JSModels

I used one of those on my Christmas layout - I think it's a really underated model. They looks so awfully toy like, but with nothing more than a couple of coats of paint, they transform into a a really good looking, realistic building. JRB

There's going to be another mill at the front of the layout, at the left hand side (acting as a view blocker) and there'll be a walkway from that to the first mill, over the tracks. I think a walkway between the first 2 mills across the centre would look a bit odd, as firstly there wouldn't be anything for it to cross (hence no reason for one in the first place) and secondly the tower on the left of the new mill is a stair tower, so wouldn't have a walkway into it. JRB

Possibly, but would they build a substation in such a small gap between 2 relatively tall buildings?

Unusual idea, but I wouldn't have the depth for that. I've got 40mm max. Even a low-relief half-pylon would be much deeper than that. JRB

Mike, Thanks for that, often the simplest solutions just don't come to us! The siding has to be a certain length in order to hold 3 wagons, but it is slightly over that length. I'm sure I could shorten the siding by 2, or maybe even 3 sleepers, which is all that it would need. I'll check tomorrow evening.

Here's the roof in position, with a coat of primer: I was going to leave the slates the colour of the card, but when I sprayed it with some matt varnish (Tamiya, from a rattle can) it 'bloomed' with white spots. Don't know why, but there you go. Suspect it's some kind of reaction between the solvent and the pigment in the card. There are some alignment faults in my application of them, where the spacing between rows is too great (resulting in the joints between tiles being visible) or inconsistent (making it obvious they were done in strips). Oh well, it's all a learning curve, and hopefully will be less visible when painted and weathered. JRB

It fits!!! To be honest, it took a bit of juggling to get it in. It needs to go in in 2 sections, and then needs joining in the corner once in situ (which will prove interesting when painting & weathering it!). The inner skin is all glued up, and the outer skin just held in place with a few bits of tape. Here's an overview of the entire layout: I've not decided what's go in between the two mills yet; maybe another building, or maybe just a retaining wall to slightly higher than the bridge level with something on top. The view from the bridge now: The right-hand side of the building return is slightly closer to the right-most siding buffer stop than I had anticipated. And when I say 'slightly', I mean quite a lot: At the corner, it's within a mm of touching the rail!!! I'm thinking I might have to lift that siding & move it over closer to the front; I thought I was done with trackwork a long time ago! Another thing I had laser-cut along with the mill was some A4 sheets of my own (very simple) drawing for some slates: This afternoon I glued these onto the roof of the first mill: The top rows have now been cut back, and some foil tape applied to the roof corners to represent lead flashing, though I forgot to take pictures after I'd done those. JRB

Something cropped up last night, so I didn't end up going to the clubrooms. I'm at home today, so this morning I did some dry assembly to see how it was looking. Here's the structural inner skin: Even without any glue, it holds itself together pretty well! To give you an idea of scale, the squares marked on the cutting mat at the bottom left are 1" x 1". It's quite imposing, which was exactly how I wanted it! And with some of the main outer skin decorative panels in place: It never occurred to me whilst I was designing it, but I think there may be an issue physically getting it into position on the layout, since it's effectively inside a box, and is almost the full height! It's not only got to go over the tracks (which it might just do) but there's buffer stops in the way too, and it definitely won't go over those. I think I might have to try to remove the top of the layout & drop it in from above, but that will have to wait for another day. JRB

It's Here!!! Off down to the club shortly, expect more pics later JRB

There'll be maybe 4 or 5 figures on this floor - a couple working the thicknesser, and 2/3 others at workbenches/other machines. The people drinking tea will have to wait for the canteen/offices upstairs! JRB

The internals for the woodshop are pretty much done. Here it is from the back: The thickness planer has a piece going through, so will need a couple of figures adding, one at either end: I tried to take some pictures from outside, through the windows (which proved to be very tricky!): There wasn't room for all of the machines in the woodshop, so the lathe, milling machine, and one of the benches have become metalworking machines on the ground floor: These aren't stuck down or painted yet, but at least the woodshop is done (apart from some figures & maybe a bit of detritus). The laser cutting for the other mill has been done, and is on it's way here. Here's a sneak-peek: JRB

Time for a small update, I've not done much recently. I've finished all the drawings for the 2nd mill: I've been in touch with the guy who's cutting it for me, and hopefully it will be cut today, so with a bit of luck should have the pieces in my grubby little mitts in a few days! I've also done a little bit on the interior of the first mill - I've put up some dividing walls, and put some planking down on the floors. I popped down to the club today for a couple of hours, and started planning out where the woodworking machines are going to go, then realised I needed some 'accessories' for the woodshop. Got out some strip styrene, and made some traditional woodworking benches, along with a stack of timber: Not bad for around an hour's (enjoyable) work. Just need a bit of paint now, and should be good to go. Oh, and at Doncaster last weekend I got one of THESE sets for the drawing office from Severn Models. I just hope I don't make a hash of assembling & painting it! JRB

I've been thinking about getting one of these for a couple of years now, and nearly bought one just before Christmas as they seemed to be on a very good offer. The only thing that's causing me to hold back is that I'd like to see one in the flesh, and talk in person to someone who's had good results with one. Is there anyone in the Keighley/Bradford area who owns one who'd be willing to have me visit and chat to them about it, and maybe print a couple of files for me to see the results (in exchange for beer tokens, of course)? Thanks in advance, Jonathan

I don't have a copy of one in front of me, but if you look at the bottom of the contents page I'm sure you'll find both answers.

Thanks for that link - I started making a OO gauge OO gauge layout a while ago, not finished it yet but it's in this post in my layout thread. I did think about drawing some more up to 3D print, as I've got an entire floor of my mill to fill as a model railway club!!! JRB

Not an error as such. The floor to ceiling height reduces as you go up the building (common in lots of Victorian buildings, not just mills) so on the upper levels there isn't room for the extra row or stone between the door openings. Yes, things are a lot different now with things such as 3D printing and laser cutting. If it weren't, I wouldn't be making this as the thought of cutting all the windows out by hand would definitely put me off! JRB

I've now got the point motors & relay board installed under the layout, and it works really well, with one exception - when the point motors are moving, all the LED lights (the layout lights and the interior lights) dim! The point motors only draw 150mA, so I wasn't expecting that. A short investigation revealed that it's a voltage rectifier board that isn't beefy enough (it takes the 16vAC that powers the DCC system, and rectifies/reduces it to 12vDC, and this is used to power the layout lights, building lights, and now the point motors). It looks like I may have to abandon that, and use a dedicated separate PSU for these (I went this way so it was all powered off the one transformer, thus making it simple!) I still need to go & hunt out a suitable transformer from one of the many boxes dotted about everywhere. I know I'll have one, it's just finding it that's the problem... In the meantime I've been working on the layout from home, and by that I mean working on the design for the second mill. The initial draft has been altered quite a lot, as I was told (by an ex-screw) that it looked too much like a prison! Again, this will be laser-cut to my own design. I've been working on this for a couple of months (on and off) but it's finally getting near to the point where I can order it. Here's the 2D CAD drawing as it currently stands: And the 3D model: It's a pretty sizeable building, at 590mm wide and 315mm high (that's 23 1/2" by 12 1/2" in old money). Here's how it will look within the context of the layout: I've stuck with the idea of using some of the Wills girder sections to make a water tower at the top left, though these simply replace the frieze panels (I don't know what else to call them!) that are drawn, so I can use either. There simply isn't the internal depth to have any interiors in this one, but I will at least have some lights in it. I'm planning on having this building on the layout (though probably nowhere near finished) by our next club open day on the 5th April. Still to do: Sort out the steps up to the loading platform at the front left corner; Add all the vertical lines for the stonework (a VERY laborious task!); Draw up all the doors; And once all that's done, I can get it cut!!! JRB

By way of an update/conclusion, I have now succeded in acheiving what I was looking to do. Rather than duplicate content, I've posted the update in my layout thread here: JRB

I've moved away from working on the mill for a while, instead concentrating on a little project to control the points. At present, the points are operated by slide switches on the front of the layout. Operating the layout was really satisfying, now that a) the loco is ultra-reliable (due to the large stay alive) and b) the remote uncoupling is working really well. Because of this, and the layout operating in a very 'hands-off' manner, reaching in to switch the points seemed a bit, well, wrong. Then I realised that the DCC controller has function buttons; since there's only one loco, I never need to change the loco address, so could I use the (currently unused) function buttons to switch the points? I asked the question in the DCC section, and to cut a long story short, the answer it seemed, was yes! So I bought a few bits... ...and set about designing a basic relay interface board. Basically, the function decoder duplicates the chip in the loco, and takes the commands from the function buttons. It uses those to switch relays on and off, which in turn switch the point motors. Earlier tonight I soldered the last bits on (I'd been waiting for some resistors to arrive) and wired it up to test the relays: Success! With that bit working, I wired in the point motors, and at this point the wind was knocked out of my sails. The relays were working, but the point motors weren't moving. A bit of investigative work later, and I discovered I'd made a schoolboy error with my circuit design; I'd assumed that the relay connections were the same as the last lot of similar relays I used a couple of years ago, instead of *actually* checking... I'd got the common and normally closed contacts mixed up, so the outputs weren't doing what I thought they were doing! It was easily resolved by changing two of the wire links on each channel; 10 minutes remedial work with the soldering iron & I was ready to go again: This time, all was well, and the MTB MP1 point motors worked as they should (they're brilliant, by the way. Much more compact & lower profile than any other slow-action point motor I've seen. They're only 18mm deep!). In the video they look to be moving quite fast; they take anywhere from 8 to 14V DC, and in the test I was running them at 13.8V. On a lower voltage they'll be a bit slower. F1 and F4 toggle the point motors; F2 will turn some of the building lights on and off; and F3 is currently spare. The next job is to take out the slide switches, fit the point motors, and wire all this in permanently. A job for next time!!! JRB

Yes, it's a 6-pin socket, with a blanking chip fitted. Just unplug the blanking chip, and pop the decoder in.

Fourtheded! This layout has given me a bit of an idea for my next layout...

I'm guessing that's done as accessories with a more complex handset; this is to use functions on a basic handset. JRB

Thanks to all who helped and/or offered advice on this one - I think I've got it sorted now. Most of the bits have arrived: The MP1 point motors are brilliant little things (even tinier than I expected!). Just a few more components still to come, then I've got the board to make up: The two point motors will be controlled by F1 and F4, due to the way the buttons are laid out on the controller. F2 will switch the building lights on & off (hence the 3V input as well as 12V), and F3 will be spare, with the relay contacts carried to 3-way headers for future connection via servo connectors. The coloured rings indicate where the funtion wires will be soldered (for some reason, FO3 and FO4 don't seem to have an assigned colour, so I've just used purple & yellow). I'm 99% confident that I've not missed anything or made any schoolboy errors with the veroboard layout, but that's usually at the point where someone else points out a glaring mistake!!! (if you do spot one, please let me know) JRB PS - I don't think I mentioned it previously, but I did find confirmation that on the LocoMaus the function buttons toggle on and off, and are not momentary (otherwise the above wouldn't work!)

Thanks Daniel, I know of Faller & Kibri, but hadn't heard of Auhagen. I'll have to look them up. Thanks Diesel! No, I haven't mentioned it, but I had thought about it; I think I'll blank off a couple of areas. JRB

The 'extra air' doesn't add anything to the carbon footprint, as it doesn't add any weight. There's no increase in the amount of fuel required to transport it. This is getting a little off topic though...