Somewhere in Devon . Now named Newton on Teign .

[Sidecar Racer]

Great scenes. You've really caught that "railway in the landscape" look. 

 

There is something about those locos that I can't quite put my finger on though.... ;-)

 

 I've yet to do the copper caps on the chimneys if that's what you mean .    

[Barry Ten]

You may have covered this Mike, but I forget - are you using DC or DCC?

[Sidecar Racer]

You may have covered this Mike, but I forget - are you using DC or DCC?

 

 

 Just plain DC Al , could'nt afford the chips for the loco fleet we have between us .

 

 Plus two wires is boring .   

[Culmhead]

I have had the great pleasure and privilege of seeing Newton on Teign develop over the last 11 months.  Mike and Stu live very close to me so I have been able to pop down every 2-3 weeks and every time the progress has been quite amazing. All I can say, is that the 2D photo's do not really do it justice, in 3D it really is superb and the attention to detail is fantastic. 

 

All I can say is well done Mike  and Stu and hopefully, see you both next week!

 

Aidan

[Sidecar Racer]

                                         

[The Stationmaster]

And to you and Stu too Mike.

[Norwenglish]

Just read my way through the thread, and this is some wonderful and very inspiring work you guys are doing!

[Richard Mawer]

Mike,

 

Great layout. I love the atmosphere you've created.

 

Can I just ask what make the footbridge and coaling stage are?

 

Cheers

 

Rich

[Sidecar Racer]

Hi Rich ,

 

the footbridge is just a standard Hornby one , the coal stage like the loco shed both came with

the layout when bought , they are just plywood shells , originally covered with brick paper but

Stu spent some time cladding them with brick pattern plasticard , then a good weathering to tone it 

down .

[Richard Mawer]

Thanks Mike. Very helpful. I'll keep watching your blog. It's good encouragement for me.

[Sidecar Racer]

 Greetings all ,

 

 as it has been a while I thought an update was due .

 

 Action in the shed did'nt happen for a couple of months due to weather and other things ,

mostly nothing to actually do as things were being prepared as in house jobs .

 

 My contribution was scant due to a thickening cataract that was awaiting removal , that was done

on Monday this week , so no more excuses now for inaction .

 

 So the last two days have seen a rush of activity , as we are now at a stage of introducing more

detail items to the overall scene this will be mostly photos to show progress .

 

 Basically , all signals that Stu made are now in place for the total route , I have attempted to produce

a reasonable looking pole route for the communications side of things , and the lineside fencing has

been added to  the last section of scenic area .

 

 Although not major things individually they do help to enhance the overall look .

 

 So on with the pictures ,

 

 A tour from left to right looking at what is the ' up ' direction .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now from right to left in the other direction , the first ones are the initial fence post

installation  as a sighting line for further work .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that's the state of play as of today , hopefully more to come in the

next few weeks as things are added and detail enhanced .

[Barry Ten]

This is a cracking looking layout, Mike - it's so good to see the steady progress over the last couple of years. These pics have really helped me get a sense of the track layout.

 

Glad your eye is sorted!

[The Stationmaster]

Excellent stuff Mike & Stu.  Good to hear the operation has taken place and I hope all is well

[NHY 581]

This is a smashing view. Can't wait to see an express or a long goods making their way through those curves.

 

Excellent stuff.

 

Rob

[Sidecar Racer]

Another week and some more progress , again not major things but

stuff that takes time to get right .

 

 Stu kept himself amused by doing steps and a ladder for the coal stage , a

buffer stop for the bay and fitting water cranes and running in boards on the

platforms .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I spent my time adding wire to the line side fencing , finishing off the chicken

run and herding some sheep .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What an exciting life we lead .  

[Brinkly]

Good work on the fencing posts. Mike, really nice to see your layout progressing.

 

King regards,

 

Nick

[Sidecar Racer]

 Good grief , is that the time already , seems like only yesterday since the last

update .

 

 Lots of little bits have and are being added all the time , but this post will just

cover a big job that I could'nt put off for ever .

 

This is the heart of the thing , the control panel .

 

 So a new panel was made and duly marked out and the required holes were

drilled and controllers fitted .

 

 

 This is actually the third incarnation , no 1 was done using a 5mm foam based

board but after drilling the holes it soon became obvious that it was to thick and

would not allow all the bits to go in neatly , no 2 end up as FUBAR due to the

ommision of one track completly and a row of holes in the wrong place and also

a difference in the original layout of the plan in relation to point operation by a matrix

and push buttons and our use of toggle switches .

 

The original interior looked like this ,

 

 

 I worked out a plan to do things differently , this involved fitting various power

areas to the inside of the lid , some are just for point power supply and the others

are the supply points for the LED's .

 

 

 

 Next a shelf arrangement was fitted to allow more connection points to be installed

to try and simplify things , this allowed the point moters to be wired before the switch

wiring was started .

 

 

 

Once all the point connections were made it was time to start on the switches ,

most had to be wired and fitted individually due to the way they had to be routed

to reach the relevant connection point , in total it took about 12 hours just to get

them all fitted , but now we do have a full set of working points .

 

 

 

 

So the finished article so far looks like this .

 

 

So far we have used about 40m of wire and about 25 hours of working time

to this point .

 

 Now I will have to move on to the LED installation and I could be gone for

some time ..

[Brinkly]

Brave men! That wiring is beyond my skill set, well done gents!

 

Regards,

 

Nick.

[Sidecar Racer]

Brave men! That wiring is beyond my skill set, well done gents!

 

Regards,

 

Nick.

 

Thanks Nick , but I'm sure Stu wont mind me saying that this is all my doing ,

he happily admits to not knowing one end of a piece of wire from the other .

 

 But there are things he can do with a paint brush that I will never manage so

it's good that we can share our different skills where they work for the best .

[gwrrob]

Very impressive chaps.Neat and tidy too.

[Sidecar Racer]

Very impressive chaps.Neat and tidy too.

 

 Thanks Robin , still a lot to go in so it my not be that neat when it's done , but at least

I will know how it works , that's more than I did with some of the original stuff .

[Sidecar Racer]

 I said I maybe gone for some time .

 

So here we go again , many hours of sweat and tears and singed fingers later .

 

 Finally all the LED's are in and mostly working , a couple of point motors need a

bit of adjusting to get a good changeover but I'm pleased with the results.

 

 I had a bit of a panic when some newly received LED's did'nt seem to want to

work , after a lot of head scratching and making a test unit I discovered that

the newly supplied ones work on the opposite polarity  to my original ones , cue some hasty

alterations to the plan to enable the new ones to be used in a dedicated set for the

yard isolation display and leave the others for point indication .

 

 Some photos .

 

 

 

Remember befor ,

 

 

Well here is after .

 

 

 

 

 

 Still some tidying up to do , but I think it looks a bit neater than the original

set up ,

 

Next job is to sort out these .

 

 

 These are the yard area feeds and isolating section wires , when it's all done in theory

it will be possible to isolate out any given area to prevent stray loco's from moving from

where they've been parked .

 

 So that's it for now , hopefully the next bit wont take as long .

[Brinkly]

Lot of wires there Mike!

 

Well done, must be the time of year to work on a model railway!

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick.

[brianusa]

After a lifetime in electronics, I avoid wiring. Luckily the layout originally wired a dozen years or so ago still functions so everything must still be connected. Still looks like the proverbial rats nest!

 

Brian.

[coachmann]

Thanks to you mentioning how you did your GWR boundary fencing 'wire' on my layout thread, I followed the link in your profile and 'discovered' this splendid layout. We have something in common too..............Stations named Newton. It has been a massive project for you with well over 30 feet of scenery and wiring to deal with. Yet another layout thread I knew nowt about, it will be followed from here on.