7mm King Street Goods

[Barnaby]

 Good morning.

 

Yesterday the pride of my fleet Ixion Fowler speared itself to the track.  It moved off then stopped with the wheels spin/slipping. I shut down the power and lifted the loco up and found that the brake rigging had popped of one spigot and dropped down onto the track and was grabbed by the sleeper stopping the loco. 

I spun the loco over and tweezered the rigging back on and applied a dab of my wife's clear nail varnish to keep it in place.  I probably should have used some copydex but I had the nail varnish out for something else, no not for my nails before you ask.  I was locking some small screws.

Fowler back on track and working.

 

Shuffling about  sorting out my fiddle board area. 

 

 

[Barnaby]

Need to make up something to hold the ELECTRICS in so got this from Grainge & Hodder Laser cut baseboards manufacturer et al.

 

1st pic is dry fit  2nd pic is PVA applied.

Edited June 22, 2015 by Barnaby

[railwayrod]

You are progressing well Barnaby. You are the second person this afternoon who has posted about Grainge & Hodder laser cut "goodies". I would be interested to hear how you found they went together.

 

Rod

[Barnaby]

Just like a jigsaw Rob, all pieces locked together easily then applied PVA 2mins to do the job.  

Not tried the baseboards as I have mine made up already but they look every bit as easy to assemble, are solid and guaranteed to be square so top goodies mark from me.

Edited June 22, 2015 by Barnaby

[Barnaby]

What with all this ***SUN*** it has shown up some cooling deficiencies in my hobby room. The fans can't cope [37 D Centigrade yesterday] and the Foil backed Kingspan insulation is not planned to be done until early autumn. 

Temporary fix by fitting 3 B&Q roller blinds 1 to each window, but the roof need insulating PDQ so may make a start sooner.  I'll order up some sheets for installing after the track gets laid in August at least it will then be ready for the colder weather and save on the heating.

[Mike]

Hi Barnaby, no problem with the heat in my hooby room. It's not getting built until 30th of this month so it's the great outdoors for me.

[81A Oldoak]

 Good morning.

 

Yesterday the pride of my fleet Ixion Fowler speared itself to the track.  It moved off then stopped with the wheels spin/slipping. I shut down the power and lifted the loco up and found that the brake rigging had popped of one spigot and dropped down onto the track and was grabbed by the sleeper stopping the loco. 

I spun the loco over and tweezered the rigging back on and applied a dab of my wife's clear nail varnish to keep it in place.  I probably should have used some copydex but I had the nail varnish out for something else, no not for my nails before you ask.  I was locking some small screws.

Fowler back on track and working.

 

Shuffling about  sorting out my fiddle board area. 

Mike,

Let me know if you need a replacement rod.

Chris

[railwayrod]

Hi Barnaby.

 

My layout Ramchester is situated in a shed which is fully insulated. The building is double skinned with insulation in between, the roof has a 10" layer  of fibre glass in it and the floor is insulated as well. Add to this the two windows in the building are UVPC double glazed units and all in all there is not much more I could have done to keep the place warm in the winter and cool in the summer. However despite this the shed still gets hot even when the door is open and the fan is working flat out! In the winter months I have an electric radiator with a built in timer which I can set like central heating. I keep this on in the winter by having the clock set for about 2hours in the early morning and about 4 - 5 hours in the afternoon which keeps the place dry and warm for most of the time on a setting of 1 or 2 but this can be boosted by turning up the dial to 4 or 5 should it get really cold. Most of my modelling is done in the afternoon so this works out very well.

 

In short do what you can to make your "playroom" as comfortable as possible but have some sort of contingency plan when the weather reaches its extremes

 

Good luck in your new room when it is ready.

 

Rod

[Barnaby]

Cheers gents.

 

Rod the room is built and inhabited I just got a bit lazy with the foam insulation finishing work by coping with the 3 fans previously. 

I do have oil filled heaters set up so the winter colder months have been fine just costing a little more through the heat loss.

These weather extremes have pushed the comfort zone over the edge so I'll make a start with the roof.

 

Chris,  Thanks for the offer but it went back in place fine and so far it's stayed put being only out of action for 5 mins max.

Edited July 2, 2015 by Barnaby

[Barnaby]

Here a handy set of mobile storage drawers.  They were 11 drawers high on castors but I removed 3 drawers, they simply unclip and lift off so easy to do.  They now will slide under my layout and be out the way and help to tidy the bench layabout items up.  The drawers will slide completely out so I can take selected drawers out and move about with them.  It's amazing how much stuff I have cleared and what's more the drawers are translucent so you get an idea of what's inside each one.

 

Definitely one of the better aids I have bought.

 

PS.  the calming colours also help to make the hobby room fill with all the joys of a rainbow ahhhhhhhhh.

Edited July 30, 2015 by Barnaby

[daifly]

It's here:

http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/really-useful-11-drawer-rainbow-storage-tower/572895-1000

Dave

[Barnaby]

Yes that's them Dave but I only paid just over £30 on an offer from the Range shop of a price match and they did.

[Barnaby]

Well the tracks laid and all wired in thanks to Peter Smith of Kirtley Models. 

Had a little hic-up which was sorted by giving the LH100 throttle a reset but is still requiring a little more tweaking on a couple of the point switches.

 

Now to start confirming where the scenic buildings are going to go. as some spaces now look a little smaller than on the plan.

Probably going to do the fiddle yard and retaining walls first.  Will it be 6 wagons and a loco or 5 wagons, that is the question.

I'll be getting the loco carcass [JLTRT D20] & 6 wagons out tomorrow to test for space and view block.

 

It's going to be tight.

[Mike]

Looking forward to some photos.

[alant]

Well the tracks laid and all wired in thanks to Peter Smith of Kirtley Models. 

Had a little hic-up which was sorted by giving the LH100 throttle a reset but is still requiring a little more tweaking on a couple of the point switches.

 

Now to start confirming where the scenic buildings are going to go. as some spaces now look a little smaller than on the plan.

Probably going to do the fiddle yard and retaining walls first.  Will it be 6 wagons and a loco or 5 wagons, that is the question.

I'll be getting the loco carcass [JLTRT D20] & 6 wagons out tomorrow to test for space and view block.

 

It's going to be tight.

Sounds like a very successful day. It's amazing how spaces shrink once the track gets laid though !

 

Looking forward to some pics.

[81A Oldoak]

Sounds like a very successful day. It's amazing how spaces shrink once the track gets laid though !

 

Looking forward to some pics.

I agree. Somehow the points grow longer and the radii lengthen when the track is laid.

[Barnaby]

Been playing trains most of the day. Trying out some of the fiddle yard walling to get clearances set.  Added some wooden barriers across each end of the layout to defeat the "KEEP ALIVE FEATURE"  sods law will dictate that if I turn my back my beautiful Fowler will try to escape the layout confines.  Next job is to get the various buffer stops built and get them fitted so they can doo the job they were intended for.

 

Did another hoover and close inspection for debris but not too sure the sense in this as I soon will be adding copious amounts of ballast.   But will need to paint up the track and rust over the rails with either my air brush or a couple of rattle cans first.

 

I've got one electrical problem with one point that I need to look at.  The loco causes the Lenz to flash OFF OFF OFF as soon as it touches the frog.  It does this no matter which way I approach the frog and with the sound off I think I can hear the wheels short on the frog.  The keep alive runs the loco through until clear when all settles down again.    So far I've found if I pick the loco up and place it on the track past the point it works perfectly until it reaches the frog.  Does anyone have any ideas on what is not right?  In the morning I'll be confirming all the point wiring just in case.

 

A couple of photos.

 

 

 

[peter220950]

Sounds like the switch on the point motor is wired the wrong way around so that there's the wrong polarity on the frog - the keep alive will just keep the loco going over it just the same as if it had no power at all, but I wouldn't encourage to to keep running over it, as I don't know what it might do to the decoder.

 

Peter

 

 

P.S. the layouts looking good, great to see it starting to develop now the new shed's built.

[railwayrod]

Nice looking layout Barnaby. Is the track Peco or have you put it together from C & L bits? I had trouble with my Peco switch being wired the wrong way so hopefully this is what is wrong with your point )assuming you are using this manufacturers product.

 

Looking forward to seeing some more pictures as the layout develops - nice work.

 

Rod

[Barnaby]

Thanks for the encouragement Gents.

 

Yeah theorising a bit last night and with your confirmations here it looks like it is a simple wire cross over so I'll be going out in a little while into the workshop to unscrew and swap over the feeds to the switch, 20 seconds work I'm advised.

I'll be back.......................

 

PS. Rod I'm Peco with some flex lengths from C&L.

Edited August 14, 2015 by Barnaby

[Mike]

Great to see how things are progressing looking forward to more updates.

[Barnaby]

Ahaaaa It was the wires being swapped over so simples to fix.   

I mentioned  theorising to Peter above and I did what I used to tell my engineers to do with an awkward problem step away grab a drink and have a think.

 My guess is that the Frog polarity is switching the opposite way round, which if the Frog is insulated it could do and would give the exact fault I am getting.
ie before and after the Frog the polarity is correct but instead of getting a +ve and a –ve over the Frog I get either 2 +ve or 2 –ve.
What do you think, is that a possibility, it’s something for me to check tomorrow.

 
It should be Y - G -  O   and not  O - G - Y  for correct operation see >>>

[Barnaby]

Been doing some more adding sleepers, vacuuming, realigning the tracks slightly to make a little more space for buildings.
Then,
Bugg3r......................................... while reading my 0 gauge gazette I found this  Megapoints fantastic and is just what I wanted a mimic board or handset operation for my layout.
Had a chat with the owner Dave Fenton who explained that yes his system would communicate with the Hoffman point motors I have but suggested I use some r/c servos at £1.50 a pop.
 
I may be selling off the Hoffmans [8 off] if I decide to take him up.  The beauty is that I will be able to route set either on the mimic panel or directly through the handset and as I always wanted to see the route led displayed that will be great.
Go have a look here I think it is very good and would have gone that route before if I'd known about it.  >>> http://loolee.org/megapoints/

 

 

Update ORDER PLACED.

[81A Oldoak]

Been doing some more adding sleepers, vacuuming, realigning the tracks slightly to make a little more space for buildings.

Then,

Bugg3r......................................... while reading my 0 gauge gazette I found this  Megapoints fantastic and is just what I wanted a mimic board or handset operation for my layout.

Had a chat with the owner Dave Fenton who explained that yes his system would communicate with the Hoffman point motors I have but suggested I use some r/c servos at £1.50 a pop.

 

I may be selling off the Hoffmans [8 off] if I decide to take him up.  The beauty is that I will be able to route set either on the mimic panel or directly through the handset and as I always wanted to see the route led displayed that will be great.

Go have a look here I think it is very good and would have gone that route before if I'd known about it.  >>> http://loolee.org/megapoints/

 

 

Update ORDER PLACED.

I've been looking at the Megapoints website. I like the signal bounce, though the pause to simulate the signalman taking up the slack  when the signals are pulled-off is not, I think, so convincing. Where will you source the RC servos?

 

Chris

[Barnaby]

Chris if you follow the link he suggests suitable sources for servos etc.  He's well worth a call he's a real enthusiast and a whiz with the computer stuff while being extremely helpful.

 

Best

 

EDIT.  see under his FAQ's he gets them from HobbyKing last price at £1.35 ea.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Barnaby