Barkham Green GWR OO Layout

[vulcanbomber]

 

 

Barkham Green gets it's own Santa Special.

Happy Christmas folks

[KNP]

Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year.....

[vulcanbomber]

 

Couple of more working lights added to the goods yard

[vulcanbomber]

 

 

Oxford Dean Goods given the "Little Muddle " treatment, just need crew and lamps. I really didn't like the plain steel hand rails

 

Edited December 23, 2019 by vulcanbomber
added to many pics

[vulcanbomber]

Well with Christmas over time to start on this years project

 

Been thinking about fitting lighting in the coaches for a while, but been unable to find any stock of the DCC Concepts wheel sets

 

However came across this 

 

https://www.petersspares.com/peters-spares-ps84-141mm-disc-coach-wheels-one-wheel-live-to-axle-x1-pair.ir

 

… with DCC Concepts pickup springs

 

https://www.hattons.co.uk/59657/dcc_concepts_dcf_ps2_0_pickup_springs_2mm_axle_for_oo_x_48/stockdetail.aspx

 

 

Have now ordered

[vulcanbomber]

 

 

 

Wheels now arrived along with springs in boxes from Hattons and Peters spares which where about 10 times too big and lots of plastic packing what a waste.

Still never mind the springs were easy to fit and just checking each set in my gauge, before fitting back to the coach.

Now working on way to collect the current from the springs from the short length at the end.

 

[vulcanbomber]

Well finally got back to work on autocoach. However it turned into a disaster. 

When I tried to run it after wiring chassis, I found the weight of the wires kept pulling the bogies off the track. So will have to try with finer wire Eg decoder. 

However I discovered that the hangers on the side of the chassis had become very brittle with age and fell apart as soon as you touched them. In addition it seems to have lost one of its buffers over the years. 

So I think I will have to bite the bullet and buy a new Hornby one to mod. 

[vulcanbomber]

Had a bit of thought about it in the bath, may have a solution to try after a couple of days doing some DIY for my daughter 

[vulcanbomber]

 

Well I've solved the electrical pickup problem

I originally set out to have each pairs of wheels connected to the left or the right rail to pick up DCC,  therefore I would require 2 wires per bogie.

However I realised if I make one bogie the left rail pickup and the other bogie the right rail pickup, I could use one wire. So I used some 7/0.2 wire and split the strands in 2 before adding solder to fix them in place. I then solder each set of strands to the tail of wheel spring. I drilled a whole through the centre of the clip holding the bogie in place and was able to pass the wire through that. I haven't fastened the wire down in any way so it means the bogie is free to turn as it moves up and down the track. The mess on the bogie was my previous attempt to hold the wires down using superglue paste

 

I've solved the buffer problem by making one out of plasticard

The broken hanger will be fixed by making one out micro plastic strip

 

 

I am going to buy a Amber lighting strip from layouts4U complete with a latching reed switch and magnet.

The only problem now is they are out of stock of reed switches until the end of the month and since I don't want to pay two lots of postage I will have to wait.

 

 

Edited February 15, 2020 by vulcanbomber
added to many pics

[vulcanbomber]

on the way to my daughters popped into Gaugemaster in Ford West Sussex and purchased some Bachmann Suburban Street Scene Figures

They aren't up to Dart Castings standards, but they are useful to populate the back of the shopping street

A couple where good enough to at the front of the cottages, which are the the  housewife scrubbing her porch tiles, The other one is the lady leading over the wall to talk to the grey haired old lady, to check she is keeping well.

[sjrixon]

The people look quite smart, I tend to paint my own, but really hate the job, so maybe I'll check these out next time I'm on my travels. 

 

Your autocoach should you good with lighting. Interested to see the effect. 

[Bogie]

I really really hate painting people as my eyesight ain't what it used to be.

[vulcanbomber]

As part of my visit to Gaugemaster also purchased an item which I have always been about to add a Ratio Loading Gauge

 

Spent most of yesterday afternoon putting it together boy is it fiddly!

 

 

[vulcanbomber]

 

Well it's almost finished

 

Picture showing the Layouts4U say alive Pcb. LED Strip and hidden under the black tape is a Latching reed relay

 

I was a bit worried about the capacitor on the PCB because it is rated at only 16V. The DCC track voltage is about 18v, however I measured the voltage across the output of the Rectifier chip and is it 15.5V. So we see how we get on.

Coach with the lights switched on using a small magenet

Lights off using same magnet

[vulcanbomber]

I've decided it's time to tackle Signals, but to be honest I find it hard to decide what goes where.

I want to start off simple, with just a few, with an idea to extend later.

 

A very crude track plan of what I'm trying to signal. There are sidings coming off the goods line but I've left them out for the moment.

 

Picture showing the 2 bay platforms and the up and down main line.

I've made up some dummy signals from plasticard to play around with placings

This bracket signals would be the starter signal for platform 1 and 2

 

 

A bracket starter for the down line and goods line

 

 

A starter signal for platform 3

 

Comments please

[vulcanbomber]

Well after much thought, I've decided my next step

I will buy a Dapol Home signal and Left facing bracket Signal. The Home to go at the end of platform 3 and the bracket to go on Platform 4.

I will see how I get on with those before moving on to platform 1 and 2, but it looks like they will have a be single post home signals

I decided to go with Dapol because

a) They come fitted with lights

b) If I buy Ratio, by the time you add on the cost of trying to motorise them, with servo and control board etc. , it's not much cheaper than the Dapol one, but a lot less effort to get working

 

Just need to wait for the funds to become available

[vulcanbomber]

The Auto coach is now finished. I repaired it by cannibalising one Purchased on eBay for £5

 

 

 

Edited March 4, 2020 by vulcanbomber
duplicate pic

[sjrixon]

You should pick out the droplights in the autocoach in a redish mahogany paint, I think it really lifts the model. 

 

Looks really nice with the people and lights in.

[vulcanbomber]

You are quite right it's something I forgot to do when replacing the body. I had actually done that on the original body shell. 

[sjrixon]

I though you had.... See, not going mad

 

I've got some Hornby clerestory coaches on the bench right now, I'll do the same to them. Really helps take away the plain plastic feel a little in these earlier models. 

[vulcanbomber]

Droplights now painted

 

[vulcanbomber]

Getting ready to add lighting to my B set Coaches.

Does anyone know whether I need Amber or Warm White Lighting strip?

[Neal Ball]

11 hours ago, vulcanbomber said:

Getting ready to add lighting to my B set Coaches.

Does anyone know whether I need Amber or Warm White Lighting strip?

 

I would go for an Amber, be a more typical colour for the period.

[sjrixon]

Autocoach looks really good.. 

[vulcanbomber]

Not done much modelling recently, been too busy in the garden and the allotment

Well with today's rain I've finished adding lighting to the Bset

On the first coach I did I added passengers and pictures on the corridor divides. When I powered it up discovered the windows are so small you can only jst see the passengers and certainly no the pictures! Boy where those from Tiny Signs fiddly

So when doing the second one I only added the passengers.

As before you can use a magnet to turn them off or on.

I made one big change however to the auto flicker unit from Layouts4U. I wasn't happy to see them fitted with 1000uf 16V capacitors, when I was reading almost 15V across them, they should be rated at 1.5 times the voltage, especially since years ago I saw one blow up.So I order a pack of 25V caps and hoped they would fit. which they did.