Buckingham West

[Richard Mawer]

EVENLEY

 

 

Monday, early evening. The 18.25 Auto train for Brackley Road simmers in the bay; the milk van behind for later collection.

 

A pannier waits at the head of the up “Fly” (Pick Up Goods) in the goods loop. It leaves to Buckingham West at 18.30. Even though its a long train today the yard is looking pretty full.

 

The continuous run (known as Charlton Junction) is in the cutting below.

 

Static grass, bushes, trees, fences and telegraph poles still to be installed.

[Richard Mawer]

BRACKLEY ROAD

 

 

The 17.41 Branch Passenger from Buckingham West has arrived behind a 45xx with vintage stock. Note the Cordon gas tanks wagon at the end of the carriage siding behind the platform.

 

The tunnel mouth is where the lines from Buckingham West dive under. Below that are the actual junctions of Charlton Junction.

 

The amount of scenery still to is obvious.

[Richard Mawer]

THE TICKING CLOCK

 

Its been a long time coming, but there is progress. At the start of lockdown I was doing a lot on The Stonethwaite and Bainrigg Railway (our 7mm narrow gauge - also on RMWeb). Since lockdown eased I have been incredibly busy at work. The busiest I can remember. I am not moaning because I am lucky. Many people aren’t. We got no Govt help and feared we would have no business left, but we’ve been incredibly lucky.

 

I have managed some BW time though. Mostly I have been learning to program Arduinos. If you don’t know, they are small computers. At this juncture I want to publicly thank Mark Riddoch for his incredible patience with me and for his immense help.

 

Apart from his massive help in programming, he has previously built the level crossing system and the block bell indicators with arduinos. I wanted to learn how to do it.

 

My first aim was to build something to check that the points on the entry to Banbury loops were set correctly. So far I have designed it and got the program to work, but not built it. But it will be first.

 

I then made a fastclock to display on each panel rather than use the one clock on the shelf. This fastclock also shows the day and the freight day being used. The master clock also allows the speed to be varied. It also remembers its last settings when it powers down.

 

 

My final project has been to make an automatic Banbury operator. This interacts with the Charlton Junction operator including block bells and block instruments. This has proved to be a massive project! Its taken me weeks! And will be another entry.

 

Keep safe!

[Neal Ball]

That sounds good @Richard Mawer, I particularly like the idea of a fast clock, I need one for Henley.

[Richard Mawer]

37 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

That sounds good @Richard Mawer, I particularly like the idea of a fast clock, I need one for Henley.

 

I’ll happy send you the code. You just need an Arduino Uno or Nano, some stripboard, the right lcd screen and some buttons. Plus a 5v dc supply.

[Neal Ball]

33 minutes ago, Richard Mawer said:

 

I’ll happy send you the code. You just need an Arduino Uno or Nano, some stripboard, the right lcd screen and some buttons. Plus a 5v dc supply.

I can feel a shopping list coming on! I have the strip board, nothing else!

[Richard Mawer]

GOING UNDERGROUND

 

There have been two problems preventing the disappearance of Banbury. One was the need to build a hill. The second was to verify route selection.

 

If you are wondering what I am talking about, yes its loops. Banbury (and beyond) is represented by 10 storage loops and a dumbbell to reverse the trains. To cause the illusion when operating the layout, the Charlton Junction operator will exchange block bells with an automatic operator called Banbury and will send trains to Banbury by directing them into a tunnel. After that I didn’t want any conscious actions - out of sight, out of mind. So the loops and dumbbell are under scenery. All the operator does is to turn a dial to the letter mentioned in the timetable and drive the train into the tunnel.

 

The scenery is formed from shaped high density insulation foam sheets (offcuts from a mate) covered with Readigrass vinyl backed grass mat. This is moulded to shape with a hair drier.

 

 

 

 

 

The continuous run, known as Charlton Junction, is in the cutting.

 

 

 

The line between Buckingham and Evenley is at the higher level at the back.

 

But before I could enclose the loops, I had to have confidence that the point ladder at the entrance to the loops had selected the correct route each time. These points are changed by Peco surface mount solenoids from a diode matrix and capacitor discharge unit. I’ve arranged it so no more than 4 points need to change, no matter what, but just every now and then, 1 fails to throw. When they are out of sight I have no way of knowing and then a train drives full speed up the back of another, or just gets in the wrong loop. I needed some way of knowing what route was actually set.

 

Mark Riddoch came up with answer. As the frog polarity of each point is changed by a micro switch, what if we could use the polarities to check the actual point positions? He suggested an Arduino could do it. Mark has built all the other Arduino boards in use, but I wanted to learn. So back in lockdown 1, I started. And in lockdown 2, I’ve finally done it! It “reads” the frog polarities and when they represent a successful route, the display shows it.

 

 

 

 

 

The led F confirms that the dialled F has actually worked.

 

As long as the diplay is the same as the dial, all is good. By the way, the red leds around the dial indicate whether that loop is occupied. There is still room for human error, but there is now enough info to reduce accidents. 

 

The right hand side dial is for trains leaving Banbury for Charlton Junction and the rest of the layout.

 

The 3 leds in the middle light in turn as an Up train makes its way round the dumbbell towards the tunnel mouth.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2020 by Richard Mawer

[Richard Mawer]

Some of you will know that I am involved in another layout - an O-16.5 Narrow Gauge called The Stonethwaite and Bainrigg Railway. It is on RM Web as well. The layout is going to its first exhibition on 5th March this year at the Gauge O Guild's exhibition in Kettering. Please either check us out on this site or if possible come along and see us in Kettering.

 

Cheers

Rich

[Neal Ball]

48 minutes ago, Richard Mawer said:

Some of you will know that I am involved in another layout - an O-16.5 Narrow Gauge called The Stonethwaite and Bainrigg Railway. It is on RM Web as well. The layout is going to its first exhibition on 5th March this year at the Gauge O Guild's exhibition in Kettering. Please either check us out on this site or if possible come along and see us in Kettering.

 

Cheers

Rich

 

Welcome back to RMWeb, its been a while.

 

Good luck with the exhibition.

[MarshLane]

@Richard Mawer How are you progressing with Buckingham West?

Rich

[Richard Mawer]

Guys

 

Thanks for the messages. All is fine here. Busy but fine. Buckingham West is much the same, but under used. Covid got me out of the habit of operator evenings and I need to get that sorted. To be honest most of my time has been taken up with business which has been very busy I’m happy to say, and our exhibition layout, The Stonethwaite and Bainrigg Railway. This features on RM WEB too.