kes

Not much progress at this time of the year. I have moved all the stock out of the shed for the winter and have commenced the construction of two Kirk GWR Collett suburban coaches.

Thanks for the kind comments Alan.

Hi, I use servos with a 12v battery but feed them from a lm7806 3 pin voltage regulator which gives 6volts output. They can be found very cheaply on eBay etc. They are simple to wire up. Pin 1 12v in, middle pin to ground-0volts, pin3 output. 6 volt positive. Screw it to a heatsink about 5cm square, as it will get hot, and away you go. Kev.

And the guys from St Georges Riverside decided we needed a bigger boat in the harbour!

We won the Trevor Jones Trophy for the Best Visiting Layout as awarded by the other exhibitors. Many thanks guys.

We had a fabulous time at the Shipley Exhibition. The layout worked perfectly all weekend, and we only had one engine failure, traced to a loose blanking plug which was quickly sorted when we got home. A big thank you is due to Bill and John and the team at Shipley, and to Maggie who operated with me all weekend, and to Paul and Nicola, who took over on the Saturday and sent Maggie and me out for the dinner break together.

Thanks for the kind comments Ian. The traverser is deliberately that length because the run around loop out front will not accept trains any longer than that. It is permanently fitted to one board, which helps with alignment problems. Exhibition halls vary in temp and humidity throughout the day, and you would be surprised by how much boards swell and change size.

I have been cleaning all the loco and stock wheels a head of the coming Shipley show. It is amazing how much crud had built up after the last exhibition. It reminded me of the old Triangle plastic wheels where you had to scrape the crud off with a screwdriver.

Did a bit of shunting today to check the passage of wheels through the crossings and across the board joints. A little remedial work was required with a needle file in places as the track and boards settle down.

The wiring will be tidied up with cable ties and supports once it is all tested thoroughly.

Today I finished the wiring under the boards and tested it all. To my surprise it all works with no shorts or open circuits. I must get on with building the control panel and drinking the bottle of port!

Sandy Bay will be at the Shipley model railway exhibition on the 15/16th September. We hope to see you there.

Looking good. The cardboard idea using real stock is an excellent way to check for clearances. The sector plate can be as simple as a single piece of thin ply, or aluminium sheet with the tracks glued on, and using a domestic brass sliding bolt to align and feed power. O gauge has enough size to get away with using small brass bolt.

I have been underneath the layout doing some of the wiring and working out the pin-outs of the 25d connectors back to the control panel, which is housed in a rather good Taylor's port box.

Sandy Bay was very well received at the Pickering show resulting in some further bookings and enquiries for next year. It worked faultlessly all weekend, running on the 12volt sealed battery. Maggie did a sterling job as "second man".