Easton, Isle of Portland

[KNP]

I thought so to when I was given it as a present, which was why I had to use it somewhere so as not to upset anyone, and realised it looked much better as a house, or in my case a farmhouse, than a station.

Sometimes you have to look beyond the box art and think ‘what if, I wonder if’ and so on.

Let the imagine loose....?

[NHY 581]

2 hours ago, Mick Bonwick said:

I have been prompted by a building shown in @KNP's thread to have a look back at some photographs taken of the layout built in the roof space at the Alton Model Centre. Kevin's extensive rework of a Hornby Skaledale building on Little Muddle looks like this:

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/120848-little-muddle/page/266/&tab=comments#comment-3992438

 

Without any work being done to it, but plonking it directly onto a suitable space on the layout at Alton, it looked like this:

 

 

This building was marketed as a station building, but I think it was far better suited to a country house identity. I now wonder how many other resin ready-to-plant buildings could be used for purposes other than the originally intended one. I know at least one other person ( NHY 581 ) who will have a view on this.

 

 

 

 

 

Well.......funny how you say that.....

 

They are fun to play about with.

 

1. All the buildings on Sheep Dip are Bachmann's Narrow gauge slate buildings. The exception being the Nissan huts and the corrugated store with legs surgically removed. 

 

2. Their Pendon Wanborough barn pops up on Bleat Wharf as a 'general brick building'.

 

3. Mutton utilises the Woody Bay station building. 

 

They are a very good starting point and benefit from a tweak and some weathering. 

 

 

Rob. 

[Tony Teague]

7 hours ago, john new said:

Thanks for the tip. Are there any heavier duty equivalents other than going for the chunky connectors like RS and similar supply? (or did do so last time I needed to buy some). 

 

I use these where, on my home-based layout, baseboards or parts of them need to be removable:

 

 

Clearly they require a tag strip and soldeing approach but they are >5A rated.

 

Tony

[Alister_G]

On 02/06/2020 at 11:36, Mick Bonwick said:

This building was marketed as a station building, but I think it was far better suited to a country house identity. I now wonder how many other resin ready-to-plant buildings could be used for purposes other than the originally intended one. I know at least one other person ( NHY 581 ) who will have a view on this.

 

I used the same building (with a repaint) as the stationmaster's house on Bakewell:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Al.

[Mick Bonwick]

The lifting flap saga continues.

 

The microswitches that I ordered have come out of quarantine and been fitted. I created a 2' long section leading up to the flap that would have power cut off if the flap is raised more than 2mm. The switches were wired up without any soldering being done, to test out my logic, and all was fine.

 

I set to and rewired the end of the main board where the switches were located, and solered evrything in place and tidied up the wiring where it came through the framework.

 

 

Out came the multi-meter again, just to check it all worked before playing testing trains (more than one vehicle at a time). Failure. Everything was double checked for bad connections and the cause seemd to be the right hand microswitch. I tested the contacts with the multi-meter and it was fine. Coffee.

 

See if you can spot what the difference is now. It is working perfectly.

 

 

Go on, laugh!

[Stubby47]

Easily done, they shouldn't make switches with all those contacts, can only lead to confusion.

[Mick Bonwick]

4 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

Easily done, they shouldn't make switches with all those contacts, can only lead to confusion.

 

I did have to connect up a set of wires to establish which contacts worked with which switch setting, but I'm used to doing that. Much of my electrical work depends on trying it out first to see what works. I am not capable of reading about it and understanding it straight away.

 

In this case the elcetrical connections were understood before I started work on the actual switches. What didn't work was the positioning of the switches. The right hand one in the first photograph wasn't actually being touched by the flap framework when the flap came down. Nowhere near it, in fact. I had to remove both switches from their initial position and fix them back in place an inch or two to the left (reversing the state of the left hand one to make room for the right hand one), as you can see from the number of holes in the framework.

 

This has all taken a couple of days, you understand. It all seems so quick and easy when you condense it into a couple of posts on here.

 

[Tony Teague]

Given that your layout will allow bi-directional running across the flap (if you'll pardon the xpression!), do the microswitches cut off power to sections on either side of it, or do the trains coming from the hinged flap side simply crash into the raised flap?

[Mick Bonwick]

55 minutes ago, Tony Teague said:

Given that your layout will allow bi-directional running across the flap (if you'll pardon the xpression!), do the microswitches cut off power to sections on either side of it, or do the trains coming from the hinged flap side simply crash into the raised flap?

 

At the moment they do just as you suggest - crash into the flap. The plan (yes, there is one) is for a similar arrangement on that side as well. The isolated section has been created but not yet separated from the main power feed. I have yet to work out where to place the switches. I will at least remember to put them where the flap will operate them. He said, confidently.

[Stubby47]

If you doubled the switches you've already fitted, then run the wires to the hinged side, that would save any other idea needed to be tried.

[Mick Bonwick]

10 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

If you doubled the switches you've already fitted, then run the wires to the hinged side, that would save any other idea needed to be tried.

 

Whilst that is certainly true, I'm hoping to avoid wires crossing the gap, either under the (planned) carpet or up and over the top. The alternative to wires crossing the gap is to run them around the layout, and I don't have enough wire for that!

 

Thank you for the suggestion, nonetheless.

[Stubby47]

You could add the switches to the flap, rather than the frame, and run the cables as you would for the on-flap rails.

[Tony Teague]

10 hours ago, Mick Bonwick said:

 

Whilst that is certainly true, I'm hoping to avoid wires crossing the gap, either under the (planned) carpet or up and over the top. The alternative to wires crossing the gap is to run them around the layout, and I don't have enough wire for that!

 

Thank you for the suggestion, nonetheless.

 

You would have thought by now, that with the miracle of DCC, someone would have invented a DCC microswitch that could just be connected to the local BUS - or maybe a wireless microswitch? - or bluetooth?

[Mick Bonwick]

Still working in the area of the infamous lifting flap. One of the aspects of this area is a bookcase to hold all the copies of MRJ and NG&IRMR that have accumulated over the years. The 2" x 1" and plywood that were used in the layout construction were originally ordered with a fair bit of excess for this very reason. The bookcase was constructed several years ago but has never fulfilled its original purpose, until today.

 

Much sanding of top and base was done to ensure that the top of the bookcase would support the flap in the right places, the legs of the main board were screwed to the floor and the bookcase was screwed to the baseboard frame. Nothing now moves! Except the flap, of course.

 

[nickwood]

Have you started building another bookcase to house the next volume? If so What will that one hold up?

[Mick Bonwick]

7 minutes ago, nickwood said:

Have you started building another bookcase to house the next volume? If so What will that one hold up?

 

There's space round the other side for more volumes.

 

[Tony Teague]

6 minutes ago, Mick Bonwick said:

 

There's space round the other side for more volumes.

 

 

 

More importantly, have you read them all?

[Mick Bonwick]

Just now, Tony Teague said:

 

More importantly, have you read them all?

 

More than once. Usually because I've forgotten what I read previously.

[Tony Teague]

I know that feeling!

The other one that I experience is knowing that I read something useful somewhere but not having a clue where to look - so I have hundreds of magazines stored because they might be useful but which are never looked in because I wouldn't know where to start!

Perhaps one day they will invent a cure....

[Gilbert]

5 minutes ago, Mick Bonwick said:

 

More than once. Usually because I've forgotten what I read previously.

This helps...

http://www.modelrailwayjournal.com/

 

[Mick Bonwick]

No photograph(s) today, so go back to what you were doing just now if you wish. I won't be offended.

 

When I first started this thread I chose to use the Modelling Real Locations as the most appropriate place. Now that I have read many other accounts of people's modelling of real locations, I'm not sure that this is the right place. I'm not going to change it now, though.

 

It will still be some considerable time before anything is produced to prove that this is Easton, Isle of Portland. I now have the track laid and wired, a fiddle yard that will provide far more trains (of more than one vehicle) than I need and a JMRI panel that allows me to sit and change points without leaving my chair. What I don't have is enough memory to recall which locomotive is at the head of which train, so I still have to leave my chair to go and check before entering the DCC identity on the handset. And that leads me to the control system that will be used as things progress, and those that have been used in the process to date.

 

I don't remember exactly when it was, just that it was a good few years ago, but I had been considering using DCC for locomotive control for a while when I went to a Scaleforum at Leatherhead and attended a presentation by Mick Moignard all about this DCC technology. This made up my mind for me and also resulted in an invitation to visit Mick at home and see it working first hand. I subsequently opted to use Digitrax equipment because it did everything that I decided I needed it to do and there was no other system available in this country, at that time, that could achieve all of that. This system was used to drive trains around one half of the railway built in the loft space of the Alton Model Centre (4 track main line with branch, extensive engine shed, mainline terminus and goods yard - it was featured in the 2020 edition of the Railway Modeller Annual) and could be switched out to normal DC operation by use of relays. Since then I have tried several other systems from Bachmann's original Dynamis through Hornby Elite, NCE Powercab and Gaugemaster Prodigy to establish suitability for other people's layouts, but still like my Super Chief. There are many other systems now available and some of them outperform what I have, but everything I want from a system is still provided by what I have, albeit upgraded from the original components.

 

There came a point in time where I found out about JMRI and wanted to evaluate that, simply because it was technology for the sake of it. In order to keep it away from the main layout I invested in a Sprog (Mk 1) and proceeded to play with both it and the software to control a small removable part of the Alton layout that consisted of a small TMD. The ability to store all those CV values and load them to a decoder (I detest the use of the word 'chip', even though everybody else uses it) and change them, reload them, etc., from a keyboard was an amazing discovery. I was hooked and made the decision to use JMRI with the Digitrax equipment to control the whole of Easton.

 

When South West Digital first introduced their Class 24 project on ESU LokSound decoders, I had to have one. Sound familiar (pun intended)? A class 37 installation followed that, and there have been a couple few more since. I have yet to hear a steam locomotive sound project that sounds convincing to my ears, but have to admit that I do have a couple of Hornby Schools class with it installed. They only do one circuit, from rest, with the sound turned on, though. There are now several people who are good at producing sound projects and I plan to try some of them out soon. I have obtained all that is necessary to fit a Paul Chetter project into a Hornby R&H 48DS, which might feature on here one day. I don't think one of those ever ran anywhere near the real location of Easton, but one of the stone quarries could well have used one and there is a spur off the track layout of my Easton that will be a stone quarry . . . . . . . . .

 

[Tony Teague]

Mick - as you know, I have "several" storage roads to play with and rather more locomotives available than trains for them to haul - so I too suffer from not being able to remember which train is where and what is hauling it - albeit that mine is a DC controlled layout.

So what I do is have a powerpoint slide on my screen that shows where trains are and what is hauling them as at the start position, and providing I am disciplined about putting them back where they came from, it works fine.

Could you not use such a system so that you could tabe between the JMRI view of the layout and the powerpoint screen showing stock positions?

It would save you having to get up!

Tony

[NHY 581]

8 hours ago, Mick Bonwick said:

No photograph(s) today, so go back to what you were doing just now if you wish. I won't be offended.

 

When I first started this thread I chose to use the Modelling Real Locations as the most appropriate place. Now that I have read many other accounts of people's modelling of real locations, I'm not sure that this is the right place. I'm not going to change it now, though.

 

It will still be some considerable time before anything is produced to prove that this is Easton, Isle of Portland. I now have the track laid and wired, a fiddle yard that will provide far more trains (of more than one vehicle) than I need and a JMRI panel that allows me to sit and change points without leaving my chair. What I don't have is enough memory to recall which locomotive is at the head of which train, so I still have to leave my chair to go and check before entering the DCC identity on the handset. And that leads me to the control system that will be used as things progress, and those that have been used in the process to date.

 

I don't remember exactly when it was, just that it was a good few years ago, but I had been considering using DCC for locomotive control for a while when I went to a Scaleforum at Leatherhead and attended a presentation by Mick Moignard all about this DCC technology. This made up my mind for me and also resulted in an invitation to visit Mick at home and see it working first hand. I subsequently opted to use Digitrax equipment because it did everything that I decided I needed it to do and there was no other system available in this country, at that time, that could achieve all of that. This system was used to drive trains around one half of the railway built in the loft space of the Alton Model Centre (4 track main line with branch, extensive engine shed, mainline terminus and goods yard - it was featured in the 2020 edition of the Railway Modeller Annual) and could be switched out to normal DC operation by use of relays. Since then I have tried several other systems from Bachmann's original Dynamis through Hornby Elite, NCE Powercab and Gaugemaster Prodigy to establish suitability for other people's layouts, but still like my Super Chief. There are many other systems now available and some of them outperform what I have, but everything I want from a system is still provided by what I have, albeit upgraded from the original components.

 

There came a point in time where I found out about JMRI and wanted to evaluate that, simply because it was technology for the sake of it. In order to keep it away from the main layout I invested in a Sprog (Mk 1) and proceeded to play with both it and the software to control a small removable part of the Alton layout that consisted of a small TMD. The ability to store all those CV values and load them to a decoder (I detest the use of the word 'chip', even though everybody else uses it) and change them, reload them, etc., from a keyboard was an amazing discovery. I was hooked and made the decision to use JMRI with the Digitrax equipment to control the whole of Easton.

 

When South West Digital first introduced their Class 24 project on ESU LokSound decoders, I had to have one. Sound familiar (pun intended)? A class 37 installation followed that, and there have been a couple few more since. I have yet to hear a steam locomotive sound project that sounds convincing to my ears, but have to admit that I do have a couple of Hornby Schools class with it installed. They only do one circuit, from rest, with the sound turned on, though. There are now several people who are good at producing sound projects and I plan to try some of them out soon. I have obtained all that is necessary to fit a Paul Chetter project into a Hornby R&H 48DS, which might feature on here one day. I don't think one of those ever ran anywhere near the real location of Easton, but one of the stone quarries could well have used one and there is a spur off the track layout of my Easton that will be a stone quarry . . . . . . . . .

 

 

 

Sounds good. The bits in bold are those I understood. 

 

Rob. 

Edited June 11, 2020 by NHY 581
Edited to take out further bits I thought I understood but didn't.

[Mick Bonwick]

2 hours ago, Tony Teague said:

Could you not use such a system so that you could tabe between the JMRI view of the layout and the powerpoint screen showing stock positions?

It would save you having to get up!

 

 

Thanks, Tony, that's a good suggestion, especially the bit about not gettting up. I do have a spreadsheet where train formations are set out, so I could do it using that.

[Mick Bonwick]

1 hour ago, NHY 581 said:

 

 

Sounds good. The bits in bold are those I understood. 

 

 

 

I should have expected nothing less from you, young man.

 

I guess you're a straight DC man, if you know what I mean.