Ian_H

Hi John, You mentioned the turntable and I know from a few posts back that its a peco turntable that you have converted to EM but can you provide info on how you will operate this. I can see from one of your photographs what appears to be a stepper motor and drive belt with some other bits & bats ,but it would be very interesting to know how it will index each of the bays unless its by "Mk 1 eyeball" .

Yes, Most definitely!

Perhaps he's asking about double sided copper clad sleepers in which case I would recommend to gap both the top and bottom side of the sleeper otherwise any fixings that may go through the sleeper could cause a short circuit.!

Hi Gordon, So sorry to hear about your Mum, my thoughts are with you. Ian

I know, I know, you've jacked ET to take up Subbuteo .... subbuteo cricket at that. Come on Gordon we've all missed you and we're all in suspenders (mine's lime green and frilly, I'd have preferred black) wondering what you've done.

Don't tell me, it's a roundy-round? a single line branch? a change of scale? oh no, you've abandoned ET in favour of slot car racing? Nice to have you back Gordon.

I would love to have a set, to use as reference for building my own but only if nobody else wants them, they're EM right?

Hi John, I'm sorry I have no information on the turntable at Leeds but having seen from your photographs that you have a place for one I was just interested to know your thoughts on the matter. Having said that, I agree with Leander that the metalsmith 50ft diameter turntable may offer a solution but, unfortunately I haven't seen the turntable in the flesh.

Hi John, Nice to see the PWay gang have returned refreshed and ready to "get to it"! One question regarding the turntable, what size and type was it and do you have a supplier in mind (of course that's more than one question), Regards Ian

I'd be grateful to receive a copy, I do have Railway Modeller from '74 but not the October issue for some reason. Thanks Ian

A bit like The Laird's "Bradfield Gloucester Square", always worth a look http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/28198-bradfield-gloucester-square-br-1962-ish/ There are a number of nice very good videos "The Bradfield Chronicles" from say page 21 on wards.

I bet at times you wish you'd kept hold of Gloucester Square but Leeds City is coming along and I'm sure if will all be worth it in the end. I'm certainly looking forward the train movements at Leeds, presently I keep going back to BGS to get my fix, what a superb model that was! Keep it up John best regards Ian

Good to have you back Gordon ......................... had some horrible thoughts, thought you may have abandoned ET and got stuck at the tip, perhaps under all the timber, phew! Should have known that you'd be playing out with your small balls All the best Ian Ps Nice pond, if I had a pond like that in my garden the Heron would have all the fish in next to no time.

gun tower/emplacements?? perhaps a bit overkill but that's the idea isn't it?

There has been some discussion on the Eastwood Town thread about this, see post 2577 from Martin Wynne where he explains about the overlap of the abutments by 4 ~5ft.

So who's going to build the .., hang on, what are we going to call it, The Eastwood Town Wiki, The E.T. Wiki, Gordons Wiki or how about Gordons ET Wiki! I seem to remember, way back in the archives, that there was a discussion about Gordons ET-TV along the lines of the New Yankee Workshop. Keep up the good work Gordon

Hi Mike, I wasn't advocating the use for signalling (of which I know almost nothing) but more for the detection of trains in the storage/fiddle yard, although I do think Richard's circuit is pretty goodand if not quite correct could be improved upon;-)

Hi Gordon, The part look something like this There will be two or three maybe more. Generally they are in the paper path, used to detect the presence of paper and the position when it gets to the printing position, there maybe one for detecting paper exit/jam. Also could be used to check that covers are closed although usually they use micro switches for that. You may also want to recover some other parts, LEDs, the LCD display may come in handy later and also the motors, one of them will most definitely be a stepper motor that can also be controlled by a Picaxe for exact position, I'm thinking here for a turntable, think you mentioned a while back that you may want a different turntable to the present one that you have. Take note a Picaxe can also control servos for semaphore signals but if your going down that track and considering your space requirement, you may aswell use servos for the turnout and sell your turtles on Ebay, just saying;-)

Hi Gordon, Just going back to your idea for train detection using the IRDOT-1 sensors, you mention that you have nine roads so would require nine sensors but since you plan on double stacking then presumably you will require more sensors and as you say they are quite expensive. Home made sensors would be cheaper, unfortunately a couple of weeks ago you threw a printer away that had the very sensors that could have been used ... too late now but there are circuits to build that would do the very thing for you at a much better price and they are relatively simple in construction. A short while ago I came across some YouTube videos made by Richard W of Everard Junction fame. One of Richards videos deals with Train Detection and Automatic Signalling using a Picaxe micochip. In his video tutorial Richard explains how to program the Picaxe using a software where the user simply designs the operating software using flow charts (if this happens do that else wait this length of time and the other) as opposed to programming languages such as 'C'. Richard explanation is very laid back and I think very very easy to follow, its almost Lego! I know you're not ready for the system now but if there's nothing on the TV tonight, is there ever, and you have 50mins to spare have a look: Ian

"a separation envelope based on vehicle width" an excellent description! Thanks Ian

So are you saying that we have a 6' space in P4 and a 6'7" space in 00? I can see the sense of this, same width of rolling stock just running on different gauges ... just require clarification! Thanks Ian

Hi Guys I think I'm having a blond moment (no disrespect intended to any blonds out there) but the numbers are confusing me, specifically the 44.67mm. I understand that this includes the 6' spacing (24mm) but where does the other 20.67mm (5' 2") come from? Perhaps it's the 4'8½" gauge + rail head, but if that's true then the 44.67 would be fine for P4 but not 00 with the 16.5mm reduced gauge which would be is 2.33mm (7") narrower! Best regards Ian

Noooooooo .... don't do it! Ian

Hi Gordon, I don’t know if it’s a stupid idea but how about cutting lengths of 2.4m ply at the required gradient and fitting them under the rail bed, if 1:100, then the ply would be zero (datum) at one end and 24mm greater at the 2.4m mark. Next piece of ply would be 24mm at one end and 48mm at the other end. On straight sections then both sides of the rail bed would be identical but on a curve it will get a little tricky. Perhaps okay on simple curves, you will have the circumference/length on the inside and outside of the curve but on transitions I’m not too sure, may have to think on that a bit. Edit - Opps, You could just follow Martins lead which had it all planned out thirty years ago ... also, to Martin,why are you drinking Scotch while building an Irish railway?;-)

Hi Jeremy, Your track work is looking superb ............... just a quick question, if I may, about the handbuilt track on the template, do you leave the template in place and simply ballast on top of it or do you have a means of replacing the template before ballasting? Regards