Selborne

Hi Ray, the Class 419 has battery power for short trips off 3rd rail, in this case to get to the depot :-)

Hi Guys, Just a short up date and a few pictures. We had a great weekend at Cheltenham Exhibition, met some really nice folk ! We had one problem, one of the CML DAC 20 decoders failed just an hour into operation on the first day, has now been replaced, purchased an 8 way every channel CDU output unit from Digi Trains, runs better than the CML decoder, as when you switch a macro, all the points operate together, rather than one at a time with a one second gap. The DAC 20 will be sent back to CML for repair and then we will keep it as a spare. The replacement main signal with feather arrived, however we ordered a red / green and got an amber / green, in a R/G package ?. but managed to make one good signal from both sets of parts, there feather looks great ! Have placed an order with Mr Slate for the fit out of my main service shed, looking to go with the normal workshop equipment, benches etc, however have commissioned an overhead gantry crane, should look great. Have also ordered some additional lighting columns and fittings, we are also going to illuminate all the buildings and more of the yard. Here are a few pictures using the lighting currently fitted to get some atmospheric night time shots, also you will see my new Class 205 'Hampshire Diesel' or Thumper, just arrived from Kernow Models, 9 month wait !! A little disappointed with the volume of the sound, even though I have set the CV's to max, might try some different speaker configurations. Speak soon,

It was great to meet you guys as well ! It was a nice little exhibition, and the quality of the layouts was stunning, Luc and I really enjoyed ourselves :-) I have posted a few pictures from the weekend, sadly I dd not take many of my layout, spent all my time with Steve on Worcester Road, really great layout !! Hope to see you all again, sometime soon ! Jamie and Luc

Hi Rob, yes agree they need more, they are currently weather lightly but need to remove the shine, as these machines never had such a shine in real life ! Couple of videos as promised; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOgRm9sP37E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prTH3Crqojk Jamie

You are too fast Rich, you beat me to the update :-) Some pictures from yesterdays running (Richard has already shown you three above), have been working through all the little niggles and control issues to ensure that we have a faultless running layout, so the signals have worked out fine, however the ground signals are little to bright, so we are fitting 10k resistors to reduce the brightness plus capacitors to slow the changerate, an additional decoder has been acquired to split the shunt run around points from the signal decoder to reduce volt drop issues when the points are operated, so been busy, should have things ready for Cheltenham on the 24th Oct, looking forward to it. Also a video of the signals in operation can be found here https://www.facebook.com/groups/295777203802227/918974274815847/?notif_t=like I will post some more on you tube once the signal works have been completed, I have acquired some new rolling stock, as can be seen in the pictures 3 x Hornby Express Parcel MK1 coaches, weathered by TMC, look and run great. speak soon Jamie

OK, sorry I have not updated recently, been very busy, however my son and I have now managed to get the signals all working. we added another DAC20 decoder board so that we could automate the signals, this proved not to be straight forward due to a number of factors, these included; 1. The decoder has a switched positive for each accessory with a constant negative, which is fine for points and relays but for LED's this does not work, as the LED's are diodes, so we had to make up small two relay control boards which the decoder switched and then the feeds through the relays could have switched negatives. 2. The NCE controller will only allow for 8 accessories to be swiched with any one Macro, as we had routes to set with points and the signals needed to be swicthed as well we had some macros requiring up to 12 items, so this means that we have to use two macros for route operation, so we have a macro for the points and another macro for the signals, works fine. 3. Another issue is that the NCE controller can only hold up to 15 macros, this mean that we could not have a macro for each route, instead we have had to be smart and combine macros to achieve the routes we need. In the end we managed to get everything working well, and we can now select any route from the fiddle yard into the scenic area only sing 2 macros, this has speeded up the the route allocation and the signals all follow the correct path. we have ordered a few more resistors and capacitors as we want to include for a slightly dimmer LED in the signal, more scale and have a fade on and off, to achieve this we have a 15VDC supply and therefore we have used 10k ohm resistors 1/4 watt, to get the dimmer look, plus the capacitors are 200uf 25v, this gives about o.5 sec fade on and off which looks scale and very realistic. Once the resistors and capacitors are all fitted I will post some short videos to show the operation of the signals. Oh, also the better half got me a new split code Class 37 blue weathered from Olivia Trains, for my birthday, it is great, a little loud, so I will have to turn it down a bit, can anybody tell me the CV for the volume ? The layout will be showing at Cheltenham on the 24th and 25th October, plus we have dates for next year in the east of England confirmed, including Stowmarket, Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich and Colchester. best Regards Jamie

A little bit of time travel on Oakley Green :-)

A Couple of Extra pictures from The Barnstaple Show;

Well the layout is finally home and settled in the garage, a big thank you to Richard for creating a masterpiece, well done ! , I am sure that the withdrawal symptoms will start to ease in a week or two !! Currently the Layout is confirmed for Cheltenham Model Railway Exhibition 24th and 25th October 2015, and provisional bookings have been made for Stowmarket 2016 and Chelmsford 2016, however you are welcome to spread the word. My son and I have been discussing the next step in the development of the layout and we have plans to add a second 8 way decoder to control the signals and lighting, using macros we should be able to automate the signals to allow the correct function based on the point direction, plus we will be starting to consider the fit out of the workshop building with the assistance of Mr Slate. Things will go quiet for a while, holiday season, but hopefully we can continue the development of Oakley Green into the Autumn. As always comments are welcome, Best Regards Jamie

Hi mate, Yep, I completely agree with the space, some rails with sleepers, cable drums etc with weeds sounds perfect ! I note in the corner where the side and back board meet, the scene changes slightly, how about a nice tree in this corner, sort of cut to fit in the 90 deg ? Have to say though, the back scene look really good, I am very happy with the look ! With regard to the signals, I note you have added two additional signals coming into the yard, what are they R/G only ? and the main signal is that just an R/G with route or does it have an amber ? the ground signals are also just R/G ? let me know, so I can work out the wiring for the minimum number of switches. Also, question regarding the concrete pads outside the workshop and refuelling area, how will they be finished off, painted or some sort of coating ? I think from a lighting perspective, one more yard lights should do it, one over the end shunt/fuel delivery area, I think the oil depot area should be illuminated via the road side type lamps we have discussed, one every 30 feet is the normal spaces, but one every tanker position would also be suitable, plus what ever you think is necessary for the road area and outside lights for the parcel and work shops, up to you. Otherwise looking great ! Jamie

I was thinking mate, might be good to get some really fine brass tube to run the cables in for the shed lights, sort of over scale conduit, these could come straight up from the floor level with the beams, what do you think ? I had a look at the building lights supplied by Layout4U and they are really smart, almost scale high bay light fittings. by the way the refulling area looks really good, an dthe fence work great also, the fence does look a little unstraight at the end nearest the back, or is this the camera angle ? Anyway speak soon, Jamie

The two lamp fitting is on this page; http://www.layouts4u.net/ooscaleyard.html Last ones at the bottom.

Hi Mate, I went to the Stowmarket Model Railway exhibition today, not bad group of layout, and a few guys were aware of the layout, due to this blog, so that was a good talking point, Layout4U were there and they had there stand with all the lights on it and I think based on this that I have found the lights to use. Let me know what you think; For the yard, the two lamp PL2 style fittings £5.00 each, will most likely need quite a few, for the road areas then street lights T91A 6 for £8.00 plus, they do really small wall lights for the sheds, MBL fitting 2 for £3.50, these can be added to the parcl and engine shed inside and out. See what you think, They also did ground and route signals, night be worth having at chat with them. Speak soon, Jamie

Looking forward to seeing the back scenes in place, I would have thought that EvoStik would have been fine for the glue, what was the glue supplied like ? speak soon Jamie

Hi Richard, Starting to take shape, the shed is looking great, also the refueling area is looking the part as well :-) I see you placed a long parcel coach in the siding for scale, this is the same coach which I have a couple of. As we discussed, that siding will be an odds and sods area, bit of clearway, general yard maintenance area, cables drums etc, should be great. With regard to the the power supply, if you get the one I sent you the link for, you have the connector cable which can be mounted on the layout, cut and jointed as necessary, thus leaving the power pack and lead to be able to be 'plugged in' , perhaps you could drill a hole and have it mounted near to the controller connector ? I will leave it to you to decide :-) Speak soon, Jamie