Kensington Olympia in n scale

[grahame]

3 hours ago, Carl. H. said:

I've seen it used to good effect for buildings of varying sizes and even rolling stock would you believe, despite its quality issues.  People have told me the secret is bracing it and giving a coat of cheap superglue on the fibrous, un-coated sides of the card.  A bit like the old days of shellac being used to stiffen card, same principle really.  Mountboard used as backing for sketchpads is quite good too but that's an even more expensive way than cereal packs for sure! 

 

Yep, of course people use cereal packets and similar to make things, and often because they consider it 'free' by rescuing it from the rubbish bin. And some do put it to good use (for scenic landscaping formers for instance) or make great looking models from it. 

 

But, as you say, it requires extra work and has inherent weaknesses and drawbacks. With good quality card being a relatively cheap modelling material I'd recommend not compromising with an inferior product (certainly if you don't need to). But each to their own. There's no rights and wrongs about its use in modelling.

 

[St Enodoc]

When I were a lad the white-faced card that came with a new shirt was my usual material.

[acg5324]

8 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

How do you know the table's level?

If you saw what’s under the cloth, you’d know.

 

we acquired the table secondhand but nearly new. It was in the dining  room of a bungalow and completely swamped it. 

Its oak about 8 foot long and 3 foot wide. The legs are about six inches square. It took four of us to lift it and get it on a trailer to come here.  Floor might not be level either.......

[acg5324]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

When I were a lad the white-faced card that came with a new shirt was my usual material.

If you hadn't impaled your neck with the pin that you’d missed unpacking it. 

[acg5324]

8 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Good job you like tea then.

and coffee.........

[acg5324]

7 hours ago, Railfreight1998 said:

Very specific

Very.....the fruit and veg bit was just as bad!

[acg5324]

Two A1 sheets of mountboard purchased £2.99 a sheet. Due to the number of windows in Charles house I’ve order some glazing bar grids from Freestone Models..... very quick replaying to emails and order on its way. thank you. As a result I won’t start marking up walls until I work out what size the windows will be.

 

Bits for the DCC tester are enroute too.

So today I’m going sit on my a##e out in the lovely sunshine for a change and read a book I brought back from Canada in 2016.....

 

Rio Grande a last look back 1974-2010...........

Edited April 8, 2020 by acg5324

[acg5324]

The next thing to order will be diode matrix kits for once the point motors are fitted. I’m only going to use them for the fiddle Yard as there’s a multitude of routes available. The station area is relatively simple.

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, acg5324 said:

The next thing to order will be diode matrix kits for once the point motors are fitted. I’m only going to use them for the fiddle Yard as there’s a multitude of routes available. The station area is relatively simple.

As you're using DCC, have you thought about something like a Cobalt Alpha or NCE Mini Panel (other brands are available) for route setting?

[acg5324]

8 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

As you're using DCC, have you thought about something like a Cobalt Alpha or NCE Mini Panel (other brands are available) for route setting?

I did, but I quite like old school DC for the points.....and signals. DCC still seems like the dark arts to me! 

[acg5324]

On 05/04/2020 at 02:55, St Enodoc said:

When I'm installing track wiring I connect a battery-powered buzzer across the rails. If you connect a wire to the wrong rail it tells you straight away.

Well my components turned up today. Just need to work out what goes where John. Do you have a picture or a wiring diagram.?

[Steven B]

Red wire of the buzzer to red wire of the battery - insulate with some tape or heat shrink. Croc-clips on the black wires - extended with normal layout wire if needed. Touch them together and the buzzer should sound. Clip one croc-clip to one rail (or track feed) and the other one to the other track feed.

 

Steven B.

[acg5324]

Thanks Steven.....I think I was over complicating it in my head......well that’s my excuse.

[Ian Morgan]

Do not have your DCC Command Station attached at the same time as the buzzer.

[acg5324]

2 hours ago, Steven B said:

Red wire of the buzzer to red wire of the battery - insulate with some tape or heat shrink. Croc-clips on the black wires - extended with normal layout wire if needed. Touch them together and the buzzer should sound. Clip one croc-clip to one rail (or track feed) and the other one to the other track feed.

 

Steven B.

It’s probably me...........and it was......but the buzzer sounds constantly when attached to the track. The penny dropped that the controller was attached but not live. Disconnecting that sorted it. I knew I was cut out to be an electrician.....not.

 

Time to pack up and get dinner ready. Tomorrow I think it’ll be tidy up time for some errrr testing of trains.

[acg5324]

37 minutes ago, Ian Morgan said:

Do not have your DCC Command Station attached at the same time as the buzzer.

Lesson learnt!

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, Ian Morgan said:

Do not have your DCC Command Station attached at the same time as the buzzer.

 

6 hours ago, acg5324 said:

It’s probably me...........and it was......but the buzzer sounds constantly when attached to the track. The penny dropped that the controller was attached but not live. Disconnecting that sorted it. I knew I was cut out to be an electrician.....not.

 

Time to pack up and get dinner ready. Tomorrow I think it’ll be tidy up time for some errrr testing of trains.

Don't have anything connected to the track when you are wiring up!

 

Sent while waiting for the hot cross buns to warm up.

[grahame]

33 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

 

Sent while waiting for the hot cross buns to warm up.

 

Ooo, nice. I'll have an unburnt one, Alfred.

 

 

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, grahame said:

 

Ooo, nice. I'll have an unburnt one, Alfred.

 

 

Sorry mate, you're too late!

[acg5324]

No Hot cross buns here... 

 

we would have been walking in to York today with friends to have a few drinks and a cheese and meat platter at Pairings Wine Bar.  Instead today we are going to have a virtual one.  We all have cheeses, meats, olives etc and plenty of wine and beer ( including some Proper Job, Boltmakers and Ghost Ship )...and will meet up through the magic of FaceTime.

 

Have a safe Easter in this very surreal world, take care everyone.

Edited April 10, 2020 by acg5324

[acg5324]

Yesterday I did a bit more wiring, and made sure all the track pins were in properly. Still missed feeds to a headshunt. That won’t take long.

 

Anyway as I haven’t many chip fitted Locos I thought I’d clear my stash of decoders. 

 

First issue Dapol class 33s....mutter mutter.....They appeared to program fine, but wouldn’t move when on the layout. A few phone calls later and with suggestions of putting them in another loco to program or program on the main none of which appeared to work, I left it overnight.

This morning I finally got them to program......but......only a 2 digit number....but only after I’d reverted them to factory settings.  These are DCC Concepts 6pin Zen decoders. I couldn’t get the Bachmann 6pins to do any better. Popped a Zen decoder into a Dapol bubblecar and a Farish class 47 and both took 4 digit addresses. Bizzare.

 

 

[acg5324]

Also had my first attempt at MUing Locos to find that 25011 which was converted from a Farish class 24 is wired up the wrong way round. A quick trawl through RMweb found the answer, change CV29....sorted.

Edited April 11, 2020 by acg5324

[acg5324]

Postman delivered my order from Freestone Models......excellent service....lots of window grids.

 

 

[acg5324]

Charles House.....some progress photos.

Framework is mountboard. Brick plasticard over 30thou.

 

 

[acg5324]

As usual I’ve spotted a bit of a cock up in that the top floor cuts through the top window. I might just remove the top floor and Jack it up a bit.

 

The other option is to cut the floor back around the windows and plate over the top....this will at least mean I can maintain the integrity of the building so far.

Edited April 13, 2020 by acg5324