two tone green Posted August 3, 2014 Author Share Posted August 3, 2014 Thanks Rod, its good fun setting things up. I need to do one other short video to demo the high low chuff volume which is useful for short movements, light loco movements. Of course its got the fade in fade out sound on a function button which is useful for going off into scenic areas on the layout such as going into, out from a fiddle yard. In fact, I'll do the video now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted August 3, 2014 Author Share Posted August 3, 2014 Here is the second video that's demos the high low chuff volume effect simulating light load and heavy load movement. The effect is on a function key and useful when just chugging around the yard or lightly loaded or when you want to go from coast to on load via a function rather than using another feature which triggers the high low effect when you drop the speed one speed step. http://youtu.be/Vn5Zrv6Sx7Y Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve fay Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 Very nice mate They had one on last Wednesday well 2 in fact both very good both with V4 OO decoders one on 6 coaches the other on about 20 wagons so they have no problem with haulage I suppose it depends on the Amps your putting through your layout. Should be an 8F there this week as well. Bodes well for the GW sounds when they get round to it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted August 3, 2014 Author Share Posted August 3, 2014 Hi Steve, Welcome back from the far east. How was Cambridge? For me its the Manor and 2MT that needs doing next. Fingers crossed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve fay Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 Still here mate, I'm home tomorrow. Still here mate, I'm home tomorrow. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted August 5, 2014 Author Share Posted August 5, 2014 It's tomorrow so you should be returning to civilisation at some point. Good luck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted August 11, 2014 Author Share Posted August 11, 2014 I thought it time to add some lights to my stock and as usual I had to have working ones. DCC controllable of course via the loco on board decoder, usually Loksound V4 OO or XL version. The lamps are white metal Springside BR oil lamps with the jewel removed and the opening drilled through to the rear of 2mm diameter. Then a off cut of 2mm fibre optic push fitted into the front of the lamp flush with its face. This only needs to be a tad long than its diameter as it only forms the lens and if its much longer interferers with the fitting of the LED. In fact I have made up a batch of Bi Colour lamps so they show white or red depending what they are being used for, head or tail lamp. I used NanoLight Micro Bi-Colour Red / White LED's from DCC Concepts bought from Digitrains. http://www.digitrains.co.uk/ecommerce/search/nanolight-micro-led-bicolour-red---white---6-pack.aspx They come in a pack of six with two values of resistors to adjust the brilliance of the red and white LEDS due to the pulling different loads. In fact I used the 10K resistor only in the +ve feed line and tweaked the output via the decoder settings for front or rear lights so the brilliance is just about matched for the red and white lights. A nice tough though is the inclusion of a bottle of tint to colour the lights to make them look more like old fashioned oil lamps. I inserted the LED into the back of the lamp into the hole drilled through from the front. I did try counter boring going for a 1mm through hole and a 2mm hole at the front but having had a few attempts at setting things up I went for the 2mm hole all the way through for some very good reasons I came across when trying things. I held the lamp on the desk to using some Blu Tack and then positioned the LED in the centre of the hole with the LED touching the back of the lens. The LED was suspended in the centre using Blu Tack holding the three very fine wires so allowing the LED to dangle in the hole in an upright position. I then used some canopy glue to fill the hole and allowed to dry. This gives a solid fix for the LED but it dries clear so allows light to pass out of the front of the lamp. Light bleed from the back is stopped by a good application of matt dark grey and an over coat of white paint to match the rest of the lamp. The wires are hair thin, lacquered to insulate them which works very well and can stand quite a bit of bending / abuse. The longest wire is common positive with the next longest one being the red LED and the shortest the white one. So that's it. A batch of ten have been made and ready to fit to whatever needs lights. Black 5 seems like a good candidate them my 2MT tank possibly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve fay Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 This should look good mate Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmudriver Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 Hi Two Tone. The lights look really good. However, what's always concerned me about such lamps is how to remove them when you've got a train on the hook, as trains don't (or shouldn't!) run with lamps in the middle of a train. It's always irked me with Heljan locos that (straight from the box) they run with the rear lights lit. I've programmed all of mine so that front and rear lights are separately switchable. But that's one of the advantages of diesels - that the housings and lenses stay put and don't have to be removed. Rod Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted August 12, 2014 Author Share Posted August 12, 2014 Hi Rod, a long running dilemma for modellers, to leave on or not to leave on lights fitted to locos. I suppose those who are concerned about this opt for not fitting them at all then they don't have the issue of having lights fitted when you should not. Look at it from the other view point, why don't locos that should have lights fitted don't. This is another why do we model OO when the rest of the world is Ho. Why use Peco track when the sleeper spacing is wrong. Why write all the stuff about Dapol models when it does not really matter. Difficult one Rod. Its down to what you are happy with I suppose. For me its not a problem. How close to prototypical operation do you want to go. I had thought of using a micro servo to rotate the lamp so the lens faced away from the direction of travel as I have seen on some photos. Easy to do but is it worth the hassle. It will rumble on and on this one. I know its wrong using BR practises but on Pembrokeshire Railways they take a more common sense approach to lights and train identification. The common sense approach is that if its 07.32 and the signal man sees a train going past from left to right then its a good chance its the 07.32 going from left to right. If it has a white light at the front and a red light at the rear on the last item of stock then the train is complete. Simple. Of course if the 07.32 goes by with only a loco with a white light at the front and a red light at the rear of the loco and it should have some stock behind it well there is a good chance some thing has happened but at least the loco is showing the right lights. A white one at the front and a red one at the rear. And so this pattern of thinking was spread out across the Pembrokeshire Railway network. Simple and common sense. When the big boys arrived from the east in Swindon and Paddington and took thinks over they looked at the simple common sense approach to this subject and thought clever, very clever. What a monster we have created on our own network but to change it would be an admission of stupidity so we will stick with what we have and belittle Pembrokeshire Railway and do away with their better system. But those who remember the days of the good life when Pembrokeshire Railways was written on the side of locos ands stock and still worked the lines often ran their trains as they should be and not one accident or wrong routing on the line was ever attributed to bad train identification. Not really but its fun Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted August 17, 2014 Author Share Posted August 17, 2014 Sunday afternoon here in deepest west Wales and its light fitting time. My Black 5 and Manor have been fitted with head and tail lights that I made the other weekend. I don't like the handles on the Springside lamps so they have been removed and will be replaced with something a little finer soon. But for me its easier to fit the lamps then add the fine wire handle so it does not get damaged when fitting the lamp and doing the wiring. So here is the result of my efforts. I know it is for some wrong to leave the lights on the loco or have the wrong code but for me some lights are better than none and of course if your going to have lights they have to work. The first one shows the fitting of the lamp and the three very fine wires from the back of the lamp to the smoke box door. The lamp needs a slight twist to get it upright. Next one lamp off. Next forward direction. And finally backwards tail lamp I have added a coating of the 'tint' that comes in a little bottle in the LED pack to the lens and it has added some colour to the light. It is hard to see in the photos but it has done what it is supposed to do. It mentions adding a few coats to deepen the colour which I think I will do. One more coat should do. One thing I have leaned from this is that to watch out for which way the LED is placed in the lamp housing. The LED's need to be at 90 degrees to the lens other wise one could be facing backwards in effect and glow a little dimmer than the other. The LEDS are 'glued' back to back. Tweaking in the decoder settings can over come this but its best not to overdrive the LED brilliance wise too much other wise you can reduce of the LED. But the end results seem good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium DLT Posted September 3, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 3, 2014 I was privileged to visit Two Tone and have a tour/demonstration of the layout when I was on holiday in the far west recently. I came away mightily impressed; not just by the layout, but particularly by the full extent of the operating system with its graphic displays, touchscreen etc, and the way in which the sound is fully integrated with the operation. This was the first time I had seen such a fully fledged system demonstrated first-hand, and saw the real potential of dcc control, as well as how user-friendly it really can be. Thanks very much for your hospitality Two-Tone, it was quite an education for this steam/dc modeller, and you've given me FAR too many ideas. All the best, Dave.T Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted September 8, 2014 Author Share Posted September 8, 2014 Hi Dave Glad you liked the set up and the compliments. As I mentioned to you, I like things that work and not just static items. 7mm lends itself to that in many ways and DCC opens things up in so many directions that the DC operator can never even dream of. If you need help please do ask as I can pop down to your place easily during the week my current home base is Bristol and of course should you be in the big city far west again do come around to play. Stuck in South Africa at the moment on holiday, back on the 14th. Regards TTG Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted September 20, 2014 Author Share Posted September 20, 2014 The time has arrived to sort out the goods shed area due to the imminent arrive of what I call my Goods Exchange Shed. I needed to build the extension board to take the shed The shed is being custom built by Mike down in Swanage at Greenwood Model Railway Products. http://www.greenwoodmodelrailwayproducts.co.uk/ One side will be a dead end track that will be used by my Mk 1 TPO and other parcels stock whilst the other track is a conventional through road so any form of stock can use it. It has a external loading bay as well for road vehicles can pull up and off load onto the railway. I saw a test example of it at the Gauge O Guild Summer Show and it looked fantastic then but Mike was not quite happy with it so he has tweaked it and made it even better. Here is a photo of the area it will be placed once I get my sticky mitts on it and build it. The extension board will obviously be painted grey to match the other boards and the track slewed into the right alignment for the shed. If you are wondering how long the extension is, its 1.7 m long by 0.3 m wide at its widest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianwales Posted September 20, 2014 Share Posted September 20, 2014 Hi Andy Coming on a treat, I'm glad I am not the only one who adds bits on to tweaks already built baseboards! Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted September 20, 2014 Author Share Posted September 20, 2014 The next bit is the engine shed area at the other end of the layout. That will be a biggy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted September 20, 2014 Author Share Posted September 20, 2014 That's it, board done and painted. A few small tweaks needed when the shed arrives but basically its all done. The track where the Black 5 is will be extended around the back of the shed and form another longish siding for wagons etc. I will collect the shed next week so will have next weekend to test fit it to the layout and see about slewing the track. The shed needs building but due to the incredible way Mike has cut the walls out it slots together so dry fit is easy to do. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted September 26, 2014 Author Share Posted September 26, 2014 Its arrived and what a box of bits it is. There are so many parts to this thing it will take a while to find out where they all go. Then it will need building. Time for Super Phatic Glue. Seriously, that's what its called. I will post some photos as I build it so you can share the build process and see just how good this model is. Nice one Greenwood Models, this is going to be a master piece that even I can do. http://www.greenwoodmodelrailwayproducts.co.uk/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve fay Posted September 26, 2014 Share Posted September 26, 2014 Oooh I like a box of MDF bits, il be starting one very soon on the Suburbiton thread. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted September 26, 2014 Author Share Posted September 26, 2014 Simultaneous building, very interesting. I will paly with the parts this evening and possibly start tomorrow. Mike is calling later for a chat so will clear up a few things with him before putting glue to wood. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted September 28, 2014 Author Share Posted September 28, 2014 The build has started. The main walls of the shed are either double skinned, end walls, or four layers thick, side walls to make up the desired appearance. There is a layer missing from the photo before any one comments, its the brick face over lay that goes on the inside of the shed wall. The one shown is for the outside. So far so good. I have started with the back wall as its a good point of reference to start with and once that is square all the rest will fall into place quite nicely. The wall with the bigger window is for the office at the back of the shed. As for Super Phatic Glue from Deluxe Materials, I highly recommend it for this kind of work. Its sets quite quickly with 20 minutes being the longest time to go off. But it works in a lot of cases like a 'superglue' and grabs abs sets quickly on the MDF type board the shed is made from. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted September 28, 2014 Author Share Posted September 28, 2014 Things have moved on quite nicely but have to stop as its time to do other things in life according to SWMBO But I could not resist putting the shed in place, slewing the track to not far off its correct alignment and putting some stock in the shed. Some of the parts are just propped up to show roughly what things will be like. Am I happy, yep I am, big time Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted September 28, 2014 Author Share Posted September 28, 2014 The follow I blame Steve Fay for getting me to go down the engine shed and turntable route as an extension to my layout. But I had to know what the goods shed would look like if it had been an engine shed. A little bit of licence but its looking good. Now where is the phone number for Mike at Greenwood Models. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve fay Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 I seem to be getting the blame for a lot recently!!!!! My plan is working ha ha ha ha Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted September 28, 2014 Author Share Posted September 28, 2014 It certainly is and what a nice plan it is too Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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