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Frimingham


Vecchio
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Not many news today. The day was dedicated to DIY and tailor's work. My mum was a tailor and my grandfather was a sewing machine mechanic, so I am quite fit with a sewing machine, and from time to time I am asked for repairs etc. So I spent more than half a day with shortening 4 curtains and taking in 2 trousers....

 

Looking at the function keys of the loco I found a free one (Function 2) for lights, operated by F12. So the idea is to use directional headlights in the front and switchable directional lights on the rear. So I can switch the rear lights off in case a train is coupled. I can use the free light switch to disconnect the plus (blue) via a miniature relay. This means I can run light engine with lights on both sides and switch the rear off when there is a train coupled. It will not work if the train is coupled to the front of the engeine, but never mind, better than nothing. I ordered a super small relay which should do the job and which is small enough to fit into the boiler above the chip. More when it arrives.

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The relay arrived - and it is really small and expensive. (Farnell sits in Belgium - 9.50 or so handling charge...)

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All wired up and in we go

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And now comes the surprise. It doesn't work. I checked the decoder function output - works without a problem and responds to button F12 as described in the decoder manual. I checked the relay, it switched nicely with a 9V battery. I also have the polarity correct as this is a coil which is polarity sensitive. The only possible explanation I have is that we are too close to the speakers, which have pretty strong magnets. The distance between speakers and the relay may be not more than 1 cm (The relay is above the engines internal PCB, the speakers are glued in below).

 

A solution would be to move the relay further away - for instance close to the cab. But then we are close to the motor, again a magnet. For the moment I give up. The lights are working on both sides now, kind of constant light engine.

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It is soon time to re-open the club so I was there yesterday evening to clean up Frimingham. This was a straight forward job, just going over the track with 800 grain abrasive paper and hoovering the dust away.  And of course a test run of my new loco. And - it also gave me the possibility to make some pictures of the station.

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Edited by Vecchio
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A lot of time has passed and Frimingham is still not finished. But there is some progress. The landscape is now done, there is a small loading ramp, and work on the point rodding is in progress. Will show a few photos later.

 

As my general manager is out of the house for the weekend I started today with a fiddle yard. 

 

The length will be 155cm, the actual storage length is 120cm. This is not very long for 7mm, but I have to look also at the club room and the transport, this length allows a fiddle yard on both sides in the clubroom and also fits easy into my estate.

 

The style will be a turntable one, I saw one at Aexandra palace show and I thought this is brilliant, as it allows not only storage, but you can turn a train around and drive off into the other direction. Find here a photo from the Ally Pally show. Whoever made it please forgive me, I cannot remember the name of the layout...

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Anyway, now to my approach. 

 

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I start with the turntable bit. If the reader is asking himself why on earth is he doing that on a glass table? Well

a) this is the table in my workshop, who had a better life in the past and was born in a designer furniture factory in Lissone, Italy. 

b) it is absolutely flat and is the best for building baseboards as there is no warping. (well, this comes later with humidity...) 

 

As the edges need some drying time I make in parallel some kind of bearings out of aluminium. OK, I try to. First thing that happens is that my bandsaw blade gives up. (I need the saw to cut the alu into managable discs)

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Being organised (really???) I had a spare in the cabinet. 

On we go 

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And now almost finished. 

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Next thing is the frame. Here it is with one half of the bearing in place.

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And now lets put it together.

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The track is pure show-off. There are many things to do before I can get the track in place...

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That's it for today, I am quite happy with the progress. Tomorrow I will be on home improvement DIY, but probably on Monday I can get a few more hours in. 

Happy modelling.

Edited by Vecchio
photos mixed up
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Long time has passed, and now the wood in my garage goes on my nerves. So I have to finish it. 

Why the long break? Well I had a head-scratching phase as the turntable warped. No idea why, it is dry in my garage/workshop. In the end I had to take the 2 pieces of stripwood on the sides of (which didn't go too well as I used cyano acrylate...). After re-shaping the surface with some polyester filler I used screws. With them I can give the whole thing a bit of pre-tension. Working? well, partially. One corner still thinks he has to stick up in the air. But it is much better than before. 

 

So where are we now? 

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What's missing now is an index pin (I make 2, ,gives me also the power supply) and a safety guard, so the trains cannot roll off the turntable when turning. Myplan is to have the thing out of my workshop by tonight (ready or not, the rest can be done in the clubroom)

 

Happy modelling!

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And again some time has passed. But now I have it. One of the fiddle yards is finished and fully operational. The other one just waits for somebody who has some 20hours free to build it... 

 

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The aluminium strips form a safety barrier so that stock cannot roll off the fiddle yard when moved. There is no switch necessary, the electrical connection is done with microswitches below the board and with the brass lever which also is responsible for the physical alignment of the tracks.  Works a treat. Of course sound engines are quiet when the bord gets moved as only one track is connected at a time. This I did for Bob, our treasurer, who couldn't be convinced to use DCC. Unfortunately he didn't see the finished fiddle yard as he passed away recently. 

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If you go into flickr (where the photos come from) you can zoom to the maximum and then you will see that there is a clear PVC edge protection sleeve on the aluminuim.

 

Especially for you a closeup (of the material for the second fiddle yard) :

 

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By the way - if anybody is interested - you can see this layout next Sunday. I will be there in the morning (probably until 13:00), but the layout will also run in the afternoon, as my friend Ian will look after it. We run DCC sound locos, control is z21 and Megapoints controller. The layout progresses further and further, the point rodding is 99% finished. 

And of course there will be 3 other layouts in other scales running!

 

 

 Milton Keynes Model Railway Society Open Day 29.10.2023

 

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Our next open day will be held on Sunday 29th October 2023, 10:00 – 15:00

Interested in becoming a member or just want to see what we do?
Then come along to our open day!

We have layouts in the major gauges, which will be operational on the day.

Light refreshments will be available on the day

The Address for our open day is North House, 1 Bond Avenue, Bletchley, Milton Keynes, MK1 1SW

Free Admission

 

Hope to see you there!

Vecchio aka Gerhard

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Back from my "shift" on the layout during our open day. I recently finished a tree which makes a bit of a statement

 

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This is just putting the netting up and cover the trunk not to get leaves on. 

 

Now the finished tree on the layout. Perhaps I need to move it further back, as it almost overhangs the track. Not really firesafe. Anyway - I do like it. It is approximately 45cm tall.

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See here a few more pictures of the layout in its current state. 

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It is almost finished, what is missing is a curtain and the transport protection for the modules (and of course the second fiddle yard...) .

Edited by Vecchio
wrong photo...
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