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War Department First World War Narrow Gauge Layout O-16.5 WDLR

Entries in this blog

Troublesome Trucks

Managing very effectively to divert myself from my aim of getting the actual layout finished I have addressed the problem of rolling stock. This came about as I needed some wagons to test the Baldwin with and it turned out that I only had three that were serviceable - not enough for a layout! I managed to resurrect two quite quickly, coupling had fallen off one and bogie off the other, giving a slightly more respectable five. I did take the opportunity to modify them even further though. I have
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Baldwin 98% finished and 95% running well

I guess I did have an unusually large head start on this loco (I started it about two years ago!), but the final push on completing has been pretty swift. Just some makers and number plates to etch, some crew to paint and add a couple of pipes and I am there. I gave it a bit of a dirty up but will finish off along with the rest of the stock with a grand dusting with the air brush - doing it all together to get consistency.   The DCC fit has turned out OK - not the neatest as it is possible to
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Of pony trucks and dodgy track

I have rather been enjoying myself with the new pony truck for the Baldwin, a nice little project, not too taxing and quickly producing a very neat and quite substantial little unit. But what's more, it seems to work! My track record (pun intended!), of keeping such things where they belong is not good so really pleased with myself. Have managed to fit the roller bearings and to compensate it. This was fairly straight forward, all I have done is to leave the frames slightly loose on the spacer w
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Where to get 9mm NON insulated wheels

My plans for building the ultimate pony truck for the (and all the others that are to follow!), Baldwin has hit a snag - the wheels are insulated from the axle thus making split chassis pick up a bit difficult. I know it is possible to add a bridging wire to the axle but as the axle is only 2mm that could be interesting.So, does anyone know where to get non insulated 9mm wheels? Another though I had was to just drill out the wheel to accept the bearing and then mount them on a stub axle but I th
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Even more wiring

I wouldn't actually have thought it possible but I have found even more wiring to do. Admittedly it is just a bit of tidying up and making a few things that were using test leads a bit more permanent. At long last I seem to have fixed the leaky roof in the studio which was letting copious amounts of water in along most of one side of the room every time it rained. It turned out to be one single roofing nail which was not hammered fully home but I had to dismantle most of the roof to find this wh
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Remarkable Baldwin Progress

With nothing better to do the other night I decided that I really ought to make some more progress on the steam engines so opened up the box of a Wrightlines Baldwin 4-6-0 that I started a couple of years ago and then shelved. I was pleasantly surprised at how much progress I had made.     I had detailed the backhead, fitted pickups to all wheels including the pony truck that I had fitted with a neat swinging and swiveling contraption. Then the reason I had shelved it appeared in the form o
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An Important step - and a huge sigh of relief!

It is not often that four pieces of plywood can be called a significant achievement but that is just what happened today. In my attempt to get more of the 'infrastructure' completed I tackled the thorny problem of transporting the boards. A trip to the local independent DIY shop last night resulted in a very handy four foot by three foot piece of ply being being sawn in quarters. I was rather worried that I might have to get an 8x4 but this piece was ideal and a good bit cheaper!   After rath
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More DCC fun but Simplex almost finished

What with Easter and a rather misguided camping trip which suffered every indignity the British weather could throw at it progress has been a bit slow and certainly not helped by DCC. Having finally found a chip that worked I got brave and downloaded a slightly better sound from the Digitrax web site - OK an 08 shunter is not ideal but until I manage to make my own sounds this will have to do - well it would if it worked! Download seemed to be fine but no sound. I seemed to remember that I had a
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The joys of DCC

Have actually managed to get the DCC sorted in the Simplex. I wired in another decoder (after disconnecting but not removing the first one), so had a glorious mess of wires. What it did proove though was that the first decoder was faulty so that will be going back very soon. So bit the bullet and chopped all the wires which then makes them really lovely to solder back together together again but is essential as not too much room to play with if it is going to be invisible. Here it is all install
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A Welsh adventure and a bit more Simplex

I am afraid that the start of the school holidays and an absurdly accurate weather forecast was just too much to resist so slightly before first thing on Monday I was off with the little one on an adventure to Snowdonia. After a very naughty breakfast at our favorite Siabod Cafe and an as advertised two minute erection of our tent we were greeted by a Garrett at Rhyd Ddu before a speedy and idyllic climb to the pointy bit of Snowdon . Next day was a fun day with canoeing in the morning followed
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Not so simple Simplex

The adjustable legs for the layout are finished and fitted and seem to work so am just about justified in playing with the Simplex kit but wish I hadn't! It all looked lovely - nice clean castings that interlocked perfectly and soldered up nicely only to find that the outer panels didn't stand a chance of fitting. I have made the protected version previously (basically the same but with doors), I don't remember any real problems but this one was just not going to work. It all boiled down to the
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More of the boring stuff

My resolve is still (pretty), strong and have plodded on with the rather boring but nonetheless, essential infrastructure tasks. Today it was a means of clamping the boards together a bit more firmly than the clasp clips allow. Those rather smart looking lightening holes in the ends are now really coming into their own. The outside ones are for the multitude of wires and the middle one for clamping. Here is the simple but effective solution - you will have to imagine the other end board;    
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Back in control

After a whole month, far too much wire and far, far too much money I have pretty much finished the control panel marathon. After tracking down a couple of dry joints all the lights work and whats more all the points move obligingly at the push of a button. Little Iz and I spent about an hour this evening just pushing buttons - not running trains - just pushing buttons! So here is the removable panel first which just attaches with dowels either on the side of the first scenic board or at the very
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Still wiring

Still bogged down with the wiring - am I glad I didn't leave this job to the last moment! I could actually have done this as all the points can be controlled via the DCC handset, this approach is just a bit easier I think and more fun! But having still not finished a whole month later is a bit much. I cannot believe how long it has taken, and how much wire! Again I am my own worst enemy as I have made things double difficult by wanting two identical and interconnected panels at each end, one of
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An unusual visitor

OK, a OO Black Five would not be unusual on many layouts but when the layout is 7mm narrow gauge I think it needs some explaining! You may remember the problems I was having with the Hunslet, well I finally came up with a way of testing the track out properly. Being Mothers day yesterday we had my in laws round which was quite convenient as my Father in Law has a rather nice DCC sound equipped Hornby Black Five. Now if something this size will run through, anything will! And guess what - it ran
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Biggest Train Set Ever!

I have spent (a rather exhausting day), at the biggest train set I have ever seen! Well that is what it seemed like. My first visit to the Statfold barn Railway seems to have left quite an impression on me. I don't think I can really describe it adequately at this time of night so do look it up but basically it is a collection of immaculately restored narrow gauge locos (with some real gems waiting to be restored), running very intensively on a fiendishly clever track layout. Why clever? It is t
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All Together Now!

After much deliberation I decided that my spectacular cock up on the control panel was due to a)messing about with it so much and b)not having the layout all together when I was working on it. So, to avoid any more problems I have cleared some junk and set it all up. This is principally so I can get the lengths of the cables between the panels correct but also so I can run some trains - well sort of! The good news is that the control panels do work but the trains don't! I have so much work to do
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One end finished

I was very strict with myself today and made myself finish off the panel and all the associated wiring rather than charging off and doing the other end! So, all the LED's are in and tested and the two points on this board all wired up and working properly.   I have also doubled up all the wiring to the push in terminals just to be on the safe side and fitted a D connector for the lead that will double up the control of these points to the other end. I did wonder if things might go a bit more s
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Control Freak

As promised , (or is that threatened!), here is an update on the control panel situation. I have been dreading doing this bit of the layout, and quite rightly as it turns out. Electrics and I are not exactly soul mates but I do seem to get there in the end but not without a bit of smoke! As usual I have probably also set my expectations higher than my abilities, anyway.....   As a bit of background, I have decided to build two identical panels, interconnected at each end of the layout so it ca
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Kinky

Progress on the control panel is still painfully slow and would not make for entertaining reading at the moment (saving it up for all in one go), so shall talk about something kinky instead! With the Hunslet (4-6-0), now picking up on almost all wheels - I have cut one of the spring pickups too short so will have to replace - I tried it on a section of the layout. Result - much better but...... It just won't run through a small section which, rather inconveniently is right at the the start so no
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A neat solution

A neat solution of finest malt is what I really fancy right now but will have to make do with this instead. As a bit of light relief from head scratching and blowing up LEDs in pursuit of the perfect control panel I turned my attention to the problem of adding pickups to the Hunslet pony truck and came up with this of which I am rather proud! I am sure that all the N gaugers out there will think that I have plenty of room to play with here but it proved an interesting challenge for me. After sev
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Rewiring

Have been hard at it this week getting some of the big things sorted out as promised, and as with most things, has taken far longer than I expected. Started off fairly simply with doubling up the connections to the point motors. The plug in connectors are handy but just don't seem to hold the wires well enough, so have doubled up with a second wire to the soldered tags. I may be my own worse enemy here as eventually came to the conclusion that the wire weren't holding in because I had used too
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Aye Aye Skipper!

At last - there is and end to the increasingly dreadful puns! The skips are finished and are just waiting for me to put the layout back together so they can have a little run. Quite remarkably, I even went as far as making some removable loads for them. I give you due warning -this is probably the most boring picture I have ever taken;     Yes, it is a piece of balsa with a small wood screw in it which you can't even see as I painted it black. Next (pretty boring), picture may show why;  
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Skipping a day or two

Having 'skipped' a few days I am now almost there on this over running project. Big family do and some proper work has resulted in a very over extended me and little physical progress. But.... maybe a bit of a psychological break through! After importing my Sister and family from Brighton for week end the least I could do was give a full demonstration of my magnum opus. Yes, rather a grand term for something with now just six months to go does not really add up to much. So, resolution is to stop
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