ian

Absolutely. I can imagine the difficulty in getting Coombe to the UK. I hope it does get here one day, but in the meantime please keep us updated with progress. It's a cracking project.

Another winner in the making, Kier.:icon_thumbsup2: I was wondering how on earth you were going to fit everything in. I shall look forward to watching it develop.

I have come to the conclusion that an evolving project like this is better suited to a topic rather than a blog format. I'm not porting the whole lot over to the new topic - late-comers will just have to read through the blog first to get up to speed, but future Hatton updates will appear in the new topic here. So go on then, there's nothing to see here!

If I find who designed the point motors there'll be a small figure dangling in a noose from the bridge

Having made some good progress with the scenery on the 'country' end board the scenic machine was ready to roll onto the middle (station) board. First I thought I'd sort out a couple of niggles whilst I could still flip the board over and lay it on its back. I had changed the socket postition from on top of the boards behind the backscene to a more conventional under baseboard location, so I had to make up a new 25-way socket with longer wires to replace one of them and had to build a pair of brackets to house them. Then I had to migrate the wiring from the old socket to the new one.:icon_mutter: Not the most fun way to spend an evening, but it's done now. Now the biggy. Point motors. The middle board has four points making up two crossovers. One pair powered by a Peco/Seep combination (see previous entries for the story behind this), the other by a pair of Pecos. Oomph is supplied by a DCC Concepts MasterSwitch for each pair. The Peco/Seep crosover behaves itself (touch wood) but the Peco/Peco one had a tendency not to throw completely on one or other of the points. So, leaving the motors wired in I disconnected them from the points - they threw but were a bit weedy, so another couple of Seeps were substituted. (Having made up a pair of mounting plates to cover the Peco hole.) The Seeps were mounted, the over-centre springs removed and a quick jolt of 16V AC confirmed that they were up to the job. The next thing was to wire them in and then stand back and throw the switch. They twitched. Right. Unplug the baseboard and try applying 16V AC at the socket end of their wiring run. Snap. Plug the cable back in. Open up the control panel, disconnect from the MasterSwitch and try 16V AC at that end of the wiring run. Snap. Take the MasterSwitch out and put in a spare. Twitch. Now this particular crossover needs a lot of circuits making and breaking. Three signals, one track feed, two live frogs and panel LEDs. Most of these are performed by a pair of relays run from one pole of the panel switch - the other controls the MasterSwitch which looks after the panel LEDs. The frogs are switched by the point motors. So I can't change the panel switch. Connect the switch to the CDU instead of the MasterSwitch and add a large pushbutton - who needs panel LEDs anyway? Press the button. A bigger twitch, but still a twitch. Right, no more Mr. Nice Guy. Connect directly to the 16V AC instead of the CDU. Don protective clothing and press the button. Snap. Hurrah! As I said. I hate point motors.

That's a bit of a monster John. Nicely done.

Hmm. How about an actress and a bishop?:icon_tongue:

It was inspired by a gas pipe visible from the M6 between jc 10 & 10A. Largely because I had the supports spare from the girder bridge. Pricing up a decent sized piece of "pipe" and some lattice girder supports, plus something to act as a disincentive to using the pipe as a footbridge I came to the conclusion that just maybe I did not want one after all!

Of course not. This is for a reputable magazine

I have something in mind for that

The canal is starting to get hairy. This is from Woodland Scenics field grass cut into clumps then pushed into dollops of PVA. Once it has dried I'll deal with some of the overlong strands and dust the canal. The hedge along the lane is scouring pad cut into strips and coated with Woodland Scenics coarse turf. (Thanks to everyone who pm'ed me with suggestions. You're all wonderful people :icon_thumbsup2:)

Returned from Warley with some fibres and a Puffer Bottle. It has produced some hairy grass on the embankment but methinks that a flyswat based electrostatic grass tool is needed for a proper job. Off to the garage to raid the strategic reserve of round tuits I think.:icon_mutter:

The first layer of greenery is starting to appear. It is starting to look like a model railway at last!

That looks rather nice, the business end of a Welsh NG railway rather than the tweeness that so often is evident in OO9.

Every so often I make a little progress. The hill looks like it is going to be rural rather than industrial. Meanwhile I have put in the canal, fixed the sides on the girder bridge and started to build the abutments and tunnel mouth (Scalescenes again). The pipe bridge over the canal is also in the 'maybe' category. The pipe ought to be bigger, but it is quite an appealing structure in its way.

Looking through the range I love the etched sheet of roadkill. That would be bound to offend someone!

Powering the signals is easy. It's building the little blighters that is the challenge. I am using modules from Heathcote Electronics which only need you to connect up four wires to the signal, two power wires, one wire to connect to the previous signal, one wire to the next signal and an optional wire to hold the signal at red. There is a built in IR detector that monitors passing trains and the signals work without manual intervention. Clever stuff

I hope Ivy has been on her hazardous substances handling course

Charmouth seems to have gone all shy and is trying to hide behind the freezer. I think it must be nervous about Warley! Meanwhile Walton has been dusted off ready for a local exhibition next Saturday. The use of a flat screen monitor, laptop computer and plastic shelves provides a new high-tech information system to replace the pieces of paper that used to be posted at strategic places around the layout! Now there's 1970s for you. A beat up 24 and a tranny. Now there's a message that is far better than don't touch :icon_thumbsup2:

Now that the electrics are finished:D I can start on the scenery for Hatton. The large LEDs are a temporary signal - the scale ones are far too delicate to be installed yet. The foam is Knauf Space Board and the second layer will lift off to give access to the tracks below. I need to build a Scalescenes tunnel mouth and then trim the foam back to suit. The backsecene board is foamcore. To make it bend cut a vertical line on the back every half-inch or so and then break the foam along the line. The backscene will be one of my customary iD products from International Models. Question. Should I leave it as a hillside or have a factory perched on top? The train is about to go over a canal and then past a car park on one side and industrial units on the other, followed by the station and then the town. What does everyone think?

Wrexham & Shropshire service passing the temporary signals. The sensor is just in front of the front coupling - the main signal will go red when it is triggered, yellow when the train reaches the fiddle yard and then green about 30 seconds later. The bay signal is held at red as the points are set against it. Changing the points will hold the main signal at red and show the appropriate aspect on the bay signal instead. Clever stuff this.:icon_thumbsup2: All I need to do now is put the relay board together for the signal on the other track.

Leaving point motors behind I have moved on to the colour light signalling. The signals won't be installed just yet - I'll wait until the baseboards spend most of their life the right way up for that - but the clever bits are going in. The up line (left-right) has a signal with a route indicator (feather) which is illuminated when the train is routed to the bay platform. The down line has a signal at the end of the platform with a second one on the bay. Ground signals are situated to allow shunting moves between the bay and the layover siding. The control circuitry also includes signals at the entrance to each end of the fiddle yard although as these are off-scene, they only exist as red repeaters on the control panel. The MAS signals are controlled by modules from Heathcote Electronics which do all the hard work. The only complicated bit involves the up main to down main (and then to the bay platform) routing which needs to switch a number of circuits: Up main crossover live frog - by switch on point motor Down main crossover live frog - by switch on point motor Control panel point indicator LEDs - by MasterSwitch output Up & down main crossover point motors - by MasterSwitch output MasterSwitch operation - Panel switch (DPDT) Relay board for extra switching - Panel switch DPDT Up main signal feather - Relay board Clear up main signal - Relay board Hold down main signal red - Relay board Hold bay signal red - Relay board A pair of 12V DPDT relays will provide the extra switching needed when the crossover is reversed. The parts are shown above and will be built into the control panel real soon now .

Well as Falcon was Class 53 it wouldn't be unreasonable to use 54, making it 54 001. [nit pick mode]BTW in 1975 headcodes were still in use - domino dots didn't appear until early 77 (late 76 at a push).[/nit pick mode] Nic job, but the full yellow ends just don't suit it.

I remember passing the layout a number of times at last year's Mansfield show - either on my way to get a drink or for some retail therapy - and there were always children there giving it a good work out. Layouts like this are the best way of sowing the seeds in future modellers. My own contribution is the Fete Worse Than Death layout built for School and Village Fete use. It also serves as a good running in track too.