It's over a month since I last posted on here so I should perhaps give an update.

The new layout, first referred to in "EM at Honley Tank", has been in store since I thought I had solved my servo problems.

Partly this is because spring time re-awakens the garden so that the greenhouse needs cleaning and tidying, seeds need sowing to propagators, lawns need mowing etc.etc.; - all jobs I enjoy almost as much as modelling, (but I may be telling lies!).

Partly too, this has been because my two S4 layouts, locos and stock were in much need of some TLC.

Another time-taker was Scalefour North at Wakefield, at which, while I'm no longer in the Scalefour Society, the present day organising team are still willing to have Margaret & I on the stewards roster. Time-taker certainly, but very enjoyable time and both of us were happy to again meet old friends and make some new ones.

With all of that, 'Wheegram Sidings' has seen negligible activity for some few weeks and there has been little on which to report.

Easter Monday saw the layout unfolded and set up for running. Pleasingly this was achieved in less than ten minutes and I was able to partake of some train playing. However this shunting session showed up several areas that need tweaking. The double slip is less than perfect with more than one tight spot and at least an equal number of loose spots; - most irritating to an operator.

It was also irritating to find that two of the three locos converted to EM wheel standards performed at a level below my expectation and will have to be re-shopped. The J50, which has scraper pick-up on the outer wheels needs an improved current collection system because it loses its connection to the track much too frequently for smooth slow running, and I appear to have managed to get one wheel of the J72 less than perfectly square to its axle; a fault which high-lighted the tight/loose points on the double slip!

Even more irritating was the realisation that my solution to the servo problem was not quite as clever as I had originally thought. The push-button that I had added to the electrical supply to the 'Servo4' board did the intended job perfectly, but what I had not foreseen was that double-pole change-over switches that switch the individual servos, also switch the lights on the mimic panel. These latter show the selected route on the mimic track plan and make setting the double slip roads some-what easier than without this indication. Indeed this was the very reason that I moved from simple hand-operation of the points to a point-motor system, I needed an illuminated mimic diagram to help me correctly set the double slip!

Because the lights on the mimic panel have a different electrical supply to that for the servos, the push-button switch has absolutely no effect on the lights; - only the servos. Accordingly it is now possible to operate the point switches (levers) and the relevant LEDs light up to show the chosen route, but the route is not set until the push-button is pressed. I found it very easy to forget that all-important pressing! Those little grey cells will need to be re-applied to this little problem, - or they will need a good talking to and instructed to stop forgetting things. (Some hope there then!)