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Waddlemarsh - somewhere southwest of London sometime before today


Gwiwer
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It’s alive!!! With a temporary power supply rigged up the first train has moved under its own power at Waddlemarsh.

 

The controller is the Morley Vortrak salvaged from Penhayle Bay and which has spent 15 years outdoors and suffered a little for that though three of its four independant outputs still work.

 

I have also been able to check that everything purchased since Penhayle Bay closed actually works. It does. And I am particularly impressed with the little Heljan class 07 dock shunters of which two are now in my collection.

 

https://gwiwer.smugmug.com/ModelRailway-1/Model-railway-videos/n-S4bmc/i-5FLC4Gq

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Great to see you back in action Rick, I do think about the old layout a bit... though at BRMA meetings som of the bits have been re purposed which I find curious. Be a few years until we catch up again. I hope SRman is dropping by when he is over your way!

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Hi Doug and thanks. We are hoping to have a meeting, however brief, of DURM/BRMA (Topside Branch) members when Mr. SRman passes through London in the near future. He might be the first visitor to both Penhayle Bay and Waddlemarsh though it’s going to the wire with another Aussie mate also over at the same time. Which reminds me there’s stuff to do if I am to have at least one track running end to end by then.

 

After all the work which went into Penhayle Bay and the relatively swift end to that era it was pleasing to be able to have some of the scenes repurposed into new homes. It’s good to know it lives on in that way.

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A track-laying session this afternoon has resulted in progress. All five curves are now in place and are as good as it’s going to get in a tight space.

 

Getting five lines around a right-angle took a little ingenuity in terms of spacing and what connected to where but the effect is, I think, adequate.

 

The two outer tracks will ultimately be concealed behind the backscene. The 4TC occupies the Up and the 5Bel the Down passenger lines which to the right will serve Waddlemarsh Halt and to the left continue to reach the pair of concealed sidings. Rather than occupy space with a crossover here the line singles briefly making use of double-curve points.

 

Metropolitan electric loco no.12 “Sarah Siddons” and the GWR Siphon G vans are on the connection between passenger line and goods yard. This is only connected to the Down passenger line but Up trains will be able to leave and cross over at the London end of the halt.

 

Eastern Region diesels of classes 16 and 20 are on the freight line. This will pass in front of the halt on its own alignment meaning freight has the option to use this or the passenger lines.

 

Finally the duty shunting engine fusses with wagons on the inner curve which leads to the shunting neck (right) and the goods shed and siding (left).

 

The controller is placed where I intend it to go but it may be possible to fit it below rather than on the baseboard.

 

post-3305-0-01379400-1537979428_thumb.jpeg

 

post-3305-0-54293400-1537979545_thumb.jpeg

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I have reached a point where I do not know what to do.  

 

I have carefully wired up the points according to Peco's supplied diagrams and the tracks according to Ian Morton's handy book "Railway Electrics".

 

A few random sections work; locos trundle up and down and in some cases will run through crossovers onto other lines.  Most sections simply refuse to work.  Some indicate a short on the controller but others just have no power.

 

I shall have to come up with a track plan and ask for help.  I truly cannot figure out why it doesn't work when wired as instructed and advised.

 

Until the wiring is sorted I cannot proceed further because one of the next steps will be ballasting.

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Rather than try to fix things which I suspect would be a complex process I shall just post a track plan here.

 

What would be very helpful is for this to be reposted with annotations showing where +ve and -ve power feeds go, and where insulated joiners and anything else should be fitted.  The layout is DC operated and I have three independent outputs available from the controller.  

 

The crossover-with-slip unit was built specially for me and came with wiring instructions which I have followed to the letter so once the basics are sorted it should work.  Fingers crossed!  

 

I have also attached two images showing how the points are wired which is, by my understanding, correct for DC operation of electrofrog points.

 

post-3305-0-14228000-1541959531_thumb.jpg

 

post-3305-0-03638700-1541959547_thumb.jpg

 

post-3305-0-10141600-1541959560_thumb.jpg

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Rick,

You need to break the two wires connecting the switchblades with the frog area - as it stands they are causing a dead short. They are there for people who don't bond the switchblades.

 

post-2-0-83221700-1541959995_thumb.jpg

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Ah,  Right.  Yes I see that now.  In my enthusiasm to avoid reliance on blade contact I have built in a short.  Guess I'll be clipping wires tomorrow than.  Thank you.

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It has been a while since I did anything to the layout.  Winter hasn't been kind health-wise and the light required for some tasks has just not been available.

 

Today - having spent many weeks coughing and feeling generally run-down and tired - I set about investigating some of the power issues and whether I could ease the curve radii on the outer tracks.  The latter is a problem because the bogie swing of some items is insufficient and they derail.  I hope to have a workable solution with some selective realignment.

 

A couple of the original points have been found to be defective.  They were, after all, left outdoors for several years so this is hardly a surprise.  I need replacements and this gives the opportunity for the curve easing mentioned through the use of a Y-point in one place rather than a standard turnout.  That will permit, via a short reverse-curve, the track second from the edge and which is giving the greatest number of problems to be taken farther out towards its neighbour and around a slightly better radius.

 

Now I have to await the parcel from Camborne before I can test the theory.  

 

But at least some sort of progress is being made.

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Another session today saw an exchange of points between the passenger sidings and station area. That has finally allowed me to fix those tracks in position with radii which everything so far tested finds acceptable. The original configuration resulted in the 2Bil and 2Hal units derailing on the Down (inner) road due to insufficient bogie swing. 

 

These two roads are also now powered successfully. 

 

So as shown in this clip the Y-point which fed the two sidings has been swapped for a right-hand curved point which permits easier approach angles. Around the corner of the room the left-hand point which has the passenger-to-yard divergence to the left has been replaced by the Y-point. That allows the curve radii to be modified. 

 

 

And one of the reasons everything is taking ages ..... my workbench is the back gate!  There isn’t anywhere indoors to do this. 

 

 

5BEACDB6-FEA9-4AAD-A09A-77EF4D1DD7B8.jpeg

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One step forwards. Six steps back. Four hours attempting to sort out the wiring and power problems have resulted in a headache, the discovery of a length of buckled rail and a mass of wires everywhere. But I am no further forward and probably have gone backward in trying to resolve matters. 

 

When it got to the point of wanting to tip the lot into the bin I walked away. 

 

I am totally at a loss here. I don’t know or understand why it doesn’t work which means at best I am guessing at fixes. And it isn’t solving anything. 

 

Individually most areas work. But trying to get the layout to operate as a whole just ain’t happening. 

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On 20/02/2019 at 18:10, calvin Streeting said:

Do you know what caused the buckle? 

It was old rail laid in Australia and then stored so has probably become too hot at some point out there.  

 

I has been some time (again) since I visited this topic and indeed the layout.  I have been tinkering at times with the electrickery but in recent weeks have had to devote most of my spare time to looking after my wife who has developed a number of medical issues.  We hope that over time all can be managed but for now I am expected to be home at most times other than working hours in case of urgent need and to take on the household tasks which I was not already responsible for.

 

This week is the first of two forming my summer (sic!!) leave and I have a little more time on my hands.  I removed all the rolling stock which had been parked on the layout, all the various bits of clutter and set about a methodical end-to-end investigation into why things keep shorting.  I was particularly mystified by a power feed to a point toe with both routes from the point being dead ends.  With nothing on the track the controller showed normal power; place anything on the track and it showed a short with the loco only moving extremely slowly if at all.  That one has had me racking my brains for months.

 

Quite by chance I placed a loco onto the section of track before the power feed.  It ran normally but stopped across the joint whereupon the controller showed a short.  I am using Peco pre-wired joiners for power supply in most places including this spot.  When I moved the loco the slight additional pressure from my fingers caused it to suddenly move under power.  Hmmmmm.  Curiouser and curiouser.  I investigated the joiners and found that what I, and the controller, had been interpreting as a short for months was actually a poor connection somewhere.  I replaced the joiner with a plain one and hey presto - it works perfectly!  I replaced the original wired joiner and it behaved as previously.  I don't know why but suspect the wire inside the sheath might be broken.  So a new power joiner was fitted and everything at that end of the layout is now fine and dandy.

 

I also found a genuine short caused by a back-feed through a point and fixed that with the insertion of an insulated joiner.  I also swapped out the joiners on one side of all my double-insulated joints in sidings and shed roads since that was more complex than needed; I can insulate perfectly well with a single plastic joiner and an on-off switch. I currently have a number of push-to-make switches ready-wired which will do the job but on-off works better.

 

So .....

 

One board is now working as is the link board around the right-angle between the two main ones.  I can now move on to final-fix wiring in this area followed by final pin-down of the track and move to the other board and the delights of my scissors-with-slip unit specially built for me and which will need some fancy wiring.  All the exits will lead to dead-end fiddle yard roads which reduces some of the complexity.  

 

As a statement of intent to start scenic work I have also covered the working board with a wash of paint.  That means when I do come to lay the ground surface I am not doing so onto bare wood but onto a base colour of "Earth Undercoat".  

 

Watch this space.  

 

 

 

 

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One small step for a man; one giant leap for the layout. 

 

Today, without ceremony, the first ballast was laid. In addition the goods shed has been partially weathered with the other sides to follow. 

 

 

6E03CB59-CCCD-4F39-892B-D3FD03052313.jpeg

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15 hours ago, SRman said:

It's good to see you back in action, Rick. Nice work there. :)

Thanks Jeff. 

 

A couple more off the phone 

 

 

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AE0217FB-127D-4BDE-8413-373BA0FB6DDD.jpeg

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Rick looking very nice. Its a shame your spare time disappeared, but great that the layout is still progressing slowly. I have to say that my progress recently has been overtaken by a slow moving glacier. 

 

On another thing entirely, your back scene looks great how do you find them. I have been debating getting a couple of the ID back scenes for my OO layout but my P4 layout has a 3inch dropdown for a river bed which I am not sure how to produce a nice backscene which will look appropriate. 

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Hi Rick, 

Sorry to hear about Sarah hope it's nothing too serious. 

Good to see you are getting a bit of train time, and glad you got the wiring issue sorted. Looks like you will be able to play trains soon it's been a while.

 

Cheers Peter.

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I completely empathise with you Rick - I, too, am a full time carer for my wife - so it is very impressive that you are managing to keep up some progress. It is always good to have something to do which takes your mind off other matters, how ever briefly.

 

Always good to another SR layout emerging!!

 

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Thank you gents.

 

Baz - Cheers and thank you for your ongoing support here and elsewhere;

 

Doug - The backscene is a Peco item which includes several different views which can (and will in my case) be placed end to end to give a non-repeating and varied scene.  There is a range of mostly rural views but this and a couple of industrial options are also offered.  Gaugemaster also offer something similar and I have their equivalent in stock but don't like it.  It is much less well-defined in reproduction, is on glossy not matt paper and has a very un-natural blue tone for the sky.  In terms of construction speed I reckon a snail with a zimmer frame might overtake me!

 

Peter - It's good to be able to play trains again and I am learning to enjoy a short end-to-end rather than a long roundy-round.  I'm not sure who Sarah is as I haven't dated anyone by that name since about 1983 :O  It's a typo for Sharon of course ;)

 

Mike - Thank you.  Support is always welcomed and it's good to know I am in illustrious company.  Whilst I don't need to be a full-time carer just yet there may well come a day that I do whether it be due to mental or physical conditions or a combination of both.  For the past couple of weeks the pattern has been one of slow improvement though with unpredictable setbacks so roughly three days forward and two back, but on the whole somewhat in the right direction for now.  The layout will be a "Southern" one though as the early pictures suggest it will be visited by all types from the four English regions of BR and some guests from north of the border operating under Rule 1.  Class 26 did see early service on the Eastern Region in the London area before moving north but I can find no record of the Clayton class 17 ever working south of the Yorkshire coalfields let alone London.  And some of the SR steam classes would have been a spotter's dream come true in London such as the Adams "Radial" and Beattie 0298-class well-tanks.  Nine Elms might well have allowed West Country light Pacifics to handle parcels and even freight at times but I doubt a Merchant Navy would have been seen in a small off-the-beaten-track yard.  Mine will.  There might even be a short-trousered spotter or two trespassing inside the fence to "cop" the strangers!

 

Currently waiting a delivery of switches due to arrive this week before making the final adjustments to the wiring on the first board.  Assuming that all goes smoothly I can move on to the other end at the fiddle yard throat since the other board has already been proven to power up correctly and simply needs its wiring connected up.

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