Great work Marty and can you tell me what your gradients are now?

I don't know why - and I'm ashamed to say it - but I've never seen your N.E. layout until now and having just had a glance at the first page I'm really impressed, particularly the track plan which looks very interesting; by the way, what is the width of your baseboard at each end?      (Funnily enough I've been working on mine for weeks and it is similar in concept, ie, L shaped, but not as large). 

Tomorrow, when I have a bit more time, I'm going to go through your whole posting on this and I'm looking forward to it very much.

Ken.

Amazing progress, Marty!  Sorry I haven't been following the thread with each step :oops:

Marty I'm glad you've found some time to push on with the layout. I'm itching for you to get to the scenics [yeah, I know - join the club :lol:] because you're going to have a beautiful thing there.

Mike

I said I'd read right through your thread Marty and have just done so; it took 55 minutes(!) but was well worth the time spent as I've gleaned such a lot of info from your trials and tribulations plus the various "how to's - and how not to's! - are very valuable to beginners in "N" like me.

I think your whole project is tremendous and I hope you'll find the time to make real progress on it - I guess your other two sidelines (the Halt and Water experiments) are responsible to some degree?;-)

Ken.

:doublethumbNow that is really cool stuff, mate! Brill! Looking forward to seeing the next development. :cheers

Henllan Station wiring

Work progressing steadily on wiring up the Henllan Station and approaches properly.

In a desperate effort to get trains running I originally wired all the tracks directly into the power bus to my one controller.
This meant that I could run a train but just one train at a time.
All the points have point motors below them but as yet weren't powered up and all switching is being done by hand.

As well as running a train it has allowed me to work on track alignment, joins and general testing of the layout and now that I've minimised the hill climbs time has come to move on.

The plan is to have Henllan Station operated by two controllers in DC Cab Control mode and wiring the Henllan control panel has started to achieve this.
The picture shows wiring for one cab complete. The red/red-white wire was a freebie and is a bit chunky, it might still be replaced it it causes problems opening and closing the control panel.




The front panel has been updated after kind and helpful comments from members of the forum in the past (I do remember guys, just takes a while to get there).
This version will have further work done to it and at this stage is just held loosely in place to prompt thoughts and development ideas.





The Henllan Station board is back on the layout again for some testing.
At this stage I can still only run one train at a time but I can park up to 3 others on the board and isolate them.
The GWR Diesel Railcar is parked in the goods loop while the Autocoach trundles by on the down road. You'll have to take my word for it as it's a still photo. Videos one day.





I cleared out my local hobby shop yesterday of the Peco on/off switches which are going to be used to set up isolated sections within the yard for further control of loco movements.
Going to have to scratchbuild the mounting frame for the PL22/26 levers as a couple more isolation sections have been added to the plan and the PECO mounts now wont hold all the switches that I need in the space allocated.
Hopefully get onto that this weekend.

Comments and suggests welcome as always.

Marty, I had scratchbuilt lever frames for the Peco switches in 9, 6 & 3 units.

this is the 3 unit - made from 3mm MDF  & PVAd together

Thanks mate.

That's what I'm looking at.
What are the little black strips you have screwed into the lever frame box? More mdf?

Peco PL28  Mounting Plate - can be used in the box style like I have built or in the actual panel on track diagram.



courtesy of KMRC - 6 per pack

That's an impressive control panel Marty, a very neat job.

Cheers.

Might try and make one without them.

[user=363]Janner[/user] wrote:

That's an impressive control panel Marty, a very neat job.

Hmmm, wait until the wiring is finished John :shock: 

Spaghetti junction if I know me.

It's a very neat panel, Marty.  The red/white should be OK by the look of it - you're not going to be opening and closing it very much, are you?

[user=19]Marty[/user] wrote:

Cheers.

Might try and make one without them.

Marty, if you are using the Peco switches, on a home made frame, then you need thin material on the top  of about 1/16th (1.5MM) so the Peco switch will click into it.

 

[user=269]MaxSouthOz[/user] wrote:

It's a very neat panel, Marty.  The red/white should be OK by the look of it - you're not going to be opening and closing it very much, are you?

Once it's all done, hopefully, No, it should stay closed.

[user=95]Sol[/user] wrote:

[user=19]Marty[/user] wrote:

Cheers.

Might try and make one without them.

Marty, if you are using the Peco switches, on a home made frame, then you need thin material on the top  of about 1/16th (1.5MM) so the Peco switch will click into it.

OK, thanks for the heads up.
Going to take some precision cutting I'd imagine to get them all in line and square. Can be done, just got to take my time.

[user=34]Ken[/user] wrote:

Great work Marty and can you tell me what your gradients are now?

Sorry Ken, I missed this.

Glad you had the chance to read through the development of the NE layout, warts and all. Hope it helps you with your efforts.

Looking forward to seeing a topic opened on you plans. Did you ever finish the quarry?

I don't now know what the gradients are exactly, I'll work it out and let you know. The tip I can tell you now, if you want to run the light dapol engines, is to forget gradients altogether… and if you must have them make them as shallow as you possibly can.

The heavy Farish loco's and the newer Bachman diesel railcar could manage the 1:40 or 1:35 that I used to have without too much trouble. I couldn't run 14 coaches but I could run 6 or 7.

I'm forging ahead with the layout now, work on the diorama and the Three rivers has made me a lot more confident in my abilities and it's full steam ahead… well, as much steam as life and Tracy will let me have anyway.

cheers

[user=5]rector[/user] wrote:

Amazing progress, Marty! Sorry I haven't been following the thread with each step :oops:

No problems Tim, as long as you are infotained when you do pay a visit. ;-)

I'm champing at the bit to get into the scenery but know that there is no point until the track work is installed and working trouble free.

Onwards and upwards.

[user=19]Marty[/user] wrote:

[user=34]Ken[/user] wrote:

Great work Marty and can you tell me what your gradients are now?

Sorry Ken, I missed this.

Glad you had the chance to read through the development of the NE layout, warts and all. Hope it helps you with your efforts.

Looking forward to seeing a topic opened on you plans. Did you ever finish the quarry?
……………………………………….

Thanks Marty and as I have a couple of Dapol locos I'll bear that in mind.

I had to put a temporary stop on my modelling as it was getting difficult with my broken wrist (which I did 10 months ago!) which I then made worse by lifting 5 x 40litre bags of bark chippings into and then out of a supermarket trolley - and you know how deep they are - then into my car boot and I think I must have opened up the broken bones a bit because it's been quite painful, although diminishing, ever since.   However, I am able to use it now for most things (although I've been concentrating on my Vibes playing as I have my first gig next Saturday - I'm probably bonkers as that really requires the ultimate in wrist movement but I think I'll be ok as I've been practising a lot) and I'll be getting back into finishing the Quarry very shortly.   In the meantime I've been trying to devise a track plan for the layout and I'll be posting this shortly as I require expert help with the wiring etc.

Incidentally that control panel of yours is marvellous!

Ken.