Focalplane

Andy My bad turn was nothing really (by comparison) but I couldn't concentrate on anything for more than a couple of minutes. I am back to normal now, what ever that means! In fact I have spent a good four hours in the railway room, adding track bases, cork and track bit by bit. I also cleared the decks of tools, materials, etc. so I should be able to take some photos once the latest glue has set and the clamps are off. Paul

Over the weekend I had a “bad turn” as my Nan would have said and decided to take time out and relax from the various chores around the house and the not-so-chores in the railway room. But yesterday I started laying more track, with the double slip that connects the two fiddle yards to the layout being the first priority. Then I added yard lengths of Peco track to the double slip. Nothing is wired up yet but the results are pleasing and more track bases will be put in place. I really need to get a continuous circuit up and running! Photos soon! Paul

Simon I was wondering where the Duchess progress might be going, so glad to see this post. FWIW, Jim Mcgeown suggests slackening off one body=chassis fixing screw to prevent skewing the combined loco and the resulting poor running. Your plan for the insulated brake shoes has me interested. Paul

Andy The concept of a simpler PyB in larger space makes a lot of sense. I sometimes think that Penmaenpool is going to be too simple but I feel sure that "little is more" will prevail. Having space to run trains means that they can run faster and accelerate and decelerate at more like scale speeds. I got my HO Southern Pacific GS4 out today as a display model but decided that that is as far it is going to go - for the time being at least! Beside the loco I have about 8 more plus rakes of coaches and a mile long freight train, mostly bought in the 1980s but not at all bad stuff. It ought to see "daylight" one of these daze but I have to press on with the current project! Paul

Once upon a time I lived in Texas (for 23 years!) at a time when the Southern Pacific Railroad was being run into the ground before being sold to Union Pacific. My admiration for the golden days of the SP and T&NORR could hardly have been inspired by the sad sight of rusting diesel electrics at Houston's Hardy Street depot. No, it was the books and models of pristine locomotives that could be purchased, read and displayed. For a while I had a small HO layout built using the L Girder system and Shinohara track. I still have all the stock in storage but plan to do something with them now I have a large enough house. My first priority, however, is to model Gauge O in Mid Wales. But today I unearthed one model I have with me: Together with two genuine SP items my Broadway Limited GS4 now graces my living room. I had intended on buying a complete rake of Daylight coaches but other priorities intervened. I do have the end-of-train passenger car, though, which was available as a bonus when I ordered the GS4. On the bookshelves around the display are several books on the SP, including a copy of Dunscomb's tome on a hundred years of Southern Pacific Steam. Part of the reason for posting this is that my interest in the GS4 was re-awakened by the news that Lee Marsh is currently researching the GS 3,4 and 5 for the production of a limited production run in O Gauge. I have no commercial connection with Lee other than as a satisfied customer. I have supplied Lee with some of the photos I have that may help his research though I am sorry to say I will not be buying one as I have enough on my wishlist already, including a Lee Marsh "Manor". Paul

Chris I have been rather busy of late with Penmaenpool so have spent this morning catching up on what others have been doing. Your recent posts are most inspirational and will be reference marerial for when I eventually get to the scenic level. My recently acquired Minerva pannier and two vans have joined the increasing stock waiting to run. Coachmann’s previous ownership of the Pannier is a perfect addition. Talk about RTR, he had evening selected a Croes Newydd loco so I have not had to do anything to it but run it on the few meters of track that currently exist. Keep up the good work! Paul

Andy Let me join all who have wished you well. Much As I enjoy your many posts, movies and also your good humour, please take it easy for a while. Paul

Over the past two days I have fitted a YouChoos Zimo sound chip/file to my Modern Outline Kits 14XX, No. 1459. This previously had a Southwestern Digital GWR 1 chip in it but this will eventually go into the 74XX currently half completed. I had modified the wiring some time ago, fitting an 8 pin socket. But, although the blank plug allowed me to run in DC, the YouChoos chip appeared to be dead. An email to John Gymer was answered very rapidly on Friday night, suggesting that the 8 pin socket might be wired up wrong. I thought about this and then checked the loco. Sure enough, I had connected the track wires to the sockets for the motor and vice versa. It is obvious how this had happened - the Canon motors come wired with red and black wires while the convention says that the track wires are red and black. The blank plug has no sense (!) so simply connected the track wires to the motor wires. Anyway, the loco sounds great, using genuine 14XX loco sounds and a very nice set of functions. I need to make a short movie sometime soon. Recommended! Paul

Peter I am late coming to the party, but would agree with all the advice you have been given thus far. If you need some pictorial guidance for southern France, where the variety of trains running on standard 160kph main line track can be extremely varied, have a look at my Sud de France topic. You will also see that catenary design is not standardized! As others have noted, things are changing fast in France and if the strikes continue much longer then car sharing will take over much of the long distance services for younger people at least. Covoiturage is already being advertised on autoroutes. When I lived near Beziers the Midi Main Line had a range of foreign trains as well, including old Talgos and Italian couchettas. Freight trains are important in this area as well, about 50% of traffic is freight, mostly at night and in the afternoons. TGVs are timetabled to please the EU, not the local communities. At one time I had to wait 52 minutes at Narbonne for the connectng local stopping train. Which rather negates the high speed concept! Paul

Oh, in case you were wondering, the loco was not the station pilot Rood Ashton Hall! Paul

Simon Yes, I do use the 4 digit numbers but for some reason 9681 didn't work. Nor did 96, 57 or a number of other permutations. Store in a box and anything can and will happen! I am not going to admit more than this, but a few months ago I returned to England and could not remember the PIN code for my debit card and had to get a new one. This time I decided to change the PIN to a favourite loco from the Snow Hill days, not one I have on Penmaenpool, by the way. Now I just have to think of the loco when at the ATM! I imagine that ER, SR and LMR modellers simply drop the 6, 3 and 4/5s from their locos? Paul

Another loco was brought out of storage this morning - Tower Models 57XX no. 9681- and given a run but not before I had to reset the SWDigital chip. I had forgotten the address!!!! I am sure it was written down somewhere but some papers are still missing since we moved house. I also remembered a book I had bought some time ago when researching 1935 era GWR shed allocations for Shipston on Stour. The soft back by Pocock and Harrison shows one loco assigned to Penmaenpool in 1934, No. 1430. This would not have been the 14XX Class by Collett but a 517 class forerunner. A fine model of this class is currently available from Lee Marsh. There is also a photo of Penmaenpool shed in the book, taken in 1936. This shows two locos outside the shed, 2435 (Dean Goods) and 2289 (2251 Class, brand new), while it is recorded that two locos were also inside the shed, namely 4834 (48XX Class) and 2378 (2361 Class). This photo shows that, other than the locos, nothing had changed in and around the engine shed between 1936 and 1959. Which implies that, had I the locos and stock, it would be possible to run two distinct eras, GWR and BR(W), with few changes to the layout. Best to complete the BR(W) era first!!! Paul

Ordering stuff from the UK can vary enormously from vendor to vendor. I ordered the Cobalt S levers last night from Gaugemaster and by 9:00 this morning I had an email from UPS to say the package was on its way to them. That would be 8 a.m. UK time! By contrast, I was trying to find a vendor who sells Tortoises and have them in stock and can quickly determine postage/carriage charges and does not use PayPal. Then I remembered that FB Systems near Béziers sells Tortoises and we plan to visit the area next week. So that should be sorted and I will also be giving business to my local (HO only) model shop! I can also stock up on some other items while I am there as well as see if they take American HO stuff for sale on commission - the owner likes American HO! (The PayPal problem is unusual - I have two accounts, one Euro, one Sterling but because the delivery is to France PayPal assumes I will use my Euro account and does not let me change. And, before anyone asks, PayPal did not give me the option to use a debit card. Life does not get any easier, does it!) Paul

Here is Ivatt 2MT 46512 at the Dolgelley fiddle yard, pulling two B Set coaches: http://player.vimeo.com/video/272647817 I hope you can see this and apologize for the finger at the end! Paul

Both points in the Dolgelley fiddle yard are now wired up and working, but the wiring is still only temporary. However, I am impressed with the Cobalt S levers and have ordered sufficient for the entire layout. They work well with the Tortoise point motors and will allow for additional switching for signals, etc. The key to success is going to be in how I organize the wiring down the road. And where I place the control panel. It will probably be "under water" in the estuary in front of the George Hotel. I have trialled other rolling stock this evening and the Ivatt 2MT mogul looks the part with a crimson B Set in tow. I took a brief video and will upload it later in the week. The next stage will be the double slip that allows trains to run direct from fiddle yard to fiddle yard and also to the hidden loop which then leads to the scenic area that will be set up much later. The double slip will be hidden and relatively inaccessible so it will be important to get it right before moving ahead. The Barmouth fiddle yard has yet to be built but that would seem to be the next priority. Trouble is, it is fun playing trains after so much woodwork! Paul

A little more progress this evening. I have rigged up one of the DCCconcepts Cobalt S point levers to one of the the Tortoises, following the instructions from both vendors. Without even soldering some of the wires it worked first time! As I still don't know where the control panel should be located, I have clamped a piece of plywood to the area where the signal box will be and run wires according to the recommended system that uses two 12 volt DC power supply units wired in series. A bus wire has been run as far as the first fiddle yard point and the common wire from the Cobalt S SPDT connected to it. The two switched wires are connected to the two outputs from the twin power supply units. These photos show the set up which is very, very temporary! The last photo shows some of the wiring which will need to be properly labelled, etc. once I settle on the best wiring system. Some colour coding may also be a good idea! The three British PSUs are plugged into a British multi-strip which has been re-plugged for European sockets. The upper one is for the DCC controller, the lower two are for the Maplin PSUs for the Tortoises. I hope this all makes sense. Anyone wanting to do a similar set up should refer to the vendors's instructions; they do a better job of explaining it all than I can. Paul Edit to add the following: There are three bus wires, the upper red over black are the track feeds from the DCC controller. The lower red feed is the Cobalt/Tortoise common bus. All three will run the entire length of the layout and are made of solid copper 2.5mm sheathed wire.

Simon Yes indeed they can be, particularly when what you may have done last time is no longer de rigeur. I like vimeo.com because it isn't youtube google, simple as that. Their movie presentation is more accurate in my opinion. But like all modern internet applications they want you to stay with them rather than return to the business in hand. It's called monetization and quite understandable. If we don't pay for what we want we should expect them to do what they want! Anyway, I hope it is fixed now. Paul

Here's the movie, uploaded to vimeo.com Paul

It's been nearly a week since my last two posts. Much progress has been made on the Dolgelley fiddle yard. All but the two Tortoises are wired up and trains can be run on the central siding for several meters out to the double slip that controls where trains actually go (onto the scenic section or straight to Barmouth fiddle yard). The reason the point motors have yet to be connected is that I cannot decide exactly where to place the control panels or exactly what power supply system to use. At the moment I am favouring using two 12v DC power supply units I acquired from Maplin a few months ago. This allows the setting up of a two wire bus with a simple two way switch (which will be done using DCC Concepts levers). For track testing purposes I started by using a pannier tank coupled to an ex-GWR B Set to prove that the reverse curves are not too tight. Today I gave the system the ultimate test by running my precious Lee Marsh Jubilee, first slowly then much faster. It did not derail. I took a crude (hand held) iPhone movie of the Jube but it seems to be uploading very slowly from iPhone to iCloud. So I will add it to a second post later on. Paul

Hi Andy Not much help really, but the last few times I travelled on the Paddington Oxford Worcester line the HSTs had dropped one of the first class coaches - no call for large seats on the Cotswold Line perhaps. Also, what first class coaches they still have don't line up with the shorter platforms, such as Moreton-in-Marsh. So I suppose if you pay for first class they think you should have to walk down the train to keep fit. The videos look great, by the way! Paul

I have been using the Dapol autocoach as a test vehicle for checking the alignment of the two curved points and this has proved to be a problem. The bogies were derailing on both points, both at the frogs and the tie-bars. So I swapped the autocoach for a Dapol B Set and everything is working as it should be. Clearly there is a problem with the autocoach, most probably the back-to-backs. My calipers are stored away "somewhere" so I have yet to check them. But the fact that everything else runs smoothly does suggest that the autocoach is either a Monday morning or Friday afternoon lemon. Earlier I had to adjust the wiring as the two bogie pickups for the lights were shorting. I have put the offending coach away for the moment - it has to be resprayed crimson so at that time I will attend to these niggling RTR "facts of life". On the positive side the curved yard of track has now been glued down. Paul

Further progress over the past two days, partly adding to the fourth corner (see above) but also some struggling with track laying and fixing the two points in the Dolgelley fiddle yard. I say struggling because I have not laid a point for several years and then they were hand made soldered points for the abandoned Shipston on Stour in OO gauge. The minimum radius is supposed to be 1.8m and bending flexi track can be a problem, particularly in Gauge O. The following photo shows a simple jig I put together for cutting the rails at each end of a curved section leading from the fiddle yard: The clamps are not too tight, just tight enough to hold the rails while they are trimmed with a Dremel. Paul

More work completed over the weekend, despite distractions. The basic framework has just been completed with the fourth corner having been constructed. The cross timbers will give greater strength to the system. I have also glued down and sanded all the cork for the Dolgelley fiddle yard and have the track ready to lay once I have modified the wiring for the two points. The sidings will hold one 4/5 coach train plus tender loco, one mixed goods and one local passenger, either a two coach or an autotrain. I can then wire the fiddle yard as a test for the DCC and lever frame points control. It will be good to be able to run a train, switch a point and so on before doing more construction. This may help me to decide which way forward on the layout control Paul

Mike, you are correct that warped wood can be used for the L Girders but I would suggest that if there is a choice, go with the good wood. Besides, when I say “warped” I am thinking of strips of timber that have been so badly stored in the local bricolages that they are beyond redemption. I should probably have taken photos of the worst examples I have seen in past few months. They were bad! It was while living in Texas that I first used the system devised, as you say, by Wescott. I think a very large layout in a Mid West shopping mall used metal (?aluminum) L Girders for the framework. Thanks, Paul

Simon Thank you so much for the kind offer. I think I must pass at the moment - I can wire the DCC for running trains, what I have yet to get my head around is how to control the track and signals. Having done the tortoises before I can go ahead with that aspect. Full control by DCC is a distant hope for me at the moment! Thank you again, Paul