innocentman

A little Video of the trains moving on the Mine

Hopefully we never will again!

I have knocked up a sketch of the fiddle yard this morning. This may change and I may introduce an extra section (300mm or so) between the traverser and the curved section to allow for locking pin mounting and loco storage roads. The second track on the curved section will be used as a hand shunting neck when releasing locos from the incoming trains. Regards Andy

Hi Nick, I’m trying to keep as compact as possible for transportation. Being hinged is good for a quick dismantling and erection as well. I realise that the hinges are unlikely to be perfect, so the plan is to have alignment dowels, in the traverser and base boards, which will keep everything aligned and take the reliance on the hinges out of the equation. Toggle clamps across the joints of the base boards should keep everything pulled together. Regards Andy

After getting back from a weekend at York show, I had a couple of days off which amongst other things allowed me to complete the wiring and drive a couple of test trains. Not a lot to see at the moment but I will try and put a video on of the moving points, changing LEDs and a moving loco tomorrow. In the meantime I had been thinking about the fiddle yard that will be required to support the operation. I had placed a 16 hopper train, caboose and a Y3 (likely to be the longest loco to climb the hill) and worked out that I needed a fiddle yard a shade under 8ft to accommodate the full train. The fiddle yard will be located parallel to the front and will use two boards to turn 180 degrees as it departs the front of the layout. I will draw up sketch and post it on here later. I decided on a 5 road traverser which means a width of 250 mm to accommodate the roads. I planned the total traverser based on two entry roads as I would like this to be flexible for future projects. I have spent some time in Fusion 360 drawing up my thoughts on how to have an 8 ft fiddle yard that will be compact when not in use. I have opted to build the traverser in two 4 ft sections and if all goes well hinge them together. Here are a few renders from Fusion 360 of the design. There doesn't seem to be plywood in the render library so the following images use very knotty pine! First up was the representation of the linear bearings and runners I have opted to use. There will be two of these units on each 4 ft board. I developed the traverser board and added the linear bearings in position. Next up was the base board to support the runners. I through about making this open frame, but I like the idea of a solid top for stiffness and to stop things accidentally passing through on the way to the floor. When you put all the above together you get the above. Two assembles joined together give you the full 8 ft. Hopefully the clever bit is the mounting of hinges on the blocks at the end of the traverser sections so that it folds up like so..... Although not seen on the above render, I will be following @St Enodoc earlier suggestion in this thread and add diagonal stiffeners. I absolutely don't want any twist in these! This layout is DCC, but to make this traverser flexible I plan to wire it up in such a way that it can be operated using DC control. All I need now is my friendly neighbourhood carpenter to visit and we can begin construction. All the best Andy

That looks like a DS10 to me. Fitted many into bogie trams over the years.

Agreed As novice table saw operator I wouldn’t have the skills and probably the fingers after attempting angles!

Been out in the garage today, taking advantage of the nice weather. Time to tackle the wiring on the mine boards. First up was the end board. Top of the board looks like this. After a couple of hours, the the underside was completed and looked like Only one point on this board. The MTB MP10 point motor and frog juicer are the only active components and are cabled directly to the cross board D connector using 8 core security cable. There are two spare cores which will be used to supply 12v DC to the board for a few lights on the mine building. Moving onto the next board, it was only when I turned it over that I realised we hadn’t put any cross braces on as I wasn’t sure of the exact positions of the point motors at the time the board was built. Out with the table saw and band saw and a couple of cross braces installed. And finally the wiring can commence. I got as far as fitting the frog juicers, point motors, DCC power bus connector, the link to the boards either side and finally the connectors for the control panel. Hopefully another four hours work through the week or next weekend will see the wiring complete. Until next time, all the best Andy

A few post earlier you will recall the epic trans atlantic adventure of something I ordered from the USA. That particular parcel covered 13.135 miles and three trips across the Atlantic. I ordered something else from the a same supplier last november thinking it couldn't happen again! Well USPS have gone one better! This time an estimated 21,395 miles an not once over the Atlantic! I wouldn't mind if it was continuous journey but the parcel took a holiday from the December 11th 2023 to 23rd February 2024 in Sydney, Australia. After engaging with the Vendor who raised an exception with USPS the parcel finally arrived on the 28th February wearing a little label from Australia post confirming its mis direction and the raising of a case in the computer system. On the shipping label it was proudly boasting that it was shipped "Priority International US Postage Paid" I think I will try and avoid USPS in the future. All the best Andy

Hi Ian, Yes I use a slitting disc in a battery mini drill to cut the rails. You can see it on the baseboards in the pictures above. I use a fresh large slitting disc that hasn't been worn down yet to keep any arc effect to a minimum. I do also possess a flexible drive which I could use to negate the are effect totally but I find the large disc works well. While slitting discs can be delicate, I tend to find that breakage mostly occurs when you abuse the disc or apply a lateral force unintentionally to the sides of the disc. In Page 2 back on 27th August, I posted a detailed set of images of the process I use for the rail joints, although I skipped over the use of a slitting disc by showing the end result. Regards Andy

Evening all, The weather has improved and I have been back out in the garage and laid all the mine track this weekend. I have prepped all the baseboard joints ready for soldering the rails to the copper clad sleepers. I will try and get them soldered up, gapped and cut one evening this week. I couldn’t resist getting a planned full rake of 15 coal hoppers out and placed in the loop. Once I have cut the track across the joints, next job will be to take the boards down and get them wired up. All the best, Andy

That’s better 😊

Really nice Les. Thats some 3D design to have all those textures. Can I ask what method you have used to print the building. Is it FDM or Resin? Regards Andy

Not rude at all. If I had not already constructed the panel and superglued all the LEDs in place I may well have done that in the first place. I may 3D print a frame to tidy it up a bit. 🤔

Just realised it’s been a month since I last posted! Not too much has happened. A couple of weekends ago my brother came over and I took the opportunity to relocate All the unused boards from Donford Junction out of the way and into the rafters of the garage. This involved a couple of 4’ x 2’ sheets of 12 mm ply to form a platform. Once we had those in position all the boards that formed Donford Junction were lifted up and out of the way. I’m sure the spiders will be having a party up there when summer comes around, but this was needed to remove the need to move boards around every time I needed access somewhere. Also removes the risk of accidentally catching some rail ends! Also manufactured last weekend was the mine control panel. I had hoped to mount the panel in the side on the board as per my earlier installation at Donford Junction. I was looking for a position but, given how far I would have to recess the panel into any backscene in order to protect switches, it looked like I would be compromising the buildings I planned to install. So it was plan B, mount it in a box. I purchased a box from Rapid Online and fixed the panel into the lid. The back of the panel was wired up to 2 multi core cables. One cable for points and one for the position LED feedback from the motors. The other end of the cables are terminated in 15 way D connectors. A couple of stuffing glands secure the cables. The plan is to secure the box under the board when transported and pull the panel out and clip it to the board when in use. The length of the cables will allow the panel to be fixed in several locations depending on the operators preference. Thats it for now. All the best, Andy