GWR/LMS OO Gauge DCC RR&Co

[user=1120]peterm[/user] wrote:

Great pic's as usual John. Every time I see your layout I see something I've not seen before.

Skunk chaser eh. I bet it's really nice round your place at the moment.  

Thanks Pete - glad you like them.

Its not great - the poor little Mutt got a full frontal spray and ran back into the house shaking the spray off on his panicked flight.Its amzing how long it lingers!

Skunks release thiols (mostly) and other sulphury molecules so the best way to remove the pong is by oxidation, dilute hydrogen peroxide in a mild detergent should do it!


For those interested, if you have the main other nasty pong caused by amines, rotten meat and various others then  vanillin is the solution. A dilute solution of vanilla essence will leave your fridge or whatever smelly sweetly! (ask me how I know!)


PS, the signals look brilliant!

 

Thanks Colin. Hopefully he has learned his lesson but Hydrogen Peroxide is in the medicine cabinet.

We cleared most of the smell with a lamp called Lamp Begere which is remarkably effective.

Hi John,

Apologies but you opened the door on this minor OT detour with skunking so I'll continue briefly.

There is a human equivalent, something I fear and dread every time I visit my friend Graham; he who designed the traverser. It is of course to be "skunked" at cribbage. This being when you lose by more than one leg (25%) of the 121 required to win.

My greatest claim in the cribbage annals of fame was to "Double Skunk" two opponents in a three way game, where lady luck plays a larger role than in head to head. Three massive hands saw me finished before either Op had turned their 2nd corner, i.e two legs ahead of both.

 

Here is a change from the branch signals:

My brand new loco from Dapol- 7807 Compton Manor looking rather splendid on top of its Dapol Box. The  box itself is both smart and substantial - I have to say Dapol lead the  field in terms of both packaging and presentation.The customary one or  two page leaflet is replaced by a 24 page "Owners Manual"! : .




The Manor Class was intended for cross country mixed traffic. They were specifically designed to cover routes, such as the ex Cambrian, from which the heavier "red route" Granges and Halls were barred.

 20 Manors were built in 1938-9. A further 10 were built by British Railways and allocated for service from 1959. A relatively small class compared with 80 Granges and 258 Halls - yet the Manor has consistently topped the RMWeb poll for new models.This is perhaps due in part to the number of Manors (7) still to be seen on Heritage lines. Probably the principal reason is the fact there has not been new model released for over 30 years.

 Here is a comparison with my  Bachmann 7802 Bradley Manor which I bought 25 years ago :







Hardly a fair comparison, pristine against Granby grime - at the time the ex Mainline Bachmann version was considered more than acceptable - but standards have advanced significantly. Today, I am afraid, Bradley Manor looks rather clumsy alongside the more elegant lines and subtle details of Compton Manor.



The shape of Dapol's smoke box has been criticised, particularly the acuteness of the angle where it meets the front of the cab. I think the comment has, perhaps, some validity but to my mind is not the end of the world.

 The highly polished safety valve cover compare favourably with the brilliance of a Life Guard's helmet. Fine for Horse Guards Parade perhaps - less so for a Steam locomotive. Its particularly bizarre because the "copper" chimney cappuchion is just painted. Slightly annoying but easily corrected.

Overall I think it is a delightful model:
 
Here are some of the details I particularly liked




Fantastic backhead detail - ok they forgot the flip up seats, but who will notice with crew and tender attached?

The tiny slot of plastic between the wheels is the PCB that serves as both the coupler and the electrical conductor from the tender pick up. This is the same ingenious device Dapol used for their Moguls. I must say, at the time, I and others had durability concerns. Well, I have been running two moguls fairly regularly for some time without issue

The tender is a great improvement on the earlier design:



Removable coal load reveals a fully detailed interior - a feature which I really like




They have also included another innovation from the Mogul introduction which I rather like : the horizontal board* suspended between the tool boxes (?) to prevent a full coal load from shifting. One of those details like cab tarps and supports that I keep meaning to add to the rest of the tender locos - it looks so odd to just have one or two isolated examples.

Enough of this detail, no matter how fascinating, how does it run?

I am afraid I have run out of time so this will have to be continued - perhaps with a video - but I can reveal I ran it in (you dont have to but old habits die hard) on the rolling road using DC and it was perfect - it was when I moved to DCC that life became interesting!
Regards from a very warm Vancouver (31o)

Hi John, 

 I can tell that you're pleased and what a fine loco she looks. I presume you've had some DCC adventures which are now behind you and that Compton Manor is well on the way into service. I too have been impressed with my Dapol Prairie and the Moguls, but had cancelled the Manor pre-order when it became evident how good the A/s version was shaping up, before the issue with the sloping firebox even became apparent. 

I still have a new and unboxed Mainline Manor and a used Bachmann, the latter needing some work, but the new Dapol standards and hopefully A/s will reset the bar for the next generation of locos. Hopefully a new Pannier will be with us before too long!

Best wishes from a splendid Loire Valley.

Bill

Nice looking loco. I just hope your DCC problems aren't like mine were.

Special day to day : 59 years ago, we got married in Oldham and in torrents of rain headed off, in our Ford Anglia, to our honeymoon cottage in Cornwall - lord knows how long it took us! We celebrated by having lunch, in glorious sunshine, on top of Grouse Mountain - a mere ten minutes drive from Chateau Dew. Fantastic views of the city and the waters of English Bay and Georgia Straits, where we have spent so many happy hours sailing.

Back to Granby, fitting a decoder to the Dapol Manor with a very short video - coupled with a tale of general incompetence on my part :



Regular readers will know that I am a big fan of Zimo decoders. Sadly the MX variants (Standard non-sound) have been incredibly difficult to get hold of, "temporarily out of stock" at Youchoos since February. Not having any spare Next 18 decoders of any brand I added a Dapol Imperium to my Manor order.

The photo above was posed on top of the excellent Dapol Box:



Having finished drooling over the loco (it really is rather nice) I finally looked more closely at the box and noticed the "DCC Fitted" sticker!  I guess, given hindsight, the blanking plate in the accessory pack was a clue.

Sure enough when I removed the smoke box door :



There was the decoder already installed in the PCB !

I had stupidly not realised that Dapol offered :  DCC ready, DCC fitted and DCC sound. Hattons had sold out of DCC ready but I really should have spotted the different description, quite apart from the 20 pound price difference.

Irritated (with myself) and embarrassed I then spent almost an hour trying to adjust basic CVs to get an acceptable crawl with smooth acceleration between the speed steps. I think the video shows how unsuccessful that was.

The solution :

By way of reminder: my Dapol Large Prairie has a Zimo Next 18 decoder installed. Like its Hornby equivalent it has an irritating tendency to stall. I solved this problem for the Hornby Prairies by fitting a Stay Alive in the bunker. A downside of the Dapol install system is the inability to attach SA to a Next 18 decoder. For some time I have been muttering about removing the PCB from the Dapol prairie and hard wiring a basic Zimo + SA .

Now seemed a good time! Out came the Zimo Next 18 from the Prairie and into the Mogul - literally a matter of second. The Manor like most loco with pick ups on the tender doestnt need an SA.

You can see the impact of the Zimo in the video - definitely a result

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In fairness to Dapol, after I made the video I realised that to change the Imperium individual Cv settings I need to disable the default speed curve by changing CV 29.

In the haulage test I used just 4 carriages because that will be the standard loading for the Manor. Out of interest I later repeated the test with 6 and 8 coaches - absolutely no problem - very impressive.

What about the Prairie I hear you ask.

It was surprisingly easy. The PCB assembly pulls out, just 3 screws release the body. The wiring is neat and accessible. The whole job took less than an hour. I lost the firebox glow but thats no real loss. There wasnt enough space for a 6700 u/f capacitor without putting it in the finished bunker but 3 x 800 u/f Tantalums should suffice. The end result is a Prairie that is now ultra reliable.

 .

So, despite my embarrassment, alls well that ends well - two excellent locos both running smoothly and reliably
(pluss two unused Imperium decoders)


Now for dinner: Grilled steak and a bottle of Cote du Rhone Villages - could be worse

Hi John,

That looks really nice, nearly as nice as a Southern loco.  :cool: 
Re the Zimo decoders. The MX has been discontinued and replaced by MS. Having said that, Zimo are held up waiting for components so don't 'old yer breath.

Congratulations John for your 59 ❤ years together and good that you're not having the downpour to contend with again.

 The brace.of Dapols look the business and should give you the reliability Granby demands for your wonderful automation. Will the Imperium decoders work sufficiently well for any less demanding routes around Granby?

Steak and Cote du Rhone sounds perfect to me. Enjoy the rest of the day.

Best,

Bill

Congratulations on 59 years John.

You know you get less for murder  :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

I'm sure that you have enjoyed every day of it and I wish you both many more years of happiness

Barry

Hi again John.

Remiss of me to forget when I posted but congratulations to you and your wife.

[user=1120]peterm[/user] wrote:

Hi John,

That looks really nice, nearly as nice as a Southern loco.  :cool: 
Re the Zimo decoders. The MX has been discontinued and replaced by MS. Having said that, Zimo are held up waiting for components so don't 'old yer breath.

Not rising to that Pete - I know nothing about Spam Cans!

I was afraid that was the case with Zimo - not sure about MS though I thought they were for sound - John Gymer at Youchoos told me they had announce a new range but no details and no release date. Good job I now have most of my small locos now fitted with Zimo +SA

Thanks for the good wishes - we had a lovely day

John

[user=1814]Longchap[/user] wrote:

Congratulations John for your 59 ❤ years together and good that you're not having the downpour to contend with again.

The brace.of Dapols look the business and should give you the reliability Granby demands for your wonderful automation. Will the Imperium decoders work sufficiently well for any less demanding routes around Granby?

Steak and Cote du Rhone sounds perfect to me. Enjoy the rest of the day.

Best,

Bill

Thanks Bill

We had a lovely time on Grouse although in truth we were killing two birds with one stone (there has to be a pun nestling somewhere there! ) it was also a recce for our eldest grand daughter's wedding. She gets married there on Oct 1 and Mrs D is i/c Flowers

I may have to use an Imperium in the Accurascale Manor although I would rather stick with Zimo. Its so easy to change chips I may do a temporary switch and this time remember to disable the speed table and see how it performs.

Best

[user=2006]Barry Miltenburg[/user] wrote:

Congratulations on 59 years John.

You know you get less for murder  :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

I'm sure that you have enjoyed every day of it and I wish you both many more years of happiness

Barry

Thanks Barry  

That is very kind of you. I really is quite hard to appreciate how quickly the years have flown by. Next year is apparently an anniversary of some significance.It has been indicated that something more memorable than double tasking on a local ski hill will be required! Granby's budget may well take a hit. :sad:

Best wishes

[user=434]John Dew[/user] wrote:

[user=1120]peterm[/user] wrote:

Hi John,

That looks really nice, nearly as nice as a Southern loco.  :cool: 
Re the Zimo decoders. The MX has been discontinued and replaced by MS. Having said that, Zimo are held up waiting for components so don't 'old yer breath.

Not rising to that Pete - I know nothing about Spam Cans!

I was afraid that was the case with Zimo - not sure about MS though I thought they were for sound - John Gymer at Youchoos told me they had announce a new range but no details and no release date. Good job I now have most of my small locos now fitted with Zimo +SA

Thanks for the good wishes - we had a lovely day

John

Spam cans, tut tut.  :) The MX are still being made, but will eventually be superseded by the MS. I'm in the same happy position in that I'm not planning to buy any more loco's, therefore no more decoders… I think.

Congrats on your 59 years John, just six in front of me :)

Oh dear, bringing up the rear here at 45, but hopefully many more happy ones stretching ahead.

Well done chaps

:cheers

[user=753]Phil.c[/user] wrote:

Congrats on your 59 years John, just six in front of me :)

 :oops: Belated thanks Phil very kind of you -  It is amazing how the time just flies by!

Best wishes

My eldest Grand Daughters wedding is on Oct 1.  W day meetings are increasing in frequency and length. Fortunately my presence is rarely required and  I have been able to to creep away and do some modelling.

I finally got around to bedding in the branch starter signals and replacing the Signal Box, Water Crane etc



The signal box and water crane, both Ratio kits, were built for Granby I circa 1994. They were installed here in 2008 and remained there, suffering all manner of indignities, as I leaned over them to access the adjacent storage yards . I lost count of the number of times I repaired the Crane and Fire Devil.They were beginning to look like some of "the ruins that Cromwell knocked about a bit" 



When, earlier this year, I started the storage yard extension followed by new branch signals it was time for a major refit. The water crane was completely rebuilt and the Signal Box finally repainted in Granby's version of Light and Dark Stone 



The signal box also had to be re-positioned so that the line of sight to the bracket signal was not impaired when approaching the station




Regular readers may recall I was a bit concerned about the best way of doing this but I think this has worked out rather well and the box doesnt look too out of place.

Less satisfactory was my attempt to use a single bracket signal to control the loop exit :



The loop exit is used not only by the daily goods goods but also, throughout the day, by coal trains to bypass passenger trains waiting at the platform. Hence the decision to install a working semaphore rather than the cosmetic ground disc. Sadly it hasnt worked out as I hoped. The bracket overshadows the platform starters and looks ungainly - so out it comes, hopefully for use elsewhere, to be replaced in time with a modified single pole.

Some cosmetic work is still required for the signals installed at the approach to the station from the canal - but for this section of the branch I can now write "finis" and enjoy watching the trains go by: