The Servo motors arrived this week, and to my great surprise the Servo4 board and Setting box worked flawlessly. A simple support cradle was swiftly assembled this morning from offcuts of ABS sheet. When assembled, the complete unit was mated with the turnout, and in-situ testing started.
Unfortunately the turnout would not fully throw in one direction. A bit of discreet measurement showed that addition of all the working tolerances meant that the pivot point for the lever arm, was too c
Not a negative title- the next task on Maxstoke is to sort out the operation of the turnouts. I had anticipated digging into my stock of Fulgarex mechanisms, but these are really massively oversized for the task and the layout.
Mike Randall has been working up a mechanism to use with the MERG servo units, and having seen the size of the mini servos I have decided to try these out. The first task was to join MERG!
That done, and this morning the first Servo 4 kit arrived. For those who ar
After spending a great day at the controls of JBS' Ashburton layout, I was very impressed by some of the very simple conversions of proprietry stock. Operating to a schedule was fun too, giving some meaning to driving trains- at least it is not aimless. Trying to get a particular movement for each train adds purpose and keeps the mind going.
Lambourn needs horse boxes, the last outing at Aldershot exposed a real lack of appropriate stock, and Richard Brummitt's great conversions of the Lima box
Standard TOUs are many and various. I doubt that there is anything truly original in this, but it is offered for interest's sake.
The baseboards for Maxstoke are of a low profile, so a reasonably discreet unit is required. Eventually the design will incorporate mountings for frog switching microswitches, but this is a trial unit to test the system. Firstly I wanted the unit to be as simple as possible. the points were originally made with my standard moving sleeper tie bar, which has pivoted
It's been a while since I posted any updates here so, dear reader, I can assure you that progress, although slow is not non-existant. A couple of weekends ago Mike Randall and I spent a few days with Peter Clark in Southwold, and we produced a novel portable test track, of which more details will be released later, My one has to have the tracks laid on i,. but Peter's was completed with N standard, N (shinohara code 40 fine), 2mm Finescale, and NN3 tracks laid and wired.
Maxstoke's trackwork
It's been a while since I posted any updates here so, dear reader, I can assure you that progress, although slow is not non-existant. A couple of weekends ago Mike Randall and I spent a few days with Peter Clark in Southwold, and we produced a novel portable test track, of which more details will be released later, My one has to have the tracks laid on i,. but Peter's was completed with N standard, N (shinohara code 40 fine), 2mm Finescale, and NN3 tracks laid and wired.
Maxstoke's trackwork
Searching around the Web there are a number of other sites that have prototype information, including some pictures of the site at present. http://www.railaroundbirmingham.co.uk/Stations/coleshill.php
This site has some colour images of the station prior to demolition, and seems to indicate a doorway through the wall at the rear of the platform to what I assumed was the station house garden. This door does not feature in my model (I may have to make ammendments!)
http://www.photobydjnorton
Searching around the Web there are a number of other sites that have prototype information, including some pictures of the site at present. http://www.railaroundbirmingham.co.uk/Stations/coleshill.php
This site has some colour images of the station prior to demolition, and seems to indicate a doorway through the wall at the rear of the platform to what I assumed was the station house garden. This door does not feature in my model (I may have to make ammendments!)
http://www.photobydjnorton
Prototype notes
I promised that I would give some background to the model. In doing so I must point out that the accompanying pictures and illustrations are taken from Roger Waring’s book ‘The StoneBridge Railway’ published by Brewin Books. Copyright is acknowledged.
The station was also known as Coleshill, but I have chosen to retain the earlier name of Maxstoke (modeller’s licence!). The track plan, as can be seen, was very simple. For interest I have extended the siding to form a lo
A while back I mentioned that I had been busy making a portable test track. Two have been built, one for Peter Clark (who conceived the idea), and this one.
Case closed.
.
The basis is a cheap aluminium snooker cue case. The innards are ripped out, and replaced with a baulk of timber, on which the track is laid.
the overall case dimensions are 34" long, 3" wide 2"mm high. the internal timber is 2 1/2" x 3/4".- length to suit.
Case open for business
I left the timber a bit shor
I managed to get my self talked into obtaining a hand held PICtrollerfor Lambourn, to replace the original AMR hand held.
It works great on Farish (Poole) mechanisms, but is frankly hopeless with coreless types.
Nothing wrong with the controller, so I'll not return it, but not really a happy buy ????
I guess it was inevitable, after 40 years since Allen built the original mode, and many years of exhibition damage, the acquisition of a kitten finally put paid to it. Very sad, but it has given me the opportunity to build a new model, which is now complete, bar the cable and hook. Those will be fitted when the new model gets reinstated.
This blog was originally set up to document progress on my Midland Railway modelling, and layout Maxstoke. So after a brief excursion to GWR metals, and a rummage through the gloat box, the next loco has been started. This will be based on an etched (10 thou NS) originally produced by Nick Dearnally many years ago, under the name of Lodge Coachworks. The basic etch components are reasonably well defined, Those on my etch are marginally mis-aligned, and some of the etch fold lines were less defi
Hello everyone-
I have been foolish and accepted (perhaps I offered?) to dust off Alan Martin's finescale model of Lambourn for an upcoming show. I acquired this layout a number of years ago, and it has rarely been shown since. I have to say I'm quite excited by the opportunity to get things running again. At it's last showing the shuttle failed, and I never got round to fixing it.
The first task this weekend has been to (find) and renovate the layout legs. These are made solidly from 2"
Now that the Servo TOU's have been installed, it is time to start thinking about groundwork. On Copenhagen Fields the majority of the 'world' is plywood, being covered with buildings. Here at Maxstoke I am going back to open country, so the basic ground former for the foreground land is based on artist's chicken wire stapled to plywood formers. Over this is painted on a liberal quantity of white PVA and strips of newspaper- both on top and under the chicken wire.
Now chicken wire is ok, but
Following a good day at Railex in Aylesbury meeting old friends, and making new ones too, I have returned home with renewed enthusiasm
This afternoon I have been mostly making gears for my Dapol GWR 2-6-2 conversion.
These are to be M0.3 and the first is 14 tooth, machined directly onto a muff as the first gear in the final reduction train.
The pictures show the milling set-up for this tiny gear, with the resulting muff ready for drilling to 1.5 dia for the stub axles.
The show at Epsom went well. (Thanks to Justin and Mark for their time operating etc). The new MERG Shuttle work well enough, although the deceleration/delay times could be longer. This may need either a reset chip or adjustment to resistor /capacitors.
The Platform siding rails at the board joint took a bash loading into the car - although repaired a bit they will need relaying.
Valentin brought along his new C Class which runs as well as it looks.
The operating schedule didn't last
Whilst reviewing the photo showing the basic formwork for the ground it was noticeable that the siding has not been fitted with any buffers. So I thought I'd better provide some. Typical rail built Midland style buffers are described in MRJ issue 121, and now adorn the Northern end of the siding.
At Chelford I managed to acquire three of these kits from Jerry's bits stand, and thought that they would compliment Lambourn well, I later learn that fish was also carried in these wagons. Anyhow two weekends later and progress is good. The kit goes together well, but in future I'll add the details to the framing before fitting to the sides. Less of a heat sink that way.
So a few bits to tidy up then the paint shop.,,,
Then brake rigging and decals
