00 gauge North London WCML

Hi all here's the latest video update from Wemblesden taken at last weekends show in Shildon.

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That is an impressive layout. There must have been a lot of hours put into it.

Cheers
Evan

Great video Dave, especially like the signals  :thumbs :thumbs :thumbs



Ed

Thanks for the comments. I have been on with this layout now for about 5 years and spent the last 3 redesigning how all the electronics control it reliably. We have another show coming up next month in Newcastle so looking forward to that one. 
The signals are all 1.8mm leds mounted on scratchbuilt gantries and operated using 4 DPCO relays wired together so they latch in a sequence when switched with reed switches.

Hi Dave i see you are still going strong and building impressive layouts.
Do you still have the garden railway you had or has the missus reclaimed the land?

Brian

Now that is scary as I was just thinking about you last week! How you doing Brian hope you are keeping well?The garden railway got broken up a couple of years ago there is only the original first section of track left in place. Potters lane literally got skipped after we did the Hornby live show in Hartlepool I think back in 2013. I got frustrated with it as every time someone from hornby magazine tried to take a pic it played up. Still it was only built for the YMR show so 10 exhibitions out of it was good going. The loco lift lives on in Wemblesdens shed along with the signal box that now sits on the DC lines behind the depot. I'm still making the model buildings the latest one is destined for a BR layout in New York!  :cool: Have you still got the big layout in the shed?

Hi Dave yes i am fine .    The reason i became quiet was the wife announced its about time we moved that was a physiological bombshell for me and i almost immediately stopped working on the layout and over a period of time dismantled the layout and demolished the sheds. On the bright side we have now moved all of 200 meters as the crow flies and i have the entire upstairs of the bungalow to build my new layout.
My modules as yours went into the skip. Pleased westcoast is doing well for you and even doing international orders now. Are you still operating with DC or have you gone over to the dark side?

Brian
 

Good to see that you are still going full bore, Dave.

The layout is looking great.   :thumbs

Like Brian, my wife has decided that we should move.  It really is devastating.  I've dismantled Olpharts Crossing and Port Elderley and they are lying in pieces in the shed at the new place.  There's no room to set them up again.

Wow seriously 200m !  :roll:   I suppose the new set up will be a lot warmer and more secure as I recall you had quite a bit of stock. I did dabble with DCC and started new layout up in the loft after seeing mikenencini's stunning layout when I went to visit him. My plan was to model the platform ends of euston and willesden shed on the upper level that dropped down to stafford on the middle level then there was lower level storage where the trains would return back round the layout to the top again. I floored out the loft, fitted a window and fully insulated it with kingspan insulation. To keep the weight down I used 6mm ply to build a lightweight frame between the roof beams ( I'm sure I started a thread on here somewhere). Control was to have been DCC using MERG kits but when I finally joined MERG and looked at the block controllers I was planing to use I realized they were actually DC! This gave me the idea for Wemblesden Park. The loft layout was then mothballed whilst work started on the new layout. Job wise I have been in and out of work over the past few years so the model buildings are good to fall back on. What is good about Wemblesden is that as it's my home layout when we eventually move I can take it with me.  ;-)

Hi Max the only layout I remember you having was the one with the steel frame can't remember what it was called. I sure that given time you will build a new one maybe something modular that could be moved about and stored away when not in use perhaps.

Hi Dave

Check out the link under my signature.

That's what it used to look like before we moved.   

Blimey Max that looked huge and definitely not the layout I remember that one was Ho.  :roll:

Yep.  I sold that one to make way for Port Elderley, Dave.

I also have an HO shunting plank called Olpharts Crossing.  I can't find the build thread in the search function, but here's a link to early movies of it before I completed the scenery.

http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=13158&forum_id=151&highlight=Olpharts+Crossing

It has also survived the move (just), but I don't know if there will be room for that either.

Hi all just a quick update following our appearance at last weekends show in Newcastle. Had an electrical issue whilst setting up on the friday evening this was traced to a smashed reed switch. A replacement was fitted. 
Saturday went well with only one problem on the afternoon. For some reason trains were not being released from the down slow storage sidings so we ended up pushing them by hand across the break between the block sections. After about half an hour the fault disappeared! Was also good catch up with Petermac.  :)

Sunday was more intensive. For starters I was 5 mins late with setting the layout away as everyone decided to stop and chat whilst setting up. We then had to suspend the mainline services at 10.50 in preparation for the 2 mins silence at 11am. After that everything settled down and we drew a big crowd round the front with all the kids shouting for thomas and percy who put in a few guest appearances. At 12:30 I was thinking of sneaking off for lunch when I noticed that the down fast trains kept sitting in the station. The fault was eventually traced to the pin on the point motor breaking in half so the rest of the day we had to manually flick the point over every time a train went through. About the same time one of the up slow storage lines decided to stop sending trains out so I had to manually push them out. Still don't know the cause of this one yet…  :roll:

Ended up with no dinner break and due to the no food in the hall rule had to keep taking a sly bite of a sausage roll under the layout. Didn't know I could make a sausage roll last 3 hours!  :roll: 

Best layout went to South Pelaw and we got second place. This made my day as Liverpool Lime St was in the hall next door.  :cool:  :shock:

All in all another good weekend with loads of good feedback from everyone. Here's a few pics of us all set up….

Glad you had a good weekend Dave, despite the gremlins  :thumbs



Ed

Looks great   too far away for me unfortunatly, but well done. :)

Great Layout Dave Glad the headaches were not to much .

What system are you using to control the layout i see you are displaying the control boards i know at one time you were looking at Merg equipment?

Brian

Cheers Brian. The layout uses the BC3 superbloc boards.
https://www.merg.org.uk/merg_resources/superbloc.php

They are DC block control units and work really well once set up properly.  

Hi all I'm slowly working my way through some improvements with the layouts electronics following our recent show outing. After the success of the LDR relay boards I have been buying some more to fit on the up lines. Another feature I wanted to automate was the carriage washing machine. At the moment we have to manually turn the speed of the brushes up and down so I was on the lookout for something that would do the job for us that could be controlled easily via reed switches. Today this arrived in the post…

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Nice bit of kit for a reasonable price there Dave.

Should make the washplant run smoothly now


Brian

Cheers Brian yes i'm well impressed with it. This morning I have had the paperwork through for attending Stevenage show in 2020 so I need to have everything finished by then. I have some more of the LDR relay modules on order as well. These additional modules will back up the merg superbloc detection circuits on the controllers by effectively placing a 1k resistor across the rails when the detect a train. This will compensate for loss of pick ups once the wheels start to get dirty. One of the issues we had at Newcastle was two trains trying to exit the storage yard together and colliding. After looking at the cause of the problem I realized that I had placed the reed switch that sets the latch relay in the wrong place so its just a case of moving them.  :roll: