Somewhere SW of London. Somewhen before today

Rick

Looking good!

I think I saw that you are going to be at the T&DMRC open day at Kerswell next Saturday so I will drop in and say hello.

Kind regards

Barry

Yes indeed I am booked to give weathering demonstrations at the Twickenham & District MRC Open Day this coming Saturday.  Look for the stone viaduct display unit and the Penhayle Bay totem. 

Yep! Good to see trains running on the newly ballasted track!  I'm also pleased to see that I am not the only one who seems to have several "projects" on the go at once on the layout….

Michael

Twickenham went well.

They have asked me back to give more detailed advice and instruction to their club members on a date or dates to be decided in the autumn.


Ballasting of the remaining sections of Waddlemarsh should continue through the coming week but first I have to accompany SWMBO to (and hopefully back from) hospital tomorrow for a surgical procedure.  Once she is home resting I will not be able to make noise which will limit drilling and hammering but should permit soldering and ballasting.

A very important hole has just been bored. 
Why so important?  Because this marks the start of signalling the layout. With ballasting well in hand I need this signal in place before completing the groundwork in the area. 

It’s another step forward. And something else to wire up when I’m not allowed to make noise. 

Are you running the signals off point motors Rick or some other device?

Brian

These are Dapol signals which have their own inbuilt 9v motors. If wiring to a 12v supply it is necessary to include some sort of resistance to prevent excess current blowing the motors. They were once thought ok for 12v DC and 16v AC but large numbers of motor burn-outs have caused the manufacturer to recommend 9v DC only. 

Sorry Rick

What i meant was what are you controlling the signals with i.e and infra red switch or something or some other control board or or you operating them manually with a switch.


Brian

Hi Rick

It was good to see you and your weathering items at Twickenham on Saturday.

I bought some of the Dapols and managed to blow them up.  When I as down in Hampshire I went to The Engine Shed where the chief man made a few choice comments about the Dapol product.  He recommended a particular power transformer that they used on their demonstration layout and I bought one.  The signals have worked perfectly ever since.  I bought cheap at first and paid the price of fried signals.  The new transformer was £20 and can power 5 or 6 units I think.  Well worth the investment, especially as I see the new Dapol Junction signals are on the horizon.

Kind regards

Barry

Good to meet you too Barry. Thank you for dropping by and chatting.  I met quite a number of people some of whom I know from RMweb and Facebook. The day was busy - easily the busiest demonstration day so far - with barely a pause from start to finish and sometimes four or five interested parties all watching me at work. 

The Dapol signals will be  controlled as they were on Penhayle Bay namely with Peco lever switches and powered from the Morley Vortrak auxiliary output. Though I shall have to find a way of stepping down the voltage. On the Bay they were powered at 12v and a couple burned out and were replaced. The junction signals so far announced are GWR pattern so of no use to me here. The only signal requiring a route indication may be fitted with a Traintech “feather” if I can be satisfied that will work.   It will require nothing more than an on-off switch. 


The distance from controller to signal will also be more like 1m compared with as much as 15m previously. Meaning there is less scope for voltage drop and,  l hope, no need to develop a “long pull” technique of holding the switch at its mid-point for a second to allow the current to travel to the signal!  

You should be able to step down the voltage with simple resistors in the line Rick.


Brian

Work continues.  A little more ballasting has been done.  The "electric" lines through where the station will be built have been straightened against a steel rule and pinned down.  I already have plenty of Code 60 rail and plastic "pots" to represent the juice rail though this will only be dummy.  It only needs to be visible for about the length of six coaches and it isn't worth the large amount of very intricate work which would be required to make it live and have properly powered SR trains.  Besides which the pick-up shoes on Bachmann, Hornby and Dapol items are all in different positions and would require micro-surgery to be converted to live operation.  Hopefully more pictures soon.

You could always save yourself the worry Rick by modelling LNER/LMS …………………………

Are the "pots" a bought in item or have you made them ?

The "pots" are a Peco item, product code IL-120, and are designed to accept their Code 60 rail.  This gives a reasonable representation of SR-style conductor rail when using Code 75 or 100 running rail though is not a perfect profile.  Black-sheathed wire of the type we often use on our layouts will be used to represent the heavy-duty cables associated with third-rail electrification.

As the modelled location is largely a freight transfer location somewhere south-west of London it will feature LMR and ER (NER) motive power but alas for Petermac not the LMS / LNER steam he might wish for.


The only steam will be SR types with the exception of a couple of GWR pannier-tanks and one of those wears London Transport maroon livery.


Tonight's little victory was getting the three-way point to the fiddle yard test-fitted and with that in place a loco was run under power from one end of the layout to the other without stalling or needing a push over dead spots.   


The next hurdle is to persuade the crossover-with-slip (three points plus a single-slip diamond custom-built into one unit for me) to pass current as intended.  If that works I'll have a fully-powered layout at last.

Slow and steady progress continues to be made.  Today the ten road fiddle yard had all its tracks trimmed to length and placed in position.  These may be glued to the cork or simply left unfixed - I'm not sure yet which will happen.  They don't need to be fixed for any reason.  They cannot be track-pinned as they rest on top of a shelf unit which forms part of my office / library set-up.

When fully operational I intend to fit uncoupling ramps at the inner ends of all these roads.  This will permit the manual removal removal of a loco with just a lift.  As these will be hidden roads and I am using loop couplers I can use the basic spring-loaded ramps without need of magnets or anything fancy.

A 10 road fiddle yard with nothing glued down Rick - you've got to tell me more !!

The cork provides enough friction to keep the tracks where they should be.  As there is no ballast or decoration the occasional minute movement is of little consequence.  I might end up using PVA in a few key spots but for now this works.

Two images show the set-up.  One is a simple end-on view taken from where the scenic break will be placed and the other at an angle to illustrate the compact site with computer, desk, library shelf (one of several!) and above it all the bed at the height of just five feet from the floor requiring a well-rehearsed duck to get into the work space!





And they seem to be sideways.  I cannot fix this problem as it is an incompatibility between iPhone and YMRC software.  Both were taken upright and uploaded upright but display sideways.  

I see what you're doing now Rick.  Will you have some kind of edge guard on the right hand one ?   :shock:

I shall probably need one.  My favoured option currently is to use strips of foam board lightly glued to the edge of the shelf.  
In other news ballasting continues and I have reached the stage of filling in the awkward bits around points and crossings where the necessary holes in the baseboard also require some card shimmed in around the motors.

The days have turned darker and damper meaning there is less incentive to pursue "outside" interests and a little more time to get on with the layout.  

Recent quite modest works have seen the yard crane fitted to its final position, with the base units glued and ground work completed.  The uprights and gantry are demountable and will remain demounted while the layout is in-build in order to avoid damage and permit ready access to the tracks behind.  Related work has seen the good shed weathering completed (including the breaking of a couple of windows - done with a 0.7mm bit in the pin-vice) and the painting of the access road which is nothing more than a mix of Woodland Scenics paints though in part these have been applied over fine ballast.  

The wagon is an Oxford Rail "Warwell" carrying a Kernow MRC commissioned compressor and shunted by a Heljan class 07 loco.  All of course carry my own weathering.  In the wider shot without the crane two vans carry my weathering over the factory-applied coating though the chalk details are as manufactured and not my additions.