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Shillingstone Brit OO Module


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Started on this last year but with exhibiting both Sturminster Halt  @ East Grinstead and Crawley Yard @ Erith  I've not done anything on the layout since last year.  With a date now in the diary of the 27th June for the kick off SECAG meeting and having paid my money the pressure is now on to get this ready for the modular meet in June.  The layout is spread across four boards, each one is 4 ft long with the two central boards hosting the station and yard being 2 feet wide and the boards on each end being 18 inches wide.  The layout is designed to fit into my railway room at home 8*2 with the end boards just being used when out and about.  The original plan was to have cassette fiddle yards one each end of the station and I'll potentially build these at some point. 

 

Shillingstone on the Somerset and Dorset is currently being restored by volunteers. Bachmann released a set of Ready to plant buildings a few years ago which will form the basis of the station,  The station is on a single track part of the line just north of Blandford and the next station south from Sturminster Newton where the N Gauge layout is based.  The station has a passing loop on the down platform towards Blandford and Bournemouth with the main line going north towards Bath going straight through.  Whats interesting is the length of the sidings on the down line either side of the loop. I can't remember where I saw it but the length at lest of the southern one was over 12 coaches.  As that's almost 12 Feet in OO i'm going to create an effective option for a double line module but taking the north and south sidings to the end of the boards. I'm now going to incude a model of Haywards bridge just north west of the station which has just been saved from potential demolition. This isnt on the plan but the module has already been designed as an embankment ready for the bridge. 

 

For track I've used C&L Finescale flexitrack and had started making C&L points, These were taking me too long and I wasn't really enjoying the making so have reverted back to Peco points with a 3 way at the throat to give a little more space in the yard. The peco points are also much shorter than the handmade ones which helps with the compression. 

 

The Electrics have required a dual bus arrangement which I have inserted a joining plug for when running in standalone mode. The main bus for the tracks and the secondary bus for the DCC control of the points and eventually the signals. All the points bar the crossover on the southern approach to the station are on one board so will eventually fit a manual control panel somewhere. I've used Cobalt point motors and all have a DCC address so can be switched from the handset or from the panel. 

 

There are other pictures in the SECAG forum with these below representing progress to date. The building are just placed at the moment until I have done some more detailing on them. 

 

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Progress today,  Some testing of the electrics as i'm having some fun getting a couple of the points to throw correctly and made a start on painting and ballasting. Initally painted the sleepers with a primer aerosol and then a light and dark base colour followed by a test section with sleeper grime followed by brown ballast to test. Really impressed by the C&L track, picked out the rail clamps realatively easily and the sleepers need a lot less ballast than I anticipated. Providing it all dries tomorrow and looks good I can work my way down the layout.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Been working to get the electronics completed on the main boards and all the points tested. The wiring is set up for a dual bus so that all the points can be switched by the main bus if connected to the signal bus, the signal bus or eventually a manual switch. The wiring for the manual switches are installed back to a tag strip for connection to a box later. For connection between the boards I'm using RS components 12 ways as these are quite robust and I had some in my spares box. I mounted banana sockets under the end of each of the converter boards ready for connection to adjacent modules.  I'm using Cobalt point motors and AD1 DCC controllers on each one which allows the manual switching. The other work for the weekend was the extension to the legs, I now have 12 45' legs ready for setting up next week. 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Added a shelf for the dcc controller ( prodigy) and jmri on the laptop for point controls. There is a place for some test and programming track. This should be useful at the event which is now only 3 weekends away to enable programming and testing away from the main controller. I will drill some holes on the other side of the layout this weekend so it can be mounted on either side.

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Thanks very much, lots like it in Dorset so a good fit. unfortunately I couldn't find a picture of the the actual house that was there back in the 20's so thought this was a good compromise, Filled the space nicely anyway.  working back towards the goods shed now :-)

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Tested the packing again today, All still fits together with the scenery on apart from one Telegraph pole which will have to be a moveable feature with the trees when they get made.  

 

 

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Test running and fit today to make sure were ready for the 27th. Still a lot of scenic work  to do but the fit appears to be ok . Done some fettling on the tracks to make the running smoother.  Still having some problems with the points and electrics but that can wait until the boards are upside down.  Fitted the Train Tronics controller so the signal is now working but the station lights will have to wait until after the show.  The test running was fairly successful with both the 3P and 4F performing well.  Have a larger pile of wagons to change the couplers on now. 

 

Spent a couple of hours yesterday messing around with uncoupling magnets for the Kadee's tried both the Kadee own and Neodymium magnets neither were very successful so will need to explore some other options over time, big mistake not fitting them at the same time. 

 

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