Les1952 Posted March 12, 2013 Author Share Posted March 12, 2013 (edited) Week Ten OK, I hear a chorus of voice saying (there must be one person asking, even if only me...) what happened to week nine? Simple- I forgot to take the camera! Stupid boy....... There is enough this week to take up more than one post, so I'll divide the bits into groups. First group this week- trial fitting and near-completed bits. To start with, a better picture of the brewery front. At least this one is in focus, though Trevor thinks the missing window is either in his box or on the work bench at home. Note I've got a better focus on the Fleur-de-Lys on the right-hand gable. The front of the bridge at the platform end- this sequence minus the platform under the buildings, which is also on Trevor's workbench at home....... The other side of the bridge- which is just about complete apart from the road surface on the top, which will go into position when scenics start on the baseboard, some time well after Easter. The stub end of track is where the sand drag at the end of the loop will be. One I was asked to take- looking through the bridge to see if the camera can focus the drill sitting on the far end of the baseboard. More to follow... Les Edited March 12, 2013 by Les1952 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted March 13, 2013 Author Share Posted March 13, 2013 (edited) Still Week Ten Second batch of pics- goings on under the baseboard. All the drop wires on the two end boards have been put through and wired up to the tag strips. From here they will be taken through SCART leads to the next board. The strips will be labelled up and cross-referenced to the spreadsheet containing the wirng instructions over the next couple of weeks. The SCART leads are double-ended with no crossover. The sockets are a little fragile so we have devised a way of getting them done quickly and being certain the wires at each end are wired to the same place. They will be labelled up in pairs before being wired to the tag strips. The jig has a certain Shadows ring to it..... More to follow. Les Edited March 13, 2013 by Les1952 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted March 13, 2013 Author Share Posted March 13, 2013 (edited) Week Ten Continued Again Trevor and Geoff have been looking at the rows of houses that will sit on the wall behind the railway on the centre board. As they look at different prototypes Trevor has been making plasticard mock-ups of the front walls. These will be positioned roughly before being passed for completion. Some won't make the cut. In the meantime Geoff has been looking up buildings by Watson Fothergill, who was responsible for over 100 public buildings in the Nottingham area. The downloaded pics are some that may be built- Trevor has already started on the terrace that rises up the hill........ Part 4 to follow. Les Edited March 13, 2013 by Les1952 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted March 13, 2013 Author Share Posted March 13, 2013 (edited) Week Ten - Final Spasm A prototype control panel box has been sourced- we decided that using ready-made boxes was likely to be more efficient than making out own. Two of these will sit above the clockwise tracks of the fiddle yard at either end of the middle board. Each is about A4 length. They will be mounted upside-down as the securing screws are in the bottom, with the switches on what was the underside. Wires will be brought in through the back, rising in looms between the clockwise and anticlockwise tracks of the yard. The panels will be hinged at the front to allow access to casualties and for track cleaning. Drilling and cutting the slots for the looms to pass through the main board. First Trevor drills two large holes, then opens them to slots with a power saw. Some filing of edges from Geoff completes the job. The final slot The wires will be guided upwards so that they don't catch passing trains. That's all for this week. Les Edited March 13, 2013 by Les1952 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwrman Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 Hi, following your layout with interest didn't know if you'd seen these, its where I got mine control panel from http://www.conrad-uk.com/ce/en/overview/0203053/Plastic-Desktop-Enclosures-Sloped-Front Prices not bad and delivery was good. I had one of the Teko ones. Nigel Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted March 15, 2013 Author Share Posted March 15, 2013 Hi, following your layout with interest didn't know if you'd seen these, its where I got mine control panel from http://www.conrad-uk.com/ce/en/overview/0203053/Plastic-Desktop-Enclosures-Sloped-Front Prices not bad and delivery was good. I had one of the Teko ones. Nigel I hadn't seen them - will investigate further. Very many thanks. Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted April 8, 2013 Author Share Posted April 8, 2013 (edited) Week Twelve OK- week eleven went the same way as week nine, and I suspect a few more as we are definitely in a non-photogenic section of the business. Fixing pins. The boards are held in line with patternmakers' dowels and then secured by split pin hinges. However at a recent show wit Stamford East (may have been Sileby) we were back to back with a layout where the pins of the split hinges had been replaced by large split pins. A few weeks later Trevor has found some..... Jim has had a go at soldering up the next pair of SCART leads. The Thing-um-me-jig has developed into a mark 2 version with the plugs held vertically. Using print-offs from the spreadsheet to mark the circuits on the tag strips has proved OK, but relies on me getting a consistent size out of the printer (then remembering what it was for next time....) To explain the colours- black/red are any circiuts for clockwise and pink/blue are the corresponding wires on the inner (anticlockwise) circuits. The main line is sectioned A1 to A5 and C1 to C5 respectively with the loop at the front being CL2 as it is opposite section C2 on the main (CL=clockwise loop) Fiddle yard roads are numbered 1 to 10 from the board edge, prefixed with the direction of travel and the letter F for fiddle yard. Each is divided into two sections with the rear one in direction of travel having a suffix A- so section AF8A is Anticlockwise Fiddle yard road 8 second (long) section and CF3 is Clockwise Fiddle yard road 3 front (short) section. Logical and theoretically simple provided every wire is marked at both ends. Les PS- I've just spotted a misprint in pic 3 - AF1 should read AF10....... Edited April 8, 2013 by Les1952 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted May 12, 2013 Author Share Posted May 12, 2013 Update All droppers are wired in, as are most of the connections across the board joins. We are now in the holiday season but testing will begin over the next couple of weeks...... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted May 16, 2013 Author Share Posted May 16, 2013 Week Umpteen Only two of us there this week. All temporary wires added underneath the middle board, with quality connector to a stand-alone controller. Switch on - dead short! Guess who hadn't gapped the tracks at the board edges at the front of the layout..... Still, power is getting to the right places on both the inner and outer. Slitting disc next week should result in trains moving. All the very best Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 Week 21. At last a controller brought into use that is up to the job. The centre board has been connected up and Thomas the Test Engine has been put thorough his paces on every line. Fanfares etc (silently). The first movement of Thomas the Test Engine on the Rise park Centre board. When each of the end boards is added there is a short- so some gaps need creating before we go any further. New Home Behind the scenes negotiations have been taking place for Bingham MRC to move to a new clubroom. The tenancy agreemant has been signed and we move in a few weeks time. Work needs doing but this is our corner of the new space. The engine is to go out this week. Exciting times ahead. Les 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium MrSimon Posted May 28, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 28, 2013 Does this clubroom have a toilet? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted May 28, 2013 Author Share Posted May 28, 2013 No- but there is one in a nearby building, accessible 24/7 as it is a guardroom manned round the clock by Ghurkas. It does have a separate kitchen and plenty of light and electricity- and is dry from above and below. Rise Park will have a 19' by 8' area divided off with workbench and storage racking. Our dividers will be screwed to the floor. Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) Week number- lost count First time in a few weeks that all five of the group have managed to get to meet at the same time. I'm not sure if I've posted Geoff's warehouse end before but here it is ready for the rest to be added. Also seen this week for the first time was the first of the Watson Fothergill buildings. This one by Geoff again, and I can't remember which church hall it is.... Not yet finished but coming along nicely (and much better than I can make). On the electrical side the short circuit between the centre board and the end boards has been traced and sorted, and one set of the section cuts needed has been done. Thomas the Test Engine has run about half-way round the anticlockwise circuit so far. Short morning this week as we all went to see the progress on our new home. False ceiling now in place and the walls have been scraped ready for painting. We've decided that the floor covering is good enough just to give a couple of coats of yacht varnish. More next week (hopefully). Les Edited June 19, 2013 by Les1952 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted July 20, 2013 Author Share Posted July 20, 2013 Week number "Lost Count plus 4" We've finally got moved into the new clubroom- as have the rest of Bingham MRC. The workbench is complete- the structure of it can be seen below (this was while we were waiting for the MDF for the back wall to be delivered. At the other end of the room Phoenix Park is now erected and at the other side of the room from us is Ashtow with the club's N-gauge fiddle yards, and Jeremy Burrows' Yeaton. The second of these shows the reason why we've not yet erected the layout- the big picture windows let in far too much light and far too much UV- we'll have to do something about the UV before long. In the mean time Trevor has finished the Metropole Cinema (which is a low relief version to go along the back at the Top Valley end of the layout) . Next week, varnishing the workbench to seal it, and erecting the layout if we've got the UV problem sorted out. All the very best Les 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve O. Posted July 20, 2013 Share Posted July 20, 2013 Hi Gents, Just found your layout. Some great work and helpful step-by-step updates. The new club room looks a lot bigger and construction-friendly. Have you chosen a specific period for the model? (Sorry if I missed it and no rolling stock images yet). Cheers, Steve. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
great central Posted July 20, 2013 Share Posted July 20, 2013 Ah yes, the Metropole! I was refused entry to see One Million Years BC starring Raquel Welch, too young at the time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNCF stephen Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 What a superb set of buildings. I am really impressed with the build quality and certainly envious of the skills used to get the models looking that good. For some reason I am just useless at making models out of styrene sheet (hence why I use card) so I always enjoy seeing how others do these types of models. Hopefully I will get to see this model out on the road at some point. Keep up the good work! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted July 21, 2013 Author Share Posted July 21, 2013 Hi Gents, Just found your layout. Some great work and helpful step-by-step updates. The new club room looks a lot bigger and construction-friendly. Have you chosen a specific period for the model? (Sorry if I missed it and no rolling stock images yet). Cheers, Steve. Very many thanks for the compliment. Period will be late fifties- early sixties. There is a pic of the O1 and the Crab on Mr Simon's workbench- and some of the stock (mine) is shared with Hawthorn Dene Colliery- pics there. Once we get the layout set up next week and the rails cut where we have currently got short circuits we should be able to start soak testing. At that stage I'll get some videos and pics made. All the very best Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted July 21, 2013 Author Share Posted July 21, 2013 What a superb set of buildings. I am really impressed with the build quality and certainly envious of the skills used to get the models looking that good. For some reason I am just useless at making models out of styrene sheet (hence why I use card) so I always enjoy seeing how others do these types of models. Hopefully I will get to see this model out on the road at some point. Keep up the good work! Very many thanks for the nice words. I'll pass them on to Trevor and Geoff- the scenic team. Alf is the engineer/tracklayer and Jim and I are thinking through the electrics at the moment- though each of us assists in an area where another might lead. It does help that Trevor is currently barred from entering for the buildings trophy at the N-Gauge Society AGM, having won it too many times. You will see other examples of his work on Parnhams (waiting bookings), Stamford East (now in the care of a member of Manchester MRS and with invites to exhibit in that area) and his new one Whatton Parva, which makes its debut at Grantham Railshow in September and will then be at Sileby. Since Furtwangen Ost is also at both of these shows the whole team will be in action there... We are looking to get the Rise Park part of this layout ready for the 2015 Cotgrave show, and then concentrate on Top Valley Goods, which isn't yet started but will sit over the right-hand end. All the very best Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted July 23, 2013 Author Share Posted July 23, 2013 (edited) Another week, another problem Progress this week has involved getting a heat reflecting surface on the window- the picture shows the size of the window above where the layout will be. Alf volunteered to clean the windows (without a safety net) then Jim applied the paint. The work bench had its first coat of yacht varnish applied. Buying from a builders' merchant rather than Boyes prevented the usual conversation of "Yacht varnish, what do you use that for?" "Varnishing my yacht " " Ooh- have you got a yacht?"...... We've also got the tea and coffee cupboard up on the wall, provisioned of course, with the set of "Rise Park Top Valley" individually named mugs on top (not that we want to gloat, but.....) Also done enough strengthening of the fiddle yard trackwork to be able to cut the rail gaps we need. However Trevor's cutting disc has worn out so it is delaminating track. We're having an extra session on Thursday evening to finish the cutting and start soak testing. Repairing damaged track is next week's job. All the very best Les Edited July 23, 2013 by Les1952 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted July 25, 2013 Author Share Posted July 25, 2013 (edited) Some Stock Pics Pics posed on Furtwangen Ost. Partly to answer Steve O, two locos that have been on my workbench for a week or two and which are going down for testing on the layout tonight. 42769 is the Crab that has been on Mr Simon's workbench about a year ago- he has described swapping the tender and fitting boiler handrails etc to it. What he didn't say was the Gem 4F tender was professionally solder-assembled by David Temple of Darlington. This week I've lined out the tender (a job Mr Simon didn't fancy) and it now waits weathering in a day or two. 63824 is an O4/7 hand-built by Pro Models on a Farish 8F chassis. Like the other three of my Pro Models loco it has needed a degree of fettling to improve its running. Again it is waiting for weathering. All the very best Les Edited July 25, 2013 by Les1952 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted July 26, 2013 Author Share Posted July 26, 2013 Videos at last! Troubleshooting last night got us to the stage that we can run trains right round anticlockwise, though each of the two roads we are using has a problem to fix next week, and the first train was duly run. This is alos the first train to run on any layout in Bingham MRC's new clubroom. Loco is Jim's Dapol Andrew K McCosh Trevor also dug out the platforms and station buildings. We then ran all the other LNER locos we had with us- my Dapol Papyrus and Jim's Minitrix Scotsman. The teaks were exchanged for a long rake of 21-tonners and more trains were run. Final train of the evening was hauled by one of my J39s-the one with an NER tender. Only problematic loco onn the clockwise circuit was the ROD, which isn't happy with 10.5 inch curves. This one will be tested on the 12 inch curves of the outer circuit when we've finished troubleshooting that. All the best Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted September 4, 2013 Author Share Posted September 4, 2013 (edited) More testing and some physical changes. After a thoughtful three weeks checking for, finding and fixing short- circuits (the last one was due to my having crossed over the wrong pair of wires in one of the SCART sockets) we now have trains running in both directions at once. First a pair of videos, then the first post with new PICTURES- this with the first details of the control panels. Hopefully this one is an A4 going anticlockwise passing a Dapol Voyager I got cheaply as a non-runner (one soldered joint detatched). These were the first trains after Thomas the Test Engine had done his job. Again assuming it works, one of my Dapol 9Fs on hoppers passes Green Arrow going the other way on a short train. Hopefully one of the vids also shows that Geoff and Alf have sprayed the trackbed with track colour. Lastly for this post Jim's blue A4 on a shortish train of teaks. Did anyone say members of the group are rather keen on A4s? All the very best Les Edited September 4, 2013 by Les1952 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Les1952 Posted September 4, 2013 Author Share Posted September 4, 2013 Control Panels going in The two control panels are now made- not from the black box originally thought- these started as polythene paper boxes. Trevor has built a frame for each of them. The wires will now come up the baseboard edge and enter near the lower end of the panel. The panels are hinged at the front so we can reach behind them when someone rear-ends another train in the fiddle yard. They are also hinged at the back to allow access to the wiring inside. More details on them as we get wires going up into them. They will be fastened with clips for transit etc. All the very best Les Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barry M Posted September 9, 2013 Share Posted September 9, 2013 Following this thread with interest. Great pics. I'm from Nottingham originally - my Mother from just down the road from Rise Park, when Top Valley was a Coal slick. Great work gents. Barry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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