Jump to content
 

Ian Morgan

RMweb Premium
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,077

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Ian Morgan

  1. Ian Morgan

    Running Repairs

    By Ian Morgan,


    The Layout
    At its last outing at the Farnham Club's exhibition in Aldershot, Freshwater sarted to show its age. Two minor problems developed.
     
    The point in the fiddle yard had a blade come detached from the moving tie-bar The central uncoupling magnets started sticking in either the 'up' or 'down' positions.  
    Fortunately, neither of these problems were too detrimental to the operation of the layout, and were probably not noticed by the viewing public. However, they needed to be fixed before the next outing, the NEC Warley exhibition.
     
    The uncoupling magnets are rare-earth magnets on a beam that is raised and lowered by a servo. This is probably the most used servo on the layout, and runs at full speed between its end stops. I guessed that maybe a plastic gear had a deformed , worn or missing tooth, and the simplest remedy would be to just replace the servo. This was a relatively simple operation with the layout laid on its side. Having removed the troublesome servo, I dismantled it so see what the damage was, but all the gears look to be intact. Never mind, a new servo is installed and appears to be operating correctly.

     
     
    Here is the new servo in place. Three magnets rise up below three different tracks above the baseboard.
     

     

     
     
    The repair to the point was also quick and easy, but will probably fail again. It is the only point on the layout that has point blades soldered to a moving tie-bar. The points on the scenic part of the layout all use belowbaseboard tiebars, with metal tubes leading up the baseboard surface. These move wires connected to the point blades. The wires are free to rotate in the tubes, so there are no twisting forces on the soldered joints, which cause the failures on the fiddle yard point. Part of one of the below-baseboard tiebars can be seen by the uncoupler servo in the photo above.
     
    Anyway, the point is fixed again for now. Not the prettiest, but I did not get on well with the ealry EasiTrack points from the Association, hence the copper clad sleepers to try to maintain the gauge.
     

     
  2. Ian Morgan

    The animals are taking over

    By Ian Morgan,


    The Layout
    The petrol station is now firmly planted on the layout, and the final scenic work complete. This entailed more herring gulls, a couple of foxes and a few colonies of rabbits.
     
    The Rev.W Audrey (from ModelU) is pondering over his Bradshaws Guide and deciding if his scooter would get him to Newport in time to see the train just departed from Freshwater arrive there.
     

     
    This fox (also from ModelU) is not looking for fish.
     

     
    Rabbits are more to his liking, but is one of them wearing a blue jacket? (ModelU again)
     

     
    I need Ranger Hamza Yassin to properly catch these little critters on film. At 2mm/ft, they are rather small.
     

     
    Another fox is eyeing up a few more by the roadside
     

     
    Meanwhile, a herring gull looks on (Smart Models)
     

     
    Meanwhile, Albert and porter Porter have found Harbottle's sack truck, but how to get him on to it? ('Oh! Mr Porter' figures from buggleskelly.co.uk)
     

     
    So that is it. Layout is complete and just three more exhibitions before I retire it.
     
    Oxford tomorrow 17th September 2023,
    Aldershot 14th-15th October 2023
    Warley (NEC) 25th-26th November 2023
     
    What will happen after that is anyone's guess.
     
    Thanks for watching.
     
     
  3. Ian Morgan

    Petrol Station for Freshwater

    By Ian Morgan,


    Structures
    Finally, I have got round to creating the last building required for my Freshwater layout. There were two reasons for the procrastination afforded to this project. Firstly, the building is right at the front of the layout, and would get in the way, or be damaged, when working on other parts of the layout. The second reason was the severe shortage of images or information about the petrol station as it was in the 1940's or 1950's.
     
    Having completed the rest of the layout scenics, excuse number one had evaporated. The Freshwater antiquarians also came up with a magazine photo of the flooding in front of the station in the mid-1950's which gave the clearest image I have yet found of part of the petrol station. The main brick built structure still forms part of the current petrol station, but the single storey shop building has gone, and the current garages are a later addition, so I had to resort to imagination for what might have been there.
     
    I created a computer model of the main building and shop on the computer using Blender. This was kindly printed off for me by Peter Mabey, who is building his own model of Freshwater in N gauge. Here it is with a light spray of Halfords primer. The printing of the details is possibly better than acheived by Shapeways.
     

     
    As I usually do, the window openings are sized to match etched frames from Brassmasters and/or Ratio where possible, and a groove is left along the roof ridge to take a ridge tile etch from Scalelink (now Fretcetera).
     
    A wooden lean-to shed was built from plasticard and bits and pieces and the whole lot painted. Various signs and posters were found on the Internet and printed very small at 2400dpi on photographic paper. The shiny layer of the paper can then be carefully peeled off the main bulk of the paper using a scalpel to provide a thin poster for gluing on. The petrol pumps were Langley white metal, but have been modified to suit. The Regent dials were printed from Internet images, and the glass bowls on top reshaped from the BP shield shapes of the originals.
     

     
    The main garage shed was freelance, and built from plastic card and Ratio window etches. Interior details come from ModelU, Severn Models and pieces of scrap material.
     

     
    A white metal Morris 8, with wartime white painted blackout markings, and an MG TC were added to the scene. They have been in my gloat box for a while, so I do not remember who manufactured them. The MG had to have a windscreen added, and the Morris benefitted from flush glazing using canopy glue.
     

     
    Altogether, the scene looks like this
     

     
    I have more clutter to add to the scene when it is bedded down on the layout, hopefully this week, if the weather will cool down a bit. The layout is going to the OxRail show on Sunday 17th September 2023, so I have a deadline to work to.
     
    Then:
     

     
    More recently (chimney pots have gone):
     

     
    Now:
     

     
     
     
  4. Ian Morgan
    Well, I didn't give up. At the end of the last post, I had the chassis running nicely with the controller wired directly to the motor, but picking up from the rails was less impressive, despite the fitting of the 'Simpson spring pickups' rubbing on all the axles. The chassis was disassembled and re-assembled a few times, to no avail, and another crank pin came loose from a wheel and had to be re-soldered back in. Quartering the wheels was trickier as the motor was now solidly in place, but plenty of trial and error had the chassis running smoothly again each time.
     
    At the same time, I was working on fitting the Dapol footplate to the chassis. As my version of the Terrier has sandboxes above the footplate, the sandboxes below the footplate were sawn, cut and filed away. If the under footplate sandboxes are to be retained, a little must be removed from behind them as the replacement chassis is slightly wider than the Dapol one. The photo shows the Dapol footplate with motor, the footplate with the motor and cage removed, and finally the footplate with some bits cut away to make room for the new motor to pass through it.
     
     

    I also had to file a little plastic behind one of the front splashers to clear a gear, and a little from the front edge of the cab floor to clear the rear wheel flanges. Other than that, it fits the chassis, but the wheels will not go round because of the steps. I did not want to lose these nicely moulded features, and it seemed like there should be just enough clearance, but it did mean removing the bosses from the ends of the con rods and cutting the crank pins down to the very minimum. The centre cranks are fine, but the wire insulation was not enough to keep the con-rods in position on the short crank pins, so I had to solder washers onto the centre crank pins to keep the rods firmly in place. The loco body fits without any alteration, which was a bonus. There is even room in the tanks on each side of the motor to add some extra weight.
     
    As I was getting no improvement in pick-up with each rebuild, I decided to resort to adding phosphor-bronze wipers bearing on the tops of the wheel treads. I used the remains of the Dapol pickups to produce these, and soldered them directly to the chassis. Again, there was no improvement. It seemed that the wheels just did not want to make good contact with the rails, and the pickups were removed again as they got in the way of fiting the footplate.
     
    So, as a last resort, I followed Jerry Clifford's advice and made up a pair of rail skids. I had a sheet of .4mm phosphor-bronze which I cut and filed to shape, forming two long arms, with a kink near one end, bent to form the skids. I added another 180 degree bend at the other end in order to produce the most flexible springing possible. The ends were soldered to the bottom chassis stretcher plates.
     
     

     
    Success. I finally had a chassis that ran slowly and smoothly on my short test track without stalling. I was so pleased, I threw caution to the wind and fitted the DCC decoder. This is a CT DCX75 which stands upright in the cab. It is hard to see it edge on, and will be completely masked when I eventually fit the crew.
     
     


    The results I have captured on video. Hopefully the photos will explain everything. I will probably replace one of the skids, as the part that touches the rail is a little too short and seems to catch on some rail joints and on points.
     
     
    Still to do, add couplings, touch up the chassis paintwork, think about adding the brakes, add the crew, then get on with my other two Terriers.
  5. Ian Morgan

    Terrier Chassis - Episode 5

    By Ian Morgan,


    Rolling Stock
    Still making progress, and still making mistakes. The etched chassis does not include any provision for mounting the motor, but I spoke with Jerry Clifford at the Didcot exhibition who said he fits a piece of plastic onto the centre frame spacer, files a curved saddle into it and glues the motor to that.
     
    I always want to be a bit different, so I thought a blob of Milliput might form a saddle without the need for filing. My first attempt started well, but as the Milliput took a long time to harden, the weight of the motor, and possibly the attraction of the magnet to the steel tyres, meant the motor ended up not quite parallel to the chassis, and the worm sat right down on the worm gear too tightly meshed. I pulled it all apart and tried again. This time I added a piece of thin paper onto the worm gear, forcing it down into the teeth with a fingernail, so that the worm should end up at the correct meshing distance.
     
    I took some video of the chassis in action before the Milliput had set on the first attempt, which looks encouraging:
     
     
    And a photo of the second attempt with the paper spacer on the worm gear:
     

     
    Preparations for adding the Dapol footplate and body are underway. Two pieces of the footplate have been removed to make room for the motor, but still leaving the fixing holes for the lugs on the body. I had to remove the smokebox door (which is a push-in to the boiler end) in order to push out the weight. The slot in the weight is not big enough to take to new worm and will have to be enlarged. Once that is done, the body should fit without further fettling. Indeed, there should be room in the side tanks to fit extra weights. I have not decided where to put the DCC chip yet.
     
    Still to do is fit crankpin washers and see if everything will fit between the steps of the footplate. Then there is the brake gear to put together.

     
  6. Ian Morgan

    Terrier Chassis - Episode 4

    By Ian Morgan,


    Rolling Stock
    Having produced a free running chassis at the end of the last session, I had to disassemble it in order to add the 'Simpson Spring Pickups'. These are pieces of fine phosphor bronze wire, acquired by straightening out some unwanted N gauge coupler springs. They are soldered at one end into holes in the chassis and pass behind each bearing so they will rub gently on the axles with the absolute minimum frictional force. The axle muffs need to be shortened to make room, and must have smooth ends so as not to catch the wires.
     
    Once the six pickups were fitted, the chassis was cleaned in an ultrasonic bath. Small balls of White-Tac were pushed onto each side of each bearing and the chassis was then sprayed with Halfords matt black. Once dry, the White-Tac was removed.
     

     
    The wheels, gears and con-rods were fitted again. After tweaking the quartering for a while, the chassis was once again free running.
     

     
    Sorry the photo is confusing, the gears are driving the front axle of the locomotive, but I did not think about it when setting up the photo.
     
    The next job should be to fit the motor, but instead, I wanted to see how much work will be required to fit the Dapol footplate. Having dismantled the Dapol Terrier, and removed the motor and its cage from the footplate, it was obvious that not much work is required. I had to remove some plastic from the rear of the front sandboxes, and file a little of the front spacer PCB on the chassis for the plastic clip to fit, and then the footplate went onto the chassis. The gears were catching on the footplate, so a little filing was needed there. Unfortunately, it looks like the footsteps will have to be removed to make room for the con rods and crank pins, and remaking them may be a bit tricky. Also, more of the footplate will need to be removed to fit the motor, but on the whole, it looks promising.
  7. Ian Morgan

    Terrier Chassis - Episode 3

    By Ian Morgan,


    Rolling Stock
    More slow progress this week, and a sense of achievement. To put this into perspective, I have to admit that in the 25 years that I have been a member of the 2mm Scale Association, I have attempted to build a number of chassis for a variety of locomotives, using several different techniques, none of which were completed. I had at least 5 tries at making a chassis for an S15, using phosphor bronze strip for frames, as was recommended in those days. I just could not drill and ream holes without them drifting away from where they should be, resulting in gears that just would not mesh. A similar chassis for an E4 had similar problems. Switching to etched nickel-silver chassis should have improved things, but a 3F Jinty and an 09 diesel shunter build both stalled with gear meshing problems from what appeared to be eccentric gears. The Terrier chassis build has benefitted from using turned axle muffs, which appear to result in gears that run true and concentric with the axle.
     
    At the end of the previous episode, I had the worm gear on its idler axle, with an intermediate gear meshing perfectly with the final gear on the rear axle. This week, I added the crank pins to the wheels, fixed with a touch of solder on the rear. I reamed out the axle holes and muffs for a good fit for the wheels. I folded up and soldered the con-rods, and reamed out the holes for a good fit on the crank pins, and put them together and quartered the wheels, mostly by trial and error. After assembling, dismantling, gentle reaming, and assembling again countless times, I eventually produced a free running chassis, with almost no slop, and no wobble anywhere. Indeed, it is so free running, it can be pushed gently on a rubber cutting mat and the wheels turn under its own, featherlight weight. This is a first for me.
     

     
     
    For the next episode, I will probably mess it all up as I add 'Simpson pickup springs' and paint the chassis, ready for mounting a motor.
  8. Ian Morgan

    Terrier Progress - Some Gears

    By Ian Morgan,


    Rolling Stock
    I have now received a new set of wheels of the correct diameter (8mm) and I have given them a quick spray of primer (one set black for my second Terrier and this set grey for painting green and black for my Southern livery Terrier).
     

     
    The next job on the chassis was to drill out the 0.3mm holes for fitting the brakes and the 'Simpson Spring' axle pickup wipers. Two of the brake support holes require drilling into the side of a glass fibre PCB spacer. Typically, my drill bit broke doing the last hole. I had to unsolder the spacer, remove the broken drill bit, put the chassis back into the jig and resolder the spacer. Then I had to redrill the holes with a fresh drill bit.
     
    Now I was ready to start fitting the gears to the accurately turned 'muffs' and fit them in the chassis temporarily with some long pieces of axle steel. The muffs needed a little triming to length, and drilling and reaming to give a tight push fit on the axle steel. I also drilled across the centres of the muffs to let air escape and to insert superglue if required when the wheels are finally fitted. The gears were deburred with some fine emery paper and then fitted to the chassis. They would not turn. The main worm gear was fouling the axle muff. I took the axle muff, inserted a length of axle steel and mounted it in the jaws of a mini-drill. I then used a good small file to reprofile the muff to give room for the worm gear to rotate. Once refitted, everything turned freely. The turned muffs do appear to be better than the old ones. I might return to the '09 Diesel Shunter' I started building previously that suffered from non-concentric gears, to see if they improve things.
     

     
    Well, that was it for the evening, the broken drill bit and gear-muff interference problems meant I did not have time to fit any wheels. Hopefully next time ...
  9. Ian Morgan

    Fiddling with the Fiddle Yard

    By Ian Morgan,


    The Layout
    Not much progress to report on my Freshwater layout itself, as various projects have stalled for one reason or another. However, with some exhibition bookings a couple of months away, I had to make some progress somewhere. I turned to the fiddle yard.
     
    Originally, in the rush to complete the layout for the 2mm Scale Association Golden Jubilee Challenge, I just roughly laid a few 60 foot track panels on double sided sticky tape across the fiddle yard and joined them up electrically. This single line has sufficed so far, but it did mean a passenger train had to be taken off or put back on again when required.
     
    Five years later, and the sticky tape is not as sticky as it once was. Track panels started coming loose. I decided to take the opportunity to add a point while I was relaying the track. This would pretty much double the capacity of the fiddle yard, although slightly reducing the train length. So I built my very first EasiTrac point, with a 1:6 crossing so it would be as short as practical. The point, and track panels, were glued down with EasiTrac glue this time.

    I laid the plain track straight, at the diverging angle from the crossing, for several reasons:
    There was room to do so it is easier to put stock on straight track than on curved track it is easier to put stock on when another track is not too close to it  
    I decided on a low-tech approach to point operation, similar to that used on my previous layout 'Brunswick', in complete contrast with the Merg CBus controlled servos and under-baseboard tie-bars used on the layout itself.
     
    A piece of glass fibre PCB is used as a tie-bar, and an electrical toggle switch, mounted on a bracket from the DIY superstore, provides both the mechanical movement and the electrical switching of the frog. The switch is connected to the tie-bar with some Plastruct pieces (the outer tube section being glued to the baseboard with a smaller rod section free to move back and forth inside) and some pieces of wire guitar string.

  10. Ian Morgan

    A Terrier for Freshwater

    By Ian Morgan,


    Rolling Stock
    As anyone who has seen my layout at exhibitions can tell you, so far some very unlikely motive power has been operating the Freshwater line of the Isle of Wight. I do intend to rectify this, but getting the layout operating smoothly, and scenery added were higher priority. I have acquired some Dapol A1X Terriers (one at least with the correct extended bunker) ready to be converted to 2mm finescale. Many months ago I started work on modifying the original chassis, as per an article in the 2mm Scale Association magazine. I even 3D printed some replacement gears incorporating axle muffs, to replace one of the originals that I ruined while reaming the centre hole. The hole had drifted off-centre. Just a couple of weeks ago, I had the chassis running, although its starting speed was about 40mph. I even got as far as connecting a small DCC decoder, and this actually improved it, with much better starting and stopping. However, electrical pickup was still a bit hit and miss.
     
    Then, the long awaited replacement chassis etches appeared on the 2mm shop lists (3-661). A couple were ordered. There are no specific instructions for the Terrier chassis, just the generic build instructions, plus a couple of drawings hidden away in the 2mm VAG files area. After a couple of emails to Chris Higgs,I put together a parts list:
    6x crankpins and washers (3-107 & 3-109) 1x 30:1 worm and gear (3-364) 2x gear muffs (3-102b) 2x axle muffs (3-100) 1x 14 tooth M0.3 gear (3-390) 1x 22 tooth M0.3 gear (3-394) 6x 8mm driving wheel (3-005) 8x frame bushes (3-113) PCB strip (3-156) Nigel Lawton 8mm dia x 16mm Midi Motor The Terrier chassis etch has some differences from the other chassis etches:
    There is no fold up gearbox for the worm assembly There are frame reinforcers to be 'sweated' to the insides of the main frames to strengthen them. So, for my first evening working on the chassis, I started by folding up and soldering the chassis building jig. With luck it will survive long enough to be used for the second chassis.
     
    Then I started on the chassis frames. Unfortunately, the reinforcers are not arranged on the etch as a 'fold and align' arrangement like the coupling rods and bosses are, but need to be cut out separately before attaching to the main frames. Where the idler gear axle bush cutout is on the frame reinforcer, it dissects the top edge leaving a very thin piece of metal keeping the two ends of the reinforcer together, so must be handled with care. It might be possible to use some fine rod in the brake gear holes to align the reinforcer and the frame when soldering them together, but the rod would probably get soldered into the holes at the same time. I therefore aligned them by eye. Alignment needs to be accurate, or the frame bushes will not locate properly into the frames.after sweating them together, I inserted the frame bushes into their holes and soldered them in. The holes needed to be reamed a little to get them to fit. This requires a slightly larger reamer than found in the usual, cheap reamer sets.
     
    The PCB tabs were then folded at right angles. The tabs with holes in, I folded along the wrong fold lines, so I will have to rectify this later. The frames were then fitted into the jig, and axle rod inserted. This completed the evening's work. Next time, the PCB spacers need to be added, then I can try it with wheels and gears, and add the coupling rods. Then I have to ponder fitting the motor and worm.
     
     
  11. Ian Morgan
    With another exhibition looming (actually, tomorrow 9th May 2015 in Portsmouth) I felt I should do a bit more work on the layout. I had mostly been working on some more suitable motive power and rolling stock for the layout (none of which is finished yet). I had been making a few more trees in spare moments, including a large Elm tree that I am particularly proud of. These have now been planted, but lots more are still required, plus other ground cover.
     

     
     

     
    The old Ordnance Survey map shows a water tower at the end of the station throat, and I have a couple of photos showing it in the distance. They show it to be a rectangular tank on a brick base, but it is not possible to see any details. I purchased a Knightwing kit a while back as the mouldings for the tank looked nice, although I had not intended to use the stone base. In the event, I did use the base, in modified form. I removed the window section of one side by cutting horizontally above and below the windows. I then glued the top section directly to the bottom section. I removed a similar sized piece from the end above the door, and cut a section off the bottom of the other two plain walls to match. Once glued together, I clad it with brick paper (Scalescenes). I filed down the base of the tank so that it fitted inside the tank sides, and the tank now sits nicely on top of the brickwork.
     
    After painting, I cut some transparent acrylic sheet to fit as the water surface. I added an overflow pipe, but I did not know what the filling arrangements are for a water tank, so I have left them out. I added a depth gauge and float from scraps, wire, and a spare cartwheel from an etch. This is too big, but I could not find anything more suitable.
     

     
     
    Edit: Below are some more photos I took at the Portsmouth exhibition.
     
     

     
     
  12. Ian Morgan

    The Railway Shed

    By Ian Morgan,


    Structures
    When I moved to a new house, I purchased a shed to house all my model railway stuff. Initially all sorts of junk got stored in there, until I could not even get in the door. After 5 years, some of the junk was removed, and it was used to house some computer servers, poorly cats, spare furniture, etc. Finally, enough room was made to set up Freshwater to work on it (still no room for a chair though).
     
    So, nine years later and the original paintwork was starting to look tired, so I finally fulfilled my original plan. I found the BS381C shade numbers for BR(S) green and stone, as used for wooden station buildings, and found on Ebay a source for exterior paint mixed to any shade. This was duly applied and I think it looks good. The rest of the household were a bit alarmed at the shed turning bright orange though.
     
    The surprisingly bright 50W LED floodlight is for dealing with the chicken enclosure opposite in the dark mornings and evenings, but the neighbours complained that it lit up their bedrooms when the local cats passed by, so I had to make up some form of baffle plate for it. After some thought, I made up a board to emulate the 'Next Train' boards used at stations. Some vinyl letters, also sourced on Ebay, completed the ensemble. The 'Private' sign on the door is my one, real, artifact that I obtained in my teenage years. Hopefully, I can now complete my model of Freshwater before the shed needs its next repaint.
     

  13. Ian Morgan

    Look out, its the copse

    By Ian Morgan,


    The Layout
    Freshwater will have more trees than any previous layout I have built, so I wanted to get some planted in time for the Farnham show (and 2mm Scale Association AGM). Previously I have used plastic tree armatures from Heki and Woodland Scenics. These start off as 2D trees, the branches of which need to be bent to produce a not very realistic 3D tree before attaching bits of foliage.
     
    This time, I wanted to try new techniques. I had purchased a tree-making kit from Ceynix many years ago, and I have collected some old mains leads to source copper wire for soldering together. I would build one tree using each technique and decide which I liked best.
     
    The soldered copper method involves stripping mains cable (multi-core) and then twisting, bending and forming branches. The result is then soldered together, requiring a big iron, clips or pegs, or asbestos fingers. I got as far a the second branch before I gave up.
     
    The Ceynix method uses short lengths of florist's wire (a fine stiff wire with green plastic coating) bundled together and bound with florist's green sticky tape. Branches are formed with two or three wires bound together. Branches are then gradually bundled together until a complete tree is formed. The tree then needs to be coated with air drying clay. This is a long slow process. I used a wooden tea stirrer and a pot of water to aid the procedure. When dry, the tree is painted, a quick spray of grey primer and then thin washes of grey-brown shades. The fine twigs and branches are represented by what is called folinet. This is a fine black jumble of synthetic fibres which has to be teased out before gluing in place. I have been told that this is no longer manufactured, so an alternative solution will have to be found soon. To finish off, a spray of aerosol mounting glue is followed by sprinkling with fine foliage.
     
    I found this method much better, and liked the results, and managed to complete 12 trees in time for the show.
     
    No matter what method is used to make trees, a good book of tree pictures is essential to produce realistic trees. Would anyone build and paint a loco, coach, or even a wagon, just from memory? Getting the general shape, density of branches and colour tones right really brings a tree to life.
     
    The first photo shows a sycamore tree, with the taped bundles of florist's wire formed into branches. The last few millimeters of each branch is a single strand of the florist's wire without tape. The oak tree in the background is the real thing,
     

     
    The next photo shows the coating of air drying clay on a couple of smaller trees.
     

     
    And finally, the small copse of 12 trees planted on the layout. The sycamore is in the centre, with a coppiced silver birch to the left, and several small hazel bushes behind. Below the canopy of the main trees, some small alder saplings (single pieces of florist's wire with foliage added) are poking up through the ground cover.
     
     
     

     
     
    So, 12 trees do not go very far on a rural layout. I will be building trees for many weeks to come.
  14. Ian Morgan

    Stroudley LBSCR 4 wheeler set

    By Ian Morgan,


    Rolling Stock
    OK, I know they did not survive into the 1950's but a 4 car set was used on the Freshwater line, so that is good enough for me. The brass etch for the bodies is available from Etched Pixels. They suggest putting them on chopped up peco wagon chassis, but I thought they would look nicer on etched chassis. The GWR 4 wheeler chassis from David Eveleigh is almost perfect for length. I could not figure out how to fit the footsteps provided, and the Stroudley set only had a single footstep, except below the guard's doors, so I have decided to try to etch some new solebars, with queen post and trussing and some bolt head details, and new footsteps with brackets to add on. I am also adding some buffer beams, although I might 3D print them complete with the short buffers needed. I was working on drawing a set of etched window frames for the signal box and magazine stand, and have only used a very small area of the smallest standard panel that can be etched. Progress on the etch drawing has been pretty slow as I try to learn how to do what I want in DraftSight.
     
    Meanwhile, here is construction progress so far. The carriages were drilled for hand rails and door handles before folding up.
     

  15. Ian Morgan

    Another Deadline Approaches

    By Ian Morgan,


    Structures
    'Freshwater' will be on show again next Saturday, 14th April 2018. It will be the first 2mmFS layout to be invited to the East Surrey N Gauge Show at St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Linkfield Lane, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1EA. As usual, I wanted to get a bit more completed after its last exhibition, and next on the list was the Newsagents stand and the signal box. The main part of these buildings were 3D printed by Shapeways, as were most of the other structures on the layout. However, for these buildings, there were no suitable etched window frames available from the usual suppliers. There has been a long delay while I plucked up courage to create my own artwork and get some etched by PPD. I was so pleased with the results that I just had to add some interior details and lighting.
     


     
    Unfortunately, this last view will be almost impossible to see at an exhibition, as it faces the backscene.
     
    The interior of the signal box used some etched parts from Severn Models, and a signalman from ModelU. The log book, mug of tea and telephone were just bits of plastic, and the telephone cord was a hair from my head. I am glad they did not have curly telephone cords back then.
     


     
     
    So, not only is the signal cabin in a strange position, behind the buffer stops and low down so that a parked van would block the view of the tracks, but the lever frame is at right angles to the main set of windows.
     

     

     
    Still plenty of detail to add in this area, but it was waiting for these buildings to be installed.
  16. Ian Morgan

    Just a few photos

    By Ian Morgan,


    The Layout
    Not much progress recently - I was diverted by a different project which was no 2mmFS.
     
    Anyway, with a couple of exhibitions coming up in October (Fareham and Abingdon/Didcot) I have set up the layout ready for some more work to be carried out, and took the opportunity to take a few, up to date photos:
     




     
  17. Ian Morgan

    Out and About at TINGS

    By Ian Morgan,


    Clyde Puffer
    I took Lyra along with me to TINGS this weekend, to pose on our club's 'Royal Albert Bridge' layout, but I could not resist popping it on the excellent, and more likely, location by the distillery on 'Loch Tat'.
     
     
    Loch Tat

     
     
    Tamar
     

     

  18. Ian Morgan

    Stroudley 4 Wheelers for Freshwater

    By Ian Morgan,


    Rolling Stock
    Two sets of 30 year old ex-LBSCR 4 car 4 wheeled carriages arrived on the Isle of Wight in 1924. They were followed later by some slightly newer Billington carriages, some of which still run on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. The Stroudley sets saw less than 10 years service on the island, so are not really suitable for the period of my layout. But a set of etched brass bodies are available from Etched Pixels, so how could I resist.
     
    Being only body kits, I needed some chassis that were more suitable than chopped up N gauge Peco offerings. After a chat with David Eveleigh it seemed his etched nickel silver 4 wheel chassis for GWR carriages would be the most suitable. I would need some suitable overlays for the solebars to give the Stroudley appearance, and some buffer beams. So started my first and only attempt at designing my own etches. I needed to etch some window frames for the signal box and magazine stand for Freshwater, so a design was drawn up, and luckily, produced a sheet that was fit for purpose, albeit with plenty of spares - just in case.
     

     

     
     
    Construction started in early 2018. 0.3mm holes were drilled for the handrails and doorknobs while the etches were still flat. A pillar mini-drill was used for this. The bodies were then folded up and the corners held with a fillet of solder. The guard's lookouts were a little more fiddly, but achievable. The etches also went together well, and with my solebars added started to look the part.
     

     
    Handrails were bent up from fine hard brass wire and soldered in the pre-drilled holes. Ultima door handles were also fitted.
     

     

     
    Buffer beams with buffers and battery boxes were designed in Blender and printed by Shapeways. The ends have quite large buffers, while the intermediate ones within the set are quite small for close coupling. The components were primed with rattle-can sprays ready for final spray in Southern olive green.
     

     
    Next came the transfers. The correct numbers were formed from individual digits, and were both ends as well as both sides. With all the repeated digits in the actual coach numbers, I needed two sets of transfers from Fox to complete. It took several evenings as I could only concentrate for so long, maybe two coach sides at a sitting.
     

     
    Some glazing and interior detail was next on the list of jobs. I used UV cure glue to fix the glazing. I found images of the old Peco/Kitmaster card coach interiors on the Internet, so I adjust the size and printed off a couple of sheets, and chopped them up to fit. A few seated figure from China (eBay) were added.
     

     
    The bodies were glued to the chassis, and the roofs (with Ultima vents fitted) were glued on top and they were ready to roll.
     

  19. Ian Morgan

    Signal Success for Freshwater

    By Ian Morgan,


    Structures
    Following general scenic work completed in time for the Basingstoke exhibition, a start has been made on some detailing and buildings. One important detail item is the starting signal. Fortunately there is only the one proper signal on the layout, as it has taken 6 months to build it. The two ground signals required will be another story.
     
    I wanted to build a typical SR rail-built upper quadrant signal, operational of course. I purchased some etched brass signal boards, counterweights, brackets and ladders from MSE. The post would be scratch built, using bullhead rail from the 2mm Scale Association. I laid two longish lengths of rail together, and joined them with a blob of solder at each end. I could then drill through the pair for the joining bolts at the correct intervals, confident that they would line up later when the rails were parted. I found a piece of card of suitable thickness, and cut comb-like teeth into it. With some wire passed through the rail holes at each end, I could then sandwich the two rails either side of the card and solder the joining wires in each hole, with the card keeping the rails the correct distance apart. The comb slots in the card meant the resulting signal post could be slid off the card once complete.
     
    I had some small surface mount gold-white LEDs, and decided to use one as the signal lamp. It is rectangular rather than cylindrical, but is about the right size. I formed a triangular bracket from some unused nickel-silver etch and soldered it to the signal post, and one end of the LED to the top of the bracket. This formed bothan electrical and a mechanical joint. Some very fine enamelled copper wire was soldered to the topmost terminal of the LED and runs down the post to the lampman's platform. The platform is actually a piece of thin double sided PCB. The lower face is soldered to the post with some more nickel-silver brackets. The top face is insulated from the post, and so the other end of the enamelled copper wire is soldered to it, as is the top end of the ladder. Electrical current for the LED therefore flows up the ladder, through the enamelled copper wire to the LED, and then down the signal post.
     
    I used an old 4mm copper clad sleeper as a base for the signal, with the post passing through a hole drilled in the sleeper, and the lower end of the ladder through two smal holes. Both were soldered to the copper, again for both mechanical and electrical connection, the gap at the centre of the sleeper keeping them electrically separated.
     
    A piece of nickel-silver was added to the top of the post for its cap, and some small backets from the MSE etch soldered to each side of a rail for the signal arm pivot wire to pass through. An MSE counterweight and bracket were made up and attached just below where the signal arm fits.

     
     
     

    A pivot wire was soldered to a signal arm from the etch, and the arm and post were painted, sprayed with white primer, and then brush painted black and colour details. Some red and blue-green paint was mixed in some Krystal Klear PVA which was then added to form the spectacle plates in the holes in the signal arm.
     
    The final bit of above ground work was to add the operating wires. This is a very fiddly job, requiring good right-angle bends in the wire and a lot of luck.
     
    Below ground, I created a lever arm from some more PCB, pivoting on a wire pin through the two rails. The lower end of the operating wire passes through a small hole in the PCB. A couple more pins were soldered into holes drilled in the PCB to act as mechanical end stops, so the signal operating wire cannot be pulled or pushed further than required and thus causing damage.
     
    The signal was then carefully glued into a hole in the baseboard, with the base covered with ballast and ground cover. I will probably regret not making it removeable when cleaning the track, but I have not found an unobtrusive detachable mounting method yet.

     
     
     

    The final piece of the puzzle was the operating servo. One of the new design, 3D printed, Merg servo mounts was used, with the operating wire bent into a curious form to reach the lever arm below the signal. In the end, the operating movement was not as great as expected, and I could have got away with a smaller lever, but it works.
     
     

    It is now configured into the Merg CBus system so that a single CBus event will raise the signal arm. This can be generated from a Merg CANCAB controller, or a simple push button on the control box I made to give simpler operation of the uncoupling magnets.
     
    Any of the route setting events will lower the signal arm, so it should not be possible to forget returning the signal to danger before the next movement takes place.
  20. Ian Morgan

    Some buildings for Freshwater

    By Ian Morgan,


    Structures
    At the Basingstoke show, the only building on the layout was a Ratio SR concrete PW hut. There are only four other major buildings required to complete the layout, but all will need to be scratch built. I started trying to create drawings for the station building, using a 3D drawing package, but the more I did, the more I thought about 3D printing the building instead of using plasticard and printed paper as I had orginally intended. The complex decorative brickwork would be really difficult to reproduce using the traditional building methods, but should be pretty simple for 3D printing. However, the station building is complex and quite large, and would be an expensive experiment if 3D printing was not up to it. I therefore turned my attention to a smaller building - a corrugated iron shed that stood in the goods yard, and is visible in the background of several photos I have collected.
     
    Corrugated iron has always been a challenge for 2mm/ft scale. The best looking solution, aluminium foil corrugated between a pair of suitable rollers, is extremely delicate and easily flattened or distorted. Creating it in 3D is also not straightforward, but I thought I would give it a try. I found details on the Internet about the 'standard' size (or possibly the most standard of the sizes), and an image of a typical profile. The sheet width is pretty standard, but was available in various lengths up to 12 feet. I used the profile image to create a 3D object of a standard sized panel, corrugated on one side, and flat on the other, about 0.7mm thick, so that it would exceed the minimum wall thickness for 3D printing. I then built the shed model by cloning and resizing these panels as required. I varied the panel positions to accentuate the overlaps and joins of the original building, and added doors and eaves to suit. I knew that the window frames would be too small to print, but I found some Ratio etched brass window frames which were close enough in size and style, and I made window apertures in the model of the right size to fit these frames. For my first attempt, I had made an error in sizing the hut from the photos and created what would have been an enormous building. However, I was very pleased by the representation of the corrugated iron panels, so I had another go, and produced a much more modest sized building. Here it is painted up and just sitting on my test diorama.
     
     
     
     

     

    Whilst waiting for Shapeways to print my model, I stumbled across a model uploded by someone else, presumeably a wargamer, of a wartime pillbox. Now, there was a pillbox in the goods yard of Freshwater, and, in fact, it is the only railway building still standing in its original position, albeit now in the middle of a garden centre carpark. Strictly speaking, the pillbox should be located just off the front of the layout, but I thought I would buy a reprint of the model anyway. It turned out to be a really nice looking model, and painted up, the brickwork looks really good. This gives me confidence to press on with the station building.
     
     

     

  21. Ian Morgan

    A Bus for Freshwater

    By Ian Morgan,


    Electronics
    Not that sort of of bus - a layout control bus. DCC is really good for controlling trains, but is less suited for controlling points and signals and the like. A separate bus for operating accessories means that a short circuit on the track does not cause points and signals to change at random. The separate bus can also use systems that are more suited to train detection and route selection.
     
    I initially joined Merg (Model Electronic Railway Group) in order to access their servo controller kits, for controlling points and signals. Having joined, I found out about their development of a layout control system based on the CBUS two-wire command bus. The CAN protocol (on which CBUS is based) has been used in all new cars for a number of years, to reduce the complexity of the wiring loom, and increase the functionality. It is a fairly simple protocol, compared with TCP/IP as used by the Internet. The bus is used to join up various devices all over the car. It allows 'producer' devices (switches, or sensors for instance) to broadcast simple numbered 'event' messages over the bus. All the 'consumer' devices attached to the bus will see these 'event' messages, but certain devices will be setup to perform specific functions when specific events are seen. Thus a switch can broadcast an event which the windscreen wiper controller will act on to start the windscreen wiper motor. A rain sensor can be set up to broadcast the same event. It might also broadcast another event which would result in the headlight controller lighting the headlights. The CBUS is equally useful for controlling a layout. Control panel switches and train detectors can become 'producer' devices, and point motors, signal motors and mimic display panels can become 'consumers'. Because of the widespread use of CBUS in the automotive industry, the basic components required are readily available and low cost.
     
    Last year, I purchased a couple of Merg kits, an eight input 'producer', and an eight output 'consumer'. I also picked up the experimenters kit, a small board with eight switches on that plugs onto the 'producer' kit, and a board with eight LEDs on that plugs into the 'consumer' kit. The Merg kits are designed to allow them to be 'programmed' using small switches that are part of the kits. The 'producer' can be told what events to broadcast for each switch operation, and the 'consumer' kit can be taught which events to listen for, and which LEDs to light or extinguish when the event is seen. The Merg kits were designed to use a 5VDC supply distributed from a power supply regulator on one of the kits, which required a 12-16V supply. I experimented with these modules, but did not get round to using them on Freshwater as deadlines approached, and a temporary 'traditional' control panel was built. I do intend to use CBUS eventually as it will allow simple route selection and some interlocking to be implemented.

     
     
    The photo shows a 'producer' board on the left, with eight yellow switches on the experimenter board plugged on the end. On the right is a 'consumer' board, with eight red LEDs on the experimenter board plugged on its end. They are connected by the 2-wire bus (blue and white wires). The orange and black wires are the power supply lines. In the centre is a C-BUS connector board, and a power supply can plug into the lead coming down from the centre. I have modified these boards to run from a 12VDC supply instead of the 5VDC supply that the kits were originally designed for.
     
    Over the last 12 months, more kits have become available, along with interfaces to a computer to simplify the programming of the modules. The computer interface also allows computer control of a layout, using suitable software like the freely available JMRI. The latest development from Merg is a DCC command unit and a hand-held controller. The CBUS is used for communication between the controller and the command unit. JMRI can also be used as a throttle connecting to the command unit via the CBUS.
     
    So, to prepare for the DCC system, and use of the CBUS on Freshwater, I purchased the Merg kit for a CBUS to USB interface. This was initially built as per the instructions. It is designed to take a 5VDC supply. I therefore created a simple 5VDC regulator circuit on a small piece of veroboard, and mounted everything in a small black plastic case. A 4 way cable with an RJ22 type connector at the end that can plug into a Merg CBUS connector kit, comes from the box, connecting the two bus wires and the 12VDC supply into the box. A standard USB connector protrudes from the other end of the case.
     
     

    Having a working USB interface, I set to building the DCC command station kit from Merg. This has been built as per its instructions. It is already designed to take an external 16VAC power supply, and can supply 12VDC to other devices on the bus.
     
     

    The photo shows the USB interface box on the left, which connects to the USB port on a PC. It also plugs into the CBUS connector board and the bus then connects to the DCC command station board on the right, the red and black wires next to the bus wires have a socket for connecting the power supply. The red and black wires to the far right attach to the test track at the top of the photo. The white round object at the bottom right is a buzzer used as a short circuit warning. This setup now works, using a JMRI software throttle on the PC. I have also played with a Wi-throttle 'app' on an iPhone using a WiFi connection to the JMRI server on the PC.
     
    Merg will very soon have a kit available for a hand held DCC controller that will plug directly into the CBUS connector board, and do away with the need for the USB interface and PC. Watch this space.
  22. Ian Morgan
    I love the sound of deadlines flying by. Having a deadline certainly provides a bit of impetus to get things done, even if not enough things actually get done in time.
     
    When I accepted the invitation before Christmas, I had just about got all the electrical and mechanical gubbins beneath the layout working as required (see umpteen previous posts) and so, 4 years after the initial deadline for the 2mm Scale Association Golden Jubilee Expo in Oxford, I thought the time was right to start some scenic work. After all, with just one baseboard to cover, and four buildings to make, there was plenty of time. Then I started to make the starter signal. After a promising start, weeks turned to months, and with the above ground parts completed and working, I had to put it aside and start on the terraforming instead of trying to connect up a minute linear servo underneath.
     
    So, after carving the layers of foamboard using a ceramic kitchen knife to produce a smooth land surface, and then covering with simple paper maché sprayed with brown and grey aerosol paints, I started laying the reed beds alongside the river, and along the tributary. This was plumbers hemp planted in glue and later trimmed with scissors and brushed roughly with green paint. The river water was Deluxe Solid Water resin which has produced the desired effect.
     
    The rough ground cover was formed using a new product, which is basically a cooker hood filter that has been spray painted. I think it is quite effective as an initial layer. Shorter grass was static fibres, but the application was not as successful as on my test piece, with very little of it standing up properly.
     
    Lots of fencing was added, mostly etched nickel-silver, but with plastic strip added to the uprights to give them more body. Lots more needs to be added, but I think I wiped out the stocks of County Rolling Stock's N'Tastic online shop.
     
    Roads and platform surfaces are fine wet-and-dry emery paper, and the 3D printed trestle platform (see earlier blog) completes the platform. Various scatter materials, and a little plaster, completed the ground cover. Again, this is just the initial layer which will be toned down and added to later.
     
    So that is how far it progressed before the exhibition. The layout behaved itself admirably over the two days, the main problems being with the DG couplings on some of the wagons which will have to be worked on before the next outing. Apart from that, it was a pleasure to shunt for an hour or two at a time. The 'to do' list now reads: Buildings, Trees, Signals, more fences, appropriate rolling stock.
     
     
     
     
     

  23. Ian Morgan
    If you have ever used hand held controllers to operate a layout, you will know that you need somewhere to put them when you need to deal with a derailment, or drink some tea. Often this means hanging it over the backscene, or letting it dangle down to the floor.
     
    On previous layouts, I have used Velcro to allow the controller to be stuck at various places at the back of the layout. This is very handy, but removing the controller from the Velcro can cause some fairly major earthquakes on the layout.
     
    However, I have been given a pre-production kit from Merg to try out, which has been designed by Howard Watkins specifically to hold the Merg CANCAB controllers. The kit consists of 8 laser cut pieces of MDF. The instructions advise fitting them together dry at first to be sure how they assemble, and this is a good idea. The laser cutting is so accurate that the pieces fit together perfectly, and it will hold together very well without gluing. Having satisfied myself that I had got it right, I then reassembled it using a bare minimum of white PVA woodworking glue. The pieces fit together so well, there is just no room for excess glue. Once the glue was set, it appears to be very strong.

     
     
    I have now given it a quick spray of Halfords grey primer to protect the wood from moisture.
     
     

    With the optional 8th piece fitted, the CANCAB locates in such a way that all the buttons and speed control knob are accessible without having to remove the controller. This can be a useful feature.
     
    There are various screw holes for fitting to the layout, but I opted for self-adhesive Velcro. This will allow me to remove the holders and keep them safe in a box when transporting the layout, without having to resort to a screw driver.
     
    Unfortunately, at this point, I do not know when the kit will be generally available, or what the cost will be, but I think it will be a 'must have' for all CANCAB users, and I will definitely be ordering more.
  24. Ian Morgan

    My First Dabble With 3D Printing

    By Ian Morgan,


    Structures
    Freshwater station only has one platform, but it was extended at various times over the years. The first section by the buffers where the locomotive would stand is very low with plain brick facing. It then ramps up to a more normal height. The next section is typical Southern Railway concrete panels from the Exmouth Junction concrete works, while the latest extension used the Southern Railway lightweight concrete trestles, more standard components from Exmouth Junction.
     
    Modelling the brick faced platform should be fairly simple using plastic and printed paper. I bought some Peco concrete platform facing for the next section, but it needed cutting down to the correct height, and it appears to be absolutely nothing like typical Southern Railway platforms. It might be based on a foreign prototype, or possibly just the imagination of somebody at Peco. I added some Milliput to fill the vertical channels and add the curved supports at the top of each column. It might have been better to completely scratchbuild some instead.
     
    That leaves the trestle platforms. Nobody manufactures it in 2mm scale, so I had to make it myself. I could have formed each pair of legs separately, but would probably have given up through boredom before completing them all. Also, I knew they would vary too much and would not produce the neat, regimented rows that are such a feature of this type of platform. I had dabbled with resin moulding some years ago, so I filed a trestle from perspex and formed Plasticine moulds with it, and filled them with epoxy resin glue. This experiment was not a great success, the results being too fragile and varying in quality. I decided it was not worth trying with rubber moulds and polyurethane resin.
     
    My next option was to try etching in fairly thick brass. This would still have required sweating two layers together to get the right thickness, but would produce a very strong result. However, I decided to try my third option - 3D printing - instead. Many people have been trying out 3D printing with varying success. However, the technology seems to be improving daily, and I figured a simple scenic item might turn out better than some of the more ambitious projects some people were attempting.
     
    I had previously done quite a bit of 3D modelling on the computer, producing models for use in Microsoft Train Simulator that I made available on uktrainsim.com, so creating the 3D models for printing did not seem too daunting. However, the software I used to use appears to be no longer supported, and did not create files of the required format, so I downloaded the free 3D model editing software called Blender. I know some people swear by Google Sketchup, but I had tinkered with it once and found it confusingly different to what I had used before. Blender is open source, supported by lots of programmers and contributors, and there are lots of tutorials available for it on the Internet.
     
    A 3D model is made up from a series of points, each of which has an X, Y and Z coordinate specifying its position in 3D space. A pair of points can be joined by a line, or an 'edge' and the edges joining three or more points can form a 'face'. A face can be double-sided, but usually only has one side. It cannot be seen from the other side. A simple cube has six faces and eight points - one at each corner - and twelve edges. Spheres, cylinders and circles are not actually possible to create faithfully in this type of 3D model. Instead, a circle is formed from a large number of points, each linked by a straight edge. With enough points, the resulting polygon can start to resemble a circle. Similarly, cylinders and spheres can be portrayed using lots of small, flat faces.
     
    This is where creating models for use in a real-time computer game differs from creating models for 3D printing. In order for a computer to create the displayed images of the game fast enough for smooth, realistic animated motion, the models need the minimum number of points and faces possible. You can play with things called 'normals' on the faces to create the illusion of curved faces, but you would also leave out any unnecessary faces, such as the underside of vehicles which would not normally be seen. However, for 3D printing, we want lots of faces to produce fine curved surfaces, and most important, the models must be 'watertight'. That is, there should be no missing faces, or inward facing surfaces. So, a cube must have all six faces, and all must face outward.
     
    Having grasped these basic premises, model making is rather like modelling in clay. You can grab a bit and pull it out (called extrusion) or you can add more bits of clay. Most software allows you add cubes, cylinders, spheres or toroids (ring donuts). You then deform these objects, divide faces and edges, and extrude parts to get to the required shape. There are other useful tools that can be employed, such as the lathing tool. This can be used to transform a set of lines drawing the outline of one side of, say, a vase, for example, and spin it round to create a 3D vase shape. It is also possible to merge shapes, and use logical unions, intersections or differences to add or subtract shapes from each other. Subtracting a small cylinder from a large cube is like drilling a hole in the cube, for instance.
     
    For my first 3D print model, I used the drawings of Southern Railway trestle platform components from the useful book 'Southern Nouveau - an essay in Concrete'. I converted all the measurements from inches to millimeters, and divided by 152 for the correct scale. Blender uses unspecified measurement units, so I chose to use 1 unit = 1mm in Blender. I then created models of a pair of legs, and a platform section, starting each from a cube, deforming, dividing and extruding until the correct shape and dimensions were achieved. I also 'drilled' holes in the rear posts for the hand rail and fence wires.
     

     
    I then duplicated these shapes thirty or so times, stacked up close to each other, but not touching, and then exported the complete set to a single .stl format file.
     
    3D printers are improving in quality, and the cost is falling rapidly, but the affordable ones are still limited in quality and ability. Although they may be fun to experiment with, for now, it makes more economic sense to make use of online 3D printing services, such as Shapeways, to do the 3D printing. Having registered as a user, I uploaded the .stl file, specifying that 1 measurement unit represents 1mm. Some automated checks are carried out on the file, and a few minutes later, I received an email telling me that my file should probably print OK. I was then able to choose what material should be used for the printing, and the price for printing my model in each material could then be seen. Shapeways have a simple pricing scheme, you pay for the volume of material used, each material type having a cost per cubic measure. Therefore, a hollow model will cost less than a solid model of the same size.
     
    Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD) is the plastic most modellers use as it has the finest resolution (0.2mm) but it is far from the cheapest material. My model, enough components for about 12 inches length of platform, cost €23 plus postage. So, not as cheap as a mass produced kit would be (if available), but not prohibitively expensive. I uploaded the file on the Monday evening, and a box with the components in came through my letterbox on the Friday. I was very impressed.

     
     
    The FUD material is quite transparent, so you can see the surface irregularities on both sides and an initial look gives the impression that they are a bit rough. The legs with the taller rear post will be used to form a lamp post, with a swan neck formed from .3mm wire. This swan neck would have been too fine for 3D printing.
     
    I cleaned the components, removing traces of the wax used in the printing process, most of which has already been removed before delivery. I was not surprised that the .3mm holes for the handrail were not properly formed, but there was enough to guide a drill through in the correct position. I used superglue to fix the components to each other and roughly painted them with a concrete-ish colour and fitted it to a small board with a length of track to see how it looked. The hand rail is formed from 0.3mm nickel silver straight wire.
     
     

    I have also added some static grass and some bushes, and formed a wire swan-neck lamp. The lamp head was also 3D printed, making good use of the transparency of the FUD for the bowl of the lamp.
     
    I was quite pleased with the results, but gluing all the components together was quite fiddly, and there is quite some uneveness in the platform surface as a result. I therefore went back to the 3D model and started to combine the components so that they would be printed in units of two or three pairs of legs with platforms. I also created the end ramps as single units, and a single unit to include the station nameboard. I kept to smallish units because the platform for Freshwater is curved, not straight. Below you see the duplicated sections in Blender. You can also see some lamp heads underneath the platforms.
     
     

    And again, a week later, the new components came through my letterbox:
     

     

     
    So, now I have no excuse not to get on and create the platform for Freshwater.
  25. Ian Morgan
    It has been some time since my last post. During that time there have been various improvements, design changes, failures, successes and experiments on the electrics underneath the layout. I have still not quite finished, but I do have a working system again.
     
    The original plan was to use Merg Servo4 kits to drive micro servos controlling points and permanent magnet uncouplers. A temporary switch box connected to the 25-way connector on the layout operated the individual points and uncouplers. This was going to be replaced by a different box with Merg CBus kits allowing push buttons to create events which would be used to switch one or more points to set a route. However, I found that the CBus modules would not drive the Servo4 inputs directly, and problems with sharing a single AC power supply burnt out a couple of CANbus circuits.
     
    Meanwhile, developments and new ideas were happening within Merg. I decided to replace the three Servo4 kits with two CANservo2 modules (modified CANACC8 kits). This would mean the connection to a control panel would only need 4 wires (CAN Bus and power supply). A 12V DC power supply bus was also decided upon at this point, rather than the previously recommended 5V power supply.
     
    Another initial design decision was to wire up the layout so that it could be easily switched between analogue DC train control to DCC by swapping a 35 way connector. Either a DCC or conventional controller could be plugged in. However, the new Merg DCC command station kit was small enough and cheap enough to build it into the layout. It also produces a regulated 12V DC supply that can be used by other CBus modules, and uses the CBus connection for attaching the matching Merg hand-held controllers. The capability to switch to analogue control was retained.
     
    At this stage, another problem came to light. The power-on surge caused by the servos was lowering the power supply voltage too much for the control circuits to recover. I decided to add a second power supply bus at 9V DC just to supply the servos, separate from the CBus power supply bus. This has mostly resolved the problem, but there is still a small problem with servos twitching and moving on powering up the layout. This problem is still being investigated.
     
    Still to do is replace the 12V and 9V power supply sockets, as the simple sockets fitted allow the plugs to drop out too easily. I have some latching XLR connectors to replace these. I have also not yet built a control panel. I can use the hand-held controller to create CBus events to select routes, operate individual points or uncouplers, and I can also connect a laptop to the layout, via a USB to CBus interface, and operate the layout using JMRI, so the control panel can wait. I also have to build signals, and fit some more servos to control them.
     
    The first photo shows the underside of the layout with the protective hinged covers closed. The aluminium panel has the DCC command station attached behind it so that the power transistors can be bolted to it to act as a heatsink, if required. At each end of the layout are pairs of CBus 4-way RJ22 sockets for connecting hand-held controllers, PC interface and/or control panel.

     
     
    The next photo shows one end of the layout with the hinged cover open. The CBus connectors and a CANservo2 module are attached to the lid while the now redundant Servo4 modules are attached under the baseboard along with the servos. The redundant 25-way connector is also visible. Just by the hinge can be seen two servo 'distribution' boards, each with its own 5V power regulator and plugs for up to four servos to connect to.
     
     

    The other end of the layout shows the second CANservo2 module and the CANcmd DCC command unit attached to the cover, with another pair of CBus connectors. The DCC/Analogue switchover socket can also be seen.

     
×
×
  • Create New...