Hi,

Lot's of hard work has been going into the fiddle yards over the last week, so there are a number of things that need to be covered.

07/07/2012

In the last blog entry, I mentioned that we were going to be working on Modules B and C, hopefully with a view to finishing them both off. We managed to finish Module B, but Module C needs a bit more work as we had to replace the cork underlay on it as it was lifting. It was a really hot day when we applied the underlay and either the glue dried too quickly or we managed to trap air underneath it. Anyway, not too much of a problem as we've been able to work on other things while one of our members replaces the underlay.

Here are a couple of pics of Modules B with Module A lined up as well.

08/07/2012

One of the bigger jobs to do was to prepare the Seep PM1 point motors so that they were ready for installation on Modules A / E. The Seep PM1s have solder pads to connect the feeds for the solenoid motors and also to provide the frog switching or signal control. In order to try and make these units a little bit more friendly to replace in a hurry, we fit terminal strip to the motor. This is done by adding wire jumpers to the motor which then connect to terminal strip. This picture shows a motor going through the various install stages.

We are currently installing 20 motors to provide the initial 5 lanes each way on the Fiddle Yard. In this pic, I'm 2hrs 20min in and it's 10 down and 12 to go.

Phew, 3hrs 40min later, thats 22 ready to go.

Here's one that's good enough for a closeup

09/07/2012

Here are a few pics of the point motors having been fitted to the Fiddle Yard end Modules A / E. We have chosen to mount the Seep motors using spacers between them and the baseboard. In our case we have chosen to use inexpensive 3/4" replacement tap washers. They come in bags of 100 and cost only a few pounds.

A bit more work on Module B. Terminal Strip has been added to connect the DCC bus with the track droppers. The droppers themselves have been measured, cut, tinned and are ready for the bus wiring.

Cheers, Mark.