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ChrisG

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  1. ChrisG

    The Trackplan

    By ChrisG,

    Here's the trackplan of the empire. Newport is on the left (majorly compressed trackplan), Medina Wharf at the top (freelance track plan, this exists to replicate the function of Medina Wharf rather than to look like it), and Cowes bottom right, the only part of the layout which has the full prototype trackplan.  With work going on on Medina, almost none of the layout is actually operational at the moment and once the Medina trackwork is done I have some serious "fettling" to do over a baseboard joint at Cowes.  The loops bottom right represent the lines to Sandown and Ryde. The scissors crossover will be hidden behind Cowes and simply allows trains on both Sandown and Ryde lines to use either hidden loop. Thus a train departing for Sandown can re-emerge from Sandown on its return journey. The same for Ryde trains. In hindsight, it was not really necessary and I could have saved time and money just leaving it out!
     
    I was sad to learn the other day that Elite Baseboards, who built and installed my boards have ceased trading. I know they had had considerable health problems recently. I was one of their early customers I believe, and they installed the boards in the unbelievable heat in my loft. Even with an air-conditioning unit it was practically unbearable. 
     
    Progress generally, following my broken ankle, is now very slow....
     
     
    Chris
     
    Alton#
    Hants

  2. ChrisG

    March 2019 progress

    By ChrisG,

    I had a big modelling hiatus between January and March, caused by breaking an ankle and not being able to get up to the loft. I had the excitement of Ventnor West appearing in the Railway Modeller March issue, but had to pull out of the Stafford exhibition. Still, we are booked for November at Tolworth with Ventnor West and Merstone. 
     
    Meanwhile, I have been building rolling stock for both layouts, and an engine shed for Newport. Now I am able to get back in the loft I will be able to resume on "Medina Wharf" (inverted commas because it is not an accurate model of the real thing at all) and get that into an operational state. Most of the track is layed but not wired. 
     
    The engine shed is built from my own CADs which were laser cut for me by Julie at York Modelmaking, for whom I have nothing but praise. I am currently working on the CADS for the row of eight terraced house backs which overlook Cowes Station from Granville Road.  More on these as the project unfolds!
     
    Here are pictures illustrating the latest progress. Note how many more coaches there are now on the layout!  I think I am up to 14. 





  3. ChrisG

    Stirrings at Medina Wharf

    By ChrisG,

    I have finally started work on Medina Wharf, the last section of track for the small empire in the loft. The pictures show the trackplan and the boards covered with cork, with some trackwork laid out to finalise the positioning. The wharf uses a section of the layout originally earmarked for scenic treatment of the Medina River, and it is much too small to permit a faithful representation of the real location. I've used my well-worn modeller's licence to arrive at a trackplan which will allow the operation of the wharf if not its appearance. I am also going to squeeze in a token version of the nearby cement works which were also served by rail.
     
    As regards the rest of the layout, I finally completed the conversion of the couplings to Kadees, as well as an extensive programme of "fettling" to remove all sources of derailment from the track work. Reliability is now hugely improved, with the occasional item of stock needing to be debugged because of coupling issues or wheel back-to-backs.
     
    Chris
    Alton, Hants
     


     


  5. ChrisG

    New kid on the block

    By ChrisG,

    I've just finished a new loco for service on Ventnor West. I haven't found any pictures of an E1 at Ventnor West, but apparently they were used on the branch to pull ballast trains. This model is built from the trusty Wills/Southeastern Finecast kit. It's fitted with Romford drivers and a Mashima motor, and it is finished as No. 1 "Medina".
     
    One week to go before the layout's debut at the Farnham MRC exhibition in Aldershot. This week has been spent doing lots of little detailing jobs, cleaning loco wheels, etc. etc. Whilst periodically playing with (no, testing!) the layout to reassure myself that it still works.
     
    Meanwhile, here are a few photos of new additions and latest work.
     
    Come and say hello if you come to the show in Aldershot. This will be the layout's exhibition debut, attached to the end of Mark Pretious's model of Merstone.
     
    Chris
     

    Roxey Mouldings 9 LBSCR compartment 3rd - recently refurbished and re-painted
     

    View of the station throat looking towards St. Lawrence
     

    Weathered Portland Cement wagons loaded with chalk
     

    Weathered "Vectis" wagons loaded with locally quarried sandstone
     

    A Coopercraft Bedford lorry in the goods yard
  7. ChrisG
    I've made good progress on the layout in the last couple of months. The track is wired, fully tested and running, control panel built and signals operational. Work can now start on the scenic treatment. Meanwhile the buildings are coming on, with photos of the station building and signal box attached. I am now working on the goods shed.
     
    Ventnor West has two exhibition bookings now, the first at the Moors Valley Railway modelling weekend and the second at the Farnham MRC show in Aldershot. It will be exhibited in conjunction with Mark Pretious's Merstone Junction layout.
     
    And the most exciting development at the moment is the building of No. 35 Freshwater, based on a Southeastern Finecast whitemetal kit, which will be powered by the latest Acc+Ess Protocab wireless remote control equipment which is being developed to suit small 4mm scale tank locos. If all goes well, the branch will be operating wirelessly at the exhibition in October.
     
    Meanwhile, there has been no progress on Cowes and Newport...
     

  8. ChrisG
    A few finishing touches to the baseboards today, then the start of tracklaying. Now waiting for the glue and ballast to dry on the station throat pointwork. Will be starting the trackbuilding at the weekend.
     

    Chris
     

  9. ChrisG

    Ventnor West - work starts

    By ChrisG,

    Work has started on Ventnor West. Intended to be a "minor (ha ha) diversion" from building the loft layout (Cowes to Newport) this is intended as an exhibition extension to Mark Pretious's Merstone layout, which made its exhibition debut in February at the Alton Model Railway Group show.
     
    Following a full day yesterday working on the baseboards (which had been bought from a friend as ready-assembled kits needing some modification and additions), we were able to lay the track into the station which will mean trackbuilding and laying (the fun bit) can follow.
     
    My first thoughts are how different it is to be working on a small layout rather than a great sprawling thing in the loft. Every job (e.g. trackbuilding, wiring) is that much more achievable, with everything in reasonable bite-sized chunks.
     
    The viewpoint is not what you would expect for this Station. It is looking downhill rather than uphill. This was because of the orientation of the already built Merstone. And Mark would NOT thank me for suggesting he should turn his layout around at this point.
     
    What is it about the ever-restless modeller's mind? I haven't even started on the trackwork and already I'm thinking about possible extensions.

    Meanwhile at the back of my 60 year old brain is the thought that I need an insurance policy against being unable to get up to the loft one day - hence the layout could also double as a future home layout, with, subject to space being available, the possibility of a number of modular extensions.
     
    Anyway, first things first. We are up and running. Progress reports will follow as and when and photos in the gallery, which I hope is in some way magically linking itself to this blog.
     
    Chris G
  10. ChrisG

    A productive few weeks

    By ChrisG,

    Things have been moving on apace at Newport. When I last blogged I think I was still at the "track positioning" stage. Now all the track at Newport is laid permanently, glued down with Copydex, and has been tested digitally (i.e. pushing stock using finger power!).
     
    There are four boards of which one is now wired and one is partially wired.
     
    I have also finished the Modratec interlocked lever frame. With the change of track plan and complete rebuilding of Newport I needed to commission a new set of locking bars. Harold at Modratec responded very quickly and had airmailed me a new set of bars in time for the Christmas break, during which I spent many hours assembling the frame and filing the notches in the tappets. (Usual disclaimer applies, I am merely a happy customer of Modratec.)
     
    The Kernow O2s arrived as birthday presents in early January and I now have an operational DCC fleet of 4 locos. They are superb lookers and superb runners. The small pile of Wills Finecast kits is now looking more likely than ever not to get built.
     
    I finally got around to making a Sprat & Winkle coupling mounting gauge which has transformed the reliability of my couplings(!) I can't believe it has taken me so long to see the wisdom of having a single reference point for fitting these couplings.
     
    Test running (ok, "playing trains"!) continues on the remaining part of the layout, and a few more gremlins have been erased. The most remarkable feature of the Kernow locos is that in many hours of test running, in all possible permutations of speed, direction and loading, not one has ever suffered a derailment. They are little beauties and they deserve to win the top award for 2015.
     
     
    Chris
  11. ChrisG

    Modelling Newport in 1971!

    By ChrisG,

    The last few months have been a case of taking a step backwards before moving forward again.
     
    By July the layout was fully operational, and I had even started putting in the foundations of some scenic treatment. Testing locos and stock continued apace, but time spent "taking stock" whilst on holiday in the West Country confirmed something which had been on my mind for sometime which was that two sections of the layout needed drastic attention. The photos here show the results to date.
     
    Firstly - the hidden sidings were re-modelled to give a couple of inches of valuable extra space behind Cowes. This seemingly simple job meant much re-wiring of the boards concerned, and I also built a new control panel with route indicating diodes to simplify the job of operating a section which will not be visible on the finished layout. This phase was finished a couple of weeks ago and is pictured below.
     

     
    Secondly - the Newport section had to go. In its entirety, to be replaced by a slightly revised track layout, but more importantly a better configuration of curves and much better handbuilt points. On version 1 I had not stuck to the templates and had ended up with a lot of tight radius pointwork bunched into a corner. And, to be honest, some pretty ropey point building by me - learning the skill (slowly) as I went. So today I started to make Newport look liike it did in 1971 when it was raised to the ground to be replaced by a dual carriageway. The new turnouts are built so relaying should not take long. The first target is to restore the boards to a lovely clean smooth, covered with rubberised cork, level playing field. the picture shows one of the four boards with tracks removed, waiting for the sanders to move in.
     

     
    So there we are - a lot has been done, but it will now take time to get back to the point where, for the second time, I have a fully functioning layout on which to start adding scenery
     
    p.s. I may be mad - but this is not the first time I have pulled something apart and started again. It all comes from setting standards and then failing to meet them. This is one of those "layouts of a lifetime" and I figure a few months getting it right in the first place will be a guarantee of long-lasting pleasure in the years to come.
     
     
    Chris
  12. ChrisG
    New coach for the layout - first model I've built in a few years, but I'm really pleased with it. It's origin was a couple of Ratio Midland suburbans which have been "cut and shut" together, had vertical ends added, scratchbuilt trusses, whitemetal battery boxes and whitemetal bogies. There are some things wrong, such as it shouldn't have stepboards but it meets my criterion of "looking the part". I'm very fond of this bright livery which I can just about remember from my earliest days. The prototype is at Haven Street (No.2416, currently in green liver).
     

  13. ChrisG

    Layout Progress

    By ChrisG,

    Gosh - it's a long time since I posted any progress, but it feels like a lot has happened on the layout in those 6 months. The most recent milestone was completion of all the originally planned trackwork, all running, with turnout motors, electric uncoupling magnets functioning and locos running on DCC without hesitation or deviation, but with repetition. I have three locos chipped now and DCC has been some learning curve. Whilst not after sound or lights, I did want to capture the running characteristics of each loco, and also to have operation precise enough to be able to operate with Sprat and Winkle couplings. This is still a work in progress. I am using ZTC controllers (one base unit plus two hand-held units) and chips are a mixture of Bachmann, Digitrax and DCC Concepts. All seem to work pretty well.
     
    The photos show the trackwork at Cowes which I now regard as "finished" - i.e. ballasted, weathered and fully operational.
     
    I also have some items of rolling stock under construction now the hard slog of putting the infrastructure in place is complete. Signalling is a major task which lies ahead on the infrastructure front, as is laying the track for Medina Wharf (which, as an afterthought, will have a highly compressed and adapted track layout).
     
    Chris
  14. ChrisG

    Tracklaying at Cowes

    By ChrisG,

    Despite my silence, there has been a lot of progress on the layout. As usual, each step forward has been accompanied by a step or steps backward. Tracklaying is well progressed at Cowes - I have switched from PCB construction to fully chaired construction. Firstly I tried C&L pointwork with plastic sleepers. Whilst these looked good, I experience a strange gauge reducing effect once they were completed. In the course of constructing a number of plastic-sleepered turnouts I learned a lot about the geometry of a turnout. I also learned that the assembled crossing vees (frogs) are to a finer standard than I am using, with 1mm flangeways instead of my standard of 1.2mm (which is the BSMB finescale standard and the DOGA intermediate standard). My "standard" for turnout construction now involves the following:-
     
    Timber Tracks wooden bases
    C&L plastic chairs (miraculously attached to the timber with Butanone)
    C&L Code 75 bullhead rail
    C&L crossing vees (minus wing rails)
    C&L or Exactoscale point blades
     
    and I now seem to be able to turn out reliable, running turnouts at the first attempt.
     
    I do feel as though I could write a book about track construction now. The nadir was discovering that I couldn't use the ready made "frogs", and I was cursing the mess which is "OO" standards, before finally realising that maybe this is actually the joy of "OO" - that you can run so many different standards through the same trackwork.
     
    Now I am onto ballasting, another learning curve.......................... again, I could write a (smaller) book about the various methods, but my standard is now
     
    Woodland Scenics fine ballast in a variety of colours
    Wetted with a solution of water and washing up liquid (being very careful not to dislodge the ballast with the flow)
    Then covered with a 50/50 PVA/water solution
     
    I am also using some seaside sand in the sidings - which has a pleasant variegated colouring.
     
    Once the track is ballasted, weathered and generally primped and pampered, it will be on to wiring. And in the background I am already thinking about how to tackle Medina Wharf, in a very much reduced form. And also considering the Newport PCB trackwork (now fully finished and operating) and whether I should replace it all with the new standard. Ho hum..................... That's what happens when your standards improve as you work. You look back and the early stuff is just not up to snuff.
     
    Usual disclaimer about the suppliers mentioned here - I'm just a satisfied customer and have no business interest in them.
     
     
    Chris
  15. ChrisG

    Turnout Operating Unit

    By ChrisG,

    Steady progress on Newport at the moment. I have finished wiring the Station throat board which has a scissors crossover and one other turnout. All fitted with Fulgurex Motors, and Sprat & Winkle electro magnets installed in strategic places. Most activity has been directed towards developing the method of installing the Fulgarex motors. I have read a number of criticisms of them, and I do now appreciate they are difficult to install - beginning with the need to completely ignore the "official" instructions! I have made a number of false starts, but my favoured method now involves 22swg piano wire, running in suitably sized tubing and a new turnout operating unit of my own design. The photograph is of a prototype, which needs some amendment of the basic measurements to make it completely right.
     
    The base is a piece of PCB about 50mm by 18mm. The screw holes are sized to fit your screws (mine are 3 * 3/8" dome headed brass woodscrews). The central hole through which the operating rod runs is 8mm diameter. It could be smaller. The gizmo in the middle which converts the drive motion by 90 degrees is by Modratec and the ability to adjust it using the screws is crucial to success. It also incorporates a slipping clutch mechanism, though I have found this difficult to calibrate and apparently unnecessary anyway. The control wire needs to be offset to give the vertical rod as much width as it needs to move within the 8mm hole.
     
    With a throw of 6.5mm at the motor, and a much smaller throw needed at the turnout, I fettle a "Z" spring in the wire to absorb the extra throw. This results in the turnout blade being sprung against the stock rail firmly, but not too firmly. My tiebars are built to the Norman Solomon method, using pcb strip and brass pins. Seems reliable.....................
     
    I use the switches on the Fulgurex motors to switch the frog polarity, and, like many commentators have found that they are not totally reliable. Luckily there are spare switches and if one doesn't work the other nearly always does.
     
    As a by-product, I have discovered that if the turnouts on the scissors crossover are interlocked so that it is not possible to set both pairs to "on", there is an opportunity to significantly simplify the wiring of the crossings. Maybe I will find time one day to document this. Turnouts can be interlocked either through the Fulgurex switches or (as in my case) with a mechanically interlocked lever frame (again from Modratec).
     
    Next task is to get these TOOUs into batch production. I am aiming to build enough for the whole layout and by doing all the cutting, drilling and soldering as batch jobs I minimise the time needed as well as engendering a much tidier working environment with only the tools out for one job at a time.
     
    The object that looks a bit like a lavatory is a 1:1 scale egg cup.
     
    And (usual disclaimer) I am merely a satisfied customer of the products mentioned in this post.
     
    Chris
     
     
     

  16. ChrisG

    Tracklaying at Newport

    By ChrisG,

    At last some progress worth reporting. There were several steps forward and then backward over the Christmas break but at last the Medina is bridged, I've laid track over the baseboard joint into Newport and am now building and laying the track in Newport Station. The picture shows the non IOW loco I am using for testing. It is simply the most reliable small loco I could find in the local shop - it runs beautifully! The first turnout should be a three-way but I had already (by mistake) designed and built the lever frame without the necessary interlocking.
  17. ChrisG
    Here's a short clip of the first wired-up board under test. This is the entry to the hidden tracks behind Cowes. Sorry the E1 is running so badly - it's been in a box for more than 10 years and hasn't even had its wheels cleaned!
     
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151976898439766&l=4917899407502608761
     
     
    Chris
  18. ChrisG
    I've been quiet for a while because although I've been very busy and productive on the layout, there's not much of photographic interest to show. I'm still wiring the hidden tracks, board by board, and testing them individually prior to reassembly. The loft is a complete mess, the floor strewn with layout wire offcuts.
     
    A number of things had to be done for a second time. I'd made a hash of the control panel so built a new one, and also had problems with the wiring index which led me to come up with a completely new and much more simple way of annotating it. Of course what is taking the time is the need to wire it like an exhibition layout with electrical connectors between each board. Simply finding and deciding what type of connector to use has been "fun". On my old layout I had a marvellous 36 way connecting system, bought from a specialist modelling supplier whose name I cannot remember. The socket at each end was mounted on a PCB with 36 screw terminals, and the cable was an old style printer ribbon cable (a parallel cable I think it was called). It was expensive, but simply marvellous. I have now managed to come up with something almost as simple, which are computer D25 sockets with right-anged pins for mounting on a PCB prototyping board, and ready made male/male connecting cables which have been wired "straight through" (i.e. pin 1 goes to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2, etc.).
     
    Overall, things are going fine, and with a fair wind I should be able to call the hidden section complete by the end of next week. We shall see - that's the target anyway.
     
    In early October I am going with a friend to the IOW to take panoramic shots from the East Bank of the Medina for the backscene between Cowes and Newport.
     
    Great excitement when I received the new kit for the 18t double verandah road van, of which one ran on the island, on the heavier freight trains.
     
    And I've been dabbling with Sketchup in order to create 2D drawings for laser cutting - the first project to be Newport Engine Shed. But that's a background task as the basic construction has priority right now. First train into Newport at Christmas? It's certainly possible!
     
    Chris
  19. ChrisG
    Photo showing progress as of tonight on the hidden loops (using Peco Streamline for expedience's sake). The tracks leading off to the right are the return loops representing the Sandown and Ryde lines. Each will hold two trains of the maximum length I have planned for (the equivalent of loco, four full length carriages and a 4 wheeled van). All trains will travel clockwise around the loops, with entry being controlled by a pair of crossovers allowing entry and access from either line out of Newport. They are controlled by IRDOTS which will give an indication of occupation and will shuffle the trains to the front automatically when the line is clear. On the left is a continuous run in the middle and either side of it, again using IRDOT detectors are one down and one up loop which will hold freight trains to and from Medina Wharf. I hope also to represent the clay flow from Shide Quarry to the Medina Cement Works. Both of these will be effective with full trains travelling in one direction and empty in the other. Ideally I would have had more sidings, but Cowes Station must fit in front of this little lot so it was a question of cutting the cloth to fit. Much of this is now wired and tested, at least as individual boards but it will be some weeks before the whole thing is wired, connected and connected to the control panel which will be attached to the Newport Viaduct Board (behind the camera in this shot).
     
    Chris
  20. ChrisG

    Chipping a Terrier

    By ChrisG,

    I took the bull by the horns this morning in order to start experimenting with my ZTC DCC kit, and bought a secondhand Hornby Terrier from Alton Model Centre. I managed to shoehorn a decoder inelegantly into the cab. This involved removing the floor of the cab (in fact I removed more than was needed there is now a gap between the footplate and cabsides). There was some rewiring of the inside of the loco, but the job was comparatively easy. This chip only has four wires (which helps) but no doubt it is bigger than a modern equivalent would be. There is no room for the original weight which was in the bunker and toolbox, so I must replace that with some lead sheet. If the decoder were sprayed black it would be less obtrusive, and the addition of crew, especially leaning out of the cab door, would improve things further.
     
    As for what I think of DCC - well the jury is still out. I imagine modern systems are easier to use than ZTC, which seems to lose all memory of the loco once it is turned off, needing a complete reprogramme every time I turn it on. That cannot be right.............................! Lots to learn, obviously.
     
    Progress today also on the control panel for the hidden sidings.
     
     

     
    Chris
  21. ChrisG
    I am starting work on the hidden loops which will lie behind Cowes and the line along the Medina. To do this I had to get a sighting shot on how Cowes would fit, which is what the photo shows. The track templates are generated by the Trax3 software. Behind are some Peco turnouts (the hidden section will be laid using Peco Streamline. Important things here were to see where the turnouts would be in relation to the baseboard frames (I'm using underslung Peco turnout motors on the hidden section) and also in relation to the baseboard joints. Everything good so far. First objective is to get the hidden loops and sidings operational which means making the decision on DCC vs Analogue, and building a control panel. Well, DCC has won the day and I've dug my ZTC511 out of the box it has been in since I bought it in ?2007. And I'll attempt to fit a chip into an O2 in due course. Meanwhile I can test on analogue. But for now the first task is simply to screw down hardwood strips for the baseboards joints (glueing PCB sleepers thereon) and cork sheet for the trackbed. But in the 30 degrees heat, even with an (obviously underpowered) air-con unit, it is hot work.
     
    BUT, we are underway on the great project!
     
    Chris
  22. ChrisG
    Despite my silence, work is progressing. The last couple of weeks have been building trackwork. The layout has been designed using "Trax" which I bought some time ago when I found the intricacies of Templot beyond me and more than I needed for the level of realism to which I was aspiring. That's not knocking Templot at all, because it is clearly the Rolls Royce of track designing software. Trax I found quicker to use and it generates turnout templates. My aim has been to get far ahead with track construction in advance of the baseboards arriving, which is scheduled for next weekend.
     
    I've learned a lot in the last few days - I've been reading blogs and magazine articles avidly for tips and methods for trackbuilding. At last I am getting some sort of consistency and I've built about 25 turnouts. However, through this process my standards have risen and I am now scrapping and replacing some of the earlier attempts. And this afternoon I reached a natural pause, having run out of bullhead rail!
     
    The photo shows my 2nd or 3rd attempt at the scissors crossing at Newport. I've simplified it by making the three way point a separate item, though I'm slightly embarrassed to admit the reason for this is in the already designed and built lever frame for Newport when I realised that my design wouldn't support interlocking involving the three way point.
     
    Chris
  24. ChrisG

    Newport Engine Shed

    By ChrisG,

    Here is a link to a photo of Newport shed. Can anyone confirm the construction. It looks like timber walls and corrugated iron roof to me. But I am uncertain how to replicate the look of the timber - specifically which Slater's, Evergreen or Southeastern Finecast sheet in 4mm scale will give the best reproduction?
     
    http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/n/newport(iwc)/index27.shtml
     
     
    Any help gratefully received!
     
    Chris
     
     

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