Man-garth revived!

[G.M.R.]

Although I was an early contributor to RMweb and posted pictures of my attempts at layout construction on the site, (now deep in the old archive), I have to confess that I have not until now got around to posting anything about my layout in this version of the site. I often dip in and look with admiration at what others are doing, but have left it at that.

 

I did take part in a couple of the earlier challenges. This in 2007:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

which now forms the end of a branchline in the middle of my train room, connected through to the rest of the layout.

 

And this project in 2008:-

 

 

 

This operational signal project inspired me to go on and build a large gantry shown a little further down this post. I didn't do much with the layout during 2009 and then spent most of 2010 on a completely separate project for an online club modular layout (familiar to some on here):-

 

 

However, I did get back to the layout at the end of that year and for several months worked on the construction of a junction module:-

 

 

 

together with an unusual signal gantry:-

 

 

The idea was that whilst the slow lines under the gantry are still controlled by semaphores, the fast line has been recently upgraded to colour light signalling.

 

 

Here are some recent photos taken around some of the layout:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gordon s]

Welcome back Geoff. Great to see the latest pics of Mangarth. It's come a long way since I last visited. Looking forward even more now to the 28th.

[G.M.R.]

In my 12ft square train room, I have now laid around 100 metres of track and it is all operational, but as can be seen from the photos in my first post, there is plenty to occupy me for a long time yet creating scenic details, and in some cases more than just the details.

 

I have been adding a little more life to the entrance to one of the tunnels. I included a photo of this area earlier, but this is how it looked this evening:-

 

 

[D802 FORMIDABLE]

It looks magic mate, I can just picture the Deltic flying out of the tunnel .

There are some really great scenes in the above photos and I shall look

forward to seeing more.

Cheers

Anthony

[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]

Good to see you back on RMWEB Geoff, you have achieved a lot more than I have in the last few years

[Jack]

Nice to see this back!!!

[Jules]

Echo the comments above - nice to see this old favorite back again

[eldavo]

Good to see you are back and building again. Great fun had by all playing trains on the layout this afternoon even if we did manage to run Lion into the back of a stationary train!

 

Cheers

Dave

[PhilH]

Amateurs! Shame I missed it, looks like it's fun.

[G.M.R.]

Thanks for the encouraging replies, and glad to hear my visitors enjoyed themselves today. I will endeavour to continue to post my progress on the layout in the coming weeks and months. I must get the handrails finished on the gantry now that it is fully operational.

[G.M.R.]

Having spent an hour or so adding more detail to the gantry handrails I realised it was getting dark so just for fun I took some photos of the gantry in operation at dusk:-

 

Nothing moving!

 

 

 

A Slow Up train cleared to approach platform 2 (the Up loop) at the same time as a non-stop Fast Up train is clear to run through platform 3:-

 

 

A Slow Down must be on its way from platform 5 (the Down loop) and another Fast Up is expected, but this time for the Town Route with a caution as the next signal is at red:-

 

 

Now a train on the Slow Up has been cleared to cross over onto the fast line and run through platform 3, non-stop. While a night freight is approaching on the Fast Up and is cleared to enter the marshalling yard:-

 

 

Next a Slow Surburban Train on the Up line is cleared to run onto the Branch Line and stop at platform 1, while a stopping train on the Fast Up Line is signalled across into the loop platform 2:-

 

 

Finally a closer view of the subsidiary signal cleared for a slow goods to enter the marshalling yard:-

 

[G.M.R.]

The signals on the gantry shown above are all interlocked to the points in the junction and also with infrared sensors in the blocks ahead to detect the presence of a train ahead. I have been adding some more of the sensors and connecting them up to the control boards.

 

A few pics.

 

Firstly one of the latest sensing modules:-

- under the baseboard:-

 

 

and the view over the tracks:-

 

A set of modules under the gantry, including part of the colour light signalling:-

 

 

The main logic boards:-

 

A small display to show me what routes are set:-

 

and all the boards together waiting to be boxed:-

 

The final circuit board is a set of relay drivers for the memory wire motors controlling the semaphore arms on the gantry:-

 

The gantry is the first significant element of the signalling of the junction station which was documented for me by willing helpers on this forum several years ago, and I have managed to stick with the design. Now that all the track is laid I intend to try to make more progress in the construction of the many signals required. Some of them will now be colour light signals, but a good number will still be working semaphores:-