A 'Quickie' out of doors - now Palin's Yard

[66C]

 

Brick Plastikard will be bent to shape and glued to the whole wall, I was going to bend the Plastikard with a heat gun, having had little success with boiling water, but decided that using a heat-gun on plastic attached to a spray can was probably a bad idea, I shall have to keep my eyes open for a day or two to find a suitable alternative mould former.

Hi Peter

 

Be careful not to be too enthusiastic with the heat gun - too much heat and the plastic sheet will shrink - guess how I know this!

 

My best results were draping the plastic sheet over a former - the axis of the cylindrical former being horizontal - and letting gravity do the forming as the heat is applied.  Use a former a little smaller in diameter than that of the curved walling as the plastic will "spring back" a bit on cooling.  I found it best to start with a piece of plastic larger than the finished size and then trim after fixing in place.  You may also find the plastic sheet is more brittle after heating.

 

Regards.

[peter220950]

What about an emptied rattle can ? Really truly empty…

  Armin

Armin,

 

Thanks for the suggestion, still not completely convinced about heating up even an empty can, favourite at the moment looks to be a certain persons rolling pin, but I'd better wait until SWMBO has gone out, in case it gets a bit charred. Failng that the vacuum cleaner pipe looks good.

 

I think as mentioned it only needs a gentle bit of warmth, but I haven't had much success in the past with water.

 

Yesterday was spent casting wall sections and cutting them about to make the ground floor level walling, only about fifteen more wall pieces to cast. Think I've solved most of the problem areas, I will post more photo's when I have some completed sections.

[switcher 1]

Wife got a hairdryer?

[peter220950]

Wife got a hairdryer?

 

 

Yes but the DeWalt Heat gun is much better!

[puddlejumper]

Yes but the DeWalt Heat gun is much better!

What.......for doing the wife's hair!!!!!

 

I bet she loves you really

[peter220950]

Two weeks on and still no great progress, this time of year seems to take up so much time in shopping and running around to relatives.

 

I have finally finished the casting of wall sections, and have spent several hours just looking at the proposed layout and seeing how it’s all going to go together. Given that there were only three wall panels in the original castings I am having to do quite a bit of adaptation to get some variety into the buildings, and to get various bits to fit together. Although it sometimes seems to be taking an age to get this sorted I realized the other day that this group of buildings represents about half of the structures for the entire layout, so it will, hopefully, start to move along a bit now I’m beginning to put sections together.

 

Firstly sections of gable wall were cut and assembled to form the first section at the rear of the office block, two panels were assembled and attached to section of acrylic, and wall section off-cuts were attached to the sides. A rear wall of foamboard was cut to the same profile, and roof sections were cut and fitted ready for tiling.

 

 

 

 

Next was the ground floor to the office building, a gable end wall panel was cut about a bit, and the window in-filled with a further section of off-cut. The loading deck was cut out behind the window and doorway of the stores, so that some detail could be put inside. The large loading door was then fabricated from a section of corrugated iron plastikard, and a frame and wicket door detailed with plastic strip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foamboard was cut to size for the backing to the end wall of the office, followed by a section for the front wall and ceiling section to tie it all together, with a support timber at the rear to clear the fiddle yard. The ground floor section should be permanently attached to the base-boards with the remaining structure plugged into the top when exhibited. The joint between levels will be covered by a feature band of stonework when completed.

 

 

The return to the loading deck, at a higher level, was then attached, followed by the column return to the front elevation.

 

The first floor end wall was then assembled from a ‘cut and shut’ exercise on a further gable-end panel, using two curved top window sections let into the lower part, the joints disguised by a column section. Foamboard backing was added and a floor and remaining walls were made in foamboard, ready for more cladding with panels next.

 

 

 

Hopefully with the layout of buildings on this board now sorted progress will speed-up, though I don't see much prospect of it happening this side of Christmas!.

[peter220950]

Today was the last day I think I will get much done on the layout this side of Christmas, the wall cladding panels have been fixed to the main office building, with the exception of the front entrance. This panel is still being mucked about with to get the proportions somewhere close without encroaching onto the pavement too much. 

 

A pair of columns and a porch were mocked up with foamboard and round plastic tube, this seemed somewhere close but seemed lacking in presence.

 

 

A sheet of corrugated iron plastikard was cut up and wrapped around the column to give the impression of fluting. This panel will be worked on over the next week or so to hopefully improve the finished article.

 

 

 

 

Next the end of the main loading/unloading building was marked out on foamboard and panels cut to size to test the layout, this will then be finalized, with holes cut for the fiddle yard at the rear, so far it’s looking pretty much as I wanted.

 

 

 

Off to the South West now for Christmas, so I will take the opportunity to wish you all very Happy Christmas and hope to see more progress on everyone’s projects in the New Year.

 

Hope Santa brings loads of goodies to you all.

 

 

 

[peter220950]

After a wait of several weeks the magnets that I ordered from China have finally arrived, allowing me to make a start on my automatic uncoupling experiments, one of the main reasons for building the layout.

 

 

The size of magnet was chosen to allow them to be sunk between the sleepers, but I needed to get them to establish how many I would need to fit to get a satisfactory uncouple. At 15mm x 6mm x 3mm I also needed to know if they would have sufficient power to work from a level below the track.

 

Firstly a pair were fixed to a spare piece of track, to establish the strength of the magnetic field, which seemed to be quite sufficient.

 

 

The Sprat & Winkle couplings were then dug out of storage and a couple were fitted to a van and an open wagon, and a bar was quickly Blu-Tacked into place on the bufferbeam of the Fowler. 

 

 

It’s harder to  retro-fit these couplings with any great accuracy, than to incorporate them into the chassis builds, so I need to get them signed off before I start building specific stock for the layout. The only things I have noted are that there only need to be two links on the couplers, and that there may be a need to subdue free running wagons, a bit of drag on the axles should do the trick, similarly a damper on the swinging coupler arm should make operation a bit less ‘clicky’.  The couplings will also be chemically blackened on the final fitting.

 

A quick play on the programming track indicated that they would work o.k. (much to my surprise) so it was time to get the layout set up again to place the magnets.

 

This was the first time the layout has been used since well before Christmas, and this was also the first time I had used the Fowler on it.

 

Holes were excavated in the foam track sub-base, and magnets were glued in place, followed by a very pleasant day playing trains, in the interests of getting the magnet positions correct.

 

 

With one or two exceptions, due to inaccuracies in coupling heights etc, the system seems to be exactly what I wanted, coupled with the ‘Stay Alive’ Fowler the early indications are that I have a reliable hands free system with good slow running, so I’m chuffed to bits today. 

 

The magnets fitted, I can now start to get on with ballast and track infill, so it’s make your mind up time for the ballast. While I would really like nice cleanly ballasted  track it’s not going to look right in a 1960’s industrial setting so I am minded to go for ash and cinder ballast that’s a bit overgrown in the sidings, but I suspect it’s harder to make things look tired and worn out, - on with more experiments.

 

[peter220950]

I have finally bitten the bullet and started the brick cladding to the walls between the road and the yard, as I had ordered some etches from Scale Link for the gates.

 

 

I had concerns, mentioned earlier in the thread, about bending the plastic to the wall shapes. Initial trials with a heat gun over a former were good in that it bent the card well but bad in that it lost all of the brick detail, so that was a non-starter.

 

 

With a bit of manual bending and clamping I decided it was worth trying to glue the card without further work and it seems to be o.k.

 

The curved wing walls were marked out for the new top profile and cut to shape ready for the brick cladding.

 

 

The inside curve needed a bit more clamping but soon I had a pair of main gate walls, and a lower section for further along, and piers were made out of stripwood and clad in Plastkard.

 

 

The Scale Link gates were opened up but the largest gates looked a bit on the small side,

 

 

in hindsight I should probably have gone for the Gauge 1 fret but it was too late to worry about that. I messed about with the gates for a while and decided I could get away with soldering 2 sets together.

 

 

The opening is probably still a bit on the narrow side, but as I’m tight for space it will have to do. A second pair of more plain gates was used for the entrance adjacent to the roller shutter door.

 

 

The main entrance gates then had some strengthening pieces soldered to the outer edges and sections of small diameter tube were fixed to them.

 

 

Suitable bits of etched plate were dug out of the spares box for hinge plates, and a pice of brass rod was passed through the tubes, bent at right angles, and fixed into the piers through the hinge plates.

 

 

The wing walls were then attached to the piers, and brass rods fitted to give purchase into the board.

 

 

I had some wall and pier sections that I had cast for the Club layout and these were adapted to provide the remaining wall that I required.

 

[L&Y]

Great! The more I read this thread the less I will mess up with my own layout! Good to see lots of pictures. I didn't even know Scale Link produced anything in this scale! I love the gates. You must be pleased with the way this is turning out! Spent the afternoon working on the loft room & a bit of inspiration is welcome. It's cold up there & I don't feel too enthusiastic about going up there. 

[peter220950]

You must be pleased with the way this is turning out! Spent the afternoon working on the loft room & a bit of inspiration is welcome.

 

Thanks for that, at times it seems slow, despite the fact that I get more modelling time than many, however a number of things have now been resolved so I should get some more visible progress. It seemed to be stalling, as until the fixed bits of buildings and perimeter walls are all sorted on the first board I didn't want to start ballast and ground cover, now I'm getting closer.

 

Went to the Bristol O Gauge show today, for the first time, and got some nice fine dark ballast, some detailing bits, a tutorial on the DAS track infill (many thanks to David Wright), and most importantly some inspiration from my 'Layout of the Show' Poynton Sneer. If I can get something half as good as that I will be a happy man.

[peter220950]

Not a great deal to report this week as I didn’t get back home until Wednesday, the ‘Goods Inwards’ stores area has had the window fitted and a door made.

 

 

and a bit of detailing to the area outside the gate,

 

 

Buffer beams came in for attention next, Peco beams from some old buffers were dug out, the lamps were drilled out and a slot filed in the back of the lamps.

 

 

A 2mm red led was then inserted into the slots and wired with a resistor to the two track rails.

 

 

and a new stop was fashioned from brass to fit into the siding adjacent to the loading deck, to take up as little space as possible as the siding is tight, probably not prototypical but without taking up the three way point, and moving it I’m stuck with it. The buffer is drilled into the board so that any over zealous driving will not smash the boundary wall down.

 

 

The Club layout I also work on required several chimneys that I have cast in resin, today has seen one ‘borrowed’ for use on the office building,

 

 

and the start of the area above the loading deck, to be clad in corrugated iron sheeting at a later date.

 

[peter220950]

As reported elsewhere, nothing much has happened on the layout over the last three weeks, as I have been running around being a grandad for the first time, as well as starting a kitchen re-fit, however there has been a bit of movement today:-

 

A length of the loading deck ground floor level has been made by cutting out the window and door openings on the back of the mirror finish perspex,

 

 

and the wall sections were attached to the other side.

 

 

The upper floor also had mirror finish applied to the rear wall, to give the impression of a larger room.

 

 

The inside and external walls were then sprayed with grey to block out any light bleed, and the roof had a covering of thin ply ready to receive tiling. Hopefully I can get a bit more progress this week.

 

 

When finished LED strip lights will be fitted.

 

 

[peter220950]

A bit more progress today, with work progressing on the buildings on three fronts.

 

For some time now I have been pondering on the brickwork colour, for large areas of brickwork I have usually relied on a coat of red oxide primer from a can which is then washed with a light stone mortar colour, and given that this was to be a quick test plank it's the most sensible way to go.........

 

however I'm not by nature a sensible person, and I really wanted to do something a bit different.

 

An engine shed on the club layout was completed by someone painting individual bricks, but this seems a bit time consuming for a structure this size. First call was to the local Hobbycraft where a can of terracotta spray was purchased, along with several different acrylic colours of browns and reds to highlight bricks.

 

A wall section was sprayed with the base colour, which in the flesh is a bit too pink,

 

 

the pots af various colours were opened

 

 

and individual bricks were picked out at random, which wasn't too time consuming, and the end result was awful!

 

 

Definitely not what I was looking for, however with a bit of perseverance a wash of mortar colour was applied and the whole area, the cheapo pastel colour blocks were dug out,

 

 

and the area was dusted over, and lo and behold, although a bit dark it begins to look a bit more like what I was looking for. Given that it's an old factory complex a grimy dirty look is what is wanted, so I shall persevere with this process.

 

 

Next on the agenda was resolving the main factory building which hides the fiddle yard, the last end section was cut out of foamboard, and the front wall was marked out to cut out the window openings. One of the resin wall panels was applied as a test, and the structure was framed up with 15mm square timber to give some rigidity. A flat roof of foamboard was glued onto the framework to firm the whole thing up and a start was made on the interface with the next building, which is to be made from different panels.

 

 

Whenever I'm stuck on a project I always adopt the mantra of 'work the problem', often just spending days thinking of a solution by just looking at everything around me as a potential answer. In the case of the front walling I have been pondering the copings.

 

Firstly the piers needed capping, and to date the best answer I could come up with was to fabricate a master and cast some in resin, however when I was looking around Hobbycraft I noticed these in the button department.

 

 

with a bit of filler in the thread holes they will be great.

 

 

Next on the agenda was the the wall coping itself, not a great problem on the flat wall sections, but I had made myself a problem with the curved sections adjoining the piers, again Hobbycraft came to the rescue with sheets of flexible foam.

 

 

This stuff is just the ticket, sections were held on the wall, marked with a pencil, and cut out with a sharp craft knife. The sections then glue onto the wall and will be painted further down the line.

 

 

It's taken a couple of weeks but once again the answers popped up when I thought about it long enough.

 

Next on the agenda is to cast some more brick pier sections to enable the main buildings to be completed further.

 

[peter220950]

Didn’t feel much like doing a lot yesterday so I spent most of it messing around with bits and pieces at random.

 

The far end wall of the main loading bay area has been started, at the interface with the next building. The North light roof profiles were set out so that the remaining bits could be in-filled with brickwork panelling. Most of the joints will be covered with a variety of ducts, pipes and cables when it gets closer to painting time.

 

 

Next on the list was assembly of a Langley Models ‘phone box that will sit on the pavement by the office building.

 

 

Then attention was given to the main entrance of the offices. I have been unhappy with the pitched roof I initially envisaged, it didn’t seem right to me somehow, so I have had a bit of a re-design. A raised step was put in, together with the fluted columns I had made, and the whole was topped off with a flat roof.

 

 

A bit of decoration was then made out of some of the gates left over from the fret used on the main gates. It probably still needs something on the wall above the doorway, but I’m a bit happier with it now. Ideally it needs a flight of steps into a recessed front entrance, but the fiddle yard behind the front door precludes this, it  just needs a pair of front doors designing and fabricating.

 

 

Further fiddling around, with things that weren’t really on the critical path to get the layout completed, saw a Duncan Models transformer assembled. This is due to go in a small sub-station somewhere near to the boiler house at the other end of the layout.

 

 

And finally the remaining gate piers were dealt with. I had no copings for the square pillars to the main gates, and again I ended up with a combination of bits from the gate etch and a couple of large beads.

 

 

So no great leap forward, but a pleasant day playing when it would have been quite easy to do nothing, and I am now getting quite close to getting the first board substantially complete and ready for painting and final detailing.

 

Today was more productive, though it probably doesn’t show that much. The afternoon was spent putting card down onto the areas where there are to be pavements and site roads. 2mm card was stuck down with double sided tape, having cut it to the profiles of the walls and loading bay area, it’s now ready for a coat of PVA and some Das to mark the footpath area and road into the site.

 

 

 

Next on the agenda was to start to get the office block closer to a stage where it can be painted and the ground floor fixed to the baseboard. Apart from windows, which still need the etches doing, the main stumbling block was the front entrance doors. A  piece of plastikard was cut to size and vision panels were cut out. A pair of brass handles and escutcheons were fitted, using small rivets and brass wire, and a doorframe of strip plastic was attached, mirror Perspex will be fitted behind the vision panels as there’s not much to see except buffer beams of loco’s in the fiddle yard.

 

 

Window etches are now getting high on the priority list, and I still haven’t got to grips with Autocad, however plan B sees me using a couple of friends, one of whom owes me a favour for painting a loco, so I may be able to fast track the process, this would see the offices and loading deck well on the way to paint.

 

One last thing I have to sort is the wiring from the ECoS switch-servo unit under the loading deck, and power feeds to the board. It seemed a good idea, at the design stage, to hide these under the loading deck, but this has isolated them in the middle of the board, I think I might need to change this to either move them or make access from below the boards, I need to spend some more time trying to resolve this issue. It seems that however much time is spent planning, ther's always something that creeps out of the woodwork to bite you later on.

[peter220950]

Made a start on a bit of painting today, - painting the town red, or rather a pinkish colour. The external walls have been glued into one length, then given a coat of base colour, and the 'post box, 'phone box, and side gate have been painted.

 

 

Finally the ground floor of the office block was given a coat of primer and base coat ready to start painting the bricks individually.

 

 

Things are destined to go a bit quiet now, as I have yet another project on the go, which has to take priority, - it's a 1:1 scale model of our kitchen,

 

 

which if nothing else will free up the congestion in the rest of the ground floor,

 

 

so no playing trains until SWMBO has her new units fixed, the ceiling re-plastered, and a new floor laid.

 

 

"I may be some time"

[Bigboystoys]

Nice layout. ..but more importantly. ..is the red 355 Spyder in your avatar yours ?? :-)

[Derbys65]

That kitchen kit looks bigger than 7mm , is it a skytrex one ? Lol

[peter220950]

That kitchen kit looks bigger than 7mm , is it a skytrex one ? Lol

 

Would that it was, it would be a site cheaper and easier to fit!

 

Nice layout. ..but more importantly. ..is the red 355 Spyder in your avatar yours ?? :-)

 

Errrr, sort of,

 

For some time it had a sticker on the back saying 'My other car is a Skoda'

 

 

I have never been a great one for ready to run, so I went out and bought a kit!

 

 

Add it to an imported twin turbo MR2 and it gives a reasonable job that's a bit more reliable and cheaper to run than the real thing.

 

[L&Y]

Glad it's not only me! Close to finishing the house. Now started on the shed. Stuffed it with insulation at the weekend. Just needs a work bench making & I can make a start. Good luck with the kitchen. I've been doing this place up for two years in may. Think I'm due some R&R. The money i've saved would pay for several model railways... Well that's my argument anyway. Seems to be working so far... My layout thread would be more suited to a DIY website at the moment. lol. Good progress on the railway. Will look forward to it's resumption before too long! 

[Bigboystoys]

Aaah, looks a good job though, and yes, much cheaper to run. I have a 348 (ready to run Italian model :-) ) and trust me, they're not cheap to run, but great fun :-) !

Edited April 12, 2015 by Bigboystoys

[peter220950]

Well, nothing much has been happening for several weeks now while I have been re-fitting the kitchen, but that hasn’t stopped me from planning and resolving issues on the layout, and I have just managed to pinch a couple of hours to play trains.

 

Thoughts on the front kick-back siding to the boiler house have been the subject for much of the time spent, I had purchased a Duncan Models boiler to incorporate into the building, but couldn’t quite get around the issue of fuelling it.

 

My best plan to date was to have a small covered awning in front of the boiler house, into which I could have incorporated some sort of mechanism to remove a coal load from a wagon, so that there was some logic to a loaded coal wagon going in, and an empty one coming back out.

 

This was not a particularly satisfactory solution, as it didn’t seem plausible that a building would be constructed to cover the track, when the reality was that the side door of the wagon would be opened and coal shovelled out, but if I opted for that solution operationally I would be bringing loaded coal wagons in and back out again. I debated putting in a small siding to enter the building, but this also seemed to over complicate the layout, and considered an end tippler, but this would involve more work putting in a new turnout and controls, and would take a lot of the siding up with the turnout.

 

I also toyed with the idea of using the traverser I had made as a modelling exercise some months ago, instead of a turnout, but it would still have involved a lot of manual poking around.

 

 

 

In cases like this I usually followed the Gene Kranz edict in ‘Apollo 13’ to ‘Work the problem”’ and as often happens with these things the answer came from three directions within a week.

 

The purchase of ‘Modelling Further Aspects of the Coal Industry’ from a second hand book shop, and the April BRM, with the EM layout Blackwell’s Brewery, (thanks guys), both showed layouts with a side tippler. These things didn’t really register on anything other than a sub-conscious level until I was working on the kitchen, the removal of the corner carousel unit triggered off the things I had seen but which had not really registered.

 

 

 

The introduction of a tippler would allow the siding to remain virtually unaltered, the only question being whether I would have to cut right through the baseboard or if it could be contained within the 30mm board depth. It would further provide some additional interest on the layout.

 

The first thing to understand was how these things work, I had always assumed that there was a quite complicated mechanism to clamp the wagon into place prior to turning it. Study of photographs and articles on these machines indicated that this wasn’t the case, the machine simply consists of a platform that rotates around a pivot point and a large counter-weighted bar which the wagon comes into contact with as soon as it starts to tilt. Once the wagon hits the bar it is effectively clamped to the track and as it rotates it picks up the counter-weights to hold the wagon securely as it rotates.

 

A drawing was made of the end elevation of a wagon, track and platform, and after a bit of trial and error, the cradle shape. A separate drawing was made of the counter-weighted arm. These drawings were then cut out and overlaid on one another, a pin was pushed through the pivot point, and the whole thing could then be turned and the principles tested in 2D.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having tested the concept, and established that it might fit within the depth of the baseboard, a start was made on making a working version, either to be a test piece or, if sufficiently robust, the finished article. Without access to detailed plans, or working drawings of a prototype, I decided that this would have been constructed on site by Jabez Wilkes, the Works Manager of my factory who was, like me, a bit of a bodger, so Rule 1 applies! - any Heath and Safety or engineering considerations regarding the structure should consequently be ignored.

 

The first thing to be established was the weight needed for the counter-weights,  these have to clamp the wagon to the track, so a wagon was weighed and a notional amount allowed for a coal load, this was estimated to total 120 grammes, 60 per counter-weight. Using car wheel balance weights this seemed possible within the curved weigh sections, if used them three deep.

 

Having established the size and width of the counterweights blocks two circles were marked out on a sheet of 40 thou. plastic card and sections cut off to the right size. A 15mm strip was then cut out of similar material and the sections were assembled to form the counter-weights. The self-adhesive car balance weights were then inserted. Two strips of large section rail (ex-garden railway) were cut over length, until the correct height of the restraining bar was established, and were glued into the middle of the weight, further weight and solidity would later be imparted by pouring resin into the housings later on. The pivot points were marked and drilled and the weights set aside for later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The platform was to be made from PCB, a piece was cut to just over wagon length, rails would be soldered to this platform once the whole thing was assembled and tested. The semi-circular platform supports were next cut out of sheet brass, and 00 rail bent and soldered to the edge to give some strength.

 

 

 

 

Pivot points were again drilled and the supports were lightly tacked to the wagon platform and the whole was temporarily assembled on a length of brass rod. A thin brass rod was tack soldered onto the counter-weight arms at an estimate of the correct height and a piece of track was temporarily stuck to the platform,

 

 

with a wagon placed in position the whole assembly was then tested. As the platform raised it picked up the retaining bar, locked the wagon in place, and lo and behold, after moving the bar about a bit, it worked!

 

 

 

 

 

Flushed with success I decided to stick with the ‘mock-up’, rather than start again with a new prototype, as this is after all supposed to be a quick test bed layout. Additional strengthening rails were soldered in a radial pattern around the pivot points, and a large girder along the front of the platform. The supports were soldered permanently to the platform and the whole thing was cleaned ready for paint.

 

 

The intention is to run chains around the cradle support curves, which will then pass around pulleys to a winding drum of some sort. A box will next be made to set into the baseboard, which will contain the whole mechanism, the winding drum, and hopefully a hopper into which the coal will discharge. It remains to be seen whether this whole mechanism can be kept attached to the board, or whether it needs to be removed for transport, given its relatively fragile nature, it would need at least, some form of locking pin to prevent movement of the deck and counter-weights, and this may be possible once the whole thing is fully developed.

[peter220950]

A bit more progress and development today, the counter-weights have been filled with resin, to stabilise the weights and add a bit more mass

 

 

a couple of old bits of sleeper were cut to form blocks in the top rail that restrains the wagon, and a further rail was added at around solebar level, to help support the wagon during tipping.  A couple of cross braces were then added, (later to be removed as they stopped the wagon tipping properly).

 

 

After a bit more testing the pivot holes in the counter-weight arms were moved up by about 3mm to give a bit more leverage and once happy that it seemed to work o.k. a couple of running rails were soldered to the deck.

 

 

The whole assembly seems to be a working proposition and after testing with some granite ballast I am happy that it’s worth moving into the next phase, which is to produce a housing to sink into the base board. This will be constructed in the same PCB material as the deck, it’s a swine to cut, but can be soldered, and gives a bit more rigidity than brass sheet.

[peter220950]

Today the PCB material was cut to roughly the right size with a jig-saw, and as previously noted it did severe damage to about five blades.

 

 

 

The finished bits were soldered together to form a tray into which the mechanism would sit, and vertical stanchions were cut, drilled and soldered in to enable the whole thing to be test assembled. Some pieces of chequer plate plastic card were also cut to line the deck, and spacers were cut from lengths of tube to keep the various parts the right distance apart.

 

 

 

 

 

A rookie error was then noticed when I realised that putting external tracks to meet the lifting deck actually stopped the counter weights rotating – back to the drawing board!

 

 

A quick re-think and the substitution of longer rails, with two PCB sleepers added to the deck solved the problem, and new chequer plate was cut to hide the bodge. Not sure yet how the underside will be concealed but that’s only a cosmetic item to worry about when it comes to final tidying up and painting.

 

 

 

After a lot of messing about with foamboard the whole thing seemed to work without too much trouble, so the development continued.

 

 

Firstly a small chain was soldered to one end of the pivot, and a length of round brass wire was soldered in position under it, at the point it reached its maximum travel.

 

 

A hole was drilled in the rear of the tray, and a tunnel of brass section added to keep coal from clogging up the chain.  The original intention was to motorise the tippler but keeping to the principles of low cost and minimal complication I shall, for the time being, use some form of DCC (digital chain control = by hand).

 

 

 

Next to be carried out was the infilling of the tray to prevent errant workers falling into the mechanism, and to contain the tipped coal For this lengths of walnut sleepering strip and foamboard were cut to line the exposed areas as much as possible. The small size of the container to take coal, a design flaw, will result in some form of manually removable hopper, to be emptied after each delivery, or a trapdoor in the bottom. As yet the buildings in the tight confines of its location have not been designed, so it’s a bit suck it and see at the moment.

 

 

Measurements of the mechanism seem to indicate that the whole depth of the baseboard may need to be removed to get it to fit, but this will be decided once the location has been finalised, at least I now know it can be fitted into the layout somehow.

 

I think I'm getting somewhere, - but maybe only another days playing before SWMBO notices progress on the kitchen seems to have slowed!

 

 

 

Edit

 

P.S. And I've been a naughty boy, the Works seem to have aquired a second Fowler, - decisions have to be made on Works livery now!

 

 

Edited May 1, 2015 by peter220950

[asa]

Peter,I find scoring PCB with a sharp blade several times and snapping over a straight edge works well for me.

If it's double sided I score both sides.

I'm really enjoying your layout build and with the addition of the tippler it's going to be a great little layout.

All the best Al.