oooh-bay...

Entry posted by bcnPete September 13, 2012

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Update

Good afternoon - Various bits of progress this week on the layout, and with 'The Outlaws' just arrived back in town for another week, things may move a little slower during this period.

First up, trackwork. The first track laid was to the 'mainline' which is the one that folds up/down to increase/minimise the width of the layout. The sleepers that had been pre-painted in the last entry were laid with easitrac white adhesive (it sets pretty rapidly) and a few brass lost wax sleepers have been positioned at the ends for strength and also for wiring connections between boards - Note to self: remember to run the disc cutter through the brass sleepers to prevent head scratching when the controller shorts...

I had wanted to drill small holes in the edges of the brass sleepers to locate some droppers (I think I recall Bryn doing this and it was very neat) but the holes I drilled were too small and so I reverted to turning the sleepers upside down and trying to solder in the small preformed holes beneath the chairs :nono: Of course, having tinned the base, once I turned it over, I realised all the solder had flooded and closed up the chairs :no: so that was one sixpack of those trashed...so I will have a rethink on that...

Secondly, the platform base was formed generating said bay. This has been built from 1mm white card and I am not sure how I will develop this. I normally use wet n dry on the surface, but this time I was tempted to use the scalescenes platform download as I can also use the brick bases...have used them for my sons 4mm layout but did find they seem to delaminate after a while...again, need to rethink that...

The track was then laid for the bay platform road as above and this time a few holes were predrilled beneath so positioned for the wire droppers.

By chance in the rummage box I managed to find a 'Cockrobin' 2 aspect signal that must be over 20+ years old so I positioned it to see how it looks. This is only a placeholder, as Matt from Absolute Aspects is making two signals at present, but it's not bad for its age...I recall at the time it was quite a breakthrough as most N signals had been grain o wheat bulbs and these were bright LED's. Not sure if it still works as I have lost the instructions. I am no electrician, but there's a green wire and a red wire...which I'm pretty sure I know what they relate too ...but the Blue one Must be the power...but I can't remember if it was 12vDC or other...seem to remember a resistor in the mix too...sorry, am rambling now...

Lastly, I marked out positions for the canopy, which on the prototype seems to cover only half of the platform in the bay. This suits me, as the layout was conceived so that this would sit on one platform half once folded in the boxfile. The canopy has a pretty decorative awning too (Thanks for the pic Nick) and probably the best way to deal with this would be an etch. Trouble is, will I get my act together to draw it in CAD and see whether any other modellers have spare space on their etches to get it fabricated in time for the exhibition? The legs and support structure will be Evergreen I-section and to check on heights for the roof I have mocked up a small test canopy framework. Using an oblique pic of the awning found on the web, I scaled it and printed and have attached it to the ends of the test canopy...as you will see from the pics, it all fits nicely...so all those drunken sketches done at high altitude working out dimensions seem to have paid off to date.

In other news, some more rolling stock arrived from Hattons today, including a nice rake of Bachfar Seacow/sealions, some TTA's and parcels stock. I will save this for another update perhaps once they have been weathered etc.

Lastly, after reading that interesting thread running at present on layout names, I thought I had better adjust the name of the layout to Paddock Wood Bay (in a boxfile) as after all, as with Kyle was, its only an extract of the place, which I hope conveys the location and I don't want peeps to arrive at the exhibition to see Paddock Wood and expect to see a four track mainline with two bays, freight sidings etc etc :blush: So Paddock Wood Bay it is from now on.

Enough of this waffle...a few pics to better demonstrate...

EDIT: Thanks to Kris, I now have a copy of the wiring instructions for the signal - FYI, The power is 12v DC and the blue wire runs through a resistor to the negative and the positive connects to the chosen switch.