I'm in the process of building the second bracket signal. I have taken a leaf out of Mike's (Coach Bogie) book and fitted a single rocker arm to the rear of the bracket. However, mine is made from plastic and the spindle is yet again a track pin, superglued onto the bracket lattice. In practice, it can't be easily seen.
Thanks Mike.
Happy New Year to all.
Rich
So at last I have finished the first bracket signal and added the servos.
Remember to take labels off the servos before using the tape. I have staggered the servos to allow non conflicting movement.
I use "No more nails" tape. It's the only one I have found that sticks we'll enough.
The signal is super glued to the MDF.
As mentioned in a previous entry, the servo (in this case servos) goes through a 40mm hole in the baseboard and the rectangle base is flu
T'was Christmas Eve and Santa's little helper was ...... Soldering and gluing of course!!!
The soldering is old hat now. I need 3 Servo 4 boards from MERG to operate the points and signals on the left side board of the junction, Newton Purcell. Each time I make one, my soldering gets better and they get easier. One down. Two to go.
The gluing was more frustrating. As you will have gleaned from this blog, operation is key here. I hope it will be quite scenic too, but it will not be a Pend
Wow! Time does fly. My last entry was April!!!!! I am not sure why I haven't written anything for many months. You would be forgiven for thinking that I must have finished the layout by now, but alas no. For various personal reasons and a busy business life, there has only been a certain amount of activity. But here goes with an update.
Newton Purcell, the junction station midway along my line, was finally laid and tested for smoothness of the running, but with no electrics fitted. The issue
At last some more progress - on two fronts. Both baseboards for the junction station, Newton Purcell, have been built and initially installed. The construction is the same as the rest - 2x1 inch framing and cross members with 6mm MDF on top, glued and screwed, topped with insulation board made for going under laminate floors.
The station is roughly a "handed" version of Grandborough Junction on Peter Denny's Buckingham Branch - why reinvent the wheel fully? you may think, but the design actu
So the last entry was almost 3 moths ago and what's happened at Buckingham West? The unfortunate answer is not enough. In short it's been too cold in the loft and too busy generally. However I have purchased a Dapol track cleaner and have serviced the 61xx, a 43xx and one of the Dean Goods. Unfortunately the 61xx is still not a good runner and so I have ordered a new Hornby 51xx. I have also bought a Bachmann 4575 from a collector. It had never been run, but after some lubrication it has perform
As mentioned in the last entry, over Christmas I made my second MERG Servo4 electronic module. You will recall I put too high a voltage through the first one (and one donated by a friend) due to H&M Duettes delivering far more voltage than they say when they are not under load - BEWARE!
This third module tested ok and looked right. I plugged it into a new (checked) 12vdc supply and still all looked and tested ok. I plugged 4 servos in and they worked. I wired it up the power for common r
Irritating got even more irritating!!! I made all the cuts in the track, installed 4 out of the five micro switches and even before I could wire them in (so the dead sections on the far rail were totally dead) the locos were still doing odd things. Another session in a darkened room and the reason for it AND the answer came to me. So I put in place Plan..... (Now what is it?) .....oh yes Plan D!! I soldered up all the damage I had just done to the track (!!!!!) and added just one more break, 2 w
Isn't reality irritating at times!!!!!
In "Bells and Whistles" I said how I'd sorted the wiring for the storage loops (which feed into a return loop). Reality is that it doesn't quite work how I intended.
After lots of testing, I finally realised that because locos stop in different places as they cross the double break at the end of the loops, they are the cause of some odd ghost movements that were starting to seriously irritate me and prevented me moving onto the next part of the proj
With the continuous run (Circuits) panel made and the route selectors for the hidden loops fitted and working, attention has turned to wiring in the changeover sections in the loops and the cab control switches on the Circuits Panel.
I started out with a simple break in both rails towards the end of each storage loop so the locos would be driven in on the down controller and stop as they passed over the break. Then I put in a single break at the far end of the points ladder beyond the loco s
Well that's what you get when the wife goes on a girlie weekend to a spa - time to do what matters!
I have completed the second diode matrix (to control the exit from the loops), built the control panel for the circuits and storage loops, fixed it all in place and wired it in. What's more, it all worked first time. I can now control entry into and out of the loops by a single push button per loop and not have to think about how the train is being directed.
The long line of gree
OK, it may be crude and rather Heath Robinson, but at least I've made it myself and it works. Subtlety and tidiness will come with practice. This is the diode matrix to control the pointwork leading into the hidden storage loops. The con strip for the outgoing pointwork is in place at the bottom.
The route selection buttons are 4 meters away from the CDU and point motors, so to reduce loss to a minimum I have used a heavy duty CDU and mains cable. I now just hope the small push buttons
Below are some early photos of the storage loops.
The storage loops with the main line circuits in the foreground. Taken sometime in the summer 2012. Newton Purcell station will be over the loops on a higher level with the mainline visible to the front on the lower level.
The dumbell at the end of the storage loops, feeding back onto the main line circuits around the loft.
An early photo of the exit from the storage loops, leading into the dumbell. Elements of
Google provided me with details of the High Wycombe and District Model Railway Society and I made contact with one of the guys there. He invited me along as there is a large test track (incidently for O, OO and N gauge, DC or DCC!), many people to speak to about DC or DCC and he himself is a serial loco builder.
For a bottle of Port and a small amount of cash for materials, I became the proud owner of a well finished off Bulldog in 1936 shirtbutton livery. I have bought plates to name it "Pe
The layout has to tick various boxes for me. The first and foremost is operational interest. All my layouts as a teenager were tail-chasing train sets with some scenery apart from one which was a fiddleyard to small branch terminus, but they were boring to operate. What really got me about Peter Denny's Buckingham was the operational interest.
No matter how I redesigned the concept over the 30 years away from modelling, I kept coming back to Denny's three stations and fiddleyard.
I have
Thank you for reading my blog.
So why do it? And do what?
Well starting with the "what?", my project is a loft layout. And "why?"...well about 30 years ago, I stopped railway modelling, went to Uni, started a career, got married, had kids, furthered my career etc etc. Now one daughter is 20 and the other nearly 18 and I have a little time on my hands and a little space in the house (albeit in the loft).
Over the last 30 years I have mused on different layouts, read books and magazine
