From my memory, the lights going out and flashing on the underground is quite accurate!!! LOL Well done on another great video and on cleaning up, which I hate doing. Keep up the good work. Keep well and stay safe, Joe
I’m investigating ‘stay alives’ for some of my trains but it would take away that prototypical flicker on the tube stock wouldn’t it? 😊 Thanks for the encouragement. Right now I’m still not back to work but once I am It will be harder to keep up with as many videos or time in the train room. …I’ll try!
it is amazing there isn't a RTR "3rd rail kit", able to do 4th rail as well. it wouldn't need to be metal given how dirty the real ones end up, a dark grey or near black plastic would work. lengths of rail with staggered ends to glue to each other or ramps (see point rodding kits) with the shoes either pre-moulded on on a sprue set to a suitable height. I also hate tidying up
I have a feeling that this kind of thing is going to get ‘skipped’. We’ll go straight from complaining it doesn’t exist to 3D printing it ourselves. 😊 The styrene strips I got hold of yesterday would almost work too if they were painted but I think starting off ‘ikkie gunk’ (if that’s a colour?) would be best. Thanks for watching. 😊
ADDING THE JUICE - 3RD RAIL 750v DC 3rd Rail ! Peco Code 60 rail being the nearest suitable size (for "OO" layouts). But having built a number of 3rd rail Southern exhibition layouts, I can't recommend those little white "China pots" on sprues. They are NOT strong enough, and have a nasty habit of breaking during track cleaning, or disappearing when hit by trains. They also work out more expensive than my simple but stronger alternative. Which is tiny Brass Track fixing flathead nails (available in the Peco range) each about 9mm long. One nail near the end of every fourth sleeper, and then carefully solder Peco's Code 60 rail to each nail top. Third rail by the way was only 3 inches in real life, higher than the running rails. Which means just 1mm in "OO" scale ! However some study of how 3rd rail is applied around pointwork is needed. To understand how the carbon brush pick up "shoes" of Southern EMU's, could get through complex pointwork. A hanging shoe had to encounter a Third rail via a ramp. In other words the end of each piece of third rail had to be bent downwards slightly, or the "shoe" would bash the end of the rail, and get knocked off. A shoe cannot therefore encounter a third rail sideways. So gaps in the third rail occur not just across level crossing, but also through pointwork areas. Happy Modelling to ALL 3rd rail fans. 😆
Understood totally. I’ve some lovely pictures of the real thing I took last time I was in London. The trouble is that 1. They are definitely NOT white in real life. (They started out that way but the grime there is amazing!) and 2. Just about anything goes! I’ve seen square sections, insulators spaced 2, 4 and uo to 8 sleepers apart, sometimes within the same station - it looks chaotic! The “ramps” up to the rail I HAVE simulated somewhat with a ‘bend’ in the rail but they also ‘splay’ out into a flat section in many cases. Oh, and once you get away from the underground and onto the Southern proper, don’t forget the wooden protection boards either side of the conductor rails. It’s at that point I can see why we are tempted not to bother. 😊 Here in America I can’t easily find the rail profile I need. Most things I can transport or order from England - I fly for a living - but lengths of rail are less easy to transport. Thanks for watching and for your comments.
Interesting - I've thought about trying to add a third (or forth) rail, even though I like Southern Region. Btw, is that the the EFE Rail London Underground 1938 Tube Stock that you are running? You said it runs well. I bought one a couple of years ago, when they brought out another production run of them and I've only just started to run it and it runs VERY slowly, nowhere near the speed that yours is running. Also the lights don't work on one of the middle carriages. Of course it is my fault for not testing it more when I first got it but I'm very disappointed with the model's performance so far, especially given that it was soooo expensive (about £350 for the non DCC version). However I must admit it does look great so I'll persevere with trying to diagnose its issues.
Hello there. The EFE versions were I think brought out by Bachman a few years ago. These came from the London Transport Museum I believe. There are two and they were about the price you are quoting. They run MUCH better on DCC than DC I found. A couple of things that might help. First - they use cordless motors. These are tiny little things that while doing a great job have a couple of characteristics that you may need to know about. When DC is generated for model trains, there are several ways to do it. without getting all technical on you 😜 the two most common methods are either to simply send fewer volts: (briefly) Lets say you are running your layout using 8 one and a half volt D cell batteries. That would give you 12 volts. Now take two of the batteries out and you’d have 9 volts. (6x1.5=9). This would slow down the motors and so the trains they drive. BUT Coreless motors don’t particularly like that. Another common way of “reducing” speed is to turn on the full 12 volts then very quickly turn it off again. Repeat this at an amazing speed and the motor gets to run smoothly but overall run slower. Sometimes poor running and nto getting ‘full speed’ out of these motors is THAT! DCC has enough ‘cleverness’ baked in to work out what the motors need. The light things will almost certainly be the silly connectors they use. The reality is that the units are actually TWO trains (front two and back two cars) tied together in the middle with a piece of plastic. The fault will be between the car not alight and the ‘end’ next to it. I’ve heard horror stories but as you see, mine are fine. Thanks for watching. 😊
From my memory, the lights going out and flashing on the underground is quite accurate!!! LOL
Well done on another great video and on cleaning up, which I hate doing.
Keep up the good work.
Keep well and stay safe,
Joe
I’m investigating ‘stay alives’ for some of my trains but it would take away that prototypical flicker on the tube stock wouldn’t it? 😊
Thanks for the encouragement.
Right now I’m still not back to work but once I am It will be harder to keep up with as many videos or time in the train room. …I’ll try!
Well done that man
Thanks 😊 in a couple of days I figure out the 4th rail too by cheating a bit.
it is amazing there isn't a RTR "3rd rail kit", able to do 4th rail as well. it wouldn't need to be metal given how dirty the real ones end up, a dark grey or near black plastic would work. lengths of rail with staggered ends to glue to each other or ramps (see point rodding kits) with the shoes either pre-moulded on on a sprue set to a suitable height.
I also hate tidying up
I have a feeling that this kind of thing is going to get ‘skipped’. We’ll go straight from complaining it doesn’t exist to 3D printing it ourselves. 😊
The styrene strips I got hold of yesterday would almost work too if they were painted but I think starting off ‘ikkie gunk’ (if that’s a colour?) would be best.
Thanks for watching. 😊
ADDING THE JUICE - 3RD RAIL
750v DC 3rd Rail ! Peco Code 60 rail being the nearest suitable size (for "OO" layouts). But having built a number of 3rd rail Southern exhibition layouts, I can't recommend those little white "China pots" on sprues. They are NOT strong enough, and have a nasty habit of breaking during track cleaning, or disappearing when hit by trains. They also work out more expensive than my simple but stronger alternative. Which is tiny Brass Track fixing flathead nails (available in the Peco range) each about 9mm long. One nail near the end of every fourth sleeper, and then carefully solder Peco's Code 60 rail to each nail top. Third rail by the way was only 3 inches in real life, higher than the running rails. Which means just 1mm in "OO" scale !
However some study of how 3rd rail is applied around pointwork is needed. To understand how the carbon brush pick up "shoes" of Southern EMU's, could get through complex pointwork. A hanging shoe had to encounter a Third rail via a ramp. In other words the end of each piece of third rail had to be bent downwards slightly, or the "shoe" would bash the end of the rail, and get knocked off. A shoe cannot therefore encounter a third rail sideways. So gaps in the third rail occur not just across level crossing, but also through pointwork areas.
Happy Modelling to ALL 3rd rail fans. 😆
Understood totally. I’ve some lovely pictures of the real thing I took last time I was in London. The trouble is that 1. They are definitely NOT white in real life. (They started out that way but the grime there is amazing!) and 2. Just about anything goes! I’ve seen square sections, insulators spaced 2, 4 and uo to 8 sleepers apart, sometimes within the same station - it looks chaotic!
The “ramps” up to the rail I HAVE simulated somewhat with a ‘bend’ in the rail but they also ‘splay’ out into a flat section in many cases.
Oh, and once you get away from the underground and onto the Southern proper, don’t forget the wooden protection boards either side of the conductor rails. It’s at that point I can see why we are tempted not to bother. 😊
Here in America I can’t easily find the rail profile I need. Most things I can transport or order from England - I fly for a living - but lengths of rail are less easy to transport.
Thanks for watching and for your comments.
Interesting - I've thought about trying to add a third (or forth) rail, even though I like Southern Region. Btw, is that the the EFE Rail London Underground 1938 Tube Stock that you are running? You said it runs well. I bought one a couple of years ago, when they brought out another production run of them and I've only just started to run it and it runs VERY slowly, nowhere near the speed that yours is running. Also the lights don't work on one of the middle carriages. Of course it is my fault for not testing it more when I first got it but I'm very disappointed with the model's performance so far, especially given that it was soooo expensive (about £350 for the non DCC version). However I must admit it does look great so I'll persevere with trying to diagnose its issues.
Hello there. The EFE versions were I think brought out by Bachman a few years ago. These came from the London Transport Museum I believe. There are two and they were about the price you are quoting.
They run MUCH better on DCC than DC I found.
A couple of things that might help.
First - they use cordless motors. These are tiny little things that while doing a great job have a couple of characteristics that you may need to know about.
When DC is generated for model trains, there are several ways to do it. without getting all technical on you 😜 the two most common methods are either to simply send fewer volts: (briefly) Lets say you are running your layout using 8 one and a half volt D cell batteries. That would give you 12 volts. Now take two of the batteries out and you’d have 9 volts. (6x1.5=9). This would slow down the motors and so the trains they drive.
BUT
Coreless motors don’t particularly like that.
Another common way of “reducing” speed is to turn on the full 12 volts then very quickly turn it off again. Repeat this at an amazing speed and the motor gets to run smoothly but overall run slower.
Sometimes poor running and nto getting ‘full speed’ out of these motors is THAT!
DCC has enough ‘cleverness’ baked in to work out what the motors need.
The light things will almost certainly be the silly connectors they use.
The reality is that the units are actually TWO trains (front two and back two cars) tied together in the middle with a piece of plastic. The fault will be between the car not alight and the ‘end’ next to it.
I’ve heard horror stories but as you see, mine are fine.
Thanks for watching. 😊