Miss Prism

David - your point lock lever should normally be in the 'pulled' position in the frame. The point should only be released for operation after releasing the lock. The starter should not be pullable unless the point is in the normal position and the point locked. The shunt signal should require the point to be reversed, but should not require the point to be locked.

As I see it, there are several parts of the logic:

- preventing two catch handles being pulled within a single locking 'cycle';

- ensuring that once a lever has been selected for movement, that lever is either moved completely or is not moved at all, i.e. not half-pulled;

- in the case where one wanted to move lever x but instead mistakenly pulled the catch on lever y, and then released the catch on lever y without moving lever y, the frame should still unlock (provided of course that lever y was 'releasable' according to the locking table) and re-lock.

I love mission redesign statements! How's about the locking being initiated only when the microswitch reversion (confirming the locking) is checked to be the same one that initiated the unlocking?

I suspect you will become quickly attuned to the characteristic. I'd never really considered wholeframe locking/unlocking before, but for a 'one signalman in steam' box I can't see a disadvantage.

Ah yes. Sorry, I should have read your previous 'framework' blog.

What do you estimate the unlocking and locking cycles to be timewise?

I assume the microswitch switches only while the catch handle is in the pulled position?

Brilliant Mikkel. I was wondering whether the caption should have been 'Damn these electromagnetic couplings!"

Not sure though whether I should go all the way and paint the rooves all over grey, or just a light weathering.

At any one time, there is likely to be a mixture - a few newly-outshopped vehicles with a still-noticeably white roof, but the majority of vehicles in various stages of dark browny-grey. I'm inclined to believe that roof weathering was quite rapid, with perhaps only a few months of use (depending a bit on location etc) before there was a significant layer of darker grime. "Edwardian Enterprise" (WSP) is particularly good I think for a guide, but it's very difficult to assess how often rooves were cleaned before WWI. Having said that, there was an interesting discussion a while back on the gwr-elist concerning wagons, and examination of some aerial shots taken in the 1930s showed a surprisingly higher than expected proportion of wagons that were still light in colour. Whatever the choice of roof 'colour', the coverage tends to be very even - a white roof on which some uneven brown has been streaked looks very unrealistic in my view. In most cases, it's probably not a good idea to have a base white colour at the build stage.

Always good to see pics of the Bay - excellent stuff as usual.

Can't help thinking though that your white coach rooves are a bit too pristine, Mikkel, even for your era.

The prototype location for that bridge is bugging me!!!! Bath?

I do like the finish of 80265.

Excellent colouring on the backdrop; did you tone it down, or just leave it up to your phone camera?

Airfix did have the most lurid set of colours for their wagons didn't they?

Nice, but I'd like to see a workbench thread on how you put the those neat window frames together.

Bit difficult to comment without the plan being more to scale (how much length is there between the loop entry and the goods yard entry turnouts?) and in the absence of knowing what moves you want to cater for, but I can't see much of a function for #3 at the moment. Presumably your goods trains will always enter the platform road?

Lose the sides. Or better still make them detachable.

(I'm thinking of lighting when you take pics.)

Missy - you might find this useful on the power supply:

http://wiki.ehow.com/Convert-a-Computer-ATX-Power-Supply-to-a-Lab-Power-Supply

(I think there are a couple of youtube 'howto's as well.)

For that thickness of recalcitrant MDF, I'm not convinced any 2" batten will be strong enough to counter the warping.

Is it possible to dissassemble the thing, and then reassemble with the two convex components facing each other?

I love these peek-a-boo cameos. Strictly speaking, cart roads should be wide enough for them to turn, but I think we can pretend Mikkel's is a one-way arrangement! I think my major comment is about the big aperture in the rear wall of the depot. Also, the far road seemed to me to need a bit more of an excuse for its existence. Anyway, in a effort to "busy the scene up", here's a scribble.

I'm not familiar with the magnitude of the Tortoise operating arm force, but ideally, there needs to be two areas of decoupling: first, between driver and operating arm; and second, between operating arm and the blades. The latter (just sufficient to keep the relevant switchblade snug against the stock rail) should be a lot 'gentler' than the former. The distance between the upper end of your tube upstands and the blade fixing will be significant, as will the fit of your 0.28 wire within the tube internal diameter.

Well thought out. I like the adjustability of the upstand tubes. Personally, I decouple the operating arm and the driving motor with an omega- or z-loop, but maybe you won't need this with the Tortoise.

Fingers crossed for the crank loctiting, Nick.

CofG ok?

Very pleased to hear it's running smoothly, particularly that the binding has gone, which is probably the most annoying (and common) chassis fault. Did you drop your wheels out before squeezing the horncheeks or did you manage to do it in situ?

Nick - were your horncheek flanges tight on the blocks when setting up the wheelbase during chassis construction?