John40131

On 25/07/2022 at 16:24, martin_wynne said:

 

Hi John,

 

Its all in the name -- Plug Track. 🙂

 

Wayne's kits = slide the rails in from the end.

 

Plug Track = fit the chairs on the rail, then plug it into the timber base from above.

 

This is similar to building track with individual chairs, or on copper-clad, etc. It allows complex formations to be constructed without the next rail being obstructed by one already fitted. Wayne gets round this by having breaks in the rail, such as at the knuckle. 

 

 

No adhesives needed, the chairs are designed to be a firm press fit in the bases, with a tapered lead-in. No gauges or adjustments needed, it is all set in Templot.

 

The materials are based on what can be done at home by most modellers. The home resin printers have a build area too small to be very practical for timbering bases, at least in 4mm scale, and the resin is not tough enough or flexible enough. FDM printers have a larger build area, and the polymer material is tough and flexible, but they can't print the chairs in detail in the smaller scales.

 

Wayne is using industrial grade 3D resin printers and his own special mix of resin.

 

But the separate plug-in chairs can also be used with laser-cut plywood bases, or (my favourite) CNC-milled solid bases like this, which wouldn't be possible if the chairs were integral with the timbers:

 

 

That's EM on 3mm MDF board. The ballast hides the mess. The CNC miller/router which I used there is actually cheaper than most FDM printers, so that would be a choice:

 

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08K95J434/

 

although you need to add on the cost of some milling cutters, say around the £20 mark.

 

It took less time to do than FDM printing (but was a lot noisier).

 

If I can finally get the chairs finished for the turnouts, I will make some videos showing how to do all this stuff.

 

cheers,

 

Martin.

I would love to be able to get hold of the chairs you showed in the picture ... I am a member of MERG and it was a member who directed me to this page ... I have just built a simple diamond crossing but I have a more complex 4 way crossing to construct with 10 Diamond crossing later in this year ...

Regards John Marshall

I found the issue after posting on a number of forums, someone suggested there was DC on the Track output, so tried Uno with DCC++ and that worked fine, tried DCC++EX on Uno and that also worked fine, went back to Mega and found there was a light missing on Track power and motor running at full speed, and after checking continuity between all the data pins D12 had no connection so linked a piece of wire and then it worked fine ... 3 days of trial and error ...LOL

Then found issue login on with phone and tablet but found on the DCC website and was PASS_ and the alphanumberic code on network ... all working now

Also thought i'd messed up the decoder om the tester but was just the problem as above and as soon as got on main track all worked ...

I am just setting up DCC++EX on my 2 year build layout which after building a shed to fit it in I am know moving on to running, I built a DCC++EX Base Station using a Mega and Arduino Motor shield No Wifi shield till all works, but I have an issue with a Lais Decoder I have, after trying to set up in JMRI I may have messed the decoder up as it worked fine on a Hornby Select but motor wont run when added to roster with address 3 on the program track ( I am using a Lais Decoder Tester with decoder connected ) and use throttle, if I put on Main track motor runs at full speed and throttle has no effect, I tried a CV 8 setting to 4 and when I check all CV's they are all correct to Lais sheet except when I select CV33 I get a No responce from Decoder and unless I reset Track power OFF/ON I cant read any other CV's..

If anyone can help I would be most grateful, I have a Class 55 loco with same Decoder but im loathed to put on this setup until I find what ive done wrong..

Regards John

Not quite Model Railway related but if anyone can help I would be most grateful...

My father worked on the Railways during WW2 at Sheffield Midland and Chinley and Buxton, and as far as I understand he was a guard but I would love to find any records on what he did and when he joined etc, I was only about 3 or 4 when he left about 1950...

Are there any ex railway member who may know if you can access any records ...

Regards John

On 17/07/2017 at 15:55, ianLMS said:

Good afternoon folks,

I have just successfully converted my old Bachmann (Mainline) Split-Chassis Jubilee from Analogue to DCC. It was a challenge but through lots of research, especially RMWeb, I managed it. I used a Gaugemaster DCC26 compact 4 function, 8 pin decoder, cut off the pin PCB and then located it in the tender. Wires were hard-wired to the motor and chassis.

 

After dismantling everything, I removed the bushes, isolating the motor and soldered two wires, one to each tag on the motor. For the chassis connection, I used two self-tapping countersunk screws into the top of the chassis block (one on each side) to solder the other two wires and that's it. Re-assembling the chassis was the most challenging bit. Making sure the gap was insulated, but the two halves closed up enough so the body fitted over no problem and making sure the white nylon spacers where in the correct position where the hardest part of the whole job. A bit of heat-shrink to isolate the wires from each other, and black tape to hold it in place as the wires carried over the motor and down behind the firebox and I was then able to re-assemble everything.

 

 

In the end I mounted the decoder in the tender - looked like I would need to remove a lot of metal from the chassis to accommodate the decoder, so the tender was the easiest option. I filed some of the lower body section away under the cab so the wires fed through without fouling the wheels and routed the wires underneath the cab, and into a hole I drilled on the front of the tender. The wires then passed under the front wheel axle and into a hole in the floor, up into the tender space. I used a piece of heat-shrink to hold the wires together between the loco and tender and hide there bright colours. A test run ensured all worked well, but you need to leave enough slack in the wires or the tender wont bend round tight bends.

 

Next up - 2 x Mainline Jubilees, Hornby 3F Jinty, Airfix 4F, Bachmann Royal Scot, Hornby Fowler 2-6-4T.

 

Any tips greatly appreciated!! Especially on the Airfix 4F.

 

Thanks

Ian

Hi Ian,

Ive just asked the same question on MERG and Dean Park Station and got this link, as I just got a Mainline Jubliee "Leander" with the small ringfield motor off ebay and was wondering about converting to DCC  ... and looks like you already done ... would be grateful if you took any pictures of the mods ...

Regards John

Thank you for allowing me to join the group, I am modelling my Layout for Bolton Station in the 1960s, I have a layout of North of platforms ( Bolton West 1963 ) and at the moment I am making the 4 way crossing after the "Y" points using PCB sleepers and rails from Hattons further up the tracks I will probably leave off some of the sidings, I found the polarity a challenge but as it turned out I can link 5 DPDT relays with 1 switch so all lines Left open then 4 lines right open, the next challenge is the traingle and the tracks to the right merge into 2 lines ..

I would be grateful for any help with switching on the triangle as is not a straight forward same track to same track.

I am using DCC on layout and eventually using JMRI to control..

Regards John