ColinW Posted January 4, 2014 Author Share Posted January 4, 2014 A bit of an update on the layout. First the bad news, the central board of Avon Junction, which has the control panel on it, was caught up in the flooding that affected Tonbridge over the Christmas period. At the moment it doesn't appear to have affected the scenery very much and we should be able to repair it. For the electrics see below. Following on from the Broadstairs exhibition at the end of November, we have decided to do a complete re-wire of the layout, and this will also include replacing all the remaining point motors with Fulgurex motors, and we also intend to have a removeable contol panel and this will also allow us to test boards from the control panel, without having to put the layout together. The work will take place later this year, when we have more time available to us. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted June 6, 2014 Author Share Posted June 6, 2014 Well its been sometime since my last post on here. We are now just about to start the work on the layout in the next couple of weeks. I have made a start on the new control panel, and will hope to have the shell finished next week, when I have some more time. Once my part in that is finished I am going to be making new bolt on areas for both of the 3 road fiddleyards. These are going to be increased to a foot in length, but they will also be sceniced to make it look natural to the layout. I will hopefully get some photo's as the work progresses. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted June 18, 2014 Author Share Posted June 18, 2014 As said in last post, we are starting the re wire of the layout, and part of this includes the building of a new detatchable control panel. I have been building the carcass of this, so that it is ready. You can see that it has 3 cover panels, 2 perspex and the other plywood. The perspex panels will have all of the layout controls (isolation switches point controls, uncouplers and signals), while the plywood is where the controller will sit. At the moment the perspex covers have not been attached to the box. This will allow us to do any remedial work on the layout without having to put the whole layout up in future. showing all covers closed showing the central panel open. Colin 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted June 22, 2014 Author Share Posted June 22, 2014 Some more work was carried out today, with the first of the now extended bolt ons being built. This one is for the board that also contains the hidden fiddleyard, and we have taken the decision to also extend this part of the layout, which will allow us to gain more accesss to it and operate more trains from it. As I said in a previous post, we will also be looking to scenic the bolt ons to give it a more natural look. Will look to put some photos up later. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 Here are some photos of the work being carried out yesterday. The frame of the new bolt on with the fiddleyards Showing into the hidden fiddleyard Checking the track. Having attached the plywood surround to the bolt ons. Work will continue in the near future. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted August 17, 2014 Author Share Posted August 17, 2014 Some more work was carried out today. The new control panel has been wired up, and it is now a case of re-wiring each board (this gives us a wiring diagram now that we didn't have before, & it also means that we can work on an individual board rather than having to put the layout up!!) Pictures to come soon! We also continued with the new bolt ons and will be in a position to lay the track in the extended hidden fiddleyard shortly. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted August 20, 2014 Author Share Posted August 20, 2014 As promised, here are a couple of photos of the new control panel for Avon Junction. We are very fortunate in the club, to have a signalling engineer, and he did the Fulgurex point motors for us, and has now taken on the control panel for us as well. This photo shows the wiring work he has done inside the panel. This photo shows the control panel closed. The ply centre section is where the controllers will sit. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted November 18, 2014 Author Share Posted November 18, 2014 Work continues on the layout, although slowly, depending on when time allows and getting the boards together. The picture below shows the newer of the 3 road fiddle yards with its extended bolt on attached. When the tracks are laid on the bolt on, the longest road will then be able to hold a 4-6-0 loco (Manor or Grange) and 4 coaches. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted January 9, 2015 Author Share Posted January 9, 2015 If you read back earlier, we have built a new control panel for the layout. This was wired up by a signalling engineer we have in the club. Unfortunately the way the sockets to the boards were made left me banging my head against a brick wall and as he was away It was felt better to leave the wiring alone until he came back so that he could see what the problems were. What we found was that some of the circuits were all in together (see the photos) and we had to use a slitting disc to break the circuit. This is the top side of one of our sockets. We have umbilical cords running from the control panel to four of the boards, meaning that if we have a problem on one board we don't have to put the layout together to fault find. The underneath of the socket PCB boards, one unmodified, the other modified. Close up to show the modification to PCB board, showing the slitting disc cut!! We have now wired up 60% of the auxillaries (points, signals & uncouplers) with the rest due to be completed shortly, and we will then turn our attention to the traction on each board. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 We have now completed the re wiring involving the auxillaries, although some of the Seep motors used for the signals & uncouplers need replacing, but we will use the old motors removed when the Fulgurex motors were fitted. Work on the traction wiring will begin next week. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 We are now at the point of no return!!! This is the control panel board now, with the control panel removed, along with lots of wires. Work on the traction has started, and we also have the Fulgurex point motors as well. Colin 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted March 30, 2015 Author Share Posted March 30, 2015 It's been a while since an up date. Work has continued on the rewiring and the boards are virtually finished and need to be tested shortly. we are also looking to fit Fulgurex motors on the crossover by the station, as well as the points leading to the branch & in the tunnel from the original 3 road fiddleyard (not to be confused with the 3 way points we had already done!!) the tracks have been laid on both of the bolt on's now & will be wired in this week. The Seep motors that operated an uncoupler and the signal from the bay have been replaced now after receiving damage. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted April 2, 2015 Author Share Posted April 2, 2015 More work was done tonight, with the fitting of two fulgurex motors, for the point to the branch & the point in the tunnel to the original fiddleyard. This leaves the crossover points by the station building to be done. The bolt on's have now been wired up as well, and we are hoping to have a testing day this Sunday, to see what else needs to be done. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 We had a good day yesterday working on the layout. The Fulgurex motors were fitted to the crossover by the station building and tested, just a minor mechanical adjustment required. We have also tested 4 of the 5 boards for the layout, with movement of a loco on all of those boards, the one not tested is board 2 with ther timberyard on it. This is because the Fulgurex motors fitted last Thursday haven't been mechanically set up yet. This will be done on Thursday night at the club and hopefully tested as well, and then we will need to put the whole layout up and have a running session. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted April 10, 2015 Author Share Posted April 10, 2015 We have now seen movement of a loco on all of the individual boards, although there are still a couple of snags to be sorted out. The next step will be to put the layout up in full and allow us to test everything through the new control panel, this will be done in a couple of weeks time (work and family commitments first) Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted May 2, 2015 Author Share Posted May 2, 2015 We will be putting Avon Junction up fully tomorrow and give it a full testing (we know there are some problems to look at in the future!!) with the new control panel fully plugged into the layout. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted May 12, 2015 Author Share Posted May 12, 2015 It's been a long time, but here is the layout altogether. It will be at the Burgess Hill exhibition on Saturday, so do say hello if you are there, I'm the tall one with the beard. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted August 20, 2015 Author Share Posted August 20, 2015 Its been sometime since I did an update on the layout. Unfortunately the layout did not perform well at the Burgess Hill exhibition, with a lot of electrical faults manifesting throughout the day. We were hoping to have a working day in July to try and rectify these, but I was taken into hospital in June and spent about a month in there, and then a further couple of weeks recovering my strength, so that put an end to that day. However we are going to carry out the work this Sunday and make sure everything is working better this time. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted August 25, 2015 Author Share Posted August 25, 2015 Having had our working day last Sunday, we checked all the electrics and proved they worked, not only each individual board, but we put the layout together and ran locos the whole length. We also carried out some other repairs, on the trackwork that was causing derailments, the bay starter signal that was unable to operate manually, and some scenery that has suffered slightly when being transported and stored. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted May 5, 2017 Author Share Posted May 5, 2017 It has been sometime since I posted on here, this being because of work commitments, health problems and family reasons, meaning we actually haven't done anything on the layout. However, this has allowed us to stand back to look at what needs to be done on the layout. What we have done recently is to make legs for the bolt on extensions, fit locating dowels to the extensions and re-align all of the tracks on the extensions. We will be looking to carry out some more remedial work on the layout shortly (we have a list of jobs to do ) and once these have been carried out, we will be looking to put the layout up and have running days. Colin 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted June 13, 2017 Author Share Posted June 13, 2017 We have now carried out some of the jobs that needed doing on the layout. This included replacing the tie-bars on the crossover by the end of the platform leading into the new fiddleyard. We have also tested these electrically, and hopefully the work done should cause no further problems with these points. We will now be looking to put the whole layout up in the next month or so, not only to test electrically, but to check for any small remedial jobs that can be carried out, and then we can concentrate on the scenics on the extension boards. Colin 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted July 24, 2017 Author Share Posted July 24, 2017 Yesterday, for the first time in two years we put the layout up fully and tested it. The result was good apart from a short from the double slip in the goods yard, when it was set to go into the bay platform. We also now have a list of things to do on the layout, but the majority of these are very small jobs to do a shouldn't take us long to do. The next bit of major work that will be carried out on the layout, will be doing the scenics on both of the extension boards, so we will have scenery for the full length. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted July 28, 2017 Author Share Posted July 28, 2017 (edited) We had the board with the double slip that had the short, out at the club last night, to try and find the fault. Having plugged the board into the control panel (as it has been designed to do individually) we found a broken wire, which has now been replaced. We shall be looking to carry out some of the minor jobs we found last week, in the next couple of weeks before starting the scenics on the extension boards. Colin Edited July 28, 2017 by ColinW Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted August 27, 2017 Author Share Posted August 27, 2017 We have now completed the majority of the minor jobs that needed to be done, including making new end boards for each board, as this will make the boards safer when travelling or being stored, which should mean reducing the possibility of damage to the scenics. We will now be looking to start on the scenics on the 2 extension boards shortly. Colin 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinW Posted November 3, 2017 Author Share Posted November 3, 2017 We have now started to scenify the extension board over the hidden fiddleyard. I will hope to have some photos to put on here, once they have been downloaded from my camera. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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