Lancaster Green Ayre - The Barn Owls have returned.

[jamie92208]

Not much construction to report but various visitors have meant that trains have been running.   Today a friend and his wife came over to help chop some trees down and they brought a French lad with them, who's stating with them this week to improve his English.  I wonder how much his English will improve as they are from Hull.

 

Anyway, Matteo thoroughly enjoyed himself driving 735 and 3 Lanky coaches round the down main.   Later on I dug out the Big boy and gave that a run up and down the fiddle yard with 1 coach.

From behind it looks equally impressive

And a little different to the service train.

 

In the background you can see the work on the fiddle yard panel is ongoing. 8 of the point switches have now been wired up.

 

Jamie

Edited July 27, 2022 by jamie92208

[roundhouse]

Your Big Boy looks al ittle lonely with just one coach (and heres me with a Big boy and no coaches)

[jamie92208]

Your Big Boy looks al ittle lonely with just one coach (and heres me with a Big boy and no coaches)

 

I've got another 10 in the store but need to adjust the heights of the Kadees. I'll have to try and run it round.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Evening all from a rather warm Charente. More work has been done over the past two days and I've now got all the Down Yard point switches fitted and indicator LED's working on all but three. Once the remaining LED's are fitted then I start on the up yard before moving onto the signalling system and the power switches. It's coming on.

 

 

I've also managed to sort out a lot of the boxes and crates and stack them neatly on racking. Most of my railway books are now shelved and I've even found the height jig for setting up the kadees.

 

 

Jamie

[Jon Fitness]

Did the signals make the move OK Jamie?

[jamie92208]

Did the signals make the move OK Jamie?

Yes I actually found the boxes safe and sound yesterday and they are now on a shelf waiting to be installed. First job is the Fiddle yard panel though.

 

Jamie

[sir douglas]

they will need repairing first

[Mike Storey]

Yes I actually found the boxes safe and sound yesterday and they are now on a shelf waiting to be installed. First job is the Fiddle yard panel though.

 

Jamie

 

When the wet weather weather ever returns, I shall be available to assist you Jamie (if needed). But I am making hay right now on getting my garden layout into reality. Concrete blocking finished (for this stage anyway) and track laying commencing this weekend. Feel welcome to visit in a few weeks, to see stage 1 in operation....hopefully. In fact,will send you a PM.

[jamie92208]

When the wet weather weather ever returns, I shall be available to assist you Jamie (if needed). But I am making hay right now on getting my garden layout into reality. Concrete blocking finished (for this stage anyway) and track laying commencing this weekend. Feel welcome to visit in a few weeks, to see stage 1 in operation....hopefully. In fact,will send you a PM.

Thanks for the offer Mike. I will be in touch and may be available this week if you need a hand with some track laying. I'll reply to your PM in due course.

 

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Despite the 35 degree heat there has been some progress and the motors on 3 of the Fiddle Yard Quadrants are now working from the panel though I haven't yet got all the LED's installed. More holders for them are en route from RS France.

 

I started on the last quadrant, the West end of the Up Yard yesterday and ground to a halt as I couldn't identify which pair of wires were working which point and didn't seem to be able to get UYW1 to respond. This morning I actually got help from Beth who agreed to stand and watch point bladed whilst I applied volts to the wires in the panel 15 feet away. She then told me that she'd forgotten her glasses. We then resorted to me showing her where to place her fingers to detect movement. (No sniggering at the back there.)

 

 

Eventually I identified which pair operated which motor but then found that one wasn't working as it's circuit board had got knocked off in transit. They are not easy to repair and it was the king point for the yard. Ordering a spare motor wold be costly and take a while. The nearest model shop is a long way away. Therefor there was no alternative but to try and repair it.

 

 

I took the motor off and found that the mounting flanges had broken as well. The broken one is on the left.

 

 

I managed to find two other broken motors with broken intact flanges (the one on the right above) so decided to do a cut and shut. Both were taken apart and I then glued the broken bit of circuit board back on with some thin ply as reinforcement.

 

On the other side I soldered some thin strips of 2 thou brass on the tracks to bridge the joint.

 

Then I widened out the slot in the motor casing to take the, now, thicker circuit board.

Fortunately it all went back together and I got it re mounted and it worked. One happy bunny was the result.

More switches to be wired in this afternoon. 13 down 7 to go.

 

Jamie

 

 

Post edited to get the photo captions correct.

Edited July 27, 2022 by jamie92208

[Andy Hayter]

If you do need to get any more motors, FB Systems have a rapid and reliable delivery service - fbsystems.com

Just a satisfied customer.

[jamie92208]

If you do need to get any more motors, FB Systems have a rapid and reliable delivery service - fbsystems.com

Just a satisfied customer.

Thanks Andy, I'll have a look at that as a couple of spares would be handy. I think I've got over 50 on the layout, but have never yet had a failure in service.

 

Jamie

[timbowilts]

Thanks Andy, I'll have a look at that as a couple of spares would be handy. I think I've got over 50 on the layout, but have never yet had a failure in service.Jamie

Having put that statement into print you know what is going to happen now, don't you?

 

Tim T

Modelling the Cynon Valley in EM

[jamie92208]

Having put that statement into print you know what is going to happen now, don't you?

 

Tim T

Modelling the Cynon Valley in EM

Yes lightning does strike twice. I did the preparatory work on the last quadrant of motors and tested them all and lo and behold No 6 wasn't working. It had suffered thee same fate as No 1 but fortunately the fixing flange was intact. Another repair has been done and it is almost fixed back in place. However my other half rang the bell for dinner. I obviously came across from the shed at once. It sounds very grand having a dinner bell but as we have a proper bell outside the side doo of the house that's the easiest way of her calling me from over 50 yards away.

 

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get some of the motors wired up.

 

Jamie

[sir douglas]

make a victorian kitchen bell setup with wire in a tube from the house to the shed?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dI8fv9eGa9M/TrvnTn0welI/AAAAAAAAD2M/S_kTWheZjdA/s1600/Tyntesfield%2Bservants%2Bbells.jpg

[jamie92208]

That sound like a good idea Sam, however since she plaited a string to go on the ringer I can hear it very well. Her days as a bell ringer obviously have paid off.

 

 

Another hot day but after three stints, the last two in 35 degree heat I've got all the points working on the West End of the Up yard. That's 7 point ends operated by 5 switches. Now I have a couple of odd ball switches to install then the controllers and track power switches and then finally the signalling system. I'm very happy with today's progress.

 

 

Jamie

 

Edited for typo. Thanks Andy

 

The good news is that both the repaired tortoii work properly, including their relay switching function.

Edited August 5, 2018 by jamie92208

[Andy Hayter]

 

Another hot day but after three stints, the last two in 35 degree heat I've got all the points working on the West End of the Up yard. That's 7 pint ends operated by 5 switches. 

Jamie

 

I am sure it was really a typo but a 7 pint end after working in 35 degrees does sound like a Freudian slip.

[jamie92208]

A little bit more progress today. I had spent a lot of time searching through boxes but couldn't find the controllers for the fiddle yard. I knew that they were all in one box (all 4 of them) but could I find them. Of course I couldn't.  I did find all sorts of other things that will be useful in due course.  However this afternoon my good lady said that she would help.   I showed her an example of what I was looking for and within 10 minutes she found the right box.  This not only had all the controllers but also some reels of wire that I need.   I also found another poorly tortoise.  This one has an intact circuit board but no mounting flanges.  I foresee that Tortoise A & E will have to open again and a transplant will take place to give me one complete Tortoise with flanges and two spares donors.  

 

Jamie 

[gr.king]

I wonder how much his English will improve as they are from Hull.

 

Jamie

 

I'm well placed to appreciate that remark. I think you could easily obtain honorary freedom of my local borough any time you choose.

[jamie92208]

I'm well placed to appreciate that remark. I think you could easily obtain honorary freedom of my local borough any time you choose.

 

I dare not repeat on here the method by which a certain Home Office Pathologist used to tell if his clients were from Hull but next time we meet perhaps I will enlighten you.

 

Jamie

[Andy Hayter]

Oh go on.  You know you want to.

[jamie92208]

Oh go on.  You know you want to.

 

I know I do but the Prof in question was not in the least politically correct. However he was a brilliant and very funny speaker.    I value my membership of RMWeb.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Things have continued to move on.  Yesterday I spent an hour in the afternoon starting to wire up the traction power switches.   I managed to get totally confussed so lost the plat and had a cold beer instead. I had another look after tea and made some progress.  This morning I managed to crack on and got all the west end section feeds wired up and tested along with installing the switches at the east end.    This evening I had an hour and started to install the operating and cancelling switches for the signalling system.

 

One of the many things that I have done differently is to put rows of chocolate blocks down each side of the underneath of the panel lid.  As you can get a test lead onto the screw heads this makes testing and proving circuits much easier.    

 

Hopefully tomorrow I will finish wiring the east end power switches and then power up the signalling system switches and test them.

 

There is light at the end of the tunnel but it may be a train coming.

 

Jamie

[lezz01]

Or it could just be that someone has set fire to the tunnel Jamie.

Regards Lez.Z.

[Shez]

Good to see the progress across the channel.

 

Are you coming back to "blighty" for Telford?