Castle Aching

[DonB]

I suddenly had a bright red disc visible to my left eye. Visited optician next day ,He referred me to local hospital where there is separate dedicated eye A&E dept.

Entered about 1630,

Examined, told at 1730 "You have a torn retina, we can deal with that with laser treatment " .

Sharp intake of breath, 

"OK, when do I come back?"

"You don't go away!" 

at 1830 I rang my wife to collect me, She said that she wondered why I was late home for tea!

That was 22 years ago, no further problems since with that eye. Had similar problem with right eye about 10 years later similar rapid treatment. again no further problem.

 

[Edwardian]

Well, not much progress on the test track. I have run out of standard gauge track, and await a resupply from Marcway.  I have come up short on the OO9 too, so if anyone has a spare 6" or so of that!

 

Also, I need to get hold of a controller for the NG circuit.

 

Supplies have rather dried up here generally due to snow. Some bean counter at some stage decided that rural Posties could do without Landrovers and so now they can't get through the snow.

 

I can get through the snow, as I proved this evening when I went to the supermarket on behalf of my neighbour, the Postie, who can't get his van through the snow! 

 

It snowed heavily last night, so I woke up to about 6" of cover and a continuous light fall of snow this morning.  it is set to freeze tonight, so there should still be plenty of the white stuff around tomorrow.

 

My old Lab loves the snow.  He rolls around in it and buries the ball so he can dig it out again. It is all rather magical. 

 

Hope everyone is keeping well.

 

[Martin S-C]

On 25/05/2020 at 14:33, Regularity said:

before the great vowel shift.

Please accept my apologies for that. I shall avoid the vindaloo next time.

[webbcompound]

On 14/01/2021 at 22:00, Edwardian said:

Well, not much progress on the test track. I have run out of standard gauge track, and await a resupply from Marcway.  I have come up short on the OO9 too, so if anyone has a spare 6" or so of that!

 

Also, I need to get hold of a controller for the NG circuit.

 

Supplies have rather dried up here generally due to snow. Some bean counter at some stage decided that rural Posties could do without Landrovers and so now they can't get through the snow.

 

I can get through the snow, as I proved this evening when I went to the supermarket on behalf of my neighbour, the Postie, who can't get his van through the snow! 

 

It snowed heavily last night, so I woke up to about 6" of cover and a continuous light fall of snow this morning.  it is set to freeze tonight, so there should still be plenty of the white stuff around tomorrow.

 

My old Lab loves the snow.  He rolls around in it and buries the ball so he can dig it out again. It is all rather magical. 

 

Hope everyone is keeping well.

 

For your 009 track I recommend the controllers made by Mark Clark at Locos n Stuff.  link here They are designed to work with the small motors that will sit in your (inevitably growing) stud of NG locos (but are also fine with any size of motor). I made the mistake of using a Gaugemaster controller which burnt out the motor on a power bogie which I had just built. Mark explains why this happens on his site, apparently they are "only half rectified and have no inbuilt power restrictions", and this may be a problem with other controllers, although old Hornby and H&M are fine.

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by webbcompound

[Nearholmer]

Any chance of a link to the critique of Gaugemaster controllers - as an electrical engineer I'd be intrigued to read it.

[Northroader]

On the Locosnstuff site if you go to “news”, the comments on Guagemaster/half wave rectification are near the bottom of that page. These products are news to me, one of their chassis kits might be the weapon of choice to solve my Whimsy problems, dearer than an old Nellie, admittedly, but you gats what you pays for, as ever.

[Donw]

3 hours ago, Northroader said:

On the Locosnstuff site if you go to “news”, the comments on Guagemaster/half wave rectification are near the bottom of that page. These products are news to me, one of their chassis kits might be the weapon of choice to solve my Whimsy problems, dearer than an old Nellie, admittedly, but you gats what you pays for, as ever.

 

I found  it and do not think much of that one wouldn't expect a half rectified controller. 

 

Don

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

5 hours ago, Donw said:

 

I found  it and do not think much of that one wouldn't expect a half rectified controller. 

 

Don

 

Is that similar to being a little pregnant?

[Nearholmer]

TBH, I didn't believe a word of that stuff about Gaugemaster controllers being "half rectified", which is a nonsense term betraying misunderstanding of the term "half-wave rectified", so I copied the spiel to Gaugemaster and asked for their comment.

 

Response:

 

The only half wave Gaugemaster controller is a broken one, fully wave linear DC not pulsed (unless you buy a feedback unit) on all Gaugemaster analogue controllers. This type of output works on all types of motors including Portescape and Mashima and even on Z gauge, older style pulsed controllers can generate for heat in some situations but don’t forget the ultra smooth DCC running is also pulsed so things have moved on.

 

      Greg Spears – Technical Manager

        GAUGEMASTER Controls Ltd, Ford Road, Arundel, West Sussex, BN18 0BN, United Kingdom

 

I don't know whether he intends to put a flea in the ear of the person who published that website, but if I was him, I would.

 

[Edwardian]

1 minute ago, Nearholmer said:

TBH, I didn't believe a word of that stuff about Gaugemaster controllers being "half rectified", which is a nonsense term betraying misunderstanding of the term "half-wave rectified", so I copied the spiel to Gaugemaster and asked for their comment.

 

Response:

 

The only half wave Gaugemaster controller is a broken one, fully wave linear DC not pulsed (unless you buy a feedback unit) on all Gaugemaster analogue controllers. This type of output works on all types of motors including Portescape and Mashima and even on Z gauge, older style pulsed controllers can generate for heat in some situations but don’t forget the ultra smooth DCC running is also pulsed so things have moved on.

 

      Greg Spears – Technical Manager

        GAUGEMASTER Controls Ltd, Ford Road, Arundel, West Sussex, BN18 0BN, United Kingdom

 

I don't know whether he intends to put a flea in the ear of the person who published that website, but if I was him, I would.

 

 

Did you mention that you know a good lawyer?

 

[Nearholmer]

Terribly sorry, slipped my mind in all my excitement over rectification. Perhaps you should forward your card.

[Regularity]

I couldn’t find any of the text about “half rectification” or reference to Gaugemaster, and that was this morning so I don’t know if something happened quickly?

 

But, there are some lovely kits on there, and I would love to know a bit more about the “Power [which] is supplied by a Chinese geared motor with an Australian 1:1 final drive” used in the Peckett “Gamecock” kit:

[Compound2632]

6 minutes ago, Regularity said:

I couldn’t find any of the text about “half rectification” or reference to Gaugemaster, and that was this morning so I don’t know if something happened quickly?

 

It's still there, in "News" about 4/5 of the way down - "Controller Issues".

[Nearholmer]

I've seen some of Loconstuffs locos and stuff at an Expong, and they were very good - I remember having a long natter with him about Bagnall Sipat class locos. Its just that his words about controllers are garbled, to say the least.

 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Regularity]

11 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

It's still there, in "News" about 4/5 of the way down - "Controller Issues".

Thanks: I missed that but before.

 

To be fair to him, he did say he phoned them and asked, to be told (he claims):

 

Quote

I called Gaugemaster to discuss this and was told that all Gaugemasters are only half rectified and have no inbuilt power restrictions, this gives a raw output that small motors don't like, the larger ones can cope as they are a bigger heat sink but it will probably still shorten their life.  When the motor gets hot, which it will do on half rectified power, it will keep getting hotter until it burns out and there are no power limiters to stop this.  This was a bit of a surprise as I thought the problem was the Chinese motor suppliers lack of quality control when it looks like it was my Gaugemaster all the time.

 

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Did you mention that you know a good lawyer?

 

 

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Terribly sorry, slipped my mind in all my excitement over rectification. Perhaps you should forward your card.

He did say good lawyer...

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

9 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Terribly sorry, slipped my mind in all my excitement over rectification. Perhaps you should forward your card.

 

I remember when I was a kid our cat was a little less than excited when he was taken to the vet to be rectified.

[Edwardian]

Don W, kindly, and, perhaps, rashly, offered to proffer wiring diagrams, so, here is what the Test Track configuration is shaping up to be.

 

My thoughts are:

 

- The NG needs the ability to isolate the station loop, just so that trains can pass there.  

 

- The SG 'mainline' (it's a mainline company's line, laid to BH) likewise has a station loop that will allow trains to pass. 

 

- There is a connect to the SG Mineral Line/Light Railway.  The LR has a run round loop.

 

- I can only fit a single meagre goods siding off that, and it should be possible to shunt that from the mainline, so either (i) a Light Railway passenger service can be isolated in the LR platform road, and (ii) can be isolated the other side of the junction with the mainline.

 

- Obviously the two SG elements, the mainline and the LR, have to be isolated from one another.

 

NB: The Mineral Line/LR and the NG lines cross on the level via a crossover.

 

I should add that the purpose of this set up is not prototypical operation, but to provide test track and photo-plank (and much needed modelling practice).  Frankly, things like sidings and loops are more important as means of having additional stock on display.  I have already over-complicated it because I could not resist including stations en scene. This is my equivalent of those relaxation videos you  get of log fires etc.

 

[Compound2632]

8 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

I should add that the purpose of this set up is not prototypical operation, but to provide test track and photo-plank (and much needed modelling practice).  Frankly, things like sidings and loops are more important as means of having additional stock on display.  I have already over-complicated it because I could not resist including stations en scene. This is my equivalent of those relaxation videos you  get of log fires etc.

 

Appropriate self-restraint is being applied in respect of the main line / mineral line connection.

[drmditch]

Had you thought at all about the lovely two-level exchange siding at Warthill on the Sand Hutton Light Railway?

There is a picture No.119 in Ken Hoole's 'North Eastern Branchlines'.

 

(Sorry, couldn't find an accessible on-line version).

[Caley Jim]

I will leave it to @Donw to provide the full diagram, but isolating trains in a loop is simply achieved by setting both turnouts to the other line, whereby the loop is effectively 'dead', both rails being at the same polarity.  Isolating breaks are, of course required a loco's length from the end of each track in order to avoid shorts when the turnouts at either end are not set to the same road.

 

Jim

[Edwardian]

44 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Appropriate self-restraint is being applied in respect of the main line / mineral line connection.

 

How restrained would you need to be if neither line were Midland?!?

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

How restrained would you need to be if neither line were Midland?!?

 

More restrained than Col. Yolland.

Edited January 19, 2021 by Compound2632

[Adam88]

11 hours ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

 

I remember when I was a kid our cat was a little less than excited when he was taken to the vet to be rectified.

 

They say it's better to be vetted than doctored but I suppose that depends on what the vet is intending to do.

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

More restrained than Col. Yolland.

 

And his solution would be ... ?

[Compound2632]

26 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

And his solution would be ... ?

 

Sorry, I posted pontifically, a bad habit I have when I'm frustrated by something else. Please consider my posts on this subject withdrawn. There's nothing quite like watching the trains go round; when it's too cold for the garage I have to make do with an oval of set-track on the dining room table.