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Eastwood Town - A tribute to Gordon's modelling.

gordon s

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gordon s

gordon s

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I now realise you have to work in a uncluttered environment. It really does make any job a pleasure rather than having to step over stuff and then having to move piles of stuff to either work on the track side or move dozens of storage boxes to work underneath. Add to that the complications of working over a 10' stairwell and I'm surprised anything got done.

 

The biggest plus is the weather changing and I now realise I've become a fair weather golfer. It's a great game, but not when the rain is lashing down and the wind blowing. Give me a warm room, the radio playing and hot coffee any day of the week.

 

Larry, it's great to see progress on Carrog. Such an inspiration, as is Kirkby Luneside and Stockrington. I get a lot from watching you all make things look so easy and yet we've all suffered from setbacks and self imposed changes.

 

I hit 70 next year and the clock is ticking......:-)

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gordon s

gordon s

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Apart from a few turnouts, I didn't.  Just goes to show what can be done once you get yourself organised. When I was a young boy at the North Middlesex MRC (good grief over 50 years ago) it always amazed me just how layouts got built as it seemed at the time the first and last half an hour were spent getting the layout out and then packing it way.  All the work was done in the 2-3 hours in between.

 

Fast forward to current times and that's what was happening here.  I would spent ages looking for that tool or piece of kit that I knew I had but had no idea where it was.  Everything had to be moved about to enable the simplest of tasks to be done.  What made it worse is this isn't a box room.  The overall dimensions are 18' square and of course when you have plenty of space, you just fill it, so the problem is 10 times worse.

 

No doubt the ultra clean and tidy guys are all in unison with 'I could have told you that', but many of us are 'blessed' with a chaotic mind and don't think that way... :biggrin_mini2:

 

The ground is hard and frosty and a Winter League Match awaits.  Even as I type, the guys from Farnham Park (Stoke Poges) will be sitting in the M4 traffic fighting their way to Wokingham.  Hoping for a win, then it's back in the warm again.  I suspect it might be thermals judging by the temperature outside.

 

Don't hold your breath, there may be more, but no promises re 'it will all be done by Christmas'.  Been there, done that.... :)

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hayfield

hayfield

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This is what you call an untidy railway room

 

post-1131-0-26926200-1509960654.jpg

 

Thankfully the dividing wall (old kitchen into new extension) is being taken down on Friday along with another wall (which increases the size of the lounge) then I have a week to lay the floor in the extension before the plasterers arrive

 

Before anyone comments the electricians are back tomorrow to tidy up the wires, and central heating man will redirect the pipes (cavity in the floor) once the wall is down.

 

Could even have the room operational (well usable) before Christmas

 

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gordon s

gordon s

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Evening all.....That will look great once it's done, John.  I'm sure it will be so much better than before.

 

Work progresses.  Welcome to the world of two wire DCC.... :D

 

One small board with eleven turnouts.  Only problem is that each Tortoise motor requires 8 wires and then there are the best part of 100 droppers to wire up to the bus supply.  I keep telling myself that apart from the other end of ET station, the remaining boards are all very simple and should be a breeze.

 

post-6950-0-13785900-1510159572_thumb.jpg

 

Hats off to Rapid Electronics.  I colour code all my wiring to make life easy and ran out of the blue wire for the switched frog supply from the Tortoise motors.  I standardise on 16/0.2mm for all droppers etc and realised the reel was empty last night.  Went onto the Rapid site yesterday evening at 19.15. Amazed to receive a mail saying it had been dispatched at 20.49 and lo and behold it turned up here this morning at 10.30, some 15 hours later..... :O

 

No special delivery either, just the standard £3.99 for all orders less than £30.  I take my hat off to these guys.  Most impressed.  

 

Hopefully the bus wires will go in before the weekend, then it will be soldering another 200 wires before the first board will be live.

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gordon s

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What do you use the second internal switch for?

 

 

Ah.............Good question.

 

At the time I decided to wire them up fully to an adjacent terminal strip as it would be so much easier to lay a tinned wire along the pcb fingers.  That thought came after the first version after changing to Tortoise motors was taken down and I had top desolder all the wires from the pcb. I doubt if any pcb's are designed to be soldered/desoldered many times as the heat can destroy the copper adhesion and then you're stuffed.  It also made more sense to do all eight wires in one go.

 

Until your question I hadn't given it a thought..... :D 

 

.....but suspect it could be used for either the control panel display or powered signals if I ever get that far.  From memory, I did need dual switching for double junctions to change frog polarity on the diamond.  

 

I knew there was a good reason....

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martin_wynne

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That thought came after the first version after changing to Tortoise motors was taken down and I had top desolder all the wires from the pcb. I doubt if any pcb's are designed to be soldered/desoldered many times

 

Hi Gordon,

 

You can get edge connectors which fit. That way if a Tortoise fails it is easy to replace. If you can't find 8-way connectors you can cut them from longer ones and glue on plasticard ends. Been there, got the T shirt. From memory they are .156" pitch (haven't got one here to measure).

 

F0483871-02.jpg

 

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/edge-connectors/0483871/

 

Martin.

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gordon s

gordon s

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Hi Martin, thanks for taking me back down memory lane!

 

I spent the best part of my working life selling connectors with US and UK manufacturers.  Back in the 60's/70's those edge connectors came in from the States, but as pcb technology developed, people standardised on 0.1" in the UK and Europe. Then the demand for pin outs increased and the 96 way DIN 41612 became a standard.  After that it was 50 thou ribbon cable and IDC connectors and that's where I bowed out of the industry.  It was exciting times as a supplier to IBM on prototypes and production of the very first PC's some 36 years ago.

 

I've probably got some of the .156's kicking around in the garage or loft and they may come in handy for those that haven't been used yet.... :good:

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PhilH

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Apart from a few turnouts, I didn't.  Just goes to show what can be done once you get yourself organised. When I was a young boy at the North Middlesex MRC (good grief over 50 years ago) it always amazed me just how layouts got built as it seemed at the time the first and last half an hour were spent getting the layout out and then packing it way.  All the work was done in the 2-3 hours in between.

 

Fast forward to current times and that's what was happening here.  I would spent ages looking for that tool or piece of kit that I knew I had but had no idea where it was.  Everything had to be moved about to enable the simplest of tasks to be done.  What made it worse is this isn't a box room.  The overall dimensions are 18' square and of course when you have plenty of space, you just fill it, so the problem is 10 times worse.

 

No doubt the ultra clean and tidy guys are all in unison with 'I could have told you that', but many of us are 'blessed' with a chaotic mind and don't think that way... :biggrin_mini2:

 

The ground is hard and frosty and a Winter League Match awaits.  Even as I type, the guys from Farnham Park (Stoke Poges) will be sitting in the M4 traffic fighting their way to Wokingham.  Hoping for a win, then it's back in the warm again.  I suspect it might be thermals judging by the temperature outside.

 

Don't hold your breath, there may be more, but no promises re 'it will all be done by Christmas'.  Been there, done that.... :)

To be fair you never did say which Christmas...

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gordon s

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No problem at all.  I use 1.5mm conduit cable.  If you just search on 6491X conduit cable you'll find several suppliers.  It normally comes in a 100m reel. My local Screwfix sells it and the price is OK.

 

https://www.screwfix.com/p/conduit-wiring-cable-6491x-1-core-1-5mm-x-100m-blue/34152#product_additional_details_container

 

Now here's a first.  After soldering around 300 joints and spending 30 mins or so chasing down shorts, I have a board that works....

 

Track still needs the odd tweak here and there and it has yet to be cleaned/painted and ballasted, but my dear old N2 looked excited to come down from the display case and stretch it's legs.  No wonder it was a bit stiff.  It hadn't run for years...

 

 

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gordon s

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I guess there must be 20 boards in total, but only one more as complex as this one, so the others should move a lot quicker.  Most of the pointwork is already built and some of the boards are just plain track or a single cross over.  The other end of ET station is almost a mirror image of this one.

 

One area I had overlooked and it took a while to trace the short was the few inches after the frog where the copper clad sleepers are interlaced.  This is fine where the isolation gap is after the interlace area as it's then all the same polarity dependant on the Tortoise switching.  This hadn't happened to me before and it took a lot of head scratching to work this one out.  Where you have two turnouts in quick succession, there has to be an isolation gap and without thinking about it, I made the cut between the two.  I suspect with a little more thought, it could be made in an area that wouldn't be obvious or alternately I could gap the sleepers outside the rail section.

 

I'll give it some more thought over the weekend, but have to admit it was a real b*gger trying to find the short when I knew all the wiring etc was correct.

 

Another lesson learned.... :)

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hayfield

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I guess there must be 20 boards in total, but only one more as complex as this one, so the others should move a lot quicker.  Most of the pointwork is already built and some of the boards are just plain track or a single cross over.  The other end of ET station is almost a mirror image of this one.

 

One area I had overlooked and it took a while to trace the short was the few inches after the frog where the copper clad sleepers are interlaced.  This is fine where the isolation gap is after the interlace area as it's then all the same polarity dependant on the Tortoise switching.  This hadn't happened to me before and it took a lot of head scratching to work this one out.  Where you have two turnouts in quick succession, there has to be an isolation gap and without thinking about it, I made the cut between the two.  I suspect with a little more thought, it could be made in an area that wouldn't be obvious or alternately I could gap the sleepers outside the rail section.

 

I'll give it some more thought over the weekend, but have to admit it was a real b*gger trying to find the short when I knew all the wiring etc was correct.

 

Another lesson learned.... :)

 

 

Its strange that no matter how many turnouts you build every now and again something new crops up

 

I now use a slower method on the few copperclad turnouts I build, which is after cutting the timbers to length, I use a felt tip pen to mark the isolation gaps. Then using a junior hacksaw I gap the timbers first (it is also easier to fill the gaps at this stage and sand flat) With the timbers gapped I can solder the rails and check the crossings with a loco as they are being built 

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FJ1701

FJ1701

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Words cannot express how amazed I am at your layout. It's so interesting to see how something can develop throughout the years and then have a fresh start. I think we are all guilty of this but it's great to see you are back on track (excuse the pun  :no:) and have trains running once again. We all seem to have these meticulously complex plans in our heads but once we realise its all too much, we simplify it and I can see that over the years, you have done the same. I will be watching with great interest, many thanks.

 

Rory

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gordon s

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Thanks for all your kind words, Rory and others.  Yes, it has been 10 years of numerous highs and lows, yet in some way it's been a great learning curve and I've always enjoyed the good days.  Got my BiL here from Spain right now and he asked if my railway was finished.  He asks every year and has been coming here for at least 10 years.  :biggrin_mini2:

 

Before I had a chance to answer my wife chipped in saying 'no it's not finished and never will be.  Gordon just enjoys building something'....and she's probably right.  

 

I do enjoy making stuff and perhaps finishing something is irrelevant.....but this one is different.  :good:

 

I've now started on the next two boards round the circle and could have 15' or so of live track to run a loco on in the next week or two.  Keep that rate of progress up and you may see a loop in the next few months.  

 

Hey, Rome wasn't built in a day....

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Rowsley17D

Rowsley17D

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 Got my BiL here from Spain right now and he asked if my railway was finished.  He asks every year and has been coming here for at least 10 years.  :biggrin_mini2:

 

 

 

Hey, Rome wasn't built in a day....

 

No, but I bet they got quite a lot built in10 years, probably with some slave labour...now there's a thought...

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