MattWallace

Is it a RHTT?

As layout is now well into the change process the 'grange' that gave the layout part of its name is no longer part of the layout. I'm thinking of renaming the layout.

 

All suggestions welcome. please let me know you ideas

 

thanks

 

phil

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

its gonna need some thinking. want to try and encompass the idea thats its a riviera terminus in the name

Plympton Riverside

Riverton

Plymton-on-<Random River Name>

Matt

looks brilliant, well done - you're making better progress than I am!

Matt

Makes sense to me...

Looks great.

IMHO, DCC will make the wiring easier, especially if you're going to be rotating the boards, but then again I'm a DCC evangelist, so I would say that!

Thanks Jim

then onto the afternoon, popped to maplin for some LEDs and wire to experiment with points detection, inspired by another thread and a link to bryan lamberts excellent DCC wiring website i give it a shot

 

without going too deep i used the dcc track power and switching frog to operate some of those self adhesive LED strips that you can get from maplin, worked fine under test

This is truely awesome.

Any chance you can link us to the original thread or explain in more detail the wiring for this?

I'm going to be primarily using JMRI to control my layout, however having indicators like this as well to show where the points *actually* are for Start-Of-Day etc. would be amazing.

I'm assuming you're using electrofrog points here?

Matt

Woohoo! Another larger layout!

Looking forward to seeing it develop!

Matt (who used to be in the Garage but now has ideas above his station in the loft!)

Ah right, i was down there on the wknd. I will see what they got. Going to have a read through the thread you sent. Cheers.

 

Leon

Heh, that thread could take some time and most of it will be irrelevant by the time I actually build the layout!

The main thing of interest to you is probably the vid4eo on the linked post - it shows off the sounds of the 66 chip (even if it is recorded on my phone!)

What loco was the loksound for Matt, any good deals to be had?

It was a GBRf Class 66 ( http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/69236-appleford-junction-was-redcot/page-3&do=findComment&comment=1064857 ) and I got it from Lord and Butlers' in Penarth for £98 - works brilliantly, no complaints here.

I had an issue with it when I first tried to change some of the CVs using JMRI and a MERG CanCMD, however this was "pilot error" - I wasn't running the correct firmware on my CanCMD which threw the chip completely!

Thanks both for the info, I will call them and decide on 37,56 or 60. Do they come ready to go? i.e speaker and everything included in the price.

 

Cheers

 

Leon

Don't know about Biff's chips, but the loksound decoder I bought last week came with the speaker etc.

What was missing was guidance on how to fix the speaker into the chassis - I ended up going with doublesided tape on the rear of the speaker fixing it to the inside top of the engine body.

Matt

Thanks Ben!

 

Loftus Road has a 12'x2' scenic section, but given that it's a roundy-roundy one, is about 20'x10' altogether currently. That's set to change again very shortly as the new scenic boards and larger fiddle yard take shape.

 

I've posted pics of the Connex South Central VEP mostly on my OMWB thread on here but for anyone who missed it - this is 3486 in all its filthyness!

 

A real bit of scum, much like the real things!!

 

 

Heh, ten years ago I would have been catching that VEP to work green with envy at those on the more modern trains around me...

Great modelling, just how I remember the London-Brighton mainline!

Bl**dy h*ll - I thought you were taking a break and then you come up with this!

Amazing work, great to see you back, looking forward to more updates. :-)

Matt

Can that be from the outside or do I need to commit a felony and get arrested so I can take one from the inside?

Take a photo from the outside - that'll probably be enough for you to take a photo from inside as well...

... wow, this is awesome. I'm now tempted to get a 97 for my layout (although getting the baseboards built and the track down would probably be more useful! )

Hi Jim,

Layout is looking great!

Out of interest, how are you finding the risers? Are they easy to use? I'm tempted to get them to put in an incline on my layout - seems a lot easier than doing it by hand...

MAtt

elegant and simple - I like it

The better option of course would be to build it right at the end (where I've been refused planning permission), and hide with a bit of curtain and pretend it wasn't there.

Retrospective planning permission maybe?

Thanks Terry, it's been an inspiration

I'll check out the videos etc.

Matt

Hi,

I've started at page one and read through this thread after your post on Redcot and it looks excellent.

One thing that I'm having trouble with is working out how big your layout is.  You say that the room is 18ft x 12ft, is your layout the same size?

I only ask because all the attempts I've made to design a track plan for that kind of space seem to only fit in 3 tracks at most (once you take points ladders etc. in to account!) yet you seem to have managed to get in six roads plus stations in places!

Do you have a rough track plan that you can upload?

Thanks,

Matt

lol, awesome shot of the cat, I have a daughter called Poppy, she often looks at me in exactly that way too... must be in the name!

Put me down for the dutch , the mainline, and the EWS versions..... 

 

Bachmann have certainly made up for the lack of modern image Hornby are giving us this year !!

Yup, and you can almost guarantee it's going to be a lot better quality!

Looks like a great track plan Mark and I totally understand the issue with moving house.  Blockwall Junction is currently in bits and I don't know if it will be allowed to resurface once we've moved...

As far as the MERG kits are concerned, I'm assuming that you've got the following setup:

JMRI -> CANUSB -> CANCMD -> Track

At what point in the chain does communication stop? If it's between the CANCMD and the track, make sure you have the CANCMD in the correct configuration (one of the jumpers sets for programming track or programming on the main) and that you can connecting to the track using the correct terminals (again, one set is for a programming track or small layout, the other set is for use with a DCC Booster station).

If it's between the CANUSB and the CANCMD, check the wiring and the terminating resistors are in place - even if you only have the basic setup above, you still need the resistors.

If it's between JMRI and the CANUSB, which operating system are you using?  The JMRI and Merg email groups are a very friendly bunch and you can ask almost anything on the list!

Kind regards,

Matt

heh, an 8 lane traverser in just over a foot wide? Wish I'd known that a few months ago, I would have added one...

Never mind, one to log for the next layout...

Hi Matt,

 

Yes, I've used JMRI already and found it better than RocRail in many respects.  On my last layout I managed to get to the stage of using it to automate train movements.

 

I found the DecoderPro software to be really excellent and this is my choice when I'm programming.  I may still choose to use it, although I've been concentrating on RocRail as:

1) it was first to support Android devices

2) I couldn't work out PanelPro.

 

The thing that I liked about JMRI was that there was potential to use USB devices on the PC (eg. sound, lights, servos etc.) but I didn't get round to getting it to work.

 

Dave

PanelPro can be a bit of a pain, however once you've got the basics down, it gets a little easier to master!

I've found that the way you need to do it is as follows:

1) Add an entry to the Roster for each Locomotive (ou can do this manually if you know the DCC address or you're working against the Main track instead of a programming one)

2) Work out the addresses for your devices (turnouts etc)

3) Enter the turnouts into the "turnouts" section under the "tables" menu

4) Open up the Layout Editor (this gives you a schematic of your layout instead of "just switches")

5) Place each turnout on the panel and associate it with an entry from the "Turnouts" table

6) Link the turnouts with track sections

7) Profit

The best guide that I've found so far is http://jmri.sourceforge.net/help/en/package/jmri/jmrit/display/LayoutEditor.shtml

Hope that's of some help

Matt