RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted January 26, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 26, 2020 On 24/01/2020 at 14:07, Kier Hardy said: As Martin has mentioned, there's nothing stopping you positioning the turnout over a baseboard joint. I didn't have much choice when it came to this arrangement due to the geometry of other turnouts. It never gave any problems. Interesting when converting to DCC though!! Mike. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNER4479 Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 4 hours ago, gordon s said: My lips are sealed...... Spent and enjoyable morning at the Southampton Show. My type of place. Despite all the reports to the contrary, parked within 100yds and were in the first 10 in the queue. Great to meet Graham of Grantham fame and the layout really was a credit to all the crew. It ran faultlessly and I still can't believe it's Peco 100 track. Was also lovely to spend some time chatting to Tony Wright as he's someone who reputation for excellence is well known in our hobby and it was most enlightening chatting about LNER locos from the 60's.....and a few locos to die for on his bench. If I wasn't building ET, I'd be very tempted by Ackthorpe which was up for sale at the princely sum of £1200.... Only problem is I don't have the 34' x 12' to set it up. What a bargain considering the price of timber and track these days. Seems Graham may be in our neck of the woods soon and there's always been an open invitation to drop in for a coffee and a natter. I now have a deadline to get something running and the room tidied up. Sheer panic though as this may be in the next couple of weeks and I really want to have something running. If all else fails, I'll make suitable train noises and push stuff around.... Totally motivated by the show so got home to straighten out some track alignment issues I was working on. Couldn't work out what the problem was until the penny dropped. Won't bore you with the details, but the track formations were OK, so it must have been the cork underlay that was out. It all was fine on the drawing but skewed on the underlay, so some cork will have to come up and then be realigned against the Templot plan. I've just lashed up some flexi track to the turnouts and ran a coach through, so all is well. My wife said the red pointwork looked attractive.... Hi Gordon. Great to see you and Iain (92220) at the show. Pity I couldn't have spent more time giving you a guided tour of the layout but hope you got something of an appreciation of the thing. Very much looking forward to calling at ET soon and if the whole thing gives you a spur to get things to a certain stage with the layout then so much the better. 3 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post gordon s Posted January 27, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 27, 2020 (edited) Funny how difficult jobs turn out to be far easier than expected and those which should be a piece of cake turn out to be real so and so's..... Had I laid the cork trackbed and track once today, I'd be sitting back with a nice glass of wine, enjoying the evening, but it was not to be. I must have had four goes at this corner board trying to get the pointwork and the curves from each end flowing into one seamless curve from both directions. Clearly operator error someway along the way, but laying as per the plan didn't really make smooth transitions right around the corner. Funny how our eyesight is often far better than any piece of technology and eventually I relegated the drawing to an advisory function and took to loose pieces of track and did it by hand using the templates as a guideline. Glad to say after many hours of cussing and swearing, East met West and we have a complete circuit.... I even ran an old Bachmann Thompson coach through all the turnouts by hand and with a hefty push it managed to run 25' from one side of the layout all the way round into ET station, so a glass of wine would be in order. Of course this takes me one step nearer to running trains again. Still much to do, but I'm determined to get all the outstanding wiring jobs done and then fill in all the gaps to get at least one circuit running in the next week or so. It's been a while coming, but great to have it all connected again. Edited January 27, 2020 by gordon s 29 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Barry O Posted January 27, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 27, 2020 Lots of testing will be required Gordon. Baz 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 On 27/01/2020 at 00:35, gordon s said: My wife said the red pointwork looked attractive.... You have to be careful when they drop comments like that. Next you know, she'll be wanting a red locomotive... *** Looking very nice, Gordon. The eyeball does see lots - but a photograph after the event will always inevitably highlight the ugly stuff your eyes miss! (and so is well worth doing) If it wasn't a short week here (public holiday yesterday, hence my burst of productivity), I'd offer to race you to see who gets a circuit of the room with a train first - I'm a little behind you, but agree, the friendly competition is an incentive to see it done sooner rather than later. Cheers Scott 3 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Siberian Snooper Posted January 28, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 28, 2020 Looks good Gordon! It's easy to rush the last bits done to get something running and make c*ck ups, get the wiring sorted properly will save a shed load of time latter. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted January 28, 2020 Author Share Posted January 28, 2020 8 hours ago, jukebox said: If it wasn't a short week here (public holiday yesterday, hence my burst of productivity), I'd offer to race you to see who gets a circuit of the room with a train first - I'm a little behind you, but agree, the friendly competition is an incentive to see it done sooner rather than later. Cheers Scott We'll both just toddle along and enjoy the journey. Thankfully there is a touch of sun this morning and another couple of months will see progress slow to a crawl whilst I take my spring/summer sabbatical. Tempus fugit.... 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Barry O Posted January 28, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 28, 2020 Golf...nowt but a wasted walk! Baz 5 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted January 28, 2020 Author Share Posted January 28, 2020 There are a lot of golfers that would agree.....but just occasionally, it can be really enjoyable. Occasional: One shot in every round if you're lucky.... 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post gordon s Posted February 7, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 7, 2020 (edited) Friday afternoon and all's well....Spent my usual Friday wiring and ballasting and at last something is starting to happen. Around 12 days ago this ugly duckling was waiting for treatment. The boards needed joining together, wiring, painting, ballasting and all the other bits and bobs to turn it into something that may look reasonable as a starting point. Not quite a swan yet, but at least it can now be put into place and await connection of bus wires etc. Managed to hook it up to a Gaugemaster DC control to check out all the frog wiring and apart from a couple of isolation gaps I'd missed, 69572 trundled through the pointwork without stopping anywhere, so that's a good start. I swear blind cameras don't like track work and seem to insert odd looking joins and kinks where there are none. At least none I could see when I was laying the bloomin’ track. Trying hard to make these pics a little more interesting, but not much you can do with all the layout building 'stuff' filling the room. Definitely not to Tony Wright standards, but hopefully a sign of things to come (train wise not photographic excellence) This is a Hornby N2 with a Comet chassis, Markits wheels and a Hi Level gearbox. It's hardly run since the conversion, so will certainly benefit from some serious circuits of ET and hopefully that won't be too far away. Ever since ET started, it was always going to be a DCC layout, but with a conventional analogue switch panel to control all the pointwork and signals (another area where expertise and assistance will be welcomed.....) I have been chatting on RMweb to JJGraphics who very kindly demonstrated his ECoS system and full DCC control to me and after just 30 minutes I could see a lot of benefits in terms of route setting etc, so I've bought an NCE Switch 8 panel to play around with to drive the Tortoise point motors. This board has six turnouts arranged in three crossovers and I'm assured it will only require 3 of the 8 switches to drive the three pairs of motors. The weekend will see me playing around to see if I can get the kit and caboodle to function correctly. It will certainly save me time in the short term with building and wiring a large control panel. Longer term, I may well still build two or even three control panels, one for ET and one for the shed using DCC Concepts Alpha Mimic components. There may even be a third panel for the storage sidings/traverser for a third operator to drive trains to and from ET Station onto the traverser. Another couple of weeks gone and no real catastrophes other than a disastrous round of golf where my lower back was playing up. Nothing serious, just a lack of fitness after sitting around for so long. Enjoy the weekend and here's hoping we all get through Storm Ciara. Batten down the hatches. It may be windy.... Edited February 7, 2020 by gordon s 33 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trustytrev Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 Hello Gordon, You may possibly find joining MERG helpful when considering options for layout control. I chose their DCC kits for DCC operation of locomotives and will be using CBus for layout control with JMRI. They have quite a few variable choices besides those you may find suitable. I found being a member helped me understand the technology that is currently being employed in model railways these days as well. There is a lot of information and advice available. trustytrev. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted February 7, 2020 Author Share Posted February 7, 2020 Hi Trev, many thanks for suggesting MERG and I’m certainly not against it as such, but I have so much to do, that I really haven’t got the time (or in depth electronic knowledge) to build my own control equipment. I’m sure I probably could get by with help of the group and RMweb, but if I had the choice to build electronic kit or a locomotive, I’d probably opt for the loco. Needless to say I’ve done neither before and even then the allocation of the time would be well down the list after track building, the shed area, traverser and then scenic work. Of course if I were 30 years younger, then it would certainly go on the list of skills to improve.... 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Barry O Posted February 8, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 8, 2020 Gordon There are a lot of people who can help on here. And no doubt you will gets lots of suggestions on what to do...and how to do it..i prefer the KISS principle Keep It Simple Stupid.. So for dcc go with good quality systems which may cost more but can easily be made to work. If a non electronic mechanical engineer (My mate St Enodoc) can get Dcc to work then anyone can.... Baz 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted February 8, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 8, 2020 1 hour ago, Barry O said: If a non electronic mechanical engineer (My mate St Enodoc) can get Dcc to work then anyone can.... Very true. The thing is, I often can't get the mechanical stuff to work though... 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Barry O Posted February 8, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 8, 2020 Just use the right size tapping mallet???? 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 6 hours ago, Barry O said: Gordon There are a lot of people who can help on here. And no doubt you will gets lots of suggestions on what to do...and how to do it..i prefer the KISS principle Keep It Simple Stupid.. So for dcc go with good quality systems which may cost more but can easily be made to work. If a non electronic mechanical engineer (My mate St Enodoc) can get Dcc to work then anyone can.... Baz It’s OK Baz, ET has always been a DCC layout. Having seen an ECoS working last week, I’ve gone down that route and will play around this weekend with the NCE Switch 8 to get this board up and running as a test piece before wiring up the whole layout. I may sell my NCE controller and 5A power pack, or hold onto it to run the shed area. Woke up,in the middle if the night thinking about the underboard wiring. In my enthusiasm to get things working, I’d forgotten about the lower lines onto the traverser and I may need to tweak a few wires to make sure they don’t interfere with the access tracks below. Schoolboy error..... I have seen MERG at shows I’ve been to, but wanted a plug and play solution. I’m sure it would have performed well and has many happy users, but I want to get things going, so took the easy solution. 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 5BarVT Posted February 8, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 8, 2020 8 hours ago, Barry O said: If a non electronic mechanical engineer (My mate St Enodoc) can get Dcc to work then anyone can.... I have the opposite problem: a non mechanical electronic engineer! Paul. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Barry O Posted February 8, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 8, 2020 1 minute ago, 5BarVT said: I have the opposite problem: a non mechanical electronic engineer! Paul. Luckily being a control system engineer I can get along fine with mechanical, electrical, systems, process and chemical engineering.. But dont ask me about woodworking !! Baz 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 ...and guess what I'll be doing this morning. Stupid boy....... Always make the pencil marks first.... 1 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johndon Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 (edited) 15 hours ago, gordon s said: many thanks for suggesting MERG and I’m certainly not against it as such, but I have so much to do, that I really haven’t got the time (or in depth electronic knowledge) to build my own control equipment. Having recently entered the world of MERG and having now built half a dozen circuit boards, I've found an electronic knowledge isn't necessary as long as you can solder and follow instructions. Edited February 8, 2020 by johndon 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted February 8, 2020 Author Share Posted February 8, 2020 Ah.....Follow the instructions. That's me done for right away... Joking apart, I have been impressed by what I have seen with MERG kits. It's purely a time issue for me. I already have a ton of stuff to do before my other love returns in a couple of months time.... 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post gordon s Posted February 14, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 14, 2020 (edited) Who'd have thought it.... Had a visitor here today, so had to work flat out to get something running and tidy up a bit. Two things spring to mind, most of the wheels need some lubrication and I need to dial down the lamps on the WD. At least they are in the right place.... Edited February 14, 2020 by gordon s 56 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold john dew Posted February 14, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 14, 2020 Congratulations Gordon. You must be a very happy camper....trust you enjoyed a glass of red? Trains apart it was nice to see that delightful station building again. Best wishes John 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted February 14, 2020 Author Share Posted February 14, 2020 (edited) Cannot tell a lie, it’s a glass of white to celebrate. It’s all bit lashed together, but at least something is running. I suspect I will have to go back a couple of stages again to do things properly as I won’t rest until things run smoothly, every time without fail. Overall, things appear OK. I had to tweak a turnout after John had left, but that’s what I enjoy. Taking something that stock bumps through and turning it into something that is seamless. I can easily spend an hour or so on one turnout until it’s 100%. Every time I see North Vancouver I’m reminded of our holiday to Vancouver and Vancouver Island plus a trip up to Lake Louise. Can’t think of any place I’d rather be........but I’m far too old to move now. No wonder Prince Harry and Meghan chose Vancouver Island...... Edited February 14, 2020 by gordon s 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold teaky Posted February 14, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 14, 2020 Hooray!!! I'll tell the blokes at the tip they won't be getting any baseboards this time. 1 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now