Recent projects on the summer module
Entry posted by Barry Ten
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Work on the revised track arrangement on the summer module continues at the usual stop-start pace. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I wasn't satisfied with the initial tracklaying as done in July, so I later bit the bullet and lifted and reworked some of it. Unfortunately, after coming back from my holidays, I still wasn't happy with a couple of areas, where there were still unintended dips - not enough to cause running problems, or even all that obvious to the eye, but definitely enough to annoy me in the long-run. So, after a deep breath, a week ago I began lifting, relaying and re-ballasting about two metres of track on both the up and down running lines.
Here's where we are now:
The Castle is a good test locomotive as its long 4-6-0 chassis really seems to accentuate dips, so if the Castle looks good running over a particular bit, I take it as a good sign that the problem has been rectified. It was a real pain to relay some of the track twice, but I'm glad I did.
The trackwork is mostly bullhead Peco, incidentally, with a small bit of C+L in the yard. There's been much discussion of Peco's new bullhead points elsewhere on the forum, and I certainly think they look very good and are a welcome development. In the end I decided to stick with Code 75 flat-bottom points for the crossing, though, as I felt that the bullhead points - even if they'd been available in the summer - would have shown up the slip and 3-way for what they are. I'm happy enough with the overall look, anyway, as I suspect it will be a long wait before more complex items like single slips join the Peco range. For this bit, I've experimented with a very light shade for the sleepers, rather than usual sleeper grime, and I quite like the understated contrast between the ballast and the trackwork. I've also made a start on disguising or reducing the impact of the Peco tie-bar mechanisms where practical.
I had a couple of Dapol GWR starter signals on the layout, but I'm afraid I had real problems with reliability. So, rather reluctantly, I've gone back to making my own signals, starting with this combination starter and shunt signal, which was loosely inspired by a photo in one of Stephen Williams' books on GWR branch line modelling. The signal was bodged from a Ratio home and distant kit.
Someone will tell me it shouldn't be where it is, or they'd never have used a shunting signal on a main line, but it works for me as it allows goods train to be stopped, and then to advance past the signal to the point where they can set back into the yard, which all adds to the play value. I haven't finished painting or detailing the signal just yet, though, as I'd like to add working lamps, and haven't quite worked out the best way to do it.
The signal is constructed as a removable module using a base assembly made from thick plastic sheet, which drops into a slot on the layout:
It's driven by two servos, which are in turn connected to a Megapoints servo control board, which will run up to 12 signals and has a fantastic bounce algorithm, which never quite repeats itself. Well, it does, but not so that you'll ever notice, as I understand there are over a thousand different bounces in the board. Dead easy to program, too.
Since I will have at least four signals controlling the station area, I thought it would be fun to move to a more hands-on control arrangement, so I'm in the process of wiring up a set of DCC Concepts signal and point levers, which are very satisfying to operate.
Ultimately the levers will be painted and numbered according to function.
Finally, back to an engine:
This 53xx mogul is an old favorite and was converted to DCC quite a few years ago. I was never happy with the decoder, though, as it was a Hornby one that offered little scope for adjusting the motor parameters. Last week I swapped it out (it'll be quite happy in another model) and added an ESU sound decoder for one of the smaller GWR 2 cylinder locos. There isn't much room in the tender, and it's still a tight fit getting a small speaker and decoder in, compared to a King or a Castle where there's bags of room. The running was a bit rubbish initially, worse than before, but I added some tender pickups and now it's fantastic. I can only guess that sound decoders are a bit more demanding in terms of pickup than bog-standard ones. These old Bachmann split chassis models get a bad rap, but the good ones I've got are all still nice runners, and I've put sound in a couple of them now and been very happy with the results.
That's all for now - thanks for reading.
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