RMweb Gold traction Posted February 7, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 7, 2016 Another small fairly simple layout! While clearing out some rubbish from the attic I found an old Hornby turntable, which I had completely forgotten about. I'd been looking at trying to use a turntable for a while but couldn't think of anything. Looking at the trusty Peco OO Setrack plans book 4th edition plan 13 gave me what I wanted. Most of you are aware by now I like small layouts that are easily and quickly completed, if they drag on too long then I don't get them finished. This one seems to fit the bill! Unfortunately since the end of July it feels like someone has stuck a spike in the top of each arm and shoulder so progress has been very slow for me! Had the MRI scans and still none the wiser just have to keep taking the pain killers, although the pain never goes away! then putting on the ice packs when I get home from work and hope the consultant will find something in a few weeks time. Just taken ages to see anyone having done all of the weeks of acupuncture followed by weeks of physio and everything else the GP wanted me to do first! Anyway link to plan and artist impression below:- http://www.osbornsmodels.com/index.asp?function=PRODUCTIMAGEWINDOW&closedelay=20000&SRC=http://www.osbornsmodels.com/ekmps/shops/osbornsmodels/images/peco-setrack-oo-plan-13-a-locoshed-scheme-for-a-room-corner-[2]-22378-p[ekm]150x92[ekm].jpg http://www.osbornsmodels.com/index.asp?function=PRODUCTIMAGEWINDOW&closedelay=20000&SRC=http://www.osbornsmodels.com/ekmps/shops/osbornsmodels/images/peco-setrack-oo-plan-13-a-locoshed-scheme-for-a-room-corner-22378-p[ekm]500x245[ekm].jpg There is a front "picture frame" plywood surround that fits to the front edge, this has been removed while I work on the layout. The first thing was to try and hide as much of the Hornby turntable as it's very big and not that great looking, the automatic mechanism works brilliantly though, so wanted to use it, plus it was already in the attic. I cut a hole in the baseboard for the complete turntable to fit into, and then cut out a larger square of plywood which would cover the hole from below, a secondary baseboard if you like. I then fitted the turntable into the hole and fixed it to the secondary baseboard, which I have screwed to the top baseboard from below. This way I can just undo the screws holding the secondary baseboard and lower the whole turntable down and out if required. When I get round to putting the ballast down I should be able to hide all the rough edges but I think it's worked quite well in disguising the overly large Turntable and by lowering it down the thickness of the baseboard means the track is virtually flat running into it. The photo below shows the secondary baseboard a nice big square which the turntable is fitted to(also shows the wiring and Hornby point decoder) The top of the turntable was covered with some 2mm thick grey cardboard to hide as much as possible that didn't need to be used, everything was then painted black. The turntable is controlled by a loco decoder, with a stall rating of 1.5amps which seems to work very well, in the photo below I have fixed the decoder to the baseboard so if it does blow up it's easily accessible and changeable as it's a plug and socket type. This is a Gaugemaster decoder one of the Opti-Series not sure which it came in a second hand loco I bought. Reading the online manual though it showed that this decoder has a really great feature:- Use CV 133 and write a value of 0 - 255 to give the motor speed, this was just a balancing act and trying different values so the turntable wasn't really loud when running, but also didn't take 3hours to turn a complete revolution! You then have a number of choices of how it will work, I choose to use the first method in the manual. You set CV61 to a value of 64. When you select the loco address of this decoder, nothing will happen, you use Function number 2 which sets the motor going forwards and F3 sets the motor going in reverse at the fixed speed set in CV133. This works really well and will prevent anybody ramping up the speed to a stupidly high level! The buildings are Scalescenes, and I've fitted one of the Scalescenes inspection pits, which is also using the Black Cat Technologies lighting bar, you can just see the little control unit in the wiring photo above.:- The control panel is built and houses another Hornby accessory decoder which I have set to be a continuous output pulse to power the LED's. The switches go into the Merg accessory Encoder which sends the digital output down to the accessory decoder controlling the points. The output would normally be too low, so I've fed the output into a 5amp DCC booster, overkill I know but I wanted to see if it could be done! This way I have a completely separate 5amp DCC accessory bus, so lots of things can be added to this if I so wished. I now have to put some card in the corners to make it a nice curve and not the sharp edge it is at the minute. Then there are the low relief arches that will run round the back and right hand side of the layout. Followed by ballasting and detailing. Locos will then be added, all of which will hopefully be fitted with Hornby Sapphire Decoders as I bought a job lot at Christmas when they were really cheap! I also want to use the Auto cycle control function of that decoder and having the Hornby Elite it will make setting it up much easier. More reports as and when. Cheers Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold traction Posted February 28, 2016 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted February 28, 2016 Not done too much for me! My shoulders have been giving me grief since last July and have found out that I need to have both shoulders replaced, at 45 that isn't great news. I've been trying to get the cardboard buildings and bits cut out while I still can as I won't be able to do a lot after the operation, it's going to take a long time to build the muscle and movement back up so trying to get as much done as I can so it only leaves me with easy jobs afterwards. I have bought a load of little Hornby locos to run on this layout, all are at TMC for weathering and detailing so I've had to use a good friend to pose for me! This just shows how it's coming together so far, and to work out if thats the right position for the water tower. Looking into the sheds, there is a front picture frame to go round the layout which will frame the whole thing which will improve it no end, but as I need access for ballasting and the like no point in fitting it just yet. I may put in a little coal hut and staithes in front of this siding not too sure yet, it shouldn't block the view too much so you will still be able to see where Percy is below. Just looking towards far corner, lots of details to add! Updates when I get them done. Cheers Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry1975 Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Great work, I like it a lot, will be looking forward to more updates. Jerry. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Looking very good Ian, APART FROM THE GREEN THING, hahhahahha Excellent plan. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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