Wright writes.....

[Tony Wright]

Apologies for posting another building model but at least it's scratch-built, being made from cardboard and styrene to N/2mm scale.

 

As well as the more modern buildings (earlier), including a rather renowned brutalist architectural style building (Colechurch House) that I've made for the forthcoming layout, there is some more older (Georgian) style buildings. These are the right hand end of a terrace that were all formerly 'Railway Offices' (in St Thomas Street next to the church pictured earlier) but are now general offices for let and once used by the NHS. The model is not complete (chimneys, drain pipes, doors, ridges and flashing to do) but hopefully it gives a flavour of what I've been up to.

 

DSC_3391.JPG

 

G.

Grahame,

 

Never apologise for posting images of your work. It's what this thread is all about - individual, personal model-making. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

Picking up on my comment yesterday about Seep point motors, when Eric and I ran LB, one of them in the fiddle yard just ceased working (one way). I've now removed it and bench-tested it and, yes, one pole has failed. 

 

Rummaging through my spares box I came across three other Seep point motors which (and I'd forgotten about these) had also failed on one side. They're now chucked away. I have several new spares, but would anyone say that four failed point motors in nine years (out of a total of over 80) is more than to be expected? The reason I ask this is (and I have no connection with either firm), on Stoke Summit we used (a slightly smaller number of) Peco point motors and in 70 shows of intense operation (far more than on LB) and club running days, only one ever failed. 

 

On neither type of motor was the built-in switching used. 

 

Thanks in anticipation. 

[Richard E]

I've not used the Seep motors but they strike as being more lightly engineered than the Peco. I'm not a fan of either as they seem to be quite a violent action and I do worry a bit about how they will affect the trackwork in N. The retirement project will be Finescale track on the scenic are, I'll probably use servos.

Edited September 13, 2017 by Richard E

[coachmann]

One cannot build a layout out of paint(!) and so, like a lot of historical railway modellers, I do everything else out of necessity ~ except loco building. Thinking back 40 years to when I used to build loco chassis with outside motion and run the gears in with grinding paste, clean everything down and start on the superstructure gives me the collywobbles....... Another week of my life lost forever haha.

 

There is enough to do as it is and it has taken me four months to build a simple layout based on a prototype with just four points. I wonder how long it would have taken in the 1960's in between working shifts when all the locos and rolling stock had to be built as well. Yet after four months, I can sit back and listen to sound-fitted extremely well detailed RTR locos chuffing through a miniaturized landscape that exists some 40 minutes drive from here. Railway modellers are in a very good place today.

 

As for making buildings: I don't like doing it but I am glad I did it...

[Atso]

Apologies for posting another building model but at least it's scratch-built, being made from cardboard and styrene to N/2mm scale.

 

As well as the more modern buildings (earlier), including a rather renowned brutalist architectural style building (Colechurch House) that I've made for the forthcoming layout, there is some more older (Georgian) style buildings. These are the right hand end of a terrace that were all formerly 'Railway Offices' (in St Thomas Street next to the church pictured earlier) but are now general offices for let and once used by the NHS. The model is not complete (chimneys, drain pipes, doors, ridges and flashing to do) but hopefully it gives a flavour of what I've been up to.

 

DSC_3391.JPG

 

G.

 

Grahame, are you sure you scratch built those? I spy a Graham Farish logo under the model!!!!       

[Atso]

Something very different from me (now that I am allowed to share it), an initial stab at a Pennsylvanian Railroad E6 Atlantic body. This has been produced for some good friends of mine from Holland, Hans and Marc Starmanns of N-Stars. Hans is a wizard at adapting commercial chassis and scratch building his own to produce accurate mechanisms for a variety of N gauge locomotives and I'm sure is now hard at work sorting out the chassis for this one!

 

The initial print is shown below as presented to the Starmans (photo courtesy of Marc).

 

[Hroth]

Here' an example of just how domineering some models can  be even when cut back on the dimensions.

 

I took Leeds castle in Kent as the inspiration yet only built a very small section of it yet it was more than enough as one can see as it looms over the town in the picture  and, again, using the 'If it looks right, it is right' method.

 

Allan

 

 

MY PICTURES 6613.jpgMY PICTURES 6484.jpg

 

When photoshopping the background sky in, it somehow ate into the stonework ! I couldn't avoid it as it did the same thing in the same place every time I tried to rectify it.

Looks like you've got the "Gormenghast" filter selected, it detects crenellation, and selectively crumbles towers.

 

The "Lancre" subfilter is even more effective......

[grahame]

Something very different from me (now that I am allowed to share it), an initial stab at a Pennsylvanian Railroad E6 Atlantic body. This has been produced for some good friends of mine from Holland, Hans and Marc Starmanns of N-Stars. Hans is a wizard at adapting commercial chassis and scratch building his own to produce accurate mechanisms for a variety of N gauge locomotives and I'm sure is now hard at work sorting out the chassis for this one!

 

The initial print is shown below as presented to the Starmans (photo courtesy of Marc).

 

PPR E6 Atlantic.jpg

There's some nice rivet detail on that print, especially bearing in mind that it is N/2mm scale.

 

G.

[Richard E]

I've just been checking my calendar and find that I have time to go to the show at the East of England Showground (Peterborough) in mid October.

 

Having gone last year I thought I'd look at the video they have put together and lo and behold at around 1:45 who do I see - why none other than Tony - https://youtu.be/PlHhdAzB2Cc

 

And I'll confess that I was wondering if Tony is going given that it is pretty local for him.

[Tony Teague]

Hi Tony

Regarding point motors, I use only Peco solenoids and whilst I have had the occasional problem of "stickiness" - usually due to motor / point alignment problems, I think that I can say that I have only had 2 failures over about a 10 year period - and I have around 140 motors installed; nor have I ever had any problems related to point blades breaking due to the violence of the solenoid switching.

So I would say that your Seep failure rate seems unreasonably high.

Tony

[Atso]

There's some nice rivet detail on that print, especially bearing in mind that it is N/2mm scale.

 

G.

 

Thank you Grahame and I didn't mean what I said about your building really (awesome scratchbuilding and something I'd like to emulate with a couple of buildings I need to make),

 

It is a Shapeways FUD print as my own machine is currently out of action and awaiting a new part. It has been cleaned up using various sanding sticks and wet and dry papers and represent around three hours work to remove the worst traces of the printing process where the model was supported (I'd have expected an hour or two clean up time if I'd printed it myself - not including the time taken for various primer coats to dry). I primed this model using an airbrush an Tamiya light grey paint which kept the paint thickness right down to not obscure any detail. The rivets are slightly over scale but I find that it is sometimes best to do this (or leave details off completely) in N gauge.

[robertcwp]

Hi Tony

Regarding point motors, I use only Peco solenoids and whilst I have had the occasional problem of "stickiness" - usually due to motor / point alignment problems, I think that I can say that I have only had 2 failures over about a 10 year period - and I have around 140 motors installed; nor have I ever had any problems related to point blades breaking due to the violence of the solenoid switching.

So I would say that your Seep failure rate seems unreasonably high.

Tony

I have over 100 Peco point motors on my layout, almost all of which have been in service since 2000, and only one side of one motor has failed due to dead coil. 

[Barry Ten]

I've also never had a failure of a Peco motor, and there must be more than 60 in use on my American layout, as well as on others. Some of them are well over 30 years old as well.

 

I have found that if the motor is sticky, which can happen if it hasn't been thrown for a while, a quick blast of electrical contact cleaner down through the tie-bar area (if the

motor is mounted under the point) is enough to get them working freely again. Most of my motors are inaccessible once installed but I've come to trust that they'll last at

least as long as the layout. I just recycled one that my Dad must have wired up in around 1981, and it's still good.

 

Alastair

[thegreenhowards]

Picking up on my comment yesterday about Seep point motors, when Eric and I ran LB, one of them in the fiddle yard just ceased working (one way). I've now removed it and bench-tested it and, yes, one pole has failed. 

 

Rummaging through my spares box I came across three other Seep point motors which (and I'd forgotten about these) had also failed on one side. They're now chucked away. I have several new spares, but would anyone say that four failed point motors in nine years (out of a total of over 80) is more than to be expected? The reason I ask this is (and I have no connection with either firm), on Stoke Summit we used (a slightly smaller number of) Peco point motors and in 70 shows of intense operation (far more than on LB) and club running days, only one ever failed. 

 

On neither type of motor was the built-in switching used. 

 

Thanks in anticipation.

 

I use both, and have yet to have one fail from the point switching point of view. But I find the polarity switching on Seep motors extremely fickle. Having spent this afternoon trying the fettle a crossover to work reliably, I'm considering how to replace the in built polarity switching!

 

Andy

[Dr Al]

Picking up on my comment yesterday about Seep point motors, when Eric and I ran LB, one of them in the fiddle yard just ceased working (one way). I've now removed it and bench-tested it and, yes, one pole has failed. 

 

Rummaging through my spares box I came across three other Seep point motors which (and I'd forgotten about these) had also failed on one side. They're now chucked away. I have several new spares, but would anyone say that four failed point motors in nine years (out of a total of over 80) is more than to be expected?

 

 

Sounds like quite a failure rate - I can only go on my own experience of Peco motors, driven off a Gaugemaster capacitor discharge unit, powered from a Gaugemaster 24V AC transformer. This is higher than is commonly used (normally 16V AC) so the motors get a good spurt of current. None has failed in 17 years of use (there are about 50) - and at least half of these motors were bought cheaply secondhand and therefore have likely had previous lives of unknown length - some are incredibly old, being of the original Peco design with no extended bar above the motor and a thinner bar in general - they needed bespoke bars on the adaptor bases made out of plastic or brass to avoid too much slop!

 

I always struggled to get reliable performance from SEEPs, even using the same electrical supply - despite using N Gauge, so needing a lesser throw to move the turnout, they still seemed weak and wouldn't throw reliably. Perhaps I was doing something wrong all those years ago (thick end of 20), but I switched (excuse the pun) to Peco and never had another problem since. They've never been cleaned, oiled, or touched in the intervening 17 years, in fact some probably haven't seen sunlight since then!

 

I have had one turnout tie bar fail on use of a Peco motor. This was the oldest turnout on the layout (Peco code 55) and it's the one at the entrance to the storage roads so is one of the most heavily used. I can't be sure if this was caused by the stress of the motor, or the 14 odd years of running it had before failure, but it was repaired and is still in use 3 years on by replacing the tie bar with a copper clad strip - ok for a hidden area, but if it'd been on the visible side of the layout it'd have had to be fully replaced. I guess cost of £5.50 in around 1999 and over 14(+3) years means I've had my money's worth!

 

Hope this helps,

Alan

Edited September 13, 2017 by Dr Al

[Richard E]

Gents, many thanks to those of you posting about point motors, it is encouraging reading.

[allan downes]

Peco point motors the Rolls Royce of point motors. Simple, robust and everlasting - or so the late Sydney Pritchard once told me in his office when we were almost at the bottom of  a bottle of sherry and, I guess, he was right. 

 

Then he made me breakfast " This way Mr Downes, the kitchen is down here somewhere I think..."

 

Allan.

[Hroth]

My previous layouts have been populated with Seep point motors which, even with CDUs, I've found to be pretty gutless.  In defence, I only bought them because they were cheaper than anything else at the time. 

 

I'm now building a souped up BLT, aka "Minories". This time, I'm going to try Peco units.....

 

Wondering how to flog off a bunch of wimpy Seep point motors 

[grahame]

Wondering how to flog off a bunch of wimpy Seep point motors

You've got to serreptitiously and gradually seep them out on to the secondhand market . . . .

 

G.

[stewartingram]

Bring back H&M.....

 

Stewart

[allan downes]

Some folk on here talk about a hundred point motors plus and I just can't even start to imagine the mileage of wiring needed to get that lot working !

 

Would dearly love to have a peek under their baseboards.

 

Allan.

 

Edited to chuck out the 'a' in peak and to add an extra 'e' !

Edited September 14, 2017 by allan downes

[micklner]

Mine are Seep without switches never lost one yet. I also have two Tortoises on a  Peco 3 way point just as good and very quiet. Peco too bulky and a pain to fit due to the large hole needed in the baseboard, I sold mine on.

 

Tony's I would imagine do more throws in one day then mine do in a year however !!.

[landscapes]

One cannot build a layout out of paint(!) and so, like a lot of historical railway modellers, I do everything else out of necessity ~ except loco building. Thinking back 40 years to when I used to build loco chassis with outside motion and run the gears in with grinding paste, clean everything down and start on the superstructure gives me the collywobbles....... Another week of my life lost forever haha.

 

There is enough to do as it is and it has taken me four months to build a simple layout based on a prototype with just four points. I wonder how long it would have taken in the 1960's in between working shifts when all the locos and rolling stock had to be built as well. Yet after four months, I can sit back and listen to sound-fitted extremely well detailed RTR locos chuffing through a miniaturized landscape that exists some 40 minutes drive from here. Railway modellers are in a very good place today.

 

As for making buildings: I don't like doing it but I am glad I did it...

WEB Waiting room 18.jpg

 

Hi 

 

That is one very nice building, I would be well proud of that if I had made it.

 

Regards

 

David

[Tony Wright]

I use both, and have yet to have one fail from the point switching point of view. But I find the polarity switching on Seep motors extremely fickle. Having spent this afternoon trying the fettle a crossover to work reliably, I'm considering how to replace the in built polarity switching!

 

Andy

Thanks Andy,

 

As for the polarity switching on the Seep motors, don't bother - I've found them very poor and always use a separate microswitch. 

[Tony Wright]

Mine are Seep without switches never lost one yet. I also have two Tortoises on a  Peco 3 way point just as good and very quiet. Peco too bulky and a pain to fit due to the large hole needed in the baseboard, I sold mine on.

 

Tony's I would imagine do more throws in one day then mine do in a year however !!.

Thanks Mick,

 

You're right in that the point motors on LB get a good bit of use - a full day's operating on Tuesday, yesterday and another tomorrow (all in all 12 guests). In a way, though, that (should?) keep point motors more reliable, because they're regularly in use. If a motor isn't used for months (or years?) might it not have a tendency to stick? 

 

Despite Peco's greater amount of bulk, I wished I'd have chosen them rather than Seep ones when we installed all the fiddle yard point motors on LB. Parsimony doesn't always save in the long run!