Wykeham - Somewhere in the south!

[Walkingthedog]

Same here Barry, I feel for you having to go through such a worrying time.

[bulleidboy]

Latest addition to the collection - c/o The Model Centre sale. It is a Class 419 Motor Luggage Van (weathered).

IMG_1680 by Barry Clayton, on Flickr

[glencairn]

A lovely looking item, Barry. Fitting in seamlessly on your layout.

Glencairn

[Walkingthedog]

Perfect for your layout.

[bulleidboy]

De-construction of the window-end of the layout has commenced. Control board removed, all wiring labelled for reconnection, the hill/tunnel came away easily, as it should have done. Next job is to cut the bus cable, and remove the board across the window - this runs from just about level with the cupboard door down on the left across to the right hand wall. The new window(s) will not arrive until end of April, so in the meantime I am replacing the Peco solenoid point motors with DCC Concepts Digital Cobalt iP's and am planning a new control desk - watch this space

IMG_1683 by Barry Clayton, on Flickr

[Walkingthedog]

Don’t get carried away Barry. You could end up changing the whole layout.

[bulleidboy]

That definitely will not happen Brian. I will replace the track from the board removed, and take new track back to the first joint on the remaining boards each side - I estimate that four or five lengths of Code 75 should do it. The hill/tunnel came away with no damage at all, so will go straight back once the board and track are replaced.

[Walkingthedog]

Not quite sure what changes you could make.

[bulleidboy]

Stage 2 - Board under the window now removed. Re-placement window surveyor is due on Friday, so he can measure without any problems, then it is about eight to ten weeks before the windows arrive. So plenty of time to remove the old ballast, and sort out the control desk and add the new point motors. I am thinking about installing a second bus cable that will just be for point operation, and changing the point operation to push button with LED indicators on the mimic panel. So plenty of time to think all of this through.
I have jury-rigged my Hornby Elite to the DCC bus cable, so I can move/test loco's, but the layout has now shrunk from twenty seven feet in length to eight

IMG_1684 by Barry Clayton, on Flickr

[bulleidboy]

My Hornby Bluetooth Legacy Dongle arrived this morning. I followed the set-up instructions to the letter,and I am pleased to say that it worked first time - no problems whatsoever. As my Hornby Elite is fairly old (2009 purchase), it has two Xpressnet ports on the back (later models only have one), so I could plug two Dongles into the Elite. Once set-up I added my Class 205 Thumper unit which has sound, and it all worked. The Legacy Dongle enables you to operate a normal decoder chipped loco - sound or non-sound from your mobile phone or Ipad which has had the Hornby HM7000 App loaded onto it. You can also add many loco's to the Dongle. The App allows you to take a photograph of your loco, so it is very easy to identify what loco's you have on the App - you just pick one and away you go. A great piece of kit for £39.99.