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Made Upton


Pikey
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Looks actually very neat. What are those red connectors ? Easy way to join wires ?

sorry to but in , ive seen the red connectors in halfords i have thought of using them.there such an easy way to connect up to a bus wire.http://www.halfords.com/workshop-tools/garage-equipment/fuses-electricals-fixings/halfords-cable-lock-connectors-15-amps

Edited by vulcan product fan
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I bought them from DCC Concepts in Worcester a couple of years ago. I think their generic name is 'splice connectors', makes it easy to run a bus wire all the way around the baseboard, and then tap into it for the little wires to the track. You just feed the new wire in the one end and crush them with a big clamp or pliers.

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It is essential that you use them with the correct size wire or they do not work properly. Some people on here would aviod them having had bad experiences, although they just one form of a large family of insulation displacement connectors.

Edited by dhjgreen
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Correction - I bought them from DCC Supplies, not DCC Concepts.

 

I was concerned about using them initially, but they seemed to work fine so I think I would use them again :) 

 

Mocked up the yard gates:

 

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These will be servo-controlled from under the baseboard. Its all set up and ready to go - I'm basically just going to transplant the whole system from my layout in the garage. I'll do a write up of how I did it (if it hasnt already been covered before), its quite easy and cheap, although I've probably forgotten where I got the servos and controller from. Its nice to have something other than trains moving on a layout I think, adds a bit of interest :) 

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I bought a lorry on Saturday, to park in the loading bay yard. By sheer good luck I seem to have got the loading bay/platform height exactly right:

 

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And I've now completed the wiring for all of the signals, including this simple but functional switch panel:

 

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After about an hour of running on Sunday evening, my new Gaugemaster transformer cut out. Turning it off at the wall, and turning it back on after a few seconds, everything comes back on again but cuts out at intervals of a couple of minutes or so from then on. I dont think its a short circuit, as I doubt it would have run for so long initially, so further investigation will be needed to work out whats wrong.

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  • 1 month later...

Been a while since I updated this - we've been working on our kit car, trying to get it ready for summer. Last night I added a wall around the back of the yard, and a barrier to the car park. I also moved the scenic break to extend the fiddleyard slightly, and ballasted up to it.

 

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Over the weekend, we had a practice run of taking the layout down, loading it into the van, driving over to my parents and setting it up again. The process (at each end) seemed to take about 20-25 minutes, it fits in the van really nicely, and nothing broke :)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Picked up a concrete footbridge at the weekend, to act as the scenic break. I had to raise it up (hence the steps) as its designed to go on a platform and the trains wouldnt go underneath it without the slight increase! Also added a dead-end road to give access to the car park, with a pavement each side. I'll most probably add low-relief houses or shops to the side of this road.

 

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Still loads to do before the Stow exhibition! :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

So over the Easter weekend we have done some good work on the layout, including making the nameplate. I picked up Hornby Class 67 'Cairn Gorm' with TTS sound from Hattons for a rather bargain-tastic price of £104, which I swapped with the body of my Arriva Trains Wales 67 as this had picked up an intermittent running problem where the whole thing would just cut out completely. In the process of swapping the bodies over, my old one appears to now be running fine with the Caledonian Sleeper liveried body on it, but we probably wont use it on the layout as obviously its from completely the wrong place. The TTS sounds are quite good actually, and I can run it in DVT first, leave it idling in the station, before accelerating off again. The blue is very very slightly different (the bottom bit of the body which stays attached to the chassis, and the removable part), from CS blue to ATW blue - which you cant see in this picture but you can see if you look up close in person. Its close enough to not warrant a repaint (I think):

 

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Here they are together (poor photo):

 

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We painted the backboards with some £1 paint from Hobbycraft, another bargain. It makes a big difference to the overall presentation. Not sure whether to add clouds or leave it as is (the paint is still drying in these pictures):

 

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And here's the nameplate:

 

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So a pretty productive weekend. Except I then went and fell off my little motocross bike on Monday afternoon and damaged my shoulder, rendering my right arm all but useless for the moment. Off to the hospital shortly to assess :(

Edited by Pikey
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I'm going with rest and painkillers and see where I am in a few days. It seems fairly minor as an amount of strength and mobility has returned already, and the pain is manageable, but Monday evening was a bit worrying as I basically couldn't move my shoulder! As far as operating a model railway goes, as long as I can press buttons I should be ok :) 

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Not great pictures, but here it is:

 

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The sounds are 'ok', they sound a bit like they've been recorded on a dictaphone, but the notch up and down appears to be infinitely variable which is quite good. Just a shame they put them on functions 14 and 15 which means I have to press 2 buttons rather than 1 to make the engine whirr up. The nameplates are slightly wonky and have visible glue around them, but overall it really is an absolutely spectacular model :) 

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  • 2 weeks later...

18 days to go. We're nearly there, although the 'to do' list is still quite long (!)

 

I've fitted and painted the front cover piece, and we have some brown felt type fabric to go on which we hope to make tonight. Hopefully some pictures of that later.

 

I've got around halfway through making my 'drivers notes' for each loco - speeds, sound effects etc, and it surprised me how different they all are actually. It would be nice if I could standardise everything, so for example speed step 10 made each train go the same speed, instead of some needing to go at 20 and others needing to go at 4 to look 'about right'. Also all the sound effects are all on different function keys for different suppliers, and there doesnt seem to be an easy way to change it either. The only thing that doesnt vary is the engine start on F1 and horn on F2 - but even then some horns play as a two-tone sound automatically, and some require that you then press F3 to get the higher/lower tone.

 

Olivias still have my class 08 for repair and I havent heard anything. Hope thats going ok.

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I did a couple of videos yesterday, I'll get them up soon :)

 

Work over the weekend means we now have all the woodwork complete around the layout. I could just stick the nameplate to the front, but I think it would be better mounted above it at a slight angle, so I'll try and achieve that tonight along with the curtain around the front. We now have a block of flats, with a path and a garden with trees and a fence around it, and the beginnings of an allotment next door, with strawberries and cold frames, greenhouse and a shed. We also have ticket barriers and I've started marking out a low relief station building. And some more loads for the goods siding, with the new ratchet straps from scalemodelscenery.co.uk. The offcuts from the fence make quite good stacks of plywood:

 

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Low relief warehouse building, from scalemodelscenery. Quite time consuming to put together, but relatively easy and looks really good. Still got the roof edging and drainpipes to put on:

 

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And a couple of pictures of the layout as it stands now. Looks pretty much finished, but there's still a lot left to do. 11 days to go  :fie:

 

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Some much-needed station amenities have now been provided:

 

(made from some left-over brick paper, image of coffee shop printed off from the internet, card from a cereal box and some plastruct pipe painted metallic silver)

 

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