I must have spent about 2 hours under the baseboards trying to align the gantry with somewhere that didn’t have cross-members, wires through those cross-members, screws, brackets, areas I couldn’t reach, wires that needed lengthening and/or re-routing.
The gap between the down main and the loop was only just enough so positioning was critical, especially as the curves are very tight at that point. I ran a mk1 coach back and forth constantly over both tracks until it fitted (just).
I couldn’t find the wiring diagram so each wire had to be buzzed out before I recoupled it (after lengthening it) and it took at least 3 attempts before I coupled all the drive rods to the servos and the wires didn’t catch on something or another. One of the servos threw a wobbler and tried to self destruct, to the extent the gears inside went crunch and re-set themselves. I had to take the arm off the servo and re-set it.
2230 before all signals were working again. Lesson learned? Build it up on the bench at home on a baseplate and fit the whole thing from above. If it still doesn’t fit?
Well there’s always colour light signals I suppose…….
The second job (which I did first!!!) was painting the retaining walls to complete the scenic work that Steve has been beavering away at. He will be building a small hut to cover the point motor until I can get round to doing a tall signalbox for the gap in the wall.
I think we’ve got the look we were after….
More to follow.
- Read more...
- 2 comments
- 336 views