I know it sounds straightforward and I never thought I'd make this mistake, but make sure you double check the gauge you are buying is what you are modelling, I managed to buy N gauge rail joiners. Not costly but time consuming!! (and embarrassing).
Sound chips are expensive, very. In my case more expensive than the loco, £120 (ESU Loksound v5.0) versus £79 (a Dapol Class 121). I mistakingly thought that you could quite easily transfer sound files from a laptop onto a sound chip.... You can't! So in my haste to get sound into my loco I ended up with essentially 120 pounds worth of plastic not worth a jot to anybody. Then in my haste to save my embarrassment I started researching how to get sound files transferred to the chip, you can but it costs around 120 - 160 pounds to get the programmer (a LokProgrammer) and then you still have to buy the files. So don't do that! Instead I am sending it to Howes and they are going to do a "reblow" for me for around 15-20 quid. So all in all quite a costly mistake, certainly in terms of time, as I'm now without half my locos for a week or two.
My local model shop only had 25mm speakers available, the suggested size for the Class 121 was 23mm.... I thought what's a couple of mm..... A lot, I ended up having to cut the casing to fit the speaker in, accuracy it seems in this hobby is important... It's taught me to slow down, I now watch YouTube tutorials for each task I'm going to do, even if I think them to be small... As I am sending the chip back to Howes for reblowing I am also going to get a new speaker from them.
When constructing a cross over (to allow trains to move from one loop to another) you need two points of the same hand, not one of each! i.e. you need two left hand or two right hand points to construct the crossover. This was certainly one of more basic errors, it hasn't cost me anything as I am able to use the points in my yards, just self embarrassment :).
Double double check as you are buying track, some of the supplier websites can be particularly complex to follow, sites mix gauges and types of tracks on the same page. The easiest way around this is go to the suppliers website (for example Hornby or Peco) and get the serial number for the specific piece of track that you are after (also be sure to check out track geometries on my Brand New Starters page, which for Hornby can also be found in their track plans book). For example I bought ST--- prefix track and it turns out I was buying SetTrack points not Streamline (which is SL---) D'Oh!. Also ensure if you are buying Peco that you buy the correct "code" of track, I'm a StreamLine Code 100 man, it is not the most "prototypical" but it looks good, relatively cheap and is compatible with more wheels than some of the newer codes.
| Date | News |
|---|---|
| 23/06/2020 | New Home Page constructed. New design and feel. New pages added, including a "How To" section.... |
| 11/06/2020 | For those of you have suffered my terrible website to date, I have decided to write a new one. Started the new coding today, will probably take me a week or two to get a V2.0 uploaded, until then I can only apologise. |
| 15/05/2020 | I have a new loco!! My fleet has doubled. Got a lovely new ViTrains Class 37 "Caerphilly Castle" |
| 12/05/2020 | Finally worked out how to get my Guestbook up and running: http://www.aberhaltjunction.co.uk/guestbook/gbook.php?a=sign |
| 11/05/2020 | Updated my Layout Construction page |
| 10/05/2020 | Got my first few YouTube subscribers, THANK YOU all!! |
| 10/05/2020 | Uploaded my first "real" YouTube video, introducing my layout. |
| 04/05/2020 | May the forth be with you! Joined MRYCG on Facebook, what a great place, so much inspiration, from basic to expert. |
| 01/05/2020 | Uploaded my first ever YouTube video!!  |
| 01/05/2020 | New version of website uploaded, landing page complete plus "About Me" Section. |
| 30/04/2020 | Work started in earnest on the New (improved hopefully) Website. |
| 30/04/2020 | Hornby affiliate account kindly accepted by Hornby, thanks!  |
| 26/04/2020 | Draft 1 of the website launched. YouTube Channel created, with no videos yet! |
I hope you enjoy your visit around my website, I hope you find it is an improvement on my last incarnation. If you have something which puzzled you for ages and then you managed to fix, please feel free to share it with me, I'm sure you won't be the only person who has the issue. Please feel free to drop me an email, sign my guestbook (very 80's I know) or tweet me with any recommendations that you may have, I'm always learning.
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Read all about it on my home page here.
My Hornby Affiliate Link: 
Contact me with any comments or questions, I'm always keen to learn:
OOGauge; Model Railways; Model Railroad; aberhaltjunction; hornby; hornby select; dapol; class 121; ESU; Loksound V5.0; Hobby; Shed; Class 121; Class 37; Beginners; Trains
