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Harlequin

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  1. Harlequin
    I have a Bachmann City class "Killarney" fitted with a YouChoos sound project and I love the wheezy, squeaky straining sounds that it makes, which seem to fit this venerable class of loco very well. However, the sound always had the unmistakable quality of coming from inside a thin plastic box.
     
    Last week I had a brainwave that would solve two problems at once: I could replace the awful moulded metal coal load with something that both looked better and that would transmit the sound better from the speaker, which is directly below it. My thinking was that there would be enough gaps between the big lumps of best Welsh loco coal to allow sound to pass through. So here's what I did today:
     
    1. Remove the supplied coal load and use it to form an equivalent shape cut from insect screen mesh.

     
    2. Cut a new aperture in the tender body under the coal load.

     
    3. Test fit the new mesh

     
    4. Glue loco coal to the mesh using Copydex. The first layer had to be done carefully to avoid clogging the mesh with glue. A couple of further layers were added mainly to fill in gaps in the first layer rather than to add depth.

     
    5. Fit the new load. You can see daylight through it, which is exactly what we want!

     
    6. Here she is back on the test track. I might need to fill gaps with more dabs of Copydex and more lumps of coal as I watch her over the next few days - but it looks reasonably convincing at first glance.

    (Maybe the tender is a bit overfilled?) I might also glue some lead inside the body to replace the lost weight of the original coal load.
     
    So there it is: A speaker grille made of coal!
     
    The sound is definitely clearer but still a little "plasticky" if I'm honest. Perhaps a bigger speaker would fit in the space...?
     
  2. Harlequin

    DCC Test Track Tweaks

    By Harlequin,

    When I started using the PiSprog and JMRI I realised that I needed to be able to isolate a loco for programming because the PiSprog does not have separate main and programming track outputs.
     
    It became obvious that I would need some section switching and since the storage sidings were not yet properly powered, relying on power switching from the electrofrog points alone, I decided to generally improve the electrics.
     
    After inserting isolating joiners where needed and gluing down the siding tracks, I soldered lots of new droppers and then dismantled the layout so I could get to work on the main board.
     
    A simple switch panel was made from an aluminium door "finger plate" from B&Q.

     
    LED's with suitably sized resistors were soldered across the DCC outputs of the switches to give some more visual feedback of the powered areas. (Do these count as DCC "Districts"?)

     
    This was mounted behind a hole cut into the side wall of the baseboard.

     
    The PiSprog was mounted into a customised case and fixed to the underside of the board.



     
    All wired up and the layout boards re-assembled:

     
    You can see that I've attached the monitor to the board on a swing arm, added some LED lights, protected the switches from accidental knocks and made a cassette for turning locos. The cassette will probably also be used as the programming track.
     
    Mounting the PiSprog under the board keeps things tidy but as I discovered this morning plugging cables into it is a bit of a pain. Maybe needs some more thought.
     
    So hopefully now I can really get to grips with the software and CVs.
  3. Harlequin
    Even though I'm a GWR man through and through I convinced myself that I really ought to have a Flying Scotsman. A distant family connection, a special offer from Locomotion and the feeling that every modeller should really have one at some time were enough for me.
     
    Now I find myself coveting the Hornby Stannier Duchess!
     
    And I don't even have a layout yet, just some track on a table! Argh!
  4. Harlequin
    I knew that somewhere here I had a box full of Plastikard and some bottles of "Mek-Pak". After searching in my loft and my back bedroom, and getting distracted by old forgotten model spaceships and some great treasures, I found it! (Never throw anything away!)
     
    I have a selection of plain and embossed sheets, and bits of: an army tank kit, spaceship kits, wagon kits and signal kits. Also a selection of extrusions of different sections, some fencing and some valancing.

     
    Some of the bottles still have something in them...

  5. Harlequin

    Driver Albert Pibworth on the GWR

    By Harlequin,


    Pibworth
    My Grandma did a lot of research into our family history and she published the collected results. Consequently, I’ve known for a while that the famous LNER driver, Albert Pibworth (known as “Old Pib”), was a distant relative of mine.
     
    The Pibworth family can be traced back to the village of Pebworth in Worcestershire in the 16th century. Although they spread far and wide, the branch leading to Albert Pibworth (and me!) came from the villages to the south west of Newbury. He was born at Enborne in 1864, very much in Great Western territory but in 1883, after a brief stint on the Western, he moved on to become a GNR railwayman.
     
    This relocation and change of employer causes some minor confusion with casual railway historians and irks me slightly because I’m a GWR fan. To me, it would be more satisfying if he’d been a famous GWR driver!
     
    However, the story and the modelling possibilities got more interesting recently when I discovered that he drove an LNER A1 Pacific on GWR rails in the famous 1925 exchange trials.
     
    I wonder if his Berkshire origins gave him any prior knowledge of the route?
     
    References:
    https://www.meccanoindex.co.uk/Mecmag/MMissue.php?MID=5932&Missue=3001&id=1632768767
    https://www.meccanoindex.co.uk/Mecmag/MMissue.php?MID=5945&Missue=3001&id=1632768980
     
    From “Our Family Story” by E. A. Martin
    James Pibworth, Albert's father, born 1821 at East Woodhay. His brother Thomas Pibworth, my ancestor, born East Woodhay 1830.
    Thomas Pibworth was listed as a Linseed Oil Maker in the 1861 census.
     
    Thomas would have walked to his work in Newbury. He was unlikely to have used the train that passed through Enbourne on its way from Southampton to Newbury, though many later Pibworths were to find eventual employment on that railway.
     
    Thomas had a great many relations! His elder brother James, the third of the family, was married and had four children. The fourth of these was the only Pibworth to achieve national fame! His name was Albert, and he was born in 1865. When old enough to begin working he got a job on the railway - the employment that seems to have been favoured by many Pibworth men. At that time, Newbury was a junction of some importance, with lines going off in five directions. Albert worked on the railway (not for long in the Newbury area) for 46 years. He became one of the best-known drivers of his time, known affectionately as “Old Pib”. He was the driver in charge of the train that made the first non-stop run from Kings Cross to Newcastle, with the engine “Flying Fox”. In 1928 he won even greater praise for the longer run from Kings Cross to Edinburgh, with the “Flying Scotsman”! Soon after this achievement, he had to retire because of ill-health (1929). About this time he and his wife were living at Wash Common, in a house he called “Belitha Villa”. Why did he choose this name, “Belitha”? - Was it the name of an engine he specially remembered, or perhaps even the first that he drove? 
     
    In September 1929 he died, and was buried in the churchyard at Enborne. A simple gravestone gives his name and the relevant dates, but there is no mention of his achievements.
     
    Newbury Weekly News - 1965
    ‘Old Pib’ - buried at Enborne - used to drive crack ‘Flying Scotsman’
    The “FLYING SCOTSMAN” presented an unforgettable sight for railway enthusiasts lining the platform as with whistle shrieking she roared through Newbury at 80 m.p.h. on Sunday evening. This famous locomotive, now privately owned and restored to her former LNER appearance, was pulling a special excursion from Weymouth to London.
    The “Flying Scotsman” took just six minutes to cover the distance between Hungerford and Newbury, and unknown to many of the enthusiasts aboard her passed within half a mile of the grave of the man who drove the locomotive on the first non-stop London-Edinburgh run in 1928.
    He was Mr. Albert Pibworth, who is buried in Enborne churchyard. A simple stone makes no reference to his record-breaking achievement or to the fact that at the time he was regarded as one of the greatest engine drivers in the world.
    Career’s Peak
    “Old Pib” as he was known to thousands of railwaymen, reached the pinnacle of his career towards the end of his 46 years on the railway. At the age of 63 he made history by driving the “Flying Fox” non-stop from Kings Cross to Newcastle. He shared the footplate on the even longer record-breaking run to Edinburgh.
    Mr. Pibworth, a member of an old Newbury railway family, who lived at Wash Common, retired in January 1929, through ill-health and died a few months later aged 65, on September 16.
     
    Pendennis Castle and Flying Fox publicity photo

     
    Victor Wild
    Driver Pibworth’s regular engine from new was 4475 “Flying Fox”. It was selected for the 1925 trials but it ran hot and it was replaced by 4474 “Victor Wild”.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LNER_Gresley_Classes_A1_and_A3#/media/File:LNER_Pacific_4474_on_King's_Cross_turntable_(CJ_Allen,_Steel_Highway,_1928).jpg
     
     
  6. Harlequin
    Here is a design for a portable folding fiddle yard to complement the "Minories in Streamline OO" design that I recently updated.
     
    It's presented as a PDF so that you can see it in high resolution, zoom in and out and turn the various layers on and off.
     
    The two parts, Minories and Fiddle yard, fold up into small, equally-sized boxes that could be easily transported and set up almost anywhere.
     
    Minories Folding Fiddle Yard 20.pdf
     
  7. Harlequin

    Giant feline

    By Harlequin,

    I just worked out (for obvious reasons) that my fat little cat is 67ft 6in tall at the shoulders in 4mm scale. That's roughly 20.5 metres - slightly taller than the Angel of the North.
     
    I dread to think what her tonnage would be...
     
    ;-)
  9. Harlequin

    History in reverse

    By Harlequin,

    We hear today that the Government want to break up the GWR franchise and open more branch lines...
     
    It sounds like history is being replayed in reverse. Are we going to see the "London and South Western" franchise or the "Moretonhampstead and South Devon" franchise?
     
    The logical end result is that they'll propose the reinstatement of broad gauge!
     

  10. Harlequin

    Improving Photos with "Focus Stacking"

    By Harlequin,


    Focus stacking
    To take good photos of model railways it's really important to control the depth of field or focal depth of the image. This is best demonstrated by @KNP's wonderful photographs of his masterpiece, Little Muddle.
    This blog entry describes my first experiments in improving depth of field in my photos.
     
    Why Depth of Field matters
    Definition: The Depth of field is the distance between the nearest and furthest objects that are acceptably in focus.
     
    I'm not a photography expert and I don't claim to understand all the technicalities of depth of field but in a nutshell, the closer the camera is to the subject, the smaller the depth of field. Or to put it another way, when the camera is close to the scene only details at a very specific distance from the camera will be in focus and the rest of the image will be blurry. (This is to do with the angles of light rays entering the camera.)
     
    Real world photos have a much deeper range of good focus because of the greater distance between the camera and the subject. (Technically, because of the smaller angles at which the light rays enter the camera.)
     
    So small depth of field is a problem when photographing models for two reasons:
    When you focus on a particular item of interest it means that many other details are out of focus. E.g. you focus on the smokebox of a loco and then the cab, which is only a few centimetres further back, is blurred. The lack of focus is not just annoying in it's own right but it's a dead give-away that you photographed a model, no matter how realistic your detailing was!
    Focus Stacking
    So we want a way to increase the depth of field when photographing our models and this is where technology comes to the rescue in the form of "Focus stacking" or "Focus merging".
     
    A focus stacking algorithm analyses several photos taken at different focal lengths and mixes the best focused parts, the sharpest parts, to create one good image.
     
    How to do focus stacking
    To apply focus stacking you need to:
    Capture your images digitally. Many compact digital cameras and Smartphones have very good lenses and high resolution sensors and are perfect for this task. Capture a number of images without the camera moving. To ensure that the camera doesn't move while capturing the images you need you ideally need some sort of tripod. A mini tripod with a swivel mount and flexible legs is ideal. Capture images at a range of focal distances. You could attempt to refocus manually between each shot but it's much easier and more reliable to let the software on the camera do this for you. Some cameras have that feature built-in and there are apps for Smartphones to do it. Collect the images together and process them in a suitable software package. Many high-end photo processing software packages have the ability to perform focus stacking and there are some free apps and utilities.  
    My first experiment
    I used my Android SmartPhone, a OnePlus 3, mounted in a swivel head on a small tripod.

     
    To capture the images automatically I installed a free app called, OpenCamera, which gives much more control than the standard Android Camera app. Here it is in operation:
     
    The two large sliders on screen set the front and back focus points for the stack. The smaller third slider is the zoom factor. The software is set to take 16 images in this example but it can take up to 200!
     
    [Edit: OpenCamera requires a phone and a version of Android that allows apps to control the camera focus.]
     
    To process the images I first tried an open source desktop application called CombineZP but I found it to be difficult to use and not very reliable. In the end I settled on Affinity Photo, a highly accomplished and very affordable desktop photo editing package which has a good focus stacking feature. (This was a hard thing for me to do because the Affinity software is "the competition" in my professional life!)
     
    Here are two of the raw images, numbers 2 and 12 from the stack of 16:

     
    You can see that image number 2 is focused near the smokebox door of the loco but the background is out of focus. And image number 12 shows the background train in focus but the loco is blurred.
     
    Then the full stack of 16 photos was given to Affinity Photo and it produced this result (after cropping):

     
    You can see that the process works and it was quite easy once I had gathered together all the necessary tools. I will do some more experiments and try some creative ideas.
     
  11. Harlequin

    Live train data

    By Harlequin,

    While searching for info about signalling diagrams I came across this interesting site that shows Network Rail's live info, as used by signalling staff and train operators:
    http://www.opentraintimes.com/maps
     
    E.g. Paddington:
    http://www.opentraintimes.com/maps/signalling/d3_1
  12. Harlequin
    The entry for Llanglydwen station on disused-stations.org.uk was recently updated with three high-res vintage photos.
    Here
     
    (You have to click the "here" links to see the larger versions.)
     
    The new photos are wonderfully evocative and look like photos of a model. The station, a small hamlet, a road, a river, a bridge and a level crossing are all compressed into a small area with verdant countryside all around.
     
    It's almost too good to be true!
  13. Harlequin

    Minories PDF

    By Harlequin,

    I have updated my Minories PDF.
     
    Edit: I noticed a small but annoying mistake in version 18 so version 19 is attached.
     
    Minories 19.pdf
     
     
  14. Harlequin

    Old Pib

    By Harlequin,

    I've just been checking through the family history that my Grandma very carefully pieced together to find out exactly how I'm related to "Old Pib", Albert Pibworth, one of the drivers of Flying Scotsman on the first non-stop run from London to Edinburgh.
     
    I know lots of people claim this sort of connection but I'm pretty sure my connection is genuine.
     
    Albert's father was James Pibworth one of whose siblings was Thomas Pibworth. Thomas => Hannah Purton => Rosa Ann Hall => Edith Annie Martin (Grandma) => David William Martin (Dad) => Me
     
    So I reckon that "Old Pib" was my Great-great-great cousin - if there is such a thing...
     
    Phil
  15. Harlequin
    I fitted the stiffeners today which make the side pieces into L beams for longitudinal strength and provide some racking resistance to hold the entire unit square.
     
    One of the ends had the PSE fixed wrongly inside the plywood. The stiffener stood proud so I had to chisel out a little rebate:

     
    The frame was remarkably square (1609mm across one diagonal, 1610 across the other) so I just glued, screwed and pinned the stiffeners into place without making any other adjustments:

     
    The stiffeners really work - the unit is very rigid in most directions now but it flexes a bit more than I'd like when one corner is lifted. I still need to connect the spines to the ends but I think some sort of diagonal bracing will probably be needed.
     
    Turned the right way up with the stiffeners at the bottom:

  16. Harlequin
    I fixed the corner braces to to the top corners, hoping that they might make the unit less prone to twisting but they don't make much difference. So I might omit them from future versions.

     
    To give an idea of the amount of twist in the unit: If I lift one corner off the ground then I get about 2cm deflection before any of the other corners also start to lift. The worry with that is that it might be enough to crack scenery or cause fittings to become detached.
     
    I suspect that cross bracing across the entire unit would stop the twisting - and of course a track bed will do exactly that. In the interests of lightweight construction it might be OK to allow a small amount of flex in the base units and rely on the track beds, risers, backscenes and other superstructure to stiffen them up.
     
    So, the next job is to attach a track bed and then re-assess the flexing. I made a start on that:

     

    I also made a loco cradle to help with servicing delicate steam locos. Hopefully the foam will grip the model without crushing or bending details like handrails and whistles...

  17. Harlequin
    I completed the frame of baseboard #2 using the parts I cut at the same time as those for baseboard #1.

     
    There are detail differences but it's basically the same pattern. No corner braces on the top face because I don't think they add anything and no holes in the ribs because, ahem, I forgot. But since the frame is open the holes are probably redundant anyway and they don't affect the weight much - I can lift the unit with one finger.
     
    I need to make one more similar board and a simple bridging piece to complete my roundy-round test track.
  18. Harlequin
    I have now made board skeleton #3. I'm getting quicker!

     
    I'm getting used to the process, improving my working methods (e.g. using a longer fence on the table saw to get long straight parallel cuts in the boards) and simplifiying the construction by relying more on glue and leaving out some fixings.
     
    This is how the three boards will be arranged with a bridging section where the 6ft level is to form the roundy-round circuit.

  19. Harlequin
    I noticed that the new bullhead rail large radius points are still being described as 60in (1524mm) radius when we all know that's rubbish. They simply can't be if they are to give a 12 degree turnout angle and a 2in (50.8mm) separation between parallel tracks.
     
    I emailed Peco and they said the 60in radius is a "nominal" figure because the points include "combination curve"s. This is also rubbish because either "nominal" means the overall effective radius of the points, which you can measure and is not 60in, or the "combined curves" include some smaller radius sections as well as the 60in radius to achieve the 12 degree turnout and 2in track spacing - in which case they should be quoting the smaller radius. (If that's the case they may as well say the all their points are "nominally" infinite radius - because they include straight sections... ;-)
     
    They kindly gave me a phone number so I called and explained that mathematically the 60in radius is impossible for the large radius point, given the angle and spacing constraints. The person I spoke to:
    Was very resistant to accepting that the radius they had been quoting all these years was wrong. Said that it would be confusing to customers if they changed it now. Said that the radius was "given to them" by the original designer of the point and he probably worked it out by laying known radius curves onto a paper drawing to see which matched. Said that it doesn't really matter what the radius actually is as long as trains run smoothly over it...

    I said that I understood the problem of changing the quoted radius now but in the long run it must be better to give correct information rather than incorrect.
     
    Not very satisfactory, really...
     
    Phil
  20. Harlequin

    PiSprog breakthrough

    By Harlequin,

    Electrical connections have been made to all the fixed sections of track in basically a tree topology through chocolate blocks, B&Q red&black speaker cable, 5-pin DIN plugs between boards to a chocolate block distribution point under the main board and from there a pair of wires come out to the controller.

    (For readers considering DCC: there are still lots of wires under the tracks but they don't come back to the control panel, like many of them would in DC, they just keep on joining together, red to red and black to black, until they reach the "tree trunk" of the final two wires, which connect to the DCC controller.)
     
    While I had everything broken down so I could get at the undersides of the boards I took a photo of one of the track joint ends:

     
    I'm happy to report that when everything was put back together, one dropper re-soldered and a board-to-board connection polarity reversed everything worked fine. Rolling stock still click-clicks reliably over the board joints. The next time I make rail joints between baseboards I'll try to use a thinner cutting disc because I think the gap I have now is too large. The clickety-clicks are a pleasant sound but they are a bit loud. On the plus side I know which of my second-hand rolling stock has plastic wheels now - because it hardly makes a sound!
     
    Next it was time to ditch the Prodigy Express controller (which is simple and reliable but a bit limited), and connect up the PiSprog One. This was very easy to get working from another computer on the network or from a throttle app on a SmartPhone, but it took a lot of fiddling around to get a working display connected directly to it! I wanted to use an old monitor with its DVI input connected to the Pi's HDMI output but it just wouldn't work. After a lot of research and trying all sorts of suggested changes I found that the magic incantation, for me at least, was to set hdmi_group = 2 in config.txt.
     
    So now, at last, I can sit in the operating well and really get to grips with fine tuning the control system.

     
    Next jobs: Understand JMRI better, mount the PiSprog underneath somewhere, set up a roster of locos, fit metal wheels to various items, find out why 4705 keeps jamming up.
  21. Harlequin

    Polarity tenderness

    By Harlequin,

    I am trying to make one working loco and tender from a pair of secondhand Hornby purchases, Tintagel Castle and Beverston Castle.
     
    A previous owner of Tintagel has removed all the pickup wipers from the tender. (If it was you please say Hi because I'd love to know why). It runs haltingly over track where a little Barclay 0-4-0 has no problem.
     
    Beverston was sold as a non-runner but its tender has a full complement of pickup wipers. Thus, the Beverston tender matched with Tintagel loco should produce a working Castle loco (with some small livery tweaks).
     
    When I paired them up and placed them on the programming track the DCC programmer reported shorts. After trying a few tests I placed the combination on an isolated, unpowered section of track and put a multimeter across the rails. Dead short!
     
    So, the left hand wheels of the loco are connected to the right hand wheels of the tender by the connector plug! (And vice-versa, of course.)
     
    Did the previous owners fiddle with the wiring? Is that why Beverston was a "non-runner"? (I tested the motor and I know that works fine). Or do Hornby chop and change the wiring of the loco-tender connection between products?
     
    The upshot for me is that I've now got to do some very fiddly soldering...
     
    P.S. I hate those tiny plugs under the tenders - so fiddly and so much potential for damage while you've got the loco upside down.
  23. Harlequin

    Quote from C J Freezer

    By Harlequin,

    I found this sage-like quote from C J Freezer recently:
     


    I do not subscribe to the theory that it is somehow better for a modelmaker to rely solely on his own resources, making every item in his own workshop [snip].
    In pure model engineering, where construction is the object of the exercise and the pleasure lies in the work involved, the idea makes sense, but where, as in a model railway, the question of operation arises, then short cuts via the cheque book or credit card have very considerable validity.  

    "Model Railway Signalling" Page 60.
  25. Harlequin
    I had an idea to knock up some pointwork. Left work early to go to the local model shop and bought some code 75 points, track and joiners.
     
    After battling out of town through the rush hour traffic jams I realised I hadn't thought to buy any insulating joiners!
     
    D'Oh!
     
    Project on hold for a few more days now, sadly.
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