Brian D

Shamefully, I've only just discovered your thread. Excellent layout, really quite exquisite, you must be very pleased with it. Spa Valley is not too far from me although I'm in Essex and I've never visited the railway so there might now be two reasons to visit. Great stuff. Regards, Brian.

Fantastic stuff Jeff. I am not at all familiar with the DAS material you are using but is there not a primer of some sort that would have served? Regards, Brian

Your soldering, wiring and mimic panels are immaculate and you should be very pleased. Mine are nowhere near this standard. However, I offer an idea for your consideration that you can install them either fully or partially on the layout inside buildings as I have done. To demonstrate what I am suggesting I attach the following pics which should explain all. The small panel "departures" controls the colour light signals and is mounted on the baseboard edge. The larger mimic panel partially overlaps the layout and is hinged at the front which together with removable buildings allows fault finding within the panel. The switches on the mimic panel control point switching and DC section switching between the two controllers. This simple panel only provides DC section switching, points being controlled by WIT (wire in tube) and slide switches for frog polarity change - there are three visible here. These later have been utterly reliable compared to the built in change over switches in the Seep point motors elsewhere on the layout. When viewing these pics, it is best to avoid the unsightly under baseboard mess of wiring that lurks thereunder. Regards, Brian.

Awesome!

Prompted by the article in the March "Hornby Magazine", I purchased the J67/1 body. I wanted to source a Dapol/Hornby Terrier chassis but found that no Dapol Terriers could be found on the usual auction site and there weren't too many Hornby Terriers to be found either but I did manage to "win" a Hornby BR version but I wouldn't call it a cheep purchase at £51 + £5 postage, but I might get some cash back for the Terrier body. It really is a 5 minute job to swap bodies on the Hornby chassis and the chassis is a decent runner. Here are the assembly pics. Far from complete but I did make a short video of the loco on my layout "Deneside" and you can view it here. Regards, Brian.

The aforementioned Bachmann Class 24 video has now been uploaded and can be seen here.... Regards, Brian.

Another video is currently being rendered to my hard drive prior to upload. Meanwhile.... ...Deneside is packed out with 5 different trains. Because I like to see lots of trains go by, I've managed to squeeze 11 different trains onto the layout which is probably the maximum capacity - 3 DMUs, 2 express passenger trains, 2 parcels trains, 2 coal trains, 1 iron ore train and the Clayton on goods. Makes for interesting operation but probably not very prototypical. Expect another video soon featuring the humble Bachmann class 24. Regards, Brian.

You know, I can't actually remember seeing any of these back in the day. I certainly didn't see any on the Durham coast line but I have a couple underlined in my Ian Allen so I must have seen them probably on the very few occasions I visited Newcastle Central. Thanks John. More to come I hope. Regards, Brian.

The latest video has just been uploaded, the first in a series of "Loco Focus" films which will feature single locomotives, whether they be steam or diesel. Because the layout is currently totally populated with diesels, I have chosen the Class 17 "Clayton" diesel loco to start the series. The prototypes were cr"p and were all withdrawn from BR by 1972. Some saw service (briefly) in the North East and I have a little bit of a soft spot for my Heljan model which is a superb runner. Enjoy or otherwise here.... Regards, Brian.

That looks great "monkeysarefun". It looks like a similar sort of process to the focus stacking software I have used in the past where multiple images are selected and you just push the button and await results. Great fun even if no subsequent 3D printing takes place. Thanks again for the info. Regards Brian

Can't wait to get back to some sort of normal - at the minute here in the UK we are in total lock down, can't go anywhere. Me and Mrs D had three holidays booked this time last year, all cancelled of course. The only glimmer for me and her is the vaccine, being of a certain age. We are hoping to hear something soon, maybe in a week or so. I forgot to mention in my earlier post what tremendous work you have done with the 3D printing malarky. Fantastic work in the pics shown. Can't wait to see your best work in the shed (beware the spiders mate ). Also, the photogrammetry sounds extremely interesting - I may well have a dabble ahead of venturing into 3D printing expenditure. Thanks again for your advice. Regards, Brian.

Many thanks for this mate - chapter 2 of 3D printing for this dummy. Lots of food for thought and links to explore which is greatly appreciated. However, re faff, all I would say is that Churchill, Hillary et al weren't dummies unlike this fellow who knows nowt about 3D printing. Enjoy your sunshine, weather is sh1t here and we're all in poxy lockdown!

Thank you so much for this concise "3D Printing for Dummies" which is exactly what I was hoping someone on RMWeb would post for me, greatly appreciated. Whilst I hear what you are saying about resin printers, for a beginner like me this sounds like too much of a faff. If I dip the toe as it were, I would favour the filament type initially. I also know zero about the human interface with the 3D printer but am vaguely aware that a lot of "prints" can be downloaded from the net. I would really wish to make my own "prints" perhaps using TurboCAD to generate the patterns. Thanks again for your detailed reply.

Experimentation initially as I know absolutely nothing about 3D printing. Perhaps buy a cheap printer and give it a try, if I can't get on with it then straight to flea bay. I thought I might start with Victorian architectural station roof details (columns, column heads, bracket work scrolls, etc) in 4 mm scale. I like to think I've sort of mastered simple 2D CAD software (I use TurboCAD) and I would initially try creating 3D models in TurboCAD to 4 mm scale to transfer to the 3D printer, or have I bitten off too much?

Recent articles in Railway Modeller have spiked my interest in 3D printing. This is quite an old thread and I imagine technology has moved on. Can anyone advise what the current situation is with go to budget 3D printers? Thanks in anticipation. Regards, Brian.

Sorry to hear that Tom but gladdened by the news that it's not just me If money was no object I'd ditch the Peco tt and go for something with auto indexing but, of course, loads of money. Regards, Brian.

I might actually give that a try if all else fails.

As you can see at the start of this thread, I used a copy of a scale drawing (that was published in the Railway Modeller) to trial where the motor/gearbox might go. I suggest you do the same. If you haven't got the RM article, PM me. Good luck. Regards, Brian.

As promised, today I removed the masking tape support, connected up the control module and power supply and................. ...........the turntable deck now revolves. Whoopie doo. We will see how it goes in terms of durability. I put the Deltic on as a test and it rotates fully albeit a little jerkily. I have added some lubrication to the turntable bridge wheel axles (the wheels rotate when the bridge is loaded with a loco) and also to the two points at the top of the polarity plungers (hopefully this will trickle down to where the plungers rub on the two semi-circular electric feeds under the bridge). I'll see if there is any improvement tomorrow because the jerky rotational movement is making it very tricky to index by eye. Regards, Brian.

Thanks Edward. I think signals that actually work are a must on a layout. They just add so much to the operational side. Mind you, the "Fat Controller" has been known to slip up a few times with the resulting SPAD enquiry. Thanks again for your interest. I have another video in the pipeline. Regards, Brian.

For a while now I have been having problems with the turntable, in particular turning heavy locos - the turntable stalls or sticks and refuses to rotate. I tracked the problem down to the Expo Tools gearbox - while all the cogs were going round, the drive shaft wasn't moving. So a replacement was necessary. As a reminder, this was the Expo gearbox drive set-up photographed from below. Fortunately, Santa very kindly delivered me one of these.... ...namely the Peco PL55 Turntable Motor which also includes the relevant control switch. However, when I examined it, I was a little disappointed to find that it (1) required a 12v 2 amp power supply (the accessory output on my Morley controller is only rated 1 amp) so I had to buy an extra power supply, albeit a cheap phone charger type unit, (2) the main power output shaft was a hexagonal plastic spigot (see below) ... ...and (3) the whole Peco gearbox had to be glued to the underside of the existing turntable well. Thus, a lot of plastic engineering here to successfully attach the gear box. I just worry about longevity and durability but, heyho, it is what it is and you'd think Peco had thoroughly tested this product prior to release. Anyway, I've cracked on. Firstly, the existing Expo drive and controls had to be removed including the timber batten on which the gearbox was mounted below the baseboard... ...leaving a nice empty space. The smaller diameter circular spigot just visible above is the main turntable bridge spindle. The Peco kit requires you to glue (the instructions say use plastic glue) this plastic adapter... ...to the spindle. I used Gorilla super glue and put a separating piece of grease proof paper between the adapter and the rest of the t/t. The deck polarity plunger contacts tend to raise the turntable above where it should be so I weighed the t/t down with some "kentledge" (see pic below) and left it overnight to cure. The kit comes with three sprues which assemble into cruciform spacers or hangers as below. These attach to the motor unit by the clip-on device shown in the pic, the wider opposite ends of the cruciforms, according to the kit instructions, glue directly to the t/t well underside. Erm...actually this is wrong - there is a gap which has to be filled with something. Fortunately, each sprue also contains the requisite parts (of which there is no mention in the instructions) to fill the gap, see below. So, these pieces were added to each hanger and a check for fit revealed they filled the offending gap. Moment of truth time! A liberal amount of Gorilla glue was added to the cruciform hangers and the motor unit offered up into position and held there for several minutes until I was moderately sure the glue had set sufficiently to carry the weight of the motor/gearbox and some masking tape was added to give some ongoing support while the glue hardens overnight - see below. Tomorrow, I will connect the power supply and switch unit and see what happens. Will it all end in tears? Stay tuned for a further update tomorrow. Regards, Brian.

Erm... just wow, amazing. The many hours you spend constructing the viaduct are so justified by this incredible outcome. Just need to get it "planted" and trains running over it (he said tongue in cheek). Seriuosly, though, I am really looking forward to see how you contour the scenics around the piers. Regards Brian

Hi Jeff, Well how did I miss this thread having followed your previous KLs with huge interest? Perhaps the revised RMWeb format managed to put me off track. Maybe. Anyway, now following another exquisite viaduct build which puts my own crude efforts rightly in a lower division. I had to have a viaduct on my current layout Deneside but inspiration for mine came from the large brick structures on the Durham coast line built by the NER which carry the line over deep denes. Fantastic work, please keep the updates coming. Best Regards, Brian.

I hear what you are saying guys and thanks for taking the time to comment on my ramblings. However, "I've started so I'll finish" - the tender that is. The handrail knobs arrived the other day so, apart from a bit of gap filling, the tender is now finished bar vac pipes, painting and coal load - see below. Had a bit of a struggle with the handrails and knobs so I'm not relishing doing those around the loco boiler. Regards, Brian.

Here is another Rail Cam style video recorded at Colliery Junction. This time I have added sub-titles to describe each train. Enjoy it or otherwise here... Regards, Brian.