Madman
Registered
You got away with that and lived to tell about it ?.....
Woodlock Logging
- Thread starter duncan1_9_8_4
- Start date
duncan1_9_8_4
Jack of all trades on the Railway
duncan1_9_8_4
Jack of all trades on the Railway
Horrible job today. Always thought I could manage with 2 sets of hand points, but I finally took the plunge and bought a Switch Decoder and 2 motors. All points are now finally wired. The hardest part was hiding the wires, I hate visible messy wires. One of the points is on the turning circle and very inaccessible for a 17st chubby like me. The turning circle can now be used both directions. 
duncan1_9_8_4
Jack of all trades on the Railway
Just trying to think about Bluetooth, fine if you use dcc and can use the track to power the point motors.
Ralphmp
Registered
If you use DCC and don’t have many points or you have points that are a distance away from each other then single channel decoders can be a good option. Two short wires to point motor, two short wires to get power from track; no lengthy runs of wires.
Wire is so much easier to hide if it is Black. Run you lines in plastic as they are then the last bit of tricky to hide join to black wire, soldered, cleaned of flux and black heat shrink them.
duncan1_9_8_4
Jack of all trades on the Railway
I did consider one of those, but then saw the price compared to a 4 channel one....
Ralphmp
Registered
Yep, good point (not intentional, sorry!). With the two points in your pic I’d also have gone for a 4 channel decoder.
I know you’ve laid your cables now, but maybe a thought for the future - I used brown sheathing of the type electricians slip onto mains wiring to show a live cable to cover the wires to my point motors where they are exposed. Apart from hiding the brightly coloured wires to/from the motor (I need this to help me remember which wire goes where, so using all black wires wouldn’t work for me), in my mind it resembles the thick cables one often sees alongside the track/point work on a real railway.
I agree that using black wires can give you issues with remembering things, I laid out a friends line and had the same issue. To overcome it I cut short lengths of colored striped mains insulation (2-3mm) threaded it on the black wire in various recorded combinations with some black heat shrink pre put on before my ‘reminders’ to cover them when all working.
Yes, well, SOME may believe you!
Chris Vernell
Tortoise
Nope
duncan1_9_8_4
Jack of all trades on the Railway
Orederd some dolls house topiary plants last week and here they are. Every station on my network has some now, just for that corporate image..... 
Hope that there is not a Corporate Director demanding a 7 figure salary to keep that image.
JimmyB
Now retired - trains and fishing
I have used some my self, always TRY to get 1:24, but it seems 1:12 are prevalent, and some seem overly large
duncan1_9_8_4
Jack of all trades on the Railway
I did think that, I suppose its a good job plants and pots come in all sorts of different sizes. These are those massive ones you see in a shopping centreI have used some my self, always TRY to get 1:24, but it seems 1:12 are prevalent, and some seem overly large
You'd be surprised who big a tree would be if scaled down to 1:24I did think that, I suppose its a good job plants and pots come in all sorts of different sizes. These are those massive ones you see in a shopping centre
duncan1_9_8_4
Jack of all trades on the Railway
On test after a wire came loose from the front bogie.
duncan1_9_8_4
Jack of all trades on the Railway
And the wire came off again. Hate this locomotive.
Was it the small plug into the pin? If so a gentle press with pliers may help. If not that possibly extending the wires to the bogies may help.