Radford

[Barry O]

Looking good Rodney.

 

Baz

[RodneyV]

16 hours ago, Barry O said:

Looking good Rodney.

 

Baz

 

Hi Baz,

 

Very kind of you.

It should be a lot more completed and ready for ballasting the next time you make it to Australia.

As an aside, would you know the brand of turntable for Grantham?

My through station will need a smaller than normal turntable and I liked the look of the Grantham one.

 

Thanks

 

 

[Barry O]

I know it has an interesting motor and gearbox set up..will check it out with Red Leadee.

Baz

[RodneyV]

9 hours ago, Barry O said:

I know it has an interesting motor and gearbox set up..will check it out with Red Leadee.

Baz

Hi Baz,

 

Thanks for that. No rush, it will be about a year before I plan I will need the turntable.

I want to try and get something that looks like an Ex LNER turntable. Being on Grantham it should ift the bill.

[RodneyV]

Dear All,

 

Today has been very successful, the bottom bit of the layout is now wired up.

Everything is also talking to RR & Co perfectly. I'm very happy I can assure you.

 

The next part of this process will be to test. I found two short circuits which I have now corrected.

These were from droppers that weren't connected to the buss (or is it bus?). On connecting them they short circuited.

In theory to fix them correctly, I should rewire the two turnouts Tortoise connections. However, soldering underneath the layout is not my favourite activity. I might need to man up and just do it.

 

This also means I will host a BRMA meeting this year which will be great.

 

My other thoughts were to rewire and therefore simplify the wiring. The mess of wiring under the layout is annoying me. After seeing the wiring of St Enodocs layout I feel I could do better.

The extra wiring is from the block detectors I have in place. This adds to the complexity. However, as this part of the layout will be under another part of the layout, I feel the use of block detectors is warranted.

 

I will think about it before I do anything rash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RodneyV]

Hi Folks,

 

It has been an interesting few days in sunny Sydney.

During my time being "occupationally challenged", I had an old work colleague Matt (a professional landscaper), install some drainage at the front and down the side of my house.

The aim was to ensure the garage didn't flood during the more extreme wet weather.

 

Unfortunately, it did. But I wasn't surprised, as water went everywhere. Parts of the house that have never had rain come in leaked. The mailbox had about 10mm of water in it. The garage door never gets wet on the top half and it was soaked. The backyard is still very wet.

 

As an aside, on Sunday I went to Kurmond for my sister-in-laws birthday get together. On the way over we crossed the North Richmond Bridge and thought the river looks high. It took one hour to get there and 4 to get back going the long (scenic way). we took the Bells Line of Road. This road had a lot of fire damage on both sides. However, some trees had green leaves growing back already.

 

The railway is now drying out. If this is the biggest of my problems, I'm doing quite allright.

 

 

 

[RodneyV]

Hi Folks,

 

I was searching for weights that I had bought previously to ensure my wagons have a consistent weight for coupling purposes. During my search, I discovered a large number of projects from many years past that haven't been completed.

Therefore for the next 12 months, that is up to July-21, I am going to concentrate on finishing all of my little projects.

The first one linked with DCC and block occupancy is to add resistors to wheels so they trigger the blocks I have in RR & Co. After using the resources of the internet, I completed my first wheel and magically it worked.

I've also decided to go the darkside (not O gauge) and move back to Kadee's. Rest assured, I still have all of my DG frets, etc, but it is all too hard at present. The Kadee's have provided some challenges which I have been overcoming slowly but surely.

 

Regards

 

Rodney

 

[St Enodoc]

6 minutes ago, RodneyV said:

Hi Folks,

 

I was searching for weights that I had bought previously to ensure my wagons have a consistent weight for coupling purposes. During my search, I discovered a large number of projects from many years past that haven't been completed.

Therefore for the next 12 months, that is up to July-21, I am going to concentrate on finishing all of my little projects.

The first one linked with DCC and block occupancy is to add resistors to wheels so they trigger the blocks I have in RR & Co. After using the resources of the internet, I completed my first wheel and magically it worked.

I've also decided to go the darkside (not O gauge) and move back to Kadee's. Rest assured, I still have all of my DG frets, etc, but it is all too hard at present. The Kadee's have provided some challenges which I have been overcoming slowly but surely.

 

Regards

 

Rodney

 

I'll have your DG frets!

[Barry O]

Good idea finishing off projects Rodney. Because of lockdown I have finished building 9 coaches, fettled/repainted/remotored a lot of locos and fettlrd/built more wagons and vans. My rou dtuit pile is decreasing rapidly but there is still plenty to do

 

Keep up the good work!

Baz

[RodneyV]

All,

 

I am successfully finding ways to make things harder than they need to be.

In a perfect world I wouldn't have any gradients or hidden parts to the layout. However I will have gradients, therefore multi levels and hidden parts to the layout.

 

Years ago I wrote an article on Railroad & Co as a way to control my layout. I have used about 10% of its functionality. Maybe 5%. 

One of the challenges has been letting the RR & Co know where trains are on the layout.

Being the bright spark I am, I did a bit of research and thought all I need is wheelsets with a resistor on them and the blocks will show as occupied.

I bought all of the bits including small resistors, conductive paint and clear nail polish. I put together two wheel sets which behaved on one side of the layout.

They worked. I thought this is pretty easy. On the other side of the layout with a different brand of Block Occupancy Detectors it sort of works.

The BD20 detector lights up, the AIU (NCE products) lights up, the control panel lights up (all indicating occupancy). But do you think RR & Co does?

You guessed it, no.

 

However, I'm exploring a cunning plan to get around this. All of the bits use are part of the Command Bus, I think that is what it is called through a thing called a UTP.

The UTP will split the bus or was it buss and has the ability for longer runs to be powered. 

My next step will be to power it (the UTP) and see if that improves RR & Co sensing the wagons with the resistor wheel sets attached.

 

I told you I'm making things harder than they need to be.

 

I hope everyone is keeping well.

 

Regards

 

Rodney

 

[RodneyV]

As can be seen from my posting , there has been no action on Radford.

In fact if I had an armchair, I think I could be considered one of those modellers. I have been doing a lot of thinking however.

 

Despite this I have been active as the BRMA Sydney area rep, trying to organise meetings when you can't hold meetings. I'm sure that will change for the better soon.

 

Being the area rep means I get to help with model railway items not required by grieving families, people downsizing or my most recent one.

Just as I had my study looking presentable. I now have 6 boxes filled with 120 issues.

 

On a more positive note I have been "occupationally challenged" since the 04th of December. Happily for me, I start a new role on the 27th of January.

 

 

Your Model Railway Village.docx

[Barry O]

Hope the new role goes well Rodney. Might help to get the mojo back!

Baz

[RodneyV]

After a mid-life crisis, I have had a change in model railway direction.

Rest assured I haven't moved to the darkside (I will let you work out what that is).

Hence, my last layout is now gone and I am now building an exhibition layout.

 

To that end, the plywood has been purchased and cut to size.

I finally have a plan designed by a great designer and friend that is about 99.9% perfect.

Building it will be the challenge. I shared the plan with my wife and daughter and said I will get it done to my daughter before you finish university.

It will be a busy 3 years!

 

To give some context, in Sydney, there are nothat is zero OO gauge British Layouts on the exhibition circuit that I have seen.

So for the sake of the BRMA which I am a member I will be building an exhibition layout.

It is much easier signing people up for the group when you have a layout on exhibition in my opinion.

 

 

 

[RodneyV]

The next stage in my layout has been some carpentry.

I'm using the brass alignment dowels to align the baseboards. There are 8 baseboard joins and I have one down, with seven more to go.

 

One of the challenges I have had has been finding a suitable turntable.

This has now been found being a HO 60ft one with stepper motor and made for DCC. It will comfortably hold a J39 which I brought with me to the store.

I'm not sure what code the rail is and the sleeper spacing looks HO like, but as I will be building my track by hand this should be a challenge I can tackle.