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St Martin-sur-Orb - H0 Midi layout


10800
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I’ve now made up the 'Architecture & Passion' laser cut kit for the barrières roulantes. Sprayed overall with white primer and the lower red bits painted on with Signal Red enamel.

 

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The ‘running plate’ is still attached to the fret, and the gates do run smoothly along them. That could be done by hand on the layout, but I have an idea for remote control. This involves cutting a slot in the baseboard in line with the running plate, and attaching a connection (plasticard or strip of some kind, details tbd) from the gate to a length of cog railway strip which Re6/6 has kindly provided. That will engage with a matching cog on a drive shaft, the other end of which will terminate flush or just behind the layout front in a crosshead screw head. Obviously the drive shaft is supported between the crossing and the baseboard edge, probably in the form as a tube-in-tube. To operate, all you need is a suitable jewellers screwdriver applied to the screw head (not a powerdrill!). I had thought of a motorised option, but the gates are very flimsy and doing it by hand gives more sensitivity.

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A photo I found online of an old postcard of Mons La Trivalle. Of interest to me is the WC/lamp room building, very similar to the kit built one I have, so now I know about its orientation and positioning.

 

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Today I’ve been playing around with card mockup buildings and trees represented by paint cans for planes and other ‘round’ trees, and glue tubes for Mediterranean cypresses. You have to use your imagination a bit, but the real location shows how big some of them are. (I measured one of the plane trees on a Google Earth view and it came out at 8 inches diameter in H0.)

 

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One fundamental change has been to move the level crossing from the left board to the middle one to avoid an unlikely very skewed crossing. Here it crosses the two running lines and the entrance to the yard, but avoiding any point blades or crossings. Moving the crossing keeper’s house to the front of the layout also enables a relationship to the épicerie and auberge similar to what actually exists in Mons La Trivalle.

 

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At the right end, the industrial siding exits behind the ‘flatiron’ building.

 

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The industrial siding winds along within the trees and buildings. In the town the track is embedded in the road – the road turns off where the white car is.

 

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The Cuprinol can will be a large plane tree. The SNCF wanted it to come down, but M le Maire (someone you don’t tangle with) refused, so the railway has to trim it periodically to keep the branches clear of the catenary. The trees also help to mask the ‘buttresses’ where the Tim Horn boards join.

 

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With regard to the level crossing, I too have one on the layout and was considering remote control operation. As you say, the models are not particularly robust, so a more gentle form of motorisation is needed. I have to experiment yet, but have you considered using a linear servo or stepper motor? The speed and travel of both of these can be regulated and set and give one button operation. As I say, I haven't got quite that far yet and need to experiment.

 

Looking good though.

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Brian 'Baron' Harrap has used the stall motors from Tortoises very effectively for all his swing bridges and hoists. That may be the way to go but having seen them they do look rather delicate.

Edited by Re6/6
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My conceptual plan is to use the below basic components:

 

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Straight section of toothed plastic and associated cog wheel (these were meant for a cog railway application, thanks John!

 

Brass tube drive shaft, onto which the cog will be glued (well, one slightly bigger that fits). This will be supported inside another length of tube.

 

Small crosshead screw that can be turned or soldered into the end of the drive shaft, flush with the edge of the baseboard.

 

Jewellers screwdriver to turn the drive shaft and move the gates.

 

Imagine something like this below the board:

 

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The tricky bit is connecting the gate to the 'cog strip'. Current thinking is small brass tubes (two probably) drilled and glued into the cog strip and poking up through a slot in the board to ground level. Then thin wires glued to the gates will enable the gate to be 'dropped' into the tubes.

 

Even trickier will be supporting everything securely but gently underneath. Chances of under board bracing and wires getting in the way of the gubbins are undoubtedly high ...

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It will take a few moments to turn the screwdriver enough times to move the gates across.

 

Would an angled bar, like an Alan key, with a finger loop on the end, be easier to use?

Edited by Stubby47
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1 hour ago, BernardTPM said:

To connect the gate to the drive - like a simple version of magnorail.

 

Ah, OK. Some experimentation might be possible, although I'd be concerned about the fragility of the gates. 

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45 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

It will take a few moments to turn the screwdriver enough times to move the gates across.

 

Would a an angled bar, like an Alan key, with a finger loop on the end, be easier to use?

 

Could well be Stu, worth a try. I can appreciate that might give a smoother movement.

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First test train on the back siding today. This was powered, from droppers on the ‘track’ bit only and propagated for now via the rail joiners (and the absence of the rail being cut at the board joins). The copperclad bit will be buried in the road, so there will be checkrails to add and double droppers on each rail length.

 

The loco is not the one that will normally use the siding (to an off-scene agricultural facility of some kind), although it could. That will be an 0-6-0 ‘locotracteur’ which is currently in the post after some fettling by CK.

 

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Work will recommence on this in a couple of weeks - I've been 'distracted' by another project, tba.

 

Good news today is that the two remaining ogive kits are on their way from France, having been ordered in March - I'm guessing the etchers have been on lockdown until recently.

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Amongst the many fascinating photos on this topic 

 

 

was this little gem

 

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I'd never seen autorail remorques with this kind of motive power before.

 

Here's my take on it - another handy train variant!

 

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Edited by 10800
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That looks good. Among the many photos  that I should have taken but didn't was a pigeon fanciers special that I saw passing through Dax one day in the late 90's. A 7200 class towing to Swiss 4 wheel vans. The second was obviously full of pigeons the first had it's doors wide open and 4 or 5 pigeon fanciers were siting round a table with bottles of wine and food on it. Just sitting on garden chairs. They waved as they went past.

 

Jamie

Edited by jamie92208
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  • 2 months later...
On 10/05/2020 at 19:53, 10800 said:

 

Could well be Stu, worth a try. I can appreciate that might give a smoother movement.

Months later but memory wire?

There was an article in Loco Revue about motorising level crossing gates that way. You do of course need the crossing keeper standing by them. AFAIK rolling  level crossing gated weren't operated remotely (though there is a large set at Heathrow that are) 

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Having been largely incapacitated from modelling since July following a mild stroke, my wallet has been doing most of the work.

 

Some early (riveted) OCEM coaches (Jouef, from Ebay)

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Later OCEM coaches by ModelsWorld

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DEV AO coaches by REE

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Postal coach by LS Models

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Pair of Piko 67400s

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The larger Italian cypress trees were made by John Farmer; the other trees are by MBR in Poland.

 

My left arm and hand have now recovered sufficiently to start work on the fiddle yards. These are 5 ft long and will be cassette-based, with the main boards being Kingspan foam from Wickes faced with 4mm ply.

 

I hope to be able to get back to real modelling (ogives, signals etc) in the coming weeks.

 

 

 

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Thanks guys, considering I came out of hospital with my left arm basically a dead weight hanging off my shoulder the brain has done a good job rewiring itself Terminator-style. Could have been a lot worse. I can't quite do really intricate stuff yet but with the assistance of as many jigs as I can lay my hands on I hope to do most things and be back to 'normal' in a few months. 

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