Herb Garden
Western Thunderer
You've just inspired a project for next year Richard. Skeetsmere in the 50s! Now where is heljians website.....?
The "fond memory" seems to be a recurring theme from people who actually used them, both in the UK and the place that inspired them, West Germany...I follow a Facebook page that is mostly about the Uerdingen railbuses and it seems that even today they are a big hit both with railfans and the general public.
I've a vague recollection that a similar service was proposed for the K&ESR when the railbus was based there. It was certainly used for trips between Bodiam and Dixter Halt (just west of Northiam, and now closed) before that section of the line reopened...my trip took place one summer evening as a "Magical Mystery Tour " by vintage coach from Eastbourne, organised by Eastbourne MRS. The track was mostly hidden in the grass, and we chased a few sheep along part of the line.
Ian@StEnochs
Western Thunderer
I had a couple of trips between Ayr and Kilmarnock in the Park Royal rail bus when I was a lad. It was good from a spotters viewpoint, you got to see the road from the drivers viewpoint, but the ride as I recall was ‘lively’ to say the least. OK probably running a bit faster than current preserved line speeds but the sudden lurch to right or left on entering a switch was a bit disconcerting as was the nodding donkey motion on plain track. No welded rail then.
RichardG
Western Thunderer
Heljan produced the AC Cars railbus in 7mm scale and they can be had secondhand. There were a few liveries, one was Heljan model number 88911.
I would recommend watching one running before buying. The chassis has no suspension (and no coning on the wheels either) and mine resembled the mechanical hare at the dogs. The backs of the wheels need skimming to let the model get through 0-MF pointwork; I did this but I was never really happy with the model and it is now sold.
RichardG
Western Thunderer
. . . actually, this was also a mistake. If you are going to twist the axlebox keeper plates to resemble the GER design, it would be better to emboss the bolt heads after forming the parts. But this is proving a bit too intricate for me, so I will leave the keeper plates straight to match my other GER wagons.
Meanwhile, I have taken a break from the body of the sand wagon to build the roof.
I am using the RSU and the microflame torch for nearly all of the assembly, and the result is needing very little clean up. Well, so far.
Faults like this crooked hinge show up much more clearly in photos. If fact I could hardly see this on the model, but I did put it right.
Just a knife blade under the hinge and a brief application of the micro flame torch. The hinge simply lifted away, I cleaned it up and put it back. I could not have done this a few years ago.
The door stops bring the need to put small castings onto a large expanse of brass. I am told I can use the RSU to do this but I haven’t yet sussed out a method without melting the casting.
My method is therefore to solder them up quite generously underneath with the iron, look for a trace of solder on the good side, and then clean up underneath (next photo).
The brackets underneath are mine, to try to make the roof detachable. At the moment, the roof wants to sit ever so slightly skew, just enough to annoy me, so I may end up with a few blobs of glue on these brackets after painting.
Completed roof.
Earlier this year I was muttering on here about a "plateau" in my modelling ability and do I think I have finally taken a step up thanks to the RSU. There is no mechanical cleaning up here except underneath the door stops. Having such a fine kit to build helps too.
( Diversion : soldering white metal to brass with the RSU )
New
simond
Western Thunderer
"I am told I can use the RSU to do this but I haven’t yet sussed out a method without melting the casting."
Richard, my method is as follows.
tin brass with ordinary solder, ideally a layer one atom thick. A little more is probably ok
tin W/M item with 70 deg solder, ideally a few microns thick
apply flux to brass
locate W/M item and secure with scalpel tip or whatever - if you can arrange gravity to help, so much the better.
Apply RSU to brass, close to item being soldered - say 5-10mm away. Either side, doesn't matter.
Press on toe-switch and watch the edge of the W/M part - you'll see the 70C solder melt and the part will settle.
Remove toe from switch and wait for it to cool.
On bigger things I sometimes put the 70C solder on so it leaves tiny peaks, these melt and the W/M part settles into place -again very visual.
Obviously best to practice on scrap bits - I have found the method very controllable.
atb
Simon
Richard, my method is as follows.
tin brass with ordinary solder, ideally a layer one atom thick. A little more is probably ok
tin W/M item with 70 deg solder, ideally a few microns thick
apply flux to brass
locate W/M item and secure with scalpel tip or whatever - if you can arrange gravity to help, so much the better.
Apply RSU to brass, close to item being soldered - say 5-10mm away. Either side, doesn't matter.
Press on toe-switch and watch the edge of the W/M part - you'll see the 70C solder melt and the part will settle.
Remove toe from switch and wait for it to cool.
On bigger things I sometimes put the 70C solder on so it leaves tiny peaks, these melt and the W/M part settles into place -again very visual.
Obviously best to practice on scrap bits - I have found the method very controllable.
atb
Simon
RichardG
Western Thunderer
Simon I have had a few goes.
It seems important to use 70 degree solder on the w/m part. For example 145 will not get hot enough to melt. I haven't tried 100. Using the 70, I can make a neat-looking joint. Putting little lumps of solder and watching the part settle down is reassuring. But the joint so created has minimal strength - I can pick the part off with my finger nail. As I would expect with 70 degree solder.
So I think this is a technique to remember, but I wouldn't choose it if I could use 145 solder a different way, such as from the back as as I did here. Those cast door stops will never come off.
RichardG
Western Thunderer
Well, I have been tinning the brass with some solder paint. Being a way to achieve the very thin coating.
It has occurred to me, I have never had any success with this solder paint. So I have had a go using 145 solder to tin the brass, and the 70 on the white metal part. This has produced a secure joint, but solder is visible all around the joint.
I am sure this is something to practice if I really want to do it. I obtained a neater and faster job by soldering the door stops from the back using 145 solder and letting capillary action draw the solder through a hole in the brass.
It has occurred to me, I have never had any success with this solder paint. So I have had a go using 145 solder to tin the brass, and the 70 on the white metal part. This has produced a secure joint, but solder is visible all around the joint.
I am sure this is something to practice if I really want to do it. I obtained a neater and faster job by soldering the door stops from the back using 145 solder and letting capillary action draw the solder through a hole in the brass.
simond
Western Thunderer
I’ve had very mixed results with solder paint generally.
When I tin the brass, I use standard tin-lead solder and Powerflo. As long as it’s very hot, the solder can be wiped on very thinly, and if it’s too thick, a bit of solder braid will do the trick.
adrian
Flying Squad
Unfortunately there is a wide wide variation in what some traders flog as "solder paint". I went through a good number of different solder paints before I found one I'm happy with.
RichardG
Western Thunderer
The use of solder paint was suggested to me by a friend who uses the terms solder paint and solder paste interchangeably. I think the paint I have is made for the motor vehicle trade, as an under-primer for body panels. Brush it on and melt it with a blow lamp. All of my attempts to use it to create a soldered joint have failed.
Yesterday another friend suggested solder paint has a limited shelf life. I have put it in the bin
Yesterday another friend suggested solder paint has a limited shelf life. I have put it in the bin
adrian
Flying Squad
As I said there is a wide variation - this is what I use and it's in syringe to easy to place a small amount just where it's needed. Yes there is a "expiry date" but I suspect this set by the drying out of the carrier flux. I cap the needle when not in use, can't be bothered with storing it in the fridge either but even nearly 5 months after it's "expired" it's still working fine.The use of solder paint was suggested to me by a friend who uses the terms solder paint and solder paste interchangeably. I think the paint I have is made for the motor vehicle trade, as an under-primer for body panels. Brush it on and melt it with a blow lamp. All of my attempts to use it to create a soldered joint have failed.
Yesterday another friend suggested solder paint has a limited shelf life. I have put it in the bin
and half the price of the Carrs solder paste, added to the fact that CPC is round the corner for me so I can collect from the counter.
RichardG
Western Thunderer
Yes, this is solder paste.
It is completely different to solder paint, which is a different product, with limited application in model railways. Confusion arises when vendors describe solder paste as "solder paint", or people use the term "solder paint" when they mean solder paste.
Rescued from the bin.
This stuff can be applied by brush before heating and flowed with a flame. The result can be (with care) a very thin tinning; but the treatment is not suitable for building onto with 70 degree solder. The solder paint is also incapable of making a soldered joint on its own, for example between pieces of brass. I wasted hours (a few years ago) because someone told me to buy some solder paint when they meant solder paste.
Conversion of analogue locos to DCC
New
RichardG
Western Thunderer
I have an ergonomic problem with model railway controllers. Faced with a mixture of throttle designs with a centre-off and a separate reversing switch, it always takes me a while to adapt from one to the other. And the Heybridge Railway has had a problem here for a long time.
Somehow, the centre-off throttle works best for me with a wireless handset, and I have such a handset for DCC for my H0 trains. The Heybridge Railway has eight locos in all: five analogue and three r/c ones. It is difficult to find a wireless analogue controller, and so it seems sensible (even logical) to ditch the analogue control in favour of DCC.
So the new arrangements look like this. Just like watching modern television really
I have salvaged three decoders from 00 locos I rarely run, and so my only outlay is to buy two non-sound decoders.
At a glance, 'Nellie' (Lenz) and 'Blackwater' (Zimo) are already running better than they ever did on analogue. 'Heybridge' and another loco will be plug and play when their decoders arrive. This just leaves the GER tram, which will be tricky - it has a modelled interior and hardly any free space inside.
The trigger for this has been seeing how well a couple of unrelated 0 gauge locos are running with DCC. It is as though the better running of 0 gauge over smaller scales continues with DCC. There is still no sound though. I just don’t enjoy it.
I am still not entirely happy. I do find DCC a misery to set up, and fault-finding can be exasperating. But I am telling myself, setting up is a one-time activity. Heybridge Basin is electrically simple (and wired for DCC from the outset), and the Roco z21 Start has been reliable since purchase. I expect I will get the hang of things.
Somehow, the centre-off throttle works best for me with a wireless handset, and I have such a handset for DCC for my H0 trains. The Heybridge Railway has eight locos in all: five analogue and three r/c ones. It is difficult to find a wireless analogue controller, and so it seems sensible (even logical) to ditch the analogue control in favour of DCC.
So the new arrangements look like this. Just like watching modern television really
I have salvaged three decoders from 00 locos I rarely run, and so my only outlay is to buy two non-sound decoders.
At a glance, 'Nellie' (Lenz) and 'Blackwater' (Zimo) are already running better than they ever did on analogue. 'Heybridge' and another loco will be plug and play when their decoders arrive. This just leaves the GER tram, which will be tricky - it has a modelled interior and hardly any free space inside.
The trigger for this has been seeing how well a couple of unrelated 0 gauge locos are running with DCC. It is as though the better running of 0 gauge over smaller scales continues with DCC. There is still no sound though. I just don’t enjoy it.
I am still not entirely happy. I do find DCC a misery to set up, and fault-finding can be exasperating. But I am telling myself, setting up is a one-time activity. Heybridge Basin is electrically simple (and wired for DCC from the outset), and the Roco z21 Start has been reliable since purchase. I expect I will get the hang of things.
RichardG
Western Thunderer
These four conversions to DCC have all been fairly painless.
The only hiccup was in setting the address of the tram to "125". However hard I tried, this would not work as a short address, so I settled for a long one. I thought short addresses went up to 127 but not here.
The tram would have been built before DCC had been thought of, and the person who built it didn't leave any free space inside the body - they put a modelled interior instead. So to try to make things as neat as possible I have put the decoder inside the chassis on double-sided tape. This is a Lenz Standard+ V2, running the Buhler motor with the motor drive characteristic set with CV50 = 2.
I do admire this chassis. I will look at it carefully whenever I come to build a chassis of my own.
Nellie has another Standard+ V2, Blackwater has a Next 18 from Zimo (this looks a bit undernourished for 0 gauge!) and Heybridge has a LokPilot5.
Yorkshire Dave
Western Thunderer
The short address depends upon the command system and decoder. While the NMRA short address range is 1 to 127 Lenz truncate theirs at 99 so their range is 1-99. ESU and Zimo are 1 to 127.
It would be undernourished if the loco had an older larger motor and hauling 12 coaches. If you're shuffling a few vehicles around a large decoder is unnecessary.
Modern quality motors draw less current and are more efficient which in most cases an HO decoder (including Next18) is more than adequate to power an O gauge locomotive (except O scale Heljan and Atlas who appear to me to have used motors more suited to the automotive industry!).
My O scale Met Bo-Bo uses a Canon 1833 motor and a HO decoder. My O scale GP9 uses an ESU L decoder as it has a larger and older more current hungry Pitmann motor.
Yorkshire Dave
Western Thunderer
In my view DCC handset design is the downfall of DCC system providers as most are too wide to sit comfortably in the hand, too cluttered and appear to have be designed without any thought of ergonomics.
Roco took a different approach with their multiMAUS and designed it to be ergonomic from the outset while the electronics were developed by Lenz - hence the interoperability between the Lenz and Roco DCC systems.
RichardG
Western Thunderer
Yes the Roco handset is the antithesis of the PowerCab in its usability. It's not just the physical ergonomics that are better; I have found it vastly easier and more enjoyable to use during railway operations. I splashed out on the wireless handset soon afterwards, and somehow this has conditioned me to expect a wire-free handset. This in turn has led me to omit control panels on recent layouts, and to put radio control in some of my 0 gauge locos.
What the Roco system does not have is any knowledge of the capabilities of decoders. For example its designers might have arranged for it to read CV8, identify a decoder as a Lenz, and show the permitted range of 1 to 99 on its display. But I appreciate, this is a vast subject for which support would always be partial and quite possibly downright wrong.
The obvious weakness here is in setting up CVs. I have set them all up manually, one at a time, with the exception of long addresses and ESU's motor calibration feature. I have found the motor calibration so useful and effective it was worth buying the ESU decoders for it.
So I now have all five of my DCC locos for 0 gauge running really nicely. They all have the simplicity of no sound and no lights, and I don't really need a crib sheet because the only feature I might try to remember is the shunt mode (F3) on the two with Lenz decoders.
This leaves me pondering whether a dedicated programmer is worthwhile for the decoders. Ideas are welcome, but it needs to be something ready-made and which doesn't need a degree in computer science to set up run time environments and COM ports and the like. I find these things so difficult (and so tiring), I would rather plug the CVs in one at a time
What the Roco system does not have is any knowledge of the capabilities of decoders. For example its designers might have arranged for it to read CV8, identify a decoder as a Lenz, and show the permitted range of 1 to 99 on its display. But I appreciate, this is a vast subject for which support would always be partial and quite possibly downright wrong.
The obvious weakness here is in setting up CVs. I have set them all up manually, one at a time, with the exception of long addresses and ESU's motor calibration feature. I have found the motor calibration so useful and effective it was worth buying the ESU decoders for it.
So I now have all five of my DCC locos for 0 gauge running really nicely. They all have the simplicity of no sound and no lights, and I don't really need a crib sheet because the only feature I might try to remember is the shunt mode (F3) on the two with Lenz decoders.
This leaves me pondering whether a dedicated programmer is worthwhile for the decoders. Ideas are welcome, but it needs to be something ready-made and which doesn't need a degree in computer science to set up run time environments and COM ports and the like. I find these things so difficult (and so tiring), I would rather plug the CVs in one at a time
Yorkshire Dave
Western Thunderer
It's down to personal choice , how often you think you'll use it and whether you deem the time saving element of using a programmer outweighs altering CVs individually via the handset menus and POM - Programming on the Main.
One argument in favour is the ability to alter and blow the CVs onto the decoder in one sitting. You can do the same with individual CVs without having to scroll down menus on a handset. Also by using a portable programming track all programming can be performed away from the layout in the comfort of one's own armchair so to speak. My choice was to use dedicated programmers as this vastly reduces the frustration and time of programming individual CVs via the handset.
Ideas are welcome, but it needs to be something ready-made and which doesn't need a degree in computer science to set up run time environments and COM ports and the like. I find these things so difficult (and so tiring), I would rather plug the CVs in one at a time
Therein lies the problem. If you are using decoders from various manufacturers then the SPROG3 would be ideal. However, it does require a bit of setting up initially and there are good instructions from JMRI.
Both ESU and Zimo offer decoder programmers but it does narrow the decoder choice i.e. from their respective sources. I can only comment on the ESU Lokprogrammer as I have no experience with the set up and use of the Zimo programmer. When I purchased my ESU Lokprogrammer v2.7.7 it came with an installation disc and programmed v3.5 decoders. When ESU moved to their v4.0 and above decoders this did require a programmer software upgrade which now means I have to switch to Lokprogrammer 2.7.7 if I want to adjust sound in a v3.5 decoder. Throughout the years it has been upgraded via automated downloads (latest 5.2.18) to enable the latest generation of ESU decoders to be programmed. I have an ESU Lokprogrammer as most of my locos use ESU decoders. I do have a handful of locos with Zimo decoders as their sound profiles are not available on ESU for which I use the SPROG3.
JMRI/SPROG3, ESU Lokprogrammer and Zimo programmer are all supported.
I started back in the early 2000's the Lenz system utilising Lenz and Zimo decoders and acquired a SPROG2 at the same time which made it a lot easier to program CVs. Roll on a year or two I moved into sound using ESU** decoders and initial happy using SPROG2 to program CVs.
At the time I didn't think I would need an ESU Lokprogrammer but soon quickly purchased one which allowed me to tailor individual sound profiles such as altering volumes of the initial and subsequent 'chuffs' to make them sound more realistic. My Lokprogrammer has also seen recent service when programming my HO DB stock, again tinkering with individual sound volumes, adjusting lighting brightness and more so the motor control parameters for my O scale locos where everything is on one screen.
I haven't looked back. Since moving to a Mac I retained my PC laptop purely for the SPROG3 and ESU Lokprogrammer.
**ESU had a larger library of US sounds at the time whereas Zimo were very limited.