West Highland Line V4, a 1980's West Highland Line layout

[37114]

Not sure how I missed this one but plenty to like, not least loads of Blue split box class 37s.

[young37215]

More frustration with my continuing start up power problem yesterday when DCC Specialities provided me with an explanation of how ADR works on their PSX circuit breaker module. The helpful and constructive counsel made it clear that the PSX is unlikely to solve my start up issue so it is back to the drawing board and more re-wiring to create further sub-districts.

 

ESU's silence to my request for what appears important routine information about their product continues and I am beginning to question the wisdom of deploying their system. ESU's poor customer service is contrary to their stated position of providing a comprehensive service or there is something that they are hiding?. 

 

Once I managed to get up and running I continued my 1981 timetabled operations. 37049 arrives at Garelochead with 1T45, 1245 Mallaig to Glasgow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by young37215

[DavidBird]

On 22/04/2021 at 07:33, young37215 said:

I really want to kick on with some more scenic work but am enjoying 'playing trains' too much. I have beeen threatening to do more with Mallaig since the start of the year where the station needs more detailing and the rocky areas on the station throat are a long way from finished. With the benefit of operational experience I want to add 50mm to the baseboard at the coastal end of the station to extend the main platform by a similar amount which will enable trains to sit deeper in the station to enhance the feel of the section.

 

37033 had charge of the teatime train, 2B12 1630 from Fort William seen arriving at Mallaig before returning with the last train of the day back to Fort William.
[...]

 

 

 

Hey, you can see my house from here!

[young37215]

Yesterday Cab Control started twice on the first button push. As ever I have no idea why, presumably today will be a slow day requiring numerous attempts to connect track power . 37049 gets the road and departs Garelochead with 1T45 heading for Glasgow.

 

 

[young37215]

Quick start again yesterday with track power, it can't last. Spent some time dividing up the power BUS in the fiddle yard as the first steps towards creating two switchable power districts with a third non switched. On start up the unswitched district will be powered up first with districts 2 and 3 switched in sequence with a few seconds delay to allow capacitors to charge. Hopefully this will resolve the start up issue.  

 

When I built the fiddle yard my focus was on the track layout, not the electrics which are pretty lightweight and so I am now choosing to install additional doppers so that each of the 13 roads that it comprises are powered. At present the two power districts will be roads 1 to 4 and roads 5 to 13 although this could be further divided in need but I hope it will not be necessary. The imbalance reflects that I want less than 10 locos in each district and typically there are more locos on roads 1 - 4 because it includes sidings used for stabling. 

 

I have 20 plus old Peco point motors which I intend installing in the fiddle yard on the most used points. The motors will be fitted underneath the baseboard and I intend drilling out holes for them during the BUS work. I am not sure that I have the inclination to lift the baseboards to fit the motors at this time, I will see how I feel after the BUS work.

 

Having changed crews, the Oban freights depart Crianlarich.

 

[young37215]

A day of contrasting fortunes started badly. Cab Control applied track power at the first time of asking but there were no signs of life with the locos. I looked under the layout where the circuit breaker’s are located and was greeted by smoke coming out of the Tam Valley soft start unit. I quickly turned power off at the socket but not before the soft start unit had begun to melt. It turns out I had created a short when swapping a piece of track around. 
 

I opened windows to clear the acrid smoke although the unpleasant burning smell hung around all day. I swapped wires around to correct the short and fitted several sets of insulating fishplates to divide the fiddle yard into 3 distinct electrical districts. I then added additional BUS wire to feed the new droppers. Finally I managed to fit 6 of the 13 roads with droppers and by the end of the day I had roads 8 to 13 back working.

 

The soft start unit looks healthy enough

That is until you turn it over! £20 literally gone up in smoke

An aerial view of the fiddle yard with work in progress. Operationally this has 3 distinct and self contained sections, from right to left these are roads 1 - 4, 5 - 8 and 9 - 13. Each of the sections has run round capability at both ends to reduce shunting which I find minimises derailments. These will become 3 independent power districts by the time I add and connect the remaining 7 sets of droppers.

 

All in all it’s a lot of effort for no obvious visible return. I hope that the work will pay a dividend of better electrical performance. 

Edited April 26, 2021 by young37215

[03060]

At least you pin pointed the source of the fault straight away otherwise you could have wasted several more £20s before you'd found it. Chin up, I'm sure that it will be worth all of the hassle in the end ....and it's keeping the brain working which I think is very important, particularly at the moment after all of these lockdowns, I've spent a lot more than £20 on newspapers recently just to get the crosswords ! LoL.

 

Regards,

Ian.

[ISW]

4 hours ago, young37215 said:

Cab Control applied track power at the first time of asking but there were no signs of life with the locos. I looked under the layout where the circuit breaker’s are located and was greeted by smoke coming out of the Tam Valley soft start unit.

Rob,

 

Pardon me for asking, but isn't the point of the PSX devices, that you installed, to detect such short circuits and prevent 'upstream' equipment failures? Or were you in a 'temporary wiring arrangement'?

 

As you know, I've 8 MERG kit#57 short circuit detection (SCD) devices on 8 power districts, and I can short any one of them without it affecting operations / running on the remaining districts. The SCD 'buzzer' goes off until I clear the short. My NCE PowerCab never knows about the short ...

 

Ian

[young37215]

On 26/04/2021 at 10:25, ISW said:

Pardon me for asking, but isn't the point of the PSX devices, that you installed, to detect such short circuits and prevent 'upstream' equipment failures?

 

I dont have enough PSX's for the 4 power districts I now have and only had (past tense!) 1 Soft Start module hence it was the first device wired along the BUS and therefore before any of the PSX's. On the basis that Cab Control has its own short circuit protection, I was not too concerned about the location of the Soft Start although clearly this was a flawed hypothesis. My rationale for trying the PSX's was not primarily as circuit breakers but to slow the current inrush on start up. Unfortunately the PSX's dont do this and given I consider additional short circuit protection beyond that in Cab Control a duplication and unnecessary expense, they are not likely to remain on the layout.

 

Yesterday I managed to complete the wiring of what is effectively a new power BUS to facilitate the creation of sub power districts within the fiddle yard. This has proved time consuming largely because the original wiring was confined to just a few droppers connected to the original power BUS sufficient to enable the fiddle yard to operate. Partly this was down to my laziness and partly because when I built the fiddle yard I wanted to test that it worked operationally before fixing everything in place. After 4 years of testing I now feel confident that the yard delivers what I need to run the timetable and essentially I am re-wiring the entire 13 road fiddle yard. Droppers on roads 1 - 4 are outstanding, otherwise the re-wiring is complete and I can get back to running.   

 

I managed to run a few trains, partly to alleviate the monotony of wiring and partly to test that it all worked. 37081 had charge of 1B14, 1636 Glasgow to Mallaig seen aariving at Crianlarich

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by young37215

[young37215]

I use this thread as a diary to record the development and evolution of WHL4. In recent months it has additionally helped me deal with the challenges of the lockdown by providing a means to communicate with the outside world. Todays post records a summary of the electrical work I have done in recent days in the fiddle yard which I sincerely hope provides a solution to the power issues I have faced. In this respect I am really disappointed by ESU's failure or reluctance to answer my question about Cab Control's short circuit protection triggers settings. It has been suggested to me that ESU are unlikely to answer me because I am UK based with Cab Control not being marketed in Europe. I dont know if this is correct but whatever the reasons ESU's lack of response to a customer is poor. 

 

Picture 1 is a diagram of the various constituent parts of the revised power BUS's and picture 2 shows diagramatically the location of the sub power districts. Picture 3 shows the fiddle yard at the start of the day when it is at its fullest; as can be seen there is not much spare capacity. The one outstanding task is the installation of the DPST switches which should be simple enough, I want to try the revised arrangements before installing these in the faint hope that better wiring may solve my start up challenges.

 

 

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by young37215

[young37215]

I managed to add the remaining BUS wires to roads 1 - 4 in the fiddle yard which completes the BUS re-wiring. Hooray, hot soldering irons and working on the underside of baseboards are not a source of enjoyment. Running trains is, 37081 departs Crianlarich and heads north with 1B14.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by young37215

[David Bell]

Congrats on finishing the rewire. Like you I think doing underboard electrics is my least favourite model railway activity.

Cheers

David

[BoD]

5 minutes ago, David Bell said:

I think doing underboard electrics is my least favourite model railway activity.

I haven’t worked out how yet but as I get older my baseboard gets lower too.

[David Bell]

37 minutes ago, BoD said:

I haven’t worked out how yet but as I get older my baseboard gets lower too.

There is only one plausible explanation. You must be getting taller!

[young37215]

On 29/04/2021 at 07:27, BoD said:

I haven’t worked out how yet but as I get older my baseboard gets lower too.

 

When I started building WHL4 I learnt for the first time that installing point motors and wires on a workbench was a far more civilised way of working. The lower level has all been built this way but I then compromised myself by screwing the baseboards down and putting scenery on top which effectively secures them in place for all but the most extreme of situations. My 'learning experience' has been it is a right beast having to do any remedial work or any sort of upgrade from underneath any baseboard and I would have been better served with removable baseboards. At least I worked this out before building the upper level stations at Fort William and Mallaig and these are removable with care should further work be necessary.

 

37043 approaches Garelochead with the last northbound train of the day 1B15, 1755 Glasgow to Oban. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 28, 2022 by young37215

[37114]

5 hours ago, young37215 said:

 

37043 approaches Garelochead with the last northbound train of the day 1B15, 1755 Glasgow to Oban. 

 

 

 

 

 

I really like this shot, it is not often you see good "going away" shots on models, nicely done.

[young37215]

Finding different vantage points for pictures is a challenge, so many are repeats of differening locos and consists at similar points around the layout. I am tempted by a selfie stick to see if this lets me get to areas previously inaccessible. More video is also high up my to do list, I particularly fancy a 'loco cam' to do some cab ride videoing.

 

37043 draws to a halt at Garelochead.

 

 

 

[David Bell]

I think a loco cam is a brilliant idea. You have the perfect layout for it.

Cheers

David

[ISW]

1 hour ago, young37215 said:

I am tempted by a selfie stick to see if this lets me get to areas previously inaccessible.

Rob,

 

I think the selfie stick is a great idea. Just make sure you have some method of remotely activating the camera.

 

Ian

[mallaig1983]

Im certainly looking forward to some more videos and the tantalising prospect of a cabride along the whole layout. Can’t wait.

[young37215]

A new days operations begins with 37017 on the down sleeper arriving at Crianlarich in bright early morning light. As a vacum brake only loco until its refurbishment to a 37/5 in the mid 80's, 37017 was usually confined to passenger services whilst working on the WHL in the early 80's because most of the freight had gone air braked. No doubt 017's steam heat boiler would have been in use to keep the sleeper clientele toasty in their beds. 

 

 

[young37215]

Spent a little time on preparations to complete the BUS wiring and point motorisation at Ardlui. This is the only station on WHL4 where wiring is incomplete at present with the fishplates used for power and the point blades for frogs as oppose to connecting each piece of track to the BUS individually and frog power switched by microswitches attached to the point servos. This is my usual approach when trialling new parts of the layout which was the case 2 years ago when I first laid the track. It has proved effective so its time to commit to wiring everything fully as a precursor to gluing the track down and painting it.  

 

37017 gets the road and departs Crianlarich heading north.

 

[young37215]

Fort William station is 1900mm in length which allows a single locomotive and 6 coaches to fit in whilst retaining access to the other platform as well as the run round loop. This works with my version of the sleeper which runs as load 6 being the standard 4 coach rake with 2 sleeping cars. Attaching and detaching sleeping cars at Fort William is straightforward although the down sleeper does foul the points until the loco runs around and sets back. 37017 demonstrates this visually in the pictures below

 

Arrival at Fort William

Rear coach fouls the points that access the 2 platforms but not the run round loop

37017 pulls forward to run round the train

Having run round 37017 sets back onto the train

Once set back the whole 6 coach consist fits neatly in the platform

After 37017 has departed for Mallaig, 20184 retrieves the 2 sleeping cars which are taken away for cleaning

 

 

[young37215]

No activity yesterday which was a volunteering day. From the previous running day, 37043 rattles into Crianlarich with 1T16, 0740 Oban to Glasgow. 

 

[Legend]

Lovely , especially the last picture of train going over underpass at Crianlarich. I feel I'm sitting in the car waiting to pick someone up !