Bob Hordern

Here's the (almost) finished panel at Kirkby Bridge. Note the newly added LEDs showing route settings. Plus detail of my 'auto switch' to allow the headshunt to be my programming track. (sooooo much cheaper than the NCE option) Bob

More info in this month’s Railway Modeller (May 2021)

Well here's the completed local Wharfedale panel - obviously re-cycled - which works well and looks neat enough. It is electronically much simpler than the main panel at Kirtley Bridge. The panel drops in and is held by two small screws. It can be removed entirely via a pluggable 12-way terminal connector. The upper lines are the quarry, which include a three way point, an uncoupler and the quarry gate. The lower line is just the entrance to the fiddleyard. The small LEDs - red (?) and green (x3) show track settings. The white power switch (a 4PDT) and large yellow LED indicate when this local panel is in control. Wiring links to the main panel are done but still need connecting to the equivalent switches there. This will enable dual or singleton operation. Note the adjacent area for ☕️ - to help keep operator no2 happy. (area was planned to house the timetable but ..........) Take care, Bob

Well we finally got the thing working. The basic Powercab and MERG booster are compatible after all. Thanks all who contributed to helping me solve this issue both here and via the MERG members' website. All down to mixing up two of the resistors when building the Booster Board!!!!!! So my decision to go with the MERG kit has saved buying the more expensive NCE booster. For £100 I got the booster kit, power supply and three DCOs. Think I will join the MERG club ready for my next project! Regards, Bob

And three come along at once........ This section is about my schedule/timetable for Kirtley Bridge. The basics of the operational sequence were already in place for exhibitions using train movement cards. However there were two many of these and they did not fully describe operations. New or part-time operators needed more help. It was therefore decided to move these onto the control panel at Kirtley Bridge and create what was in effect a set of 'flip charts' - maybe x6. Below is a mock up of what the eventual set-up may look like. The times of trains shown are largely fiction (and may be not be used long term). So this is really about having a day’s sequence of train movements rather than a proper timetable. I have kept in mind the real train services from the Nidd Valley Railway working timetable at Lofthouse and Pateley Bridge. These will become more useful when I eventually get Kirtley Bridge and Lofthouse operating together. The idea (see the extract below) is to display the train movements with their rostered locomotives shown in the right hand column. The last digit of each loco number is the code needed to ‘call it up’ - remember this is DCC - eg the 1F #1820 responds ‘0’. I plan to have seven locos. The coloured arrows show more information about direction, origin and destination - eg green for the Hebden Beck Quarry, red for Wharfedale fiddleyard and blue for Dalehead. The coloured text on the left indicates particular activities (to help other operators), whilst the yellow highlighting identifies passenger services. This is about as far as I have got for now. My efforts are now focussed on upgrading the old DC local panel at the Wharfedale/quarry end of the layout which needs to be more DCC friendly. Being able to switch control between here and Kirtley Bridge will be very useful allowing for single or dual operation. Take care, Bob

With the DCC up and running I next needed to upgrade the operation side of things. The control panels The original Kirtley Bridge panel has been partly refurbished and extended. This was to accomodate two things..... The additional electronics and he timetable operation (more of this later). As outlined previously I am using a Powercab which allows me to run two trains and some others 'simmering' in recall. The main panel therefore houses the older DC circuits, a couple of DCOs, the Megapoints unit and a (5amp) MERG booster. This latter is to cope with the larger layout viz KIrtley Bridge plus the Lofthouse. Another controller and DCO are planned for the latter's panel. Here you can see the power source (top right) and booster (top left) in the photo, plus the three cut-outs that will protect the DCC districts from short circuits, etc. seen below. Note that, unlike in DC, a simple short circuit can under DCC lead to other complications. The booster module was placed in the old metal power box that once held all my AC electrics for the layout. As you can see the older DC transformers are still in there providing power for the points, uncoupling magnets and LEDs. The white chocbox is only temporary till all the circuits are ready. The cream-coloured disc is an audio alarm, while the small computer fan helps keep it all cool just in case. The layout runs happily on the basic Powercab with DCOs - the above photo shows the inside of the panel - but eventually I will need to add in the booster. I have found this part of the electonics a bit of a challenge but with the help of a few colleagues I hope to get the booster 'talking' soon. Stay tuned, as they say. More to follow, take care, Bob

Well it's been over a year since my last post on here. So what's been happening through my lockdown? My original plan had been to continue on the exhibition circuit with Kirtley Bridge for a year or two whilst I was still fit enough to haul the layout around. Then I planned to finish refurbing the old club layout 'Lofthouse' and make possible a 'U' shaped layout at home using both. The final phase would see me going at least partly over to DCC drawn by the 'sound' this would provide. However the pandemic intervened and I needed to alter these plans. So basically the travelling was off and the DCC was brought forward. The only issue now is that I may find the exhibiting , once we get back to 'normal', is too much. I have withdrawn from 2021 bookings due to Covid and family reasons, but am stil pencilled in/rolled over for others in 2022. First up the DCC........ After much research I settled on an NCE Powercab. This is a beginner’s set-up but it can be added to as your layout or motive power roster grows. The Powercab can operate as both a throttle and a command station. At the other end of things there needs to be a decoder in each loco. In my case all my existing locos were analogue and so needed to be fully converted. In addition I decided to include sound, speaker and a ‘stay alive’. How much did all this cost? Decoders and power inputs were the big ticket items. Plus needing to build or adapt the layout to DCC working. Kirtley Bridge was wired for DC via cab control (two controllers) with bus wires. All I had to do initially was replace the old power supply with a smoothed DCC one and buy a new throttle – NCE Powercab provided both. The existing six track sections were removed and I settled for two districts. For locos the cost is cheaper if you buy RTR with DCC already fitted. For example a Dapol 3F jinty in DCC with sound fitted is now as little as £275. The conversion of my existing DC version cost me around £75. For my kitbuilt and scratch built locos the cost was greater as it was harder to fit the decoders as often there were space and weighting issues. I had to decide whether to go DIY or have these fitted professionally - at about £30. I chose to use Digitrains of Lincoln who were very good and not overpriced like some dealers. So how did I fund my DCC operations? I had 11 locos whose value was continually falling as they were DC. Plus I was also using only 7 of these in my exhibition timetable, the rest being just alternatives. So it was decided to sell some and convert the others. Most went via eBay which was fine as long as you keep an eye on their fees. However there were some really tough decisions here about perceived favourites or which locos were vital to the ‘mission’ - but that’s modelling! One DC loco remains as yet. This seems to me to be a worthwhile trade-off. I am currently running points, signalling and LEDs under DC power as only the track is DCC. I am very happy with the control this conversion has given me for now. The diesel sounds in particular are really excellent whilst the steam locos are good enough. Best of all you feel you are driving trains not simply switching tracks. More to follow, take care, Bob

All goes directly to booster, Don

Hello JOHN So, as the discussion confirmed: have you connected the track output on the PCP panel, normally the 2 pin plug in connector on the PCB to the NB1B DCC input? YES Are both units supplied independently with their proper power supplies? YES This was how Harry left the discussion, he was to check with you that things were wired up as they should be having confirmed that the NB1B unit was working as it should. THE UNIT WORKS, IN THAT MY LOCOS WILL SET OFF OK. HOWEVER ON REACHING 12/13 OUT OF 28 STEPS THE ALARM SOUNDS AND THE POWER CUTS OFF. The fact that the discussion has stalled is down to the fact that no new information confirming the above has been forthcoming I guess I HAVE ASKED HARRY TO CONTINUE THE DISCUSSION VIA THE MERG FORUM ON MY BEHALF AS I AM NOT A MERG MEMBER. HARRY HAS HELPED ME WITH OTHER ELECTRONICS IN THE PAST. WHILST I AM A LONGTIME MODELLER I AM NEW TO MATTERS DCC. I AM ABLE TO RUN MY LAYOUT FOR NOW WITHOUT THE BOOSTER. My apologies to you John, I was not aware that you were talking to Harry via MERG. I was merely trying to resolve what is becoming an increasingly frustrating issue for me, by posting a query on a different forum. Regards, Bob

Hmm This issue and its discussion seems to have stalled on the MERG forum. I think sadly it has them stumped!

Yes I am using the correct booster PSU Sorry, should be -RS-485 and +RS-485 signals Bob

Thanks for quick reply Ray. Using the MERG booster was in part to avoid the cost of SB5, so I'm still wondering if the Powercab can work directly with the MERG booster and no SB5 involvement? Bob

Are these two items compatible? Set up below... x1 Powercab (2amps) works fine on my layout using the track output from the PCP panel. Happy enough for now, but more throttles, locos & extension are on their way. x2 Merg DCOs (one per district) added to system recently and work OK Merg Booster (at 5amp) bench tests as working fine too When all of these are installed using the track output link, locos run OK at slow speed. However as speed is increased the cutouts/AWDs kick in. What is going wrong? Is it possible that the Powercab output is too great for the booster? Can I add a resistor to either the PCP-booster link or on the booster board itself to deal with this? Pretty sure the components are all working OK and the layout is too - substituting a simple length of plain track gives the same results. Tried using the LOCONET DCC signal outputs (green and red wires) via the RJ45 sockets (middle two) but this gave an immediate cutout. Anyone been down this route? Would welcome some advice. Bought the kits via a friend in MERG so don't really have access to MERG forum for this query. Regards, Bob

Early morning arrival at Lofthouse

Bit further on now....

This post is about the final board for Lofthouse which had been put to one side for long enough and so I have decided to sort it out. The adjacent board was not retained meaning that the remaining two boards did not match up. This meant that the riverbed, the trackbed and the contours of the scenery were all at odds. How best then to rectify this problem? To tackle the river part first I decided to lower board #1 by cutting 25mm from the base of the framework all round, much as I had done with the other boards. This brought things into line vertically and meant that I had very little left to excavate from the river bank. To bring the ends of each board into line I built up plywood formers to match with the neighbouring board #2. These formed the outline of the new embankment and the raised level of the field beyond the track. A space was left for the permanent way. The existing fence and occupation crossing were put aside for later. When I broke up the missing ‘barn’ board I extracted and retained the trackbed. You can see the track still mounted on its trimmed board here in the third photo (yes the jigsaw again!) It was clear that matching up the existing sleepers and rails would be quite a task so why not re-use them. So I next placed the cut out trackbed directly onto board #1 and simply screwed and glued it down. This created a new trackbed at just about the correct height. The next step was to rebuild the scenery around this structure. Here I used up some old newspaper and plaster found in the workshop as the area involved was quite small. Next I used some old scenic mat and bushes collected from the other discarded boards to match up the vegetation across the two boards. The crossing, gates and fencing have now been re-located. The embankments have their first covering of grass whilst the farm track has been surfaced in a layer of fine sand and some additional stones are setting in the river bed. This still needs more work to be convincing! The rose bay willow herb clump seen here was salvaged from the original layout. This photo reveals that I’ve still got quite a lot left to do…............fix the engineers dowel and overclip, connect up the track bus, realign and trim the last few inches of rail, tidy up the ballast, add crossing boards, detail the surface of the farm track and plant some trees. Static grass cover is also needed for the fields - the old cover is now thirty years old - but I’ll do this when I can work along the whole of the layout. More to come soon. Bob

Latest position with DCC having taken over control. A converted Dapol 3F Jinty and an Ixion Fowler LMS2 are the first two locos seen at work. Lighting and electromagnetic uncouplers are installed, with a few bits of track snagging to do (taped) then we're up and running.

Not sure I like the Cab 06 design and isn't it more limited than the powercab unit? Guess the price is good though. Younger colleagues keep telling be JMRI with ipad is the way to go. Bob

Which brand/model of slave Cab are you using?

I have recently begun the process of changing over from DC to DCC. I now have a Power Cab for my 7mm layout which works fine. I am at present running one engine in steam then recalling my other fitted loco when needed. More loco conversions will follow. However I would like to have a second loco under control (I don't mean consisting) when I have a second operator. The 5amp power booster sounds good but at present I don't need a lot of power as everything but my track bus happily runs on existing DC power supplies (lighting, points, Megapoints.....) I was wondering about the next step regarding throttles? Is NCE the obvious choice or are there alternative but compatible options? Bob

Some further progress on this refurb.... Points given new servo motors and mounts Track bus and new DC wiring installed Control panel built for front of layout

Some progress on this refurb.... Firstly the two end fiddle yards were removed Next the trestle bridge and quarry incline were sold on This left eight boards remaining (see plans) these were reduced still further leaving the five boards shown above these were than trimmed of their legs, excess wood ,old electrics and manual point operations This led to the situation below (final board needs work to develop a 'curved' exit track

Yep Scott this is our Club site. The layout was before my time and there's no magazine in our records. Bob

Hi folks I have recently saved an old award-winning layout (Lofthouse in Nidderdale) from the skip and I am told it was featured in an early BRM mag in the 1990s. Two questions does anyone know what month/year it featured? Anyone able to do me a scan (paper/file) of the article? Happy to reimburse expenses, etc. Photos added to perhaps jog a memory Thanks in advance, Bob attached to jog a memory.....

All you say is correct t-b-g However the modelled stock does not come with the layout and my existing locos are very much LMS, plus a nod to LNER. I'll bring the layout home soon and get it working again and then see what's what. Rule 1 looming? As for a signal box, it had half a dozen levers set up en plein air, literally on the platform. Heres the railmotor in real and model form. No 15 Hill (seen at Lofthouse) was an articulated steam railmotor manufactured by Kerr Stuart of Stoke-on-Trent for the GWR in 1905. It was bought by Bradford Corporation for the NVLR in 1921, but was not immediately successful on the Nidd Valley. With the engine pushing, it had trouble ascending the grades between Pateley Bridge and Lofthouse and had to be sent to the triangle at Starbeck, near Harrogate on the North Eastern for turning, so as to put more weight on the driven wheels of the engine. Bob Rod - Yes I've been watching Howard's progress on GOG. (sounds like a religious allogory )