Kensington Olympia in n scale

[acg5324]

First time on a Mainline train in nearly a year, off to Burgess Hill for a former colleagues retirement do. The c800 is about 25% loaded, it’s non stop York to KGX and we are passing Peterborough in well under an hour…..shame about the ride, coach is occasionally hunting.

[acg5324]

Back to the layout…….

 

A little problem I’ve had is that the Velcro fasteners on the signal battery packs keep falling off as the adhesive backs won’t stay stuck down. To get round this I’ve made up a little box from foam board to hold them. First one fitted seems to work well.

[Steven B]

Have you tried non-self-adhesive Velcro? A decent contact adhesive should stick it to the baseboard and the battery box.

 

Steven B.

[acg5324]

4 hours ago, Steven B said:

Have you tried non-self-adhesive Velcro? A decent contact adhesive should stick it to the baseboard and the battery box.

 

Steven B.

I had used some glue on one of them which worked but the battery packs had a habit of slipping, hence the sleeve to hold them.

[acg5324]

My bus restoration project is finished bar a replacement rear platform pole. This I will make out of some brass tube.

 

[acg5324]

All four Dapol signals are now wired up and live. The two boards that have been on their sides to work on have now been refitted, Facias fitted and painted. I’m at work for the next three days so won’t get anything done. Friday will be a tidy up day, reconnect the boards fully and maybe run some trains!

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, acg5324 said:

All four Dapol signals are now wired up and live. The two boards that have been on their sides to work on have now been refitted, Facias fitted and painted. I’m at work for the next three days so won’t get anything done. Friday will be a tidy up day, reconnect the boards fully and maybe run some trains!

Looks good Andy. May I suggest that you make the stripes on the signal arms a little wider? A scale 8" would be right. For some reason Dapol made them too narrow.

[acg5324]

As usual I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped. Layout is back together, buildings back on. Got the pole fitted to the bus…and that was it.

[acg5324]

Got a few bits done today……..finally made a start on wiring up the control panel. The first five routes are now live. I have got some dry print lettering to mark up the sidings. The DCC concepts CDU gives a reassuring clunk to the points as they move over.

 

I also made a start on the next run of Georgian town houses which will back on to the end of the Motorail terminal. Chimney stacks were also made for the row of shops next to Hand and Flowers pub…..and finally a pack of PECO street lights that I’d made some time back were fitted. Every single one snapped at the same point on the post so I cut the rest of the pole off and made some brass ones as replacements.

 

Finally I ran a few trains.

Edited August 31, 2021 by acg5324

[acg5324]

[acg5324]

Two more vehicles arrived from Redandy767 on eBay. An Austin Princess and a Viva HC. The C pillar on the Viva looks a bit on the thick side but otherwise another nice addition. My first two, yes two……I didn’t learn the first time, cars were VIva HCs. A 1973 British racing green with black vinyl roof for the first and a 1979 white with blue vinyl roof ( classy I know) for the second. I’m hoping a 4 door model will follow.

[Ian Morgan]

Excellent painting job.

[acg5324]

1 hour ago, Ian Morgan said:

Excellent painting job.

This as supplied, not my painting. I’m always impressed with the silver window surrounds, very fine.

[grahame]

2 minutes ago, acg5324 said:

I’m always impressed with the silver window surrounds, very fine.

 

Yep, all that chrome window trim on cars in the 1970s and 80s. All gone now, it's mostly black and flush to reduce CD.

[acg5324]

A quick trip into town today netted a useful box of paints from Boyes.

 

[acg5324]

Progress with wiring up the control panel has been swift. All the routes for the LH side of the fiddle yard are live and I’ve made a start on the RH side. I found Route L which is the loco road in the top RH corner of the fiddle yard is still faulty and only sets one set of points….the wrong way. A check in my fault book still shows this outstanding since May! I’d forgotten about it.

This is the one and only photo of the inside of the control panel you’ll get…..like watching paint dry!

[acg5324]

It still amazes me what information is on the Interweb……..I was looking for details of what buffer stops etc would be on the District line platform. Not only have I found details of what but when they were fitted! I’ve some nice Nano LEDs to fit later on.

https://www.lurs.org.uk/documents/pdf09/jan/terminal_protection_et_al.pdf

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, acg5324 said:

Progress with wiring up the control panel has been swift. All the routes for the LH side of the fiddle yard are live and I’ve made a start on the RH side. I found Route L which is the loco road in the top RH corner of the fiddle yard is still faulty and only sets one set of points….the wrong way. A check in my fault book still shows this outstanding since May! I’d forgotten about it.

This is the one and only photo of the inside of the control panel you’ll get…..like watching paint dry!

Can't see any paint?

[acg5324]

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Can't see any paint?

It’s dried.

[acg5324]

Nearly half the routes are now live on the control panel, all of the fiddle yard is up and running…except route L….see above.

I made a start on the individually controlled points, which quickly turned into a fault finding exercise. What idiot put 12 wires in one jumper  lead and 11 in the other one…oh yeah me! 

It looks like there is also a wiring error at the RH end of the fiddle yard jumper, it looks like it’s a wire out across the connectors. Fortunately there are only a few points at the southern end of the station.

Back to work tomorrow which will give me a chance to get a pack of PECO studs as I’ve run out.

Edited September 7, 2021 by acg5324

[acg5324]

A frustrating but ultimately satisfying day….about six hours checking all the jumpers and wiring for the faults to the point motors has cleared everything……(except route  L …..I didn’t look at that). All the points at the south end of the station are working up to and including the crossover between the reversible platform and the down main. 
There were some wiring errors compounded by a jumper cable being wrongly connected up too…

I also used up the last of a reel of wire that’s a few years old…….£3.95 price label. Paid double that last time.

 

Back to work tomorrow and the lure of a Gin party on Saturday.

Edited September 9, 2021 by acg5324

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, acg5324 said:

the lure of a Gin party on Saturday

We just bought a bottle of Pickering's, from Edinburgh. Very nice.

[acg5324]

Good progress today with wiring the control panel. No more faults…so far………. All the points are now live except the Motorail bays which are bottom LH corner of the diagram. Everything else is up and running!

[acg5324]

With Revolution trains announcing 1938 tube stock today……that might have to be the stand in for the COCP stock or 1969 stock…especially in Dinosaur livery.

[acg5324]

Well a bit of a milestone moment today……control panel fully wired……..so in the interests of testing everything a loco has been where no loco has gone before……The bay platforms.

The sound fitted c31 got the dubious honor of first engine. Not surprisingly dirty track and points made for some spluttery progress but everything worked.

Here is the c31 in the SE bays.