I have harped on before about the late P.D. Hancock and his Craig & Mertonford layouts. To me he is one of the greats of this hobby - as a kid I'd be following each episode in Railway Modeller - much as some people watch soapies on TV these days!!

Anyway one very simple little trick he did on the 1967 version of his layout - he cut small nicks in the track just outside a tunnel portal which he said made a clackety-clack sound as a train came speeding out of the tunnel which he described as being "most satisfying."

Quote from: Bealman on February 03, 2014, 10:26:37 PM
I have harped on before about the late P.D. Hancock and his Craig & Mertonford layouts. To me he is one of the greats of this hobby - as a kid I'd be following each episode in Railway Modeller - much as some people watch soapies on TV these days!!

Anyway one very simple little trick he did on the 1967 version of his layout - he cut small nicks in the track just outside a tunnel portal which he said made a clackety-clack sound as a train came speeding out of the tunnel which he described as being "most satisfying."

That's a great little tip, and well worth the effort. I suppose you'd have to be very careful to produce a very small nick in N, though. Was C&M an 00 Gauge layout?

The C & M was a multi-gauge layout. He envisaged a fictional part of Scotland - Craigshire with the towns of Craig and Mertonford being connected by a narrow gauge railway, with the large town of Craig also having standard gauge connections with the North British Railway and the Caledonian.

He was a true pioneer - the standard gauge was 00, and the narrow gauge... well, when he began there was nothing available so it was hand built. Interestingly, at the time he was unsure of whether to build it as 9.5mm or 9mm gauge. He chose 9mm - which of course we all know now as 009 and N!!!!

At one point he also had trams running, also on hand built track, and even had a half a mm to the foot scale garden railway running around in front of a house! (It was a clockwork toy he got from Woolworths).

If you want to learn more of this great layout, he wrote a lavishly illustrated book about it in 1975 called "Narrow Gauge Adventure", published by Peco. There is a review I wrote in the 'Book Reviews' section of the forum. I have a feeling that it may be out of print these days, but probably available somewhere.

The little cuts he made for the clickedy-clack sound were in the 00 gauge track, incidentally. 

George

This is drifting off topic as the nicks can be made whether you are DCC or DC.
I made those nicks with a razor saw on my last layout and the sound was most satisfying. However, when I posted that on the forum in my early days I was soundly berated for giving track dirt the ideal home

Quote from: Bealman on February 03, 2014, 11:42:06 PM
If you want to learn more of this great layout, he wrote a lavishly illustrated book about it in 1975 called "Narrow Gauge Adventure", published by Peco. There is a review I wrote in the 'Book Reviews' section of the forum. I have a feeling that it may be out of print these days, but probably available somewhere.

The little cuts he made for the clickedy-clack sound were in the 00 gauge track, incidentally. 

George

The book's available second-hand, but eBay have it at £49 and £100. It's cheaper on Amazon. The best price seems to be around £15, so it's available for anyone who really wants a copy.

Would the cuts work on N Gauge, or would they be like hitting Grand Canyons?

Quote from: Pete33 on February 04, 2014, 10:01:44 AM

Quote from: Bealman on February 03, 2014, 11:42:06 PM
Would the cuts work on N Gauge, or would they be like hitting Grand Canyons?

I would've thought they would be ok with a fine Dremel wheel?  After all, the insulated rail joiners have a small gap do they not?

If you have an old piece of track lying about, give it a try!

Andy

I generally use the Digitrax decoders for cheap stuff. They are often cheaper than the Bachmann one, and they work better. They also have a 'goof proof' warranty which has its uses for the higher priced chips (for the £12.50 ones its almost cheaper not to bother sending it back to Digitrax if you blow it up in a non 'sale of goods' covered way)

Looking forward to touch screen monitors becoming way cheaper so I can have my JMRI signalling panel working in touchscreen mode and hang it on the wall  like a proper box 

Alan

Quote from: ngauger on February 04, 2014, 10:10:49 AM
If you have an old piece of track lying about, give it a try!

Andy

I don't have any old track, let alone a Dremel. Hopefully someone else can test it and let us know if it works.

I would have thought a couple of quick passes with the edge of a thin file would create enough of a nick in the rail to produce the 'clickety-clack' sound...

Quote from: EtchedPixels on February 04, 2014, 01:12:50 PM
Looking forward to touch screen monitors becoming way cheaper so I can have my JMRI signalling panel working in touchscreen mode and hang it on the wall  like a proper box 
Alan

A man after my own heart!

Quote from: Pete33 on February 04, 2014, 01:30:11 PM

Quote from: ngauger on February 04, 2014, 10:10:49 AM
If you have an old piece of track lying about, give it a try!

Andy

I don't have any old track, let alone a Dremel. Hopefully someone else can test it and let us know if it works.

Please see reply #123

 

Guys were going away from the debate. It's starting to happen in a lot of threads.

I'm not trying to spoil anything or be picky, but it's frustrating reading through bits that have little relevance to the original topic.

Guilty as charged, m'lud

Yep, me too   

But seeing as I'm the one that steered it that way, I'll get the last word in - yep, a nick with a file should do the trick 

Back to dc!!

Well i am pleased i went back to dc got the show layout to get ready for 23rd February when it is on show at Hubberts  Bridge nr Boston,a quick track clean and all tracks working fine never had that with dcc so my decision for me is right
kevin141