price - as I had an old laptop to run it on it kept costs low.

Will do boskonay thank you

It will be worth all the effort!

Yes Noel it does run on dc with chip.

I got a new error message last night - "check wiring to track. Make sure you are not using a dc power connector"

Looks like my problem is simple track wiring. I had soldered the wires to the track. Perhaps it is a poor job. I will try a resolder today.

Yes physically everything looks fine. Double checked it all.

Oh i meant i soldered the wires from my controller to the track itself. Sorry for lack of clarity. Meaning i dont think it is a commumication problem between controller and track.

I fitted the dcc chips by removing the blanking plate and pushing it on carefully. Think i got that right . I will post a pic later.

Me again!

I tried two different hattons 21 pin chips in three diff locos -141, 181,071 . I have a small program track set up. Wires are soldered and the connection is good. However, i cant get any reading from the chip.

Is it possible i have two dud chips? Seems unlikely, but i cant find any other probs. Locos are more or less new and clean just run in a bit on dc.

Thanks

I think i pass the 80 class sandite every day on my way to work

Thanks lads much appreciated. Will do it tomorrow eve in daylight.