Burton-on-Trent South - Adding Buildings

[ISW]

Mimic Panel Mount

 

After a bit of dilly-dabbling I finally pulled my finger out and set to building the mounts for the 2 Upper Level mimic panels. It was a bit warmer in the garage so I was able to knock out the various bits of timber required for the mounts. The design is very simple, a piece of plywood with an 'edge' at the bottom, and 2 angled pieces of timber on the back to give the desired viewing angle.

 

Here is the back with the ScrewFix metal flush-mount brackets attached:

 

Here are the corresponding flush-mount brackets on the edge of the Upper Level baseboard:

 

Once assembled it looks like this:

 

And when you add the mimic panel:

 

I'm quite pleased with the result, and I'm thankful to all who provided suggestions / photos from which I drew the necessary inspiration.

 

Ian

 

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[5BarVT]

Pleased to have been of service.

It looks good too!

Paul.

[ISW]

Getting the Rolling Stock 'Fettled'

 

It's been a few weeks since I posted, during which time I've been busying myself with getting the rolling stock back onto the layout. This has been much more than an 'unbox & plonk it on the track' exercise. All the wheels have been thoroughly cleaned and, for the coaches, the Kadee couplings have been checked for alignment and height. For the locomotives, quite a few have been stripped down to completely clean the pickups and drive gears to improve running. I also found a couple of locos in need of a replacement DCC chip, the existing one having 'blown' at some point. That's something to be done next week once the model shops re-open. For the wagons, these have had their wheels cleaned but that's all. They still need their Kadee couplings checked, and I already know some will need to be relocated / adjusted for them to be able to navigate the tight curves of the Brewery Sidings.

 

Obviously, the above also entailed quite a bit of train running around the layout and this has  highlighted a number of problems / issues with the alignment that necessitated rectification work. That's all good really, as one of the next tasks on the layout will be ballasting and I clearly want the track to be at its best before that job. I still have a few locations on the layout where the alignment needs to be adjusted (vertical alignment) to improve running.

 

Rolling stock in the Lower Level storage sidings:

 

Locos on the Upper Level MPD:

 

Ian

 

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[61656]

 Crikey that is some volume of stock to unleash in one go! Are they all sound fitted too, or just DCC? 
 

It suddenly feels like a model railway when you start running trains! I would do quite a bit of running and try all your moves that you anticipate - you may find some changes might be beneficial for optimum operation (I speak from hard learnt experience). Much easier pre-ballasting. 
 

It’s also worth taking a lot of photos of the track to check you’re happy with the visual alignment. The camera is much more observant than the eye for some reason. I did a lot of nudging of track pre-ballasting. 
 

Great progress and keen to start talking about consists and operations!

[ISW]

39 minutes ago, 61656 said:

 Crikey that is some volume of stock to unleash in one go! Are they all sound fitted too, or just DCC?

DCC was about as far as I was willing to go. Many of my locos weren't even DCC (Airfix, Lima, Mainline ...) and had to be retrofitted, including the split frame Class 03. If I was to go with sound it would have to be in concert with keep-alive capacitors. 

 

The Lower Level has been 'in use' for over a year, and so the alignment issues had already been fixed there. The basis for the rolling stock was accumulated new in the 1980-82 period with some more recent (2017 onwards) secondhand purchases. I am trying to keep the costs down where I can.

 

39 minutes ago, 61656 said:

It’s also worth taking a lot of photos of the track to check you’re happy with the visual alignment. The camera is much more observant than the eye for some reason. I did a lot of nudging of track pre-ballasting. 

That's quite a good idea. The other method is to lie your head on the track so you can look along the top of the railhead. I also have a 'cube-cam' that fits on a wagon. Videos produced that way also give a reasonable idea of the track alignment (I posted one earlier). I have checked the curves with my box of 'railway curves' to ensure they are smooth, and all the straights were installed with the aid of a 1m ruler, with necessary 'nudging' as the glue set. As a result, the horizontal alignment is quite good.

 

It's the vertical alignment that has been causing me some 'issues'. Where I used the 'bending baseboard' method the vertical curves are very good, but some spots I couldn't use that method. I'm having to go back and install shims under the track (but over the underlay) to rectify the vertical alignment. And because I have so many baseboard joins, I'm having to 'tweak' the alignment of the rails at those joins to avoid derailments and/or uncouplings.

 

57 minutes ago, 61656 said:

I would do quite a bit of running and try all your moves that you anticipate - you may find some changes might be beneficial for optimum operation (I speak from hard learnt experience).

Indeed yes. It's only through a lot of running that any 'problems' rear their ugly heads. Thankfully, I have manual access to all areas of the track, even if some do require physical contortions. As to any 'changes', well that's almost impossible, which is why I spent so long on the planning of the layout. There is scope to add a few tracks here and there, but then I'd have to amend the wiring, add any extra servos & MegaPoints controller items, and re-build the mimic panels. Not something I would be looking forward to.

 

There is, of course, plenty of scope to amend the scenics and buildings, since I haven't completed the planning for those parts!

 

Ian

[ISW]

Rolling Stock Fettling - DMUs

 

I have a small 'fleet' of DMUs, okay 4 actually, some of which date back to the early 1980s. Those with 'pancake' motors have already been retro-fitted with CD-ROM motors and have been equipped with DCC decoders by hard-wiring. Lights would be nice, but that entails jumper cables (real ones for electricity!) between carriages, and I haven't come across a neat way to do that. Any ideas?

 

Still, the running of the older models is not that great, with them cutting out on double / single slips (insulfrog, even though wired as electrofrog) and track with even the merest hint of track dirt. I've therefore been retro-fitting pickups to all wheels of the decoder fitted coach, including those wheels with traction tyres. This has improved the running no end, and can now be relied upon (mostly ...) to start/stop smoothly around the layout.

 

Here are 3 of the fleet. Left to right; 3-car Class 117 Lima new from ~1980, 2-car Class 105 Bachmann bought secondhand in 2020, and 2-car Class 101 Lima 'collection' bought secondhand in ~2018:

 

The Class 105 is head-n-shoulders, no not the shampoo, above the other 2, and so it should be at a multiple of the cost of the others.

 

The 'missing' one of the fleet is a Hornby Railways Class 110 3-car bought new from ~1982. That'll get the all-wheel-pickup treatment soon.

 

Ian

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[ISW]

Sods Law Strikes Again

 

After 'fixing' the Lima Class 101 DMU (see above posting) it was given a good run around the layout, something it had not done before as it was in the the box of 'jobs to do' and wasn't it a fit state to run.

On 07/04/2021 at 18:55, 61656 said:

I would do quite a bit of running and try all your moves that you anticipate - you may find some changes might be beneficial for optimum operation (I speak from hard learnt experience).

Quite clearly 61656 has some form of intuition or ability to 'see into the future', because what did the Lima Class 101 DMU do while I was giving it a good run around the layout? It kept derailing in the same place on the Lower Level. And where was this place:

 

Well, you couldn't have chosen a more inconvenient location for a derailment to occur. 

 

I started by having an enjoyable time shunting all the rolling stock from the Lower Level storage sidings and stabled them temporarily on the Ramp tracks. Then I unplugged all the cables from the Upper Level baseboard, unbolted it from its neighbours and lifted it out. The same process was then used to remove the 2-Track and 3-Track Ramp segments.

 

This gave much better access to the site of the derailment as shown below:

 

A quick bit of rail alignment adjustment and soldering (to the alignment retainment screws at the baseboard join) later and the track was fixed. Some 'considerable' testing followed running the Lima Class 101 DMU up and down the offending track.

 

The Ramp and Upper Level baseboards were returned to their locations, bolts inserted, and cables plugged back into their sockets and the task was successfully completed.

 

The benefits of having segmented, and removable, baseboards was drawn upon once again. Hopefully, this will not become a common occurrence.

 

Ian

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[61656]

Greek mythology has always been my achilles elbow, but I’m sure Epimethius was the God of hindsight and basically said something about sharing the knowledge of model railway derailments with your kin. The original text is somewhat faint and the ancient Greek is often hard to translate literally. I can’t say for sure that the bit about expansion gaps and the unusual effects of a thin beam of strong sunlight have been accurately deciphered. 

A more modern take on it may be “buy your 16 wheelers before ballasting”!

[ISW]

Additional Pickups

 

As you might have noticed, quite a bit of my rolling stock hails from the good ol' 1980s, including a few DMUs from Hornby Railways and Lima. Whilst these have been re-motored with a CD-ROM motor, they still have limited pickups. I did retrofit additional pickups to the motored coach, but they are still stalling on some of my numerous double & single slips. I also have an old Mainline Class 03 (with split chassis) that, obviously, also has limited pickups and a tendency to lose power.

 

My thoughts therefore turned to adding pickups to the adjacent vehicle in the DMU and, maybe, to a shunting wagon to pair with the Class 03.

 

I therefore need a 'neat' method of transferring power from one vehicle to another. I did consider plugs & sockets, but couldn't find any that were small enough and easy to connect / disconnect. In the end I decided that magnets would be worth a trial. To that end I made a small purchase from TheBay of some 2mm diameter neodymium magnets of ½mm and 1mm thickness.

 

The 'test subject' was my Lima 2-car Class 101 DMU. Pickups were added to the non-motored car, using little bits of veroboard above each bogie to aid in any future bogie removal. The 'bus' wires along the length of the car are simple coated copper wires I salvaged from an old transformer.

 

At the bufferbeam two wires were passed through, extending about 10mm from the bufferbeam with a magnet soldered onto the end. (Yes, there is a buffer missing. I wonder where that's gone? I'll have to check with the carpet monster):

 

When coupled up the electrical connections are quite discrete, even with unpainted wires:

 

The main advantage of the magnetic inter-car cable coupling is that the vehicles can quite easily be coupled / uncoupled, something I think would have been more 'fiddly' with a plug/socket. Some testing around the layout proved that the 2-car DMU will now pass through all the junctions, even on the lowest speed setting without losing power. I call that a success. I think equipping a shunting wagon for the Class 03 is worth a go.

 

It's not all roses though. I used very fine wires for the jumper cables as flexibility was a necessity. However, I found that the soldered connection to the neodymium magnet is prone to fatigue and I've had 2 failures. I have re-soldered them and we'll see if that fixes the problem.

 

Ian

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[young37215]

What a neat idea, if you can resolve the soldering issue the magnets are a really elegant solution.

 

I can see the concept being transferrable to coaching stock in addition to locos and units. I would like to put coach lighting in my rolling stock and have always pondered how I could avoid having to put pickups in every coach. In my mind I had thought about running wires between coaches but this kept stalling over how rakes could be rearranged without major surgery to the wiring. I think your design is the solution. Please keep us posted on how your efforts develop.

 

[5BarVT]

10 hours ago, ISW said:

However, I found that the soldered connection to the neodymium magnet is prone to fatigue and I've had 2 failures. I have re-soldered them and we'll see if that fixes the problem.

Soldered connections always have that problem (unfortunately).  To prevent it, the soldered area needs to be supported so that there is no relative motion.  Therein lies the problem, as the magnets are only supported through the fine wires and also create a large inflexible zone which will act to increase the flexing just at the end of the solder: exactly where you don’t want it.

Two suggestions: could you get some heat shrink sleeping round the magnet and wire to give some support to the soldered area?  
And could you copy full size ETH connectors flexible to the plug and fixed socket.  Done symmetrically so the coaches could be reversed if desired.  It won’t be perfect as there will still be flexing as the coaches move.

Paul.

[ISW]

5 hours ago, young37215 said:

I can see the concept being transferrable to coaching stock in addition to locos and units.

Rob,

 

If you had lighting inside the coach running off the 2 'bus wires', does that mean you couldn't turn a coach round as the +ve & -ve would be reversed? Might need a couple of diodes to fix that issue.

 

Ian

[ISW]

2 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

Soldered connections always have that problem (unfortunately).  To prevent it, the soldered area needs to be supported so that there is no relative motion.  Therein lies the problem, as the magnets are only supported through the fine wires and also create a large inflexible zone which will act to increase the flexing just at the end of the solder: exactly where you don’t want it.

Two suggestions: could you get some heat shrink sleeping round the magnet and wire to give some support to the soldered area?

Another solution might be to just put a blob of glue over the solder & a few millimetres of the wire sleeving to 'beef up' the connection and move the flexing to wires that are sleeved.

 

Heat shrink is probably a tad difficult, plus heating the neodymium magnets reduces their effectiveness, so I try to avoid heating them too much.

 

Ian

[5BarVT]

1 hour ago, ISW said:

Another solution might be to just put a blob of glue over the solder & a few millimetres of the wire sleeving to 'beef up' the connection and move the flexing to wires that are sleeved.

That was my first thought, it will be better than what you have.  I was trying to use sleeving to give a less sudden end to the support.

Try the glue approach for effectiveness.

Paul.

[young37215]

21 hours ago, ISW said:

Rob,

 

If you had lighting inside the coach running off the 2 'bus wires', does that mean you couldn't turn a coach round as the +ve & -ve would be reversed? Might need a couple of diodes to fix that issue.

 

Ian

 

As long as you have different colour wires for positive and negative, changing the order of coaches in their rakes around should be straightforward even for the colour blind. My thinking is that I have largely fixed rake formations where I change the order of the coaches around and swap them between rakes once or twice a year just for the sake of changing them. No need for turning the coaches around, just a simple alteration to the running order. With your flexible connectors system my approach becomes viable, before it looked like it required a large amount of manual work dis-connecting and re-connecting wires. 

[ISW]

Apart from an SG90 servo going awol on me, I've not done a lot of work on the layout over the last few weeks. Of course, it had to be the SG90 in the most difficult part of the baseboards to reach. However, it was not that difficult to whip out 2 Upper Level baseboards to gain access to the underlying 3-Track Ramp baseboard that needed to be removed. The actual servo swap was the easy part. Electrical testing, before re-installation, was complicated by the power bus being 'disrupted' by the missing baseboards! I had to 'borrow' the 12v 2amp lighting power supply to temporarily power the MegaPoints servo board to check and set up the replacement servo. At least it all went back together, and the layout is back to operations again.

 

In order to make such electrical issues a little easier in the future, I bought another Xbox power supply at a local car boot (£2 this time, double what I paid before) that gives 12v 14.2amp, more than enough to power lights and/or MegaPoints controller boards when needed. I didn't bother with an adapter cable for the Xbox 8-pin (3x 12v, 3x ground, 2x detection) plug this time. I just took the plug apart, and used a chocolate block 'plug' in its place. It's now kept 'in reserve' for future uses.

 

Ian

[ISW]

Ballasting Preparations

 

Although not much has happened 'on' the layout of late, I have been busy thinking about the process of ballasting. I've watch quite a few YouTube videos on the subject, and have decided that my process will be:

1. Weathering of rails / sleepers
2. Laying / gluing of ballast
3. Weathering of 'track'

I know quite a lot of people skip Step 1, but I see it as the only way to properly remove that 'newness' from the sleepers without over doing it on the ballast. It's also the best time to weather the sides of the rails (and the fastenings) without it unduly affecting the ballast (any 'dribbles' will be covered up by the subsequent ballast). Also, my airbrush skills are non-existent, and I'll need time to get it right.

 

The one YouTube video that sticks in my mind is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97O4cKnFzbE&t=758s

 

 

In order to get some practice, I've thrown together a 'practice plank':

 

I don't have much track left over from the actual tracklaying, so I had to make do with 2 lengths of old straight settrack (left), 2 old settrack curves (right), and some straight timber & concrete sleepered flexitrack I did have left over. In fact, the concrete sleepered bit is 2 lengths of offcut, and the timbered 4 lengths of offcut.

 

Hopefully, this'll give me space to practice the fine arts of airbrushing and ballast laying. With any luck, there'll be more paint on the plank than on the carpet.

 

Ian

 

[61656]

I did a few practice planks and then just went for it. What’s the worst that can happen? (Treat that as a rhetorical question). 
 

I found the Chadwick Parkway videos about the most useful / attainable. 

[ISW]

Another Video

 

After the success  of my previous video attempt (which I managed to upload to the wrong YouTube account, now corrected), I decided to make another to show those elements of the layout that were not included in the first video.

 

So, in this video we take a ride commencing in the MPD on the Upper Level. We leave the MPD using the SB Slow, through the Station and down to the Lower Level, where we pass through the Storage Sidings. We then return to the Upper Level using the Leicester Line and, passing through Leicester Line Junction, enter the Brewery Exchange Sidings. We then take a short trip along the Brewery Lines before reversing back to the Brewery Exchange Sidings. We finish with a short run back to the MPD, where we started.

 

Sorry, it's a bit longer at ~11 minutes, but I have included some text to describe the main 'features' to keep your interest. And look out for Gromit ...:

 

The sound is a bit 'choppy', but I put this down to my cheap cube-cam. Hopefully, you'll now have a better understanding of the layout and the main elements. Let me know if there is anything that doesn't make sense.

 

Ian

[ISW]

Cube-Cam

 

Lest you be wondering how I made the above video, I will explain.

 

As you'll have observed from the video, the layout is 'vertically challenged' in a couple of locations, and this means any form of on-track camera is limited by that height, in addition to the usual width restrictions. This resulted in me having to be a little creative for the 'video wagon':

 

It was only with the wagon bed removed that the height was 'within limits'. The masking tape is a bit of a bodge, but suffices as it remained in place throughout the whole video exercise. Indeed, it also passed with flying colours during a couple of derailments during 'free-practice' prior to the event, due to buffer-lock. I had to relocate a Kadee draft box to fix that.

 

The actual video is 'recorded' on a mobile phone through an accompanying App (like just about everything these days), even though the Cube-Cam can record itself onto an SD card (however, this seems to take the form of consecutive 5-min long 'dashcam' type recordings). The phone and the cube-cam are connected via wifi. The advantage of this arrangement is that you get to view the footage in real time, as if you were the 'driver', during the recording.

 

I've not tried it, but I suppose I could drive a train using just the phone screen, watching the driver's viewpoint, without actually looking at the layout. I'm going to have to give that a try, as it gives views of the layout that I can't normally see.

It may also prove useful in 'rail accident investigations' (aka derailments), as I'll be able to see the state of the alignment / obstructions / turnout positions / etc at the 'accident site' in those locations were access is 'limited'.

 

Ian

[ISW]

Another Coach Added to the Fleet

 

I recently stumbled upon a Lima Mk1 SK on a well known auction site and I was fortunate enough to win the auction, for a very reasonable price. I have quite a fleet of Lima Mk1s, but no SKs until now. They were certainly not 'readily available' back in the early 1980s when I bought all of my Lima stuff.

 

Of course, the coach was not without its problems, although in fairness it was complete and did run nicely. In order to make it 'fit in' with the rest of the fleet a few modifications were in order:

1. Kadee couplings replaced the tension locks
2. The wheels were cleaned using a brass disk in my 'dremel' clone (they were really dirty)
3. The coach ends were painted the correct rail blue, with the door in an 'off white'
4. Salient transfers were added to the coach ends; OHLE warning flashes and 'C1' marking
5. Flush windows were installed, of the SouthEast Finecast variety (same as all my Lima coaches)
6. Interior was painted in grey undercoat, and then in 'timber effect' for the partition walls with a blue material colour for the seating

It looks a whole lot better now, and just shows what can be achieved with a cheap Lima Mk1.

 

Ian 

[mallaig1983]

On 24/05/2021 at 18:22, ISW said:

Another Coach Added to the Fleet

 

I recently stumbled upon a Lima Mk1 SK on a well known auction site and I was fortunate enough to win the auction, for a very reasonable price. I have quite a fleet of Lima Mk1s, but no SKs until now. They were certainly not 'readily available' back in the early 1980s when I bought all of my Lima stuff.

 

Of course, the coach was not without its problems, although in fairness it was complete and did run nicely. In order to make it 'fit in' with the rest of the fleet a few modifications were in order:

1. Kadee couplings replaced the tension locks
2. The wheels were cleaned using a brass disk in my 'dremel' clone (they were really dirty)
3. The coach ends were painted the correct rail blue, with the door in an 'off white'
4. Salient transfers were added to the coach ends; OHLE warning flashes and 'C1' marking
5. Flush windows were installed, of the SouthEast Finecast variety (same as all my Lima coaches)
6. Interior was painted in grey undercoat, and then in 'timber effect' for the partition walls with a blue material colour for the seating

It looks a whole lot better now, and just shows what can be achieved with a cheap Lima Mk1.

 

Ian 

Ian,

I have one of these Lima SKs amongst some other coaches from the same era that I haven’t got round to putting on eBay yet. It’s not boxed but is in good condition so if you’d like another one it’s available. DM me if you’re interested.

Andy

[ISW]

More Coaches Added to the Fleet

 

The observant amongst you will have noticed a connection between the Title of this posting and the previous posting by Andy. I did indeed take him up on his kind offer, and recently received 2x Mk1 SK + 1x Mk2b SO, all 3 by Lima.

 

As I have 'previous' with Lima coaches it wasn't too hard to work out what needed to be done to improve them:

1. Change couplings to Kadee
2. Fit flush glazing (SE Finecast type)
3. Paint the interior to a representation of real colours
4. Renumber to avoid duplications with the rest of the fleet
5. Add transfers to the coach ends
6. Paint the coach ends into Rail Blue (SKs only), and paint the end door

Here are the interiors after a quick dab of paint into representative colours. I also amended the Mk2b vestibule areas to more correctly represent the lavatory partitioning. Yes I know, it's not the best paint job ever, but when viewed through the coach windows it is more than adequate:

 

The SE Finecast flush glazing used up quite a bit of my surplus stock of windows from previous conversions. As usual, it was necessary to 'dremel' a small chamfer onto the inside edge of each window opening to allow the glazing to fit nicely:

 

Fitting the Kadee couplings followed my previous practice. On the SKs BR1 bogies, the tension lock was cut off, the remaining top surface 'dremelled' smooth and Kadee #141s simply screwed into the plastic. This method can't be used for the Mk2b SO as Lima managed to mould the B4 bogies with the secondary springing the wrong way round. Therefore, the whole tension lock assembly has to be removed, and the bogie turned round. Then, a styrene spacer is screwed to the bogie and a Kadee #156 screwed to the spacer. This combination gives the correct height and extends to the buffer faces:

 

After reassembly, end treatments, and renumbering they look like this, quite an improvement:

 

In case you are wondering about the renumbering, it was done as follows. The old numbers were simply painted over with RailMatch BR Blue. Press-down numbers from RailTec Transfers were applied, with the new number determined by my RCTS Coaching Stock Book of 1976 and what numbers I had left on the transfer sheet. The numbers were then 'sealed' by lightly painting on matt clear varnish.

 

All 3 coaches have already been integrated into my Mk1 & Mk2 sets (2 of each), each one being 7 coaches long.

 

Ian

 

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by ISW
photos re-uploaded

[young37215]

Nice work Ian, as you have said Lima coaches can be perfectly acceptable with a little bit of time and effort. The price that the Bachmann coaches seem to fetch now makes it even more attractive to upgrade the Limas.

[mallaig1983]

Nice work there Ian. Certainly look a lot better than the last time I saw them. Really pleased they’ve found a good home.

Andy