Ashes to Ashes...

My first posting in a while and my first with pictures for even longer! To me ballasting = procrastination and I have taken far longer to ballast the layout than intended. It really is a boring job and it was easy to find an excuse to walk the dog, go to the pub, watch telly, anything in fact to avoid the dreaded 'B' word! However a layout can all to easily be let down by poor ballasting so I had to get it right.

Having used steel rail and card-clad foamcore boards I was not happy about the 'put your ballast on dry and then soak it' approach. I therefore determined to use a quick drying adhesive and to apply the ballast on top of it. This was done in a centrally heated room to ensure the moisture had little chance to soak into the foamcore or rust the rails.


The North Eastern Railway commonly used ash ballast on its secondary lines, branch lines and sidings. This was perpetuated by the LNER and BR-North Eastern Region. Niddbeck Bridge therefore had to have a representation of ash ballast. For several years I have been experimenting with various proprietry brands of ballast. I eventually settled on a 50/50 mix of Woodland Scenics Fine Cinders and Busch fine black quartz sand, mixed in a large pudding basin with a balloon whisk (Mrs S went ape-shite - do not try doing this at your home!). This gives a satisfying dark, fine finish that I find pleasing to the eye (the pictures here show it quite a bit lighter than it really is. Real ash ballast can of course take on various hues, for instance when it is wet it appears much darker than when dry. It was the dark, damp look I was after and I'm fairly happy so far.


This is the adhesive I used, DeLuxe Materials 'Super 'Phatic', which is an aliphatic resin woodworking glue. It looks like a white PVA glue but is thinner, has a bluish tint and dries quicker. I built my foamcore baseboards with it and also laid my track with it. This particular size comes with a hypo needle applicator (see below)


The tool at the top is a stainless dental type probe, purchased from Squires. I have modified one end to the shape shown (flat straight base with slight upturn at the end). The point has been blunted using a tool stone. I found this shape ideal for moving the aliphatic adhesive around between the sleepers and point timbering, and for working it under the rail. The flat straight base allows the adhesive to be worked into a neat straight shoulder with ease.

The tool at the bottom is the hypo needle applicator for the adhesive. As supplied, although very small bored, it does deliver too much glue at once, so I have gently squeezed and flared the tip in a vice, to the point where the tip of a scalpel blade will just fit in. This reduces the flow to a nice level. Care must be taken to clean the nozzle under a running tap frequently or it will block. 5 minutes is about all I could risk in a warm room. Blow it through to check it is clear before putting it away! A few spare applicators come in handy (via the Deluxe Materials online store).


My ballast application tool - the spoon end of a Tamiya paint tool. This allows small precise loads of ballast to be placed accurately.

The spatula end of the same Tamiya paint spatula/spoon. It is easy to dip this into a jam jar full of ballast mix and balance a 25-30mm long load on it. It is then moved to the location required, parallel to the rail, and tipped onto the adhesive.


This shows the aliphatic adhesive applied from the bottle using the modified hypo applicator. It is easy to work between the sleepers and point timbering with the hypo applicator.

This shot shows the glue evenly spread around the sleepers and up to to the shoulder mark, using the shaped probe tool. The arrow is to remind me where the uncoupling magnet is located!

This shot shows the ballast tipped/spooned onto the wet adhesive using the Tamiya paint spatula/spoon, to the point where no adhesive moisture can be see through the loose ballast. At this stage it is lightly tamped down with a finger tip and left to dry.

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This shot is taken about 30 minutes later, after the adhesive has dried. The surplus is simply vacuumed away (the whole layout has only consumed about 1/3 of a jam jar of ballast mix - hardly worth the effort of trying to recycle the hoovered up surplus). A scrub with an old toothbrush follows to remove the less then well glued grains. Any patches that are a bit light simply get a further local applicaton of adhesive and ballast.

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The track and ballast will need a gentle airbrushing with a matt varnish and dirty thinners mix in due course, to take the 'new' look off it. I will apply the other scenic dressings to the layout before doing this, so it can all be blended in nicely.

And Now, A Brief Intermission...

Yesterday Edward came across and we painted the backscene for Niddbeck Bridge. This was done in a very similar way to the backscene for Masham; watercolour on fairly textured watercolour paper. The results are shown below blu-tacked to the backscene board; Edward proposes sticking them with spray mount in due course. They may require a very little trimming here and there to get a good fit. A relaxing few hours work in the afternoon, we were then joined by Sue and Fiona for a rather nice curry.

Still Progressing

Well, Christmas came and went and some progress was made on Niddbeck Bridge, but not as much as I'd hoped. I'm clearly not as disciplined as Tony for the port and single malt somehow always came first!

Most time was expended painting the various structures constructed from dressed stone plasticard. Getting the stone base colour (Humbrol enamel) on was easy enough but then building up on that to give the effect I was looking for was not easy. I wanted that typical industrial north of England dark, sooty, grimy look that was prevalent before the Clean Air Act and 'smokeless' zones came into effect in the 60's. There are not many examples left to see for real. Most buildings and structures have been sandblasted or have had 40-odd years of acid rain and traffic fumes eating the soot away! You can still find examples in sheltered, hidden corners if you look hard enough. I did get there in the end, though I'm not 100% happy with it. I will have to do a better job on the big layout! A topic for the Group to cover during 2008 perhaps?

The platform, bridge and tunnel are now glued in place and a start has been made on the ballasting. This is typical NER/LNER secondary line ash ballast. I experimented with various proprietry dressings and finally settled on a 50/50 mix of Woodland Scenics fine cinders ballast and Busch fine black quartz sand. In due course it will be toned down and blended in by wafting on some highly thinned weathering 'gunge' via airbrush.

In the coming weeks the landform will be added using 'Kingspan' dense insulation foam offcuts scrounged from the skips on the building site on which I live. This will be finished off using an ultra light decorators filler called 'One Strike', a brand we sell at work. Polyfilla do something very similar at twice the price. Once the landform is in place the backscene can be done and I'm still hoping that the Chief Executive of Scorton Village Stores Plc can lend a hand here!

Another job done over the holiday was to put together a test etch of a class 20 diesel cab that Bob has done for me. It went together and looks well but a moment of careless inattention led to irreparable damage to my Farish diecast body. The project is currently stalled pending acquisition of a spare body (and the return of the wheels from Gordon Solloway).

I am finally getting some camera time on the DSLR purchased 4 months ago and Santa bought me a diddy table top tripod for Christmas. Now waiting for delivery of a new and faster card reader then I will start posting pictures on here again.

My new duties as Association Publicity Officer are also mopping up some time. I have quite an exciting project running which will hopefully receive final committee approval soon. All will be revealed via the Magazine in due course!

Still Here

Still here, still doing a bit, but not as much as I would like. Eight months into our new house and still jobs to do each weekend. Freddie the labradoodle is also now eight months old, getting bigger and needing much more exercise each day...

The station building for 'Niddbeck Bridge' is now ready for painting and then window fitting. The Scalelink chimbley pots look good, even if their online store charged me nearly £5 p&p and sent them in a small jiffy bag with 48p worth of stamps on it...

The plan is to paint all the stonework on the layout in one hit, so have just finished the concave platform and am now working on the horse/cattle dock. These use a lamination of 2 x 5mm foam core board, then spilt down to about 7mm using a wide CK scraper blade. The edges are clad in stone plasticard, stepped out at the top so as the be a close approximation to the published NER standard design. The platform edgings are scribed plasticard at a scale 4'x3', also NER standard. These were precast concrete with a cross-hatched or dimpled anti-slip surface which I did try to press in using a vice with serrated jaws, but could not get an even result. I doubt it would be noticed under a coat of paint any way!

If I can prise the camera away from the wife and No.1 son I might take some pictures to post up this weekend.

Latest DCC purchase is a natty ESU decoder tester with integral motor and speaker. This means I can now test decoders straight out of the box and before any fitting work or lead-wire shortening. I have had a duff decoder as delivered and it's annoying to spend a couple of hours fitting them only to find they don't work.

Curves In All The Right Places

Here are some shots taken by Mick during a mini NEAG meeting in my kitchen last Saturday. David Long came over and joined Stephen Harrold, Mick and myself for a chinwag about DCC and for David to have a good poke about on the nether regions of 'Niddbeck Bridge'. David brought along his Uhlenbrock chipped class 33 Farish diesel with scratchbuilt chassis. Slow running performance was impressive and will no doubt improve even more with a few CV tweaks. David also had a selection of photos of his new 60's/70's era diesel shunting layout which looks very impressive and not too far away from being exhibitable. One to watch out for.

The pic below shows the newly installed curved backscene board on 'Niddbeck Bridge'. As previously described this is two thicknesses of 5mm foam-core board made bendy by lots of vertical knife cuts at 5mm or 10mm centres according to radius required. First one thickness was glued into place using PU gel wood adhesive (Bison TimberTix) and held temporarily with dressmakers pins. Once this had set the second lamination was added, PU'd and pinned in place, relieving cuts face to face. Once the glue had set it became a gratifyingly firm structure, acting as a central spine for the whole baseboard unit. The thickness of knife blade used also affects the 'bendability' factor of foam-core board - a thick Stanley knife blade allowing more flex than say a thin scalpel blade.



The shots below shows the double-curve treatment used at each end. My intention is to try and make the layout appear scenically longer than it actually is, by wrapping the painted sky/landscape backscene round like fiddle yard like this, and by making the scenery taper off to next to nothing. Tony has kindly offered to help with the scenic and buildings aspect of the layout, so I'm hoping he might assist with painting the backscene. I've long admired his understated effort on 'Masham'.





I'm presently debating how to clad the exterior side and end edges of the layout. The foam-core board is very susceptible to scuffs and dents, especially when being carried single-handed through doors and loaded into cars etc, so some form of protective skin is going to be required. I think Tony used Fablon to cover 'Masham' ('sticky-back' plastic of Blue Peter fame - remember that?). My inclination is to use Formica or thin plywood.

A start has been made on the station building, or at least the etched windows, doors and bay front that Bob did for me. The platform and cattle/horse dock are next up, or at least the edge bits, so I can then get on and ballast the track.

Plodding On

Work done over the last 10 days has included making a start on the civil engineering side of things; namely a tunnel mouth and a girder road over bridge. These form the scenic breaks at either end of the station. Construction is Slaters Plasticard 2mm dressed stone, chosen after a pointer from the VAG (thanks Paul).

The road bridge is modelled from a photograph of the one at Ripley Valley station on the Pateley Bridge branch, the location that inspired the layout. The tunnel mouth is freelance, but retaining the same style as the bridge. These structures will be finished off and installed once the curved backscene has been glued into place.

The backscene is currently on the workbench and is 150mm high foamcore board. I am using 2 thicknesses of 5mm and am making it bendy by lots of vertical knife cuts, approx. 4mm deep, at 5mm or 10mm centres according to radius required. The two thicknesses are then curved and the 'cut' faces bonded together with PVA, thus holding it all to shape.

On Sunday I sprayed the scenic area track in a gungy dark brown track colour made up from 3 Humbrol and Railmatch enamels and let down with cellulose thinners. I applied this using my Aztec double action airbrush, the first chance I have had to use it since buying it over a year ago. It was a review in MRJ a while back that prompted me to buy one and I'm quite impressed. Looks cheap and cheerful being 98% plastic, but it works a treat, does not seem prone to blockage and cleans up after use very easily.

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The track will be ballasted (to represent typical NER branchline ash ballast) once the platform edges, bridges etc are installed. The rail and chairs will then be brush painted in a rusty shade etc.

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Edward S

Big Knob or Little Buttons?

Other work completed on 'Niddbeck Bridge' this week has seen final hooking-up of the'XpressNet' around the layout. This allows you to roam with a handheld throttle and plug-in where ever an outlet facia is located. I have 2 on the rear and one on the front.

Each LA152 facia panel has 3 outlet sockets (2 x DIN type, 1 x phone type). This has allowed me to have both my Lenz handsets working concurrently for the first time. The handset on the left is an LH90 with knob control and LED display and the righthand one is a LH100 with full keypad and LCD display.

Why would I want two handsets you might ask? Both have their good points and bad points and my opinion is that ownership of both is a good idea. The LH100 with its full keypad and better display is great for decoder programming and setting up things generally. On the downside I find the button speed controls not as easy to use as a rotary knob and it only has a loco memory stack of 2 addresses.

The LH90 is an ideal driving and operating throttle but less easy to program with due to the lack of a full keypad. With the large rotary knob and traditional toggle reversing switch I find it easier to drive trains without having to look at the throttle, something I find I often have to do with the LH100. The LH90 also has a loco memory stack of 8 addresses which is much better. When in accessory switching mode, the '2' & '3' buttons allow you to scroll up and down the accessory list adresses (ie points, signals and uncouplers) and the '1' and '4' buttons act as the -/+ switches. Whilst in accessory switching mode the last loco called up remains under full control of the knob and toggle switch, so is an ideal arrangement for shunting.

Another option is to use the LH90 as my loco cab and the LH100 as my signal box. Great fun this DCC business!

Another afterthought has been the addition of a isolated 200mm length of programming track on the fiddle yard, as I thought this might be useful at exhibitions. Prog tracks allow decoder installations to be 'read' and tested at lower power and will avoid a blown decoder if an incorrectly wired or badly insulated loco is subject to full DCC power. It is also safer the change decoder CV settings on an isolated programming track. It can be done 'on the main' but you risk changing settings on other locos if you make a mistake!

Apart from a layout stand and a lighting rig I must now turn my attention to architectural and scenic development of the layout, or proper modelling as no doubt many of you will think!

Edward

Well Stacked...

No, not todays page 3 'stunna' , but my recently constructed DCC power supply and command 'unit'.

I claim no credit for the idea, having copied something similar that Chris Dening (son of Jon Dening, well known ex-Association member, now into 7mm) uses on his Canadian HO exhibition layout.

The idea is to keep all the power supply gubbins, command station and booster (if used) in one floor standing unit and then to feed up to the layout using an 'umbilical cord' on just one plug rather than several. Keeps things neat and tidy, aids storage and transport and speeds up exhibition set-up and break-down times. Or thats the theory anyway!

Construction is quite straightforward; some varnished 9mm birch-faced ply, a length of 1/2" aluminium angle, some 1.5mm ali sheet (cut up from a door finger plate), a couple of 4" aluminium cupboard D-handles and four little rubber feet. Most these items should be obtainable from your local DIY emporium. On the electrical side there are a couple of red indicator lamps and a 25-way D-socket, purchased from Squires.









The two power supply packs (the smaller Lenz TR100 45VA unit which supplies power to the LS150 accessory decoder and the larger Lenz TR150 70VA unit which supplies the LZV100 command station) are the heaviest lumps and these go side by side at the bottom. Above it goes the LZV100 command station (the brains of the DCC system). There is room to add an LV102 booster unit should I ever build a really big layout, or God forbid, move up to the big 7mm+ scales !

The two indicator lamps are wired to the output side of the power packs to give an at-a-glance indication that they are working....beats trying to listen for the gentle hum in a noisy exhibition hall!

Obviously this unit can transfer from layout to layout so should prove to have been time well spent this past week or so.

Edward S

Back In Business !

Just to advise that my new home workshop is now just about complete (needs a roll-end of vinyl flooring to finish off) , all my modelling gear has come out of storage and has been dusted off.

Work on 'Niddbeck Bridge' will recommence just as soon as the June 2mm Magazine has been stuffed and posted. I aim to post up progress reports and pics here at least once every week.

The embryionic layout performed well at the NE 'Bash' earlier this month. The only problem that came to light was a dead point vee in the fiddle yard. I need to check if this is a dropper feed wire problem or an issue with the 'Hare' decoder that does the switching.

The 'XpressNet' circuit on the layout needs finishing off and and the cable harness that will link the command station and transformers (free floor standing) and the layout needs making up. I am using 25-way 'D' connectors for this task.

A full day of operation at Bournmoor brought home to me one of the short-comings of DCC - that inadvertant short circuits trip the whole system out until cleared. This is most easily caused by driving a train into a trailing point that is set against it! Fortunately the 'Hare' decoders I use with the 'Tortoise' point actuators have a built-in 'Auto-Throw' feature, so I will need to set this up. It just needs 50mm sections of rail behind the point to be isolated and wired into one of the terminals on the 'Hare'. If a train then approaches a point that is not set for it, the point will immediately be thrown and a short circuit avoided.

This DCC 'short circuit' business also led me to ask Bob Jones to design me an insulated version of his Fence Houses etched re-railer ramp. This he has done and a 'split down the middle' test etch was put together over the weekend. The two halves are simply epoxied together using plasticard spacer on the underside and the etched spacing tags are cut away when set. Photo to follow.

Edward S

Last Look For A While

It looks as if my house move will now take place next Friday (at long last) so 'Niddbeck Bridge' will be getting packed away this weekend for a month or two. The workshop at my new place is going to be in a big cupboard under the stairs (shades of 'Harry Potter' there!), a bit of a come down from spare bedroom accomodation I enjoy at the moment :-(

Niddbeck is promised complete for Shipley Show in late September, so getting the new workshop up and running will be a priority, hopefully to be completed by Easter. I will also be bringing the layout along to the Group bash in May as work in progress.

I am due to give a talk and demo on DCC to the Pennine Area Group in the next 3 or 4 months or so, so keep an eye on their group website for the date if you want to come along and find out more about the subject.

I've hogged the Blog for the past week or so, so it's now time for me to disappear for a while. Here are a couple of shots of the trackwork to be going on with.

Sector Plates

These pics show the cantilevered (I think that is the correct word!) kick-back sector plate arrangements used at each end of the layout. They are obviously of foam-core construction too and are fully removeable for transport purposes. The are fixed and pivoted by a brass screw into a captive top-hat style threaded bearing glued into the baseboard. A removeable brass drive pin locates into the actuating arm underneath through the visible quadrant slot.

Power is transmitted via jack plug leads direct from the main DCC bus. The ends stops are 13mm ali angle with brass screw & nut adjusters. To provide a softer and quieter 'stop' at the end of travel I have used soft silicone rubber cupboard door buffer pads. These are obtainable from DIY stores in self-adhesive sheets.

These sector plates are long enough for two coaches and a 4-6-0 tender loco, the longest train the layout will see. The direct drive from the Tortoise works okay but is probably at the limit of its strength. If I were to do it again I would probably use a mechanism that gives more mechanical advantage to the Tortoise output, and reduce the friction of the sector plate to baseboard interface. The foam-core board has a smooth shiny surface and takes spray dry silcone lubricant okay, so I have got away with it (just)! Balance is also an issue with the design - any longer and some support for the other end of the plate would be required.

The DCC 2 Wire Myth !

This pic shows rather more of the wiring on Niddbeck Bridge, including both copper tape busses. One of the sideways mounted Tortoises which drive the kick-back sector plates can also be seen. These are mounted on 50x50mm aluminium angle, glued to the baseboard. The spring steel drive wire is replaced in this instance by an extended rectangular section Plastruct strip pivoting off a replacment plasticard and brass bolt sliding fulcrum.

The circuit boards seen sticking through the baseboard sides are the LA152 ExpressNet facia panels, shown prior to hooking-up. I think this shot safely dispels the "only two wires needed' DCC myth! DCC certainly simplifies wiring a lot and reduces the amount of wiring required a bit, but there is still plenty of work needed to wire even a small layout such as this.

The underside of the layout now contains in the region of £350 worth of gadgetry - not cheap, and probably not strictly necessary given the size of the layout, but it's purpose in life is that of a DCC test-bed. It will all get re-used on the big layout in due course, so is not money wasted.

Picture of the Installation..

This pic shows 3 of the SEEP magnets that cover the scenic section of the layout and the LS150 accessory decoder unit that controls them. Also visible is a Tortoise point actuator with 'Hare' decoder card attached. The copper strip is self adhesive tape and forms one (black) pole of the DCC main control bus. The other (red) one is out of sight at the top. The small square copper tape pads are terminals for the track feeds which use fine tinned copper wire droppers. Each length of rail has at least 2 feeds, and each feed is fed directly back to the main bus, not daisy-chained. The pad with the blue wire is a point vee feed and is wired into the Hare decoder where polarity is switched digitally. The Tortoises are screwed to plywood bases which are glued to the foam-core board with PU adhesive.

More Uncouplers & More DCC

Further tests on Saturday showed that the ex H&M solenoid coils provided by Mick work okay via the Lenz LS150 and have plenty of 'grunt'.

Due to the ease of mounting the Gaugemaster/SEEP electro-magnets (nice flat PCB baseplate that can be secured in place using double sided tape on the already fixed in place foam-core mounting pads) I have decided to use these to complete the layout. Thanks to Mick for giving me an alternative to play with though!

2mm Webmaster and Hon. Sec. Nigel Cliffe has been in touch following the last posting and reminded me about Mark Fielder's experiments with rare earth magnets for uncoupling purposes. These he sets up on a lever system that brings the magnet up under the track when required and lowers it down when not. These could be DCC controlled if the levers are motorised using a slow-mo point actuator or relay arm. This is certainly something I will try on the big layout in due course.

For the first time this weekend I have been able to 'drive' Niddbeck Bridge under full DCC control. It's really good to be able to sit a few feet away from the layout and control it all from the handheld throttle. Not having to reach for toggles and push buttons on a panel is really liberating! I will of course need a track mimic diagram with all the points and magnets numbered up for the benefit of guest operators.

Other work done this w/e has centred around installing the'Express Net' which allows handheld throttles to be plugged in at various points around the layout. This is a seperate circuit from the main control bus and requires 4 wires from from the LMAB output terminals to be daisy-chained around the layout from socket to socket. For this I am using Lenz LA152 facia mounting outlets. You can use 5-pin DIN plugs for this but the proper facia panels are easier to mount and have several sockets each. I have put one on the front of the layout and two on the back, at each end. This will allow a 2nd operator to join me at exhibitions when an intensive service might be appreciated by the paying public. Like many layouts 'Niddbeck Bridge' has rather more movements going on behind the scenes than out front, and the kick-back nature of the fiddleyard design will also slow things down a little. DCC makes it much easier to add a 2nd operator and get trains marshalled onto the sector plates, ready to go 'scenic'.

This week's project is to construct a ply and aluminium angle floor standing rack unit on which will be mounted the two Lenz transformer power packs and the LZV100 Command Station.

At present I am awaiting a completion date for a house move and most of my workshop and modelling gear is now packed away. Other than these wiring tasks there is not a lot more I can do until I move and get re-established in our new abode. I should be able to add the curved foam-core backscene, as this is a simple Stanley knife, straight edge and glue job but the next modelling task of airbrushing the track and ballasting will have to wait.

Uncoupling Electro-Magnets Under DCC Control

Hi All. Mick has invited me to join the Blog so here I am!

As most of you will know I have been building a large 2mil exhibition Layout 'Pool in Wharfedale' for quite some years now. During 2004/5 it became obvious to me that the DCC revolution was reaching critical mass within the hobby and more importantly that the decoders were becoming small and advanced enough to have useful 2mmFS applications. I reaserched the DCC market during the summer of 2005 and in September that year purchased a Lenz 100 system. I then spent 4 months converting my 2mm loco fleet of 7 engines to DCC using Lenz Gold Mini decoders. Thoughts then turned to the wiring on the layout. A start had already been made based on traditional DC control but it soon became obvious that to get the maximum benefit from DCC it would need wiring differently.

I pondered the problem for a few weeks and during the East Midlands Show last March, where I was assisting Tony Simms on 'Masham' I determined that I would take a break from ''Pool' and construct a small DCC test-bed layout, so I could have a good play with DCC, hopefully learn a few lessons and avoid making errors on the big layout. The lightness of Tony's layout, having a single section Foam-Core baseboard, had always impressed me, plus it's speed and ease of set-up/break-down, so I copied him. The result has been 'Niddbeck Bridge' which most of you will have seen at the Group meeting on DCC last year and at the Shildon AGM. It's a small NER through station inspired by stations the Pateley Bridge branch, with fiddle yard to the rear, accessed by kick-back sector plates at each end.

The past month or so has seen the completion of the track, the installation of track feeds and connection to the DCC 'bus', installation of Tortoise and Hare point actuators and the installation of electro-magnetic uncouplers. The E-M's were to bring the first real problem of the project so far! 'Niddbeck Bridge' has no control panel as I want to try total DCC control of points, sector plates and uncouplers from the DCC throttle keypad.

I have a collection of PK/DG uncoupler E-M's left over from a previous layout and 6 of these were installed around the layout. I then ordered a Lenz LS150 6-way accessory decoder, a device designed to fire-off upto 6 double coil E-M devices such as point solenoids on around 16vAC. It provides a peak current of 3A for one second and 1A thereafter. The first PK/DG E-M connected up promptly tripped the overload protection circuit of the LS150 - not encouraging! I then tried all 9 of my PK/DG's and only one of them would work without tripping out. I should add that the LS150 allows current to flow whilst the button on the throttle is depressed and then has an turn-off delay of between 0.1 and 10 seconds, set by CV programming. It is therefore suitable for uncoupling purposes where power might need to be applied for 5 or 10 seconds or so.

Inspection showed that the one that worked had coil windings with wire around 0.3mm dia and the others had windings of about 0.4mm dia. A chat with Andrew Hartshorne at MSE (new owners of the DG range) confirmed that Nick Dearnaley has altered the spec to thicker wire when he took over from Phil Kerr, and that he was continuing with the same spec. I was either going to have to rewind my PK/DG's or find an alternative product! I had a PECO uncoupler E-M in my collection, so this was tried. Whilst it worked without tripping-out the LS150, I found that it's magnetic field was weak, and would only attract the coupler dropper wire if just proud of the sleeper tops, not a compromise I was prepared to accept, as PK/DG can be buried beneath the ballast, at sleeper bottom height and still work well.

At the BRM Harrogate Show last weekend I sniffed out a Gaugemaster/SEEP uncoupler E-M and purchased one. At the same time a conversation with Mick brought about a suggestion that I try some E-M coils stripped out of old H&M point solenoids, and he has since sent me some to try. The SEEP uncoupler works okay on DCC and seems to have plenty of 'oomph'. I now need to cut some nails as cores to suit Mick's coils and try these out. Hopefully I will then have the solution - watch this space ! The SEEP uncoupler has benefit of having the same footprint at the PK/DG and will suit the already installed mounting pads, saving time.

If anyone wants to buy some 2nd hand PK/DG's then give me a shout!