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Kirkallanmuir


Caley Jim
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I'm liking the interlaced turnouts. A typically parsimonious use of timber.  I wonder if any survive nowadays.

 

My first 2mm layout had three of them. Fun to make, tricky to ballast.

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I'm liking the interlaced turnouts. A typically parsimonious use of timber.  I wonder if any survive nowadays.

 

My first 2mm layout had three of them. Fun to make, tricky to ballast.

 

Funny that. The real things were real b*st*rds when it came to keeping the ballast packed. Their big advantage was that the chairs were parallel to the sleepers and so you didn't need to use wide timbers, which were, of course, disproportionally expensive.

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I'm liking the interlaced turnouts. A typically parsimonious use of timber.  I wonder if any survive nowadays.

 

My first 2mm layout had three of them. Fun to make, tricky to ballast.

A report on a trip to America in the early 1900's by Donald Mathieson, General Manager at the time, commented on the use there of through timbers, but stated that the Caley preferred interlaced timbers as they held the gauge better.   The timbers were not 9'0" long, but 8'11" as there was a tax on imported timber 9'0" long and over!

Jim W

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Second installment.

A couple of photos of the layout with tracklaying almost completed, One from the goods yard (up) end and the other from the interchange sidings.

 

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Those turnouts on the centre board which would be under control of the signal box are operated by wire in tube from  a home made lever frame, while those on the outer boards are activated by memory wire activators via micro switches operated by the respective levers.

 

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One end of the lever frame before painting.  The open hole carries the rod on which the micro switches are mounted.  The pins on the lower ends of some levers are to engage in the locking frame, which has been designed, but not yet built.

 

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The lever frame in situ with its track diagram behind it.  the broken lines are tracks not controlled by the frame.

 

Turnouts relating  to movements in the interchange sidings and goods yard are activated again by memory wire activators and worked by banks of switches on their respective end boards.

 

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The goods yard bank of switches with its diagram.  Black switches are spst operating the turnouts and grey switches are spdt c/o operating uncoupling magnets.

 

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A couple of the memory wire turnout actuators.  Crude and rather Heath-Robinson, but they work and have so far proved reliable.  The power resistors are to limit the current from the 12v supply so as not to overheat the wire, which would destroy its properties.  The spring returns the wire to its original length as it cools when the power is turned off and so returns the turnout.

 

Next up will be details of the turntable.

 

Jim

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Great to see this Jim. That lever frame looks nice I must dig out the article on building it. Any thoughts about adding interlocking?

 

Regarding interlaced sleepering my understanding is that it worked well at first but as the weights of rolling stock and engines increased the spacing of sleepers reduced from 3ft to avoid needing even deeper rails which made the ballasting and keeping a level top much harder so the use of wider through timbers was adopted.

 

Don

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............. Any thoughts about adding interlocking?

 

Regarding interlaced sleepering my understanding is that it worked well at first but as the weights of rolling stock and engines increased the spacing of sleepers reduced from 3ft to avoid needing even deeper rails which made the ballasting and keeping a level top much harder so the use of wider through timbers was adopted.

 

Don

I built an interlocking table for the lever frame I have on Connerburn, using transverse bars activated by each lever. These have notches in them which engage with pins on horizontal bars, one bar for each interlock.  The pins and the notches are tapered so that moving the lever slides the transverse bar and pushes across the associated horizontal bar(s).  This either pushes the pins on this bar into the notches in the bars for the lever(s) to be locked, or moves them out of the notches for the ones to be released.  Much the same as the tappet system on the prototype.    As I said, I have the design of the interlocking for this frame drawn up, but haven't got round to building it yet.  the table carrying it will be bolted onto the underside of the lever frame.

 

You may well be right about the use of interlaced sleepering, but it's correct for the period i'm modelling 

 

Jim

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Jim,

I am also using Memory Wire actuators on Modbury.  Because I had some I have built mine on 5mm acrylic sheet (which can be joined with "Canopy Glue"), the electronics have been built up on a piece of veroboard and are stuck to the Memory Wire actuator board with servo tape (a thin sponge with strong double sided tape on each side).

 

To power these actuators I am using a 13.8 volt supply which is capable of delivering up to 15 amps - It is actually a power supply that I used to use for my other hobby (radio controlled car racing) to provide power for chargers/tyre warmers/etc.

 

Because the voltage supplied is far higher than I need to supply the actuators, the circuit I have built (in conjunction with John Russell of the Midland Area Group) uses 2 x 12ohm 3 Watt resistors in series to bring the voltage down a bit before hitting a 5 volt regulator, the Memory Wire being fed with 5 volts and is in series with another 12 ohm 3 Watt resistor.  The current drawn by each actuator is about 0.3 amps.  For the turnouts I have a relay in parallel with the actuator which is switching the crossing vee polarity.

 

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Original TOU / Actuator with a relatively large base area (Actuator horizontal), drive to TOU by thick guitar string to provide flexibility to compensate for the over-run of the crank.  The thin yellow and blue wires are connecting the loose heel switch pivots to the relevant stock rail feeds.  Despite how it looks the blue one is NOT connected to the Memory Wire!!

 

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Alternative TOU / Actuator with the Actuator vertical allowing a smaller base area.  This particular one is switching the catch point at the exit to the goods loop/yard.

 

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Electronics stepping the voltage down through a 5 volt regulator to feed the Memory Wire

 

Ian

Edited by Ian Smith
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Hi Ian,

 

As you can tell, my actuators are on the crude side of stone age compared with yours!  As far as the electronics are concerned i am an ignoramus in that department - volts, amps and ohms I can cope with, after that I'm out of my depth!  ;-(

 

Jim

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Hi Ian,

 

As you can tell, my actuators are on the crude side of stone age compared with yours!  As far as the electronics are concerned i am an ignoramus in that department - volts, amps and ohms I can cope with, after that I'm out of my depth!  ;-(

 

Jim

Jim,

My actuators are probably Bronze Age then :-)  I too am lacking in the electronics understanding side of things, hence a collaboration with John Russell who is an electronics guru doing that sort of thing for a living.  I originally had a play with a Memory wire kit (based on your article in the 2mm Magazine), and had some concerns with the temperature that some of the components were reaching (because of the 13.8 volt supply).  John advised the 2 resistors to drop the voltage to the regulator (and hence the temperature of that component), and also suggested the capacitor each side of the regulator too.  I decided assembling the components on a separate board would allow me to have a spare board or two available to facilitate a swap out in the event of any future failure.

 

The turnouts are connected to the actuators in their "Normal" position (i.e. the spring will return them to Normal), so the current draw only occurs when they are "Reversed".  I assume that you have yours connected in the same fashion.

 

Ian

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I know of a few people that have experienced problems with memory wire activation when exhibiting, seemingly because the ambient temperature in the exhibition hall has been very different from that of the place where the layout normally lives. One might expect that a hall would always be warmer with the press of visitors, but I know of at least one location where draughts produced an even more unwelcome chilling effect.

 

If you are intending to exhibit, it might be worth doing a few experiments using both a heater and a fan to replicate various conditions. Someone did suggest that providing a cover might at least provide more stable conditions for the wire.

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The turnouts are connected to the actuators in their "Normal" position (i.e. the spring will return them to Normal), so the current draw only occurs when they are "Reversed".  I assume that you have yours connected in the same fashion.

 

Ian

Yes, they are and I make it my practice to return the turnouts to normal as soon as the movement is complete provided the turnout will not require to be reversed again for the next move.

 

Next installment:

 

The turntable is modelled on the 50ft Cowans-Sheldon 'table at Carstairs and is driven by a Clearbox motor from Rapid, mounted on a sub-base fixed under the baseboard so that it can be removed easily for maintenance if necessary.  The sub-base also has the well modelled on it.  As the table only has one track leading to it and so will always make 180° turns, it is worked from a dpdt switch in the Interchange sidings bank so that it rotates alternately clockwise and anticlockwise.   An arm on the shaft engages with a long-arm microswitch at each end of the throw which switches in a diode, cutting off the power, but setting it up ready to rotate in the opposite direction when the switch is reversed.  The radius of the arm is 100mm (the diameter of the 'table) and the micro switches are on adjustable bases.  this has resulted in very fine adjustment of the stopping positions being achieved such that it now stops reliably and accurately every time.

 

A couple of views of the arrangement under the baseboard.

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Power is fed from the same supply as the turnout actuators, the speed being governed through a circuit on the Rapid website to which i was kindly directed by my consulting electronic engineer, the late Paul Martin.   It takes about 40 seconds to do a ½ revolution, which is a reasonable compromise between prototype and operating convenience!

 

Above decks, a perspex block is fixed to the shaft which has three holes in it.  the deck of the table is mounted on a further perspex block which fits over this and has three pins to engage in the holes.  The weight of the table is taken on two brass skids which ride on the rail in the well.  Not only do they control the height of the table, they also carry current from two sections of the well rail to the rails on the table, such that the latter are only energised when the table is aligned with the track and are the same polarity as the approach track.

 

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The two perspex blocks, the pins and the skids can be seen in this view with the deck removed.

 

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The 'table before painting.   The girders are etches of my own design.  Sorry about the track rubber in the well at the back.   It was propping up the deck for the last photo and I forgot to remove it.  ;-(

 

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After painting and the addition of the walkway around the well.

 

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391 on the table with the buffer stop in place and scenic base beginning to encroach on the left.

 

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Finally, a shot from the operator's side with the, as yet unpainted, retaining wall sitting in its place.

 

Since these shots were taken the scenic base along the front of this middle board has been built up, but that is as far as this area hes got.

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For a beginner, Jim, you're showing a lot of promise!

 

Tim

Hi Tim,

 

With a bit of 'practice'*, one of these days I might be nearly as good as you!

* Tim knows what I mean.   :D

 

Jim

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Probably the first 2mm article I came across was one of Jim's in the Modeller. You can tell how long ago it was as to demonstrate the size of the lovely little wagons they were posed along side the classic coin - an old thrupenny bit!

I remember they had home made W irons with a centre popped bearing. I followed the article and made some myself. I could never get them to work:-(

Thankfully I joined the Association and you could buy W irons and bearings:-)

 

Jerry

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Echo Gareth's remark about 391 it is a little beauty and the paint job is stunning.

 

I agree with your comment about returning levers to normal after making a move saves a lot of silly movements.

 

Don

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I remember they had home made W irons with a centre popped bearing. I followed the article and made some myself. I could never get them to work:-(

Thankfully I joined the Association and you could buy W irons and bearings:-)

 

Jerry

It was either home made or nothing in those days! ;-/   It was also a case of loose (disc) wagon wheels and cut and pin-point your own axles from hardened steel rod - not easy to do and get concentric when all I had was a Black and Decker drill!    It did take a bit of fine adjusting to get them to run freely without them dropping out.

I still have all of these wagons, except what Sir Eric Hutchinson's drawing called a '6-wheeled carriage truck', which in fact the Caley called a 'scenery truck' (Dia. 92 I now know thanks to the CR wagon book).  Its rather fragile styrene sides disintegrated eventually.  (Memo: must do the etch artwork for one of these).  They now all have etched W-hangers and some are compensated, though I've become convinced that that is not needed on 4 wheeled vehicles.    The little swivel wagon you mention currently does service as a runner for an open with an overhanging load of planks, but I intend to do an etch for a similar one and have a rake of them carrying a load of tree trunks or the like..

 

Thanks to Gareth and Don for their kind comments on 391.  She's rather a favourite of mine and is a type pretty much unique to the Caley.  They had several classes of them and found them useful for work in colliery etc. lines which had tight curves.

 

Jim

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The scenic aspect of the layout was started by building the bridges carrying a minor road across the colliery end.  These span the main line and and the down headshunt, the colliery branch (forming the scenic break for both of these) and the throat of the interchange sidings.  I didn't want anything to grand for these and found this prototype, of which there are two examples still extant, over the trackbed of the former Symington, Biggar and Broughton Railway (latterly the Peebles branch of the CR).

 

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The only way I could see of producing the girders and fenced parapets in anything like a neat and regular manner was to have them etched, so they went on a sheet along with the turntable sides.

 

The abutments are built with a shell of 40thou styrene clad in stone embossed sheet.  I tried several ways of producing 'bull faced' quoins, but none of them satisfied me, so I ended up making them plain using 20thou styrene and fitting the stonework around them.

 

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The nearest abutment was built first and painted to check that I was going to be happy with the result.  The second pair of abutments have had the stone cladding added, while the two far ones are just the basic shell.  The decks are 60thou and slot into the top of the abutments so that they will be fairly easy to remove if access to any of the turnouts underneath is required.

 

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Here the stonework has been completed, the sides have been attached to the decks and some basic scenic work has been started.  All the parts of the bridges are just sitting in place.

 

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A rather cruel close up of the bridge over the colliery branch taken from the colliery side.

 

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The finished bridges and associated retaining walls painted and fixed in place.  The roadway has a covering of card, with strips of paper across the joints with the decks.  A slurry of thinned down DAS has since been spread over this to form the road surface.  Should a deck need to be removed, it will be a simple matter to slit through the paper with a scalpel and then repair the DAS afterwards.

 

The scenic groundwork has been built up ready for texturing in this area, along with the area in front of the turntable.  At the back the road has been laid and the docks for the cattle landing and agricultural merchants warehouse are in place.

 

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The structure in the right background is a rough mock-up of the warehouse building.

 

That was as far as things had got to when a move of house became imminent and the layout was boxed away for some 18 months.   Now that we have moved it has only recently restarted.  In the meantime I made inroads into my gloat box and spent time designing some more etched wagon kits. 

 

 

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