two tone green Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 Nice BG as is the brake van. Interesting to see the Easy Build BG as I have the JLTRT version. I need to prime and paint mine. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
the penguin of doom Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 Top notch work on the brake van Lord F! A nice coat of Blue/Grey paint will finish the BG nicely too..... ;o) Mike, would you like a rake of coaches for the "test" session? I think I might be able to lay my hands on 3.....? He heh. Cheers. Sean. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike knowles Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 Top notch work on the brake van Lord F! A nice coat of Blue/Grey paint will finish the BG nicely too..... ;o) Mike, would you like a rake of coaches for the "test" session? I think I might be able to lay my hands on 3.....? He heh. Cheers. Sean. Yes please 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Nth Degree Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Nice brake van. As you know, I have a few of these to build so it's good to know how they can turn out. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike knowles Posted January 16, 2014 Author Share Posted January 16, 2014 Right, the test/running session referred to in post #75 took place last night. Since the last test session we have laid and wired the track along the two sidings on the harbour front so we are now able to run the full length of the three boards we have assembled (about 14 feet). The testing went extrememly well. All the stock used ran smoothly through the pointwork, encouraging given that the point blades were only set using scotch blocks (bits of plastic wedged in place) and also the various whhelsets in use Heljan, Slaters and Easibuild. Again it shows the advantage of using O-MF standards. Some photos to keep you amused. The Penguin of Doom tends his coaches. Next job is to complete the trackwork on this third board (the run round loop/incoming lines). After that there is only the fourth board to do - the station area and this only consists of three lengths of plain track. However we are already considering an extension! 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
m mcdermott Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 looking good mike and stock looking well 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike knowles Posted February 9, 2014 Author Share Posted February 9, 2014 Sean (aka The Penguin of Doom) brought his Class 26038 and coaches to the club last week which are now replendent in their newly applied paintwork. I know Sean has posted a couple of photos on his thread but I thought they also deserved some exposure on here. Just for the record the 26 is basically a Heljan model though the body was purchased as an unpainted pre production sample. The two Mark 1 coaches are Easibuild kits and the Mark 2 coach is two Triang Big Big coaches merged together with additional detailing. All have been painted using aerosols cans purchased from the company who used to do them for JLTRT. Although they aren't 100% finished yet I have to say they look absolutely superb, I hope the layout will do them justice. 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike knowles Posted March 16, 2015 Author Share Posted March 16, 2015 Hmmm, over a year since I last posted anything on here! Well work has been progressing steadily, all the trackwork on the three boards we are currently working on has now been laid. A start has also been made on the laborious task of painting the chairs and rail sides. See photos below. Whilst initial testing had been carried out using temporary wiring and wedging of the point blades with off cuts of sleeper material we then needed to get the points fully operational and the permanent wiring installed. Tie bars from JLTRT have been employed, a simple two part etch glued together with a paper gasket between them to provide electrical isolation. I know some people dismiss the use of rigid tie bars soldered to the point blades but so far they have worked fine, hopefully the slow motion of the point motors should minimise the risk of failures. See photo below. Under the baseboards now. The points are operated by Tower Pro SG90 servos attached to mounts available as kits from MERG, as are the servo control boards. The mounts contain small SPST switches to change frog polarity. An additional switch can also be fitted to give visual indication of route setting on a control panel if required. See photos below. For the power feeds to the track, droppers wires were fitted to each individual piece of rail (soldered to the bottom of the rail prior to fitting it). Note only one dropper wire is fitted to each length of rail, fitting numerous wires to each rail (for safety’s sake) just seems to cause additional work and shows an admission that your soldering isn’t up to scratch! Well that’s my opinion for what it’s worth! These dropper wires are then soldered to lengths of OO flexitrack glued to the underside of the baseboards which act as bus bars, to me much neater then wavy length of bare copper wire. A seven pin din plug provides connection to the power box (containing a Lenz 5amp transformer and LX100 base station. A Lenz LA150 panel provides connection for the hand throttles. See photo below. Inter board connections are via pluggable terminal strips, the male halves fastened to the boards and fly leads made up using the female halves. Saves the hassle of soldering wires to 25pin din plugs. See photos below. The control wiring for the points (and to be fitted yet signals) runs through to a bank of switches, temporarily mounted at the moment. See photo below. When time permits these will be housed in a purpose made signallers desk which will be positioned at one end of the layout as done previously on our OO layout Batterby North End. See photo below. So now we have 3 fully operational boards which contain all the pointwork for the layout so in depth testing can now be carried out (playing with trains if you like!) Next to do is lay and wire the trackwork on the fourth board (just three lengths of plain track in the station area) and then construct the fiddle yard board. I will keep posting updates but don’t hold your breath whilst waiting! 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddys-blues Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Ooh liking this thread, plenty of dirty smokey blue box things, I shall be following with interest. Happy modelling Craig. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phill Dyson (onslaught832) Posted March 17, 2015 Share Posted March 17, 2015 Me too....great work! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rumo Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 well worth the wait Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobster Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Very nice Mike, looking forward to following this. Cheers, Bob. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bigbee Line Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Looks very nice. I like the lever (switch) frame, gives the right feel. I might have missed it in the tread, what cable are you using to the Pluggable Terminal Strip? They look quite bullet proof. Thanks Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike knowles Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 The wire used throughout is 7/0.2 (i.e. 7 strands of 0.2mm wire). We obtained ours from that well known holiday camp/electronics supplier but other sources are available. To minimise the risk of wire breakages particularly on the fly leads which do receive an amount of handling, the end of the wire is stripped of insulation for a few mm then pushed in far enough for the screw on the terminal block to grip the end of the insulation (the screw penetrates the insulation and still makes contact with the wire). Not had any failures yet! Hi de Hi! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale7JB Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 Great bit of pway, keep up the good work... JB. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Flashheart Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 As well as the continuing work on the track work and wiring further items of rolling stock have been worked on first up a type 27 Wickham trolley Easy build BG JLTRT CCT van Rob 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddys-blues Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Nice work on the BG and the CCT, proper nostalgia, any bog carts on this layout, surely with the P of Doom involved there must be !!! Happy modelling Craig 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Flashheart Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Thanks Craig, sadly not as the layout is being based around Wick, Thurso, Kyle of Lochalsh areas which were dmu free, however had that not been the case you would certainly be seeing and hearing rattling windows and rasping exhausts along with the coughing and spluttering of Sulzer type two's!. Rob 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddys-blues Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 Rule 1 Rob, rule 1, a reason for everything, you could get a 131 parcels bubble like Mr Morgan on West Kirby Town, they where Eastfield based so could make a journey to the end of civilisation to pick up some parcels. Happy modelling Craig Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Flashheart Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 Fear not Craig Rule 1 certainly applies to us!, the class 131 parcels unit is an option we've looked at and I've also wondered how far north the Derby Lightweight ultrasonic test train got. Rob Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hartleymartin Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 I've been told that Easy-build are working on a Class 101 Railcar kit. I'm looking forward to that one! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
muddys-blues Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 Fear not Craig Rule 1 certainly applies to us!, the class 131 parcels unit is an option we've looked at and I've also wondered how far north the Derby Lightweight ultrasonic test train got. Rob They went anywhere and everywhere .... well in my world anyway I've been told that Easy-build are working on a Class 101 Railcar kit. I'm looking forward to that one! They sure are Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike knowles Posted May 3, 2015 Author Share Posted May 3, 2015 Since the last post we've now got all the track laid and wired on the 4th board (the station area) so all the trackwork is now completed. Now whilst we are very grateful to Hessle Town Council for providing us with warm and secure clubrooms on a permanent basis at very reasonable cost the one downside is each room is relatively small. As a result we can only erect three of the boards at any one time. Similarly the guys building the 4mm layout based on Bridlington but called Cayton Bay have a similar problem and like us they have just completed laying their trackwork. So the decision was taken to hire the large hall for one day so we could fully erect both layouts and give them a thorough test. Below are some photos from the test day, firstly the 7mm layout which appears to have acquired the name Invermire. (Apologies for the non prototypical mix of unfitted, vacuum braked and air braked freight stock and the Class 14 was just visiting for the day!) Next some photos of Cayton Bay just for the record. Finally even the narrow gauge group took advantage of the day! The day proved to be really rewarding and although a few issues were encountered these should e relatively easy to sort. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
the penguin of doom Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 A very enjoyable afternoon "playing trains" Mike. Thanks for organising it. Cheers. Sean. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Flashheart Posted May 3, 2015 Share Posted May 3, 2015 Those photos almost make it look like I know what I'm doing, and whose the other bloke!. A superb day and lots of positives from it. Rob 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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