RMweb Gold Mick Bonwick Posted June 18, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 18, 2020 Part of the journey to creating Easton has consisted of quite a few layouts of different styles built for practice. One of these was a small TMD that attached to the main layout at the Alton Model Centre, mentioned previously in this thread. About 4 years ago I took a series of photographs of this layout, but they were an absolute failure because of depth of field problems. I now know how to avoid these problems, but thought that you might like to see what the layout looked like. It was removable from the Alton layout, so that I could bring it home and play with it here as well. If I was to build something like this again it would not be something like this! 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mick Bonwick Posted June 19, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2020 There are now several locomotives (and a DEMU) ready for running on Easton, fitted with decoders and under test from time to time. Everything except the M7s in the photograph seems to be running perfectly over all the track laid so far. The M7s derail at one point in the fiddle yard and that is currently under investigation, but I'm expecting it to be a gauging problem with the locomotives because all other stock clears that point without difficulty. 11 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold john new Posted June 19, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2020 (edited) A Bulleid pacific did reach Tophill (albeit by low-loader). 35018 British India Line was for quite a time in Barry Gamble's Yard off Tradecroft. (See more photos here). Since it opened (Circa 2003) the off site vegetation growth has been rapid and the site is now surrounded by a huge amount of greenery and the yard work has also changed, it is nowadays mostly associated with mobile cranes. My most bizarre sight while it was open, but sadly pre-mobile phone camera days, was seeing a BR 2-6-4 tank heading up New Road towards Priory Corner. Side on, and on its low loader, the trailer was invisible so it looked like the engine was running light up to Tophill; although to do so up that incline would have needed the fitting of a rack drive! Edited November 18, 2022 by john new Photo(s) found and/or replaced post crash. 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted June 19, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2020 Not very Great Western, are they...? 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Gilbert Posted June 19, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2020 20 minutes ago, Stubby47 said: Not very Great Western, are they...? Every cloud..... 1 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mick Bonwick Posted June 19, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2020 26 minutes ago, Stubby47 said: Not very Great Western, are they...? No. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold nickwood Posted June 19, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2020 46 minutes ago, Stubby47 said: Not very Great Western, are they...? If they were it would probably add another 100 followers 1 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mick Bonwick Posted June 19, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2020 40 minutes ago, nickwood said: If they were it would probably add another 100 followers A price I'm happy to pay. 1 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold NHY 581 Posted June 19, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2020 Could be worse..........nobody's mentioned the L&NER.........yet....oh....hang on.. Rob. 1 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Gilbert Posted June 19, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2020 Pull yourself together man! 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mullie Posted June 19, 2020 Share Posted June 19, 2020 A4s have been to Weymouth, honest! 1 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mick Bonwick Posted June 19, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2020 19 minutes ago, mullie said: A4s have been to Weymouth, honest! Wash your soap out with mouth and water. 2 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mick Bonwick Posted June 19, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2020 You might think you've seen this before and, if so, you'd be wrong. This is the other half of the layout-to-control panel terminations, not quite finished because dinner was ready too early. My second batch of adapters arrived and were found to be configured differently to the first batch. The first batch were numbered 1 to 25 (not surprisingly) anti-clockwise, but the second batch are numbered clockwise. Not a problem, obviously, but I had to draw my diagrams again. So inconvenient! 2 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold john new Posted June 19, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2020 4 hours ago, mullie said: A4s have been to Weymouth, honest! And a V2, B1 and a Deltic which although wasn't LNER was definitely ECML. 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mick Bonwick Posted June 19, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2020 16 minutes ago, john new said: And a V2, B1 and a Deltic which although wasn't LNER was definitely ECML. This is all well and good, but I don't think that I can justify them clambering up the hill to Easton. That Accurascale Deltic does look rather good, though . . . . . . 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold john new Posted June 19, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 19, 2020 (edited) 58 minutes ago, Mick Bonwick said: This is all well and good, but I don't think that I can justify them clambering up the hill to Easton. That Accurascale Deltic does look rather good, though . . . . . . You might get away with a variation, given that you have already bent the time line to keep Easton open. The Sheepcroft extension is off stage and would it be too implausible to assume that, if the rail connection option had been available, SSC would not then have been set up at Tradecroft (never standard gauge rail connected) but rather in the Inmosthay industrial site immediately next door to the Sheepcroft site. Easton would not take a full length mainline special but Victoria Sq could have done, with only the loco and support coach going on up to SSC for servicing. Only an evening drift off into dreamland but in that I can stand on the Mermaid Bridge, pint in hand, and hear the sound of locomotives blasting up the hill and then through the cutting below me. (Sadly like the adjacent railway The Mermaid is no longer a pub) Can you not recall the heady days when Portland was receiving the regular summer runs of the The Hardy Countryman (Down from Bristol) and The Master Mason (from Waterloo), and not forgetting such memorable one-offs over the years as The Napier Snarler, The Chesil Belle, The Thames Tout Pullman, and The Slingsman. Edited June 19, 2020 by john new Added note about the Mermaid being now closed. 3 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mick Bonwick Posted June 20, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 20, 2020 That's the control panel connections finished, then. Well, half of them, anyway. There's still the female connections to do, but they'll have to wait until I've designed and commenced the control panel itself. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mick Bonwick Posted June 20, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 20, 2020 This afternoon, I thought I'd continue with the installation of the sound decoder in the Crompton/class 33. When I closed everything down the day before yesterday, the succesful testing of this installation meant that the locomotive was running around the layout with noises coming from the places that noises should. When I tried starting it this afternoon, nothing happened. No movement, no sound, nothing. I felt a little disappointed about that (!!) and immediately set about some problem determination. Rolling road - dead as a doornail. No sound, no movement. Programming track - read decoder OK, write CVs OK, no sound no movement. Rip open the locomotive, separate decoder from platform - no sound, no movement. Replace buffer beam bits that fell off, replace glazing that jumped out of headcodes, picked up glass of tonic water that leapt off the table onto the floor - plenty of sound and not a little movement, but not from the locomotive. Checked electrical continuity from wheels to decoder. Nothing doing. Aha!, thought I, here's the problem. Noticed that the soldered joint from motor to decoder was not as robust as it ought to be. Ripped apart the chassis to get at the motor terminals. It went on like this for some time, and eventually I cleaned the backs of the wheels with some IPA - sound, movement, bliss. What I don't understand is how all that dirt got there between turning it off on Thursday and starting it up this afternoon. Just shows that technology will bite you whatever precautions you take. Before I started: When I finished: There's got to be a moral in this. You decide what it is . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Gilbert Posted June 20, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 20, 2020 21 hours ago, Mick Bonwick said: This is all well and good, but I don't think that I can justify them clambering up the hill to Easton. That Accurascale Deltic does look rather good, though . . . . . . Oh go on.... 2 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mick Bonwick Posted June 22, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 22, 2020 Heljan Crompton (Class 33) fitted with sound decoder (Zimo MX645R with Digitrains project installed) and under test on the layout. There are two things to note here: There are no buildings yet installed on the layout. There is no crew fitted in the cab. 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted June 22, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 22, 2020 It's running the wrong way. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold NHY 581 Posted June 22, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 22, 2020 1 hour ago, Mick Bonwick said: Heljan Crompton (Class 33) fitted with sound decoder (Zimo MX645R with Digitrains project installed) and under test on the layout. There are two things to note here: There are no buildings yet installed on the layout. There is no crew fitted in the cab. Well, that's disappointing. I sat back with my crisps and beer and clicked on the image. No vidjoe. Rob. 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgman Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 1 hour ago, NHY 581 said: No vidjoe. Ahem ! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mick Bonwick Posted June 22, 2020 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 22, 2020 3 hours ago, NHY 581 said: No vidjoe. A technological step too far. 1 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold NHY 581 Posted June 22, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 22, 2020 Glad it's not just me. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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