Revolution Mike B

Cheers mate. I wish I had room for a proper railway and not an exhibition one. There's a few 'loft / garage / barn / shed' railways kicking about but very few that have an air of realism about them. I know it's horses for courses (and there's nothing wrong with people who own set track roundy roundies) but I do like a good 'proper' roundy roundy where you can run 'proper' trains. Right, time for a brew and a good read..... Mike

How have I missed this thread?!?!?! I'll have a good read through over the next few days....it looks bloody brilliant Marcus!

I had a bit of time on my hands today so I managed to do the wiring on the second station board (except the last point motor) and I'm pleased to say that trains run smoothly across the board joint with no clonks or derailments. I did, however find something that needs attention.....after all, it wouldn't be me if I didn't do everything at least TWICE! Given the length of an HST, the poor old guard can't get any bikes or pushchairs in to the TGS because it's still somewhere in the next county meaning that I need to move the signal away from the platform by another 120mm (approximately 4 3/4 inches for the senior members - I think ) which is a little awkward as it's getting a bit too close to the point for the bay / stone terminal. While I'm contemplating what to do about it, I took a few shots of the HST to cheer me up... I doubt that I'll do much now until after Warley.....unless I get bored! Mike

As per my signature.....you can never have enough HSTs

I wish I'd have known! I would've bought both!

How come you're selling the micro buffet Nigel? I've just seen it on Ebay! Mike

After seeing Simon's AWS Ramps on Norwood Road at Wycrail, I'm not going to bother with the Peco ones as they stand - they're way to chunky all round and not the correct shape, so this leaves me with three routes. I can either completely modify the Peco ones by narrowing them, build some new ones from scratch, or get a couple of Simon's 3D printed ones. My gut feeling is to do the latter, given that they are the correct size and look the part. The downside is that it'll cost me a small fortune due to the cost of postage from Shapeways! Watch this space......

You won't be disappointed Adrian, it's really good and the guys that built it are very good modellers and nice people. I got some great modelling advice from them too which some people just don't seem to want to share! Mike

I'm at Warley both days James so I'm looking forward to catching up......I can even bring along an HST that'll drown out the noise from the entire show! More great work on the buildings too mate, they look awesome

Nice to meet you yesterday Nick - I'm definitely going to have a go at trying out the sounds under the baseboards Mike

Completely agree with you

Thanks Nigel. It's kind of set in the spring / summer I guess given the way I'm doing the scenery but there's no reason why I couldn't run anything - people like watching trains go by and this is half the reason I've built it. With no disrespect to the guys that build fantastic steam era layouts, and people like yourself with end to ends, kids love to watch trains whizz by, and if I'm honest, even at 50, so do I. So my thought process was to build something where I could have everything.....non stopping, stopping, reversing and all stuff that young people would relate to......maybe I'm still trying to contain the child within myself? But it seemed like a good idea and I'm hoping people will like it when they see it but not take it too seriously. Please keep the train movement ideas coming because living in Portsmouth, I never get to see anything except Desiro's and 158s!

Here's the AWS Ramp after a bit more messing around......it's still WAY too wide so Harry The Hacksaw my get a call to cut it down to the right width! I could of course buy some that were the right size from Shapeways but then I'd be shelling out a million quid in postage and with all the HSTs I need to sound chip, every penny counts! Colour needs a bit more work too but it's going in the right direction.

There's not going to be any YELLOW on my layout except the IOAs Hahahahaha!!!!

Cheers mate. It's a shame the AWS Ramp is nearer O Gauge than OO.....I may just take a razor saw to it and reduce the width.

Interesting you should say this as I've had an idea whereby I have the power cars at an average volume and then have another speaker under the baseboard with a recording of an HST passing through. This should be fairly easy to do with an iPad to trigger the sounds. Ok, it's going to be far from perfect but I'd like to see what effect it would produce.

I've ballasted Oak Road 4 times over and I'm still ripping it up in places cos it's too overscale! I'm also quite jealous of the Tillig points - I wish I'd have known about them before as they're so much better than the Peco ones. On the plus side though, I've got a cracking set of ear defenders that'll come in useful in the future........just hurry up and get it finished Pete so I can get my 'Upton Parkway' T shirt sorted!

Bing Bing Bing.........

No worries Pete and I totally agree with you. I had a conversation with Richard about his new surface mounted motors the he's just released via Gaugemaster as I think that the could easily be mounted underneath the board with wire in a tube, but again, it's more messing around and they're not cheap either. To be honest, my Cobalts may just seem noisy because by boards are effectively creating a drum when they're not on their legs so it may just be me. And besides, if he sticks those bloody station announcements on it, the Cobalts will be the last noise people will be worrying about!!! On the N Gauge layout everything is controlled by Dave Fenton's Megapoints system and I've got to say, it's brilliant. There's a few good quality servo mounting brackets about now which means you can do away with the aluminium channel and I know people have just used basic Arduinos to fire off servos too. I guess you could just go round in circles all day long? I'm not disappointed with my Cobalts because I wanted something that was quick and simple (my local shop AC Models in Eastleigh helped me with the price so it was a no brainer) so that I could run everything via DCC and not have to worry about my lack of electrical skills - they work straight out of the box, no fuss.

Looking great Sam!

I've used Cobalts Pete but I think they're quite noisy (and slow). Ok, they're a piece of cake to install and wire up but I can't help thinking I should've used stand alone servos which offer more adjustment and operate slightly faster (and quieter). It's obviously horses for courses and I'm just a newby compared to you lot, but I've installed hundreds of servos on our N Gauge layout over the past two years (it's very big). Cheers Mike

The Peco AWS Ramps are pretty poor so I had a go at doctoring one. This is a rough effort which will look a whole load better once I've straightened it out and weathered it properly although it's still a bit too wide! Once I've finished it I'll add the cables and stick it down. Note to self: STOP DOING THE DETAILED BITS AND FINISH THE BASICS!!!

Thanks Graham.....

Thanks Al!! Cheers guys, really appreciated. Mike

Thanks Nigel Not sure how the 57s every break down.....they only make a couple of trips a day!!! Hahahahaha