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

[peter220950]

Quick update on the layout, with some progress on a couple of areas. The back of the kitchen work has now been broken,

 

 

so apart from a couple of weeks of shopping and family visits I should be able to get on a bit more from now on.

 

The first job was to finish off the hand controller for the points, the coloured film was fitted and takes the glare out of the LED’s.

 

 

The connecting cable had its plugs sealed to the leads with the aid of the glue gun, and some Aldi coloured glue sticks.

 

 

In amongst the almost daily deliveries from China came the LED spotlights that I am hoping to light the layout with.

 

 

Following a warning I picked up on You Tube I checked the earth continuity, sure enough 3 out of 4 lights had none, their idea of an earth is a wire floating loose in the casing, or just wedged into a suitable gap! 

 

Be warned, any electrical items you buy from China should have the earth continuity checked before use.

 

 

 

I soldered a washer onto the wire to give a decent fixing, and put a tie-wrap on the cable to stop it being pulled out.

 

 

 

Onto the layout proper, the canopies to the loading deck were finished off,

 

 

and given a base coat of grey primer.

 

 

A boring afternoon was spent painting odd bricks on the main factory building,

 

 

and the vertical upstand of the roof was clad prior to deciding on a roof covering.

 

 

The second floor of the plant room building received arches to the window heads, cills, gutters, and roof tiles, prior to a base coat of paint.

 

 

 

 

Finally the water tower has had a bit of work done, firstly a line of brick corbelling was put on, to cover the joint in the plastic card covering,

 

 

at which point it was decided that it looked a bit oddon its own, so similar courses were put in to the other two floors, and the cast iron tank panels were put on to the top section.

 

 

I then decided that such a tank would have had a cover, to keep the water from contamination, so without much idea of what would have been used I glued up some old sleepering lengths.

 

 

Some handrail stanchions were attached to stop anyone from falling off the roof,

 

 

and some weathering and an inspection cover were added.

 

 

So hopefully it’s now looking a bit more like a water tower.

 

 

Off to Leeds for the weekend now and down to Weston the week after, so a bit of a break now until early December.

 

Peter

 

 

[CME and Bottlewasher]

Lovely, careful, thoughtful and inspiring work.

 

Love the use of the ladder (we have one of those) and I have wired up a control board for minx-microdrives too.

 

I have used a MDF and metal paste table for Draycott and we also have some adjustable trestles too - a variation on Marc Smith's baseboard supports.

 

Keep up the great works.

 

Kind regards,

 

CME

Edited November 20, 2015 by CME and Bottlewasher

[alant]

Looking good. Can you tell me where the stanchions on the water tower are from?

[peter220950]

Looking good. Can you tell me where the stanchions on the water tower are from?

 

 

The spares box in the workroom! - I got them that long ago I can't remember where, however I think they are model boat fittings, and I suspect they are generally available from the model boat suppliers,

 

I have found these, which look to be pretty much the same,

 

http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/Caldercraft-Double-Stanchions.html

 

you can get pretty much any height you want in 5mm increments, I think mine are about 25 or 30mm but I'm away from home at the moment so can't check.

 

They are also available on e-bay of you just put Caldercraft stachions in the search box you will see the range.

 

Peter

[peter220950]

Although the last week has seen another 700 miles on the car I have still had time for some modelling over the last fortnight, though it’s been the usual scatter-gun approach of bits all over the place.

 

The Atlas 0-4-0 had a bit of weathering after T Cutting the paint

 

 

and another ‘Really Useful Box’ has been fitted out to keep buildings protected in transit.

 

 

The main factory building has progressed with a new roof cladding,

 

 

which then had a couple of coats of paint prior to final weathering.

 

 

 

the brickwork then got it’s tone down with weathering powder.

 

 

The upper floor of the plant room had some weathering applied and the roof has subsequently been painted a darker grey.

 

 

The water tower came in for attention next, with a coat of paint to the brickwork

 

 

then decoration of the water tank itself

 

 

and a dirty up prior to fitting the windows.

 

 

The infil building to the very end of the layout then had a coat of paint, prior to fitting the resin windows that I bought at Telford.

 

 

 

Half a day was spent wiring up the plugs and sockets for the LED lights, quite why they put such tiny lengths of wire on them I don’t know, but it’s resulted in 12 plugs or sockets for the lights.

 

 

Today a start was made on motorising the second horizontal engine, now that the geared motor has arrived.

 

 

The whole layout was put up yesterday to try and give a bit of a morale boost, as the last few weeks seem to have been a bit of a grind, but I think it’s starting to come together, and should soon see some landscaping work, which I think will make it seem at more like a layout than a collection of buildings.

 

 

Peter

 

 

 

[Simond]

Peter,

 

Don't get downhearted, you're on the final stretch!

 

The buildings have earned well merited likes and craftsmanship/clever ratings throughout the thread, and you can now gently cruise!!! It'll look fantastic as it all comes together. (And it's not a race!)

 

Best

Simon

[peter220950]

Simon,

 

Thanks for the kind words, I think it's just that I had totally underestimated the time it would take to complete the buildings. the thread was started in July 2014 and track was laid by August, from then on it's been nothing but brickwork! I thought I had left building behind when I retired and it's getting a bit boring

 

At least it's taught me a lot about using different materials and techniques, the main purpose of the layout, but it is a concern that it's delaying the main layout. On a positive note there are probably less buildings on Cadbury than this one.

 

I took the decision a couple of weeks ago to back off on completing the building interiors, these will largely  be installed as 'plug in' cassettes once the main event is up and running, this should soon see trains being operated, and so lift spirits.

 

There are now only about two weeks left before we de-camp to Weston for the Chrismas hols, I'm now aiming to get all the buildings finished by then, anything that's not completed will be left, and landscaping works will commence in the New Year come what may.

 

Peter

[BG John]

My intended Quickie will consist of two doors, but only two major buildings, plus a few small bridges. It may still be a slower job than yours though!

[L&Y]

Fantastic progress. Think your going to have finished this before I even get to start mine! Whats more you haven't compromised on quality. Looking really amazing. Just love it. Its really not that far off now!

[peter220950]

Thanks,

 

I spent a bit of time today putting foamboard locators around the bases of some of the buildings, which enabled the plant room to be fixed down, this finally locates anything which will remain on the layout during transit, and I can put landscaping around the bases of the removable ones.

 

The engine house has had a couple of temporary additions, excuse the wonky flywhell - another item to be fettled!

 

 

the second engine has been completed, another item crossed off the to do list.

 

 

Peter

Edited December 4, 2015 by peter220950

[peter220950]

Well the last week has seen the back of the building work broken, and I can at last see the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

The old factory at the turntable end has had the roof tiled, has been glazed, and I’ve fitted a Duncan Models wall mounted crane adjacent to the loading bay door. The gutters aren’t yet fitted but they are made, painted and ready to fit.

 

 

 

Similarly the Engine House windows have been fitted and it’s been base coat dirtied up.

 

 

This now only leaves the infill building at the end of the layout to be glazed, roofed, and dirtied up. The water tower and top floor of the plant room need windows fitting, and the factory and canopies need a bit of weathering, so it’s looking feasible to get the bulk of the work done by the end of next week.

 

Yesterday I did very little that shows physical progress, but spent a lot of time playing with lighting and figuring out how to support it.  The four 10w LED spotlights will be augmented with light bars of LED strip, three strips wide, as my test bar, but using the ‘double strength’ 120 LED’s per metre tape that is also shown alongside.

 

 

I think the combination of bright and soft whites should give a decent level of light to the layout, and with a dimmer on the bright whites I should be able to play with the colour balance a bit.

 

Apart from having to reverse wiring to a point frog that I had wrongly connected up when I moved a Microdrive controller, surprisingly, the layout fired up first time and the Fowler rumbled round for a couple of hours without any issues, it’s amazing how an hour or two playing trains lifts spirits. It’s interesting to note that even with a shorted frog the keep alive’s kept it running smoothly, and it was only after a couple of minutes that I noticed the slight buzz when it crossed the frog.

 

One problem I discovered was that having buried one of the Microdrive controllers under the loading bay I couldn’t operate the points without using the plug-in control box, so I decided that for versatility I would make a quick mod. Two drawing pins were inserted into some plastic tube, springs were added, and two holes were drilled in the deck.

 

 

 

The tubes were pushed through, and two more pins fitted into the other end, this gives two spring loaded buttons in the deck that can be used to change the points.

 

 

I will need to build up the deck, or put a dummy load over the raised part of the Microdrive that is still exposed, but that will be done when I move onto scenery.

 

I’m still getting some strange colour casts in the photo’s, despite having a bit more light on the subject, so I might try pinching the missus’s IPad to see if that improves things, I think it looks better in real life, honest!

 

 

 

 

 

Finally the layout has acquired a name, Palin’s Yard, nothing to do with Monty Python.

It’s because of the mirroring to the ends of the layout, meaning I was restricted in choice of the factory name to using Mirrored Palindromic words.

 

The back story is that Henry Mattam bought the site in 1854 for his confectionery business, at the time it comprised the old factory, boiler house, plant room and engine house.

 

 

Expansion of the business lead to the construction of offices, the new factory, loading deck, and link building, in the 1880’s, and provision of the rail and road links.

 

So, one more week’s push before the end of the year, and a fortnight break from railways, it’s going to be strange unwrapping the Peckett on Christmas Day but not being able to run it for a week or so, I might take a couple of wagon kits with me to keep my hand in.

 

Peter

[BG John]

If the name of the yard appears in the wrong place, it may also appear as Nilap, so there could be a Python connection: Bolton/Notlob, dead parrots

[Simond]

You beat me to it, John,

 

"But you can't blame British Rail for that"

 

Cheers

Simon

[BG John]

One of the activities on the site could involve the import of parrots from Norway, in Pollybulk wagons .

[peter220950]

Happy New Year to all,

 

As anticipated I got nothing done over Christmas, and wasted a day after, trying to coax the workroom computer back into life, (to no avail), but the time hasn't been entirely wasted.

 

I have now planned and sketched up all of the nameboard support and lighting rig, using some display stand aluminium angle, just need to put the layout up to start to cut and fit the parts.

 

Not a New Years Resolution, but this morning was spent getting ready to re-start on the layout, I just couldn’t get into the room, never mind see the workbench.

 

 

Last years resolution to stay focussed on one thing seems to have been largely successful so I shall continue, with the aim to get the layout to a reasonably finished state by April/May. There’s still going to be loads of internal detailing and stock building to be done, but I would like to see it running with buildings and scenics by Spring.

 

While away I picked up a couple of interesting pieces of cardboard.

 

 

They are Ultraboard, used in packaging, and form an incredibly strong lightweight structure.

 

 

 

There aren’t many self supporting baseboards around 3ft x 4ft that can be held at arms length with one hand.

 

 

It’s a bit tatty where I shoved it in the car, but will cut down into nice boards to be edged with a thin batten, best of all it’s very cheap.

 

Of course the temptation is to go off on another diversion, but I am resisting at present, thought the 009 L&B loco and stock keep looking at me in a forlorn manner…………

 

 

Peter

[raymw]

Hi Peter,

I used some of this ultraboard type stuff for photo mounting. I used to get it in 8 by 4 sheets, and they packaged the sheets I bought between two thicker sheets. They used to make, (but I can't now find on their site) a wooden channel edging which simply clipped over the edges of the board, which would save you fiddling with framing/edging, but I think it will sag and warp as a model railway base, maybe not if it is the plastic coated variety. I would give both sides a pretty heavy coat of sealer of some sort, but it depends on the size of your boards, wrt sagging, and the length of time (and where) you will be wanting to keep the layout.

 

fwiw, I have some sheets of kingspan which have bowed, and some which are still straight.

 

Best wishes,

 

Ray

[peter220950]

Thanks Ray,

 

if it does get used it's likely to be in small, 1m x .45m boards, which I would coat with varnish, as I would treat mdf. At present it's just a distraction, so I might take it to Club for someone else to use, at least I know where I can get it from in future.

 

 

 

On the layout front the original intention was to start on scenic work in the New Year, irrespective of whether the buildings had been finished or not. In the end I decided to complete the last building to the same state as the others, as it meant I could finalise all of the storage boxes in which they are transported.

 

The end infill section had not been built with a roof, as I was going to just put a flat one on. I decided a small parapet was needed, and then it got more complex with a small pitched roof behind, the roof clips onto the building and can be removed for storage.

 

 

To further embellish the roof I incorporated one of the chimney stacks that I cast for the terrace of houses on the Club layout.

 

 

The lower section of the chimney brickwork to the exposed gable end was filed down to blend the brickwork cladding into the wall and the chimney was fixed. Brick sheet was applied to the new section and a parapet coping was added.

 

 

 

 

 

The windows were then primed and painted ready for installation.

 

 

Because the building was the original factory owned by George Palin I wanted some indication of its heritage so suitable letters were added to the parapet as the original sign.

 

 

The building was then given its base coat of brick paint and the windows were fixed.

 

 

 

The raised lettering was then removed to leave the white plastic beneath.

 

 

As an example of why I need to fix a deadline for stopping work on the buildings, - there was no need to put a chimney on the roof, or indeed a need for a pitched roof. The cut out piece of roof from the chimney should then have gone in the bin, but it seemed such a waste, so I made it into a dormer, and so on.

 

 

With the weathering of the brickwork the lettering leaves the slight impression of the old factory name having been painted on the brickwork and fading away over the years.

 

 

The final bit of work to the old factory building was to the wall mounted crane, I couldn’t see how these worked, so looked up some details on the Internet, it required either a pulley at the building end of the jib, or a slot in the wall with some rollers. This would give the opportunity to hike a load up and down at random intervals, so a hole was cut in the external wall, and the beam that fronts it.

 

 

 

Then a set of rollers were fabricated from some scrap etch and tube

 

 

And the assembly was fixed into the wall, ready for painting.

 

 

It’s been a delay of a couple of days to the external works, but I now have the buildings substantially completed and can put them away safely while ballasting and earthworks are carried out, so I think it was worth it.

 

Peter

 

 

[BG John]

My plan was to concentrate on building rolling stock, and knock up some very quick layouts to run it on, but I seem to be on a roll with buildings at the moment. I'm just going to keep going, maybe until I've got all the buildings I'll need for the rest of my life!

[peter220950]

Now the main building works have been set aside I made a start on the perimeter works to the boards, to enable the ground-works to take place. The intention is to provide a hard timber edging to the perimeters and help prevent any damage during transit, assembly, and break-down of the layout.

 

Firstly the end board for the turntable end was cut and drilled to the end plate bolt spacings, I’m not yet sure if I will put a mirror finish on this end or not, if I do it will need a tree or something similar, to obliterate the wording on the old factory that won’t reverse, and there’s not much room so it’s up in the air at the moment.

 

 

The pipe gantry over the tracks was then glued down, to allow ballasting.

 

 

At the other end another 6mm ply end was fitted and drilled, and the 1mm polished stainless steel was also drilled and fitted to allow the road to be finished.

 

 

Because I have only 20mm at each end of the layout to play with, to get it to fit into the 8ft Club Stand gap, I then had to give some thoughts to the fascia supports. The intention is to use my old favourite the display stand aluminium strips that I have, these are only around 10mm deep, and will contain the fixing bolt head within the thickness of the strip, so along with the 6mm ply and 1mm stainless, I should be o.k.

 

 

The display system also provides clip in ends which join sections together, these will be used to clip the fascia onto the vertical strips,

 

 

and the verticals will be braced to keep them upright. Some neat connectors from China will be used to plug the two halves together for the 12V power feeds.

 

 

The strips will also be used as cantilevered light bars which will hang from uprights at the rear of the layout, each bar carrying three strips of LED’s, but a system had to be devised to connect two bars at right angles, and which would be easily demountable. – Time to look around the junk I have lying around.

 

After looking at angle brackets that slot into the channels, and deciding they would be vulnerable to bending on the angle, I found these roofing bolts that have been lying around the floor of the workroom for a long time, as they wouldn’t fit into my bolts box.

 

 

They were obtained for the Club Layout lighting rigs, but not used. By drilling a hole in the end of the light bar, and cutting the head off the bolt, it provides a strong fixing. A drawer with some pipe clips has provided the other half of the joint,

 

 

two clips bolted either side of the upright channels will allow the pins to drop into place, and allow them to swivel to any position I need.

 

 

With two light bars per upright I should only need two uprights at the rear of the layout, additional strips of light will fit to the rear of the fascia, and will be supplemented by the 4 10w LED spotlights. Again the uprights will bolt into the sockets on the board edges, used to fit the protective sides in transit.

 

 

All this uses a lot of aluminium channel, but fortunately I have a bit lying around.

 

 

Next step is to cut the bars the size, they are now all marked up ready to take to Club tomorrow to run through the bandsaw.

 

 

The fascias will be timber, some left-over timber was dug out of the shed this afternoon, and advantage taken of the dry weather to cut them to size, all ready for assembly,

 

 

not sure at the moment whether to hinge the fascia in the middle, or bolt the sections together. For some reason I’m not too keen to have hinges showing on the front of the fascia, but if I hinge at the rear it leaves the face vulnerable to damage in transit. If I bolt them together I can store them face to face for transit, with a protective foam sandwiched between. Thankfully I don’t need to decide yet, I’ll wait until they are assembled, and maybe try some of the display stand connectors to clip them together.

 

 

While I have so far managed to avoid the distraction of the lightweight cardboard material I inherited over Christmas, I found another distraction when I dug out the aluminium angles.

 

In the roof I found the carrying crate for the display stand,

 

 

you see these things being used at exhibitions, it has a carrying handle, wheels and a handle to tow it around by. As you can see it’s not the first time I’ve thought of using it as a self contained layout box.

 

 

Now here’s the dilemma, having bought a humungous estate car that should just about be able to fit Palin’s Yard in, and having used up all the bits of the display stand, should I really be looking at what sort of micro-layout would fit inside an empty 320mm x 320mm x 800mm box? – Answers on a postcard to

 

‘I’m An Idiot Get Me Out Of Here’,

The Funny Farm,

Droitwich.

 

 

 

Peter

Edited January 6, 2016 by peter220950

[BG John]

.. I’m not yet sure if I will put a mirror finish on this end or not, if I do it will need a tree or something similar, to obliterate the wording on the old factory that won’t reverse, and there’s not much room so it’s up in the air at the moment.

I think a tree up in the air will be rather surreal, and spoil the image you've created with the rest of the layout.

http://images.uncyclomedia.co/uncyclomedia/commons/3/3b/Floating_Tree-1060233399.jpg

 

Now here’s the dilemma, having bought a humungous estate car that should just about be able to fit Palin’s Yard in, and having used up all the bits of the display stand, should I really be looking at what sort of micro-layout would fit inside an empty 320mm x 320mm x 800mm box? – Answers on a postcard to

 

‘I’m An Idiot Get Me Out Of Here’,[/font]

The Funny Farm,[/font]

Droitwich.[/font]

 

Peter

I had a similar dilemma with some O gauge track someone you may know gave me. Along with the copper clad stuff, there's just enough Peco to make a nice little micro layout. Watch out for news soon!!

[peter220950]

I think a tree up in the air will be rather surreal, and spoil the image you've created with the rest of the layout.

 

I probably didn't explain myself properly ! - I was thinking along the lines of a tree type view blocker at the end of the track which would prevent you seeing the reflected building lettering, but in reality I don't think it's believable to have such a big tree so close to both track and buildings, so it's probably going to be a painted or photographic panel on the end, but it will have to wait for a bit while I think about alternatives.

 

I could even think about a boundary wall or re-model of the existing buildings - I'm just not too keen on 2D paintings and photographs, particularly that close to the front of the layout. Once I've tried it out on it's stand it may be that I cut the panel down, so that there is an open end. Something to ponder on and distract me from that display stand box. The old factory building could even be moved forward, and I've just checked that the fascia support is behind the line of the building, so I could cut the end panel down without it exposing any of the layout infrastructure.

 

 

I had a similar dilemma with some O gauge track someone you may know gave me. Along with the copper clad stuff, there's just enough Peco to make a nice little micro layout. Watch out for news soon!!

 

What a co-incidence, I managed to palm my copperclad off on some poor unsuspecting soul to stop me having stupid thoughts about another layout. ............................................. and they would probably have been too large radii for a micro industrial anyway.

 

However, while sorting out the display stand stuff I found these in the roof, I need to think about disposing of them to stop my brain racing away on moreflights of fancy!

 

 

 

9 points, Timber sleepers,  Exactoscale chairs, the work's all done they seem so lonely up there in the dark. - just need to avoid any buildings. (stop the voices in my head)

 

Looks like Cadbury will never get finished!

 

 

Peter

[BG John]

I probably didn't explain myself properly !

You have to work hard to stop my warped and devious mind finding ways around even the most proper explanation!

 

What a co-incidence, I managed to palm my copperclad off on some poor unsuspecting soul to stop me having stupid thoughts about another layout. ............................................. and they would probably have been too large radii for a micro industrial anyway.

 

However, while sorting out the display stand stuff I found these in the roof, I need to think about disposing of them to stop my brain racing away on moreflights of fancy!

 

9 points, Timber sleepers,  Exactoscale chairs, the work's all done they seem so lonely up there in the dark. - just need to avoid any buildings. (stop the voices in my head)

 

Looks like Cadbury will never get finished!

 

 

Peter

How about finishing Cadbury first, then finding a use for them? I know where there's a lovely Lima continental coach that's crying out for a big layout with large radius curves. Even my weird brain is stumped by trying to find a use for it on a British light railway - so far!

[peter220950]

Yesterday the fascia boards were glued and screwed together, and having completed them I started to have some doubts about their weight, as I was planning to support them with two single uprights.

 

 

I took the bits of aluminium to Club last night, then only got as far as cutting 4 until I broke the band-saw blade, which has subsequently proved fortuitous as I have revised my designs during the day. – I was interested to find that the replacement blade length is 4ft 8¹/₂ inches, wonder where they got that idea from?

 

Today SWMBO was out for the day, so I decided to give the layout a trial run, to look at fascias and lighting.  It may seem a bit soon to be trying this out but I needed some confidence that there would be sufficient light on the layout, and that the support system would be adequate, I didn’t want to be making major structural alterations after the layout was substantially complete, and if anything fell down, I wanted it to be on an unfinished layout.

 

 

 

The exercise has been very useful, first problem was tightening the wing nuts on the board joining bolts, I don’t use them when I have the layout in the workroom and though they seemed o.k. when I first built the layout, they were very unhappy today, so I used normal bolts for the day.

 

 

Second problem was with a hump in the middle of the layout, despite it sitting on a level base, a further two cross bars were fitted, one at each end to put it into a straight line, this could well have accounted for the problem with the fixing bolt tightening, and it all needs a bit more checking out. I have started the layout fault log, and can address the issues, one by one, at a future stage.

 

Finally the third problem became apparent, though I had half-noticed it, although the tracks line up fine the front of the boards is about 2mm out, so I shall be facing the one board with a thin skin of ply to level them up.

 

 

Onto the fascia next, a couple of aluminium off-cuts were temporarily screwed to the ends of the boards,

 

 

the aluminium uprights were screwed onto the ends of the layout, and after temporarily securing the boards together the fascia was lifted and miraculously it clipped into position without too much drama.

 

 

 

Even without restraint to stop it falling forwards or backwards it seemed perfectly adequate. Rather than brace the uprights I shall be fitting timbers either side of the uprights on the end boards. The temporary clamps holding the halves together are more than the weight that any lighting will impose.

 

 

Next the four 10w LED lights were clamped onto the fascia, and seemed to be giving plenty of light. With additional light bars I am now happy that the fascia and support can provide  a means to carry any lighting I might need,

 

 

 

I can now continue with the build and hang the lights once the buildings are in place and position them to get an even spread of light.

 

The layout was then taken down and a start made on the LED light bars and supports, clips were bolted to the top of the aluminium upright,

 

 

Two bolts were cut down and attached to the bars,

 

 

And the assembly was tested out,

 

 

it seems to be a workable solution, and probably means I only need two uprights at the rear of the layout. So far the days testing has reduced the amount of aluminium support work by about 50%.

 

Square holes were cut into the light bars, and the electrical connectors were fixed into them.

 

 

 

The light bars have now had their three strips of LED’s attached, and are wired up, giving pretty fierce output, that I can dim if necessary, to balance the mix of soft white spotlights and cool white LED’s.

 

 

 

All in all a useful days work, which has thrown up a number of niggles which need to be addressed before the layout progresses, but at least I feel happy that it all works, the next task is to clear up the issues raised today,

 

Peter

Edited January 8, 2016 by peter220950

[ian_g_griffiths]

Bandsaw blades, try Axminster Power Tools, no association just a contented customer.

 

Ian

[peter220950]

Having finished with the buildings for a bit now, the last week or so has been spent faffing around with stuff that seems a bit tedious, but must be done at some time, it’s all a bit anal, but I can’t help but want everything tidied away neatly for transport and storage.

 

Thoughts have been concentrated on packing up the display side of things, and getting the fascias and such tidied up a bit. All the plywood box sides and the rear of the fascias have been given several coats of clear varnish, and final labels have been added. Plates have been made to hold the fascias apart, and a handle added for assisting with carrying them about, and again they have been varnished and labelled.

 

 

 

Then it was onto making a maze for pet rats,

 

 

or could it be storage for the light bars, supports and spotlights. A suitably long box has been sourced from B&Q and a base plate cut from ply. Once components had been laid out I glued pieces of timber in place to store the various bits, and allow support to the next layer. I have also found room in this box for the turntable, and point control box.

 

 

 

 

 

From the snagging list I made after the test set-up I have added a 3mm timber to the front of the one board, to bring them into line, and a couple of other bits have been tidied up.

 

 

The external boundary wall also received a base coat of paint, ready for adding weathering and mortar wash.

 

 

I have been getting increasingly fed up with having to screw in 20 bolts to store the layout, and undo them to set it up, so I splashed out on a small rechargeable driver while at B&Q, unfortunately more junk to carry about, but it makes things a whole lot easier.

 

 

Today the fascia boards have received an undercoat to the front and edges, prior to finishing with maroon, which will then have cream layout signage added.

 

 

The last obstacle to getting on with the external landscaping was the tippler. When I left it last it was working but there were a number of issues with the motorisation.

 

The motor was now mounted externally, so the layout board needed further cutting out, and the lifting cables were proving problematic to thread up and get working in sync.

 

 

That was an easy fix, I found it works fine with just one cable, so it was next onto control and wiring of the unit. I had been using a spare LED dimmer to slow the motor down but it was noisy and seemed to struggle to get the unit running sufficiently slowly.

 

Having substituted a 12V controller temporarily this solved the speed problem, and I put two limit switches in place, and wired a double pole double throw switch to enable it to control up and down motion.

 

 

 

The limit switches cut the relevant power feed in each direction, but this highlighted a further problem.

 

The power needed to raise the unit, and a wagon, is different to that needed to lower it, when gravity is providing assistance, the temporary solution has been the use of an old Duette controller with different settings for up and down, which will be substituted with small voltage regulators later on.

 

 

The unit has, however, now been bench tested and fitted to the layout, to enable wiring to be installed and concealed beneath the ground cover.

 

 

And does it work? - I hear you all ask,

 

 

Forgive the wonky auto-focus, it's the camera, but I think it gives the idea, all I need to do now is cut a hole in the bottom of the unit, and the baseboard, to collect the tipped coal.

 

Peter