Revolution Mike B

I’m probably the last person to ask for advice Rich, but I can tell you what NOT to do! Ideally, chose some good quality wood with lots of plys per mm. 9mm should be fine for the tops and the sides, but if you need to bolt it together, use 12, or better still 18mm on the frame ends. Make sure you glue everything - mistake number one for me because I just screwed it together and now I’m paying the price! if there’s any areas that will be weak, reinforce any joints with some blocks of wood, and once the boards are built, seal them with primer to stop moisture ingress. That’s the very basics and if you follow those simple guidelines, it should be a good foundation to build on.

Happy New Year everyone, and may you all have a good one at that. Yesterday saw the dismantling of the layout in preparation for a complete rewire, and some very much needed maintenance. I know I've mentioned it before, but the exhibition circuit has given it quite a battering, and when you factor in that Buick the Builder didn't build it properly to start with, it's in danger of falling apart...............cue Ian to say 'I told you so!' I've also had to move it to another workshop as the one I was occupying has now been let, but on the plus side, the new one has much more space! One of the issues that I found yesterday was that the D Nuts (Captive Nuts) had started to pull through the board ends, and this is due (as Ian pointed out) to the end plates moving when the boards are crated up. There's so many things I never thought of before building the layout, and if there's a sound piece of advice I could give to anyone starting out from scratch, it's listen to advice from people that have been doing it for years, regardless of how stupid it sounds. That's not to say we should all follow the 'it's always been done that way' mentality, but somethings just don't need to be reinvented. I'm giving myself until the end of this month to get all of the work done, so that it doesn't interfere with the day job, and looking after my Dad, and making sure Nicky doesn't leave me! To be honest, I'm looking forward to making the whole layout better, which hopefully, will make it more fun. So I'll end this post with a bit of modelling, and in particular, an S-Kits JYA, a resin kit that I've been messing around with for a while and finally got around to finishing it over the Christmas holiday..... .......only another 7 left to build!

I’m sat here scratching my head - for the second year running I’ve been nominated for an RMWeb / BRM Award. This year it’s for Oak Road in the best layout category. Quite how, baffles me? Whoever nominated me clearly hasn’t read through this thread, or operated it! I’m very flattered, and whoever it was, thank you. It’s nice to know that people like what they see.

I’ve often thought the same but haven’t tried it

Georges JYAs will get me out of a hole and we're going to work on a JNA-A between us. I'm at DEMU with my trainset so be sure to say hello if you're going. I've yet to find anyone that makes the right buffers for the low top JNAs as they're inverted (the outer pushes over the inner) which was most annoying when I built my GJH Plant 7mm ones! Cheers Mike

As we come to the end of another year, it's all change for Oak Road. The last three and a half years have been a very steep learning curve, with more failures than than I can shake a stick at! There's a lot to be said for listening to advice from other people before wandering off thinking I know best...... I've not been able to cure the warped baseboards on the right hand side of the layout, which as a general consensus of opinion, is down to moisture / water ingress - note to self (and we've done it on Dave's Par layout), the next layout I build will have all of the wood primed and painted before I go anywhere near it with track and scenery. As if that isn't bad enough, and despite using alignment dowels, I cannot stop the track bed from going out of ligament... The sleepers are superglued to the cork base, which is in turn, glued to the baseboard with PVA, and in theory, should be fine......but it isn't. All is not lost with this, as I can lift it and insert some screws beneath the rails and solder to them - it's just a ball ache! What I can't seem to remedy though is the ski ramp on board four, and the fact that the track is lifting.... I have some thoughts but whether I'll ever cure it is a different matter! So, turning my attention to something that I have a little more control over, I've halted the installation of the MP1 point motors so that I can realign the fiddle yard entrances. By changing a couple of points, I can make the roads flow better and also increase the middle bi-directional roads, making them longer to accommodate the charter sets and the stone train. It'll also help remove a rather tight curve on the exit to roads two and three. And now to another major change.......the NCE Power Cab, as good as it is, will be making way for this, with thanks to DCC Train Automation........ This is a seriously impressive bit of kit and will enable me to automate the layout - not because I don't want to drive the trains, but to help us at exhibitions when there's only three of us, and I'm off to the toilet every five minutes! Joking aside, it makes a lot of sense to help give us a break. It can be very tiring trying to concentrate on sending trains round every 30 seconds, whilst answering questions from the public. We'll still have handsets so that we are still actually driving the trains, but we can switch in and out of partial or full automation when required. There's going to be a lot to do over the Christmas break!

The green is PlastiKote Satin Hunter Green Bill, and is almost perfect. The Matt stripe is just that, masked up and sprayed with matt varnish, but the whole body needs glossing first for the transfers (which are from Steve at Railtec) and then the stripe goes on last. The windows are fairly easy on the bodies once you work out you need to go gently with a small flat screw driver and prise them off. The cab windows were masked up with maskol. Hope that helps.

Exactly my point (no pun intended) but even you have to admit that the Conrads are a trial of patience. Anyway, further to my last post, I've got the MTBs working with the AD1-HPs! What I (and everyone else) didn't realise is that the negative sides aren't connected, so by running the live feed from both terminals of the decoder using diodes facing the same direction makes it work perfectly.....so now I don't need to spend loads of money on new decoders, and the points will actually work when thrown. Now all I need to do as add a separate bus and a Dougall button

Work on making the layout more reliable has come to a bit of a buffer stop, as the MTB motors don't work with the AD1-HPs (I've had two electrical / electronics engineers and an electrician confirm it's impossible) so now I have a bigger headache. Do I try and improve the Conrad motors, or replace the AD1-HP decoders for something that will control the MTBs? The beauty of the current system is that everything runs from the bus, and being separate decoders, they can sit next to the point motors without having to run wires everywhere, but the motors are very temperamental in operation and not what we need during a two day show! The MTB motors are very quiet a small, but if I go down the new decoder route, I'd either have to buy a decoder unit for every board, or make up a plug. socket and lead to take 12 wires, which I don't really want to do. It also means ripping everything out and starting again, which may or may not, be a good thing! Ideally, I'd like to make a decision before the Christmas holiday so that I'f I need to start again, I can enlist the help of one of the said engineers above to help me do it properly (although even he forgets to solder dropper wires on! ). So the choice is cheap and try and fix what I have, or expensive and replace the lot! Good old fashioned DC anyone.................?

Yeah George has a wide range of stuff - it just takes ages to get hold of him. I'm just about to order 8 JYAs for my Mendip Train

Well guys, still no news on the Dapol bogies - I asked at Warley but it's still the same answer.....we'll do them when we do the next batch! Very frustrating! What's even more frustration is the lack of bogies for the JNA-As.....I may have to see if Revolution can send me a spare JNA-T bogie and I'll hack it around and get some cast up.

I think he’s going to try and print it in colour Kevin, or at least that’s the plan.

About 10 minutes.....or at least that's how long it felt like!

Unfortunately, Ally Pally isn't going to happen next year because the organising team confused my attendance form with another layout, so 2021 is when North London will get to see Oak Road. On the plus side, it takes the pressure off a bit and will give me a chance to get the long overdue cottages finished. Hopefully, it may even make Warley one year, and talking of which, Alan very kindly scanned me on Saturday........... ...so now I can stand on my own footbridge, or the ends of my platforms taking pictures of HSTs as they rattle through the station. He did say he'd add it to the rage of figures, although I'm not sure he'll sell many! While I was at Warley (which was a great show, if you didn't get the chance to go), I picked up some more MTB point motors from James @ DCC Train Automation to replace the unreliable Conrads. If you've not already seen them, these are tiny - around 40mm x 20mm and almost silent in operation, and wire directly in to the DCC Concepts AD1 - HP decoders. Now..........back to those trees.................

I had an interesting hour and a half with Bachmann on Sunday morning and covered off nearly all of the 'issues' with the 158. This is always going to be a chicken and egg scenario because WE, the customer want everything yesterday, and therefore without us, there would be nobody to buy the product, and on the flip side, Bachmann the manufacturer don't want to be producing something that won't sell, or is miles off the mark, so it was very intuitive listening to the whole process from start to finish, and they've certainly had a few hurdles to overcome. Unless you actually work in the industry, it's very easy to assume things that are completely wrong....which unfortunately, most of us do. The model itself, now that I've had a chance to pick it up and pull it apart, is good....in fact, it's VERY good and almost worthy of it's price tag (personally, I think £260 for a two car unit is a lot of money but that doesn't change my opinion of the model). The green livery is a faithful representation of the real thing, and the printing is sublime - using the zoom function on my phone camera (which wasn't ideal) I could read everything and the GWR logo is exactly as it should be. There's still some black missing from the cab front, which is a little odd considering the person responsible for making sure everything is right, is even more anal than I am! The under-frame detail is way better than its predecessor, with all of the right equipment in the right place and with perfect detail. The bogies have pickups on every wheel set (or at least they did on this one) and the new interconnecting coupling makes things much better for DCC operation. SO, to the DCC functions. They really have pushed the boat out with this, daylight running lights, night time running lights, cab lights, destination illumination, interior lighting, and..........central door locking lights! I forgot to ask if it needed a special chip to operate it but I'm sure we'll find out in due course. Ok, there's still a couple of little niggles - the previously mentioned 'missing' black on the cab fronts, the front air dam being not quite right (to accommodate the NEM coupling), and that odd raised moulding where the cab joins the body, but I could live with it, and I'm sure plenty of other people could too. I know it's been a long time coming, and they've said they're going to address how they announce things in the future, but we should have it first quarter next year. I absolutely slated this 158 when I first saw it, but now the guys (and girls) at Bachmann have allowed me to rip them apart, and in their defence, give a solid account of things, I think it's a good addition to their range. It's still top heavy in terms of price, and when you compare it to another similar unit that's just been produced, it definitely looks overpriced, but I'm sure it'll be more favourable at some of the well known retailers, making it a fantastic value for money unit. Would I buy one? Hmmmm................................................................. I think I would!

Thanks for explaining the MK4s Cav - they're going to be cracking coaches and will suit the 91s perfectly. And cheers for the heads up on the 3D printing

Martin, David or Paul....or maybe I’ll just make all three of them and rotate them on a shift patten!

Judging on the progress of the Deltic, this is going to be a corker! I don't need, I don't need, I don't need. I really don't................oh go on then, I'll have an ROG one....

Not much to report back lately as I've just been working on the XC set, and helping Dave with his new N Gauge layout, and helping out with Tidworth. However, I do have some good news - Trainwest, Fareham Rotarail, DEMU and RailEX NE have all been officially confirmed with forms returned, so that just leaves Ally Pally.........forms returned but no reply......... Next year is going to be a good year for the layout and come hell or high water, it will be in a 'looking finished' state by the time it gets to Trainwest. I've got quite a few people painted up now and Alan is going to send me some of his scanned figures at Christmas to populate the station. Luckily due to the rural feel of the layout, I don't need hundreds of people on it, but I do need a few thousand to go inside the trains! I'm thinking of sending these off to James! ......that will leave me time to sort the trees out! If you're going to Warley have a great weekend and don't forget to have a look out for Paul's Harz (foreign muck) layout where Ian will be helping drive the trains.

Just to help a few people along with timings. The last I heard from the horses mouth............April 2020. DO NOT shoot the messenger!

Personally, I think it’s a cracking idea Rhys - you get to create a great Semi - Fictional scenario in a Semi Fictional location based on Porthleven. If you remove the ‘it would never happen in real life’ element, it makes for a brilliant exhibition layout that will showcase your modelling skills. .....not sure the carpet is a great material to build the baseboards out of though.....

7mm has been screaming out for the modern day equivalent of the Class 47 and if Dapol get this to market within 3 years (still waiting for my 4mm 59!) at £325 RRP (and even cheaper through shops) then it's a no brainer. Us modern image folk....and I mean MODERN image, not BR Blue / Sectorisation stuff, get the short straw every time. It's also good to see almost twice the size, at almost twice the cost.

Unfortunately, the flat bottom points hes doing aren't right. There's no concrete points at Par so Dave decided to make use of the track from Crofton - it's not ideal but it seems a shame to waste it......although going through the box full of points, there's a lot more left handed ones than right for some reason!

Code 40 was a bit too much of a ball ache because nobody does flat bottom points. It would’ve been nice, but given the fact that Dave has 91m of code 55, the decision was easily made

I’m not sure there was anything wrong with Ctofton when I did that!