Preparing a Loco for the Layout 

+John Bennett Thanks John. I was very much a steam man at one point but moved to diesel as learnt more about them. Still have a soft spot for steam though.

John Morrow I would love to see that as well, as when I broke my late grandfather's special painted orange 9F he took it part, and only got as far to remove the decoder, and I would love to see how to rewire the decoder. well, help my father haha!

+2TATrains Thanks

+Mark Arnold It doesn't have traction tyres. No need for them with all the axles being driven. Only the very early releases of the model back in 2004/2005 had them fitted.

+Graham Foulston Thanks Graham. The missing accessories was certainly a first for me. Knew that pot of spares would come in handy one day :)

Piko is not ex east Germany company it is still here since 70 years

+Caversham Central Those louvres are a bugger! A pain to repaint and refit too.

+DaveClass47 Very glad I've got it. Hornby have made a nice job of it. Saves me repainting an older model too!

+ReddwarfIV Unfortunately for you almost all my stock has nem pockets. I don't really have any experience of fitting them to older stock.

EverardJunction If you ever do fit anything to old stock, tell me if you find a better way than using a soldering iron to melt the plastic in a way that lets you shove a Kadee coupler into it. Or melt the plastic in such a way as to allow you to attach a coupler-box to it. I'd rather not do it that way, but I haven't found an alternative.

+ReddwarfIV what Kadees are you using? I have had success gluing #5 s to the underside of some wagons. Some I have been able to just screw in. there isn't a standard for items without NEM pockets you have to just treat each piece of stock as a one off and rig the kadee tomfit. Generally though a #5 will work.

Scott Malcolm 5s and 20s. Bear in mind that for much of my rolling stock, I have to remove a huge tension lock coupler. Also bear ind mind, I'm mostly referring to carriages and locomotives - fitting the coupler to the underside would be useless - it needs to be attached to the bogey.

+Bill Conroy I've managed to remember my loco addresses so far, but its starting to become difficult as I now have over 30 to remember.

+Steve Burgess Sure. It's on my list of to do videos. Not sure when I'll get around to it though.

his era is in those days of Network Southeast which was from 1982-1994 Now the Class 66 was built in 1998 So it would not fit in with the layout

+Kirby Park West Nothing wrong with the 8 pin bachmann decoder. It's the 21 pin I avoid using. I've haven't bought one for a while now an have stuck with lenz on 21 pin locos.

+EverardJunction Ok thanks for that. One of my class 150's makes an annoying buzzing noise and I think that has a 21 pin Bachmann in, will change it to a Lenz.

+EverardJunction Bachmann went back to making the older 21 pin decoder they still make the other one too though.

+Gary Lester I'm not convinced by sound yet. To me it just sounds too tinny.

+David Curtis I got them from a shop called international models. However I believe they have closed down now. I've not been able to find them anywhere else.

+Jack Brown I'll be putting in a new fence to replace the old one I used to have over there.

+Weekend Engineering Most new hornby diesels made since 2003 have had the coupler on the chassis. Its supposed to look a bit more realistic but can cause derailments when reversing.

Its running in the motor and any gearing. The same thing you do when you buy a new car.

ooh ok fair enough thanks ;3

IMO, that comes down to which controller you like best. I use the NCE system because I like the modern look of the controllers (most of the other brands look like 1970s TV remotes). But you won't go wrong choosing Digitrax or Lenz or MRC. Now, some fanboys are gonna flame me for listing MRC for example, or for not listing their favorite system. Others don't like the NCE controllers because of the thumbwheel speed control, while Digitrax has an actual knob speed control. Decoders are interchangeable, so you're not locked into choosing one brand of decoders to match your system. You can even use an N scale decoder in an HO scale loco if space is tight. But controllers are not interchangeable; if you buy a NCE system, for example, you can only buy NCE controllers.

+Scotsman60103 Think they were bachmann snowploughs. Usually come with class 37s.

Ok, thanks.

+Bruce Henderson I try to remember to remove them after the ballast is dry. Nothing wrong with leaving them in though.

+darryn williams Hornby is a difficult one as they tend to make very detailed stuff most of the time but there is still some really basic stuff in the range. Best to check the features of the loco on the hornby website before you buy.

+Chadwick TMD I don't usually. My bachamnn locos come with drivers but the hornby locos don't. The cab interiors are very difficult to remove without causing damage to them so I usually avoid it.

Nutter 31806 yes you can remove the dummy coupling

+Luke Knights You can use that no problem.

+EverardJunction thank you

+Ralph Lees Thanks Ralph. I don't have a DC layout to run in locos so I have no option but to go straight for DCC. In 5 years of doing so i've had no problems. Running a DC loco on a DCC layout is not good for the motor so I always fit the decoder first.

Should be the deluxe materials pin flow applicator.

makes everything better

A decoder gives each loco a unique address. That way you can have one controller driving loco #1, and another controller driving loco #2, and so on and so on. You don't have to worry about selecting power blocks as your whole railroad is one big block with each loco being controlled by its own controller.

Chris Atha a decoder is a sort of tiny computer chip that fits into a Loco to allow it to be controlled individually with its own address without having to fit isolating switch blocks

@@HungryGuyStories what's a railroad

+kino4860 Depends what sort of layout you have. Most locos made by Bachmann, Hornby, Heljan and Dapol in the last 12 years are good.

small 4 x 8 ft (1.2 x 2.4 meters) watching your videos has taught me so much thank you

Just visit a model railway shop your Excellency.

+Lennon6412 I use rocket card glue or rocket max superglue.

+DERPDERP No I don't. I buy all my locos from various model shops. Quite a few come from hattons.