Rotherhurst - A slice of Southern in Norway

[THS92-GWR-NO]

Did you use Hornby or Peco points back in the (30+) time? 

[SR Rich]

8 hours ago, THS92-GWR-NO said:

Did you use Hornby or Peco points back in the (30+) time? 

Hello Thomas

 

I used Peco back then and still do, some of the points on the fiddle yard are some of the old ones and still going strong.  I had a project to build Eridge station in Sussex UK in the late 80's but children and moving happened so it all went into a box for many years. The points still worked OK but some of my kit built engines did not like the 2nd radius.

 

Richard

[SR Rich]

I decided to put in some uncouplers on my OO9 layout.

 

The layout is so narrow and the uncouplers are not far apart, I thought why not have them manually operated from both sides one side for home use in front and the back when we are at an exhibition.

 

I started by designing, then printing with the top parts that will be seen.

 

 

This is a kit of parts for the uncouplers. There are two guide tubes missing from this picture

 

 

 

I started by drilling holes through the sides of the layout where the uncouplers would be operated from, after working out where I wanted the uncouplers.

 

The next job is to drill two holes between the rails, the hole on the left with the brass tube in it, is for guiding the push rod through from under layout and the brass tube on the right is a guide for the resin stub, this stops the uncoupler twisting during operation.

In the top track there's ''one I did earlier'', it sits nicely between the rails and lower than the top of the rail so it will not get damaged when cleaning the track.

 

 

This next picture is under the layout, this shows two uncouplers.

The push rod come through the baseboard and are attached by a screw to a flat brass tab, this in turn is soldered to the rod that goes out either side of the layout.

 

 

 

I use this white spacer to help set the height of the uncoupler, mark the push rod under the baseboard, drill a hole though the rod and put a pin through that hole to limit how high the uncoupler can lift.

 

 

This is the uncoupler in operation, just a small movement of the lever in the side of the layout pushes up the uncoupler.

 

 

I have run out of media space, so I will carry on in the next post.

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by SR Rich

[SR Rich]

This just shows the uncoupler operating.

 

 

 

Now you see the uncouplers.

 

 

Now you don't (nearly).

Here I have tried to make the uncouplers less obvious by trying to paint on ballast and sleepers.

 

 

I have a drawing here so that maybe all my ramblings make a little more sense.

 

 

If you are not sure of something leave a message.

 

Richard

[SR Rich]

All the pictures have been put back in their respective posts.

 

The next project is already underway on Rotherhurst, so an update coming soon.

 

Richard

Edited April 7, 2022 by SR Rich

[SR Rich]

I have a ''Brighton Belle'' third rail electric unit, so I decided to put third rail on Rotherhurst from the start of platform 2 up the hill and through the fiddle yard, about seven meters. I used the peco system with the code 60 rail and insulators, that have to be mounted on the sleepers, I made a brass template for hole position rather than measuring each time a hole needed drilling, the insulators are mounted in every fourth sleeper.

 

This picture shows the third rail and insulators before rusting the rail.

 

 

The next couple shows the third rail around the points and the rails have been ''rusted''.

 

 

 

I have just noticed , I need to paint the end of the third rail white, which was done in days of the  LBSCR.

 

Happy Easter

 

Richard

[Tony Teague]

Looks good.

I found that the only problems that I had with the 3rd rail was that despite following Peco's guide for installing it, it was my various Hornby EMU's that fouled the 3rd rail at junctions. It seems to me that the pick-up shoes are either not scaled or located prototypically, or perhaps that account has not been taken of the compromises inherent in OO gauge rail.

I have no idea but I have had to compromise some of my 3rd rail installations around points and crossovers.

Tony

 

[SR Rich]

On 15/04/2022 at 12:26, Tony Teague said:

Looks good.

I found that the only problems that I had with the 3rd rail was that despite following Peco's guide for installing it, it was my various Hornby EMU's that fouled the 3rd rail at junctions. It seems to me that the pick-up shoes are either not scaled or located prototypically, or perhaps that account has not been taken of the compromises inherent in OO gauge rail.

I have no idea but I have had to compromise some of my 3rd rail installations around points and crossovers.

Tony

 

Hello Tony

 

Thanks , I am pleased with it.

 

I set up the third rail with a Bachmann MLV which does not have the contact shoe moulded onto the shoebeam, so it worked perfectly but after seeing your post we have been testing all our third rail stock, the Hornby stock has the contact shoes moulded in place and so there is, as you said, the problem of fouling on the junctions but not on the track between junctions,  I think our solution will be to either cut the contact shoe off or file it back until it does not foul the rail on the junctions, rather than take all the rail up again, maybe not using the washer under the insulating pots would give the necessary clearance.

 

Richard

[SRman]

I love the smooth flow of the track you have achieved now. The old version was good, the newer one sensationally better still.

I found that with my Underground stock and some of the SR units I had to file down or remove altogether the moulded pick up shoes from the shoe beams. Part of the problem lies in our gauge being too narrow so it upsets that relationship between third rail and shoe beam, part of it lies in the manufacturers not allowing sufficient clearances for a model to run without fouling lineside bits and pieces, and part lies with some models at least being out of (loading) gauge anyway.

Edited April 17, 2022 by SRman

[THS92-GWR-NO]

On 14/04/2022 at 15:57, SR Rich said:

I have a ''Brighton Belle'' third rail electric unit, so I decided to put third rail on Rotherhurst from the start of platform 2 up the hill and through the fiddle yard, about seven meters. I used the peco system with the code 60 rail and insulators, that have to be mounted on the sleepers, I made a brass template for hole position rather than measuring each time a hole needed drilling, the insulators are mounted in every fourth sleeper.

 

This picture shows the third rail and insulators before rusting the rail.

 

 

The next couple shows the third rail around the points and the rails have been ''rusted''.

 

 

 

I have just noticed , I need to paint the end of the third rail white, which was done in days of the  LBSCR.

 

Happy Easter

 

Richard

 

Richard - this track laying, balasting and painting looks great! Very good details!

[SR Rich]

Hello

 

Only three weeks until our annual railway exhibition here in Bergen Norway, time to start checking all the layout sections and think of a theme/time period(s) we are going to operate this year.

 

If anyone happens to be in the Bergen (Norway) area over this weekend please come and say hello.

We were quite surprised to see a picture of our layout Rotherhurst used on the advertising poster this year.

 

 

That's it for now, I will be putting up a post on our workbench thead soon.

 

Richard

 

 

Messeplakat2022uBT.pdf

Edited September 4, 2022 by SR Rich

[SR Rich]

Hello

 

Stuart has been busy with the electrics for the fiddle yard, last year we had lots of switches to get into the right places to select the siding we wanted, this year we just have to push one button for the required siding and then all the points that need to will change.

 

This is our fiddle yard control panel, the blue push buttons are to select the required siding, the green light shows the operational (live) siding , the red lights on the right of the black rectangle are light sensors fitted between the rails so that we know the siding is occupied ( if something is parked over it), you will see the bottom three bulbs are brighter showing the siding is occupied (the others bulbs are a lighter red because the sensors were set up for the exhibition where the ambient light is a lot brighter than the railway room and so the bulbs would not light up at all).

 

 

 

 

This is the fiddle yard, as you can see seven sidings that correspond the buttons on the control panel above.

The sidings that are occupied in this picture correspond with the three brighter lights on the control panel above, but the driver of the train on the middle siding did not drive far enough to park over the sensor, so the middle red bulb is not so bright.

The sensor is the small blob you can see between the rails in front of the Battle of Britain loco to the right of the shed.

 

 

This is the electric wizardry that makes it all work.

I don't fully understand how this works myself, this is why I leave it to Stuart, I think he has done a great job.

The bulbs were initially just to test the system but have now become part of the panel.

The blue light shows there is power, there is then six sets of red and green bulbs that show which way the relays have switched.

 

 

That is the latest update for the layout, Stuart has a few electrical issues to sort out before the exhibition, which were caused by me changing the track work around after the last exhibition, oops!

 

As usual any comments or questions welcome

 

Richard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SR Rich]

Hello all

 

Just thought I would post up some pictures from the Bergen ( Norway) exhibition we attended at the end of September.

 

Everything went well apart from a failed controller on the OO9 part of the layout , which was quickly sorted out. Stuart's new electric trickey for the fiddle yard worked perfectly, see details in the previous post.

 

The new track layout on Rotherhurst worked very well, after I took up most of the points after last years exhibition ( There is a write up earlier in this thread about the track relay).

 

 

This is Stuart operating his dock themed layout, it is still a work in progress and hopefully we will see more progress in the future.

 

 

This is the fiddle yard with a SR Z class on the left and three LBSC engines on the right, Atlantic with the nine Stroudley 4 wheel coaches, a C2X  in the center and a Terrier with balloon coach on the right.

When we operate at the exhibition, we use the right hand track for through trains to the loop for turning the train and when they come back from the loop we select an empty siding for the train to be parked in, the next three lines are used for passenger trains because they are generally longer than the goods trains and the three lines on the left are for the goods trains.

 

 

 

Just a view of Rothergate OO9 layout, the two holes you can see in the front of the layout are for operating the new uncouplers I installed before the exhibition, the levers go to the back as well so they can be operated from either side, unfortunately they seem to be a magnet for the kids to fiddle with, so were quickly covered over.

 

 

 

Now I start thinking of what I can do to improve the layout(s) for next year, I am not sure Stuart is so keen!

 

Richard

 

 

 

 

[THS92-GWR-NO]

Looks awesome, next year I will be in attendance. 

Maybe I'll bring something too in OO or something else, just need to be able to pack it safely :) 

[SR Rich]

Hello

 

For anyone in the Bergen (Norway) it is just one week until the annual model railway exhibition, again one of our layouts has been used on the poster.

 

 

For more information    Click here to go to website.

 

If you are there come and say hello.

 

Richard

[THS92-GWR-NO]

Hey Richard! 

How did the show go? 

 

Any photos for those of us who didn't get to see it? 

[SR Rich]

Hello Thomas

 

Here is a few pictures from our layouts from the exhibition.

We decided to run smaller tank engines and small coaches this year, so a good pre-grouping flavour (before 1923).

 

London, Brighton & South Coast Railway to start with, Loco number 626 and all the coaches you can see are kit built by me and the terrier number 677 is a re painted Hornby terrier.

 

 

This next picture shows a train from the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (blue coaches), a train from the South East & Chatham Railway (red coaches) and it seems a continental engine in the goods yard.

 

 

Next is the SD&JR train a little closer.

 

 

This is Stuarts quay side layout, I operated this layout this year, operation it is quite a challenge on this compact layout, with many points, small sidings (max a loco and two wagons) and being DC contolled.

 

 

Now we move to the narrow gauge (OO9).

A very busy scene with many locos.

 

 

We also had a very small visitor to Rotherhurst this year .

 

 

 

As usual any comments or questions welcome.

 

Richard

 

 

 

[Mallard60022]

Beautiful Richard. Superb looking scene.

May I ask what that Backscene is from? It looks really like areas around my Seaton Junction.

All the best,

Phil

[SR Rich]

5 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

Beautiful Richard. Superb looking scene.

May I ask what that Backscene is from? It looks really like areas around my Seaton Junction.

All the best,

Phil

Hello Phil

 

Thanks for your kind words.

 

The back scenes on this layout are made by I D Backscenes, this one is one called Village Long 202B, there are two pieces 15" high and each piece is 1.5 meters long (so a total of 3meters per pack) and there are four packs in the Village Long series, so you could have a total of twelve meters of continuous back scene.

Here is a link http://www.idbackscenes.com/index.php/id-backscenes-scenic-backgrounds-village-long-202

They are available from model shops.

 

This is the right hand side of pack 202B, under the red line is hidden behind the cutting and takes out the more modern looking houses.

 

 

Here is the back scene in place on the layout, on other another layout I have used carefully placed trees to hide other more modern structures.

 

 

 

Just had a look at Seaton Junction, looks very good and plenty of progress as well.

 

Take care

 

Richard

 

Edited October 18, 2023 by SR Rich

[Mallard60022]

On 18/10/2023 at 13:24, SR Rich said:

Hello Phil

 

Thanks for your kind words.

 

The back scenes on this layout are made by I D Backscenes, this one is one called Village Long 202B, there are two pieces 15" high and each piece is 1.5 meters long (so a total of 3meters per pack) and there are four packs in the Village Long series, so you could have a total of twelve meters of continuous back scene.

Here is a link http://www.idbackscenes.com/index.php/id-backscenes-scenic-backgrounds-village-long-202

They are available from model shops.

 

This is the right hand side of pack 202B, under the red line is hidden behind the cutting and takes out the more modern looking houses.

 

 

Here is the back scene in place on the layout, on other another layout I have used carefully placed trees to hide other more modern structures.

 

 

 

Just had a look at Seaton Junction, looks very good and plenty of progress as well.

 

Take care

 

Richard

 

Brilliant thank you Richard. There are trees too on their list. Just what I need.

All the best.

Phil