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  • RMweb Gold

I’m really impressed with the rodding run.  Very well done.

47 minutes ago, Johndc120 said:

There is a slight rise to get up to sleeper level through the bridge so some custom made stools were required for this rising 0.2mm on each stool

That’s cheating!  You’re supposed to use standard stools and bury them at different depths into the ground.

:-)

But still very well done!

Paul.

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  • RMweb Gold
On 20/08/2020 at 12:55, Johndc120 said:

I was asked on another forum why not use the Wills kit over making your own, this photo shows the answer

 

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There's no comparison really, although obviously different types the wills is way too big, I'm sure the manufacturing process will allow them to make them to scale. I bought some Langley 4mm chickens once and they were huge, they must have scaled out to the size of a fattened goose! Anyway, ordered some of their 3mm scale ones, perfect. 

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1 hour ago, Worsdell forever said:

 

There's no comparison really, although obviously different types the wills is way too big, I'm sure the manufacturing process will allow them to make them to scale. I bought some Langley 4mm chickens once and they were huge, they must have scaled out to the size of a fattened goose! Anyway, ordered some of their 3mm scale ones, perfect. 


The wills rods and rod spacing is actually too big for O gauge! Haha

 

the big issue which I tell people is you will really struggle to get the rods into some of the tight gaps they should fit through, you should be able to get 3 rods 3 rods between sleepers or down the side of a platform face. With the Wills you just can’t do this

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Recycling a signal box this week. We already had a signal box from another layout which never made it onto the layout do to changes of plans, so to get it ready, we’ve repainted the lever frame and moved some bits around in the box to make it right for Elmore

 

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Carrying on from The work on the signal box on Thursday, I wasn’t very happy with the block shelf, it looked really empty, especially for the period, lots of indicators for various bits of equipment but also plungers to release the levers. I didn’t spend too much time designing these as they are so small but hopefully it will give an impression of something being there

 

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Also designed and printed this week were the steps for the ash pit, the shed pit and for the outer girders of the bridge, We’re still not quite sure on the handrail yet but I’m reluctant to cut it short just yet

 

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alongside these side projects, track work still continues, at the station end it’s only the 3way and crossover which need work, the others are all complete, we can then do the 2 at the junction and all the track will be done!!

 

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  • RMweb Gold

You may not have spent much time on the block shelf bits but they are readily recognisable.  I like the emergency releases and the pile of collars.

Paul.

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Progress this week has been focused on the 3 way point, I’ve done all sorts of track over the years but I’ve never made a 3 way point before. It took a bit of thought to get the chairs in the correct spots and As always there’s a few lessons learnt! 
 

generally I’m pretty happy with it and it’s nice to see the track nearly complete now. All that’s left is the platform crossover and the 2 points at the junction before we can start wiring it up 

 

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Today we finished the last bits at the station end, this was mostly the platform crossover but also some cosmetic bits on the other points. We’ve also started work on the 2 points at the junction. This should be finished on Monday

 

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One thing we’re currently considering is the addition of a check rail along the blue line, partly because it’s not modelled often but also because it would add to the illusion of the lines separating 

 

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Ten weeks after we started, we can now say the track work is now finished. All that was required this week was to finish off the 2 points at the junction and add the check rail which we discussed last week.

 

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We are really please with the check rail, it just adds to the illusion that the curve is tighter than it really is

 

now the track is finished, any excuse for the inspection saloon to make an appearance! 
 

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also work continues with the point rodding, all of the stools are in on the main run, just got to work back towards the box adding the appropriate bits as we go

 

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11 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

I like the occasional saloon.  Although I’ve only been on the ScR LMS type, you really need a model of KDW150266!

Paul.


I was really lucky to find this Perservance models Q13 Hawksworth inspection saloon on ebay. Interestingly like a lot of Hawkworth designs they were built under BR but Swindon pride got involved when it came to their painting as they were all turned out in fully lined GWR chocolate and cream

 

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it was a real mess when I got it, it has been folded inside out so all of the body detail was on the inside and it was soldered with electrical solder which they couldn’t get hot enough so it was thick and lumpy. Luckily it cleaned up nicely

 

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On 11/09/2020 at 21:34, Johndc120 said:

Today we finished the last bits at the station end, this was mostly the platform crossover but also some cosmetic bits on the other points. We’ve also started work on the 2 points at the junction. This should be finished on Monday

 

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Hope that stuff is on the shelves securely ;)

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Splitting the baseboards!

 

This is our technique for strengthening the track around the board joints

 

We drive a brass nail in either side of the board joint, it’s angled so it goes in almost underneath the rail.

 

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once hit down so it’s under the rail height with a punch, you can then use a punch to bend the nail so the head is under the rail

 

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The rail can then be soldered to the pin before the rail is then cut on the baseboard edge

 

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I’m sure there’s lots of other ways to do this but we find this a good compromise between ease and something which isn’t too obvious

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  • 2 weeks later...

Progress is slowly moving ahead with the wiring on the layout. 
 

one big step forward which was worth noting this week is we finally powered up and programmed the Control Panel for Elmore. 
 

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On the last couple of layouts we have use solely IPhone or tablet control for changing the routes and drinking the trains. It works great and we really love it, however it’s not great for guest operators, especially those who are from an older generation and aren’t as good using the tech.

 

Making a layout which was a bit more user friendly was one of the goals from the outset so this was the solution. A conventional panel I felt would have been a step backwards as it wouldn’t have allowed the use of smart devises to operate the layout. 
 

another option was to use accessory decoders with Local manual overrides Switches, after a bit of experimenting, we found although the local switches change the point they don’t feedback any info to the computer. This means the computer can believe the route is set but in fact the points are in the wrong position

 

so the idea of a panel which talked to the computer which then controlled they layout seemed like the only solution. The great advantage of this is we can take advantage of all the interlocking potential of the computer, allowing just a single button press to operate a route, changing points, signals and locking out opposing routes

 

I’ve done a brief walk through of the panel now it’s mostly running which can be found here

 

 

 

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  • RMweb Gold

Impressive!

I wondered what the clunks were, once you said, I recognised the noises.

Theres a Bridgewater O gauge layout on the circuit that add lever sounds too.

Paul.

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14 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

Impressive!

I wondered what the clunks were, once you said, I recognised the noises.

Theres a Bridgewater O gauge layout on the circuit that add lever sounds too.

Paul.


Thanks Pauls, I just wanted to add a bit of atmosphere to the box area

 

where ever you replace either of the section signals, 5 seconds later it plays 2 bells train in section (although this would be the reply from the next box) I’ve actually done 2 different bell sounds depending on which signal was cleared

 

trying to do entrance bells was far too complicated!

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21 minutes ago, Johndc120 said:

I’ve actually done 2 different bell sounds depending on which signal was cleared

I did notice the Train Entering Section. Genuine recordings?

I used to know the different types of bell but I’m sure I’m missing one.  Church dome, round dome, flat dome, cow dome, sheep dome, square dome, and gong (very rare!) is what I can remember but I’m sure there were 8 types not just these 7!

Paul.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 29/09/2020 at 17:17, 5BarVT said:

I did notice the Train Entering Section. Genuine recordings?

I used to know the different types of bell but I’m sure I’m missing one.  Church dome, round dome, flat dome, cow dome, sheep dome, square dome, and gong (very rare!) is what I can remember but I’m sure there were 8 types not just these 7!

Paul.

There’s a great YouTube video of Exeter West box which has loads of useful sounds which I have used, I’ve tried to pick out a pull for a signal close to the box, a pull for further away and the replacement of a signal. 
 

crikey you’ve named more than I can!! Haha

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Quite a few bits going on behind the scenes at the moment, wiring on the boards continues.

 

There was 2 faults on the control panel which you could see on the demo video of it, these have now been fixed, a simple error but a pain to put right with how many wires are in the panel!

 

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as you can see everything is now illuminated, we now need to finish the layout to run it from!

 

also going on off they layout is an unusual piece of stock which was commonly found in South Wales and dean forest, this is the Western region autocoach, made from a suburban 3rd brake coach.
 

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This is a Comet models kit which is to their usual standard. I’m also building an Autocoach trailer which will run as a pair, although officially the trailer could go between any autocoach and an auto fitted loco. These were converted all 3rd coaches which had through rods fitted underneath for auto working, Again it’s another Comet models kit

 

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Over the last week we’ve been making the tunnel mouth and retaining walls which attach to the girder bridge on the branch. It’s mostly made from slaters plasticard although the tunnel portal itself is from a wills kit to get the correct profile

 

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there’a a few bits to be added now like the parapet wall and the wings on either side but it needed to be this far to test fit.

 

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there was a little bit of foam to cut away but it went in without too much trouble (amazingly!!)

 

It doesn’t line up with the track completely as we wanted to try and show that it’s diverging away from the mainline more than it does, so it’s a bit of a compromise. And of course the track curves back to go straight onto the F/Y

 

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While fitting the tunnel mouth, we have also been working on the cassettes, mainly how to transition from plain track to the aluminium cassettes.

 

previously on Shwt I’ve used plasticard packers under the aluminium to bring it up to rail height. This worked okay and we also fitted a detailing piece in between the tracks. Itwas a bit of a novelty really but it’s surprising how much it gets used, because of the smooth surface of the cassette, you don’t notice stock that’s not on the track as it doesn’t bump down the sleepers


This time we chose to complete 3D print the support for the transition, this is the art work for it and also it’s construction 

 

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luckily EM gauge is quite specific over it’s wheel dimensions so the rerailer can be made close to tolerance 

 

 

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Notches are filed into the aluminium to accept the rail and provide a seamless transition 

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A big moment for us last night! 
 

We’ve been slowly working our way through wiring the boards, the last board to do was the most complicated as it has the most point work on it plus it has both mega points units on it.

 

it also has the incoming DCC feed, so last night having connected up all of the track droppers to the main bus and wired in the frog juicers we could finally plug in the DCC and get a loco moving!

 

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The point servos are fitted yet so we could only do trailing moves through the pointwork but was great to see it moving and test the frog juicers actually work. 

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