Johndc120

Yesterday we printed the stepped spillway for the layout, it's based on one which can be seen on the side of the A470 between Abercynon and Merthyr. This gives the reason for the tightrope bridge on the headshunt and the water from which joins the main channel which runs parallel to to the track Next Job is to get it painted into concrete colours and heavily weathered, we can then build up the surrounding land to match this

Frog Juicers and 3 way points. During testing we have found an issue which we have had to correct. We are using servos with frog juicers for the polarity change. In the photos I have circled the 2 zones which are polarity swapped with the frog juicers. The first photo shows the original set up where the 2 zones up against each other, this meant when a short loco traversed between them sometimes the frog juicers would both change to the wrong position and the loco would cut out without power. The solution has been to introduce a length of rail, highlighted in blue in the second photo, which is permanently powered so you never transit from one juicer into the next. This eliminates the failure mode. One to keep in mind if trying to do the same

Progress on the electrics/electronics and another pair of locos Chipped and converted to EM gauge This first photos shows the point control kit, the boards are in connection with the 3 points, on the left are 3 Tam Valley single servo controllers and on the right are 3 Tam Valley frog juicers. following this is the bits to control the conveyor, at the bottom is a 2 way DCC accessory decoder and then a relay interface board. This allows us to use stop/start buttons on the layout and DCC commands to operate the conveyor Lastly on the electrics we have the inputs for the layouts at the bottom including the 16v AC for the conveyor controller, the DCC and 12v on the 4way plug and the loconet sockets to plug controllers into the panels on the layout. The Bachmann controllers sole purpose is to provide a controllable power for the motor on the conveyor so we can tune it to the best flow rate, faster for big wagons and slower for wagons like 16T minerals etc Whilst this has been happening on the layout, off the layout we have also converted both the Class 58 and a Class 56 to EM gauge. They are also DCC fitted now with TCS chips

Progress report 22-2-24! Now the track has been laid we can now move onto other bits, first job which should really have been done before the track was laid was to fitting of alignment dowels. Happily they went in okay and the track still aligns Next simple job was to cut out the cork and drill down for the tie bars and operating arm from the servo The next major project to start is the wiring. We are fitting the control panel, conveyor controls and the loconet sockets on the front and back of the layout. We have Strengthened the side frames before cutting out the holes for the panels First little bits done The last of the new toys arrived for the moment, this is a Hornby Class 56 which I'll try to convert to EM gauge at the same time as the new Class 58. the next loco is an accurscale Class 31 which is a special release from Key publishing The other thing I've been playing with since the last update is a lovely little modern boothy by intentio models. This will be a little mess room for the shunter and driver of the colliery loco

A nice bit of progress this morning. I’ve finished the buffer stop with a couple of little bits of plasticard behind the bufferbeam to ensure it’s electrically insulated. Not that I’m going to power it but incase you run onto it with a loco All the electrical droppers are now in place ready to start wiring it up. I’ve also put in the brass pins on the board joint and cut through the rails. In these pictures you can also so a mock up of the loading hopper, this is just a quick 3D print of the bottom, it will be a lot higher. We’ve learnt a few things from this mock up including the Shute needs to be 8mm lower and the straight section to direct the flow of coal better Lastly a new toy has arrived so couldn’t resist posing it on the layout! Not quite what you expect to see on western metals but who cares! 🤣 looks different and nice with the HAAs

And that concludes the track laying on this layout. A nice little micro layout with a incoming line, outgoing line, a loading point on the front and a siding to dump things in now and again Plenty of room now to set the scene with the scenery

No it’s not my first. I think this is the 4th layout in EM gauge although this Tandem was a particular pain in the bum! The last one I did was opposite hands and was much easier. Thank you for the kind words Lez. John

Not the easiest of 3 way points, this one was really fiddly in places and some really short bits of rail but it’s done now and ticked off the list

Another job ticked off is the loading railer for the F/Y. This allows us to just place the stock on the railer and push it towards the track it’s screwed down onto the layout and I’ve just laid the track up to it the screws need to just be countersunk a little bit more to get them flush

The tightrope bridge is now finished and track laid over it. I’m really happy with how it looks especially with the tie bars across it. I’ll try and keep it fairly open on the front of the layout however on the back it’ll need some sort of walkway to cross the culvert

Trial version in place, I love the look of it however it needs a bit of work to get something which will work

Working on the design for the tightrope style bridge which fits over the gap shown in this picture It is spanning a concrete channel made for water coming down off the hillside into the stream in front. The bridge is made using 2 concrete beams topped with timber, L1 chairs can then be bolted to the timber and 3 tie rods put across to stop the beams spreading with the load. I’ve put small pips on to help locate the chairs correctly

The layout now has Cork down ready for track laying later this week. Also the first of 2 coal sector class 37s is now converted to EM gauge, this was done with Romford coach wheels with the pin points removed. The gear and bearing taken from the old axles and 3D printed spacers to prevent side play on the outer axles of the bogies, the centre axle is allowed a reduced amount of sideplay

Good progress this evening. the boards are now finished with the boards now on top, this includes a cut out for where a stream cuts under the track. the template is on although it’s hard to see and it seems to work nicely we’ve also had a play with the conveyor, I could do with some suggestions for the belt as bike inner tube is just too thick otherwise it seems to work nicely

2 baseboards now firmly under construction the far one is the layout which is 5’ x 18”. As you can see from the risers the majority of the baseboard is to the right leaving the front free for scenics the nearer baseboard is the F/Y is 3’ x 18” and will be full depth. There will only be 2 tracks coming into the F/Y but it will provide plenty of room for storing stock

A pair of Hornby sentinels on the rolling road, they are running in now that have been converted to EM gauge. Also 3 rail freight HEA wagons have arrived, I need 12 in total so lots more to get!

Progress has started, the wood framing for the baseboards has been cut and assembled ready to be screwed together to form the baseboards! Nice to make some physical progress

A couple of updates on the technical side of the layout The conveyor design was just too small!! Particularly around the bearings, I’ve now rebooked at it and increased the size which should allow for greater throughput of coal and also strength in the design For point motors we have found a small servo controller by Tam Valley depot which is an inbuilt DCC accessory decoder but also has local buttons and indicator LEDs for a panel. The nice feature on these is that LED change even when operated by the DCC instead of this little panel we will be fitting the LEDs into a track diagram

One of the big design challenges of the layout is some sort of conveyor system. the conveyor will connect a hopper on the the back of the layout to the loading hopper on the loading siding. Unlike the prototype we won’t store coal in the loading hopper but use the conveyor to feed into the hopper which effectively will be a funnel. these are our initial designs. The shafts at either end are 3/16 of an inch. Roller bearings each side will help reduce friction and it’ll be powered by an O gauge motor and gearbox. The bottom end is adjustable to alter the tension of the belt

Sounds like a good target to me!!

Hopefully a decent size, wonder what inspired us to do that I wonder! Seems more similar to the things you produce!!

It certainly was, however small scale operations still were shunted though not wagons individually like this. I got a few photos of J94s pulling 8 HAA wagons round to be filled ready to be remade into a block train

Converting wagons. it’s the turn of 5 Bachmann HHA wagons to be converted to EM gauge. Despite what some people say it’s not always a drop in process and usually I end up cutting a bit off the break blocks to allow the wheels to fit The photo below shows the component parts of each bogie, most of the time this can be done without dismantling to this point but on these it’s easier With a sharp knife I have cut a 45 degree chamfer on the back of each brake block, this allows room for the EM gauge wheel to rotate freely The bogie can now be reassembled and put back onto the wagon, all that is left to do is wait for the EM gauge wheels from H&A models

the biggest thing so far on the layout has been to convert all the wagons to EM gauge and fit them with kadees, all have gone over without much bother which is nice. The J94 and rapido hunslet are also now to EM gauge but not yet on dcc We have just picked up the timber so will start cutting wood within the next week. hopefully it won't take long to get a baseboard build ready o get some track on it

A small Diorama based layout loading coal wagons from a conveyor/hopper. As a bit of a break from the big layout we have looked at doing a breather layout. something small, not particularly based on anywhere but just typical of a small scale coal loading facility. we will be looking at running the last legs of industrial steam such as J94s pulling hop24 wagons and HAA wagons but also more modern HTAs with a class 08 as not much would be different from that 1980's to early 2000's built in EM gauge with hand built track, it comprises of an arrivals road, departure road, loading point and a single siding connected to a single headshunt. the train will never fully be on scene coming from under a bridge so even with a 3' F/Y you can keep adding wagons to the back as you load others and deposit them on the departure line, scale length trains on a 5' layout 🤔 We hoping this layout will be nice and easy to operate, will be easier to exhibit and provide a use for some of our redundant stock which has been sitting in boxes for a while now This is the track plan, the viewing side is from the top and the F/Y to the left