Miserable

A finally, less the finial it is built. The hand rail is a a square, made from bits - I guess you could just bend it - but since the irons out anyway I like making it. The tape holds stuff nicely while you squint trying to get the uprights upright. The first one I built I misread the drawing and had four uprights, this time I've done it right with two uprights and the rear fixed just to the post. I've added the base, which is more to hold it together than a layout fixing. I couldn't face taking a finial off the 'spare' signal so a bit of shopping is on order. Other than that - paint!

I had a go on the Old Oak turntable getting a 47 off shed. A lightly surreal experience (we didn't get to Old Oak much).

My old box. Not entirely sure that's me in the photo, despite the bod that sent it thinking so.

I have sitting by me the rather sad remains of an 7mm MSV kit I built years ago. It's a brass body with white metal underneath. I seem to recall it was an ABS/43two1 kit. It has the later (Oleo?) buffers, vac brakes and roller bearings. Does anyone know it this was taken on by anybody (I have a thing about ABS kits) as I'd like to make a couple more. The only metal, I'm not that plastic oriented, kit I can find appears to be unfitted 'iron ore' vintage and the supplier hasn't got back with my query.

I was about 6 ;-)

Apropos nothing really, but I was on that last train with my grandfather, we passed our house! Until recently I had all stuff that came with it, including the tickets - alas a former Mrs. Miserable classed it all as junk.

I have to lock my credit card in the car every time I visit the Wizard site, too many goodies in 7mm :-) Every order has been prompt and correct.

That's the route I took, it allowed me, much to the bank managers horror, to get a lot more in. I guess it's more working diorama then conventional layout.

So with the ripples of quantum uncertainty passed, back to the train set. The operating rod has been added, so the signal now 'works'. It's awfully cramped but it all went in. This was a bit of a pain with having to take it out each time to put the kinks in so it goes down through the centreline of the platform. It works nicely. I'm thinking that drilling the tell-tale on the back of the lamp might have been unnecessary - no one can see it with the post in the way. I'll probably blank it. The front view shows, just about, how the light looks. Some white paint should give quite good effect even with all junk now in the way (as I remember, these weren't exactly searchlight-bright). And then the platform. The drawing shows 4.5 planks but trying to trim my 'planks' proved difficult, since the cut tends to follow the grain of the wood with wobbly results. Having said that, cutting out the slot for the case and filing dimples to go round the posts went very well - these strirrers are much better that the ones I used to get from my Scottish sounding unofficial sponsor. That just leaves four steps... First the railing around the platform and then finally the finial. I have three GWR ones in a bag. Somewhere. Not seen for years. Might have to rob the unfinished bracket signal, dammit. Then fit the base and..... paint! I'm going for white to keep the GWRiness again. The lighting.... I bought the second set and installed as previously mentioned. Very nice light to work in, but a bit too white for playing sunlight I think. I installed the Lidl Home app on my phone, and then discovered the small print (more not so black letters on a black background). You have to buy a controller to plug into your router. It seems this is a part of a house management system than includes Bluetooth light bulbs and stuff. Ah, well, I look into that later. I was considering another set to go over the work bench, but then I thought a set 100 bright white LEDS onna string for a few quid would work just as well.

Which is exactly what's happening - wen are welcome to access to their single market - lovely jubbly, gonna cost you though. There's no free lunch.

We are now a 'third country', so UK banks no longer have 'passporting' access to the EU financial markets. This not down to Barclays or any bank, this is brexit - and was entirely predictable as those paying attention knew.

It's the portal to my imaginary world of endless summer days so I guess that's actually correct!

Have a look here, another Paul Bartlett site - there was some pretty ancient stuff still going in late BR https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/axleboxes

Progress on the banner repeater hasn't for a couple of days due to exciting family based distractions, but while suffering the weekly shop I found something that solves my layout lighting problem - the problem being lack of daylight in the loft and poor artificial lighting making seeing anything difficult. I was aware of LED strips from art installations I've assisted with, but I've not been able source them at either a sensible price or with adequate explanation of what you get for your money, so steam powered me was looking for some sort of strip lights. Cue the middle isle in Lidl. They have two types of strip, 2m and 5m. A peek in the boxes suggests the 2m version, despite being the same price (£15) as the 5m version, is a bit more industrial looking so the Brunel in me took over. This is the best the current lighting can do, without using an old standard lamp to illuminate where I'm working. From the always surprising Lidl middle isle. Clear white to sunset orange... What I wanted was some sort of lighting 'behind' the purlin shining down in a hidden light source effect, so sticky back LED strip is ideal. I didn't want the whole loft lit, not a good music environment (for me). Though the strip comes ready-sticky, it doesn't stick all that well to old timber, but pairs of drawing pins 'clipping' the strip works just fine. Unpacking the box reveals an instruction book, power supply, controller box (I assume!), the LED strip and a male-male connector to add additional LED strips. Plugging it all in et voilà, cycling white light. During to the time it took to retrieve the instructions from the bin it actually settled down to a constant 'white', so no need to set up the Lidl app that controls the LEDs from your phone (Bluetooth). I'll experiment with softer white settings and sunset oranges later, for now seeing what I'm doing is priority. That's much better :-) I'll be getting another set next week (if there's any left) for the north end of the layout. Trouble is now I can see Ineed to finish the scenery... And in other news, I found my favourite pliers. These are an ancient pair I've had for decades and the tips are just right for making loops in handrails etc. In a bit of a coincidence as I was celebrating finding them (I need them for the 43two1 20T BR brake van kit I have in the projects queue) when the previous one I built (using said pliers) appeared on eBay - according to the seller it's 'professionally built' which I'm happy to take :-) Is it sad to have favourite pliers? Ah well, back to the repeater I guess.

I had this discussion with the DVLA, trying to change the taxation class of a vehicle - "We don't do cards for this payment.... cheque or postal orders". I haven't written a cheque in 10 years, nor had a cheque book since then. I didn't know postal orders were still a thing! The postal order cost £12, and they wouldn't accept it because it was 1p out. Another £12.....

It's been a couple of days mostly waiting for tiny bits of paint to dry... and some musicing. Finally everything is coming together. The case, or whatever you call it, is finally in place as is the ladder. I added a small washer before the signal arm so it sits 'in the middle' of the case nicely. When all folded up (for the umpteenth time) the arm turns nicely, just tight enough not to wobble but free enough for a servo to drive it. There's no base with the kit so I've chopped up a bit of plasticard for one as this may improve the chances of survival with Royal Mail. The post will stick through about 10mm to locate it on a layout, the ladder will glued in holes to provide at least some rigidity. The maximum height of the signal, i.e. the plan, is defined by the length of the ladder. From the instructions with the stop signal kit it seems ladders should be at 120' to the platform, thereby determining the distance of the bottom from the post. It's a very long time singe I used a protractor! The lamp isn't fixed yet as I need to double check the height before doing so, and get access to drill the hole for the operating rod. The loop on the operating crank is hidden behind the signal arm itself, so hopefully there won't be a strange shadows. I've decided against giving it a butt, mostly in deference to GWRiness (according to the drawing).

A good deal of time on the information super highway has confirmed these signal were not available in mechanical flavour, so plastering it with cranks to make it work is no longer a plan. Neither is the rod going up the post, since with three ninety degree bends there would be way to much flexing going on. So the plan is now to turn the drive through ninety degrees with a crank or similar. Having soldered the bearing tube to the pivot support and doing a trial assembly it seems the pivot support, when backed up by the 'glass', is sufficiently rigid to work ok without bending. However putting a crank on, even after cutting off the unused arm would obscure the lamp somewhat. And not look good. Apart it all came again. Looking at the instructions again I realised that bending the shaft ninety degrees at the pivot would not only provide the required direction change, but also act as a clamp to hold it in place. While the shaft was still straight I fitted the platform, the little bit that goes in from of the repeater on the platform and cut the new lamp support tube. The wires went down the post. I cleaned the white paint off the obscurred 'glass' because whatever I do it scratches off, so I'll paint it at the end. With all that done, I bent the shaft and tarted up the paint that will be inaccessible later. Hopefully tomorrow the paint will be dry (it's not warm in the loft) and the thing can finally go together

A rod up the post isn't practical - too many corners (3) allowing flexing, or a lot of un-prototypical cranks, hence my wondering if there were a mechanical variant. The cable hanging like like is the camouflage for the operating rod I was looking for ;-) If anyone asks, "it's a cable - look I've got a photo!" The kit is principally for the oil (external) lamp flavour GWR, which is what I'm after, at least lighting that is easy.

Since there's no chance of getting even the tiniest of motors in there it'll have to be mechanical to make it 'work' I guess... I found this photo somewhere deep in the RMWeb site. It may/seems to show mechanical operation (such a shame the bottom of the post is not in view). Could be a dangling cable though. At least if the control rod looks like whatever the black rod or cable then it's protypicalsih. It answers the finial question I had though. Also this is the only one I found that has a butt. Anyway, I'm going to base the model on this one.

All ok, I found a photo at last!

I'm building an MSE Sykes Banner Repeater kit and making it 'work'. My question is; Did banner repeaters of this sort exist before electricity came along? All the prototype photos I can find are of electric ones, it would be ace to know how mechanical versions were done, if there were such things.

When the paint had dried on the arm and 'opaque glass' it was time for a trial assembly. The first of these I built I didn't make work, because it's sat about 40mm from a tunnel mouth and 70mm from the wall and there seemed little point so I just did the lamp conversion. This is new territory now. It all went together nicely, except that the arm was jammed in between the 'glasses'. At this point I remembered commenting in a way earlier post the strip seemed a bit thin and I'd try a wider bit next time. So, welcome to a slightly belated next time. Another rummage in the metallic bits and bobs box sourced a suitable bit of strip. Forming this was a bit of a trial, I don't know if brass comes in different flavours, but stuff was harder to bend smoothly so to speak. After quite a lot of faffing, and I confess a little Language, it was finally the right shape and soldered on. Thence trial assembly 2.0. This worked much better, the arm moves freely and doesn't rub on the 'glass' leaving scuff marks. The clamps are brilliant little things I got from a sewing shop, they are meant as a replacement for pins when hemming (so I am assured) and are right little limpets. At this point I got to wondering how the arm would be rotated, the drawing just shows a somewhat ethereal loop arrangement. All the photos I can find show, or appear to show, electric signals. Some sort of bearing and crank is going to be needed I think, probably requiring strengthening the pivot support by thickening or adding a strip to make it a T shape. I've cut a bit of tube and painted the inside of the case (still missed a bit though!) and am now going to put the headphones on and have a ponder about how the thing is to be worked. It looks like its going to be a raid on the matallic bits and bobs box as the rod needs to come down from the signal, turn 90' to run under the platform, and then turn 90' again to go down the side of the post. Then should there be a balance arm? I guess there would have to have been pre-electricity (did they exist then?) There will be a prototype somewhere... that's my story.

As I mentioned earlier now seems a good chance to build this kit, or rather the second one of the two in the kit. The instructions are essentially a nice sketch of how it goes together together with some drawings of various possible formats. I can't remember if there was another sheet with this giving dimensions, but I do remember having to to a lot of research as to height and such. From there I'm essentially guessing by extrapolating the drawings for things like how high the platform sits on the post. I'm building the middle one, GWR style - this seems to have been a fairly standard BR alternative to the double ladder set up on the right. What you get in the kit is a little sparse looking, (don't forget there's another one in the bag too) but you get what you need to make the repeater. They were mounted in so many different ways I guess making a universal kit is impossible, so it's kind of 'left for the modeller to...' That said, to make the GWR version you only need a post as the ladder is in there. I think you can get one from MSE, but I just went mad and bought their Tubular Post Pack which has all sorts in. Luckily, since to get the wires to the lamp means swapping thin tube for the wire the lamp normally sits on. There's nothing provided for any counter-balance arm or such, and as yet I've not managed to find a photo to see how it would work, so I'm quietly ignoring it. There's also no cap or finial for the post, again I've not found a clear photo so it'll be a GWR one unless I find otherwise before getting there. So to making it. The platform everything goes on a simple fold to get a U channel. This will need an extra hole for the control wire when I get there. The post has been cut to the same length as the first one, 18ft if I remember right. The, er, 'case' the arm sits in is a simple fold up, with a strip of brass soldered round to get the depth. I just 'rolled' the strip round a till-roll center, followed by a handle of the craft knife and there it was. The instructions aren't chronological so it's really important to work out the correct order - like painting the arm and opaque glass before assembly. The lamp has been prepared as usual, and now it's glue and paint drying time.

And so to painting and finishing. First off was to pop out to the garden and spray it with good old Hafords etch primer (the can's about eight years old and still going strong). Before I did this I intended to mask the lamp 'lenses' with a bit of Blue Tac but forgot. I got away with it. The signal was then appropriately decorated. The black is possibly a bit shinier that intended, I'm going with having a very keen S&T Dept rather than mess about. The grey is just the aforementioned Halfords Primer. I messed about for ages (earlier posts) trying to find the 'perfect' grey/aluminium colour and finally, after much opening of tins of grey paint and mixing such, picked a Humbrol grey - that is exactly the same colour as the primer. Hey ho! Then the control rods/wire/things were added and finally the blind for the back of the lamp fixed and painted. Apart from touching up a bit of grey where the black missed all is done. Other activities have been going on, clay, paint, signal wires, painting signal wires, 'rooting' the trees properly and so on. With most of the on-going stuff being more scenic until I can get more track and/or buildings and walls I think the next workshop project will be building second banner repeater. This isn't for the layout, but you get two in the kit so I may as well make it and put it on eBay rather than let it fade into the spares box.