[metroman]

Hi,
Well, I have just purchased some N gauge stuff. As it does not look as if De-agostini will start their model railway again. I have purchased the Peco N gauge starter track pack, a Dapol class 156 Settle/Carlisle dmu. I have also bought the decoders so I can build this as a DCC layout. I will update the progress on the forum. Watch this space!!!
Martin

[SkyFire]

Will look forward to seeing how it progresses, pity they had to cancel the partwork. Wonder if they might start it again next year.

[metroman]

I bet that they will not start the N gauge project again. I tried to telephone de-agostini and I also e-mailed them regarding the Yamato battleship, but as always received no replies, and the phone just rings. As a company, I don`t know how they keep going. I have been doing some N gauge track planning this morning, so I am pretty near to my track design.
Martin

[SkyFire]

Have to agree, it is a wonder how they survive, I was really looking forward to doing that partwork.

Can't wait to see the plan.

[metroman]

I have been out today and bought all the track for my plan. I am building a plan from the peco track plans book. I don`t know how I can show the plan on the forum. I now need to start the baseboard build, but normally I like to do that outside or in the garage, but at the moment we have about 6ins of snow and it is still falling.
Martin

[SkyFire]

An idea is too take a photo of the plan, not totally sure it would come out though.

[metroman]

I do have some software for track planning. I will try to plan it out and try to put it onto the forum as if it were a photo.
Martin

[metroman]

Scan of plan taken from Peco track plans book.
Martin

[SkyFire]

Nice looking track plan.

[metroman]

Just an update on my N gauge project. Yesterday(Saturday) I fitted the decoders to my class 156 dmu and programmed them. Today(Sunday) I have spent most of the afternoon building up the baseboard in my shed. Monday I will clean up the baseboard, and start with the tracklaying, using cork as a track bed.
Martin

[SkyFire]

Sounds like some major progress, what was it like fitting the decoders.

Don't think any of my N scale locos have a socket for decoder, same with most of my Ho fleet and only 1 of the On30 locos dosen't have a decoder socket.

[metroman]

You can get a hard wired harness with a decoder socket on, which is then soldered to the loco supply, and the decoder then fitted to the socket. The hardest thing here is soldering the harness up. I have years of soldering experience, but when I fitted a decoder to one of my HOe narrow gauge loco`s, it was one **** of a job. I will not tackle that again. I suppose that OO/HO should be okay. Today I have been doing some more work to the baseboard. The plan above, I have altered it slightly, by making it just a little larger. The baseboard is actually 45ins x 30ins, which I think is a good size. I cannot really go any bigger, or it would end up in my attic, along with the HO and HOe layouts. Hopefully, I should get the track laid before the new year.
Martin

[SkyFire]

Sounds like it's going very well.

I'll get a decoder fitted to the 0-4-2 On30 loco sometime, (have to wire it in this 1), the others have a socket already.

[metroman]

The hardest part after fitting the decoder is programing the various functions,but its not too bad,just time consuming.
Martin

[metroman]

Baseboard is now finished, so I have started with the track laying and DCC wiring. I want to get as much done today as I can, as I am on late shift at work next week, and I won`t get much done.
Martin