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St Ruth

A blog by D869 in RMweb Blogs

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St Ruth at TINGS

D869

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blog-0894978001347227441.jpgI was contemplating some rather lame puns for the title of this posting but I thought I would spare you all. We're just back from two days at the N Gauge Show which takes place in a barn on the Fosse Way near Leamington Spa - just down the road for us... which turned out to be just as well.

 

I'm glad to say that St Ruth performed well during both days with just a few minor issues appearing during opening hours. The same cannot be said for the setup day on Friday...

 

We had given ourselves plenty of time because we wanted to do some setup work on the new signals once the layout was up. Having completed a one hour stint adjusting things mechanically and programming the servo travel I was just packing stuff away when the signals went haywire and all of the lights on the control panel started flashing on and off. John pulled the plug quickly and then we noticed a nasty electrical burning smell.

 

Unfortunately this happened shortly before the hall closed so in the remaining time we could only find out that the smell appeared to be associated with the power supply box and that none of the points would move. Then we had to leave without really knowing what we needed to replace to make the layout work again.

 

So we arrived as early as possible on Saturday armed with pretty much everything that we might need including the kitchen sink. The signal controls were all disconnected and the 12V supplies piggybacked from a bench supply. Thankfully we then had a working layout for Saturday, albeit with non working signals.

 

On Saturday evening I lashed up a MERG controller to some switches on a piece of ply to try to get the signals working again, fed from yet another bench power supply. Another early start on Sunday had this installed on the layout, followed by more mechanical and programming adjustements. Finally we had the home and starter working. Unplug the programming cable and the starter leapt up out of the ground because of a massive servo glitch. Suffice to say that further attempts to get the starter working were all followed by another glitch so the starter remained static. At least we had one signal working though.

 

We were also joined by guest operator and 2mm committee member Jim Allwood who brought along some interesting things to run on the layout, oh and a Dapol Voyager that is about as uncontrollable as mine (2 speeds - flat out and stop).

 

Some photos, mainly of more recent additions.

 

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I thought I'd try a photo from the opposite of the usual perspective.

 

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Jim Allwood's tamper and class 14. For once St Ruth was running every WR diesel hydraulic class... although there are no plans for a class 14 to be added permanently to the roster,

 

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The home signal and route indicator with a loco that some may have seen on the Hydraulic Heaven blog.

 

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Cossack again, arriving at St Ruth.

 

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One more building added since Nottingham - the hotel on the corner.

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queensquare
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Looking great. Couldn't make it to Leamington (wedding anniversary) but looking forward to seeing it again - when is it out next?

 

Jerry

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bcnPete
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Oh go on...so like the lame puns...sometimes I think mine up and then have to find some modelling activity to fit the blog title :P

 

The layout looks excellent Andy - love the third shot with the semaphore peg off.

 

Did you get a chance to get a good look at the Dapol Western and 22? They do look rather tasty indeed...

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D869

Looking great. Couldn't make it to Leamington (wedding anniversary) but looking forward to seeing it again - when is it out next?

 

We're trying to keep things to (roughly) two shows per year so that our families also get to see us now and again. Our next booking is for Railex 2013 - 25/26 May.

 

Oh go on...so like the lame puns...sometimes I think mine up and then have to find some modelling activity to fit the blog title :P

The layout looks excellent Andy - love the third shot with the semaphore peg off.

Did you get a chance to get a good look at the Dapol Western and 22? They do look rather tasty indeed...

 

I was thinking of a D:ream song title, but thought it might look like a criticism of the show, which wasn't what I wanted to do.

 

We at least managed one whole day with one signal working, so we learned a bit. Perhaps surprisingly the route indicator worked perfectly. The signal arms had some minor issues with drift and stickiness which were (I think) caused by having their operating wires touching each other as they run up the post.

 

We really need to have a major re-think of the control system and power supplies for the signals though. At the moment we haven't even fully figured out what caused the power supply to die or the servo glitches.

 

The Dapol 22 looks pretty close to being ready. The only things I could see that need to be sorted are better clarity to the cab glazing (and presumably a cab interior) and blackening of the wheels. The Western was also there in unpainted form so that looks somewhat further away. Dave did tell me some dates, but I forgot them... in any case it was hardly a binding contract.

 

I also asked him about bogie design, wheels and gears. He told me that he will always use pinpoint bearings in future (except for the Western, obviously) and that gears are chosen to suit the loco, so they will keep on changing between locos... so not much hope for drop-in finescale wheels. One thought does occur to me... just how many different gears do you need to suit bogie diesels and electric locos?

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richbrummitt

Oh go on...so like the lame puns...sometimes I think mine up and then have to find some modelling activity to fit the blog title :P

 

Whilst not quite as bad as Pete just admitted to being I am also partial to the abstract title, with amusement where possible.

 

 

The Dapol 22 looks pretty close to being ready. The only things I could see that need to be sorted are better clarity to the cab glazing (and presumably a cab interior) and blackening of the wheels.

 

Whilst at the Dapol stand I overheard someone remark that 'those bin lids need to be painted, or polished!' :rofl:

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queensquare
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We're trying to keep things to (roughly) two shows per year so that our families also get to see us now and again. Our next booking is for Railex 2013 - 25/26 May.

 

 

Excellent, we are at Railex next year with Tucking Mill. I get the feeling there might be one or two strangers arriving at Penzance during the last hour or so of the show!

 

Jerry

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D869

Excellent, we are at Railex next year with Tucking Mill. I get the feeling there might be one or two strangers arriving at Penzance during the last hour or so of the show!

I'll look forward to that - haven't seen Tucking Mill yet, other than on RMWeb. I'm sure it could use a diesel hydraulic or two.

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