NorthHighlander

Reopening this topic after nearly five years, I would be grateful for expert eyes to be cast over my layout signalling plans..... Penhafod Upper is a P4 layout based on a Taff Vale Railway branch terminus in the late 1950s. The branch was built to serve a small colliery, unusually located at the top of the hill rather than in the valley. This is my first stab at the locking table, so any comments gratefully received... Just in case you are wondering if this is a pipe dream layout... here is the progress so far (mind you it was in this state when first assembled in 1978!) The layout will be fully signalled and interlocked. 'Trehafod North Junction' at the bottom of the 1:50 gradient, is actually a fiddle yard: (apologies for the orientation, I can't seem to rotate it..) Tony Hagon

Hello Dave... Our apologies.... the website was down earlier, and it's back up and running again. We had a DNS problem, now resolved. ..back to the coalface to maintain momentum on our new developments. Best regards Tony Hagon Director Acc+Ess Ltd protocab.com

May I please be permitted the privilege to respond to the interesting and very welcome recent comments about Acc+Ess Protocab, welcome because we need to know what modellers are looking for and what you think about our products and plans? I hope that this response, while being detailed, is not too lengthy, and I apologise if it is. Firstly, responding to forest2807's comment: before I do, I'll refer to Mike Storey's note on 5 Mar 16 in which he asks for a wealth of 'how I did it' examples, and I want to thank publicly the Protocab Owners who have written articles for our Club Protocab newsletters including a host of detailed photos, and given their permission to add them to our website. Help! I have the material for at least ten videos to edit based on the installations we have carried out for customers.... but since the last video, I haven't had a chance to edit the photos, and upload them. I WILL, I promise! Now to answer forest 2807... great minds, eh? You posted at 14.03 on Saturday, and at that time we were putting the final touches to the announcement which we sent out a day later! I hope that we have covered at least some of the points and suggestions that you made. The important point made is the effort required to convert locos to Protocab operation. When we first launched demos of Protocab in April 2012, we envisaged that our market would be scratch or kit build modellers, who would design, in the loco, room for the battery, LCU and, crucially, the Plug Charging Unit. Also, they would not have to contend with the large chassis block typical in ready-to-run models to provide adhesive weigh, which led us to believe that we would not appeal to modellers with RTR locos. How wrong we were! Over 90% of our modellers have told us that they have installed Acc+Ess Protocab in RTR locos, and, inevitably, some 'surgery' is necessary, as simple as, e.g. normally having to remove the holding spigots in loco tenders because they get in the way of the space for the battery and charging unit. As we speak, I am finishing off a conversion of a Hornby Fowler 2-4-6T for a customer, and the only way I could get the battery, LCU and charging point into the loco and not be obtrusive into the cab, or overly-harming the fabric of the loco body was to lop off the extension of the chassis block above the trailing bogie. It requires an alternative chassis fixing. 50% of all sales enquiries we receive ask if we can fit Protocab for them, hence our announcement that we will be offering what has hitherto been an ad hoc service, namely providing a fitting service at what we hope will be seen as a reasonable charge. Our problem, and a nice one to have, is that demand so far is causing us to appeal for modellers and others who might be able to assist us with additional resource. The long term solution is for RTR manufacturers to make provision for Protocab fitments, but I have been disappointed so far by the response to our appeal to a number of manufacturers for Acc+Ess to buy their locos for us to convert and resell. There are four aspects to conversion which we hope the new announcements will simplify: 1. remove the need for a solid installation of the plug charging unit, which typically limits where it can be installed not only to accommodate the plug, but to be unobtrusive. The plug needs some force to ensure a safe and secure attachment and modellers understandably prefer not to have to hold the loco. The solution ultimately is full wireless induction charging, and we have announced the first product range for delivery later this year. Meanwhile, the interim solution is the 9610 Contact Charging Unit, where modellers are commenting on a range of ways that they intend to use it, mainly retaining wheel pickups, but including e.g. insulated buffers! 2. remove the need for a Locoswitch, where the copper pad is inserted inside the loco as a touch pad and a suitable location found. The location of the Locoswitch and the LCU to which it is attached is limited to the available space in the loco. With the new announcement, the loco can now be switched on from the new 0241 Touch Controller. (the LCU still switches the loco off automatically after a time of inactivity). 3. the shape of the battery: we introduced prismatic flat form in 2015 always with the intention of introducing cylindrical form to fit into boiler/smokeboxes. The issue we have addressed is finding high quality, reliable batteries which are UL62133 certified and fitted with an effective protection circuit at bulk purchase volumes which are reasonable both for us and the suppliers. 4. many modellers have told us that they are not adept at soldering, which is understandable, and the need to solder the two wires from the LCU to the motor is a concern for them. We have therefore announced support for an adaptor which can be plugged into the DCC ready socket, the two wires from the pickup going to the new charging unit, two wires from the LCU going to the motor pins of the DCC socket both of which have suitable connected at the Protocab end (and a future release will cater for the existing loco lighting). This will genuinely mean no soldering at all. So, forest2807, don't be ashamed to say that the effort required to convert has put you off, it's up to us to provide you with a satisfactory solution and we hope that manufacturers will help as well. May I now please answer Richard Lee and Mike Storey's notes, both very welcome members of Club Protocab! Yes, Richard, you are right, you can use the wheels and a charging track, but because I, as a modeller, HATE pickups, and I am modelling Brighton in P4 as it was in 1959/60, I aim to use this method to collect power current from the third rail. You are also right in describing 'free running', letting one (or more) locos run on their own while shunting under control with another. I am sorry that you could not complete your visit to the website, however, we haven't yet updated it with all the new features. If you do encounter a problem with the website in future, we'd love to hear from you so that we can correct it. We are moving in incremental steps, and we hope that even now we are providing value for money. We always specify the highest tolerance components for reliability and I won't alter this policy. We also have direct contact with our suppliers in the UK, including the PCB assemblers and test houses we use and with whom we have continuous dialogue to help us to use their experience in many other industries to improve our designs and bills of materials. We are updating the website regularly as the new products take shape, and we thrive on your comments and suggestions. Thanks for this opportunity to respond. Best regards Tony Hagon Director Acc+Ess Ltd

.... it's been a long time since the last update and, as ever, progress has been slower than planned. (Board 1 in progress - 25 of the 2 turnouts now completed, so much easier when you don't have to worry about crossing polarity or insulated tie bars! Basic coat of Humbrol Track Colour which will be weathered in due course, as will the Bachmann Mogul) Over the winter and with the help of a local craftsman (he runs the local tractor club and I give them lectures on railways, so he helps me in return) I built all the baseboard supports, which I'll describe in the next blog. These now give a datum for the baseboards so that I can measure the gradients with respect to each other and drill and fix the alignment dowels in place. I also built the weighhouse shown in the photo. (Don't look at the roof too carefully - it isn't finished yet and only laid down briefly to take the photo. It has to have the edge slates straightened out and barge boards fitted). This was constructed from a carcase of some rather dense 3mm foamboard I had left over from an exhibition posterboard years ago. It's supremely solid and warpfree and I'd love to know what it is. It cuts well with a VERY fresh and sharp scalpel. A number of plasticard layers were copydexed to it and I used a piece of frosted 500micron sheet in front of which I have placed clear glazing. You could never see into the weighhouse so the frosting represents this very well. The window frames were laser cut for me by Jonathan Buckie from dxf drawings I supplied him. Once again the generous folk who put their photos up on the internet are to be applauded because there's no way otherwise I could have worked out the dimensions. Unfortunately I got them wrong. I used Evergreen V grooved planking for the wood face, assuming the planks to be 7.5" on the prototype. A mock up in paper just didn't look right. It was far too long and far too wide, leaving very little room between the weighhouse and the sleepers. I decided they must be 6" and scaled down accordingly. Sure enough, the model now fitted correctly. This would have been tedious had I not used CAD. Lastly, the second board has now been aligned to the first and the current job (between Protocab testing - I give myself an hour's break each day to get on with Brighton) is to dig our and fit the four long inspection pits on the four roads outside the shed. One day, I'll find out what these roads are called! Happy modelling Tony Hagon

Thank you Ben and Jim for your comments.. and good to see you at Scalefour North, Jim. As you can imagine, it's been somewhat hectic since we announced prices and opened the 'shop' for preorders. We took back a strong message that the 1902-703048 battery is fine, but only for the larger 4mm and small to medium 7mm locos and the 4mm modellers need a smaller battery. Did you see the 240mAh one we had on the stand? We're currently assessing it and getting some positive results so we'll be making a decision on whether to add it to the range as soon as possible. Hope you enjoyed the front cover of the update! The weather hasn't been as good since! Best regards Tony Hagon Acc+Ess Ltd (Protocab) Bowermadden Scotland

....(just putting a little hand gingerly into the air to say that we are still here..... and have just got our first pre-orders in having announced our prices last week at Scalefour North.) Of course it's up to anyone to put up a patent application if they want to and hope that it will get approved. We first announced publicly in 2009 and demonstrated proof of concept at Scalefour North in 2012 so we have bags of prior art to claim for every part of the application apart from the Bluetooth aspect. We decided early on not to put in a patent application because it would be very expensive not only to apply but to defend it when, inevitably, other systems would challenge it. We welcome the competition that is now appearing in the model railway world as it provides confidence to the market. It's up to us to be the best and there is only one group of people who will determine that - our customers. We try to listen to what modellers tell us and where we can incorporate their recommendations. I hope you like our Pilot Series. (..putting hand down again....) Best regards Tony Hagon Acc+Ess Ltd (Protocab) Bowermadden, Scotland

The great thing about hobbies in general, and model railways are no exception, is that no one is compelled to do anything they don't want to. We have plenty of modellers visiting the stand at exhibitions who tell us that they are quite content with power through the tracks. We also have a big and growing list of modellers that want to adopt battery power. It's whatever the individual wants and feels comfortable with. Acc+Ess Protocab and the other systems that base the power on batteries are not replacements, they are alternatives. I personally want battery power. Many of my modeller friends don't. We've based Protocab on my wants and desires as a modeller and if other modellers migrate from track power to battery then great, if not, then equally great. The important thing is that everyone enjoys and gets the most out of the hobby. What I think is true is that whether you go for track power or battery power, we are truly living in a golden age of modelling, as a friend of ours who lives nearby has commented. Tony Hagon Director Acc+Ess Ltd

,,,,here's the handheld controller referred to in my last post. Nine locos can be allocated, one per button. Switch on the loco using the LocoSwitch (touch pad inside the body of the loco attached to the Protocab LCU) and the button lights green. Press the button to select the loco (button turns red) and turn the centre-off knob whichever way you want the loco to go. There is a 'simulation' mode, which means that the control knob becomes an accelerator... return the knob to zero and the loco coasts, move the knob the opposite direction to apply the brakes (i.e. if the loco is coasting in the forward direction, turning the knob to zero lets the loco coast, turn it to reverse and the brakes are applied). Locos are allocated to the buttons by attaching the controller through its charging port (the battery inside the controller is rechargeable) to a computer running MS Windows (other operating systems are available and will be catered for eventually!) and running a free program. The range between the controller and the loco is pretty good, several tens of metres. Due to the possible supply problems with the previous antenna we were using, we have now switched to a new one and will be testing range in the coming days. BTW... those who have been following Acc+Ess Protocab progress will be asking about the Concentrator and whether you need one with the handheld controller. The answer is no, you don't, the handheld communicates directly with the loco. However, the Concentrator is very much in development for the more complex and advanced functions that we are developing. Best regards Tony Hagon Director Acc+Ess Ltd Bowermadden Scotland

Hello again battery control/wireless friends..! You know what it's like when you go swimming and stay underwater as long as possible and then have to come to the surface for air? Well, our being quiet is a bit like that. We're still beavering away on tests and more tests. We're getting some excellent results from the latest iteration of the Loco Control Unit and we have managed to get over four hours intermittent running from a 1Ah battery in our test BR Class 5 from Bachmann (by intermittent I mean running a few laps of the test track, stopping for a chat, running again and so on - this test done at Scaleforum). On the second day (which closes earlier) we still had life left around 4p.m. so we put all nine coaches behind the Class 5 and whilst it didn't have any problem pulling them, it ran out of battery just before the end of the show. It was a pleasure to meet Simon and all our other friends from this forum at Scaleforum and ExpoEM North. We had a very useful chat and had some great feedback on our new handheld controller. From our last Club newsletter we now have all the beta testers ready for the final tests before product availability. Prices look like being £108 for the controller and around £100 for all the components inside the loco (i.e. battery, Loco Control Unit and Plug Charging Unit). We are now putting the final touches to a new website which will have significantly more information than the current one. I'll let you know here when it's up and running. Best regards Tony Hagon Director Acc+EssLtd Bowermadden Scotland

Interesting, Matthew. The web is rich with images of 75A going back well before 1932 when it was remodelled for the resignalling and electrification. See Flickr and the ASLEF websites for the best views. Images of the shed around the Great War makes you wonder how they managed to keep track of which locos went where - not a single computer in sight! My memories are spending every Saturday morning in 1959-1962 at the end of the platform. If only... The OS map I used(2500 scale) is pretty accurate but, of course, does not give the subtle variations in levels which I found to my cost AFTER I built two of the baseboards! Your project sounds interesting too! Best regards Tony

I hope you get your smartphone ready for our first outing (hopefully) in September 2015! After all, YOU'll be the operator! The way we're planning it is for you to download the Protocab app to your phone or tablet and guest on our Concentrator. In return for a donation to charity (50p upwards!) you get a 'Duty Roster' to take a nominated loco from one part of the yard to another. Each roster will last around 5 - 10mins to give others a chance...of course, put lots of cash into the charity box and you'll get lots of goes! The biggest problem I have is getting enough locos ready for then! So far 2x West Countries (one rebuilt, one air smoothed), one Q, one N1 (Bachmann conversion), a couple of Cromptons and a couple of interlopers in the form of a Bachmann BR Class 5 with the wrong number and a Mainline Warship, both of which have starred at the exhibitions we have attended so far this year. Keep your fingers crossed for an SECR P class because we haven't yet designed the Loco Control Unit for a small tank loco, but we hope to have it ready by next year. Thanks for your support and encouragement! Tony H

Dear KH1 I'm not sure if I've understood your question correctly, and please correct me if I have misunderstood, but our locos are powered by battery now, it's the means of charging that we are developing. At present, charging is done by means of a tiny plug but this means holding the loco. We want to get away from that by providing wireless charging. There are still some technical issues to be solved. The interim requested by many modellers is charging through the rails, which IMHO gets away from the benefit of doing away with pickups, wheel and chassis insulation and point and crossing insulation. But if that's what our customers want, then we are here to help. (75A Brighton, by the way, has no wiring to the rails and if you look closely at the photos you will see that the tie bars and crossings are solid too!) Thanks for your note. Regards Tony

Hello, KH1 We're developing this layout as a demo for the Protocab wireless control system we are about to launch. We've been 'about to launch' it for over a year and a half now, but testing and refinements have taken a lot longer than we had planned. The system is based on batteries in the loco and controlled over the air from (initially) Android smartphones. Initially, recharging the batteries will be through a plug in the loco but we are developing wireless charging so that the locos will be positioned over charging mats and the batteries topped up inductively. This technology is very well advanced so one of the developments that has delayed the launch is to be able to swap out the plug charging unit for an induction unit without having to replace the rest of the system inside the loco. The plan is to show the layout in September 2015 and the operators will be the visitors to the show via their smartphones. Thanks for your interest Tony Hagon Director Acc+Ess Ltd

I see that I haven't updated the blog since last year so here's an update on progress. (Image created with Templot Sketchboard - completely impossible to have progressed this far without Templot!). Green track is completed, yellow is work in progress. Basboard outlines in red, magenta shapes are the baseboard supports - an 'H' gateleg arrangement. 6 of the 11 boards are now constructed. I won't complete the others (3, 6, 7 and 8 and particularly the turntable board 5C), until the shed board (2A) is completed. I will make a start on board 6 as soon as board 5C is completed. Board 3 and 7 are only backscene boards and board 8 will probably start life as a temporary fiddle yard. The trackwork on board 1 is nearing completion. In the background (above, foreground below) is the partly completed Bulleid pacific 34019 'Bideford' - a regular at Brighton in the 1950s and early 60s. The reason that the tender is lower than the loco is that I've removed the chassis from the tender so it's resting on its axle horns. The loco is also an 0-6-0 as I haven't completed the bogie and pony trucks yet! The white space to the right of Bideford in the upper photo is for the weighhouse which is in progress and almost complete. I made a bit of a guppy with this and originally drew it 20% too large, but thanks to CAD, I was able to reduce it to the correct size before too much progress had been made. The next stage is to complete the baseboard supports so that I can connect board 2A to board 1 to progress with the shed roads. I won't be able to complete the shed roads until the induction charging system has been completed, which should be sometime in 2015. I'm also having problems with the flat bottom track that makes up most of the West Coast running lines. Because of the third rail, the baseplates for this era were the very specific type BR3, so I might have to end up making my own. I'm not keen on using copper clad so I am going to have to create a system for flat bottom third rail. Suggestions gratefully received! Tony Hagon

We left yesterday's blog with the first of the side members clamped to the inverted baseboard for the PVA glue to stick. This was the inner of two pieces that together make up the 12mm thickness of the side pieces. I believe that Chris laminates the two pieces together first, makes up a carcase and then offers up the baseboard top. I decided that because the boards were to be irregular with a number of them having curved edges that I would stick one side member to the baseboard top, let it set for 24 hours and then add the second member. For the first board, I butted the baseboard top to the clamp blocks and stuck down the inner skin on to the baseboard top, on the basis of aligning the side member to the edge of the baseboard top. In practice it doesn't really matter which is stuck down first, and as will be seen later, sometimes sticking down the outer member first is inevitable to maintain alignment with an adjacent board. Before going any further though, I have to say that it would have been a much more difficult task to create the side members accurately cut and with the right angle of mitres without one of these. It cost me £400 and has proven to be one of my most used and versatile tools.Thoroughly recommended! However, it makes a lot of wood dust, so use a mask and I have shrouded mine in a plastic sheet carcase to enclose the dust. Back to the construction. When the inner skin of side member of the first board was set, I measured and fitted the outer skin to make up the 12mm required thickness. To spread the glue and allow it to seep into the grain, I lightly sprayed a mixture of water with a few drops of washing up liquid on to the mating surfaces of the inner and outer ply skins before being clamped together to set for 24 hours. While being clamped and after the 24 hours I used a steam spray over the curved members to relieve the stress inside the two curved skins. The risk of doing this is that it might weaken the glue. In future I will steam any curved members before glueing them.

This is how I launched into the making of the first baseboard(s). The first stage was to load the Templot templates on to an 8x4 sheet of 6mm ply for a repeat of a previously abortive effort. This time I followed Martin's advice and printed the templates on 160gsm card on an inkjet (i.e. not laser) printer. I used 3M spray mount to fix the templates to the board. The spray mount allows repositioning and does not distort the templates. Once laid out properly (and it is amazing that, no matter how careful you are in positioning the templates, when you have a large area to lay, you get out of line fairly rapidly!) the board positions were drawn on. I could have done this using Sketchpad in Templot, but I wanted to assess the board positions in the whole to get the boards of broadly similar sizes. This proved to be difficult in the event so there are some large boards (none longer than 6 feet) and some small. Clearly the fewer boards the better to avoid baseboard joins and alignment problems, but needs must given the requirement to transport the layout to various exhibitions. I used a green fine point felt pen to mark the outer edges of the baseboard units and a red line 6mm either side of the green to show the cutting line (the baseboard unit has a framework of 2 x 6mm ply, the baseboard top fits inside the outer plywood uprights). I make absolutely no claim to this baseboard design. Chris Yates, who should take the credit as mentioned in earlier blogs, has shown a large flat table he has constructed to assemble the boards, laying the baseboard top on the table and holding the side members upright with a series of clamps. I discovered these are called 'toggle clamps' and come in vertical or horizontal versions. I purchased horizontal ones as I figured that these would be screwed to the top of a solid vertical piece of wood. Following an episode with a Chinese vendor on eBay (actually positive!) which would fill another blog, I ended up purchasing four horizontal and eight vertical clamps. Because of the very irregular shapes of the board, rather than screwing them to one long piece of wood, I decided to fix each clamp to a 110mm long piece of 100mmx50mm timber which itself is screwed to a 100mm square piece of MDF. Some years ago I built a jig to construct baseboards using the geodesic principle and I have used this substantial jig that comprises two long pieces of 100x50 to which are screwed parallel pieces of 45x20mm strips at 50mm centres. The toggle clamp mountings were designed to be able to form curved side members to the baseboard top and these will be fixed to the 45x20mm members with M8 bolts. In practice, there is a slight deflection in the 45x20mm lengths and this is compensated with clamps to make sure that the table is flat. Using Chris' dimensions, a friend used his table saw to cut up half the sheets of 8x4 (2440mmx1220mm) 6mm ply from the six sheets obtained and delivered from an excellent and traditional woodyard in Wick into a series of strips 114mm wide (for the outer side members) and 108mm (for the inside). This photo shows the assembly using the toggle clamps. I have taken it slowly, fixing one side member at a time and letting the glue set for 24 hours. Already, the board is rigid and that is before the second 6mm side member is fixed to the first for final rigidity. The clamps work well, but alignment is assured by using other sorts of clamps to hold the whole thing together and flat while the glue sets. This next photo shows the vertical clamps in action securing a curved side member in place. It also shows that I have strengthened the top sheet with some strips of 6mm ply at approximately 300mm centres. They are fixed to avoid point motor positions, hence not being parallel to each other. In the next blog I will show how the construction progressed. Regards Tony Hagon

A brilliant set of high quality photos! My aunt moved to the (then) new Elson Park estate in Ellesmere in 1985 and we lived at the time in Rossett, so drove to see her along the route shown in the photos. We often wondered what the journey would have been like by train.. now we know! Like so much else, an evocation of a much nicer time... hey ho Regards and thanks Tony Hagon

Here we are again after a few months away from the blogsphere! I've not been idle meanwhile and this is a report on latest developments. The track plan is now finished as far as the end of Phase 1 (the loco shed and platforms 1 - 3 as a fiddle yard) but not without the excellent help received from Martin Wynne, Templot creator. I struggled for a week or so to create a pair of curved tandem (3 way) turnouts and eventually had to turn to Martin for help. The result is on the Templot forum and now integrated into the overall layout plan. As mentioned in an earlier blog, the idea for Brighton came about after Scalefour North this year when watching Robin Whittle and the Glevum group's Bristol Barrow Road layout, including the novel approach (in my books at least) to baseboard construction. Following that blog, Chris Yates (who built the boards) has offered some very useful advice which I have followed as far as possible. Board 1 is the largest board on the layout. The curved nature of the West Coast platforms and the straight nature of the eastern side of the loco shed means that the baseboards are going to be somewhat irregular at some stage. The other issue with so much trackwork is where to break the track across board joints. Plain track is not an issue but on boards with so much pointwork, the consideration is to ensure that breaks don't cut through switches or crossings, but less obvious is not to have a board break near to a switch where a point motor might be fouled by the baseboard supports. I decided (I hope that time does not prove me wrong), that the way that Chris' boards are designed, all sorts of irregularities can be built into the shape of the board whilst preserving the necessary rigidity. You can see this in the photo. Alongside the larger board is the curved board containing platforms 1 and 2 and the buffer stop end of the west sidings. The Templot templates are only temporary and in place as guides for where to cut the board top and thus position the side members. They will be taken off the board when laying the trackwork so I don't care about them curling up at this stage. I have spent quite a lot of time perusing as many photos as I could find (thank you Google!) and this exercise threw up a lot of surprises. Firstly, the West Coast branch starts a 20 mile down gradient at 1 in 269 half way along the platform! Secondly, the whole loco shed trackwork is far from flat. The in road to the turntable is a foot and a half lower than the exit road. Three of the main roads from the sheds are progressively lower than the next by an appreciable amount. This is not a problem for these first two boards, but provision will need to be made in later boards. In the next blog, I will show you how I constructed this first board and lessons learnt for subsequent boards. Best regards Tony Hagon

Hi to everyone on ths forum... Switch02(Rich) has kindly referenced Acc+Ess Protocab as a potential for controlling this marvellous system. Firstly, congratulations on coming up with a very impressive piece of modelling. As indicated by a number of respondents, the Protocab system has not yet launched and we are now in final testing. Also as mentioned it is initially planned for railway locomotives. However, we have planned the architecture to provide binary and controlled functions which could well include steering via servo mechanisms. This would be some way off yet, as we want to consolidate our initial products and develop from there. Having said that, we will keep a close eye on developments of the mechanical technology and if we can bring our system to benefit this development, we'd be more than happy to look at it early on. Best regards Tony Hagon Director Acc+Ess Ltd Caithness, Scotland www.protocab.com

It's good to see that battery powered/radio control is developing in all sorts of ways, and I'm writing this to let members who have asked how we are getting on know that we are very near finishing all our testing and our products will be available in the very near future. Exact dates will depend on the results of EMC testing which will be happening later this month. RM Web members who have asked when we are exhibiting Protocab, we are at ExpoEM North on 14/15 September and at Scaleforum on 28/29 September. We have just issued a newsletter to Club Protocab members, so if you would like a copy and would like to be kept informed of progress, please email club@protocab.com. Our new website, www.protocab.com should be up and running just before ExpoEM North. Best regards Tony Hagon Director Acc+Ess Ltd

No, not some coded message designed to get GCHQ buzzing, nor a plantiff cry that I spilt my orange.... the 'juice' referred to is the third rail and I have now completed adding it to the Templot plans for the two Hove branch tracks and the three West Sidings. The problem now is to work on which side of the track the rail was located in the various parts of the formation. I have quite a few photos but there are still gaps where it is not evident whether the third rail was on the left or the right. If anyone knows where I might be able to find an official CCE's rail allocation plan of the period, I'd be VERY interested to know! I would be pretty safe betting that the third rail positioning has changed dramatically by now so no good trekking the 740 miles to see it, despite the lure of a school reunion the week after next. See if you can work out from this pretty poor photo that I took in about 1961 the above formation. Next - pushing and shoving in the yard (track timbers, that is). Adjusting the templates to prevent timber overlap and rotating timbers as necessary. Probably another week's work before we can start laying out templates and cutting boards again. TH

Because I was wrong about the OS plan being in Crown Copyright (Martin W pointed out that the 50 year rule applies, so my 1953 plan is out of copyright), here is the track plan superimposed on the 1:2500 so that you can see the extent and where everything goes. I had got stuck yesterday with not knowing how BR(SR) organised the timbers under points and crossings, but again Martin came to the rescue with a definitive answer. The timbers are usually square to the main running line for a post 1920 layout like this with the exception being at diamond crossings and slips where the timbers are equalised to the crossing nose. So today in the spare time between Protocab testing (and believe me, after all the detailed testing and calculations a spell on Templot is very welcomed!) I have been shifting timbers and converting the remaining running lines to flat bottom. Again, I didn't know whether the Southern mounted its conductor rail insulators on extended sleepers but answers came thick and fast through the forum and from a lengthy and very comprehensive treatise by Russ Elliott http://homepage.ntlworld.com/russelliott/3rd-4th.html No excuse now for not getting on, just a lot of desk time to finish off the templates. .

Well done, you! My mate taught himself guitar and can't read music but plays a mean hand... Thanks for your words of encouragement! I have found that the way to master Templot is to forget that track comes in sections and remember that track is designed to follow the trackbed. Think of points and crossings as nuisances that are necessary evils to get a train going in a different direction. If you want a point in your nice long plain track, just stick it in and then work out where the track bed wants to take you. Everything else is a refinement to make sure that the track does what the traffic department wants and that the Civil Engineer responds accordingly. If you think of Templot like a Hornby track planner you won't master it. And unlike many products bought from the net or in this case free to download, the support you get is fantastic. Just play and remember to store as background every nanosecond... or is it just me that forgets?! Regards Tony

I have always wanted to play jazz piano like Oscar Petersen or Dudley Moore and somehow never managed to, for two good reasons: I am too lazy and too impatient to practise! And the same goes for modelling - too impatient and expecting instant results. But with the will to get Brighton right I realise that I have to put the time in and this weekend and past few days I have had to face the inevitable - learn how to use Templot properly so that the trackwork bears some resemblance to the actual layout. And guess what? I've done it! The double slips were a doddle following the excellent tutorials and members' write ups (I can't attribute them as they don't seem to have put their names on their guidenotes . You know who you are, so my thanks for your efforts!). I got the scissors crossover at the end of platform 2 absolutely right on the 1:2500 plan (which, unfortunately I can't show here for copyright reasons) and when I printed out the templates, the curves through it are sensuous and look just right. It took me three attempts, though. The two sets of three way points to the shed were another matter. After ten attempts, carefully following Martin's video tutorial, I succeeded! And they too form the graceful curves that are just begging for a couple of West Countries and Maunsell moguls to sit on, tender outwards, of course! As I mentioned on the Templot forum, the trackwork at the bottom right corner isn't complete as it isn't needed in this first phase. So now all that is needed is to clear out unwanted templates from the storage box, rename unnamed templates, make sure all the switches at the slips are later in the storage box than the stock rails and crossings make sure all the track joints line up shove timbers where needed (i.e. where Templot has done the job already) at the track joints change all the platform running rails from bullhead to 109lb flat bottom shove and extend/shorten sleepers where necessary ............what have I forgotten?? One little knotty problem is the question of timber lengths to accommodate the third rail insulators (which I have also raised on the Templot forum (http://85a.co.uk/forum/view_topic.php?id=2232&forum_id=1)). Any guidance would be gratefully received. Although I'd already printed out the templates in existing state to get an idea of the size and shape of the baseboards, I knew I had to tidy them up for trackbuilding/laying sometime. I hope I've got them right by now! Hopefully by the end of the week, it's back on the baseboards! TH

Now THAT's an interesting thought, Shaun... will experiment. Regarding 6mm being too thin, I queried this with Chris at Wakefield but he showed me that the Barrow Road boards not being too big in width and length don't deflect the 6mm top to any extent. However, the sceptic in me says that my long and thin boards may need a thicker top so I haven't been too worried about sacrificing the first efforts (see later blog entries), as I can use them to strengthen the tops if need be. When was your granddad at Brighton? I worked there from 1969 - 72 and visited the signalbox often. It was quite a hairy walking route, off the end of #4 platform across D,E and F sections and alongside Montpelier sidings. I always thought that the footbridge to the box was going to collapse at any time but it never did! Thanks for your comments Regards Tony