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An enjoyable day at the Weston-on-Trent school show today, with both micro-layouts.

 

Santa's Christmas Cracker Box was popular with younger visitors, who enjoyed the chocolate snowmen. Eggerbahn steam tram & trailer on the circuit.

 

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Coxheath Sidings with operator.

 

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Thanks to all those who called by & Mrs Dava for co-operating!

 

Dava

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Diagonal bracing is certainly the key. On Coxheath Sidings the foamboard frames were braced as in #63 . Since then they've been stable, no apparent changes from humidity, temperature etc. even from crossing the Atlantic in a container.

 

Future layout planned will be on a ply framed board - similar to Jim's in #204 above. Current thinking being a Scottish light railway, influenced by Lochty and a few others,  see if interested

 

 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/117026-east-fife-central-lochty-railway

 

Dava

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My solution for diagonal bracing  This shows the underside 32x18 side members 20 mm square diagonals 6mm ply 

 

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The layout looks very good. I see you opted for no backscene. My operators chose to operate from the front rather than fiddle with three links over a backscene. We found it was so much better.
 
Don
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Thanks Don,

 

I'm looking at baseboard options for my next project so your example is useful. Coxheath Sidings wasn't originally intended for exhibition use although its done 4 days in the last year. I didn't feel a backscene was required but will consider this on the next layout. I've found the 3-link uncoupler with a LED and magnet really helps with couplings.

 

Dava

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Coxheath Sidings will be appearing at the annual 7mm Narrow Gauge Trent Valley Area Group Open Day on 21 January  - note the new venue, still in Mickleover, Derby. Always a friendly event with plenty to do, see, buy,  meet old & new friends etc

 

Website: http://www.ngtrains.com/Pages/Admin/Shows/TVG3/tvg3.htm

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/116620-mickleover-derby-7mm-narrow-gauge-21st-january-2017/

 

The micro-layout has been 'rested' since November but is coming 'out of retirement' for the day. Swing by, bring your small Gauge 0 [DC only loco] for a guest shunt. Any lucky new owners of Kerr Stuart 'Victory' locos may find they're not very small!

 

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Look forward to seeing progress on Neil's Burneside Tramway project too!

 

Dava

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Not much has happened on Coxheath Sidings this year, it's remained boxed up on a shelf in my workshop since January while I worked on, first, the GCR 'Bridge to the Future' N gauge display layout, then my 014 quarry layout on which progress is slow as I'm building the track.

 

I haven't started on a new gauge 0 project yet, I'm thinking that when the Little Loco Co. Ruston 48DS arrives [next month?] it would be interesting to make a few changes on Coxheath and run it on there.....

 

Dava

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So what happened to Coxheath Sidings? For the past 18 months it has been shelved in the workshop, gathering dust and a few small spiders as other projects, recently the 014 Bunny Mine, have been worked on. 3 years after it was built as a very short-life shortline, it's survived remarkably well.

 

I've been thinking about DCC, as a late adopter, partly because of several small RTR locos which are pending. The Minerva Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST is a case in point. It does not seem to make much sense to order an analogue version when I could try a DCC sound loco. The Dapol Sentinel and LLC Ruston 48DS are also considerations, although I also have kit built/to build projects for these locos.

 

So after quite a lot of information-gathering, advice from Gauge 0 Guild friends, and trials at the GCR model gala, I've ordered a NCE Powercab [other systems may or may not be available] with some chips, from Coastal DCC, delivery scheduled for tomorrow.

 

I'm going to use Coxheath Sidings as a testbed. So this evening the layout was dusted off...[the photos are out of sequence in this post]

 

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Set up temporarily, cleaned and wired up,

 

And a test train run with one of the Ixion Fowlers, first in line for DCC fitting as this should be straightforward. It runs so well with a Gaugemaster analogue it will be interesting to see if DCC is any more controllable at slow speeds.

 

I may make some changes to add interest to the layout, but from tomorrow it will be more about learning to fit the new technology.

 

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Thanks to Andy for updating the thread title.

 

Today a big box arrived from Coastal DCC:

 

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It's all there. Apparently Powercabs are a bit scarce at present.

 

So the next few evenings will involve reading the manual, installing a chip in a loco, setting up the system, and making some wiring changes on the layout. There is a selector switch for the sector table which won't be needed.

 

Hope to have progress by the weekend!

 

Dava

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It's been an interesting but rather frustrating couple of weeks [nearly] with DCC, Powercab and the Ixion locos.

 

The first decoder I'd ordered for the Fowler was too big, it ran OK after some false starts but I got a Hornby one from The Signal Box yesterday and with some modifications to the Fowler body [during which the buffers fell off!] it now runs almost as controllably as it did on DC. However it's on a default loco ID 003 as when trying to allocate a long number the Powercab just says 'Can not read CV'. For the same reason I can't work out how to change the forwards/reverse mode.

 

The expensive Loksound v4 chip [from Coastal DCC] for the Hudswell Clarke has the same problem with the Powercab and I haven't been able to activate the sound. I was not impressed that this chip came with no instructions at all. The chip has the large speaker it came with still attached until this is resolved so it's running [very slowly indeed] without the body.

 

I'm not finding the Powercab manual [and my own lack of intuition in programming digital devices] very helpful in getting past these teething problems. Is there an idiot's guide to DCC?

 

Meanwhile I have extended one siding on the layout to house a loco or brake van, and simplified the wiring by removing a section switch on the sector table so it's always on.

 

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Dava

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I have an NCE powercab and love it- just that you can operate with one hand and uncouple with another.

Cannot read cv pops up now and again when I've used it on the OO layout. I have swapped decoders and turned them around most times success fully. I tried to stick to either Bachmann or Hattons decoders which NCE seemed to like.

Try here for more suggestions

https://ncedcc.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/202353705-Cannot-Read-CV?mobile_site=true

 

Paul

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I've completed the new siding extension at Coxheath and been shunting with the buildings restored to the layout for the first time in 18 months.

 

Now the loco is dismantled with the plating rubbed off the side rods for repaint in and weathering the running gear. I also have to get the decoder working on the Hudswell Clarke.

 

Dava

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Like your Coxheath Sidings layout a lot, Dave! Love the grittiyness of the working environment. Lots of interesting tips in the thread about the construction of boards, as well.

 

Marlyn

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Some loco overhauls seem to take a very long time.....

 

This 'P' class was bought in 2012, I recall, from Gee Dee Models in a poorly built state. It was completely dismantled and rebuilt, eventually with a Buhler motor and ABC gearbox, but despite this and plunger pickups it didn't run acceptably on my Coney Hill layout at the time.

 

Following return from Canada it's been in the overhaul line, and this month has had the wheels out for centre wheel pickups, washers on all axles to reduce sideplay, and other adjustments. Finally it seems to run controllably and smoothly on the workbench.

 

So tomorrow it's off to the East Midlands Gauge 0 Group test track meeting for a few running in circuits....probably with a friend. There are a couple of locos which could benefit from a run. After that I can decide what do do with it. It would suit the K&ESR in BR days or Shoreham Harbour...Gordon Gravett had the same idea with his model.

 

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As for Coxheath Sidings, that's back on the shelf for the time being as I have the original Z scale model of the GCR Bridge project in for refurbishment, prior to display at Stafford next February!

 

Dava

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Coxheath Sidings reopened for traffic this evening, as like many others I'd been shopping in Hatton's sale and returned from Nottingham to find the item delivered - Dapol Terrier 'Fenchurch', DCC fitted.

 

So the layout was set up in the workshop and after some testing, away we went. 'Fenchurch runs really well, better than either of the Ixion locos I've chipped do so far, and looks the part on the layout, as if shunting some obscure goods dock in South London. Coming back from holiday in Kent we drove through the original English Coxheath, though I'm not sure it was quite in Terrier country!

 

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So this is encouraging me to sort out the other two locos, build a couple more pre-grouping wagons, and think about the next, rather larger Gauge 0 layout. There is a Minerva Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST expected this winter. Coxheath has done well to last this long [well over 3 years] given its lightweight foamboard construction and is proving useful as a DCC test track.

 

Dava

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I acquired a couple of Scottish pre-group wagons at the Burton on Trent show, one being a rather fine scratchbuilt NBR cattle van. I don't have any other cattle vans so when an LMS [possibly ex Midland design] van came up it was an attractive purchase and it arrived today. Here are the vans being shunted.

 

Coxheath Sidings has a loading dock which can be used for cattle. For a future layout I have a Bachmann cattle dock which came with a group of buildings from Tower Models. I just need some cows. Preferably low-cost farm animals about 1:50 scale. But how do you get cows into fully built cattle vans? Suggestions welcome!

 

 

 

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Coxheath Sidings has been packed away for a while, but not before I successfully coded loco addresses for 'Fenchurch' and the Fowler onto their DCC chips which is a little success. I need the workshop space for other projects for the next few weeks, not least re-furbing the GCR 'Z' scale Bridge model [dating from 1995] for its re-appearance at the Stafford show in February. There is also a large consignment of Hornby-Dublo 3-rail to value as a generous donation to the GCR 'Friends'.

 

I'd predict Coxheath will be back in action when one of the anticipated smaller RTR DCC-fitted locos turns up - the Minerva Manning Wardle, Dapol Sentinal, or Little Loco Co. Ruston 48DS. 

 

In the meantime there is a major rebuild of a L&YR 'Pug' underway, acquired as an accident-damaged loco back in March, and now all the parts are to hand for the chassis rebuild.

 

Dava

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At last, some action down at Coxheath Sidings...

 

First there was the arrival of a long-awaited Minerva Manning Wardle 'K' class in blue, seen shunting a pair of Mountsorrel Granite wagons from the recently produced side prints. Running past 672 'Fenchurch'.

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This encouraged me to press on with the reassembly of the Ixion Hudswell Clarke which had been dismantled for DCC sound fitting. Having bought a Sprog I could now program the Loksound V4 chip which had seemed impossible with the NCE Powercab. This loco is now rather workworn. The other two both await detailing and careful weathering.  The detail on the Manning shows how far RTR production has come in just 6 years since the Hudswell appeared.

 

As a result, for Easter the two locos were joined by 'Terrier' 672 for a little gala down at the sidings. 

 

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The sidings themselves are showing their age, but they're operational for now and very useful as a DCC test track.

 

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