St James's Station

So I spent the day fitting tiny magnets to the remainder of the locos chosen to be fitted out today. The final tally is 30 magnets fitted to 9 locomotives.

2 Battle of Britains
1 West Country
2 Q1s
1 9F
1 A4
1 Jinty
1 Terrier

In terms of time to fit the magnets, it was taking up to an hour for the first few. There were issues with fitting the magnets low enough to have a good effect. I ended up using small pieces of Matt board (picture framing type) as a spacer between the loco and the magnet. I found this was a perfect size really.

The most impressive test run of the day was one of the Battle of Britains with a very impressive TEN Passenger Carriages hauled up the 1/20 incline. That's 5 times what it could do in the Pre Magnet era.
I made a consist of the two Q1s and they pulled 26 assorted wagons and I have no doubt they would be able to do more.

I still think that extra lead weight in some locos would also be a benefit and I will work on that over the next week or so. I have a good supply of lead sheeting to cut and chop.

What this means now that the magnets are fitted is I can run my trains at a reasonable length on the layout and I can have two on each track at a time without fear of the second catching the first on the incline because it starts slipping.

The layout allows me to send the trains just around the top or dispatch them to the underground loops. I think I will start planning some storage lines down there too. I'm running out of space up top and am thinking about selling some rolling stock.

I will upload some photos and maybe even a quick movie tomorrow.

 

A troublesome old Hornby decoder chip in one of the Q1s was removed and replaced with a new Hattons 4 function chip today.
I spent a good half hour trying to get the Power cab to read and reprogram it but it just wouldn't play the game so it's gone.
I have kept it to use as a decoder for something other than a loco. Maybe to control the turntable or layout lights or something.
Fitting the new Hattons chip took all of about 15 minutes. I surprised myself at how fast I got it done. I quickly re connected up the two lamps at the front and added a flicker firebox nano led as well.
The Powercab makes programming a breeze too. I love the ability to turn the lights into strobes or beacons. So I played with that CV for a bit before setting them permanently.

I'm flat out getting my trains to run around 40 metres of track without stopping or derailing somewhere. At the moment it seems that every time I run trains on the layout something plays up. Today it was one of the Q1s that was derailing on a back curve. Of course it's a curve that is really really hard to reach too. I'm going to have to climb up there and have a good look at it. In fact I know I did this only a few weeks back. It may involve relaying that track perhaps.
As much as I love the Q1s they are a real pain on curves and quite temperamental.

The 9F has its moments too when it will just stop.......and then go again. It's bizarre. It's as if it just decides it's had enough. There's power getting to it but it just has a little rest. A quick push and off it goes again.
The joys of DCC.

 

All good suggestions Kim , Ed and Paul.
I will get some isopropyl and put it into the track cleaner.
I will also give the wheels and pickups a really good clean.
I'll invest in a good multimeter and check track voltages too.
The hobby is supposed to be enjoyable but isn't when the stop start and derailing is going on.
Thanks again guys.

 

Thanks Gary. Like James Bond I have a love hate relationship with Q.
The Isopropyl sounds like the way to go. And as you say a really good clean, not just a wipe over.
I will get stuck into it on Monday. The weekend is being spent building a massive Lego castle we bought online with my son.
40 years on and I still Love Lego. is that wrong?

 

Gary wrote:

Ooh yes. I do like that front end loader, or the big crane. Especially once it's motorized.

 

Locomotive I take it.
After all this a family website Kim.

 

After the household chores and shopping was done for the morning, I settled down to paint the interiors of all of my resin buildings with a black acrylic.
The reason for this is that when I put the lights in them the light does not bleed out through the resin making the buildings glow.
Here's a video from a previous layout and as you can see they glow more than a nuclear reactor. About the 1:26 mark is a good example.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rM4xRa81KVw

I'll post photos tomorrow.

 

And while I'm typing, have a look at this website for 1/35 scale people. They are brilliant.
Makes me want to cut and glue the dapol and Airfix ones to make them more interesting..

http://www.mk35.com/en/23-wwii-civilians?p=2