Chuffer Davies

A progress update on the installation of the Airfix turntable on our Clayton layout. I have now cut the well into the top of the baseboard and installed the turntable in it. As previously mentioned, the Airfix turntable was chosen because it requires a very shallow well, approximately 6.5mm in our case, which meant the well could be milled into the 10mm thick plywood top of the baseboard. Once installed the rails radiating away from the turntable were laid. Each was aligned by eye by looking along the turntable to ensure the rails were straight on to the deck. The feed line unfortunately is on a curve, but fortunately the radius is around 4' 6" so I just have to hope that there wont be an issue getting locomotives on and off the table. When in use it is envisaged that the table will be operated from the main fiddle yard control panel, but the operator needs to be right next to the table to set up the initial indexing of the stepper motor. It has therefore been necessary to build a local panel specifically for setting up the table. The panel consists of three layers: the base is a sheet of 1mm steel which has been drilled for the switches and LEDs as well as 4 countersunk holes in the corner for attaching it to the baseboard. The middle layer is simply a sheet of paper with all the labels for the switches printed on it. The panel's top layer is a piece of 1mm clear Perspex. I have previously had bad experiences when trying to drill holes into thin Perspex and so I clamped the Perspex to the steel base plate and the holes for the switches and LEDS were cut out with a fine bladed piercing saw using the holes in the steel plate as a guide. A hole sufficient to clear the switches was cut in the baseboard and the steel plate was attached to the baseboard with 4 wood screws. The paper and Perspex were then placed on top and the switches installed to retain the Perspex top. As of today all the above board installation of the turntable is now complete including the buffer stops which are actually right angled plastic brackets for kitchen cabinets from B&Q. The wall behind the turntable is a portion of the spiral carrying the running lines the 7 inches down from the top end of the scenic section of the layout back to the level of the fiddle yard. I still have a lot of wiring to do under the base board so I now look forward to several back breaking hours sitting under the layout to wire it all up. Frank

I’m pleased to be able to share a picture of my latest completed model locomotive for the Shipley MRS’s Clayton layout. Designing the J2 model was a worry because the only reference drawing for the superstructure was the Isinglass drawing and it soon became apparent that there were some errors in it which could only be mitigated by studying photos. There was a very basic frame drawing in the NRM Archive. This enabled me to verify that the frames were identical to those of the J1 within the area contained between the curved which at least meant I could model these accurately. The model has been superbly painted and lined by that nice Mr Rathbone. I am relieved to see that the finished model does at least appear to resemble the prototype even if I can’t be completely certain about all the measurements. For those who like to know the details, this model is yet another with the motor mounted in the tender driving the loco’s wheels via a drive shaft running below the fall plate. Current collection is by the American system (I.e. no wiper pickups) and it has Ultrascale wheels set to EM gauge. High Level supplied the coreless motor and gearbox. The model will happily haul 30+ wagons up the 1/50 gradient on Clayton. Frank

A few days ago I visited Karl Crowther in Lancashire to collect three models that had been through Ian Rathbone's paint shop. Karl had kindly offered to collect them from Ian at Expo EM (Bracknell) and bring them back North so that I could just nip across from Yorkshire to get my hands on them. Two of the models are for Clayton (EM) and the third is my Bucket List - P4 model based on Bachmann's excellent GNR Atlantic. These have now all been through final assembly and with the exception of fire irons and lamps are now complete. On a previous visit to Karl's he had demonstrated a couple of DCC models in which he had installed 'Stay Alive' (SA) components. This is the electronic equivalent to having a flywheel. Being suitably impressed I have decided that I will install SA as standard in all models from now on and so two of these models now have it, but the third (the J52) does not because I hadn't left enough room in the model for the components to be installed. Some DCC Decoders already have the SA circuitry included and just require a capacitor to be connected to the common positive and negative 'rails' on the decoder's circuit board. In my case I have standardised on the small Zimo MX617 decoder and that does not have SA circuitry as standard and therefore requires an additional control unit. I have started using the Youchoos SACC16 LifeLink which is a tiny controller that sits between the Zimo Decoder and the Capacitor. I have shown these models before but to avoid the need for readers to look back through this blog I will summarise each loco in turn. J52: This is a model I designed in CAD early in 2021. This is not a model I have designed with the intention of becoming a commercially available kit on the basis that my etch only provides for one specific sub class of J52 of which only a dozen or so were built. Without significant modification the etches are only suitable for EM and P4 gauges whereas most modellers wish to build OO gauge models. The model has a split frame chassis and is powered by a High Level 13/20 coreless motor and 48/1 Roadrunner Compact+ gear box. It is virtually silent in operation. It is loaded with as much lead ballast as I could find room for and will easily pull 30+ wagons up the 1/50 gradient on Clayton. J2: This is another of my own CAD designed models (the tender is an LRM kit). It is my intention to offer the etches to John Redrupp at London Road Models so that he has the option to add it to his range of kits. The J2 was evolved from Ivatt's J1 class being fitted with piston valves rather than slide valves. The tail rods associated with the piston valves and main cylinders resulted in the J2's footplate being extended at the front by several inches (compared to that of the J1) and the rear of the footplate was also extended to provide a larger cab offering more protection to the crew. The wheel centres, wheel diameter, and valve gear were in the main identical to that of the J1 except for the linkage to the piston valves. The piston valves were (by necessity) located above rather than between the cylinders, this resulted in the boiler's centre line being raised by a couple of inches when compared to the J1. The model follows my now standard motor in tender (m-i-t) design allowing me to pack the entire smokebox, boiler and fire box assembly with lead ballast. Current collection is by the American system utilising the draw bar to pass current from the loco's chassis through to the motor. The usual High Level coreless motor and bespoke H/L RRC+ gearbox have been used along with a Zimo MX617 chip and Youchoos SA circuitry. The H/L spur gears to the drive shaft in the tender generate a slight whirring sound (compared to the J52) but this is drowned out by the sound of the train's wheels in operation. Bachmann C1 Atlantic: I designed the chassis for this a couple of years ago and have sold several sets of etches to other modellers since then. The etches allow a chassis to be built in either EM or P4 gauge, and any of the three possible tender chassis options are catered for. I have previously built an EM version so that I can run it for my own enjoyment on Clayton, but I fancied attempting building a model in P4 to see if I had the skills to build something that would run successfully on P4. The model uses the American system for current collection. The motor is a Portescap 16/16 unit (an early quiet one thankfully) installed in the firebox. It has my standard Zimo Decoder and SA circuitry and runs happily along my 18" (straight) test track. I have been invited to run it on Geoff Tiffany's Dewsbury layout and so I will arrange a visit once the current Covid peak has subsided. Thanks for reading. Frank

The Megapoints controllers are not compatible with digital servos. Sadly I bought our servos first (digital of course) and had to swap them out for analogue servos having bought the Megapoints controllers before realising the compatibility issue. Poor planning on my part, but at least others can learn from my mistakes. Frank

At the time we were planning Clayton there was still considerable debate about problems with the radio interference of passing locomotives causing servos to chatter with the associated risk of the blades moving under the wheels of the train. We therefore stuck with Tortoise point motors which had proven their reliability on Hungerford’s fiddle yard. Since then, however, we have chosen to use servos to control pins to hold a train of loose wagons on the 1:100 gradient of the marshalling sidings on Clayton. We are using Megapoint servo controllers to control these pins and they have proven to be chatter free. We will definitely extend the use of servos to signal control in due course and could equally have used them for point control. If using servos for point control there is the need to provide a means of switching the polarity of the point’s frog. Megapoints can supply a plug-in relay board for this purpose. I’m sure there are several other commercial solutions available. I’m not sure about the cost savings of using relays unless you build your own servo drivers as, although you can use relatively cheap servos, the cost of the driver boards soon adds up to much the same as using Cobalt or Tortoise motors. Regards, Frank

Hi Chas, you are absolutely correct in your deductions. Probably not an issue if we were only using analogue control, but Clayton is a hybrid layout which also provides a DCC option for loco control. Shorting out the track feed whilst DCC is selected would cause the command unit to drop the feed for the entire zone, not a good idea! To mitigate against this we will interrupt the track power to the table whilst it is rotating by means of a relay. This has the added advantage that there is no risk of accidentally moving a locomotive either on the table itself or on one of its storage tracks until it has come to rest in-line with the selected track. Frank

As usual, although I attempt to progress projects one at a time, I have had to interrupt loco building. We have all but ironed out the last few 'bugs' (a software term) effecting the operation of our Clayton layout. At the heart of the operation of the layout and its three associated control panels, are around 70 custom designed micro processor boards. The processor boards have been designed and programmed by Bill Wyatt-Millington (chairman of the EMGS) an electronics engineer by profession. I helped to specify how these boards would interface with the devices under the layout and the switches and LEDs of the control panel. What all the switches do, and how the devices under the layout and in the panels are triggered (point motors, servos, LEDs etc.) is all controlled by rules encoded in an Excel spreadsheet. There is still one major element missing from the fiddle yard, this being a turntable with 11 locomotive storage roads. We cannot finally sign off the electronics until we have an operational turntable and so I have interrupted my locomotive construction to build one. Various commercial solutions were considered, but as well as the associated cost of many of these the main problem I kept coming up against was the depth that these structures occupied under the base board. Our base boards are 4 inches deep and generally the commercial mechanisms would stick out below the board and therefore be very vulnerable to damage. I kept coming back to an old unmade Airfix turntable kit that I have had in a cupboard for thirty or more years. The design is remarkably shallow requiring a well depth of only 6.5mm, but even if I could get it to turn freely enough I would still need a mechanism to drive it. A recent visit to my good friend Karl Crowther turned up a possible solution from the MERG. Their solution uses a stepper motor and 1/250 gearbox from RS Components having a total depth of only 2 inches below the base board's surface. I have therefore been working on an upgrade to the Airfix turntable in the hope that I could make it operational. I ordered four small ball races (8mm o/d x 2.5mm width) to replace the carrying wheels on the outriggers, and I also ordered a slightly larger ball race (15mm o/d x 6mm i/d) to be the central bearing to take the majority of the weight of the table plus locomotive. The turntable was modified to accept these various ball bearings and a new central brass axle was turned up on the lathe and stuck over the original plastic axle on the underside of the table. Initial experimentation revealed that the turntable turned freely when unloaded but as soon as a locomotive was placed on top the plastic out riggers flexed too much causing the underside of the table to scrape on the walkway forming part of the base ring of the table. An attempt to remove material from the underside of the table to achieve the required clearances was unsuccessful. Today I solved the problem by reinforcing the outrigger supports with nickel silver strengtheners, and this appears to have cured the problem. The table now turns freely even with my heaviest locomotive (currently a Q2) atop it. (Reinforced Outrigger) The last modification required has been to install a split brass ring on the underside of the table within its central pivot to facilitate the transfer of track current to the rails on top. Two plunger pickups will be installed in the base of the table to rub against this split ring. (Split ring for transfer of track current. N.B. lower outriggers prior to addition of n/silver strengthening) (Sprung plungers for transfer of track current) Bill will construct the MERG control board (supplied as a kit of parts) and will then code the software changes required to interface his micro processor boards with the table's control board. In the mean time I will install the turntable on the layout along with its associated storage tracks and will wire it all in in preparation for Bill's changes. I've really enjoyed this project as its been something a bit different for a change. I've painted the table black as there is no point in going to town on it because its in the fiddle yard. I've also not bothered adding the finer detail because it will be vulnerable to damage and is not required anyway. I have to say that I have gained considerable respect for the original designers of this Airfix kit as it is actually mechanically designed to very tight tolerances. If it were not for the amount of flex in the plastic this would have been a fairly straight forward conversion. Thanks for reading, Frank

This sampling rate would not be suitable for more traditional motors widely used in the hobby so unless you want to standardise on coreless motors it would not be appropriate. Regards, Frank

I have not read anything in the literature from Faulhaber to suggest that they have made changes to their brush gear so the same precautions are still necessary. Remember that model railways are not a significant consumer of such motors which are primarily designed for use in high precision instruments. I sometimes use the analogy that fitting a DCC chip is like relocating your analogue controller to the inside of the locomotive and then sending instructions to it through the rails from another controller. Changing the switch on a Pentroller for different types of motor is the equivalent of modifying the CVs on the DCC chip. In this way each loco is carrying its own dedicated controller optimised for the motor installed in that particular model. Regards, Frank

Hi Tony, Running coreless motors with feedback is not a universal problem, it depends on the controller. In my personal experience my coreless fitted loco's have had issues with both the early ECM and some Gaugemaster hand held controllers. As well as problems with analogue control, when running DCC fitted loco's with coreless motors, to get the very best performance, it is recommended that CV's associated with feedback are adjusted to reflect the high efficiency of the coreless motor. I always make the following changes (as recommended in the Zimo instruction manual): CV9=12 to reduce the % of time spent sampling feedback from the motor which in turn reduces noise and increases power. CV56=100 (or above by experimentation) to eliminate jerking. With the demise of the popular Mashima motors modellers are increasingly turning to coreless motors from the likes of Maxxon, Faulhaber and High Level. A modern high efficiency motor will not necessarily perform well on an old controller that was possibly optimised to operate less efficient motors from the likes of Hornby Dublo and Triang, etc. Regards, Frank

The slide bar’s splayed ends is Dapol’s solution to avoiding the connecting rod from hitting the slide bar. The prototype has a milled slot in the end of the bottom slide bar, the top slide bar doesn’t interfere with the connecting rod. Hornby’s solution was to offset the connecting rod behind the slide bar. The popular way kit builders achieve this is to bevel the upper face at the end of the bottom slide bar. The material that Dapol has used for their slide bars is very brittle and will almost certainly crack if attempts to straighten them are made. There are no replacement gear solutions for the early Dapol Mogul models. Your best bet is to be patient and wait for the new model to be released, which hopefully will be later this year. Frank

The same could be said about the correct number of spokes on a bogie wheel. A consistent level of detail is what I always aim for particularly with regards the level of detail above the footplate versus that below the footplate. Therefore leaving Markit wheel nuts exposed is definitely something I avoid. Frank

According to Hattons they are expecting delivery between June and November this year.

That looks outstanding…. Congratulations. Frank

If this is EM gauge then this will be a perfect match to the Society’s 1:6 points. Don’t throw it away just park it for the future as there will be a number of EMGS members wanting this. Great work, Frank

Any chance you could post some pictures as a reference please? Regards, Frank

Hi Tony, that is very useful indeed and quite thought provoking. A much broader range of techniques than I was expecting. I have some old carpet underlay but it’s very corse and the medical lint used on Hungerford was an equivalent but finer material. Thanks also for all the photos. We’ll be meeting up tomorrow so we can have a good discussion with regards where to go next. We too have 30 feet of layout to landscape which at 5 feet deep will require a similar amount of grassing over to LB. Thanks again, Frank

The urgent topic of discussion on the Clayton project is grass and the best way to reproduce it. We tried a test square using static grass, but despite the filaments looking Matt in their container once planted they had a slight sheen about them which looked wrong to our way of thinking. We used medical lint on Hungerford and liked the effect this gave, but that was 20+ years ago and I’m advised that you can’t get hold of the stuff these days. Tony, can I ask what you used on LB and could you provide a close up image of the grass? We will be modelling dairy pasture in the main so I wonder what others have used and how satisfied were they with the final effect? Regards, Frank

Inspirational stuff Clem. Thanks for sharing. Frank

I have documented previously my dislike of pickups and as a result I transfer current via live frames in all my kit built locomotives. This entails building split frame chassis for tank engines whilst using the simpler American system for tender engines. Electrolube was the obvious choice for lubricating these chassis until it was made known to me that it can effect plastics. Since I only use plastic centred wheels (Ultrascale, Sharman or Gibson) I am obviously concerned that my use of Electrolube may result in failure of the plastic wheels, but despite having used it for many years as yet this has not happened. As a precaution I no longer use Electrolube and am using a synthetic oil obtained from Eileen’s Emporium. I have not noticed any negative impact on electrical continuity as a result of this change of lubricant but I will continue to monitor the integrity of the wheels. Hopefully I have got away with it but only time will tell. Frank

You are lucky that you haven't had issues with using Electrolube because it is a very good electrical conductor and can cause shorts if used incorrectly, You might try Eillen's Emporium as a provider of alternative lubricant solutions. The dispenser on this link looks like a possible alternative to the Electrolube dispenser. www.eilensemporium.com/materals-for-modellers/product/precision-oiler/category_pathway-1109 . Frank

Hi, I've already started replacing some of the missing photos from my posts. When you go into Edit the label of the missing photo is displayed and embedded within this label is the original reference of the photo from your own system. It's a slow process but it is doable. I'd recommend you don't delete the original (empty) photos from the bottom of the edit until you have loaded and added the replacement photos so as not to lose its position in your entry. Regards, Frank

Its certainly something I have used historically to anchor the back of Portescap units to allow compensated or sprung axles to move freely in their horn guides. It is a long time since I had any sealant knocking around the the garage and so I now use Bluetac which seems to work just as well. Frank

Gives us something to do whilst we await the next golden nugget from Wayne. He likes to tease you know… Frank

I don’t agree with the analogy. For change to occur there has to be both the opportunity and the motivation. Whilst Wayne’s track work provides the opportunity there is very little motivation as far as the vast majority of railway modellers are concerned. Most are already completely happy with OO to the point that many don’t actually realise that the track is narrow to scale. Some technology advances in the hobby are forwards compatible with little effort such as the example you made where clock work powered models could co-exist with the new fangled electric motored models. indeed I predict that remote control battery powered locos will increasingly be found coexisting on traditional Analogue and DCC powered layouts. The hurdle to overcome with conversion to EM requires either starting afresh or a major investment in converting legacy stock to the wider gauge. As someone who has over many years promoted EM modelling as both an exhibitor and demonstrator, I have discussed the topic of conversion many times both with the visiting public and with Reps of the major model railway manufacturers, and I know that the desire to convert to EM is only held by a small minority of modellers and only a few of them will actually make the switch. Wayne’s track work will increase the ratio within this minority but will not influence the majority who are already happy with or oblivious to the short comings of OO. Frank