Model Railway Forum

Stay alive's are one thing I envy DDC users for. All these nice little touches make me wish I had gone for DDC instead of DC in first place.. The trouble was I had so many locos in my collection could not face the expense of putting decodes in them all.

You can use stay alive on DC.

https://www.hobbytrax.co.uk/products/dc ... stay-alive

Thank you very much for that info Brian.
I thought you could only have stay alive with DCC . Going to get one of those to try out and see how they work. And they are cheap as well. Good evens, Don't get much cheap these days. Going to try one on one of my sticky 0-6-0s Hoping it will fit in the smoke box.

Did you see the dimensions Sandy?

In addition, two sizes of capacitor are available. The small unit is 10mm wide by 16mm long and a large size which is 13mm wide by 20mm long.

Did you see the dimensions Sandy?

In addition, two sizes of capacitor are available. The small unit is 10mm wide by 16mm long and a large size which is 13mm wide by 20mm long.

Sorry Steve, that’s West Orton hijacked. R-

Roger, no problem at all - it’s all useful and Informative.
I’m curious how they can be used in DC though. The stay alives I use in DCC provide enough power to retain control of the decoder and power the motor for about 10 seconds - yes, I can drive it across the workbench without any track.
But as the DC motor speed is determined by the controller voltage any break in contact with the rails will cause the capacitor to kick in. Presumably it delivers just enough to kick it over a point frog rather than cause a runaway?

I used a capacitor over 20 years ago on a badly behaved loco. Can’t recall if it worked.

Steve I spoke to Hobby Trax say that the DC capacitor will give you 46% further travel. Take it that means from the point the loco loses power. So not as good as the DCC one is it. But better than nothing. Im going to buy some to try.

Getting back on topic.....
After the recent lost carriages in the tunnel debacle, I installed new backscene boards at the ‘moors end’ of the layout. The originals had the hidden branchline running behind the boards (that’s how you lose whole trains ) but these now have the tracks in front of the boards.
The two existing hillsides in the corners still hide the route but I’m Inclined to leave the Centre section open but still need to hide the branchline. I’m heading towards two new tunnel mouths and a much thicker treeline but time will tell.

FD8B59BA-CF44-4821-B0D9-52C431F93F0E by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

That looks a lot better, and with some added "greenery", you should be able to lose the branchline - it's a nice picture too.