markwilson

New traction spotted in the valley this week: Large Logo 37426 Y Lein Fach/Vale of Rheidol, fresh from the Heljan works via North West England. Unfortunately, it's got a paint issue on the lower bodyside. As this is an ex-works finish, I can't cover it with a little weathering, so it's going back 😢. I've managed to pre-order a replacement from another supplier, but, as I thought they were all sold out on pre-order, it may be the only visit this loco makes...

Back in my first post about Cwm Bach, I said the track layout would follow... well, it's finally here: An O gauge "micro layout" was always going to be space-constrained - and there's no room for a run-round loop. That means I'll have to use multiple locos to shunt any freight in and out again. Passenger workings are fine because they will be a single car DMU (or maybe 2-cars if the new Heljan 117 will fit - it looks tight at the moment). I'm also constrained front-to-back so, whilst the low relief houses and street scene have always been part of the plan, they may not actually fit... we'll see what I can do. Similarly, the street scene above the tunnel is another idea, if I can't get the front-to-back space maybe I can fit something on the end... Because I was trying to fit everything in, the front track is very close to the edge. On reflection, I should have given it more room and modelled a loco stabling point or a wagon repair shop but I think it will still work. After all, this is 1980s managed-decline British Rail, so decrepit sidings are probably closer to reality. All the pointwork fits on one board, with the station area and sidings on another. The fiddle yard may well end up being a cassette system. One thing I'm not quite sure about is my signal positions. They seem to make sense, but I need to get some advice (maybe elsewhere on this forum) before I install them...

It's been a busy summer, with not much progress on the railway but, before my weekends are taken over by my son's cyclo-cross races, and, inspired by yesterday's Olney Model Railway Club exhibition, I decided to brave it and work out how to use the air brush that I bought a few years ago. It's not powered by a compressor (it works off a can of compressed air) and I found it difficult to be precise. I could adjust the flow of paint (i.e. how much) but not really how fine the area I covered was. As a result any idea of painting just the rail sides and chairs soon ended up being a liberal spray of "rust" on everything. It was definitely quick though... It's all going to get a coat of "sleeper grime" anyway (from an aerosol) but I spent the next couple of hours with white spirit, trying to clean the rail heads and removing excess paint off the sleepers. After a while it was just "too dry" and I had to use a track rubber on the railheads (which I try to avoid if I can). I've now decided that I'll paint the sleepers with a suitable shade of brown - and that shouldn't be "fine" work so hopefully won't take too long. There are also some rail sides that I still need to paint (I didn't spray too close to the point blades) and some touching up where I was struggling a bit with the flow on the air brush. It's a bit of a pain, but worth getting right before I install the platform and ballast the track. I've moved the boards from under the sofa next to the Dining Room to my Man Cave too, so maybe it will be a bit easier to just do the odd half hour of painting, as long as I sort out some decent lighting. Some notes on the airbrushing: I thinned down the Humbrol enamel paint with Humbrol enamel thinners (roughly 1 part paint to 1-2 parts thinner) although part of me wonders if I could just have used white spirit. I certainly used that to clean the airbrush (which was surprisingly straightforward) rather than waste proprietary (i.e. expensive) thinners. Plenty of advice on the Internet suggests that will work, though Humbrol's painting tips (which I used to find out the ratio of paint to thinner) is to use their product (whereas for acrylic paints they acknowledge that water will do the job).

That's another skill for me to master then!

Ian at All Stations Stopper/Hither Green TMD in 7mm (@47606odin) kindly replied to my comment on one of his videos and I made a start on painting the track today... There's also this video from weathering his depot track, although mine won't need to be quite that dirty. It's going to be a slow process as there's about 5m of track, both rails, both sides, so 20m of painting chairs and rail sides with Humbrol matt 113 "Rust". It's not looking very matt yet, but we'll see how it dries. It might also need some touching up... it turns out that even in O gauge, my eyes are struggling with the detail. After this, the whole lot will get a liberal spray of Railmatch 1406 "Sleeper Grime" from above, before ballasting, and more targeted weathering/toning down.

Thanks @Gilbert, I'll take a look at that video.

Thanks @Baggies1961 - that's really helpful. I like Ian's videos too. I need to drop him a line and ask how he weathered his track because I don't think he did a video on that one... I'll also search out the ones where he removes transfers (I think he did a bit on his Dapol Turbot wagon weathering).

Not much has happened on the layout for the last few weeks... but some new arrivals have been spotted in the valley*... Canton must have received an unidentified (and unnumbered) ex-Stratford 08 (Dapol model, via Ellis Clark Trains) and it's spotted here with the Dapol ZTO that Hattons replaced for me after the first one arrived damaged. The ZTO is a very strange colour grey but this, the 08 and my YCV Turbots will be heavily weathered at some point, so that should help. The new 08 is not DCC fitted but I also managed to find some Zimo MX634D DCC decoders at Yoochoos, so I can test them with my JMRI/DCC++ setup that's been struggling to control the Dapol chips. Does anyone have any advice please, for removing the Stratford Cockney Sparrow from the bodyside of the 08? *as I said to my friend @warpy, "I. Must. Stop. Buying. Trains."

Thanks @5BarVT but I think I've found a way forward... I realigned the boards using the previous alignment dowels (which I had knocked inwards because I couldn't remove them), and drilled some holes for M6 bolts with washers and wing nuts. That seemed to bring the boards close together and sorted out the alignment so no more derailments.

Thanks for the recommendation Paul. Assuming these are what you mean, I was previously using something similar (albeit smaller) from Railway Scenics (baseboard alignment dowels) but the clearances on the shelves where I need to store the boards when not in use are too tight (I wanted to maximise the size of my layout boards, but should have left a little more room either side... maybe stuck with 1000mm long instead of 1020mm...). I'm thinking I should be able to do something similar though... maybe using some retractable metal dowels and sliding them in/out of the holes for storage... If all else fails, I'll go back to plan A and find a new space to store the layout!

Time for this weekend's update: track has all been laid, and is all electrically connected. I also removed the loose pin butt hinges that were previously being used to join the boards and replaced them with small toggle catches. That means I can actually store the layout boards on my shelves! Unfortunately, toggle catches are not really up to the job - they only hold the boards together in one dimension so the boards can still move sideways and up/down. I'm going to have to use something else to secure the boards (maybe a slide bolt?) but there wasn't anything suitable in my "box of bits" so I'll wander down to the local hardware store in the week... Some more test runs took place (still using DC) today. Here you can see class 121 W55029, recently transferred to Cardiff Canton and still carrying its London (L129) set number. Bizarrely, it derails at low speed as it crosses the board join, but is fine if I run a little faster... more testing required but it might be better when I have the boards properly secured. Meanwhile, the 08 is running brilliantly, seen here shunting a Heljan ZDA that I picked up second-hand (it still cost quite a bit though). Sadly, another of this month's new arrivals, a Dapol ZTO brake van, is going to have to go back because it arrived damaged (broken step and loose wheelset). The next job (apart from fixing the method of joining baseboards) is DCC conversion (after I've moved JMRI to a different computer). I'm also going to investigate track painting approaches in O gauge, and I need to start shopping for things like dummy point motors, cable trunking, relay boxes and signals.

Thanks @Alister_G - I'll do that in future!

Sorry if someone has already answered this (I am a bit late to the party) but here are some images @AeBor... there's no Highland stag - just an Inverness depot sticker.

FIRST TRAIN MOVEMENTS AT CWM BACH Very short post tonight... just to announce that, following some Fathers' Day engineering work, there has finally been a loco movement at Cwm Bach... 08 717 testing the track circuits... video over here. It's only DC at the moment (DCC to follow soon), but it's a start!

I bought some MP1s to use on my N gauge layout but that project is "on hold" for now, whilst I get my head around the wiring... in the meantime, I've started work on an O gauge layout, and took 3 of the motors to use with my Peco points. They work a treat. Small (compared with some other slow action motors). Inexpensive (at around £16 each) - more than solenoid motors but less than alternatives like a Tortoise. And simple to wire up - even with my limited skills. The one thing that surprised me was that I only needed the 3mm action setting for O gauge - but I wrote about that (and included a link to a video of the points working), in this post.

So, more on those MP1 point motors... they have three adjustable cam settings for 3mm, 6mm or 9mm of movement. I figured 3mm for N would map to 6mm for OO and 9mm for O. When I installed the motor, it was moving the point blades but not finishing the motor's movement. I spent ages carefully enlarging the hole I had drilled under the points for the motor pin to "slide" along but it turned out that wasn't the issue. I didn't need 9mm of movement at the motor, or even 6mm - a 3mm throw was fine. I guess with the distance from the motor to the end of the pin that's connected to the points (around 12-15mm away), and the points being sprung, the 3mm movement at the motor becomes a real 4-5mm of movement at the points. Anyway, they seem to be working well now! I don't seem to be able to embed a video here, but here's the link showing the point motors working - no loud clunk like a solenoid motor (and no CDU needed), but much smaller and cheaper than some other slow-motion motors.

So, I'm making some progress - best described as slow but steady. Like I said in my original post, at ~£50 for a set of points, I'm being very careful what I do on this build. I'll come back and "colour in" some of the details of what I've been doing but as of today I have: 2 baseboard sections for the scenic area (I haven't built the one for the fiddle yard yet. A track plan. Most of the track laid and glued in position on top of a bed of cork. One set of points motorised (with a temporary power supply to drive the motor from a 9V battery). Some challenges I had to overcome: I couldn't get my printer to print the Peco track templates at the right size, so I spent a few hours moving track around physically on the board until I was sure I had the right positions. I'm still struggling to find stone retaining walls and bridge supports in 7mm (I got some platform edges on eBay from 422 Model Making). The whole layout was designed around storage and a 46cm depth is quite restrictive. I may make an extra scenic section that mounts on the rear of the boards, so I can have the row of terraced houses and 1980s street scenes that I want to model in the background! I aligned the boards using baseboard alignment dowls and loose pin butt hinges from Railway Scenics but found the hinges make the board sections too big to fit on the shelves where I had planned to store them! The MP1 point motors I'm using (originally bought from Digitrains for my N gauge layout and repurposed for this one) took a bit of fettling... I'll post separately on what I found, but I have one working now and hopefully will get the other two up and running over the next week or so. My JMRI/DCC++ setup doesn't recognise Dapol decoders. I'll post separately about that because it's quite a voyage of discovery. Still, at least I could test the 121 on DC, so I know it does work, even if not on DCC. Next up is the get the last of the track laid, to motorise the remaining points, and to wire up the layout. Then I can start on painting the track.

Yes, I'm starting to realise just how big O gauge is! A single-car DMU is 45cm long and even "short" bogie wagons like Turbots will have to be very short trains... I probably should go back to OO but I'm loving the detail in O. Mind you, it's still easy to break things - some of that detail is very fragile (like the steps on my 08).

Thanks Andy. I wasn't aware of that but thank you for letting me know.

In the late 1990s, I sold my childhood OO stock and started again in N. For around 20 years, that remained in storage until I started to build a new layout with my children about 9 years ago. Most of that early Graham Farish N gauge stock has now been replaced with a sizeable collection of more modern models, but my Olney Riverside layout has made painfully slow progress (mostly due to family life and work commitments). And the children who inspired me to build a layout with them are now young men and don't really want to take part in their Dad's railway modelling hobby. After a burst of activity in early 2021, I started playing around with point motors, DCC operation, etc. and decided that I should create a micro layout as a bit of a test bed, before continuing with Olney West. After buying some 2mm scale Revolution Trains wagons that were incredibly well detailed but just too fine for my middle-aged eyesight to cope with, I thought it might be fun to have a play with O gauge - especially as the range of "affordable" ready to run models is expanding, thanks to Dapol. Enter Cwm Bach (Little Valley) - an entirely fictitious location in the South Wales valleys. There is a real Cwmbach (near Aberdare), but mine is made up. It is loosely based on my experiences from childhood visits to family in/around Cardiff in the 1970s and 1980s (if only I could get a 3-car class 116 DMU in white with blue stripe livery...) through to my time in the 1990s studying at the Polytechnic of Wales/University of Glamorgan, in Treforrest (Pontypridd). And today (after several weeks' work on the layout), I discovered that my name is not unique - Chris Klein (81A Old Oak) has a 1950s South Wales O gauge layout by the same name... oh well! My layout will be set in the late 1980s - at the terminus of a branch line which used to be a through route but now ends at a bricked-up tunnel. I have a Dapol 08 and a Dapol 121 in blue and grey (customising with Valley Lines transfers may come later) as well as a small assortment of wagons. I completely underestimated the size of O gauge, so it stretches the concept of a micro layout but three points and a few sidings in a 2.05x0.46m scenic section should allow me to test my wiring/motor concepts before I apply them to Olney West. I also thought I could create something quickly. No. At ~£50 for a set of points, I'm taking my time on this, but it's finally made enough progress that I thought I could start a thread here. So, enough on the computer (I came here to search for 7mm scale stone retaining walls and tunnel portals...) - time to get back to the modelling, before my Bank Holiday Monday is over. Track layout and some pics to follow soon...

Thanks @Marke. The seller is being really responsive and has offered me a partial refund. I'm just trying to work out the cost of parts before accepting (or not). Looking at BR Lines and Peter's Spares it's tricky to work out the right parts so have emailed Bachmann for cost of complete bogie.

Really helpful replies - thank you @jpendle and @rob D2. The noise is in both directions.

This is fantastic. I spent big chunks of my childhood (I was 14 in 1986) on Shrewsbury station (and nearby) and you have really captured the atmosphere!

I've just managed to get my hands on a N Gauge 372-241 Graham Farish Class 47 Diesel 47612 Titan in InterCity livery. I had to pay top dollar on eBay, because this model is tricky to get hold of. It was described as new (only taken out of box to test) but I'm starting to have concerns... The first thing I noticed was loose radio aerials on the cab roof. A minor issue, but concerning on a new model. The next thing I noticed was that it ran backwards on my DC test track. By that, I mean it ran in the opposite direction to everything else (including the directional lights on a Dapol Mk3 DVT). I took the body off and noticed that the DCC blanking plate was upside down, compared with another of my Farish 47s. Once I flipped that over, it started behaving. Most significantly though, the loco makes a "ticking" noise when it runs. There's no obvious vibration and it does actually run, but I have 3 more Farish (Bachmann) 47s that are much quieter. Hopefully this video helps to show the problem: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dlvpn88abrcl27t/20210423_203813.mp4?dl=0 The advert says the seller doesn't accept returns but this appears to be faulty. My question is, does this sound like something I should worry about (e.g. split gear) or is it likely to be an easy fix? I have no experience of servicing locos, but I'd try basic disassembly/reassembly.

Thanks @Nigelcliffe - sometimes it just helps if someone confirms my thinking! And I was using my multimeter incorrectly, because I was reading voltage (oops). Thanks for the advice.