RodneyV

A very small pub?

The next stage in my layout has been some carpentry. I'm using the brass alignment dowels to align the baseboards. There are 8 baseboard joins and I have one down, with seven more to go. One of the challenges I have had has been finding a suitable turntable. This has now been found being a HO 60ft one with stepper motor and made for DCC. It will comfortably hold a J39 which I brought with me to the store. I'm not sure what code the rail is and the sleeper spacing looks HO like, but as I will be building my track by hand this should be a challenge I can tackle.

After a mid-life crisis, I have had a change in model railway direction. Rest assured I haven't moved to the darkside (I will let you work out what that is). Hence, my last layout is now gone and I am now building an exhibition layout. To that end, the plywood has been purchased and cut to size. I finally have a plan designed by a great designer and friend that is about 99.9% perfect. Building it will be the challenge. I shared the plan with my wife and daughter and said I will get it done to my daughter before you finish university. It will be a busy 3 years! To give some context, in Sydney, there are nothat is zero OO gauge British Layouts on the exhibition circuit that I have seen. So for the sake of the BRMA which I am a member I will be building an exhibition layout. It is much easier signing people up for the group when you have a layout on exhibition in my opinion.

Manna, Looks great. I bought a coach as well very recently not from 'Woodcock 29' but at the BRMA convention. Thanks for the photos. Rodney

I believe we call it 12 inches to the foot.

Hi Kym, Great to see the progress on your layout. Hopefully I will see it in the flesh next year. Regards Rodney

Hi Iain, I have a few HL gearboxes coming my way next week. I hope to construct one of my kits and I was just wondering where did you source your motors from? Rest assured, I haven't got 30 kits to build only about 8 at the most. I am going to start with either a J69 fro SEF. I'm in NSW hence my interest. Regards RodneyV

Hi Alphonsus, A couple of options that I have used are removable hinges for a control panel mounting. The other was picture frame mounts. The pull-down tray sounds a bit difficult as far as integrating into a model railway setup. The options I used at leat means I can work on the control panel away from the layout if required. Regards Rodney

Hi St Enodoc, Looking at https://www.stationcolours.com/gwr I think a cream colour would make it look GWR like or maybe a stone colour reflecting what a station might have looked like.

Hi Jesse, Great to hear you got your Harley. I imagine it is a very quiet bike. It is interesting how you talk about your 'mojo'. I could say the same thing, I'm just busy with everything else that I need to get done. I bought some brass wagon kits. I really should give them to you as I won't be getting near them for a couple of decades at the pace I'm going. All the best Rodney

Interesting you should say that. I went to a wedding where the song played should have been "Highway to Hell". It didn't end well for the couple.

As can be seen from my posting , there has been no action on Radford. In fact if I had an armchair, I think I could be considered one of those modellers. I have been doing a lot of thinking however. Despite this I have been active as the BRMA Sydney area rep, trying to organise meetings when you can't hold meetings. I'm sure that will change for the better soon. Being the area rep means I get to help with model railway items not required by grieving families, people downsizing or my most recent one. Just as I had my study looking presentable. I now have 6 boxes filled with 120 issues. On a more positive note I have been "occupationally challenged" since the 04th of December. Happily for me, I start a new role on the 27th of January. Your Model Railway Village.docx

Hi Aardvark, Thanks for the video, with your new found skills you should be able to lay a yard of track a week. The track laying should be finished in no time at all! Regards Rodney

Hi Dean, The pattern makers dowels are excellent. I wished I used them on all joining basebaords for my layout instead of 1/4 bolts. Even with my best efforts some parts of the layout didn't maintain the level of horizontal alignment I would prefer. At least I will know for next time. Regards Rodney

All, I am successfully finding ways to make things harder than they need to be. In a perfect world I wouldn't have any gradients or hidden parts to the layout. However I will have gradients, therefore multi levels and hidden parts to the layout. Years ago I wrote an article on Railroad & Co as a way to control my layout. I have used about 10% of its functionality. Maybe 5%. One of the challenges has been letting the RR & Co know where trains are on the layout. Being the bright spark I am, I did a bit of research and thought all I need is wheelsets with a resistor on them and the blocks will show as occupied. I bought all of the bits including small resistors, conductive paint and clear nail polish. I put together two wheel sets which behaved on one side of the layout. They worked. I thought this is pretty easy. On the other side of the layout with a different brand of Block Occupancy Detectors it sort of works. The BD20 detector lights up, the AIU (NCE products) lights up, the control panel lights up (all indicating occupancy). But do you think RR & Co does? You guessed it, no. However, I'm exploring a cunning plan to get around this. All of the bits use are part of the Command Bus, I think that is what it is called through a thing called a UTP. The UTP will split the bus or was it buss and has the ability for longer runs to be powered. My next step will be to power it (the UTP) and see if that improves RR & Co sensing the wagons with the resistor wheel sets attached. I told you I'm making things harder than they need to be. I hope everyone is keeping well. Regards Rodney

Hi Mick, I've also purchased the DCC Concepts above baseboard point motors and decided after a few hours it was all too hard. Rest assured I had them fitting and working and the linkage unlinked itself and that was the end of it. The concept I believe is excellent, the electronics side is great. It is just the robustness of the motor and the link to the point is the let down. I couldn't see them operating reliably. The area I had them positioned will be hidden, hence my desire to change to another mode of operation. Thanks for your thread. Regards Rodney

Hi Folks, I was searching for weights that I had bought previously to ensure my wagons have a consistent weight for coupling purposes. During my search, I discovered a large number of projects from many years past that haven't been completed. Therefore for the next 12 months, that is up to July-21, I am going to concentrate on finishing all of my little projects. The first one linked with DCC and block occupancy is to add resistors to wheels so they trigger the blocks I have in RR & Co. After using the resources of the internet, I completed my first wheel and magically it worked. I've also decided to go the darkside (not O gauge) and move back to Kadee's. Rest assured, I still have all of my DG frets, etc, but it is all too hard at present. The Kadee's have provided some challenges which I have been overcoming slowly but surely. Regards Rodney

Same here. i'm looking forward to seeing the scenery on Andrew (Woodcock29's) layout.

Hi Baz, Great to see the progress with your layout. My first gradient has an A4 easily moving 5 Bachmann Mk 1's out of the part of the layout I call Rest of the World or London. I have a Hornby B17 which didn't pull the 5 Bachmann Mk 1's at all. I think it could manage 4, but I haven't tested it yet. The gradient is about 1 in 60 by the way. I suppose the next step for me will be to add weight to the B17. Then I thought I should just make it a regional train with a 4 coach limit. Take care. The UK seems to be a scary place to live at the moment. Regards Rodney

Hi Anthony, It is coming along nicely. Well done. Are you planning to have your layout be on the BRMA Brisbane Convention layout tour next year? It would be great to see it with trains running. I think it will be about 18 months away. Thanks Rodney

I think we should encourage Barry O to holiday in the more parched parts of Australia.

Hi Kym, Surely this could be an article for the TCH. You have enough words and picures for a couple of pages. Regards Rodney

Hi Folks, It has been an interesting few days in sunny Sydney. During my time being "occupationally challenged", I had an old work colleague Matt (a professional landscaper), install some drainage at the front and down the side of my house. The aim was to ensure the garage didn't flood during the more extreme wet weather. Unfortunately, it did. But I wasn't surprised, as water went everywhere. Parts of the house that have never had rain come in leaked. The mailbox had about 10mm of water in it. The garage door never gets wet on the top half and it was soaked. The backyard is still very wet. As an aside, on Sunday I went to Kurmond for my sister-in-laws birthday get together. On the way over we crossed the North Richmond Bridge and thought the river looks high. It took one hour to get there and 4 to get back going the long (scenic way). we took the Bells Line of Road. This road had a lot of fire damage on both sides. However, some trees had green leaves growing back already. The railway is now drying out. If this is the biggest of my problems, I'm doing quite allright.

Hi Anthony, Sorry for creating all of this work for you. Your revised plan looks like it will solve all of the potential issues I suggested might arise. Well done to you. A question. Is Holyhead the same as Bangor. I'm just trying to get my head around how it all fits together. Thanks Rodney

Hi Anthony, I've been thinking about your track plan recently. With my layout in its first guise, I had loco's supposedly go to the end of the storage road, uncouple, reverse on turntable and go to start of the train, recouple and head back to the layout. All good in theory. However, the uncoupling was haphazard with Kadee's. The Kadee shuffle was required, the turntable a very expensive (to me), but not very good Heljan and the risk element was very high, as the whole section was to be under another part of the layout. My new very elegant solution (time will tell), will involve the trains running into storage sidings, reversing on a yet to be made reversing loop and back to the rest of the layout. Why am I sharing this? Just make sure you don't have to touch your trains when they are in the hidden areas. I see you have traversers in place. Great concept, but the risk with uncoupling and recoupling the trains by the looks of it (underneath your layout) will be great. I strongly suggest you test the concept to see if it will work. It would be better if the trains can run in and then run out, with no physical contact required with the train. I'm modelling in OO Gauge and I've decided to ditch the Kadees for DG Couplers and I am also using Railroad and Co. As this is a 99.9% solitary hobby, if i am going to have any hope of running to a timetable, I will want to automate where I can. I therefore think it would be prudent to get a train running if you haven't done so already and complete a loop. It is a great feeling.