WEST ORTON

[Steve M]

Sheeps.

2023-03-15_09-37-13 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

[Steve M]

At the weekend I picked up a Bachmann 3MT while at K&WVR, yesterday I had a couple of Hornby’s new HM7000 decoders turn up in the post. Notwithstanding that the app has yet to be released into the wild, I decided to try and fit it to the 3MT.
This is what you get in the kit.
A decoder, sugarcube speaker and a multitude of different enclosures to suit different locations in locos. I also have the Hornby ‘power bank’ ie stay alive capacitor pack to fit.

20230316_095857 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

I deliberately chose a smallish tank loco as a first try as these are usually the ones that are difficult to fit speakers and stay alive due to space constraints. Initially it looked as though I could fit the decoder above the motor with the speaker in the smoke box and the stayalive in the cab - the decoder needs about 3mm more space than is available so I went to plan B.
Decoder in the smokebox, stayalive in the cab and the speaker in the coal space. I had to drill a small hole in the backplate of the boiler to feed the wires through but other than that there were no modifications needed.

20230316_105243 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

20230316_105817 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

After reassembly plus adding buffer detail, crew, coal and lamps, it’s ready to be tested.

20230316_124058 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

As the control app is not yet available, I was interested to see how the decoder performed as an ‘old style’ decoder. It comes pre-loaded with a generic steam profile (other sound files will be available free with the app in time). Initially it was teased without the stayalive and as expected it stalled on points but by connecting the capacitors (plug in) makes an enormous difference.

https://youtu.be/7yWwP2hvhs8

[bulleidboy]

A great looking loco and well done for getting everything fitted - pity that minor surgery was required, but I think that will be the case on a lot of smaller loco's.

[Steve M]

Having missed a few years at the Ally Pally show due to the pandemic and being infectious myself last year, I as pleased to get there today. Even though they have now introduced a car parking fee.

Shows like this are usually a good place to pick up a few small detail pieces although it was noticeable that many of the usual small suppliers were not there this year. Having said that, I found myself looking at a few things and thinking “I can make that” - in particular I passed on a Skaledale derelict barn when I remembered that I have a 3D file on the PC that I can print.

One good bit of news from ModelU - they confirmed that they will be making their 3D files available for home printing, possibly later this year.

I did pick up ‘Hardwicke’ from the Locomotion stand - I justified it as the model I would probably have bought when I tried to visit the museum at Shildon last year on one of its closed days.

2023-03-19_03-38-24 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

[Walkingthedog]

I planned to go there to meet a friend but the RMT etc., put a stop to that.

[cheshire lines]

Nice looking loco.

[bulleidboy]

I agree - nice looking loco. There were some great layouts at Ally Pally - I watched a long Youtube video - one call James Street looked incredible.

[Steve M]

I agree - nice looking loco. There were some great layouts at Ally Pally - I watched a long Youtube video - one call James Street looked incredible.

Yes, I saw that one but it ran very poorly. Derailments and unintended decoupling was rife. Shame real as it looked very good indeed. Almost up to Copenhagen Fields standard.

[Steve M]

Bachmann Precedent now seems to be running well with the new Hornby TXS decoder albeit with the default sound profile for the time being.
This one has also been fitted with the stay alive option but fitting it was a bit of a challenge in such a small tender. I had to remove a bit of the moulded coal load to accommodate it and make a new load to cover it.

Untitled by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

Anyway, here’s a short video.

https://youtu.be/2dnQ7u71Oqo

[Walkingthedog]

Very nice loco Steve. I always tried to dispose of moulded coal. The one thing model railways never get right.