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Cheddar P4 2018 review


ullypug

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First of all, happy new year to everyone! Hope you had a good festive break.
As we start 2018 I thought I'd do a brief review of progress on Cheddar.
I spent the year wiring the s8dding thing. Seriously, that's it. Oh and doing battle with the lever frame, which is connected to yet more wiring in the panel. And I hate wiring.
This may be why I was so easily side tracked building an engine for Clevedon and the PDSWJR brake van and embryonic cameo layout to match, and building a few wagons, and so on...
At that rate Cheddar's never going to be finished so I'm going to devote a bit more time and attention to it this year.
In my last post I'd already finished the board 4, which is the board to which the panel is connected and therefore from which all the wiring looms disperse. I was feeling really rather pleased that I could plug two controllers in and run two engines simultaneously.
The next board towards Wells is number 5 and contains the signal box, goods shed and platform ends. Thankfully it only has three turnouts to worry about.
Now originally I started building track at the Wells end and when I got to this point realised that the alignment in the down goods yard was not to my liking, requiring a sharp curve to meet the end of the incoming line from the slip. I was pondering whether to leave it as it is but as soon as I joined the boards together again the EM modeller in me became suppressed by the P4 alter ego and I realised I was going to have to do something about it.
With a bit of realignment, principally involving the swapping of the hand of one of the turn outs, I was able to ease the curve and ended up with a much more pleasing flow. Trackwork was adjusted on the board top by eye, rather than with Templot. In effect the two ends were fixed anyway. All seems successful. The track in question is the far left under the wagon and yes I realise the wagon is not on the track either!!
After this achievement, I duly set up wiring the boards, using my now usual method of Palatine droppers and a shed load of wire. Happily the board has just been finished which leaves just two to do and I think they're just plain tracks with no turnouts (hooray!!).
So, an awful lot of waffle to say: board 5 track realigned, wired and working.

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Your re-aligned track looks good. It's odd how once the idea forms that something isn't quite right, it burrows into your brain until you can't see anything else and it just has to be sorted out. I'm sure you'll keep looking at the new arrangement and think "Yeh!"

The other good point you make is that however long one leaves a job, or divert on to alternative projects, the issue doesn't seem to resolve itself. I kept putting off the cobbled area in the goods yard on Delph/Holt, but months later, when I went back to it, it had failed to do itself in the meantime. I was quite put out.

Of course, when I did get down to it, the whole thing was easier than I had anticipated, as is nearly always the case.

Happy modelling in 2018.

Dave.

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I'm afraid that some people (not you Andrew) are besotted by Templot - it is not the panacea some people think, and sometimes the MK1 human eyeball can do a better job.

 

Excellent work though, I don't envy that wiring ...

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Your re-aligned track looks good. It's odd how once the idea forms that something isn't quite right, it burrows into your brain until you can't see anything else and it just has to be sorted out. I'm sure you'll keep looking at the new arrangement and think "Yeh!"

The other good point you make is that however long one leaves a job, or divert on to alternative projects, the issue doesn't seem to resolve itself. I kept putting off the cobbled area in the goods yard on Delph/Holt, but months later, when I went back to it, it had failed to do itself in the meantime. I was quite put out.

Of course, when I did get down to it, the whole thing was easier than I had anticipated, as is nearly always the case.

Happy modelling in 2018.

Dave.

Thanks, and to you too!

 

 

I'm afraid that some people (not you Andrew) are besotted by Templot - it is not the panacea some people think, and sometimes the MK1 human eyeball can do a better job.

 

Excellent work though, I don't envy that wiring ...

Indeed. Of course when you double up every dropper to build in 100% redundancy it does add up somewhat.

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Some nice neat wiring there, Andrew. I do like neat wiring. The tangle under some layouts makes me feel quite ill. Well done!

 

Looking forward to more Cheddar in 2018!

 

David

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Nice work Andrew. Good to see you haven't abandoned it all for 7mm yet ;-)

 

I yearn for the day when we'll have radio controlled points with no wires! (or do they already exist?).

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Some nice neat wiring there, Andrew. I do like neat wiring. The tangle under some layouts makes me feel quite ill. Well done!

 

Looking forward to more Cheddar in 2018!

 

David

Thanks. Not every board is as neat mind you!

 

Nice work Andrew. Good to see you haven't abandoned it all for 7mm yet ;-)

 

I yearn for the day when we'll have radio controlled points with no wires! (or do they already exist?).

No, because I haven't worked out how to build a 7mm point using code 100 FB rail and timber sleepers yet!

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