Bakewell - Peak District Line BR - Layout Views

[Alister_G]

Well it looks like each LED on that strip has its own resistor in which case I'd be tempted to use some cutters to snip off ones and twos!

post-17302-0-21874000-1394050316_thumb.jpg

 

 

Would be worth a test with a group of three just to see and little lost if it doesn't work?

 

Ok, so in the interests of science (and you lot) I've sacrificed a group of three for the greater good...

 

Here's the three separated from the strip:

 

 

Attaching power at this point to one end makes them light up, so we know I haven't broken anything yet...

 

Further butchery results in this:

 

 

 

And some judicious use of a scalpel allows me to remove the plastic lens:

 

 

to leave the centre LED unadorned:

 

 

Turning it over, some more furtling with the scalpel removes the adhesive tape, and I can scrape away the paint to reveal two copper strips side by side:

 

 

 

Using one of the single LEDs from the end of the three, which still has it's contact pads, I apply some volts, but it remains steadfastly dead:

 

 

Tried the same with the central one, and also connected the rest of the strip in parallel, which does light, but not the singleton:

 

 

It would appear that the three are wired in such a way as to only work together, and as this one is now an ex-parrot, I slit the copper tape to reveal that there appears to be some printed circuit type connectivity which makes them work that way:

 

 

Oh well, back to the drawing board...

 

It was well worth trying though, so thanks Shaun and Jonathan, for the suggestions.

 

Al.

[Sasquatch]

Oh well! I do hope that you are not too disappointed!

 

I fitted some LED lights under a friends kitchen last year. He called complaining that they didn't work. It took ages to sort it out. Traced the problem in the end, there was a cutout circuit in the power box which came on if there was a break in the circuit but no mention of it in the instructions or online spec!  

[Alister_G]

Just been reading up a bit on these.

They should be dimmable so try putting 6 or 8 volts across there.

Ebay US has a 3M strip of cool white, warm white and yellow along with red green and blue for$4.95 edit; $12.80! with free shipping. (within the lower 48)

The company also sell power packs, dimmers and wireless remotes! 

LED-lights

 

Shaun. Now where's my flexible friend!

 

My metre length was £3.99, (GB pounds) what's that in Sasquatch currency?

[Sasquatch]

$6.68 Much cheaper!  It was shipped free from Neiw Jiersee! (bad accent) so I'm not grumbling!

[Marcus 37]

Hi Al

Firstly let me apologies for not letting you know I was in the area on Saturday night. What started out as a day out walking in Dovedale ended up as a weekend short break and stopping in Bakewell the night. Unfortunately I had no access to the internet so couldn't PM you. Nice dinner and a few pints of Thornbridges Ales at the Pack Horse at Little Longstone went down a treat though. Anyway hoping to get up over Easter so I'll let you know when.

Of a matter of interest I picked up a great book on Sunday from the shop at High Peak Junction called the Monsal Trail Now and then. There are some fantastic pictures of the line in it with a fair few in colour including Bakewell. Really well worth a look. It was published in 2012 since the tunnels have been reopened so there are some good comparisons of then and now.

Interesting work with the lights by the way. I shall watch with interest as at some point I want to light my buildings.

Cheers for now.

Marcus

[Alister_G]

Is it only four days since I posted? It feels longer, somehow.

 

Anyway, continuing the lighting theme, I tackled the station next.

 

On the underside of the roof, I decided on the location of the strips of LEDS, and cut away and folded over the roof trusses to form platforms on which the lights could be mounted.

 

 

The one over the porter's lodge and stationmaster's office was sunk into the trusses on the hip roof, with two bits of plasticard over the top so that I can mask off the centre of the three LEDs, which will sit above the partition wall.

 

 

I cut 5 strips of three LEDs each, and soldered wires to each one, joining them back up in parallel as they were.

 

 

 

I then threaded the wires through the roof trusses:

 

 

 

I applied some volts:

 

 

Then I placed the roof back on the building, and took some more photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm tempted to leave these in their white colour, rather than adding the amber sweet wrapper, but just get a hefty wattage (but low value) resistor to dim them down a bit.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

[Alister_G]

Hi Al

Firstly let me apologies for not letting you know I was in the area on Saturday night. What started out as a day out walking in Dovedale ended up as a weekend short break and stopping in Bakewell the night. Unfortunately I had no access to the internet so couldn't PM you. Nice dinner and a few pints of Thornbridges Ales at the Pack Horse at Little Longstone went down a treat though. Anyway hoping to get up over Easter so I'll let you know when.

Of a matter of interest I picked up a great book on Sunday from the shop at High Peak Junction called the Monsal Trail Now and then. There are some fantastic pictures of the line in it with a fair few in colour including Bakewell. Really well worth a look. It was published in 2012 since the tunnels have been reopened so there are some good comparisons of then and now.

Interesting work with the lights by the way. I shall watch with interest as at some point I want to light my buildings.

Cheers for now.

Marcus

 

Hi mate,

 

Oh, what a shame, I wish I'd known, you could have come and visited, and had a pint or two. The Packhorse is a nice little pub, I know the owner quite well.

 

That book sounds good, I'll have to have a look out for it.

 

Cheers,

 

Al.

[aberdare]

Great work with the lights Al, it shows up your interior detailing really well which could be unseen otherwise, not sure whether to do mine or not but seeing this makes it tempting. 

 

But then again doing all that detail like you have .... Hmmm ???

[Jaz]

sets the interior of really nicely.

[Andrew P]

Evening Al, I love the new lights, as you say just dim them down a we bit.

 

Andy

[freebs]

LOVING the lights Al, if just a little bright. Looks a bit too modern day, harsh Halogen lighting. Bet it looks great on the layout with the lights off

[georgeT]

Hello Al,  l think the lights are very realistic and brings the station to life, well done

 

George

[C&WR]

Gawd, and I thought my efforts were pretty good until I saw these!

[Rowsley17D]

Hi Al, sorry the experiment didn't work, but if you don't try... Have you managed to dim the lights in the main building yet? Your passengers would get sunburnt!

[Alister_G]

I've just ordered 5 10W 22Ohm wire-wound Resistors.

 

I'm not sure what resistance I need, but that gives me from 22 to 110 Ohm if I stick them in series, so I can try them at varying levels.

[JCL]

I've not been keeping up on voltages, etc, but What would happen if you connected them up to an analogue train set controller? If it works you could use it as a dimmer switch

[Alister_G]

Whilst I wait for the resistors, I thought I'd turn my attention to scenery, and in particular, Trees.

 

Amongst other scenic items, my last foray onto Ebay resulted in the purchase of some Woodland Scenics Tree armatures - basically plastic encased wire shapes which you bend and fashion into trees.

 

After much bending and twisting, and then a spray of Matt Dark Earth, here's what one looks like:

 

 

Now to me, they're OK, but they just don't look right for your average British tree. As I look around me here, there are very, very few which have a single main trunk that goes straight up, as that model does.

 

So, having read with interest the aptly named Arboretum Valley thread whilst Jaz was creating some stunning looking trees, I though I'd have a go at a similar method.

 

So, materials required...

 

One Ethernet patch cable, one previous owner, low mileage, never raced or rallied...

 

 

First thing to do, chop off the ends:

 

 

As I keep telling my slaves junior work colleagues, "RJ45 plugs don't grow on trees, you know!"

 

(and they're the wrong scale)

 

I cut three equal lengths of the cable:

 

 

then removed the bottom inch of the outer insulation, and splayed out the cores:

 

 

I used a short strip of micropore to temporarily join the three cable pieces together:

 

 

Then I removed the outer sheath of the first length, about 2 inches up from the bottom, and twisted all the cores together for a short distance, then separated them into two bunches for a further inch, then separated them again:

 

 

and then separated again into individual cores

 

 

and finally stripped off the inner insulation and separated the individual strands of the wire:

 

 

 

I did the same with the next length of cable, but I also spliced in four extra cores to make another branch:

 

 

Finally, I did the same with the remaining length of cable, but left more of the outer sheath, to make a thicker, longer branch:

 

 

The three lengths had separated from each other lower down than I really wanted, as I want the appearance of a thick main trunk splitting into three, so I needed to somehow join them, and also make them look all one instead of three different bits.

 

When Jaz did hers, she used some clever tree-bark rubbery plastic stuff, but in the best traditions of modelling, I went for a cheaper option.

 

So I took the "tree" as it was and covered it in a thick coating of neat PVA glue.

 

 

 

In this photo you can see I added a temporary twist of wire round the three cables near the top to hold them together whilst the PVA dries:

 

 

 

I'm hoping that when this has thoroughly dried, it will both keep the three cables stuck together, and also disguise the fact that there are three separate lengths, and also on the branches, it will fill in between the twists of the inner cores, to give a smoother, more cohesive look.

 

I will leave this to dry now until tomorrow evening, at which time, depending how it looks, I might give it another coat of PVA to fill in the gaps again.

 

Hopefully, when all dried, it should be possible to paint over the PVA.

 

More tomorrow, and we'll see how it turns out.

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Al.

 

[Alister_G]

I've not been keeping up on voltages, etc, but What would happen if you connected them up to an analogue train set controller? If it works you could use it as a dimmer switch

 

It's an interesting idea Jason, but I'm not sure a DC train controller would take very kindly to those LEDs across it's output - the full strip of 60 LEDs draws 1.5 Amps at 15 ish Watts, and although I'm not using all of them (I can't - I've broke 3 !!) It's still a hefty resistive load.

[Removed a/c]

Looking good so far Al. If the PVA doesn't work pop to the florist or maybe poundland and pickup some floral tape. That should work a treat, it is generally green but I think you can get it in brown. It is usually textured also. 

[Alister_G]

Looking good so far Al. If the PVA doesn't work pop to the florist or maybe poundland and pickup some floral tape. That should work a treat, it is generally green but I think you can get it in brown. It is usually textured also. 

 

Cheers Scott, I was trying to do this on the cheap to see if I could get away with it, but floral tape is a good idea.  I've also got some DAS, so if all else fails I can use that, as Jaz did on hers.

Edited March 11, 2014 by acg_mr

[Jaz]

If you mix the PVA with something granular such as flour or plaster you can get a more modelled look. Flour is cheap.....over time you might get mice or silver fish....but it is cheap. Plaster is good too. Plastercine, DAS, etc all good if you are counting the pennies.  Cover or mix any of these with PVA, not as bendable afterwards, but you have a good set of branches, and you can repair easily.

 

Aberdare http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/60803-hemyock-grows-its-first-tree/page-10&do=findComment&comment=1371257  and Andrew P (Bodgit) are both playing with trees at the sec. I have been watching Aberdares and can thoroughly recommend his approach. 

[aberdare]

Nice to see you joining in the tree making Al, I did mine on the cheap too as all the items used were lying about in my shed.

 

I do find it easier to twist wires without the outer sheath though, it will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

 

Hope it all comes together.

[JCL]

It's an interesting idea Jason, but I'm not sure a DC train controller would take very kindly to those LEDs across it's output - the full strip of 60 LEDs draws 1.5 Amps at 15 ish Watts, and although I'm not using all of them (I can't - I've broke 3 !!) It's still a hefty resistive load.

Unfortunately, I never did get the hang of advanced electrickery...

[Sasquatch]

Lights in the station....... Awesome!

Trees from Ethernet cables ........very resourceful indeed!

Saw dust is about the best thing I have found to mix with PVA, a little water helps too! 

[C&WR]

It's an interesting idea Jason, but I'm not sure a DC train controller would take very kindly to those LEDs across it's output - the full strip of 60 LEDs draws 1.5 Amps at 15 ish Watts, and although I'm not using all of them (I can't - I've broke 3 !!) It's still a hefty resistive load.

 

I'm rather hoping when I finally work out how to wire up my buildings so the whole lot doesn't blow I can use the auxiliary outputs on my Duette to power them.  With a rheostat in series I should be able to dim the lights...