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Further on the fiddle.

Kris

Entry posted by Kris

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Right, after several sessions of wiring and a session of fettling the new fiddle yard for Avonwick is nearly finished.

 

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As can be seen I have ended up with 4 through sidings and a pair of sidings, one for each direction. Doing this has tightened up the minimum radius that I was using so I will have to do some tweaking of the couplings to ensure that all the stock runs happily.

The wiring is currently a real mess and will need sorting out at some point in the future (after the RM meet at Taunton) but it works. All the sidings are automatically isolated it the route to them is not set. This has been done to try and eliminate the possibility of running a train into a point set against it and causing a short. Doing this has caused some headaches and a little swearing but I hope that in the long run it will be worth it. The whole thing is controlled by just 4 DPDT switches. These are currently just hanging loose so I need to sort these out before Taunton. I also hope to have a small panel that will show which route is set, though this is a "would like to have done", not something that has to be done.

 

Having done quite a bit of testing today I am happy that most of the point work is working as it should do. A couple of points have shown a need for a stiffer bit of wire connecting the tie bar sleeper with the point motor, this is something that I will have to source. I have also been unable to fully test the first point at each end as to do this I need to connect up to the rest of the layout, something that I hope to find time to do later this week.

 

What next?

Well before Taunton (so in the next 2 weeks) I must fully test the whole thing and sort out the switches.

I would like to have some form or route setting indicator.

Stock wise I have 3 Toplight coaches that need minimal finishing off, and a Hawksworth that needs its roof fitting and a pair of bogies making, so who knows which if any of these shall be ready in 2 weeks time. I think that that's most likely enough to be going on with.

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Chrislock

That's some fiddle yard Kris, in terms of train length.

What's the overall size of Avonwick now?

Anyone involved in the mysteries of wiring I am in complete empathy with now!

Taunton is a tad too far for me, but hope to catch up with you somewhere nearer soon. Aylesbury?

 

Chris

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Kris
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Fingers crossed Tom, maybe we can then sort of a time of fence posts at last laugh.gif

 

Chris, you might be luck in next spring, but until I know for sure I shall keep quiet on the location.

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bcnPete
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Nice work Kris

 

Looks like you are going to have some impressive long trains meandering through the landscape.

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SteveBedding

Quite impressive Kris, and certainly a vast improvement over the original configuration (though I'd have thought you could have squeeze a couple more sidings in there somehow...:P ). I hope to get down to Taunton for the show, so I'll get to have a good look at there.

 

But do you have enough stock for the amount of storage?

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Kris
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Nope, I don't have enough stock to fill the fiddle yard Steve. Bit of a novelty that, a modeller having a fiddle yard that they can't fill. Never mind, I shall just have to work at sorting out some new stock to sort that one out laugh.gif

 

Pete - Currently no plans for longer trains, they don't look right going through the station. Put more than 5 coaches on and they sort of overwhelm it.

 

Chris. I never answered all of your questions, sorry. The size of Avonwick has not expanded, well at least not since I converted it to the continuous run. It's just about 11ft long by 6 foot wide. When I first laid out the fiddle yard before adding in the dead end sidings the longest train could have been some 14 / 15 coaches. Having put in these extra sidings I think that I could fit in a minimum of 11 coaches + loco per loop (I've not tested it but some will be a coach or two more one might be one less). The dead end sidings should take 3 - 4 coach trains. So If I had them I could fit in some 50 + coaches on the layout. Given that I have less than a dozen coaches I have some way to go!

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Donw
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Nice work Kris. Shame I won't be able to see it at Taunton having moved from West Somerset. Hope to catch you sometime. I don't think there were any long trains on the line but it might be fun!

Don

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bcnPete
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Kris - I was thinking more long freight trains...just imagine fitting all those DG's... :blink:

 

Good luck with the show.

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Kris
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There are some reports of long trains on the line some of which I am rather very sceptical about, especially the 13 coach through train from Paddington.

 

Pete, DG's? Not likely. tongue.gif

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Kris
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As a brief update the first train well loco has successfully travelled round the whole layout including the new fiddle yard section, well the outermost track anyhow in both directions so, if nothing else works I now am confident that I will at least have something running at Taunton (well all other things being well laugh.gif ). Next step is to test it running through the other roads then add some coaches to the train.

The extensive testing, hard life hey. biggrin.gif

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