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Rosedale Abbey


Bas Knippels
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Hello,

 

I am gently transitioning from modeling dutch railways to modeling railways from across the sea aka the UK.  I am currently building a small portable shelf layout which I call Rosedale Abbey. They layout is pure fictional as the real Rosedale Abbey does not even have a railway.

 

The whole also serves as a test for several technologies I am develloping. The first thing is the wooden construction itself. I wanted to make a model railway which could be transported as a suitcase. I made a mistake of making the suitcase 122mm long instead of 90cm. So it is actually a big box of 122x40x40 cm. It still fits in my car though!

OARD8pf.jpg

 

When folded out, it transforms into a base for a model railway which is 364cm long.

an1pTWj.jpeg

 

The trackplan is essentially a stretched out timesaver. It has a cattle dock, dairy farm, goods shet (which is a distillery now), coal and water place and a loading platform (which is now a station track)

deleteme2_7.png

 

Meanwhile I have finished laying the tracks and I made an interesting fiddleyard.

GhkwBAN.jpeg

 

JwV7C72.jpeg

 

As for the scenery. So far I have a made a milkfarm

LuoKHgW.jpg

 

A distillery:

98ydR7e.jpg

 

And I made a couple of these:

utPEi4W.jpg

I am 100% aware that the paintjob on this romney shed is just terrible. So worry not, I will make it look pritty!!

 

The other 'real' technology  I have develloped is a new method of controlling turnouts (what word is generally used for these? points or turnouts?). I can controll all 7 points with just 2 buttons. The layout itself is controlled analoge. The turnouts (or points) are set with servo motors which are controlled by an arduino nano. I have built in 6 light depended resistors (LDR) to detect both wagons as locomotives. The arduino uses these LDR's to keep track of where the train is, so it knows which points it must set when I press one of the two buttons. The LDRs are programmed so that the program responds to rapid changes. This means that the LDRs can be used with different light circumstances.

 

To show how it precisely works I have made a demonstration video for you. With the 2 red buttons on the controller I can set every point without having to look at the controller. It is like if you are setting points with your mind.

 

The next months I will be working on the scenery alot, the fun part. I have had a hard time getting the servo systems to work properly so now the relaxing part starts. I intent to post an update of my progress once in a while. I already purchased a 0-6-0 pannier and an 0-4-0 andrew barclay ST from Hattons this week. I hope it does not take two whole months for them to get airmailed to the Netherlands... again. And I think I'll be making some more videos in which I will be shunting some wagons around with my beloved W4 peckett. Or I will let my bubble car drive from one end to the other.

 

So I hope that some of you here may enjoy my posts. I also hope I can learn things (like painting a romney shed properly) from you. And please don't hesitate with any critisism, I can take it well and I still have much to learn.

 

Kind Regards from the other side of the sea,

 

Bas

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There's a little booklet whch is probably now out of print about the Rosedale iron railways which shows that there were plans to build a railway to Rosedale Abbey which got as far as a sod-cutting ceremony.

 

Cover.jpg

 

 

(Sorry about the alignment!)

 

Extract2.jpg

Edited by 60021 Pen-y-Ghent
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Looks like an interesting project with some innovative ideas you have developed. I'd be interested in seeing how your baseboard folds and unfolds, particularly as I want to extend both of my layouts (1 x British and 1 x Bavarian) along a narrow corridor. The baseboards will need to be narrow, highly portable and compact to store. From the glimpses in the photos above, your Dutch prototype layout seems fascinating as well!

 

David C

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I'm sure I've read something in the past about a proposed narrow gauge railway from Rosedale Abbey to Lastingham  not sure if it was going to go further to interchange with the Gilling Pickering line

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8 hours ago, David C said:

I'd be interested in seeing how your baseboard folds and unfolds, particularly as I want to extend both of my layouts (1 x British and 1 x Bavarian) along a narrow corridor. The baseboards will need to be narrow, highly portable and compact to store.

On a Dutch forum I made a separate thread about the construction of the baseboards https://forum.beneluxspoor.net/index.php?topic=94006.15

The 2 halves can be put on top of eachother so that the high side fits on the low side of the other. The top sides are pointed to eachother. This mean that the front sides of the halves cannot have high scenery parts.

 

The outer station tracks and the outer fiddleyard can each be slid into the 2 halves. You can see there is not much space. If I ever put the track on display I will take the station buildings with me separately.

OSatyBy.jpeg

 

There are ofourse more than 1 way to do what you want. The biggest issue with storage of baseboards is the height of the scenery. Imagine if you build a forrest part and you want to store two halves with the tops facing eachother. You will need atleast 15 to 20cm extra space  per half to accomodate the trees.

 

If you only plant trees to the backside and you make sure that the front sides are not too heigh you can safe yourself alot of space

afbeelding.png.e7861a883ead45307d646f481d9f90a0.png

The halves of Rosedale have about 10cm of space underneath the baseplate. This is because I wanted to slide the 2 outer parts inside the box. Obviously you will need some space for electronics. But this space can be kept small if space is needed.

 

What I have also seen for storage and transport is a system that you can put special shaped wooden blocks to the heads' side so that you can stack you'r baseboards. You use the same holes for mounting them as you use for connecting base boards to eachother.

 

afbeelding.png.882530fcc02406bc92e7b6a066d752f2.png

I can imagine you can enhance this idea, by fitting it with a system so the stacked components can be fixed to eachother.

 

You can also uses a similar method with which you can connect two baseboards with eachothers. The top sides would be facing togather.

afbeelding.png.e0c7b790a87490563f1cb2862779d6a6.png

These ideas are not my own. These are simply the most clever 'contraptions' I have come across.

 

It really comes down to the scenery and planning. Do you have high scenery? Is your scenery fragile? Can you remove the high scenery parts for separate transport? etc. And ofcourse it matters what is important for you. Do you want it to fit in your car? Do you want the parts to be carried up and down stairs?

 

Think practical and think lightweight, that's the best advice I can give. Our model train club made wooden boxes with handlebars and each box could hold two baseboards. It works, all the scenery was safe but the blasted things are uncomfortable heavy..

 

The last thing I can come up with, is making a rack or frame of aluminium in which you can slide your baseboards. I have seen mobile frames which could hold entire layouts. The club in question did have to use a truck or large van to transport the whole, and the racks could ofcourse not be moved up or down a stairs because of weight and size.

 

I hope I accidently typed something clevers which suits your needs :D

 

Kind regards,

 

Bas

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15 hours ago, stivesnick said:

 the method of controlling the points is very clever. Do tell us more about it.

There are several ways of setting points, one switch per point, switches for entire routes (setting multiple points with one switch) and setting points by means of a remote handcontroller. I did not want to build in a switch panel inside the board so I chose the last option, handcontroller style. I once worked with a roco multimaus, that can do precisely this but I found the the device to be rather cumbersome. Also being owner of a terrible marklin mobile station and central station, I prefer user-friendliness above all. And so the 2 button idea came to mind.

 

My idea needed the control system to keep track of the train. So I could have bought expensive dcc controllers and command centers and a raspberry pi to host a computer program like iTrain.. Or I could use a cheap arduino nano clone for 1 buck 50. So this choise for a control system was an easy one.

 

Than the problem of detection arose. How was the controller going to see wagons? I figured out that I had no need for permanent detection. I just had to know to where a train is headed. I had three choises for detection:

- Current detection. I would have to glue SMD resistors and solder wire under every wagon + I would have to cut in my tracks alot. I also had no need for permanent detection.

- IR sender/receivers. Expensive, cumbersome and ugly contraptions. Did not consider this option for longer than 2 seconds.

- Light Depended Resistors. Painfully cheap, but hard to program correctly. No need to cut in the tracks for them.

 

As option 1 and 2 were no options, I had to go with LDRs. LDRs cost less than 10 cents but they are not known for their reliability especially under varying lighting circumstances. I honestly can wright a short book about this subject. These problems however were completely fixable with writing good code.

 

The last problem I faced, was the most interesting problem. Where was I going to put the LDRs? And how many would I need? I thought and sought days and days for these answers. I drew dozens of pictures and ran all kind of situations in my head untill I had 'em.

afbeelding.png.f85732b26be243ca1539440d5b7386f5.png

The answers are: in front of each point and six (marked with purple numbers). Usually a block is flanked by 2 sensors. Were I to do that here I would need about ~18 sensors. I theorized that by putting a sensor before every point, I would work.

 

 

There is obiviously lots of code to show but I will stick to this table.

/*
      > leftSensor 
      |   > rightSensor  
      |   |
      |   |       > leftTurnout 									; these must jump by the buttons
      |   |       |   > rightTurnout									
      |   |       |   |
      |   |       |   |     > leftTurnoutBlind       			; 1st bit true = curved, false = straight
      |   |       |   |     |   > rightTurnoutBlind     			; blind turnouts must jump when train enters new section
      |   |       |   |     |   |     
      |   |       |   |     |   |       > leftUpSection        	      ; last 4 bytes contain information about which new section the train is heading for 
      |   |       |   |     |   |       |   > leftDownSection 
      |   |       |   |     |   |       |   |
      |   |       |   |     |   |       |   |     > rightUpSection 
      |   |       |   |     |   |       |   |     |   > rightDownSection
      |   |       |   |     |   |       |   |     |   |                  */
Section section[ sectionAmount ] = {	// this table is the layout
	NA, NA,    NA, NA,    NA,  NA,   NA, NA,   NA, NA , //  Dummy
	NA,  1,    NA,  2,   1|T,  NA,   NA, NA,    4,  5 , //  1
	NA,  1,    NA,  2,   1|B,  NA,   NA, NA,    4,  5 , //  2
	NA,  2,    NA,  5,    NA,  NA,   NA, NA,    6,  7 , //  3
	 1,  3,     1,  3,   2|T,  NA,    1,  2,    8,  9 , //  4
	 1,  4,     1, NA,   2|B, 4|T,    1,  2,   10, 10 , //  5
	 2,  4,    NA, NA,   5|T, 4|B,    3,  3,   10, 10 , //  6
	 2, NA,    NA, NA,    NA,  NA,    3,  3,   NA, NA , //  7
	 3, NA,     1, NA,    NA,  NA,    4,  4,   NA, NA , //  8
	 3,  6,    NA, NA,   3|B, 7|T,    4,  4,   11, 11 , //  9
	 4,  5,     4,  6,    NA, 7|B,    5,  6,   11, 12 , // 10
	 6, NA,     7, NA,   6|T,  NA,    9, 10,   NA, NA , // 11
	 5, NA,     4, NA,   6|B,  NA,   10, 10,   NA, NA , // 12
} ;

 

Sections can have sensors both left and right. There may be a left and a right point to controll. And there may be points lying in blind directions which are to be set when a train enters the section. For instance: if a train enters section 5 from the left. Than it is vital that point 4 is set to straight. The latter 4 numbers are the numbers of the adjacent sections as you can read in the code comments.

 

Two routines takes care of the layout. The first routine monitors the buttons. If a button is pressed, the routine will examine in which section the train is and in which direction it is traveling (by reading out the the turning knob's position). Than the routine can figure out which point is to be set.

 

The other routine keeps track where the train is. It takes sensor input, direction of travel, current section number and the state of the adjacent point in acount and the train will be put in the corresponding adjacent section when it trips a sensor. Perhaps zhat I can make a video of the system wizh a vocal explanation in a stronk Dutch accent;)

 

The system is not yet entirely perfect. Currently it works with 1 train at the time. That is not a big an issue (I only have 1 controller + the layout is analoge anyways). What is an issue, is that a train has to go back to the FY before an other train may enter the field. There can be only 1 train. I cannot send the bubblecar to the station and than send a second train after it to shunt some wagons. Thankfully I can fix this in software.

 

The layout also has the ability to use DCC instead but I have disabled it. I prefer analog for layouts like this.

 

Were I to do the entire project over I would propably be using 18 sensors. I would definately add sensors to all track ends so the controller can stop the train if you try to push the wagons or a loco of the tracks. By using a more conventional blocksystem, I would enable the circuit to operate more trains at once on the layout. And lastly I would add an SD card module on which I would store the layout information alongside some other variables like sensor sensitivity and servo positions (and perhaps with a simple automated shuttle service timetable)

 

If you are interested in the source code: github page

 

I hope I have been a bit clear with my explanation. I am guessing it's alot to swallow?

 

Kind regards,

 

Bas

 

Edited by Bas Knippels
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Today I painted the background, typical Scottish weather.

5cALzu0.jpeg

 

sZvFgyr.jpeg

 

mMJoTLo.jpeg

 

I know I am not that great a painter. I simply mix some white with some black paint, added a little purple/blue tone and I simply start brushing a la Bob Ross style.

 

I am not yet done with the background. I made a small stretch of highlands which is currently is standing on my wardrobe in the bedroom.

wardrobe.

 

ejGg8km.jpg

Again nothing fancy really, but I like the looks of it. It was done with the cheapest paint available. For Rosedale Abbey I want to do the same only with good paint this time.

 

Further finished the paintjob on the distillery

oWo5IXp.jpeg

 

Lub2mPS.jpeg

 

RbjYR8c.jpeg

 

And I gave the B&K dairy factory a finishing black wash. What a little bit of black paint and water can do.

 

bBC3fU0.jpeg

 

U1DRkTf.jpeg

 

The next thing I want to do, is to repaint the brown baselayer in a black or really dark brown.

 

I also dug up some black soil from my backyard, I put in the oven and now I am letting it dry. I will use the soil as a natural base before I start sowing gras, bushes and trees and lay the ballast.

 

Kind regards,

 

Bas

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Busy day today. I repainted the brown ground and I aplied dry dirt to it.

hFbISln.jpeg

 

KP7b77t.jpeg

 

Also painted the front side of the base boards black. I have to do this one more time

OHOPXRv.jpeg

It does look make a huge difference compared to the wooden color

 

And I wanted to ask. What do you guys think of this color of ballast?

NYCzx2C.jpeg

It is Noch red brown H0 ballast. I usually use iton my Dutch layout. Ofcourse it becomes slightly darker when I glue and drybrush it.

 

I have also started on the coal bunker. I was not entirely sure how high it should be. It is 3cm or 228cm in 00 gauge

m21TGuD.jpeg

 

02qfjtQ.jpeg

 

I think compared to the Peckett it is alright I guess?

 

Good evening,

 

Bas

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  • 2 weeks later...

I had the unfortune of being sent to Portugal for work for 10 days all the sudden. Wanted to hobby alot.. but on the brightside. My Hotel room overlooked a nice railway line which was well served by many trains :D

 

Anyways back to buissness.. euh hobby. I experimented with making a bufferstop. I sorta dropped the ball a bit on this one.

qwKcVik.jpg

 

Pictures say more than words. And you can see for yourself. At this point I thought, time and resources were already spent, might as well finish it. So I finished it and untill I made a better one I will leave it be on the coal siding.

 

nlUpxp9.jpg

 

q2uXFRI.jpg

 

During the time I was away, I received two new inhabitants by mail.

1 pug

 

4n8QOxQ.jpg

(also added the stone wall)

 

And a 0-6-0PT

 

shOYq0K.jpg

Unfortunately this 2nd hand one does not particulary drive that well. It's wheels seem to have too much friction at a certain point . Thankfully my local model club has a member which we know has the loc doctor, I am sure he can get it running again!

 

Further I cut some more foam for the left module.

ji7Gfam.jpg

 

So not particulary much progression to report. With a little luck I get to sculptamold the whole tomorrow. I also finally found my painting gear, so I can also finish the background.

 

Untill the next update,

 

Bas

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Today I glued the ballast on the right side and the soil on the left side. Not my favourite chore pipetting that much surface :lol:

 

I also fixated the dairy factory and the distillery. But not before I added some lights.

I glued two pieces of 12V ledstrip on the bottemside of the canopy. I used slim emailed wire between the strips and busch micro wire to connect it. The wires are fixated with ducttape and the whole is painted in the same color as the canopy. When looking from a normal height, one is unlikely to see any of it though ;)

OQQuPWZ.jpg

 

UUK8Arb.jpg

 

 

The distillery has three yellow LEDs. Two are underneath the canopies and there is one on the back to illuminate the inside.

B34WSub.jpg

 

TZPTyHq.jpg

If you are wondering why there are these caps missing in the foam, the first glue I used tend to solve the foam..... -_-"

 

A quick test with a 9V battery

1EKsDUm.jpg

 

I also enlarged the door of the Romney shed. By simply cutting the old one out.

gXRTnNO.jpg

 

Besides repainting the shed, so that it does not look hidious. I also want to take the oppertunity to turn the inside into a car shop or a tool shed. There will be a road right in front of it. I thought of cutting the entire thing down to a cm, but I figured it would be neet to add some interior objects, lighting and a background image.

 

And lastly I drew a quick picture of a cattle dock. The fences will be slightly different. I want to make two boxes for the cattle so they can be loaded on two cattle vans. Each wagon is just 8cm long so two will fit easily.

 

glffTBj.jpg

 

Also, I almost forgot. In the original plan I was going to add a signal box. Since there is not enough room for one, I want to add manual point levers. Can anyone be so kind and tell me how they looked like around ~1950 in lets say Scotland? If you can give me an article number of one it would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

Kind regards,

 

Bas

Edited by Bas Knippels
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Started with the cattle dock today. Them cows look massive. I think I should stick with sheep on this dock. I only had 7cm to play with and I divided the platfom and the ramp into even stretches of 3.5cm. This is about 2.66m or 8.7' in 00 gauge.

 

uqYRtUK.jpg

 

NAGsUIa.jpg

 

AzIoAMq.jpg

 

JqVLgFl.jpg

 

Unfortunately I ran out of supplies. I wanted to make concrete edges out of styreen L profiles. I am also not entirely happy with the fences I have in stock.

 

1gZX3Zn.jpg

I have some of these, but I highly doubt if I can make a pritty cattle dock with these. It is not the look I am going for. I think I should make an appointment at the local trainshop so I am allowed to shop... damned rules nowadays.

 

Kind regards,

 

Bas

 

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Hello,

 

Today I was watching a Bob Ross video for inspirational purposes. I was going to paint some hills and stuff on the background. During painting I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. Sorta like last time. I guess one has to make some actual paintings following Bob's videos to get a feeling for it. Anyways I am happy with the results so far.

 

YKo3L81.jpg

 

I made a simple road of clay afterwards.

yPuuzKV.jpg

 

6CBxeZ6.jpg

 

DiuJKlJ.jpg

 

And relocated the bufferstop to the distillery where it's imperfections are less noticeable :D

 

I am unfortunately also out of ballast. Hopefully I'll be able to get new stuff this weekend. Once all ballast is in place, I am going to drybrush the entire layout in several colors. And when that is done I can finally start with one of the best things of the hobby. Sowing grass.;)

 

Kind regards,

 

Bas

 

 

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While standing in front of my layout I figured I might as well begin with drybrushing the right module. So I quickly took some brown, beige and earth brown (for ballast and sleepers) and I started brushing. I must say, it already looks a lot better.

 

p1dep9f.jpeg

 

The clay road will be modeled to resemble a hardened road. It just wide enough so a single truck can travel on it. I applied woodglue to the road and than sprinkled some sand on it. The sand is used to create the effect of asphalt. After I vaccuum the layout and the road, I will paint the road in black and drybrush it with some shades of grey.

lQbBzP8.jpeg

 

4WWTyfA.jpeg

 

Kind regards,

 

Bas

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  • 4 weeks later...

Yesterday I sowed the first grass layers. I used 2 tones green 2mm grass for the first layer and 6mm beige layer for the second layer. It is only like the 3rd time I do this and I am starting to get the hang of it.

 

WMV07gH.jpg

 

UB1Qgao.jpg

 

JxHiTfj.jpg

 

Ofcourse I have much more to do. I need add some weeds and some flowers etc. I am open for extra tips ;-)

 

I think it is also time to remove the screws and paint the rail joiners and the point rails with rust. The unpainted parts keep catching my eyes.

 

Kind regards,

 

Bas

 

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  • 7 months later...

many months further...

 

Rosedale was set up with some other modules, forming just another branchline. It was nice to see some other people's trains on my little layout.

osTqbDZ.jpg

 

lYcDo4k.jpg

 

f0s8vYN.jpg

 

prcsOM2.jpg

 

And my own 37 with a rake of Mk1s

 

kPk32dj.jpg

It was unfortunate that none of my points worked as my system was not ment for such a setup. I also found that the relays for polarizing the frogs didn't work too well. It was somewhat hard to time the switching moment correctly in combination with the servos.

 

To fix the frogjuicing, I installed simple microswitches, stupid, simple and stupid simple :-D. It works like a charm. I have repurposed the relay to cut off the power to individual sections of tracks. Afteral I still run with analog trains.

JHDkAHs.jpg

 

The day out did cause some damage to the layout. I had some tracks jumping out of the ballast. This did made me realize where those PCB sleepers were for... so obviously I installed these as well.

 

rVrzoJG.jpg

 

For controlling the layout I devised another contraption, though less complicated than the previous one. I can control every point and every relay with a Roco multimaus. I made a little PCB which just has one arduino nano and a Max485 IC to talk to the multimaus. I use an external DC-DC converter to make 5V, I uses an external H-bridge to power the layout and I have 2 connectors for the relays and for the servo driver.

 

iHFp0kg.jpg

 

I have been extensively playing shunting on this layout and I must say that it works really well. Normally when operating a digital layout with a multimaus you have to perform too many presses on al the buttons to get something done. I solved this problem by using the loco's functions to set all the points and relays. F1-F8 on address 1 control the points, and F1-F8 on address 2 control the relay. I deliberately don't use the higher functions or addresses. Otherwise I would have to hold the shift key and now I don't.

 

The turning knob simply controls the PWM driver regardless what the used address is. I made YT video to demonstrate the operation. Besides a faulty point, it works really well.

 

 

 

I have also threw away an older layout. I never used it, nobody wanted to have it.. so it was time for the last stop, the eternal shunting fields.

VbgPzLf.jpg

 

z0R45RI.jpg

This layout prevented me from using the double segment fiddle yard. I have done some rewiring and built in 2 microswitches. The switches serve as an end stop, which help me positioning the big segment, and the switches make sure that only the connected track is powered.

 

 

 

 

Now the layout drives well, I am going to focus on the senery more. I have already repainted my romney shed and decorated the inside.

 

Kind regards,

 

Bas

 

 

 

 

Edited by Bas Knippels
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