Somewhere in Devon . Now named Newton on Teign .

[Sidecar Racer]

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.

 

 Thank you for the complimentary remarks Larry , I've been following your progress from the start

of Greenfield , Delph and all stations in between . Your rate of progress has to be admired and also

your willingness to rip it out and start again if you are not happy .

 

 With the size of our effort that was not an approach we could take so a lot of time was spent with

trial and error ideas but without actually fixing stuff down , hence the fact that we are in our forth year of

the build , but the end is in sight , if a model railway can ever be called finished .

[coachmann]

If only I too had had a vision of what I really really wanted back in 2006 when the first baseboard was constructed. I would be sat back today doing a 'Devon' or 'Brent' watching great (western) little trains going about their business instead of dicking about with fencing ha ha...

[Sidecar Racer]

Well it's done , almost .

 

 Apart from getting the correct contacts on 2 point motors for the 3 way yard points

to work properly .  

 

 A few photo's .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Now we can get back to more scenery .

[gwrrob]

Stunning work Mike and Stu.Out of interest what made you choose Modelex controllers ?

[Sidecar Racer]

 Hi Robin ,

 

 the original job lot was fitted with Kent controllers , panel and hand held , one of the panel

ones went up in a cloud of smoke ,  as these are no longer available an alternative had to be

found . Before this though I noticed we were getting some variable running with different loco's . 

 

  A couple of people on here recommended Modelex and we saw some being used on an

exhibition layout and had a chat with the operators who said they were good .

 

 We now get consistent running of loco's with all types of motor from Ringfield through to

Portescap .

 

 It's as simple as that .

[Andrew P]

Excellent work on the Panel Mike, I have mine to do wit By Coloured LED's and yours is so impressive, Thanks for posting the pics, really inspirational.

[coachmann]

The back of my PC is frightening enough without looking at your control panel . 

[Sidecar Racer]

The back of my PC is frightening enough without looking at your control panel . 

 

 It's not really that complicated Larry , it's just that there is a lot of it .     

[Brinkly]

Well done gents. As others have said I wouldn't know where to start with that!

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick.

[Sidecar Racer]

 And so the work go's on .

 

 Having finished the wiring it came to testing time , all points working okay , 99% LED's

okay . Track testing came next , and that's where the trouble started .

 

 As nothing had run through the yard and shed areas for some time the track needed a good

cleaning for starters , having done this we tried a few loco's to see what worked and what did'nt .

 

 Well . actually more did'nt than did .

 

 Stalling on a lot of points , especially the double slips , speed changing over two joined sections

of straight track and generally a great failure .

 

 I expected some problems as all the affected area was the first area to be be laid when we started ,

done before the two main boards were pushed back against the wall so we could work at the back

without having to stretch .

 

So some scenic stuff was moved from the front and I climbed on top for a better look .

 

 More scraping ,cleaning and fiddling , re test , the goods yard was okay but the shed area was still carp .

 

 Discussion , what  do we do , if we leave it we have a vast diorama when we would rather have something

that can be used to add to operational advantage .

 

There was only one answer .

 

 I did a Larry . See below .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Having pulled it all up some of the problems became apparent , some rail

joiners were showing signs of corrosion and were going blue at the rail faces ,

some point contacts were in a similar state .The two double slips had very poor

blades that were hardly touching rails when switched and so on .

 

 So 2 new slips , 5 right hand points and 4 Peco inspection pits were ordered .

 

 The reason for the pits , well] the ones made from the Scalescene system were

falling apart , probably due to glue failure .

 

 When  that lot arrived the first obvious thing noticed was the vast improvement

of  the latest slip over the ones we had .

 

New type at top , what we have below .

 

 

While waiting for the bits I had been below decks and dropped all the point motors

to check them over . Some were showing 'end of life ' signs .

 

 So two more slips were ordered so we had a full set of good quality ones , and new

point motors to replace the bad ones .

 

 I also found that the two points that lead onto  the four shed roads were mounted so

close  together that the point motors had been cut about to fit . Not liking this I set about

devising a method of staggering the operating pins to allow good side by side fitting .

 

 This is the solution I arrived at , we will know how well it works or does'nt work when

reassembly takes place .

 

 

 So far I have replaced one of the main line slips and tested it .

 

 

 

I used my Sentinal shunter and it crawled through at snails pace with no stalls or hesitation ,

if I can get all the rest of the replacement track to run that smoothly then I will be very happy .

 

 So once again we reach the end of another chapter in the joys of building a model railway .

[Culmhead]

A bit drastic to say the least! 

 

It looks a lot different to when I last saw it a few weeks ago, though, it will be all very worthwhile in the long run. 

 

See you soon, cheers,

 

Aidan

[Richard Mawer]

Hi

 

Its been ages sice ther's been an update. Any news on this layout?

 

Rich

[Sidecar Racer]

 There by hangs a tale as they say .

 

 I can't pinpoint a reason but I had , and still have a lack of motivation , although saying that

some of the side effects of the meds I am taking for blood pressure control could be part of it .

 

 Despite all my best efforts I have difficulty getting motivated , not just for the layout but for even

mundane things that need doing around the house , I usually end up saying I'll do it tomorrow and

we all know what happens then .

 

 I'm sure eventually something will click and we will get back on track .

[Richard Mawer]

There by hangs a tale as they say .

 

 I can't pinpoint a reason but I had , and still have a lack of motivation , although saying that

some of the side effects of the meds I am taking for blood pressure control could be part of it .

 

 Despite all my best efforts I have difficulty getting motivated , not just for the layout but for even

mundane things that need doing around the house , I usually end up saying I'll do it tomorrow and

we all know what happens then .

 

 I'm sure eventually something will click and we will get back on track .

I am really sorry to hear this. I hope you feel better soon and I for one (and there are clearly others on here) hope that you will feel up to doing more on the layout soon and sharing it. You have done good work.

 

Kind regards.

[Richard Mawer]

Hi

 

How are you feeling these days? I hope things have got better.

 

I look forward to an update on the railway, if you have been able to do more.

 

If not then I hope you will feel better soon.

 

Kind regards

 

Rich