Cramdin Yard

[eldavo]

14th February 2008

Well I've been away from the hobby for 30 years or more but as someone said, "You're not cured, you are simply in remission." They were right, I've been in the computer simulation branch of things (Auran Trainz) for the last 4 or 5 years and finally the "real" model bug bit again! Having been lurking on these forums for quite a while I thought I better actually post some shots of my current project.

I've negotiated a tiny space in the abode for an initial foray into the world of OO gauge, a mere 6' 2" by 19". The current scheme is to build a slightly augmented shunting puzzle style of layout based on the theme of a wagon repair facility. The plan under construction is around about version 7 and construction started in October last year!



The top two lines are the main up and down running lines and exit left and right to fiddle yards. The track below this is the receiving line (right) and headshunt and connection to holding sidings (left) which both also exit to the fiddle yards.

The three sidings to the left are the wagon works and currently the plan is that at least two of them will run into a large industrial building. The third shorter line may be used as an inspection line and/or fuel discharge point for the loco fueling point which is the two sidings to the right. The line at the bottom to the right acts as the headshunt for the works but also exits to the fiddle yard.

The idea is that the layout can be operated with one fiddle yard on the left when space is limited i.e. if this ever gets moved to my study, but can be run with two fiddle yards to allow trains to use the mainlines, or indeed included into something much larger. More of this at sometime later when the trackplan may actually make sense.

Originally I had thought about having this set-up capable of being used for modern image locos or 50s/60s steam/diesel. The loco stabling lines are just about big enough to accommodate a fairly lengthy loco such as a 66. Having started building scenery and buildings I think the 50s/60s era idea may have fallen by the wayside and it is pretty much a modern image set up now.

The track is all laid having been built from SMP code 75 copperclad kits married to SMP flexitrack. Points are operated by SEEP PM-4s and control of the locos is via DCC but the layout is wired to be usable with DC as well if required.

Here's a bit of a picture gallery of construction...

First up a general view of the single baseboard (fiddle yards will be separate) balanced on its somewhat inadequate working legs. There aint a lot of space! The odd shape is due to the fact that originally the layout was designed to fit on one wall of my study with the lefthand fiddle yard out on the landing. In order to get through the door a slice was taken off the corner.



Here's a progress shot from November where a good deal of the track has been laid and a bit of ballasting has been done.



This shot was taken shortly after recovering from a panic attack having laid the points to the only runround loop. It suddenly occurred to me that the loop wasn't large enough to get a modern bogey wagon in. Rush to the stock box and the hours of xtrkcad planning were justified. A large bogey wagon does fit, just! This also shows that the baseboard is pretty narrow even at the widest point.



Here's a shot from December showing a couple of grids on the refueling point. Fair bit of ballast down though not everything has been rusted or weathered. In the background can be seen the start of the scenic break which is made up of a steel bridge and some retaining walls. Some idiot decided to scratchbuild the girders in place. :?



Here's an overall view with all the track in place. The left distant sidings are the wagon repair facility which even now is waiting for work to start on the buildings. There have been a few grass experiments performed already!



Fast forward to February this year (December was largely wiring and January was too cold for working in the garage so the rollingstock suffered under the paintbrush!). Work has started on the backscene which looks awful long and thin...



The half-relief factory buildings are constructed from Linka mouldings and cardboard. None of your fancy modern plastics have hit this layout (yet). The chainlink fencing was a real pain and took hours but looks OK. Need to disguise it a bit more in places.







So here are things pretty much as they are today. The scenic break at the righthand end is pretty much complete, more Linka and cardboard. More work done and more needed on the backscene and there's no equipment down on the fueling point yet. This shows an nice grubby EWS gronk ambling along the down main with a couple of OBAs.



Finally here's a shot of the resident Bachmann Fred that had a nasty encounter with my paintbrush a couple of evenings ago.



Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

15th February 2008

Thought I would post a few shots of the rollingstock items that I have massacred with my paintbrush when it's been too cold to go work on the layout or I was suffering from an on-going motivational deficiency!

Almost all of the rollingstock I have has been acquired through the infamous ebay. Some of those bargains just made it impossible not to get back into the hobby so this is where the rot set in.

I was inspired to get on and weather stuff after seeing some of the beautiful examples that have graced the pages of these forums. I still need some practice (especially in the light weathering department!) but I'm fairly pleased with the stuff I've done so far. I'll probably revisit some of these over time to refine them. Here's a before and after shot of a pair I tackled a while ago, a Hornby 08 and Bachmann OBA...





...and some close-up shots of these and some others.

These close-ups are pushing the limits of my camera technology. It's scary when your phone can do better in low light conditions than your digital camera purchased a few years ago. I think I'll have to start negotiations with SWMBO about a digital SLR.

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

20th February 2008

No particular progress really just odd bits but I just had to have an excuse to play with a new toy. Purchased a new camera, Olympus SP 560UZ, which provides lots more scope for pictures. It 'aint no top of the range digital SLR but at 8 megapixels and with lots of electronic wizardry it can do a heck of a lot more than my 2 megapixel cameraphone!

Here's a view of the complete scenic baseboard showing there is still rather a lot to do. The shots taken in the fueling point corner can be rather deceptive.



Some of the shots I posted previously have shown the backscene as being extremely blue. With the new camera things look little more like reality but it's probably still more blue than befits a UK summer day.



This is an overhead view of the fueling point and reception road taken from the rear of the layout. Looks like EWS have taken over!



This is the view from one of the upper windows in the factory showing a 56 I have been tinkering with heading off on the up line.



Finally a real close up shot of my particular favourite, 08630. I couldn't possibly have got this shot with the previous cameras.



Now I better get back to doing some work rather than just looking at it.

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

24th February 2008

Bit more tinkering done this weekend. Been spending time on and off over the last few weeks trying to get my pointwork to switch reliably. After much messing around re-soldering tiebars, re-wiring diode clusters, and faffing around I find the CDU has gone lame! It used to be able to bang over three sets of points in one go but now can only manage 2 at a time. Bit tricky given that I have some route setting buttons that activate 3. Grrrr.....

As a consolation I turned my attention to some scenery work around the fuel point. It's about time there was some fueling equipment for this so called fueling point! After the conversation in the pub with PhilH about building things for less than a quid, my penchant for being "careful" with my money and not winning a Knightwing kit on ebay, I set to with my soldering iron, some odd rail bits, some MDF offcuts, wire and some cardboard. The result, a rather ramshackle looking shelter with a couple of different styles of fueling hose. Here's a general view from the back of the baseboard.



Here's a rather closer view. Probably too close but fortunately the poor lighting hides some of the deficiencies.



To round out here are some views of a selection of locos making use of the facilities...

Still work to do to add some junk, warning signs and general clutter.

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

29th February 2008

Had a day off today so an excuse for a bit more tinkering. Still haven't got to the bottom my CDU/point switching problems. A pair of points switch reliably at the same time but 3 don't have the whoosh to latch over. Tested all the motors individually and they seem pretty much OK. I'm suspicious something in the common return line may be limiting the current flow so that's what I'll investigate next. I hate manky wiring even when it's my own. :grump

In between times I've been tinkering with scenery stuff. The backscene is largely a collage of photographs chopped up and pasted to the back boards. I've added some more bits to try and increase the feeling of depth and industrial nature. Gaps/joins are disguised using foliage but I think I may have to install a tree or two to get some more foreground height. Here's a view along the length of the layout showing there's only a little bit of bare back board left!



I was unhappy with the fueling point in that the roof didn't look to be supported properly and I felt it needed a few more details. In addition I wasn't happy with the fuel crane thingy so I consulted a few more photos and decided to rip it out and rework it. The fuel hose was too thick and there were no counterbalance weights to make it workable so it got a rehash today. It's still not a work of art but I think it's an improvement. I still need some clutter as it all looks too orderly at present as shown by these two shots. Of course number 2 Gronk is far too clean and I'm undecided whether to just dirty it up a bit or convert it to an EWS 09 in grey livery.

Onward...

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

6th April 2008

This weeks progress. Last bit of track ballasting so that the wagon yard is now a sea of PVA!



Also been doing some more work on the main works building after the grief with the plasticard on the roof. The whole thing has been weathered to give a general look of neglect. Although they maintain wagons here they obviously don't bother to look after the buildings as the gutters are leaking!



After a fair bit of work with the paintbrush I think I am more or less happy with the corrugated roof. Now it's weathered it isn't so obviously a disaster so I'll probably live with it. Here's a rather extreme close-up in which the eagled-eyed can spot the dissolved plasticard.



Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

10th April 2008

Having got the last of the ballast down in the wagon repair works area it was time to splash some paint around and generally make things look like a bunch of messy railway sidings...



Paint dry and it's time to play trains for a bit. Newly arrived Freightliner Gronk is seen here alongside it's EWS counterpart that appears to be hiding in the works. A small shunter's/yard office has also appeared courtesy of my stock of Linka castings. Obviously I need to acquire/create a whole bunch of clutter to make this whole area look a little more lived in.



Finally just a couple of rather telling close-up shots around the yard office just for the heck of it and also so I can see whether it's convincing. This is the rear of the office with the EWS Gronk parked up.



Looks pretty small in comparison to a railway wagon!



Not sure what I'll do next scenery-wise. I have a gap at the end of the backscene opposite the wagon works and a patch of bare board at the works yard throat. Got a few sketchy ideas but nothing solid yet. I suppose that means I have no excuse but to iron out the remaining trackwork and pointwork glitches. Found a couple of my frogs are not getting powered properly so the switches may be kaput. Always something to do in this modeling lark.

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

26th April 2008

As ever, posting to the forums is helpful. Not only does it make you look carefully at what you've done while taking photos but you get other peoples opinions. As a number of folks have said, the pipe bridge scenic break was too far away from the backscene. I um'ed and argh'ed over it and eventually had to confess it didn't work. I bit the bullet and lifted and re-sited it. Something simple like that shouldn't take more than 5 minutes should it? Three days later it was in place! I had to re-jig the backscene corner baffle to make room for it tighter against the backscene which then meant part of the backscene had to be re-painted and the scenery re-jigged. Nothing is ever simple.

Still, it's done and I think it looks better. Here's a shot down the length of the layout showing Fred Ned about to enter the yard...

I'm not going to reveal how the invisible fiddleyard was built until such time as my patent is issued. :wink:



A few seconds later and the fiercely compressed perspective shows up a few track geometry problems I need to sort out.



Taken from a different angle you can see that I've had a go at filling in the empty space on the backscene. As there is a stonking great pipe going over the railway it occurred to me a water or sewage works would fit the site. Unfortunately this is the narrowest part of the backscene area so it has to be a 2D effort as there's no room to model anything. Cramdin Water has appeared (actually Hereford Water works I think) partially hidden by a somewhat overgrown embankment.

I really need to sort out that ground signal!



From a lower angle it sort of works...



From a very cruel near overhead angle it certainly doesn't as the perspective is all wrong!



Then again if you sneak round behind the wagon works it isn't too bad.



As ever vast amounts still to do as highlighted by the shots.

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

8th May 2008

Nothing like a long weekend for getting stuff done, assuming SWMBO doesn't find too many other things for ya to do. In Cramdin Yard the infrastructure and permanent way teams have been busy. Lots of track fettling and faffing around with point motors has got quite a lot of the running up to standard. Still some issues with switching the single and double slips due to the short point blades. This is going to need some creative re-engineering.

Bank holiday Monday saw an extension to Cramdin Yard in the shape of a cassette fiddleyard. This is just short of 3ft long so that it can support a cassette with the longest receivable/deliverable train (about 34 inches). As can be seen the normal level of engineering has been used evidenced by the "lightweight precision adjustment tool" on the floor!



The electrics team got their hands on the this last night and wired up the 3 tracks to an ancient (valve socket!) plug and socket and thence to the main board. A mark I automatic cassette power feed system was rigged up just to check things are working. I suspect there may be a mark II and possibly III and IV.



Amazingly it all seems to work! I managed to run an 08 with a few wagons backwards and forwards from the layout on to the cassette without any major mishaps. Here's the 08 arriving back on to the main board after an exploratory trip.



Still some work to do to iron out one or two track alignment issues, create a couple more cassettes (preferably with emergency end stops!) and finalise the electrical connections. Then it will be on to some coupler experiments as I am heartily fed up with these tension lock things. Even the same type of coupler from the same manufacturer seem to vary in height and they really are flippin unreliably and ugly.

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

11th May 2008

Been finishing off (sort of) the fiddle yard this weekend. I was getting a little concerned that one of my treasures would take a nosedive off the end of a cassette and have an nasty meeting with the floor so I've added an end panel and just for good meaure a front panel to screen the yard. Also created a bunch of different size cassettes so a few things can be lined up at once. Here's what the fiddleyard looks like when loaded up with stuff!



So now here's an overall view of Cramdin Yard rigged for business. Apologies for the piles of junk attached in every conceivable way to the walls of the garage. One day the layout might make it out of the garage to a more suitable home.



As it was all rigged up it would be rude not to test it i.e. play trains so here are a couple of shots of things about the layout. First up a shot showing a busy moment as an 08 shuffles some wagons around past a 57 parked up for the weekend on one of the wagon works roads. In the background a 60 is working its way from the up mainline across to the fueling point.



Here's a follow-up shot with the 60 parked up at the fueling point alongside her somewhat more decayed 58 sister.



Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

22nd June 2008

This weekend has seen a bit of work on the scenery side for a change although rather small an insignificant bits. Having got the majority of the trackwork into some sort of order it was time to dress it up a little. A handful of dummy point machines have been installed along with some cable trunking and cables. Far from prototypical but hopefully it will give the right sort of visual effect.

Here are three shots of favourite shunter, EWS 08630, held at the red signal on the down main.







Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

28th July 2008

I fear I may be turning into a serial building builder! The builder of Cramdin Yard doesn't seem to be able to cope with the "less is more" adage and another open space may well have bitten the dust. Well it is supposed to be a bit of railway in a constricted space. :roll:

Here's a couple of shots of a work in progress store/workshop thingy. Bodgeit and Scarper have been at work again and their philosopy is "there's no piece of architecture which cannot be improved with a bit of old timber and corrugated iron". Hence the lean-to storage on the end.

The view from the front of the baseboard (maybe)...



...and from the track side.



Not quite happy with the position and relationship of the two building yet. More shuffling to do. Hopefully I'll find time tomorrow evening to get the paintbrushes out and make this into something suitably decrepit.

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

30th July 2008

Well the paintbrushes have been out for the first time on the store/workshop building. Looks a bit more presentable now and much less like a few scraps of plastic stuck together. Certainly aint precision engineering though. :shock:

Here's a couple of views out in the sunshine at normal sort of viewing distances. The front...



...and the back.



The camera certainly does let you see detail and bits that need improvement. Here's a couple of cruel closeups to prove the point.





They obviously don't go in for building maintenance round these parts! I've been struggling to make up my mind how to position this and the office building on the layout or if indeed they are just too big and I should do something else. Given that I currently have no plan B I went for it this evening and stuck them down and started some scenery work around them. I'll take some more pics when the glue has dried and there's some vegetation.

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

31st July 2008

As I said in yesterdays post I finally bit the bullet and stuck the buildings down. Right or wrong they are where they are (at the moment).

Threw some texturing and foliage around the two buildings to try and bed them in and I thnk it has improved matters considerably. Need lots of clutter around the area to make it look like a lived in works. Amazingly this means I now have no blank areas of baseboard. Must mean it's time to start planning an extension. :shock:

So here is the current view from the front of the baseboard. The buildings are closer to the edge than I would like but this is not a large baseboard...



...and from the baseboard side.



An unusual angle, looking from the main doors of the works building, which seems to highlight the cluttered state of my garage rather than produce an interesting shot.



Finally a shot of a 56 just for the sake of it. Must get me paintbrushes out and mess this up.



So with most of the scenery in place it's down to details and creating quite a lot of Alex Jackson pattern couplings.

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

15th August 2008

The wife is threatening to make me go on holiday so I need to get some time in playing with the trainset otherwise the withdrawal symptoms could be bad. In fact I haven't really done anything with Cramdin apart from play with it recently. Waiting for inspiration and all that. Here's a couple of shots just for the heck of it.

A couple of Hornby specimens sat on the fueling point. Both of these are far too clean!



One of the fleet of Gronks goes about its business while a couple of the workers look to be having a sneaky fag break...



Just to avoid any rumours that this is just a static exhibit I thought it was time to display my poor cinematic abilities with a little video...



Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

7th October 2008

Cramdin survived it's first visit from a bunch of RMwebbers last Sunday. Here's a shot of the layout set up and ready to go.



Can ya spot something wrong in this shot?



Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

12th October 2008

This weekend was big decision time, what the heck am I going to do with Cramdin Yard? Originally the layout was built as nothing more than a testbed for me to have a tinker with modelling to see if I wanted/could actually finish a layout. The design was small and the construction was cheap and very lightweight.

Last weekend a bunch of folks came round and we had a very enjoyable few hours running all sorts of strange rollingstock and locos on the layout. The layout worked pretty well but there are still some annoying niggles with some of the pointwork that is more to do with the solenoid motors not successfully throwing the switches and latching than the engineering of the rails. Also the subject of exhibiting the layout came up.

Surprisingly I have been asked quite a few times over the last year whether and where I will be exhibiting Cramdin Yard. I had no illusions when I started this project that I could produce something that folks would wish to see so being asked is very flattering but also causes a dilema. I received an invitation to a show some while back but discussiong it with the exhibition manager it became clear that Cramdin has not been constructed in a way that lends itself to exhibiting. The main scenic board is really too big (6'4") to be easily transported and the whole lot is not constructed strongly enough to withstand transportation. That's without the problems with the point motors!

So, what to do? Simply admit defeat and not attempt to show Cramdin Yard or try and fix the problems? This is the conundrum I have been working on for the last few weeks.

What are the key problems? Number one, those points must be made to switch reliably. Number two the whole construction needs beefing up and the things must be made transportable.

How do you make a 6'4" board transportable? Easy, cut it in half! Yes I really have been contemplating doing exactly that with the track and scenery in place! :shock: The only thing that stopped me was that I would end up with 8 track joints across the gap right in the middle of the yard. I could see how to make the cut but I couldn't imagine getting the resulting joint alignment to work reliably right across the middle of the yard. That option hit the bin.

Option 2, make the main scenic board strong enough and rigid enough that it could be upended and moved around on a sack barrow by one person or manhandled by two. The current baseboard is lightweight and made from thin section softwood with a 6mm MDF top. Light enough to move around but certainly not rigid enough to be anything other than a home layout. So how do I strengthen it? Bond a second sub-basebaord to the existing one and fix protective endplates and front plates to it for transportation.

Building something with softwood to be rigid enough is going to be a problem. The cross-sections of the timber required will make the thing too heavy to easily manage so I need something smarter. Sounds like a job for a thin plywood sandwich. I've seen this on model railway forums and heard about it in other places to. If you can build an airframe out of it then it ought to be rigid enough for a layout baseboard!

In additon all the point motors are being replaced with Tortoise slow action jobbies which will require a total rewire of the layout! These things are kinda huge as well so I need a deep baseboard to be able to mount them comfortably.

So this weekend has seen stage one of the work completed. The layout has been stripped down and the wiring disconnected from the control box in preparation. Timber has been acquired and the lightweight ply sandwich sub-baseboard has been built. Here it is clamped up with the glue drying.



The sandwich is built from very thin components, 3mm ply and 4mm softwood strips, so who knows whether it will be man enough for the job. Let's hope so. The individual pieces are extremely rigid and the whole thing is very light indeed.

Couple of scary shots as the legs are removed from the layout and it's lowered to the ground. Not for the feint hearted this game!





Finally the baseboard is positioned onto the pre-glued sub-baseboard. Now all I have to do is wait twelve hours for the glue to set solid to see if this has solved the problem. Hopefully she can be lifted up on to a pair of trestles, also acquired this weekend, tomorrow evening for further work and strengthening underneath.



There is of course a silver lining to this cloud. I seem to have acquired a bit more baseboard.



Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

14th October 2008

Well all the glue from the weekend is well and truly dry. Last night I added a few strengthening bits in key spots underneath. So now I guess it's the moment of truth. Is the modified baseboard strong enough and rigid enough to be moved around?

Certainly looks like it is. No problem moving it on my own as it is ridiculously light. Here's the main board perched on a sack barrow just to prove the point!



Bit more testing required so better wheel it out to the car and see if I can manhandle it in on my own. Oh gosh it even fits, just! Front passenger better not be more than 5'6" tall but heh, that's near enough for me.



So now can I get it back out again and mounted back on it's new trestles? Easy peasy.

Total damage so far, one displaced bush on the front edge scenery.



Looks like phase one of the re-engineering may well be a success. Using the new trestles has an added benefit as well. Now I can put the layout at a comfortable height for whatever I happen to be working on! Right now it's a bit higher than it would be for display, set up ready to rip and strip all the wiring!

Total damage so far, one displaced bush on the front edge scenery.
Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

19th October 2008

So having reinforced the main scenic baseboard and in the process disconnected the control box I'm starting to get withdrawal symptoms. I need to get some trains running real soon so rather than do more woodwork to upgrade the fiddleyard this weekend the attention has been drawn to the dreaded wiring.

As I am replacing all the point motors with Tortoise jobbies I have to redo the control system. I whacking great CDU, pushbuttons and a diode matrix aint gonna work no more. Also the current wiring is more like spaghetti and having seen the troubles folks get into at shows with wiring it's obvious this is not up to the job. As you can see from the shot below with the wiring half stripped, it isn't pretty!



So this weekend there was nothing for it but to crack on rip, strip and re-wire. The tortoise motors are still in the postal system somewhere so that's an excuse to get the basic power bus, dropper and off board connectors sorted rather than fiddling around. Two days later with a lot of solder melted and the best part of half a packet of hot glue sticks used up things are looking a little more respectable.



It's still no work of art but every cable is now secured at intervals throughout its length (hence the use of so much hot glue!) and there are sockets for the external connections to the control box and also the fiddle yard(s). There are 3 SCART sockets (hope these are man enough for the job) for the point control, visual feedback and isolated section connections (Cramdin is wired for both DC and DCC) to the control panel. Also a set of phono sockets for the power feed to the main board which are replicated at each end to connect to the fiddle yards.

From the back (and from a distance!) it looks fairly neat and tidy.



The main thing is though that it works! I have added a whole bunch of extra droppers from the track to the bus to avoid unreliable solder connections between rail sections. None of the point frogs are live but at least everything else works. The ###### pig Gronk was out and about testing and all was declared well.



This Gronk has put up with a lot over the last year as it has pretty much lived on the layout and has been used for testing thoughout. If I ever manage to get everything working I might well do a respray of this guy into something more appropriate for a wagon works resident shunter...

I even tested the DC feeds by exercising a new arrival. Yet another shed, 66135. Acquired secondhand and as the tissue wrapping was intact I can only assume it's never been out of the box before!



Time for a sit down and a glass of something I think. Probably not much progress in the next week as I shall be at Swanley next Saturday helping with County Gate and then I will have to do due pennance for going out playing trains!

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

31st October 2008

Progress on rewiring has slowed a bit over the last week or so what with it being perishing cold in the garage and also EXPONG taking up last Saturday. Unexpectedly I found myself at home this afternoon so I took the opportunity to install the last 4 or 5 Tortoise point motors. All twelve are now in place and wired and working! I have to say I am impressed by how easy these motors are to work with. Expensive they may be but they are good.



For a small layout there are a heck of a lot of wires! To be fair there are more wires than last time as I have taken the opportunity of adding visual feedback on route selection by using the 2nd switch on the motors. So each motor has a white 4-core cable (telephone extension cable) connecting it to the SCART sockets that I'm using for off-board connections, 2 cores for the motor feed and 2 for feedback to the control panel. The other switch on the motor is used to switch the frog so there are also cables running to the DCC bus copper strips. Everything is held together with copious amounts of hot glue!

Here's a closer view of the centre section.



Next up will be the dreaded control panel! :shock:

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

9th November 2008

The great re-wiring project goes on and on and on and on...

Recently I have been working on a new control box for the layout. The previous incarnation used pushbuttons and a diode matrix or two to set the points. Not much use with Tortoises so a complete rebuild was in order. After a heck of a lot of fiddling around I'm starting to get to a point (no pun intended) where some of the layout is back and controllable. Here's an overview shot of the control box in its current crude state.



One minor thing I forgot with the last box, actually one of the many things I forgot, was a way of attaching the thing to the baseboards! This time I have thought a little bit ahead and this version can be mounted to the front or rear of the main board. Here's a shot of the box mounted on the front edge for some testing. The righthand side has all the umbilical connections to the main baseboard, 3 SCART plugs/sockets (20-way) for point control and cab control for DC operation and 3 phono plugs/sockets for the power feed to each cab section. In DC and DCC operation the power is supplied via the 3 phonos.



On the other end are just 3 phono plugs/sockets for inputs. One for 12v DC supply and one each for the two possible controllers that the box can utilise. The two controllers things is to allow me to use DC and DCC simultaneously or if using DC only to allow one controller to control the main lines and one the yard.



Having lost my fancy pushbutton and diode matrix control that allowed me to set up complex routes with a single button push I decided to use the 2nd switch on each Tortoise to provide some visual feedback of route settings on the control box. These rather poor quality shots show some of what has been achieved so far. First the entrance to the yard showing the main lines set up for through running:



Flip a few switches and the road is set to take a train from the up main across the down main and into the yard:



Finally the up main has been set back to through running and a path has been set for a train to exit the yard and proceed on the down main.



Amazing what you can achieve with a bunch of LEDs and a few resistors.

Nine out of the twelve point motors are now fully wired and there are isolating sections for DC use operational. These latter also provide visual indication being wired into the point feedback lines. Unfortunately I've run out of LEDs so and order is pending to which I will add a few flashing red LEDs that I will use to warn of conflicting point settings.

Getting tired of stripping wire and soldering now. Be glad when it's done. :|

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

15th November 2008

Whoopee, I can see an end to the wiring! I now have the control panel fully wired, give or take a couple of optional bits I may add, and things seem to be working! The last of the point motors was connected up today and the final route indication LEDs installed. After looking at the panel for a bit last week I decided to replace some of the yellow LEDs with different colours. So now we have red LEDs indicating a through path on the up main and green for a through path on the down main. Routes into and out of as well as within the yard are indicated by yellow LEDs. Cool eh?



Yes if you set a path from up main into the yard or from the yard on to the down main the path appears in yellow. Getting seriously anal now! :roll:

Of course the control panel doesn't look quite so neat from underneath but you can't have everything.



I've replaced the tie bars on the double slip and they still need some adjustment but most of the rest of the pointwork is now operational with the new point motors. It's taken 6 weeks but I'm close to being able to do some new stuff rather than re-engineering.

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

23rd November 2008

Points working so that extra bit of baseboard with nothing on needs dealing with. Had to have a think about this one as originally the repair shed was chopped off at an obscure angle and the matching baseboard shape sort of gave a reason for it being that shape. The mind magically filled in that there must have been a reason for it to have the corner cut off. With the corner of the board reinstated that doesn't work.

So I had thought to just clutter the area up with more buildings but I couldn't see how I would make it seem natural for the repair shed to be that shape. I could have just rebuilt it but I couldn't face that so I had to have another reason. It's obvious really, there's a railway line in the way, or at least there is now.



Some very crude track built that cuts across so making it impossible to have built the repair shed rectangular. :-) It's not a very big area as can be seen here.



There will be some buildings in this area to make it seem really cramped with the track snaking through between the buildings. There is a master plan which I will reveal at some point in the future but at the moment I'm going to work on this area as it is to get something semi-complete. There's a reason for that as well. :wink: Here's where I'm up to, the track is down, wired, fettled and I've started to bury it!



Have to wait till tomorrow to see if the tile grout I've used will harden and stick to the cork but everything is still operational at least.

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

30th November 2008

More work on the newly acquired extra corner this week. Having spent weeks on baseboards and wiring I was getting withdrawal symptoms from not having wielded a paintbrush for a while. Or maybe it was the plastic solvents! Anyhow time for another half building. This one was clearly never built very well and it's not in great shape now.



Not much good daylight coming through the kitchen window today so this is mainly under artificial light. Another shot from a slightly different angle. Can you see where it fits yet?



I had to conjure up a bit of extra backscene and at the same time made up a protection plate for the main lines and headshunt. This is used when the layout has no fiddleyards to stop any unexpected leaps of death and also doubles as protection for the track ends when the thing is being transported. Here's the half a shed in place with it's accompanying wall and a pair of manky steel gates.



Seen from the back of the baseboard. You can see I still have some work to merge the new bit of backscene in with the existing. Litle job with the paintbrushes for another day.



The clearances through this area are deliberately tight. I think I've got it right for larger vehicles but it may be a while before I find out. The 08 fits.



At the moment from a wider angle there are still largish areas (in Cramdin terms) of free space but I have plans for another small building and an extension to one of those in place. Then there will be clutter. Lots more to do.

Cheers
Dave

[eldavo]

6th December 2008

Free moments this week have been spent filling out "that corner". I wasn't clear exactly what I was going to do in this small space so I'm sort of winging it and chucking stuff in as I come across it or the idea occurs. First up to clutter up the area a bit and narrow down the free space next to the snaking track I have knocked together a small office/plant room extension to the main workshop.



This sort of works but needs a bit more work. Here is is from a slightly different angle.



I think it narrows the area a bit but I'm not yet convinced. Maybe a bit more clutter will help but from the end on view it doesn't look so good. You can see odd bits and pieces have appeared further down though along with some backscene.

With a loco in the area there 'aint a lot of space!



When it's gone it looks positively spacious. As you can see the workshop is doing a lot of re-wheeling with a few wheelsets around waiting to be fitted or having been taken off and waiting for collection for re-turning. These were all vastly expensive (10p an axle) from the bits bin on a stall at the exhibition I went to last week. They have been attacked with a file to reduce the flanges then rusted. I think they'll probably do. Here's a final overview shot for today.



Possible baseboard bashing next unless I get inspired to build some more small bits of clutter for this area.

Cheers
Dave