Thanks guys,
The rest of the switches have arrived today and I've restocked my dwindling supply of wire so this weekend I'm gonna be a workin on the railway… at least the point motors anyway.

Great re-cycling job there Marty.The panel really looks the business!!!

Cheers,John.B.:thumbs

Henllan Station board - ALL points are now motorised!!

Another major step forward for the Newcastle Emlyn layout.

Only one slightly soldered finger too!!!

After all the improvisation of the lever mounting frame I've ended up with a gap!





The original plan was to have one lever per set of points but after studying the station signalling plans in Adrian Vaughan's The Heart of the GWR I realised that simple crossovers from one running line to another used just the one lever to throw both points.
In the photo above you can see where I have renumbered the points to reflect this, lever 4 now throws both points 2 & 3 together and lever 5 throws both points 4 & 5 together.
This means that there are less levers than were planned, for the time being a blanking plate will be manufactured to cover the gap.
When working signals are attempted the levers will have somewhere to go.

The original power pack, a 12 V 500mA one, didn't have the muscle to do both Peco PL-26s at once and a frustrating 30 mins was spent tracing wiring to see why one point would throw and the other wouldn't.
Nothing wrong with the wiring…. so some exploration of the spare electrical bits box discovered an 11V 1000mA power pack that would throw both PECO PL26s at once.
Yes, eventually I plan on making up or buying a capacitor discharge supply but that's for Ron (later'on).
The power pack won't, however, throw two SEEP point motors at the same time. The Green Grove Milk Factory sidings have two sets of double points that need setting up the same way but for the time being each motor is on a separate lever. The 4 yellow ones together in the picture…

…and somewhere in the spaghetti junction of wiring a short has occurred and the isolation switch 'A' for the cattle dock no longer isolates. Some wiring tracing required.
Not too bad in this view…




But you can see why fault finding has been put off to another day when I'm feeling patient…





 Comments and suggestions welcome as always.

Marty,

Real signal boxes often had spare levers, the result of changes to track layouts over the years so if you have a couple of spare switches you could put them in as numbers 2 & 3, just not connected to anything.

For tracing faults in wiring a continuity tester is a wonderful tool.

Marty, could you not just buy a couple of extra switches to fill the gap?  Maybe different coloured ones so no one gets confused.

Thanks Ian and Max.

I have spare levers of a different colour and will add them in to the frame.

I do also have a multi-meter and don't really anticipate much trouble in tracing the fault. I suspect that my dodgy soldering of wire too thick for the D25 pin connectors has resulted in a blob of solder bridging two pins. Just a matter of taking a deep breath and diving in. We shall see.

so apart from all that it looks the biz and does the job!
i like it a lot.

:doublethumb:lol::lol::lol::cool:

[user=15]owen69[/user] wrote:

so apart from all that it looks the biz and does the job!
i like it a lot.

:doublethumb:lol::lol::lol::cool:

Indeed it does… and so far, with only a little bit of testing, is proving reliable.

I've also put a wee drop of oil on all of the point motor barrels as per Jeff's suggestion.

 

This has been a lovely read, thanks for posting it all so far.

I trust you have been here-

http://www.newcastleemlyn.info/page16.html

I love the way the way the end of the engine house seems to have been cut out to let the loco chimney inside!


Could be useful?

Doug

All really starting to look smart now Marty

The cdu is a good idea you will get a more positive throw with that.

keep going on the layout as once you start your module production on the layout may stop

cheers brian

Impressive Marty

And all everybody ever says is " oh wiring it's simple really"  :hmm

[user=312]dooferdog[/user] wrote:

This has been a lovely read, thanks for posting it all so far.

I trust you have been here-

http://www.newcastleemlyn.info/page16.html

I love the way the way the end of the engine house seems to have been cut out to let the loco chimney inside!


Could be useful?

Doug

Glad you enjoyed it Doug, I'm enjoying the journey and like sharing it. It keeps me motivated.

Certainly have been to that site…. the last picture on the "more railway" page show a class 37 (I think) collecting the last wagons from the branch in 1973.
Although I'm predominantly a steam man trying to model late 30's the diesel is just going to have to be added to the MPD in the future.

I plan to scratchbuild that engine shed in the future too… From my interperatation of maps and photographs it was built over the steep gully created by the brook running into the Afon Teifi. One side of the shed anchored at the top of each bank.

There is a picture of an 00 scratchbuild of the shed done by someone else on the backscene on the layout to remind me.

cheers

[user=52]henryparrot[/user] wrote:

keep going on the layout as once you start your module production on the layout may stop

The diorama certainly stopped all progress on the layout …. we shall see. I've learnt some tricks doing the diorama and hopefully the module won't take me as long.

[user=285]Alan[/user] wrote:

And all everybody ever says is " oh wiring it's simple really" :hmm

Well, it is really…  just one wire at a time, power source to device to return wiring. Move on to the next one. Yeah, brother… I am deliberately avoiding things like double slips and reversing loops. :thumbs

And when you come back to it 6 months later, that is when the real trouble really starts. :thud

Looking good Marty :thumbs

Is that gap big enough for a tinnie or bottle of something Marty ;-)

I might get a miniature bottle of spirits in there Lawrence :thumbs

Purely for medicinal purposes. :lol:

Father's Day 2009

The lads came over this afternoon for Father's Day.

No. 1 son, an apprentice sparky, disappeared under the baseboard to finalise the wiring for the Henllan station board and Altycefan part of the line. They all work now. :lol:

No. 2 son ransacked the stock of stored polystyrene and started on the hillside between Altycefan and Henllan.
It was time to do some scenery and this part of the track and wiring is now pretty much finished.

3 hours of mayhem and mess ensued… but we had a lot of fun.
I'm still vaccuming the polystryene off the floor in all corners of the house, off my clothes, off the dog, out of my beard….






The hill has progressed to this level and it's still going up.





Nephew from Melbourne is coming over in 4 weeks and am thinking of getting a Morley Vesta N controller for two so we can do a bit of serious "training" together.

seems you had a fun day and still got things done,
coming on  Marty.

:doublethumb:lol::lol::lol::cool:

Blimey! Fun for all the family,eh?? No chance of MY lot helping me out!:roll::roll::sad:

  At this rate,you'll be finished by Christmas!:lol::lol::lol:

Cheers,John.B.:thumbs