Balley-yn-Eas

[Chris Williamson]

And then there were two:

 

 

A Dundas DM28 next, when time allows. 

[Chris Williamson]

And then there were three: A Dundas DM28 added to the rake.  Time and patience are required to get everything square.  These kits are not to be rushed.  I've been very happy with the end result.  Each has been better than the last and I think I may have finally masted the art of assembling Greenwich couplings reliably.

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

12 minutes ago, Chris Williamson said:

And then there were three: A Dundas DM28 added to the rake.  Time and patience are required to get everything square.  These kits are not to be rushed.  I've been very happy with the end result.  Each has been better than the last and I think I may have finally masted the art of assembling Greenwich couplings reliably.

 

 

These look excellent.  I’d definitely agree that taking some time is a good idea I must admit I did rather rush the two Dundas Bogie coaches I built earlier in the year, and I’m afraid it shows (photos on my thread).  Well done with this trio, Keith.

[Chris Williamson]

As Woody noted in a recent post, other things often get in the way of modelling progress, or Tinkering as it is sometimes called.  Considering my next moves with the Rheynn Eas Mine Engine House has occupied my thinking for nearly a year now, with nothing to show for it.  The Christmas and New Year break from domestic tasks has provided the impetuous to stop staring at the box of servo parts and get off my ar*e and do something about it.  I finally figured a way of mounting the servo within the building.  I'd previously thought about mounting it below the building in the fiddle-yard area, but couldn't think of a satisfactory way of completing the necessary mechanical linkages.  So, here we are:

 

 

[Chris Williamson]

Wiring slots have now been cut through both the foamboard landscape structure the Engine House sits on and the fiddle-yard base.  Everything is wired up with the servo controller inside the main control panel and there's a switch mounted in the panel acting as an on/off switch for the servo operation.  Still to come: window frames, painting and final fixing of the beam assembly that's currently held in place with double-sided sticky tape.  I need to extract the beam to be able to paint it prior to final assembly.  A couple of short videos follow:

 

 

 

[Chris Williamson]

Prevarication (Manx: Traa dy  liooar) -

 

Over a year ago, well on reflection, possibly nearly two years ago, I purchased a cheap set of LED lights from B&Q.  These are the sort intended for fitting out of sight under wall-mounted kitchen cupboards and the like.  They were neither well made nor very expensive.  Pondering them for some weeks, I began to wonder why I'd bothered.  They looked more trouble than they were worth for the few pounds I'd seemingly wasted on them.  I also began to realise that I should have paid more attention to how the fiddle yard (under the Mine) was to be illuminated at the time of building (see also: Hindsight).

 

If you've been following progress here and not lost interest due to the lack of it, you'll know that Time Passes.  This is how it's got to be 2023 already!

 

However, energised by the success with the Engine House servo, I determined it was time to banish the darkness 'underground', so to speak.  A bit of electrical butchering followed by the liberal use super-glue and Lo, there was Light!

 

 

 

[Chris Williamson]

With the financial year end only just over two months away Hunslet must be very pleased with the record number of recent deliveries out of their works.  Britomart and Nesta have now arrived at Rheynn Eas Mine.  In typical and hopelessly optimistic Manx fashion the directors ordered not one but two Quarry Hunslets to shuffle wagons on the two short sidings that serve the mine.  On reflection, perhaps it wasn't that daft an idea as, doubtlessly, one or other will always be out of service and waiting months at a time for spare parts from the Adjacent Island.

 

Warning: Yet more gratuitous Quarry Hunslet footage follows!

 

For those who haven't yet had enough of people posting about their new locos, here's a badly shot, slightly out of focus contribution to the genre:

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by Chris Williamson

[Mike Buttell]

The little hunslets are really lovely Chris. Have you seen the video of one of them with sound card added?

[Chris Williamson]

21 hours ago, Mike Buttell said:

The little hunslets are really lovely Chris. Have you seen the video of one of them with sound card added?

I've seen a couple of Tramfabriek videos on how they have fitted DCC sound.  They are amazing.  But the best, by a long, long way, has to be one by Rob Bishop that Tramfabriek shared.

If you haven't seen this already then you do need to watch to the very end:

 

Best sound for Bachmann Britomart Quarry Hunslet.

[Chris Williamson]

I turns out I may not have vainly whiled away endless hours scrolling through various model railway Facebook posts.  Those with memories that go back that far, as well as the inclination to keep track of my sporadic and sometimes unrelated ramblings, may recall me fretting about window frames.  Yesterday evening I came across the following short instructional film in the N Gauge Forum:

 

Sticky Label Window Frames

 

I might just have an hour or two to experiment, so I'm off now to root through the stationery draw.

[Chris Williamson]

The results of a quick crude test!  Scrap material used and just pushed into the opening.  I haven't stuck anything.  A pencil crayon was used to add some colour.  I'm pleased with how sharp the end result is, but still in two minds as to the need for something a tiny bit more three dimensional.  If I do pursue this approach, I'm thinking of using watercolour paints once the frame has been cut out.  A more solid colouring might help?  Thoughts and suggestions now sought.  Don't be shy.  I won't be offended.  Constructive criticism and suggestions all welcome.

 

 

[ian]

The close up is cruel but the first photo is fine. The uneven crayon coverage gives a good weatherbeaten effect. I like it.

[Chris Williamson]

Still pondering window frames, but encouraged by Ian's comment.  I'm considering making this a little more three-dimensional by adding an outer frame made from fine plastic strip from my stock of Evergreen supplies

 

Pondering, I have to say, is being interrupted by other priorities again:

a) the pressing need to refit the fast failing 35 year old kitchen inherited from the late aged parents - while the planning and decision making is consuming a disproportionate amount of time and energy the end result has to be right first time as I only intend doing this once;

b) having first promised my help well over a year ago, I have, since January, spent my Sundays assisting with a big re-lay of the 1:1 scale "Line that Runs Uphill to the Sea" - I should have known better at my age, but I'm sure the hard labour is good for the Soul!

 

Meanwhile I've conclude that the best way to make progress here is to tackle the job that's otherwise been annoying me most: Cf The motorisation of the beam engine and the fiddle yard lighting.

 

So to tackle the complete bodge of a temporary control panel fashioned from corrugated cardboard for the purpose of providing a quick and dirty mounting for the sectional switching.  This is where that ended up:

 

 

While it fulfilled it's primary purpose and allowed me to think a bit more about how to arrange the Mimic aspect (I'm using DCC Concepts Alpha Mimic)  it was never meant to last this long.  So a few evenings were spent drawing up a more practical design and this has been carefully transcribed onto a piece of scrap Hardboard cut to size.  Prototype number two, you could say.  The final panel will be fashioned from some acrylic sheet left over from a bathroom refit.  One day...

 

Stop scrolling and look the other way now if you're easily offended!

 

Meanwhile, on reflection, things have got a little out of hand and I've now to spend some time untangling a Rat's Nest and to tidy up the wiring into a more manageable arrangement.  The reality is worse than it looks.  This may take a little while...

 

 

 

Edited March 18, 2023 by Chris Williamson

[Keith Addenbrooke]

4 hours ago, Chris Williamson said:

The reality is worse than it looks.

 

 

 

Afraid “The reality is worse than it looks” definitely wins “quote of the day” from me, sorry.  I don’t know I’d be able to create that tangle in the first place, let alone sort it out.  Strong coffee, good music and regular repetitions of “It will be worth it” perhaps needed?  All the best, Keith.

Edited March 18, 2023 by Keith Addenbrooke

[ian]

Perhaps a case of "If it works, leave it alone."

[Mike Buttell]

I took one look at this and immediately congratulated myself for not being clever and for sticking with hand operated points 

[Chris Williamson]

As Mike quite rightly points out, I've been far too clever for my own good from start to finish with this layout.  A triumph of Enthusiasm over Common Sense.  Somewhere earlier in this never ending story I mentioned that this was originally intended to be a quick and simple layout that I could complete without too much effort, learn lessons and move on to something else - whatever that might be?  However, it has, through my naivety, taken on a life of its own that will doubtless run for several years yet.  That's frustrating in one way, but satisfying in another.  Perversely, I'm enjoying the slow progress and the challenges and the hard won and seemingly small successes that come along every few months.  I was very tempted in my own mind to follow Ian's suggestion "If it works...".  Alas the original cardboard panel was truly life expired and the related design work very much 'unfinished business'.  Having got this far there's still one element to add.  That needs me to tidy up to make room.  Having done that, I still like to transfer everything from the Hardboard to an Acrylic panel.

 

The choice of 12V DC control is the root cause of the complexity here.  Possibly foolishly, I've designed a layout that can be operated by two controllers at the same time.  To enable that, the track plan as been split into (a possibly ridiculous) 14 sections.  Each of these has a selector switch to allow track-power to come from one or other of the two controllers.  It's this that's the cause of the wiring headache.  If that wasn't enough and just to go properly over-the-top, each switch is going to have a pair of LEDs, one either side, to provide a better visual indication of the controller selected.  These LEDs still need to be wired in and I really do need to make room to safely poke the soldering iron in to do that!

 

Conversely, the point and signal operation is all DCC based using the DCC Concepts Cobalt Alpha setup.  Expensive and undoubtedly far more complex than wire-in-tube or some other hand operated system that would, lets face it be far more in keeping with the Narrow Gauge Ethos, it has, nonetheless, proved terribly easy to set up and only involves two DCC Bus wires to control everything.  Beautifully simple if not quite as simple as manual operation.  And let's quietly overlook what I've spent on this!  The corresponding Alpha Mimic has been equally straightforward to install.  Two small control boards daisy-chained to the DCC Bus, one each to match the two cobalt boxes, and a set of plug and play red/green LEDs to reflect the settings sent by the Cobalt.

 

Some pictures to help make sense of all of that.

 

The Cobalt boxes:

 

 

Two views of the Mimic with section and isolator switches:

 

 

The switch and two LEDs under the controller are to allow the selection of a plug-in walkabout controller on Track 2.

 

 

 

[ian]

There is always something truly heroic about over the top electrics for a simple layout. 👍

 

Well done that man.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Hi Chris,  thanks for the explanation - very informative.  As an old fashioned modeller, it’s interesting it reads the other way to me:

 

On 20/03/2023 at 11:06, Chris Williamson said:

I've designed a layout that can be operated by two controllers at the same time.  To enable that, the track plan as been split into (a possibly ridiculous) 14 sections.  Each of these has a selector switch to allow track-power to come from one or other of the two controllers. 

 

 

This sounds to me like classic ‘cab control’ DC wiring, which shouldn’t be such a problem (many larger layouts used rotary switches with more than two controllers).  For someone of my era it’s the other - more modern - features that add to the complexity.  These are the bits I didn’t understand…

 

On 20/03/2023 at 11:06, Chris Williamson said:

each switch is going to have a pair of LEDs, one either side, to provide a better visual indication of the controller selected.  These LEDs still need to be wired in and I really do need to make room to safely poke the soldering iron in to do that!

 

Conversely, the point and signal operation is all DCC based using the DCC Concepts Cobalt Alpha setup.  Expensive and undoubtedly far more complex than wire-in-tube or some other hand operated system that would, lets face it be far more in keeping with the Narrow Gauge Ethos, it has, nonetheless, proved terribly easy to set up and only involves two DCC Bus wires to control everything.  Beautifully simple if not quite as simple as manual operation.  And let's quietly overlook what I've spent on this!  The corresponding Alpha Mimic has been equally straightforward to install.  Two small control boards daisy-chained to the DCC Bus, one each to match the two cobalt boxes, and a set of plug and play red/green LEDs to reflect the settings sent by the Cobalt.

 

 

 

 

Do let us know how you sort it out, Keith.

[Chris Williamson]

2 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Hi Chris,  thanks for the explanation - very informative.  As an old fashioned modeller, it’s interesting it reads the other way to me:

 

 

This sounds to me like classic ‘cab control’ DC wiring, which shouldn’t be such a problem (many larger layouts used rotary switches with more than two controllers).  For someone of my era it’s the other - more modern - features that add to the complexity.  These are the bits I didn’t understand…

 

 

Do let us know how you sort it out, Keith.

 

 

Keith,  You're spot-on regarding the 'cab control' and it's true to say that the principle is easy to understand.  The 'complexity' is the physical manifestation of applying the simple principle to my ridiculous choice of 14 track sections compounded by my 'truly heroic' and 'over-the-top' desire to add the indicator LEDs to the section switches.  These days mental health professionals have names and labels for my kind.  I'm lucky enough to be old enough to have avoided being so identified in my younger years - but I digress!  It is the sheer quantity of copper that has to be employed and the lack of space within which to route it all that's taxing me.  That said, I can't escape the fact there's a certain justice at play here.

 

Another Digression for those still awake: At the tender age of 16 I started work in the Drawing Office of a company now long gone out of business.  They made control gear for big industrial electric motors.  There was only one drawing board and I was the only draughtsman.  The former, and at that time semi-retired, manager used to throw me scraps of graph paper covered in indecipherable spiders scrawl by way of designs.  Somehow I turned these into engineering drawings and parts orders for the men on the shop-floor to work to.  I had to learn fast and grow up quickly.  These were hard men who didn't like to be messed about, albeit they just about tolerated me.  At the same time the general manager was always on my back to keep costs to a minimum.  We used to buy-in ready made pressed steel cabinets for the contactor panels that didn't need to be specially built for harsh environments - mostly we built ships-deck gear, mostly MoD, and to a lesser extent supplied the now defunct NCB with flameproof kit for the coal mines - remember them?  So on one occasion I managed to order a cabinet nearly too small to fit the job - smaller was less expensive than larger you may be surprised to learn.  Cabinet arrives along with the other bought in materials for the job and I take my related drawings down to the print room we shared with our sister company who manufactured the motors.  Prints made, back to the shop-floor to deliver same to the foreman, who by chance, also happened to be our principle wire-man.  He looked at the drawings then the cabinet, then the kit to be fitted into it.  This was shortly followed by an explosion of expletives directed at me which, in summary, enquired how the F*** **** ******* ****** **** he was supposed to ***** ****** ****ing well fit all this ***  **** *** into this tiny little box.  I can't recall my answer but do recall departing the shop-floor ears burning.

 

Being a skilled fitter, the foreman, of course, worked wonders at somehow squeezing everything in.  I learned a lesson.  Now it's my turn to test my skills!

 

 

[Chris Williamson]

Still intermittently making progress with the wiring of the Mimic Panel.  Meanwhile, a break from other domestic duties, this morning, to assist with the unloading of fittings for the new shop at the 1:1 scale Narrow Gauge 'Layout'.  An opportunity to admire our efforts on this winter's track relay, all looking rather fine in the sunshine.  Though recycled plastic sleepers have been used, the work was a little heavier and a bit more involved than pinning Peco Flexitrack in place.  Some photographs of the Compare and Contrast variety for your amusement:

 

Into the first curves.

 

 

And then into the second set.

 

 

My efforts at 1:76 aren't in quite as sharp a focus here; probably for the best...  A reminder to me, too, that the Goods Shed still needs down-spouts and other details attaching.

 

 

[Mike Buttell]

The fantastic work at Groudle never fails to amaze me. It really is the diamond on the crown of our heritage railways. 

[Chris Williamson]

On 24/03/2023 at 21:17, Mike Buttell said:

The fantastic work at Groudle never fails to amaze me. It really is the diamond on the crown of our heritage railways. 

Lots of hard work, but fun too!  We were steam testing on works trains on Sunday afternoon after the last of the adjustments to fishplates and the like.

 

Waiting for a clear line to deliver and install the nameboard at Lime Kiln Halt:

 

 

Running back to Lhen Coan:

 

 

[Chris Williamson]

Elsewhere in this forum Woody has made mention of the tendency to be an Easily Distracted Modeller.  I suspect there are a number of us falling into that category.  My case isn't helped by having a degree of free time and the 'disposable' to indulge the habit, so long as it's done responsibly.  Will the manufacturers ultimately be forced to label and advertise as for alcohol sales and on-line gambling?  I digress.

 

A fine, dry sunny day saw me hiding in the garage to complete some long overdue rattle-can priming; ideal weather for the task.  Can you spot how many gauges and scales are represented here as well as the deliberate placement error?

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

2 hours ago, Chris Williamson said:

Elsewhere in this forum Woody has made mention of the tendency to be an Easily Distracted Modeller.  I suspect there are a number of us falling into that category.  My case isn't helped by having a degree of free time and the 'disposable' to indulge the habit, so long as it's done responsibly.  Will the manufacturers ultimately be forced to label and advertise as for alcohol sales and on-line gambling?  I digress.

 

A fine, dry sunny day saw me hiding in the garage to complete some long overdue rattle-can priming; ideal weather for the task.  Can you spot how many gauges and scales are represented here as well as the deliberate placement error?

 

A very nice painting booth.  Definitely agree today’s weather is perfect (it is here too).  This afternoon looks like painting for me too, Keith.

 

(PS: if something is amiss I didn’t spot it)