Waton

[Pete Harvey]

Dave

 

The new camera takes a good picture.

 

How are the signals coming on?

 

Pete

[eldavo]

Dave

 

The new camera takes a good picture.

 

How are the signals coming on?

 

Pete

 

To be honest no progress since the challenge completion date. Waton has been crated up since I took shots for the summary thread and only came out again a couple of weeks ago in its new home. I have to prep Cramdin i.e. fix things that are broken, for an exhibition in January then I'll be back on the case of the Waton signals. I think I have the technology for the heads sorted but have to get on and do the fiddly stuff. Of course if plan "A" doesn't pan out I may be sending you an e-mail.

 

Cheers

Dave

[RWJP]

Looking forward to seeing Cramdin at Southampton, always nice to see a layout from RMWeb in the flesh.

 

Do you intend to exhibit Waton? Seems too good to keep hidden in your workshop!

[eldavo]

Several RMWeb layouts at Southampton in fact.

 

Eventually Waton will find it's way to an exhibition or two I have no doubt. There's a small matter of finishing the scenic section, building fiddleyards, lighting and legs for it all that will keep me occupied for a while.

 

Cheers

Dave

[37176]

Just viewed this thread for the first time. I'm an XC driver on the Stansteds and pass the gaggle of neds at WO on almost a daily basis. Present day stuff doesn't do anything for me but this is spookily brilliant. Can you put a fat slaphead with a goatee in one of your 170's and make sure he waves and blows the horn as he passes? I'm sociable like that.

[RWJP]

Congratulations Dave on winning the best trackwork competition!

 

Now just to win the entire challenge eh?

[mudmagnet]

Congratulations Dave, well done. I look forward to seeing this one in the flesh sometime. A credit to your 2mm modelling, which seems to be domintated by 00.

[gordon s]

Congratulations Dave on winning the 2010 Challenge. A very well deserved win against some very good competition. Well done! I'll look forward to seeing Waton in the flesh at our next get together.

 

Great stuff!

[Wherry Lines]

Congrats Dave. I keep looking at your layout for inspiration for my own. I don't know whether to be encouraged, or give up!

[PhilH]

Well done Dave - having seen it for real I can say that nobody will be disappointed when they do.

[Grimleygrid]

Congratulations Dave, a great layout, very well done.

 

 

[Lukasz]

Congratulations Dave on a well deserved challenge win! You completely dispelled a few niggles I had that n gauge wasn't as detailed as larger scales. Well done on a amazing layout.

 

 

Lukasz

[NWScally]

Happy New Year everyone!

 

Dave, I have just come acorss this thread and wish to offer you my congratulations on a superb layout.

 

There is lots of modelling and detailing inspiration on your layout. I am pleased to see you went down the way of adding a bit of electronics work and building this interlocking system of yours. I have been brewing about ideas of something similar for my first layout for a while and am excited to see somebody else putting such ideas into practice

 

The layout seems to offer quite some potential for train movements, especially with that bi-directional platform track in the middle and the associated crossovers.

 

Superb layout and well done!!!

[grahame]

A lovely layout, understated but atmospheric. And a very interesting approach and build methodology to N/2mm modelling.

 

Well done. A worthy winner.

 

G.

[Revolution Ben]

Been abroad and just returned to see this layout declared the winner.

 

Well done - thoroughly deserved. Fantastic modelling that IMO well illustrates what N is best at - trains in the scenery.

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[eldavo]

My sincere thanks to all those who voted in the challenge and I am trully chuffed that so many rated my little trainset so highly. The number and quality of entrants shows just what a vibrant forum RMWeb is.

The neds at Waton are also very pleased as the managment seem to have invested the prize monies into some new stock albeit a Voyager!



Cheers
Dave

Edited September 5, 2017 by eldavo

[eldavo]

The postie delivered a little package today. It was from that awfully nice Mr. York. We have a trophy and a plaque! Not sure what scale they are to...



Of course Andy has had the last laugh here as a glass trophy is bloomin' difficult to photograph. Very nice though.



I suppose I better get back to working on this little trainset and get 'er done.

Cheers
Dave (pleased as punch)

Edited September 5, 2017 by eldavo

[branchie]

Very much deserved Dave

[eldavo]

Waton has been sat gathering dust for several months now so it really is time to get on and do some more to it. I had a little diversion into O guage for a while at the end of last year and most of the start of this year has been involved in prepping and taking Cramdin out to exhibitions or working on odd sound projects.

It hasn't actually been the case that there has been no activity on Waton more a case of a lot of thinking going on with no action. I was unhappy with the operation of the points using the Conrad point machines and have been struggling to find a solution that didn't cost an arm and a leg in new Tortoise motors. I think I've solved that one and I'll share my experiences after I've tweaked some wiring and tested things.

The other big issues were how to support the layout and what to do about fiddleyards. The original plan, for the purposes of the 2010 challenge, was to use minimal cassettes as these would keep the baseboard area below 2010 sq inches. This would make operation at an exhibition pretty tedious as every train movement would require two cassette changes. With the competition over the size limitation has gone and so proper fiddleyards can be constructed. I had in mind to build the fiddleyards such that the layout would become a large oval with a central access well from which everything would be operated.

To support the layout I had envisaged constructing simple timber leg units or trestles. I borrowed some timber trestles from my model railway club and Waton had been sitting on these for a month or so. Although they are used for supporting all manner of things including large O gauge layouts I found that Waton felt really quite unstable balanced on trestles. The baseboards are very narrow and light which I think somehow accentuated the problems. Something else was needed.

While shooting the breeze over a cup of tea with my mate PhilH we got to discussing these issues and, with the infinite wisdom of someone seeing the problem for the first time, the solution became obvious(ish). I already have 4 steel telescopic trestles that are used to support Cramdin Yard. These are extremely stable and solid and even cope with the odd escaped child trying to climb up the layout. My woodworking skills are limited to say the least so why not just use the steel trestles again? They are fairly heavy and take up a bit more space to transport than wooden jobbies but they work! Another advantage is that they are so strong and stable you can clamp lighting rigs etc. to them.

Hmm, but if I use steel trestles and have an oval then I'll need about 8 trestles. That's about half the space in a Renault Espace people mover let alone trying to get them in a hatchback or normal estate car! Four trestles would probably be transportable so in order to support the complete layout on 4 trestles the fiddleyard will have to be bolted to the back of the scenic section and the whole lot supported as one. This will mean some fairly tight curves to fold back from the front scenic section into the yard but....

So what's next? The dreaded baseboard construction I guess. The fiddleyard boards will be built in pairs much like the scenic section and will be clamped trackbed to trackbed for transport. The end boards will have to be 'L' shaped as the track exits the scenic section through one end and has not turned a full 90 degrees. I'm building these boards from 5.5mm external grade ply glued and pinned to softwood blocks in the corners. Here's the first of the boards upside down on the floor.



There are no cross braces yet as I'm not sure where the pointwork is going to go. The structure is not completely rigid but a few diagonal braces should sort that.

This board sits at the Western (Birmingham) end of the layout where I have to accomodate an almost complete 180 degree turn and a junction with the Walsall branch. Not quite sure how the trackwork is going to turn out here. I also have to allow for a lighting rig upright to pass through the board somewhere. I have looked at reusing the Cramdin lighting supports but may yet build something custom and pitched lower down creating an almost letterbox effect. In these shots the board is just temporarily clamped up to check things out so is not square or properly supported.



Looking from the front of the layout...



Of course with the fiddleyard directly behind the scenic section it will no longer be possible to operate the layout from behind as nobody under 6' 8" will be able to see over the backscene! More of that later I suspect.

Cheers
Dave (now recharged with enthusiasm)

Edited September 5, 2017 by eldavo

[Pete Harvey]

Dave

 

I'm glad to see you are back on track with Waton.

 

What radius are you making the tracks into the fiddle yard as it looks as if they are going to be very tight?

 

I know it 2mm even for 2mm it looks tight.

 

Pete

[eldavo]

The last(?) baseboards for Waton have now been assembled if not quite completed. This is a pair of boards each 2ft wide and about 34inches long. As with all the other boards for Waton they are designed to be stored/transported by bolting them together face to face with protective end plates.



They fit flush to the back of the scenic section and will contain the actual storage loops the end 'L' shaped boards only having the approach curves and some pointwork. I'm still working on the track layout for this lot but I think I have a workable solution even if the pointwork will turn out to be more complex than that on the scenic boards!

Here are the boards roughly clamped in place. There are a few odd bits and pieces to add to the 'L' boards and then the alignment dowels can be fitted. Yes some of the curves are very tight!



Cheers
Dave

Edited September 5, 2017 by eldavo

[Stubby47]

Dave,

 

If you open the branch curve out to the baseboard edge, you could include a diamond crossing for the mainline to curve inside it :

 

 

 

 

Stu

 

PS - is the workshop still big enough ?

[james_d]

Dave can I just say well done on an amazing layout. Great inspiration for me and the level of detail is outstanding for N Gauge.

[eldavo]

Although there haven't been too many posts in this thread recently there has been some progress, just nothing very visible. After building the fiddleyard baseboards I then had to move some of the wiring on the scenic boards as originally I had anticipated plugging umbilical cables to each board at the rear. With the revised fiddleyard plan that can't happen so the sockets have had to be moved.

In addition the point motors were wired (as per instructions) to use 16V AC supply but frankly didn't work well singly and when trying to throw 2 at a time for crossovers failed miserably. I tried a bigger AC supply but still no joy, they needed upwards of 2 Amps! So after some fiddling and testing I have rewired the motors to use 12V DC. It's not documented in the Conrad instructions but is actually very easy to do and they work much better. I had to take one apart to see how it was wired!

Having made these changes I now have a layout that is wired differently to my control box! Those that have seen earlier posts may remember I've been using a lash-up of relays and switches to experiment with electrically interlocked points, signals and power feeds. So to test my rewiring I needed to re-wire the control box. Doing this on the prototype seemed a waste of time so I thought I better get on and build a proper panel.

You're probably starting to get the drift of this. At the moment I am in that state where whatever I do I take one step forward and two back!

I acquired a Model Signal Engineering kit for a 14 leverframe from ebay a while ago and I thought it would be nice to use this as the control panel for the station area of the layout. I've started to build it and have one lever assembled to test things out. It's not the greatest of kits but it will do with a bit of work.



One issue I had with the prototype using switches was that there was nothing to stop you flipping the wrong switch. The interlocking meant that the switch would do nothing but there was no real feedback to tell you which switches were valid options at any point. Using the leverframe it would be nice if there was some form of physical locking of invalid levers.

I've decide to attempt to use a single electrical interlock for all the levers linked to the latch release levers. It's not an original idea, I've cribbed it! Someone did it with a 2mm Scale Association leverframe and posted details on RMWeb but I can't find the post!

So I have added a bar (actually 'U' section) running the length of the frame below the levers which can move vertically. The ends of the bar are located by bits of brass rod in tubes. This bar will be sprung in the up (locked) position by default as shown here.



When the latch release lever on one of the levers is pulled it will operate a microswitch which will deliver power to a solenoid to pull the locking bar down and release the levers. Of course power will only be delivered to the solenoid if it is a valid movement. The same locking mechanism works for levers in the frame or pulled so a lever cannot be put back incorrectly. Here's the bar dropped.



I haven't actually mounted the solenoid yet so there may be the odd issue to solve!

One problem with building a 14 lever frame is you have to do most things 14 times! Here are 13 of the levers with their latch lever microswitches attached. The switches are located by a bit of wire through a hole in the switch and the lever and fixed with epoxy.



Lots more to do...

Cheers
Dave

Edited September 5, 2017 by eldavo

[shanks522]

Brilliant Dave, The lever frame is going to be great, would love something like this myself but its way out of my league, will be watching with much interest.

 

Graham.