Brighton Trafalgar - An Edwardian LB&SCR Terminus

[Annie]

22 minutes ago, Lacathedrale said:

Both would need to be repainted into the LBSCR maroon and and cream, and though it goes against my natural inclinations, I wonder if leveraging these items would make sense in the same way I'm adopting 00 instead of P4? 🤔 Or am I short-cutting myself out of a model railway entirely by doing so?

That sounds like a sensible and pragmatic choice to me.  The 'plonk down' models can always be replaced later, but will act as useful placeholders in the meantime.

[scottystitch]

On 04/07/2022 at 17:01, Lacathedrale said:

 

 

 

Non-DCC Sound

 

 

Seems to be fairly straight forward with an Arduino Nano and a DFMiniPlayer - it will require some development/etc. but happy to share my findings with you in due course.

Alas you've almost lost me at Arduino Nano and definitely lost me at DFMiniPlayer 🙃.

 

The good thing about being a Licensed Helicopter Engineer (Airframe and Propulsion) is you don't need to worry too much about the stuff that goes on in the black boxes...

 

Best

Scott.

[Caley Jim]

44 minutes ago, Lacathedrale said:

I have a little bit of a quandary here - ................Or am I short-cutting myself out of a model railway entirely by doing so?

To paraphrase my signature, it's your model, so make it how you want!

 

Jim

[Lacathedrale]

27 minutes ago, scottystitch said:

Alas you've almost lost me at Arduino Nano and definitely lost me at DFMiniPlayer 🙃.

 

The good thing about being a Licensed Helicopter Engineer (Airframe and Propulsion) is you don't need to worry too much about the stuff that goes on in the black boxes...

 

Best

Scott.

 

Well, sounds harder than it is I think - it's a case of wiring 4 connections between Arduino Nano pins and the DFMiniPlayer chip pins.

 

I'm thinking that if I can split the sound into start/middle/end and they play on push/hold/release of a button it should be enough. As enhancement I could modulate the sound by a random percentage 90-110% to change the pitch and length slightly so it's not always the same sound, and I could have two sets of buttons (for sound at buffer-end and throat-end) which then correspond to Left and Right stereo channels.  I think it sounds more complicated than it's likely to be -t he components are about £25 total and it should be easy to write up and post online, then just a case of copy/paste.

 

17 minutes ago, Caley Jim said:

To paraphrase my signature, it's your model, so make it how you want!

 

Jim

 

Yeah, I guess you're right - it seems a huge part of the journey for a long lived (rather than one-shot) layout is that it evolves with the replacement of RTR stock/buildings with scratchbuilds. I'm not sure the extra £80 for the Skaledale/Scenecraft stuff would be worth it, but I could always sell it on at a future date and recoup that?

 

[Regularity]

As Jim says, it’s up to you, but in the interest of getting something running, why should this bother you? You can always replace the RTP structures with hand built models later. You have been quite prepared to use 00 gauge and RTR stock even though it would be a much greater effort to change to P4 in the future, so where is your problem?

 

I found that once my kids were sleeping through, I had a fair number of evenings in and got quite a bit of modelling done. “You go out and catch up with your friends, dear. I don’t mind staying in and looking after the baby. No, really, it’s not a problem at all.”

[Regularity]

5 minutes ago, Lacathedrale said:

I'm not sure the extra £80 for the Skaledale/Scenecraft stuff would be worth it

Work out how much you get paid (take home) per hour. Divide that into the £80, and you can see how many hours work was required to pay for this stuff. Then compare that with the number of hours you would need to build something of at least equivalent quality. 
 

(As a rough estimate, we work about 1,800 hours in a year. The median salary is about £24,000, which means £13.33 per hour before any deductions. That’s roughly £10 an hour. What could you build in 8 hours to that level of quality?)

 

The next time you look at something RTR and think it “expensive”, think about the above, and realise that these are only expensive when viewed against your “hobby money”. They really are not expensive. Something made to that standard would require a very skilled craftsman, whose hourly rate would be much (hopefully, otherwise the skills involved not being valued by you). Not so expensive now, in terms of the maker.

 

Once time has passed, it is gone, but investment in it means that it has value for the future*. Money can be replaced if spent or augmented if scarce (get an extra job/pay rise). Money can be used as a shortcut for time by buying RTR and kits, and saving potentially hundreds of hours against the cost of a handful of hours of work.

 

* As a forthcoming father, the time you spend with your child is the most precious and the best investment in the future of all, but you do need to allow yourself and the mother personal time (together as well as individually) if only to maintain sanity.

[scottystitch]

16 minutes ago, Lacathedrale said:

 

Well, sounds harder than it is I think - it's a case of wiring 4 connections between Arduino Nano pins and the DFMiniPlayer chip pins.

 

I'm thinking that if I can split the sound into start/middle/end and they play on push/hold/release of a button it should be enough. As enhancement I could modulate the sound by a random percentage 90-110% to change the pitch and length slightly so it's not always the same sound, and I could have two sets of buttons (for sound at buffer-end and throat-end) which then correspond to Left and Right stereo channels.  I think it sounds more complicated than it's likely to be -t he components are about £25 total and it should be easy to write up and post online, then just a case of copy/paste.

 

Yes, my apologies; for I was being ( a little) facetious.  I would be fine with the wiring up (I envisage some redundant car speakers screwed under the baseboard at the platform ends, perhaps where there are some signals, etc.)

 

It was more the programming of the processing kit, etc. that would lose me.

 

I wrote some basic BASIC programming back when ZX Spectrum was almost cutting edge, but since then it's all become a black art.  I understand Arduino programs are now called scripts? Beyond that it's all beyond my ken.

 

Anyway, apologies for the diversion.  I say plonk the RTP buildings and get your railway running, worry about the future when the future comes.

 

Best

Scott.

[scottystitch]

2 minutes ago, Regularity said:

 

 

* As a forthcoming father, the time you spend with your child is the most precious and the best investment in the future of all,...

OT, but this is possibly the best thing ever written on RMWeb...

 

Best

Scott.

[Lacathedrale]

I am very fortunate to be currently well employed, and so you're right that the cost of these things is miniscule in the grand scheme - having just had to fork out £12k for a new bathroom and selling my MGB GT for £7k - an extra £100 here and there on trains which would otherwise require hours of work is really no great shakes.

 

That said, my brain just won't let me be: I saw reference to the S-scale LBSCR layout built in Australia of the same time period, including the A, B, C, H, etc. and my heart yearned for it in a way I can't really explain. I put it aside and then went searching for any scratchbuilding supplies (found some plain bond brick - any use?) and came across the S-scale wheelset I ordered for my abortive S-scale LBSCR E1 scratchbuild and it called out again. SHUT UP BRAIN.

[Regularity]

You could just build an electronic whistle simulator: circuits used to be regularly published 40 years ago, so there must be some around with fewer components nowadays.

[St Enodoc]

5 minutes ago, Lacathedrale said:

I am very fortunate to be currently well employed, and so you're right that the cost of these things is miniscule in the grand scheme - having just had to fork out £12k for a new bathroom and selling my MGB GT for £7k - an extra £100 here and there on trains which would otherwise require hours of work is really no great shakes.

 

That said, my brain just won't let me be: I saw reference to the S-scale LBSCR layout built in Australia of the same time period, including the A, B, C, H, etc. and my heart yearned for it in a way I can't really explain. I put it aside and then went searching for any scratchbuilding supplies (found some plain bond brick - any use?) and came across the S-scale wheelset I ordered for my abortive S-scale LBSCR E1 scratchbuild and it called out again. SHUT UP BRAIN.

William, excuse me for being blunt but I keep getting the feeling that you are desperately searching for reasons not to actually build a layout at all.

 

Please, for your own sake, Just Do It.

[Regularity]

7 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

William, excuse me for being blunt but I keep getting the feeling that you are desperately searching for reasons not to actually build a layout at all.

 

Please, for your own sake, Just Do It.

Thanks for saying what many of us are thinking! Absorbing Australian bluntness is not always a bad thing!

[Lacathedrale]

Do not apologise for being blunt, even as I my brain is pulling me towards the next thing emotionally I can identify it as unreasonable. It is definitely not deliberate! It seems to be a subconscious urge to stay in my comfort zone (of planning, checking, experimenting) rather than 'risking' a layout being built and not being fulfilling. If one needed expert advice on finding reasons to not build a layout, I think I could offer alot.

Edited July 6, 2022 by Lacathedrale

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, Lacathedrale said:

If one needed expert advice on finding reasons to not build a layout, I think I could offer alot.

I’ve been not building a layout for a lot longer… ;)

[Caley Jim]

Our area group has a member who has been 'planning' for many, many years.  He was once dubbed 'Mr Gonnado', because he was always 'gonna do' something.

 

Planning is all very well, but achieves nothing if you don't put the plan into action.

 

Jim

Edited July 6, 2022 by Caley Jim

[ianathompson]

2 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Planning is all very well, but achieves nothing if you don't put the plan into action.

 

Totally agree.

I built my own large layout without a massive amount of planning considering what has evolved.

I looked at the new, empty, 22' x 9'3" room twenty odd years ago and could understand why some modelers never progressed beyond pipedreams.

I soon cured that hiatus with some wood butchery and construction of a mixed gauge crossing.

 

Just build or buy and lay the first trackwork and the rest will follow.

Look at the layout site in the footer if you want to see what followed.

 

Ian T

 

[Regularity]

Famous military maxim:

You can’t go into battle without a plan, but your plan won’t survive your first engagement with the “enemy”, so be prepared to throw it away.

[t-b-g]

2 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Our area group has a member who has been 'planning' for many, many years.  He was once dubbed 'Mr Gonnado', because he was always 'gonna do' something.

 

Planning is all very well, but achieves nothing if you don't put the plan into action.

 

Jim

 

I knew a similar individual many years ago, known as "Gunner Johnson". What he was "Gunner" do and what he actually did seldom bore any resemblance.

 

I see classic signs in William of overthinking almost every aspect of the hobby. I recognise it because I have been there too. It is sometimes easier to do nothing than to make a decision about something that might turn out to be wrong.

 

I have friends who just boot me up the backside and tell me to get on with it. When I get bogged down, as I still do, I tell myself that the worst that can happen is that I make a mess of things, learn from the mistake and have a better chance to get it right next time.

[Compound2632]

9 hours ago, Lacathedrale said:

I have a little bit of a quandary here - with imminent fatherhood (< a few weeks)

 

Well that's alright. You've got twenty years before you will do any serious layout building, so plenty of time to plan. And the technological options will have changed too.

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Well that's alright. You've got twenty years before you will do any serious layout building, so plenty of time to plan. And the technological options will have changed too.

Aye, 3D print a whole layout by then.

[Lacathedrale]

I know times have changed, but if Mr. Denny can build a layout in a bedsit with a newborn through to a room-spanning layout with two boys, I think I can manage a few hours here and there on the workbench - time will well, of course!

 

I have ordered the water tower and have a saved search for the signal box on ebay, and have a few other 4mm bits on the go in my workbench thread.

 

 

[Edwardian]

18 hours ago, Lacathedrale said:

I know times have changed, but if Mr. Denny can build a layout in a bedsit with a newborn through to a room-spanning layout with two boys, I think I can manage a few hours here and there on the workbench - time will well, of course!

 

 

 

 

They don't make 'em like Mrs Denny anymore!

[Lacathedrale]

I am lucky enough to have a corner of the living-room to work in, so I'm hoping this can ensure continuity of hobby while keeping an eye on baby/toddler....

 

 

[Regularity]

Make sure there’s a lock on that bureau, before the baby becomes a toddler…

[Lacathedrale]

There is a lock on the bureau and all the drawers, but can I find the bloody key??