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AVAGO - The Old Sidings


tender
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This is our first attempt at a scenic layout. A classic 4'x1' 'Inglenook shunting puzzle' layout with the emphasis on ease of use for public demonstration. It will be appearing at the National Slate Museum, Llanberis during the Sioe Trenau Bach (Model Railway Show) from 16th to 19th February 2012. No where near finished but still 5 days to go.

 

post-11105-0-67351600-1328916472.jpg

 

Further details of the show at http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/slate

 

Appearing with 'Glen Gillie' of these pages.

 

Trackwork is Peco code 100 with modified livefrog points DCC controlled with Cobalt motors.

Buildings from modified Metcalfe kits.

Rolling stock fitted with 'kadee' coupling.

 

DCC Control box (currently under construction) has three buttons for selecting the route, and three buttons for forward,stop,reverse using a NCE minipanel to generate the required commands.

 

More photos to follow (if I get time).

 

If you're in the North Wales area next week, come and say hello and 'avago' :sungum:

Edited by tender
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Should have posted this intro first:

 

 

AVAGO - The Old Sidings

 

The Old Sidings is a fictitious modern era layout based in Enniware.

 

The site was recently purchased by property developers, Conman & Crooke, with a view to making a fast buck.

However, The Old Sidings Heritage Society had already secured a 100 year lease on the old factory and trackbed scuppering the original plans of the developer. Undeterred, they decided to develop the old warehouse into Luxury Apartments and Offices.

The Heritage Society have already made good progress with restoring the old factory buildings and have now obtained permission to run small locomotives within the sidings complex.

The society have acquired a few wagons, a 4 wheel coach and run shunting demonstrations and the occasional passenger trip behind a 08 Diesel shunter on loan from a local benefactor. The sidings are still connected to the local branch line via the Ennihill Tunnel which allows them to have visiting locomotives on Gala weekends.

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Managed to get some fencing done today and made a start on the greenery.

 

post-11105-0-78019900-1329004639.jpg

 

The control front panel is drilled and ready for wiring.

 

post-11105-0-89558200-1329004617.jpg

 

Missed the postman today so will have to wait until Monday to pick up the last few bits and pieces.

Edited by tender
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Hi Peter.

Many thanks for your help sorting out some bits and pieces yesterday.

Spent last night finishing off the fencing and added some of your dry stone walling. Made up a few test pieces with ground cover.

 

post-11105-0-50366500-1329131423.jpg

 

post-11105-0-06042300-1329131434.jpg

 

Will try and get ground cover proper finished today and finish off wiring the control box.

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Finished off the wiring to the control panel and loaded the NCE MiniPanel with the required MACROS to control the layout.

 

post-11105-0-82584900-1329173491.jpg

 

Ground cover along the front of the layout is now in place.

 

post-11105-0-83015800-1329220055.png

 

Two days to go to Llanberis and plenty of detailing still to do.

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One more day to go before Sioe Trenau Bach (Llanberis Model Railway Show) and still working on the layout.

Today saw the ground cover above the tunnel entrance completed, (still got that hole to fill :scratchhead:)

 

post-11105-0-87780600-1329244924.jpg

 

and the addition of some detailing in front of the warehouse.

 

post-11105-0-12927800-1329244909.jpg

 

Finish off electrics tonight before turning attention to rolling stock.

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After a late night applying the finishing touches (well as much as time would allow), AVAGO made its debut outing at Llanberis Model Railway Show today (and until Sunday).

Having the layout on a table top (instead of high stands) made it accessible not only to children but also to wheelchair users.

 

post-11105-0-21900000-1329417793.jpg

 

It was a great favourite with the youngsters (not only the boys) and their parents who were at times queueing up to to 'have a go'.

Seeing their faces light up as they shunted the wagons to and fro (including coupling and uncoupling) to make up a train using the simple control panel made all the effort even more worthwhile.

 

post-11105-0-84424400-1329417809.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

well done that man . good idea , did you limit the speed at the show in any way to protect your stock ? :D

 

Hi, many thanks for the interest.

Yes, the speed is limited to two speeds, slow(forward or reverse) and stop.

The control panel has three buttons for controlling the speed via DCC macros. So the forward button sets speed step 8 forward, the stop button sets speed step zero and the reverse button sets speed step 8 reverse. If you look at the video above you can see the speed of the loco, it's pretty slow. I've also set the acceleration/deceleration CV's so the loco stops within about an inch of pressing the stop (or other direction) button.

I'm now in the process of adding another two buttons on the control panel so you can select between two loco's - should add a bit more operational interest (and reduce the wear on just using one loco all the time).

 

Ray.

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You may notice the appearance of a lineside chappy on the viewer’s side of the Beattie Well Tank (post #10). He is there for a reason.

 

If you watched the video above, you may have seen a ‘beware the trains’ notice on the far side of the track. This is to tell the operator behind the layout where to stop the train when decoupling the Kadees. Easy enough!

 

However, when we had visitors sitting down in front of the layout to av-a-go, the post couldn’t be seen as wagons and loco went past making it difficult to stop the train in the right position, that is, over the magnet beneath the ballast. The ‘finger of god’ frequently descended to indicate the location of the signpost – not a pretty sight. :nono:

 

The lineside chappy’s job, then, is to tell you where to stop the train to uncouple the wagons when you are operating at the front of the layout - handy, now we’ve got it back home. :)

 

Lesson learnt? We didn’t think of everything!

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  • 2 months later...

Hi Ray

 

Love the Layout Mate... the youtube is really good to...

 

Man you guys have a Layout to play on... I just have boards to sit on... Not fair...

 

DCC for Peter I think for his next project of my layout... when I get round to it... at least I have all 12 Boards back at my house now... ready to make a start on it...

 

Great Photos Ray... Keep us posted with more Photos...

 

Jamie

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Hi Ray

 

Your Control Panal, which you said you made, what does that control on the layout as you said this was a DCC Layout, and what main controller do you use for the main operation of the layout...?

 

Jamie

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Hi Jamie.

 

Here's another picture of the control panel. I've added another two buttons since the Llanberis show.

 

post-11105-0-96756500-1337553145.jpg

 

The black buttons on the left select the route (by setting the points) which is indicated by the leds.

The Green - Red - Green buttons at the bottom control the Loco, Forward - Stop - Reverse. As it's a shunting layout there's only one speed, SLOW. Intermediate speeds (between stop and slow) can be obtained by alternatively pressing the forward/stop (or reverse/stop) buttons.

The two new buttons (black on the right) select between two different loco's, (I've not labelled these up yet) and have a built in led to show which loco is selected. This adds an extra layer of complexity to the operation of the layout (if desired) by having access to two loco's

 

The clever bit is a NCE Mini panel pcb (inside the control box) which is programmed to send the relevant commands to the DCC command station (a NCE SB3a smart booster) in response to which button is being pushed.

 

Ray

Edited by tender
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Hi Ray

 

Looks impressive... Is there a load of wiring inside that box, like when you look in Peter's DC Wiring control box...

 

Great to see Polly and yourself today down at the Unit...

 

Jamie

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Hi Ray

 

Just noticed further up the inside of the box... Man... There no wiring in there at all... it all looks very neat I have to say...

Did you make all that yourself...? Is the PC-Board a buy off the shelf item or did you have to add all the components into it as long as you know what goes where... Was it all straight forward...?

 

Would it be possible to say make the same thing for Glen Gillie or are we talking serious wiring and complications...etc

Jamie

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Hi Jamie.

The PCB is 'off the shelf', it's an NCE Mini-panel. The rest I made up from components, just LED's and switches, nothing complicated at all wiring wise. The cleaver bit is in the programming of the mini-panel , but not difficult for this simple application.

 

The same could be done for Glen Gillie for point/route control but the unit is DCC so all the point motors would need to be run from a DCC accessory decoder instead of the current CDU (capacitor discharge unit). The Loco's/track could still be DC. Humm nice project, the existing switch panel on Glen Gillie drives me insane at times.

 

Ray

Edited by tender
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Hi Jamie.

The PCB is 'off the shelf', it's an NCE Mini-panel. The rest I made up from components, just LED's and switches, nothing complicated at all wiring wise. The cleaver bit is in the programming of the mini-panel , but not difficult for this simple application.

 

The same could be done for Glen Gillie for point/route control but the unit is DCC so all the point motors would need to be run from a DCC accessory decoder instead of the current CDU (capacitor discharge unit). The Loco's/track could still be DC. Humm nice project, the existing switch panel on Glen Gillie drives me insane at times.

 

Ray

 

Hi Ray

 

Something that you can do then ray?

Peter

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Hi Ray

 

Something that you can do then ray?

Peter

 

Can't see why not, but not in time for Hartlepool.

We could try it out for the Glen Gillie extension and expand it to the rest of the layout at a later stage (if you prefer).

 

Suggest we move this discussion to the Glen Gille thread if you wish to pursue.

 

Ray.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Ray

 

Great to of got to see the Layout today at the Talysarn One Day Setup... Looked great and all worked and the Ka-Dee Couplings were great I think I might go the same way, they worked very well with no hicups...

 

Jamie

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Thanks Jamie. Glad you liked it, Kadee's may not be a british prototypical coupling (neither is a Hornby tension lock) but they do work very well and reliable.

 

Next outing is the Colwyn model railway exhibition on the 28/29 July. If you're in the area pop in and say hello.

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Hi Ray

 

Yes... i'll give that a shot and come along and see you there, optunity for more Photos...lol... and of other layouts of course...

 

What (Number on the Kadee Packet) do you generally go for... is there different nos. for different coaches/loco...etc...

 

Jamie

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