Neely - Present day nearly Ely in N

[Colin parks]

Hi Terry,

 

Super layout, and good luck for tomorrow!

 

Colin

[Robert Shrives]

Lovely layout , hope the model Xc170s work better than the real things and have a good show - will see at TINGS!

Robert  

[terrysoham]

Everything went fine today. Got two invites to exhibitions for 2019 so we must be doing something right.

 

Found my April copy of the Railway Modeller when I got home this evening which features Neely. I am so very pleased bearing in mind that this is my first layout.

 

So a big thank you to Paul Bason who took the photographs last year and to Steve Flint for accepting the article in the first place.

[Revolution Ben]

 

Hi Terry,

 

It was great to see you and Neely today.

 

I have forwarded pics of the trackwork to a couple of club mates and I think we'll copy your technique on our next layout!

 

Cheers

 

Ben A.

[terrysoham]

Thank you for your very kind comments about the trackwork - beginners luck I think.

 

Kind regards

[terrysoham]

Four of us managed to get Neely up and running inside 2 hours at the March exhibition but never again! It really deserves taking that hour longer to get it running as I would like (and the public expect). I hate it when it has its teething troubles in full view of an audience. So, from now on, we stick to exhibitions where we have at least three hours to put it up and get it running properly.

[roundhouse]

Terry I know What you mean. We regularly set Banbury up in two hours but ideally needs a little longer. We have set it up in under 90 minutes at Ally Pally as often they don't let you in Saturday morning till 08.15 and the show opens early for advance ticket holders but that really is something that is way too much pressure.

[terrysoham]

Something happened today that I never dreamed would happen when I started railway modelling about 6 years ago. Today my layout, Neely, is featured in the Railway Modeller.

 

Fingers crossed it might also be appearing in BRM before the Peterborough show in October.

[terrysoham]

I can now control my locos on Neely from my iPad! To do this you have to run your layout using PanelPro (free from JMRI) on your laptop/desktop computer and then use WiThrottle lite (a free App) on the iPad. You also, of course, need a wi-if connection linking the two. I initially used my normal home router but then got it running on an old one which I can use at an exhibition. It does not need to be connected to the internet to do this.

I understand that the same App will run in the iPod and iPhone.

 

I shall experiment with this at the forthcoming Ely Exhibition on our club layout, Westgate Park. Why not come along and see it for yourself.

 

Regards

[terrysoham]

It is always appreciated when I receive praise for my layout, Neely. It was particularly so this morning when I opened June's Railway Modeller and saw a Reader's Letter from Simon James and another photograph of the layout by Paul Bason.

 

Even though Neely is based on the mid years of this decade, I was definitely chuffed!!

[terrysoham]

Neely has been stored for the four months it has taken me to build Neil Watson's layout, Aviemore. Today, having carried out some modifications to the PanelPro control panel, I couldn't resist checking that these modifications worked as intended so I put up the three baseboards containing the storage area to check,

And it worked first time so you can imagine that I was pleased.

Next week a short holiday in York with a visit to Shildon planned. When back I shall put all the baseboards up for a thorough shake down with a lot of planning for the new operating schedule. This is promised for October when Neely is at the Peterborough Exhibition. I understand that BRM will publish the article about Neely in their October edition in time for the show.

 

Now Neely is back I shall be adding some more photographs on the N Gauge Forum Facebook site.

[terrysoham]

All the baseboards are now up as you can see. Pleased that after so long in hibernation it ran straight away without problems.

 

So here is Tornado, my only steam train waiting for the off on platform 3.

 

Message to Andy York .... you were quite right, the iPad requires you to take a photograph in a certain orientation to display correctly on here.

 

Regards

[terrysoham]

Recently, I've re-visited the issue of flashing rear lights on my freight trains. I had been using my own design which picked up the dcc supply from DCC Concepts pick-up springs on four axles - two axles per rail - and it still needed a stay-alive to prevent loss of supply to the flasher unit.

I felt that the spring pick ups imposed too high a rolling resistance on a 14 wagon train for my class 66s and 70s to pull comfortable particularly from a standing start and again when on curves which in the case of Neely are a minimum of 380mm radius.

So I thought about using miniature 12v batteries and bought a few from Rapid to try out. Whilst these worked, they only lasted about 4 hours which, of course, isn't long enough for a day's exhibiting.

More searching ensued and then I came across some flasher units sold on eBay by Black Cat Technology. These worked off a 3 v coin size battery and included the flasher chip, battery and on off switch all on a nicely design pcb for £3.00 each. You will need to fit a suitable resistor in the circuit and an external on/off switch.

Having tried them - they fit easily inside a freight container - they power the tiny led that I use to give the red flash for days and days.trim.291D478E-93B7-4F4D-8B0A-661202E19FB2.MOV

 

Regards

Edited August 30, 2017 by terrysoham

[terrysoham]

I can't see the video so maybe there is a problem. Please let me know if there is and I'll try again.

[Andy Y]

The video will download and play; ideally to just display it the clip should be uploaded to Youtube.

[terrysoham]

Andy,

Never used YouTube to up load so wouldn't know how but I did put the video on the club's Facebook page - Ely and District Model Railway Club - if anyone is interested.

 

I hope to see you at the Peterborough show.

 

Regards

Edited August 31, 2017 by terrysoham

[njee20]

Those flasher units look very interesting Terry, particularly if they'll fit in a container. May have to give that a go!

[terrysoham]

I have just downloaded this month's digital issue of BRM magazine and, to my delight, Neely made it onto the front cover. This is due in no little part to Andy York who encouraged me to write the accompanying article and visited me almost a year ago to take the wonderful photographs of the layout. So, Andy, "thank you".

 

Kind regards

[Revolution Ben]

 

Hi Terry,

 

Nice to see Neely getting such a great write up in BRM. Well done.

 

What's the next show you're attending with the layout?

 

Cheers

 

Ben A.

[terrysoham]

Ben,

 

Neely appears at Peterborough next month and Spalding in November.

 

Look forward to seeing you if you can make it.

 

Regards

[Buffin]

Hi Terry, Do you have a summary of the services that (you) run from Ely/Neely?

[terrysoham]

Hi Terry, Do you have a summary of the services that (you) run from Ely/Neely?

We run all the passenger services that occur at Ely including the Kings Lynn (and some now from/to Ely) - Kings Cross, Norwich - Cambridge, Stansted - Birmingham, Norwich - Liverpool and Ipswich - Peterborough. I think that's them all.

Regards

[terrysoham]

I have started experimenting with a Silhouette Cameo cutter in a bid to construct the main Ely Station building.

I am still having fun with the software which comes with the machine but it seems perfectly able to cope with building design.

I am cutting 10thou and 15thou Plastikard. 10thou for the onlays and 3 layers of the 15thou laminated using Limonene adhesive for the structure. The Cameo cuts through the 10thou but not the 15thou which has to be broken out of the sheet. The brickwork is the wrong colour and style but, so far as I know, is all that is available from Slaters. I have yet to try cutting the brickwork sheets on the Cameo.

 

Here is a photo of the "proof on concept" building which is helping me learn how to dimension the openings and you will see that it has the concrete/stonework window surrounds which characterise the station building. I am sure that the Cameo is far better at cutting out the window and door openings than doing it by hand.

 

I will let you know how things progress.

[Leeb]

Very nice

[grahame]

I have started experimenting with a Silhouette Cameo cutter in a bid to construct the main Ely Station building.

I am still having fun with the software which comes with the machine but it seems perfectly able to cope with building design.

I am cutting 10thou and 15thou Plastikard. 10thou for the onlays and 3 layers of the 15thou laminated using Limonene adhesive for the structure. The Cameo cuts through the 10thou but not the 15thou which has to be broken out of the sheet. The brickwork is the wrong colour and style but, so far as I know, is all that is available from Slaters. I have yet to try cutting the brickwork sheets on the Cameo.

Here is a photo of the "proof on concept" building which is helping me learn how to dimension the openings and you will see that it has the concrete/stonework window surrounds which characterise the station building. I am sure that the Cameo is far better at cutting out the window and door openings than doing it by hand.

I will let you know how things progress.

Interesting. I'll have to keep a close eye on this thread and the building development.

 

I've a Silhouette cutter but don't use it for buildings, preferring and finding it quicker to mark up with a pencil and cut out by hand with a scalpel, although with a couple of twenty storey tower blocks to make was planning on using the cutter for them.

 

G.