Kirkby Luneside (Original): End of the line....

[Physicsman]

Thanks Jason - Clans were already on the list after you and Andy mentioned them earlier. I'm glad about that, though the Hornby models are getting expensive - almost as much as the Brits. I'm hoping they might release a new (non-sound) Brit and/or Clan in the next year of so.

 

Btw, the Orbital "brown" album arrived 20 mins ago and is now being duly played. If I was under the influence, I'd find that music totally hypnotic. I like it.

 

Jeff

[Physicsman]

http://cumbrianrailw...d35d6#h2e3d35d6

 

The photo linked to above is not the inside of Garsdale as quoted but is one of the two boxes which pre-dated it, Hawes Junction North or HJ South - just in case you were planning to use it for detailing your cabin Jeff.

 

Cheers Dave - takes me back to when I was a lad. Must admit I misread the caption for a second - as 1980s rather than 1890s!! Don't think Andy (uax6) would be too impressed if he had to dress like that when he went to work!

 

Jeff

[Jason T]

Listening to the Brown Album myself at the moment. Fantastic stuff

[Physicsman]

Listening to the Brown Album myself at the moment. Fantastic stuff

 

Track 9 "Halcyon" is superb, but don't know what to make of track 10!!

[Jason T]

Halcyon is one of those tracks that makes the hairs on your arms stand on end. Input Out though...... I must have listened to the album over a thousand times and I don't think I have ever listened to that track past 10 seconds (and that is only from fumbling to find the Stop button)

 

Edit - renamed the 'Make it stop, please' button when Input Out is on

Edited December 7, 2012 by Sandside

[Physicsman]

Update: I managed about 3 hours under the boards today. Everything seemed to be happening in slow-motion - I'm sure it didn't take me as long when doing similar tasks a month or so ago. It's a lot tidier, but I'm barely halfway through the task, and thats just the track droppers.

 

Turnout droppers and DC connections will then follow. I'm also re-checking all the connections (from terminal block below board to track) for continuity. Takes ages, bobbing back and forth - an extra pair of hands here would help. In the end, though, it'll reap rewards.

 

More wiring tomorrow.... My (optimistic) schedule of working in a warm kitchen for a few days will have to wait!

 

Jeff

[Andrew P]

Re extra pair of hands, cant you rent a MAID or something just to sit on a stool, pass down what you need and also she could make lots of coffee and cakes to keep you going, hahahaaaaaeeee

 

Re warm kitchen, you shoud have built KL on 4 ft x 2 ft boards and you could have taken them into the house on at a time and sat in the warm in the winter, or in the garden with a cold glass of your favorite in the summer, hahaha

 

How about some more under board pics?

 

Andy, (causing trouble again mate)

[Physicsman]

Evening Andy. No trouble - only too pleased to oblige. I'll take a few more underboard pics for you tomorrow - it'll be a bit tidier than the pic in post 2095!

 

I was actually wondering whether people might like some close-ups of the wiring into the Cobalts and down to the track bus. A lot of people understand this, but if it'd be useful, can someone say so and I'll do it. Also, there's a chance that the frog polarity will be wrong (50:50). If anyone wants info on the simple checks to sort this, I'll illustrate that, too - when I get to that point.

 

I don't want to appear to lecture - I did that for nearly 30 years as a Physics teacher!

 

Back to you, Andy - when I post the pics tomorrow, let me know if there's anything specific I can show... Oh, by the way, you can send me a lovely maid as recompense!

 

Jeff

[robmcg]

Lovely shots Rob, although you're not really helping Jeff with resisting loco purchases

 

73069 ended up as a Carnforth loco, and the last Standard 5 in service. I have in front of me a shot of her in a very run-down Lancaster Green Ayre station on 1 August 1968, running light to pick up yet another demolition train.

 

The book the photo is in, in case anyone was wondering, is 'Steam in the North West' by Derek Cross (ISBN: 0 85206 775 5) and I've had it since about 1982.

 

Gordon Bennett! Derek Cross was as good friend of my father Tom McGavin and he used to show us movies of trains all over NZ when Derek lived and worked all around the country as a Geological Survey Scientist (I think) mostly the mid-50s ...I was a kid then, Dad was later manager of New Zealand Railways Publicity. Derek was a fine photographer and lived in Ayrshire, where co-incidentally my father's grandparents lived before emigrating in the 1850s... reputed to be something to do with the Irish Troubles and gun running they may have taken the wife's name to make it easier. The grandfather worked three return passages from Britain to Aus/NZ to earn 5 acres in Nelson, it being straight after the Irish famine.

 

Also incidentally my mother came from a wealthy English family and even though her grandfather was a baronet (Watson-Munro) and held a directorship on the Great Northern Railway amongst other interests, his family were originally the Machells of Westmoreland. Unfortuately for our wealth Mum's father argued with the old man and took a fixed sum of money and cut ties, thus becoming what NZers called a 'remittance man' even though he was a lecturer in Electrical Engineering from about 1900-on. He had been decorated in the Boer war and didn't serve in WW1 but returned to England around 1920 where my mother was born. Some of her older relations appeared to have been not very familiar with the idea of work. Her father had two step-sisters who lived in Guldford until about 1970 and who maintained their own Bentley because the mechanics were 'useless'... you wouldn't read about it.

 

Rob

Edited December 7, 2012 by robmcg

[ChrisN]

Bill, the only way I've managed to avoid buying locos was to rip out the track bus of my old layout, along with some of the track - so there's been nowhere to run anything for the last few months. That's why fitting the bus to KL is going to wait a while (probably means January!!).

 

I've no chance next year - another 9F and a 4F are givens and I fancy a couple of LNER locos for the sake of them - the DubD and a V2.

 

Found a supplier of decent scribers, btw. Oh, and sometime next year I'll have to get an Aztec and compressor...

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

 

And what is wrong with a Beyer-Garrett? Just because it is expensive, and never went near the S&C it is still an impressive loco. I suppose if you did not get one of those you could save the money and buy two spam cans.

[Physicsman]

And what is wrong with a Beyer-Garrett? Just because it is expensive, and never went near the S&C it is still an impressive loco. I suppose if you did not get one of those you could save the money and buy two spam cans.

 

Is that a suggested purchase, Chris? And I'll leave the spam cans to you.....

 

Jeff

[robmcg]

Chain drive is the FUTURE, my son....

[Physicsman]

You lot are getting bl**dy cryptic!!!!!

 

Chris, I've just looked up the particulars of the B-G. No wonder they are held in such high esteem - nearly 80000lbs tractive effort. 0 - 60 up the Lickey Incline in 30 minutes - wow! Lol. The new model is impressive, but I'd find it hard to justify - given the roster already on the list for KL.

 

What region do you model?

 

Now then, Rob. Having established you have links to modern-day Cumbria, Scotland, Ireland and NZ, you are quite the cosmopolitan man. I hope you've built that new viaduct diorama I suggested by now..... As for chain drive.... Btw, that's a hell of a powerful car you have, sir (5.7 litre!).

 

Jeff

[robmcg]

ahhh, I am in the middle of auctioning a cam and engine parts I bought 2 years ago which would raise the mid-range and top end power somewhat, 500 quid to you guv., and think I might go and view the local secondary roads for an hour to get away from being anything resembling 'cosmopolitan'.

 

95 octane costs about £1.10 a litre here, and 'road tax' is minimal, as is insurance because NZ has no-fault = less lawyers. Thus occasional driving-for-pleasure events don't cost as much as a Heljan Beyer Garratt model (I have 2 pre-ordered) p.s. Bachmann 4P Compound at Hattons now...

[ChrisN]

Is that a suggested purchase, Chris? And I'll leave the spam cans to you.....

 

Jeff

 

Yes it is a suggested purchase. I do have a spam can, but it is in TT guage. Lovely little loco. Modelling 009 means I shall probably model nothing larger than an 0-6-0. However, if I manage to have a standard gauge connecting line then I may get something bigger but it will only be Cambrian, as I want to model early 20th century or late 19th, or maybe GWR. So you have no competition from me in buying a Beyer-Garrett. Go on, you know you want one

[Physicsman]

I have to be honest and tell you that it'll be a pleasure to sit and consider "what loco shall I order tomorrow". That may not be as far off as I think, but in the meantime I've got to make sure I get all the electrics sorted, frog switching at the right polarity, track bus fitted etc etc before any of it will move.

 

What I plan is to get a section of the layout into electrical working order - probably the fiddle yard main line - and give my loco stock a bit of a run-out. After that I won't have an excuse when people tell me to consider buying stuff. It might reduce the amount of modelling I do, though!

 

The joys of anticipation! (Read that carefully AndyP: I said anticipation, not constipation!).

 

In the meantime I'll try and save some pennies.

 

Jeff

[jukebox]

I have to be honest and tell you that it'll be a pleasure to sit and consider "what loco shall I order tomorrow". That may not be as far off as I think, but.....

*snip*

 

Jeff

 

7th December, 2012: Jeff admits to a "one a day" habit.

[robmcg]

Dear Jeff, I will feel for you when you are applying ballast to KL. I have determined that I will need to do this on my dioramas... the dilute PVA and dropper, with various tapes and surfaces will need to be concocted tomorrow, all the time thinking, 'at least I don't have miles of the bloody stuff to do...'.

 

Did I mention that Hattons have the LMS 4P Compound in store? A weathered one would fit my scene nicely. Please send remittance by reply. I will buy the paint.

 

Yours,

 

Impecumium

[Physicsman]

7th December, 2012: Jeff admits to a "one a day" habit.

 

It's a nice habit to have, but the key word was "consider" ... I pick a new loco each day - but they never get ordered! Shame.

 

Jeff

[Physicsman]

Dear Jeff, I will feel for you when you are applying ballast to KL. I have determined that I will need to do this on my dioramas... the dilute PVA and dropper, with various tapes and surfaces will need to be concocted tomorrow, all the time thinking, 'at least I don't have miles of the bloody stuff to do...'.

 

Did I mention that Hattons have the LMS 4P Compound in store? A weathered one would fit my scene nicely. Please send remittance by reply. I will buy the paint.

 

Yours,

 

Impecumium

 

Yes, ballasting that lot is going to be fun. There was a discussion on ballasting technique a few pages back. PVA, yes, but not diluted.... apply the PVA then sprinkle the fine grade onto it... rather than watching the dilute PVA wash away and clump the small granules together. A tedious job, but that's for the new year.

 

You could always take a holiday and come and do the job for me!

 

Jeff

[92220]

.... apply the PVA then sprinkle the fine grade onto it... rather than watching the dilute PVA wash away and clump the small granules together......

 

Jeff

 

+1

Gordon s showed me this, and he in turn was inspired by Captain Kernow. I absolutely recommend it!!

Not all that tedious in fact because although painting the PVA between sleepers takes some time, it is so neat and requires little or no tidying up afterwards. I have only used it with thin C&L sleepers, mind.

 

Iain

[Physicsman]

+1

Gordon s showed me this, and he in turn was inspired by Captain Kernow. I absolutely recommend it!!

Not all that tedious in fact because although painting the PVA between sleepers takes some time, it is so neat and requires little or no tidying up afterwards. I have only used it with thin C&L sleepers, mind.

 

Iain

 

Yes, thanks for that, Iain. Funny isn't it - most people go for "deep ballasting", and I think that works well with thicker sleepers and "OO" gauge ballast grade. Since Gordon mentioned the trials that he's had, several people have come forward with the "neat PVA" technique. Perfect for SMP or C&L, easy to apply the PVA, more economical on ballast and the key thing - it looks good as the PVA doesn't run.

 

So it was the good old Cap'n that started this off, was it? Of course, for the ultra-rapid there's the "Larry (Coach) technique", but having laid all the track first, that's not for me.

 

Hope Camden's still going well. I'm off out to do some more wiring now.

 

Cheers Iain,

 

Jeff

[Physicsman]

Ok Andy - as requested, more underboard photos...

 

The first shows groups of droppers from straight track in the fiddle yard, arranged into groups and fixed to terminal block. The terminal block will be wired to the track bus, bus connections being soldered (as you'll see in a few weeks when I get there)...

 

Each dropper is coded and the droppers in each block are listed next to the block itself.

 

 

The next 2 photos are a direct comparison from Thursday to today - before and after the "tidy up"...

 

 

The last photo shows the droppers from a turnout wired into the Cobalt. Stock rail and Blade rail droppers are joined together (so "bonding" these, taking away the reliance of blade contact for electrical continuity) into terminal block, black and red along with the Frog connection. These are then connected into inputs 2 (Black), 3 (Red), 4 (Green, frog, COMMON) on the Cobalt.

Connections 2 and 3 may have to be reversed once the system is tested to ensure correct Frog polarity.

 

 

Hope this is of interest.

 

Jeff

 

Edit: Pretty obvious: The terminal block with red, black and green will have to be connected, via yet more droppers, to the track bus (Red and Black only!!).

 

EDIT 2: For those who are wondering - "where's the point motor power inputs", well these haven't been fitted yet. These go to Cobalt inputs 1 and 8, powered by a DC supply at about 9V, and linked to the control panel.

 

If you look back about 20 pages (!!!!!), you'll see that I use Blue and Yellow wire for these.

 

I will post a plan of the overall wiring shortly - when I've drawn it!

Edited December 8, 2012 by Physicsman

[Physicsman]

Can I apologise in advance if anyone finds the information below "insulting". I know from experience that some people find it difficult to sort out the basic electrofrog wiring. So the first diagram shows the idea. Please check the connections onto a Tortoise: the connections on the diagram are correct for Cobalts.

 

 

To make some sense of the last photo in post 2148, here's a relevant diagram. The pic in 2148 doesn't have the yellow/blue DC connections yet, nor the connections down to the track bus.

 

 

Hope this helps somebody!

 

Jeff

Edited December 8, 2012 by Physicsman

[peach james]

Wow, clear explanation, Jeff.

 

Many have struggled with exactly what you have drawn- I'm OK with it, but many other people look at it like a nightmare of connecting things !.

 

(& while it might not be something _I_ need, I know this thread is being followed by a lot of people who might otherwise not know how to wire electrofrog...)

 

 

 

James