Noel

Thanks irishthump. The main culprits are metal wheels on Bachmann loose coupled mineral wagons (steel coal wagons), and some old lima BR Mk1s in Blue/Grey 70s livery (possible donors for IR EGVs). By thread do you mean the thickness of the flange, or the depth of the flange or other? Thanks. Noel

It certainly is. Especially if starting with a blank sheet, you get the chance to wire for DCC 1st time, and most locos nowadays are either DCC ready with sockets and space for decoders, or come with decoders. Converting old loco stock can be challenging, especially 0-6-0 tank engines, split chassis bachmann steam locos, and older locos with limited wheel pickups. All solvable, but needs work. Sound seems ridiculously expensive at the moment. Is this because its in its infancy? A sound decoder doesn't cost much more in core components to mass produce than non sound. Memory is cheap nowadays. I guess in time with competition sound costs will drop and probably become more the norm. For me the two 'killer' advantages of DCC are walk about or wireless cabs and sound. There is no doubt that modern diesel loco models with pick ups and drive on all wheels make the best DCC runners for slow speed that plays so well with sound. Murphy models are superb low speed runners over insulfrog points, negating the need for electro frogs and the additional wiring they require. I've got DCC running but there is more work to do on the wiring before I can really get going on scenery, and a long road ahead to convert my old steam loco fleet.

Exceptional. Bless your eyesight, that is superb. I'm new on the forum and still catching up on some amazing content like this. What another great find and read. I love how you have captured the atmosphere and essence of that part of the city. Many a train did I get to Galway from Connelly (Amiens Street) as a youngster.

Ditto It's faster, costs less, and all UK websites will ship to the NI address overnight in most cases. No more 'seller does not ship to Ireland' problems. I use it all the time. Parcels are usually delivered to our local Parcel Motel pick up point by 23:00hrs the night after it was shipped from UK websites (i.e. overnight to NI and evening to down here).

Is that a bit pricey for a used loco?

Absolutely superb craftsmanship. How did you re-guage the 071 axils and bogies?

Aha, there is a little bit more to DCC track wiring conversion then I had thought. Crossings and double slips!!! Now do I use isolating switches, or electronics (ie reversers)? I've been testing DCC on the layout for a few weeks now with DCC drops to the middle and upper levels working ok. Haven't gone near the terminus yet which is still DC. However I noticed the crossing linking the dual track incline linking the upper and middle level is causing intermittent shorts as metal coach wheels run over the plastic frog briefly bridging the circuit. Temporary solution has been to isolate the incline using the existing old block section wiring switch, but a more permenant solution may be needed. Any suggestions from experience? Glad I have left permenant track ballasting until the layout is totally finished and went with foam underlay initially. Makes pulling track up for wiring changes easier.

Hope somebody gets a photo of it crossing the Barrow bridge. I have fond memories of that line and the bridge from a time long since past when I was a young child living in Waterford. Looking across the river from the garden at trains heading for Rosslare and that distant reverberating hum you could hear for ages before rail sound and long before the loco came into view. Waterford was a real 'mecano' industrial port way back then with the big cranes on the quays, silos, bell container port and live cattle docks. Had a very fine model railway shop too in the 60s on the quays.

Superb. Love the colouring and weathering.

Perhaps they may be permitted to reposition the empty train if it has no pax and at low speed. Pity they don't get to travel over the Barrow bridge. An awesome piece of railway engineering.

OK, that sounds positive, the decoder is working. As BosKonay suggests try it on a short piece of track wired directly to the DCC system just to rule out wiring issues. Only tonight I've discovered some of my crossings are causing brief shorts when metal coach wheels run over them. I will have to 'depower/isolate' the crossing rails unless in use.

Well I'm very much still in the learning process myself. Got an old Hornby Pannier tank sorted with a TCS T1-LED decoder. These old Hornby locos with X04 motors have the chassis grounded with the motor, so needed to isolate the second motor bush pickup. Not much space inside, so fitted the decoder in the coal bunker. Will make a proper fitting coal cover later. Just discovered my ancient Hornby BR blue class 37 and its rake of BR Mk2s coaches won't run over Peco code 100 points. I probably haven't run this loco or coaches since I was a child, so will have to replace the coach wheels with smaller depth flanges and machine down the flanges of the diesel bogies. She was a nice runner so a shame to retire her without trying.

Excellent pics & very interesting subjects. Thanks for posting. What camera/lens do you use?

Got a 25yo BR Class 25 diesel done today, and in the middle of converting a 30yo Hornby GWR Pannier tank (TMS 9pin). Put a Digitrax 126D in the old diesel and wasn't satisfied with the running, but then read up a bit more on some of the CVs that assist older motors and wow what a difference it makes with settings like pulse frequency and BEMF - all new to me. A different loco! The more I learn about setting up DCC decoders the more I realise how very much I have to learn! Enjoying fiddling around with locos, soldering iron and wires again after such a long break. A good service and DC test run seem essential before fitting decoders. Four done, more to do! Got three cab bus sockets wired up around the layout with RJ12 crimping tool and some cable.

I know what you mean. Give them 5 star food, wifi, roll out the red carpet and provide limousine transfers instead of mini buses and they should be happy. Fitting warm lighting into the coaches instead of cold blue led or filament bulbs should add to the ambience, and utterly immaculate loos.

Great idea for a holiday for those interested in train journey tours. If the Cravens are dressed up a little inside with linen and table ware and carpets it's amazing how a coach can be improved (i.e. like CIE charter trains of the 70s). Mind you at the advertised price a 10 day cruise in the med might look somewhat enticing for a holiday.

Does the loco run on 12v DC with the decoders fitted?

Hi Richrua I thought 21 pin decoders just plug directly into 141, 181, 071 motherboards. Not sure what you meant about wires being soldered, there shouldn't be any wires to or from a 21pin direct fitting decoder? Cheers Noel

What a great read and unique idea for a layout. Classic. The HBA website may have some useful marine info http://www.heritageboatassociation.ie/cms I know a few of these guys quite well if you ever fancy a ride on one. They come into Dublin en mass every spring. One of their bugbears is the severe operating restrictions at the notoriously renamed "effin bridge". Many spend the rest of the year on the river Shannon. Rambler passing under newcommon rail bridge on the royal canal.

I can tell you with a degree of technically informed certainty that the best camera is without doubt, the one in your bag right now and the one you know how to use right now. Be content with what you have and don't catch gearitis - its a plague that eats into railway modelling budget Snap away till it breaks.

Old thread, but just by way of update, the decoder was dead and replaced no problem by the retailer. It now works a treat in the 071 in DC Analog or DCC mode. For DCC, I went with the NCE Pro Cab 5amp system, and so far happy with it. A few software annoyances on the cab user interface, but the overall system does what it says on the tin quite well. The physical ergonomics of the hand held cab is quite nice, combining speed buttons with the optional rotary button. The built in RS232 interface enabled iPhone use as Wireless cabs running WiThorttle app linked to JMRI on laptop plugged into the NCE. The RS232 port, JMRI and WiThrottle has potentially saved me a lot of cash because now I dot nned to buy wireless cabs nor additional cabs.

Hope you found the exploring process fun. Our WIFI router is downstairs and through a 9" block wall (Apple Airport Extreme), but the signal upstairs seems good enough for the iPhones to operate without a lag or missing soft key touches. Agree with you about the tactile feel of a knob v screen vision. However in my case a wireless cab setup would cost an additional €145 for the base transceiver and another €165 per wireless cab, and NCE is no where near as expensive as ESU or Zimo. The phone gives me an inexpensive method of walking freely outside the layout to view traffic, or inside. I will probably buy one more wired cab with a rotary knob for shunting in the main terminus station. The iPad could operate as a fixed central base station operating four throttles for the four continuous loops. Good night.

Thank you

Good pal LJM dropped over Wednesday for a look at JMRI and WiThrottle in operation. Certainly the iPhone app is way more useable especially for functions with English labels than any cab I've had a chance to play with so far. For example, how is one supposed to remember that the 8 key is for a cab light on a keypad? With the app the function buttons are labeled in English. Bye bye wireless cab sales.

Yes the little circuit plate on top is a blank. Carefully remove so you don't bend the pins I used a wooden ice cream stick to gradually prise it upwards one side at a time. Before you remove it, note the orientation and place the 21 pin decoder in the same orientation. Its easy to try and mount it upside down. The pins on the loco board are meant to go through the holes on the underside of decoder circuit board and not directly into the socket (ie the pins end up in the socket but after coming through the decoders pcb holes). One of the holes is a blank to assist orientation.