TheITGuy

My apologies to Dawn Flyer - for not spotting his/her replies. I promise you I wasn't being rude, I just didn't spot them! I will certainly check out out the MRTEE uncoupler you mentioned, although I have since purchased the Gaugemaster ones in readiness. Along with my good friend Dik, we are going to see if we can modify the GM ones to make them a bit less "fierce" in their operation. Since my posts ages ago, the baseboard has been built and painted (therein lies a tale for another day), cork sheet affixed and it is ready for track laying. I haven't finalised a track plan as yet as I am still determining a suitable theme for the layout. I had sort of settled on a cement works (and have purchased a Walthers HO scale kit to be the main structure on the layout), to take advantage of the highly regarded Accurascale PCA Cement wagons, but there does not yet appear to be a confirmed released date yet for these so I am a bit reluctant to build a layout without suitable rolling stock to use on it. I'll post some photos of the progress to date in due course,

Progress on this layout has been somewhat slow recently - partly because despite emailing a very well known baseboard manufacturer twice with a simple question regarding their baseboard kits I still haven't had a response. Instead I found a wood supplier online who can cut wood to size so I worked out the pieces needed and ordered from them. I also took the opportunity to lengthen the layout by 150mm as the original length was just a bit too tight. The wood arrived on Friday, however, two pieces are missing and one was cut to the incorrect size, so I'm awaiting replacement parts. The wait continues...

So after I calmed down a bit, I retrieved the partially built kit from the bin, sliced off the upper storey and have now scratch built the top half, using a combination of the remaining parts of the Ratio kit, bits from a Metcalfe kit and plenty of card!

Hi Jason Thanks for the comments and the link to the other topic - spikey certainly has achieved a far better result than I did! Glen

Having spent a fair few hours battling with the Ratio 500 signal box kit, I ended up consigning it to the bin! The lower section went without a hitch but the upper section was a complete nightmare. Each wall panel has a “wooden” frame but either I wasn’t interpreting the instructions correctly or there is something wrong with the design. I assumed that the framing either sits outside of the wall panel or on top of it but the dimensions were such that either the frame was not quite large enough or the wall panel was too small for either options to be viable. The floor had a mysterious slot in one corner, the purpose of which completely escapes me and the cut-outs in the wall panels for the door frame sections were too small for the frames to fit! I thought my modelling skills were better than this Can anyone shed some light on how to construct this **** kit, as I’m willing to buy another and give it a second try, if I’m just doing something stupid. Thanks! Glen

OK, I've just created a YouTube channel, so you should be able to watch the video here: Gaugemaster TLU Test Obviously adding this uncoupler to a test rack was really easy and indeed, incorporating into a new layout will also be straightforward, but has anyone retrofitted these to an existing layout? How easy was it to get the holes cut when track and ballast was already in place? Cheers Glen

So, the next instalment. The Gaugemaster TLU arrived from Rails of Sheffield on Friday, so earlier today I experimented with hands-free uncoupling. This is what is supplied: The first job was to drill the two holes (one countersunk) as per instructions, the only slight deviation was the use of a 4mm drill bit instead of 3.5mm: Please ignore the quality of the surface – this is just a test track to ascertain if this is the solution to my coupling conundrums! Once the holes were drilled, I pinned the track back down, cutting back one of the sleepers, again, as per instructions: Please ignore the quality of the surface – this is just a test track to ascertain if this is the solution to my coupling conundrums! Once the holes were drilled, I pinned the track back down, cutting back one of the sleepers, again, as per instructions: Once turned back over, the ramp was dropped through the centre of the solenoid and the screw on the shaft tightened: It works brilliantly! No unintended uncoupling when wagons a pulled slowly across as the ramp is only raised when the switch is pressed. The solenoid is quite noisy but when these are fitted to the layout, I may be able to encase them in something to deaden the sound a bit. The instructions mention to check that the ramp does not sit too high when using fine scale track (my test was conducted using code 100), so I’ll use code 100 track on Trundle rather than code 75. I've taken a video of it in action, so will post this first, then see if I can upload the video.....

Hi Everyone I thought I would share with you my new project. I’ve always liked Inglenook style shunting layouts and incorporated one in my previous layout, Bankside. Since a house move back in 2010, I’ve been working (slowly) on a permanent room sized layout based on a fictitious heritage railway. Being quite daunted at times at the amount of work needed on the “main” layout, and sometimes not being able to run trains whilst wiring or scenic work progresses, I thought I would divert myself with a little project! The main criteria are as follows: 1. OO gauge 2. Size of baseboard will be 1500 x 300 mm, to be portable and easy to store in the “train” room 3. Classic Inglenook 5-3-3 shunting layout, for shunting using diesel locos and appropriate wagons 4. Automated uncoupling 5. Electrically operated points The design isn’t going to win any awards for originality! I used some lining paper, affixed to a piece of hardboard of the correct size to come up with this: The points are all PECO small radius (one left, one right and one wye) and although the small siding from the wye point isn’t needed for the puzzle, I wanted to add a bit of interest! Whilst working the puzzle, the wye point will remain switched to the main line. This provides a sufficient head shunt for a Class 37 and 3 wagons. Regarding uncoupling, Bankside used the Hornby uncoupling ramps (I found these worked better than the PECO ones) but even so, running (aka trundling) at such slow speed when pulling wagons sometimes resulted in unwanted decoupling. I have just ordered a Gaugemaster electromagnetically controlled uncoupler, and have built (i.e. thrown together) a test track to evaluate its suitability: Theoretically, being able to raise the ramp at a touch of a button will overcome the shortcomings of the Hornby (and PECO) uncoupling ramps. Watch this space…… The Gaugemaster TLU should arrive next week and I’ll start giving thought to the scenery. More later….

Here's a photo of the brake van, taken during a memorable trip to Barrow Hill in March 2008....