Class 47 Vulcan Virgin Diesel

Manufacturer		Heljan
Productcode		4600-LN-01
Class		Class 47 Co-Co Diesel
Number		47843
Livery		Virgin
Era		V (1995 - present)
DCC		Shop Converted from DCC Ready
Locomotive ID		009
Weathered		No
Link		wikipedia

90 Tonne Bogie Hopper Wagon JGA

Manufacturer		Bachmann Branch-Line
Productcode		37-328
Livery		Tarmac
Weathered		No
Link		.

90 Tonne Bogie Hopper Wagon JGA

Manufacturer		Bachmann Branch-Line
Productcode		37-326B
Livery		RMC
Weathered		No
Link		.

90 Tonne Bogie Hopper Wagon JGA

Manufacturer		Bachmann Branch-Line
Productcode		37-325B
Livery		Tilcon
Weathered		No
Link		.

90 Tonne Bogie Hopper Wagon JGA

Manufacturer		Bachmann Branch-Line
Productcode		37-327A
Livery		Buxton Lime
Weathered		No
Link		.

A New Level

The building of the first level (and possibly the start of the helix but plans change during construction) has commenced.

Thinking of various ways of doing this, I decided on a framework from wood. Later on these frames will be painted to a glossy black finish. It also leaves room to extend it into a helix or do some other fancy stuff with the layout.

For now, here is the result...(i know, it is time to take the xmas decorations down)

checking the height

and again, checking the height

testing the ramp

see if it fits

completed the first circle

just looked pretty

scaring the driver

plenty of space for extra track

sometimes simple things work best

ramp testing

some more measuring

that's more like it

wtf?!?

my trusty old diesels and a dodgy piece of scenery

now just find these things in black...

CV29 - Gateway to solutions

I know you might think CV29...what? But bear with me and you will find that this little thingie can ease your life.

First of all, what is it?
When using digital locomotives, you need to have a locomotive fitted with a decoder. Most of the locomotives currently sold are DCC ready, meaning there is a slot to fit a decoder. A decoder is not that expensive and easy to install. Or take the sting out of this operation and buy DCC Fitted locomotives. Either way, once the decoder is fitted and you are sure you have done it right, the train might still go backwards....it does, happened to me twice. This is where i found out about the existence of CV29. It is a setting of the decoder that can handle multiple things, but the most important 2 settings are default direction and DC Operation.

Setting CV29
Setting these is fairly simple but the number to set is a bit of nerdy algorithm stuff. But basically, the number should be in the digital format of 1111. I realize most people do not know what this means but every position is a switch. so 0001 means only the first (reading from the right) is switched on. 1101 means the first, third and fourth are switched on. But because we humans find this difficult to grasp, we decided that the numeric system is easier. So position one is given the number 1, position 2 is 2, position 3 is 4 (gotcha, you thought it would be 3) and position 4 is 8. Add these up and we have a numeric presentation.
In our examples, 0001 is 1 and 1101 is 1+4+8 = 13.

More Info
Anyway, if you want to know what is going on, check this link: (click me)

But how does this help me?
Well, remember the train going backwards...just set this value to 1 and it goes forward when it needs to.
Want to use your digital train on an analog layout? set this value to 4.
Want to do both? set the value to 5.

It helped me quite a bit and using the Hornby eLink and a seperate programming track made short work of my problems...

Last remark
When a decoder is not fitted, never, ever place the train on a digital layout. You WILL burn the motor!
Placing a Digital Only locomotive on an analog track is not harmfull. It just does not work. No damage is done.