Jump to content
 

peach james

Members
  • Posts

    1,498
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by peach james

  1. Thanks Ian, there are times when I wonder about the sanity of modeling the UK from the other side of the world ! James
  2. Do you have any plans of offering up the etchings? I have 16 of the JE etches, which do not have the bodywork for them. I could be interested in purchasing complete etches, if the cost isn't too high. I see that you are using Kadee couplers, which is good- that's what I am slowly standardizing on for Long Marton. (well, that and 3 link...) Otherwise, where did you get the castings from for the ones you have built? (the buffers & axleboxes), as I will be needing some for the Judith Edge kits either way. The fun of modeling from 2000 miles (or 5000) away. I can't nip out to the local shop and see what bits they have. James Powell
  3. Am I silly, but it would appear that the one that was at NRM isn't on the list? It's nameplate is Frank Galbraith, and a quick scan doesn't show it on the STN list above by name. (it may well be on there by number though). Clearly a post war engine... 100_0846 by Peach James, on Flickr Oh, and if I can find the coin, I will order one of the kits. (its that $$$ thing, there are a lot of things which compete for it, unfortunately) James
  4. 100 HP industrial Sentinel by Peach James, on Flickr That's what I am up to right now. I've only been building it since 98 or so. It is P4, and so not at all appropriate for Long Marton. (it may, at some point, suffer from a bout of regauging though...). I'm the far side of the country from home, so brought some things to keep me entertained. James
  5. And having had a few min to run trains today, the goods train portion needs more work, as well as the filling of the staging yard by DMU's. Bad news: Storage yard tracks are a lot shorter than the staging yard tracks. Good news: None, really. James
  6. And tonight: Auto. DMU's in the form of a 153 and the trusty 108 were out running past each other in Long Marton, with the distant signals controlling the speed and the home & starters doing nothing. The automatic plan to fill the storage yard works with the DMU, next I need to see if it will work with both a DMU and a goods train. Then, emptying it back to the staging, and adding more trains including passenger trains. I also have to add other train types (made 3 groups, goods, passenger & DMU), to the mix and see what happens. I'm aware that I have at least a couple of sections that are not properly identified yet...I had to add a route section on Thursday, so I'm not feeling too bad at all. Todays difficulty was electrical in nature, I had to change 3 blocks L/R for power, all on the hidden track & all fed off a reversing unit. Apparently, when I selected which belonged to which the last time, I managed to get at least one area backwards to its adjacent. Not a total shock, now dealt with. Unfortunately, it meant working into the middle of the lego spiral, which is SO easy to access. DSC_0031 by Peach James, on Flickr Still, I feel like I am getting somewhere with Long Marton. It will all go to bed for 6 weeks next sat, as I am going to Norfolk, VA, USA for a course. James
  7. Go to the Lego train table and ask them if it is all Megablocks? (wearing my lego geek shirt right now...) James
  8. So today: No progress on Long Marton, worked on the BRMoV layout wiring. Weaved a bit more spiderweb on one section, added a little bit of wood bracing, and a bunch of choco-blocks for terminating wiring. I need to put the last bits onto the current board, then move onto the next one for the BRMoV layout, which will entail a bit of woodworking to splice in some 13mm ply for the track bed under the castle hill, and the rather much simpler wiring for that section.
  9. It's ALIVE. Just like frankenstein, it came to life today again. 2 DMU's running, tail chasing each other. Relearned a few RR&Co lessons, and have some relabeling to do in the program. I had 1 derailment, a shockingly low number, at the transition on to Trout Beck, which has always been a problematic spot on the line. Last bit of work was figuring out how to get the DMU's to not come to an abrupt halt when they enter the successor schedule start section, that's done & better now. (done by putting the stop block indicator at the end of the block). Now: back to work ... and the garden needs more time, and I have to spend some quality time with the sledge hammer or splitting wedge, getting wood split... BRMoV layout is partly dismantled, awaiting transport to David's for the next bit of work on the first 2 sections, requires wiring gubbins for the next section I have to complete. (5 isolation switches, 20-30 choco-blocks) We're still after any Victoria (BC, Canada) individuals who have an interest in UK models to come out to meetings. (to as far as Nanaimo or so...Vancouverites are welcome when we have meetings...) James (internal definitions) section=detection section block= group (at least one) section, inclusive of signaling/mock signaling How to stop trains from stopping & restarting: Route must end in the same block as the successor. The block section at the enterance to the block should NOT be set to stop, but to either brake or nothing
  10. Trout Beck Viaduct Long Marton Station Long Marton goods shed full2012track DSC_0030 by Peach James, on Flickr
  11. I can suggest reading Derek Lowe's "In the Pipeline", particularly any of the "things I won't work with" for ideas of the ideal composition of the smell. I think there must be something to the stuff Esso were working with... http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2009/06/11/things_i_wont_work_with_thioacetone.php James
  12. The blocks are back above 10k, which means the glue has dried again. I've been running a 9 car train in both directions, and including through some of the staging tracks. The club layout is also here and assembled- I'm glad I have a understanding wife who accepted that the basement interior HAD to be 24' 6" when we put the addition onto the house. This is the BRMoV club layout, we've done major alterations to it which should be completed prior to the September show. Mental notes about staging: really, 12" is enough to get into. If you have a table that lets you lie flat on your back at the height of the table you are going onto. Otherwise, no, 12" is not really enough to be able to get to the back of 30" baseboards with electrical gremlins. Of course, that really is an advertisement to get rid of all gremlins before installing said baseboards. Or, just bite the bullet, and remove the baseboards above until access is possible. Glad option A worked, even if it was a bit of a squeeze. Next fun: try Auto. That, or clean more track first...
  13. Posting again. Spent more time away. Job related, spent 2 weeks in Halifax, NS. I've been back for 2 weeks, and have got trains running in both directions, with hoover running in one direction with 8 on, and the 108 running the other way. Lots of programming went on in the background, spent a bunch of time @ work on it during my morning/lunch hour. Next fun: Getting the 8 coaches to run reliably through the trackwork. My track laying skills are not that good, considering. Lots of humps which show up badly with Kadee couplings & longish trains. I'm expecting that the layout at this time cannot be run in auto, because 2-5 detection blocks are going to be below 10k resistance right now. James
  14. My book on Diesel engines, would call this a "semi-diesel". As regards brakes: It's a gauge 1 model. Not a 3 1/2" model. Heck, 2/3rds of my 3 1/2" locos don't have brakes, and the 1 that does the brakes have to be augmented with the "foot" brake if you need to stop in a hurry. (like say, if the traverser is out in front of you). When the engine is throttled down, the loco will slow down due to it being a electric drive. (the motors are now trying to turn the generator/engine faster than it wants to go). I'd assume that at low RPM, there is insufficent generated voltage to move the motors, & that's the end of it. I'd suspect that it would have grave difficulty pulling a wagon full of people. The bugaboo here is going to be adhesive weight, you need a loco that weighs around 20 lb/person to pull on an average track. (Tich @22 lb, will pull around 250 lb behind it). The BR 52 review that I read way back in 1986 said it would pull around 55 kg, and that's a fairly hefty gauge 1 loco. Again, possible, but unlikely. I would suspect that the electric losses are fairly high, and that the loco is designed to slow down by the engine slowing down. Note that it is fairly common to run gauge 1 locos without any controls (free running) on tracks, so the concern isn't that high. (I've done it with a Britannia in 3 1/2", and that gets strange looks...) James
  15. I feel like I should have followed that one, as there are at least 2 points which are lacking power on one side right now !. I haven't wired electrofrog for a while, and forgot the simple part that the two outside rails & frog all get wired on them. 2 or 3 turnouts to adjust the position of the torti, as they are shorting before switching by enough to bring down the section with them in. Irritating, but not the end of the world. I had trains running in both directions for the first time in 2+ years, which made me happy. Silly house renovation projects that keep growing ! The Lego is fairly close to 2 wire, Dave, at least in comparison to a fully detected, fully computer operated turnout & signals setup. The lego only gets Red & Yellow wire, and that's it. Connect appropriately to them, and run...might explain why it works, and Long Marton didn't ! James
  16. Re: the box on the side of the electric loco, it's not a disconnect switch is it? I'm thinking of the 250-500 Amp AQB circuit breakers we use at work, and it looks almost like an enclosure for one. (work is a spry 42 year old ship, so 1960 ish design. There's a fair amount of 1950's and 1940's tech in her though) James
  17. I'd have thought one fitted with the blue circle "radar" might have been more appropriate ??? James Powell, RCN
  18. Ok, so today's fun so far has been a short span of wiring. I knew I had 3 sections on the middle staging which were missing wiring, now found which ones & have a plan to power them from the next board over. It's getting a bit rats nest like, with the quantity of wiring required. 2 wire DCC this is NOT!. James
  19. Another short update: Since photos are broken on RM Web, I won't try and post any here. Now, with high speed internet, more should appear on a regular basis. Long Marton is running again, still single ended. I've built the baseboards, wired them, and have them mostly in place to put the middle bit in again. Last missing bit is to connect the existing through chimney section (!) to the new. This may involve removing some of the old bridging section, I'm not sure. (easier to cut down than to add to, at any rate). I've been running one of my Bachmann 9F's around with ~20 wagons tonight, went from having a few issues to getting about 10 laps/problem. As is usual with 2 wheel trucks on the front of locos, they don't like the transitions between boards, where things tend to get abrupt. I will post some photos when the notice goes away, James
  20. I had one of mine out today, running on Alan's layout here in Victoria, BC, Canada. It ran a treat with 12 conflat/3 planks on behind it. Still debating getting enough Flatrol P's for making the CONDOR... http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/judithedge/kit/293 James Powell
  21. I just saw Andy Y's post about removing images- fair enough that they had to go. It's not _my_ page on Pacificcoast.net that is the problem, at least as far as I can tell, but other sites hosted on the domain. Updates: really, none. I'm in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on course. I've been working on the RR&Co system again, during some of my spare time. I figured out (again) how to do the counting for the signal boxes, and have played around to bring the layout onto one switchboard, and the signal box instrumentation onto another. Not much else exciting happening from here. I've got more Kadee NEM couplers to add to goods stock when I get home, and a plan for the Hattons Class 28 BoCo. (it involves conflats, but not conflat P's, and a smoke generator...) I have the Kent keys mentioned above, one of them is wired up, the other one is built, but the 2nd box still needs to be finished. There is another 6' chunk of layout waiting for me to get home, and enough torti to finish that bit of trackwork. Follow on section will require more torti...not sure if I will strip some from another layout, or not. There are 14 of them or so on my Thomas the Tank Engine layout, but if I take more than 1 off, it presents control problems. (they're used as part of the DC switching process). James in Halifax
  22. I just got a email from Hattons saying September 19th release date. James
  23. I'll fire a email off to dad, ask how they got tar- but I suspect that it came from one of the local suppliers as a nominal liquid, rather than as a semi-solid. I know 8122/OF heated it with steam, but I suspect that at least some road vehicles involved with transport of tar did not heat it at all. From memory, the Foden lorry did NOT have any way of heating the tar, except when it was next to the Sentinel. Again, based on what dad's said, the Sentinel did both the pumping and the heating when they were taking on tar from another tanker. I know dad talks about Bridson's (edit- he said it was someone else, and that it happened in ~1935) having had a fire involving a tar tanker- the phone conversation was reputed to go a bit like this: Er, boss, we've had a bit of a problem... Yes? A bit of a fire...(long silence) Is there anything left? No, Not really. and then they scraped the remains of the lorry out of the road. I'd suspect it would be a diesel or petrol lorry, with a flame heated tar tank. I don't think tar is above its flash point at ~200C or so. (Sat. for steam @ 275 PSI) This is for spraying tar for roadbuilding as late as when we left the UK in 1979. I spoke with my dad this evening, and he confirmed a few things. It was a Foden lorry that LJB had for tar, it was rather more equipped than I thought, apparently it was fully equipped as a sprayer, even though OF was the one they used for spraying. Fitted with both steam heat coils, and a flame heater of some sort, and a diesel (he thinks!) driven pump. Tar for road work came from Ruthin CC or Flintshire CC's yard, (he's not sure which, now...it was a county council yard, anyway, and had rail access). The tar would be heated before pick up, and would stay liquid for ~1 day or so in the Foden on the shoulder seasons, rather longer in the middle of summer. Apparently, open fires were fairly common for heating the tanks, from how he describes it. Before people ask, yes, I have repeatedly asked dad to write this stuff down, before he goes senile or dies of old age. (he's 60, and is the young one of the group who worked for Lloyd Jones Brothers. Mick, Nigel and he are probably the youngest men to have _worked_ steam on the road, although people like Vern who runs the Sentinel in Whitby have a fair claim on it too. LJB was a for profit operation, and where steam was inapproprate, they used diesel cheerfully) James Powell
  24. So, where am I with Long Marton? I've got the layout assembled, and runnable. Currently, it is really only set up for uni-directional (down) operation, at least without using the staging yard for both directions. I need to finish ~12 ft of baseboard, and switches, and... before it can return to being single direction. I cut 1" or so off the height of the staging over the last week. That might not seem like much of a chore, except to do that, I had to dismantle the lego which rests above the staging yard, remove 4 30x60" tables, then dismantle the staging yard (4 boards, 2x45", 2x60", and then cut the legs down by 1/4" per section. This is to reduce the grade at the enterance to something more manageable. The big issue to date is that when pulling 11 Bachmann Mk1's, the 2nd coach tends to derail. Forces are high enough to lift it clear off the track in the curves. Since I don't have any more room for larger curves, (~30" or so now...), the only other option is to level the track out some more. I am unsure how I managed to get the track as far from level as it is, but that's now historic, I just have to deal with it. I am off to sea on Monday for a couple of weeks, I will probably get very little more done on LM until the summertime. The current summer plan is to set up the BRMoV layout in my basement and have another run day, prior to the September 10th train show in Victoria. -with regards to BRMoV, I don't think I ever noted that Peter Bricknell passed away in January, 2011, after a very short bout against cancer. He is missed as one of the members who did a lot of the club related work. Any other UK/Euro modelers in the Victoria, BC (or Vancouver Island) area who wish to join BRMoV, are asked to drop me a line. James Powell
  25. so- 8 months since the last post. What has happened: Wiring. Did a bit more wiring/rewiring of the layout. Tracklaying: Relayed one end of the 6 track yard, on 6' portable section. I need to build 2 more sections for that. Other Work: we are living in the house addition, and I have spent the last 2 months at school (Canadian Fleet School Esquimalt, Engineering Division) doing my 6's. (think 2nd class Stationary/marine certification). The 1 month old is nearly 1 year old. And the trains run again!. James
×
×
  • Create New...