Jeremy Cumberland

You've already got passing contact switches, so if they can be panel mounted (with Peco PL-26 switches, use a PL-28 mounting plate), there's no reason why you can't just build them into a control panel with a track plan on the face, and each switch at the position of the point it operates with the point lever pointing in the direction the point is set. The hardest job is probably going to be drawing up a track plan in a style that has room for each of the switches, whcih also makes it clear what each switch does. A few comments: Switches are easier to operate if they are all orientated the same way (moving the lever towards or away from the operator). This pretty much rules out using a scale representation of the track plan, and instead you need a schematic with most tracks running left to right. You can have U bends of plain track at each end, but all the points should be on track that runs left to right. Draw the 3-way point as two ordinary points, one after the other (middle to right comes first, then middle to left). I suggest you draw double slips as two ordinary points joined toe to toe. This means that the left hand switch operates the right hand motor and vice versa, but it is easier to set routes (and to see what route is set) doing it this way. I suggest that all the station and its industry is on one control panel, but you might prefer to have the docks / scrap works on its own control panel, since what happens here is pretty much independent of what happens at the station. This isn't necessarily the best way of controlling the points. Personally I'd be inclined to use an electrode and stud contacts and have some diode matrices and some studs that operate pairs of points, to reduce the number of actions needed to set a route, but this becomes more complex. You will also then need LEDs in the panel, which will probably be controlled by PL-13 or PL-15 switches mounted on each point motor, which adds a whole load more wiring. But really, this is leaping ahead too quickly. You asked right at the beginning The latter. Fix some points in position, with enough track on either side to run trains over them. The four points in the top right corner would be a good starting point, since these give you seven possible routes to set. Fit the point motors, wire them (temporarily, perhaps) to operating switches and check that everything works. If you are using PL-13 or PL-15 auxiliary switches, check that they switch reliably. You might build a small control panel for the four operating switches and check that you are happy with using these four levers to set routes. You will probably discover when you build this small part of the layout that you have more questions, or that there are things you hadn't thought of, or things that you are not sure of.

I know nothing about using apps on a tablet and DCC control, but perhaps I can makes some suggestions for a physical control panel and DC wiring. What do you want your control panel(s) to look like, and how do you want to set routes? Most control panels have a track plan drawn on them, where you can set routes and/or see which routes have been set. The simplest form of route setting, both to understand as an operator and to understand how to wire, is to place each point switch where the point is in the track plan, so that the point switch lever indicates the direction the points are set. You have passing contact switches, which are ideal for this. If you had sprung centre-off switches, then you would probably wish to add LEDs to show which way the points are set, and you might want LEDs even with passing contact switches. A completely different physical arrangement (but wired exactly the same as the above arrangement with LEDs) would be to put all the levers in a row like a signal box lever frame, rather than mounting them on the control panel track plan, and having LEDs on the track plan indicate which way points are set. For some types of layout, you might need to change several points repeatedly for the same sequence of movements. Consider, for example, a double track oval with a fiddle yard consisting of four tracks in each direction. The fiddle yard requires 12 points (3 at each end in each direction), and you might need to change 3 of them to set a particular arrival or exit road, and up to 6 of them to set a road for through-running. This is where diode matrices are particularly useful, because you can just set, for example, track 2 arrival with a single switch or contact, and it will change all the points needed in one go, irrespective of their previous position. Your passing contact switches probably can't be used for this, and you would be better off with sprung on/off toggle switches, or stud contacts and a probe, You can set up diode matrices for any type of layout, but personally I find them less useful where every move is different, such as a double track ternimus, particularly when you might have one train arriving at the same time that another is departing. Pretty much all DC point control has the risk of changing a set of points under a train, but the risk is greater with diode matrices because it isn't immediately clear which points will change. There are other ways of using a single switch to control more than one set of points. On the prototype, two points forming a crossover are often controlled from a single lever, and there is no reason why you shouldn't do this on a model. The problem here with passing contact switches is that the lever position only matches the setting of one set of points. This isn't a problem if you have all the switches in a row like a sgnal box lever frame (the lever away from you is "normal", with both points set for through running, and the lever towards you is "reverse" with both points set for the crossover), but it might be confusing if all the other levers are mounted on the track plan and the lever direction indicates the position of the points. Perhaps if you shared your track plan, you might get better suggestions, but most of the decisions are down to your own personal choices. I suggest you imagine a short sequence of three or four movements on your layout, and think about what you want to do to make them happen. If you want to change each point individually, that is fine. If you want to change all the points for a movement in one go, this is (probably) also fine, but it requires a different approach. Do you want several control panels covering different parts of the layout, perhaps so you can see what is happening while you change points, or do you want everything controlled from one place? Perhaps at this stage you aren't so interested in control panels and just want to get the track laid and operational. You could just wire up each point motor and swtich individually with each switch close to the point it controls, and think about control panels later. If you have enough wire going to the switch, you might not even need to do any rewiring when you do get round to building a control panel.

Newton Abbot.

My reading of the DS64 manual is that they give a reverse polarity output (positive or negative), either pulsed or continuous. From your description of using an SPST, you want an on/off (positive) continuous output. This might be possible by configuring the DS64 for slow-motion motors as per the manual, and then connecting your signals between nR (or nG) and P+, but this is not mentioned in the manual, and this is rather a fancy controller just to use for on/off outputs. You can connect the two adjacent R or G outputs to the same P+ terminal.

The Stagecoach timetable replicates the identical Friday/Not Friday services: But why on earth M-ThX? Scroll down for the key: er...what?

I see that Everton had numbers 1 to 11. Clearly the lighter single-digit numberplates had a significant effect, since they beat Manchester City (numbers 12 to 22) 3-0.

I am trying to work out what the people inside the shelter actually do. Surely the measurements themselves are made by chart recorders, and I would have thought that the screens were there to protect the delicate instruments.

In 2021, the railway I volunteer on was doing full Covid cleaning between journeys, and the last thing we would have wanted was people getting up and moving about.

I assumed from your earlier posts that you didn't have a mobile phone and so couldn't receive the authentication code via SMS. Unless the surgury requires you to use their app (which isn't mentioned in your original post), I don't see why you shouldn't just continue using your computer as you had done in the past, registering your mobile number to reveive the authentication code via SMS, and copying this into your web browser. It wouldn't work for me, because I don't have a mobile phone.

The white jodhpurs are there, but they seem to be riding rather low and there's a rather disconcerting expanse of pink above, and I don't mean the red of the jacket. He is holding a short crop, but it was the very long stragiht thing I was more interested in, sticking out far behind the rider. Since it appears to be connected to be bridle, I imagine it's a control for the hobby horse, but since I've never seen a hobby horse remotely like this ("a stick with a horse's head handle" is more what I am used to), I can't imagine how it is used. Ah, a cigar. Of course.

You've got to have the horse and rider. Making a horse from a beer barrel, giving it jointed legs, placing a fat huntsman in pinks on top and then sticking what looks something like a cross between a knight's lance and an oversized balloon whisk in his hand is...inspired or deranged, perhaps, but certainly unique. Is that his bare bum showing under the flying coat tails, and what is that protruding from his mouth? Tetley's it ain't.

Only 48? Clyde Iron Works had at eight, I think, as well as a similar number of Barclays.

I was delighted to see a brimstone flying alongside the train on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway on Sunday. It's the first time I've seen one since moving to Cumberland, which is right at the northern edge of their range. Apart from that, all I've seen this year are a few orange and brown things too far away to positively identify, but I think were small tortoiseshells.

Another one recently mentioned, although I suppose Paisley Central isn't a spelling mistake as such, and perhaps it is mere coincidence that Paisley has a real life railway station called Paisley Canal that was served by Strathclyde-liveried class 101s. Paisley has had six railway stations, but none of them has ever been called Paisley Central.

CDL is something of a red herring in the Great Central accident, and if the coaches had CDL, there is every chance that the guard would have unlocked the doors anyway. Selective door opening, which is a different discussion entirely, would probably not have been used even if it were available, because the train was expected to stop in the platform, not partially beyond the platform end. RSR99 specifically excludes railways whose operating speed is 25 mph or less, and it seems that ORR and RAIB currently have no interest in extending CDL to these railways. Perhaps they will do so in future, but at the moment I see no signs of it. CDL is not even hinted at as a recommendation in the Great Central accident report.

Hornby's "Exhaust Steam Sound" was always perfectly synchronised. One chuff per revolution of the tender wheels.

Here's Shrewsbury platform 7 up starter: You might also have the lamp and spectacle plates to the right of the pivot, such as these at Droitwich Spa:

Of course, it should read "has been sighted".

By 4-aspect, could they be referring to a colour light splitting distant, where there are two 2-aspect yellow/green signal heads side by side, replacing two distant arms side by side? I don't wish to infringe copyright so I won't post the picture here, but there is a lovely photograph on the signalbox.org site of a combined section signal and 3-way splitting distant at Ely Station North (the distants are for Ely North Junction), so there are seven lamps: a red for the section signal, and three yellows and three greens for the distants, towards the bottom of this page: https://signalbox.org/branch-lines/tribute-to-dave-stenning/ Note that there will always be 3 lamps lit. Either a red (middle bottom) and two yellows, or one of the greens and two yellows, or three yellows.

Levers being retained for interlocking purposes are/were common enough. The ones I know of have the bottom half painted in the colour to match their former function (red, in your example), and the top half painted white. Sometimes, when the lever no longer needs to be moved, the catch handle is removed, and such levers might be fixed in the reverse position. A picture of one (with catch handle still in situ, so presumably the lever is still in use) has been posted on RMWeb before (lever 17): We seem to use different terminology. A "home" signal is one on the approach to a signalbox. Entry to the block section ahead is controlled by the section signal, commonly referred to as the "starting signal" or "starter", although there are all sorts of oddities in terminology. There are probably few places today where the section signal is not interlocked with block instuments, but this used not to be the case. Two accidents (Abermule in 1921 and Welwyn in 1935) led to more widespread interlocking between block instruments, signals and track circuits or treadles, but there were still plenty of signal boxes with no interlocking between block instruments and signals in the 1960s, and many more without track circuits. As far as I am aware, single track tokenless block always has section signals interlocked with block instruments (line clear gives a one-pull or one-train release), but ordinary double track absolute block often didn't, and nor did single track token instruments. Another way block instruments might be interlocked with signals is home normal proving, where line clear can't be given by the box in advance unless their outermost home signal (the signal at the far end of the block section) is at danger. I have encountered this with single line token instruments. This can then be elaborated on, with interlocking then requiring, for example, both the section signal to be cleared and returned to danger and the home signal of the box in advance cleared and returned to danger before the next line clear could be given (this in essence is how Sykes Lock and Block worked), and track circuits or treadles can be added to confirm that the previous train has actually passed before the next one can be signalled (Welwyn control).

They'll likely succeed with the public opinion part. Outside of the railway industry, I don't see anyone making counter-arguments. ORR doubtless feel it's not their business to get into a public argument; they don't even have grounds for a press release or public statement unless WCRC make an outright accusation. The general public have no idea of the dangers of slam doors. Many of us are old enough to remember their being the norm, and no harm ever happened to us, personally, did it? The numerous injuries and deaths that did occur were not widely reported, and the eventual move away from slam doors was prompted by awareness within British Rail, who commisioned a report from the HSE, not from public pressure or any sort of press campagin. Will the ORR back down? I have no idea, but given the spinelessness of today's politicians, I wouldn't be too surprised to find the ORR being leaned on to come up with some compromise. It's no good pretending that independent regulators are truly independent of political interference, when they are appointed by government ministers.

That is the highest the setting voltage will be (the setting voltage is no higher than 19.2 V in a 24 V relay). Quite likely the actual setting voltage is lower, and you were able to set your relay with a 9 V battery, when the setting voltage listed in the datasheet is 9.6 V. The maximum voltage the coil can withstand is in the right hand column: 27.7 V. If you have connected the relay across the CDU on its own, without the point motor, you might possibly have fried it, but if you had the point motor in circuit as well this seems very unlikely, particularly if you wired directly to the point motor terminals rather than the switch terminals and the CDU. Given the low resistance of the SEEP coils, it seems more likely that you had too low a voltage going to the relay than you have too high a voltage going to it. You haven't said exactly how you bench tested the relay. What did you do after hearing the "click"? Did you alternately apply the voltage across 1 and 16, then 2 and 15, then 1 and 16 and so on, to set and reset the relay, or did you just apply and remove the voltage from pins 1 and 16, for this will do nothing. Bistable relays aren't like ordinary relays and won't change each time you apply or remove the power to a coil. They only change if you apply or remove the power in a certain way, depending on the relay type and how it is already set. For your relay, applying 12 V across 1 and 16 sets the relay one way, and applying 12 V across 2 and 15 sets it back again. Only a momentary connection to a power supply is required - according to the datasheet, the switching time is 4.5 milliseconds. Rather than listening for the click, to test the action of the relay you should either incorporate it in a circuit - a battery and a lamp/LED, for example - using pins 4/6, 4/8, 13/11 and/or 13/9, or else use a meter to measure continuity or resistance across one or more pairs of pins (4/6, 4/8, 13/11 or 13/9).

Some of them seem quite likely for Tooting Bec Common. Black redstarts seemed to be getting quite common in southern England before I moved up north, and they have no worries about built-up areas. Goldcrests can be found pretty much anywhere there are trees, but I find them next to impossible to spot (some people seem to have an eye for them, but not me). Blackcaps are widespread, and also don't mind towns. Cetti's warblers are wetland birds and they like to remain in cover. Is there anywhere on Tooting Bec Common that's like this? The song is pretty unmistakable (at least, I don't know another song like it), and loud, so not really the sort of song a decent birdsong app would mis-identify. Listen to a recording and see if you can hear it yourself. Stonechats like open heathland with gorse and similar shrubs. I've never encountered one in an urban area, but you never know - they aren't particularly timid birds. I wonder if another bird's alarm call could have been mistaken for a stonechat, but if there really are stonechats, if you can hear them you should have no problem seeing them. I don't know much about redstarts, and I've only seen them in rural woodlands.

Do the relays have HFD2/012-S-L2-D printed on them? 9V might not be enough to switch the relay (the data sheet says 9.6V), although the click is pretty much a giveaway. How are you testing the switching contacts (pins 4, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 13)? With a bistable relay such as this, you cannot tell the initial state. If you apply 12 V to pins 1 and 16, the relay should "set". If you apply 12 V to pins 2 and 15, the relay should "reset". Once the relay is "set", you can apply and remove power to pins 1 and 16 as much as you like and the relay state won't change. It will only change if you apply power to pins 2 and 15.

If you remove the power from a coil circuit (pins 1 and 16 or 2 and 15), the switches (pins 4, 6, 8, 9, 11 and 13) should remain set exactly how they were before. Can you post a photograph of a relay, and an internal wiring diagram if you have one? What is the part number? You will only burn out the relay coil if the CDU output voltage is too high. I would not expect any problems with a CDU powered by 16 V ac, and this is a very common arrangement. A more likely scenario for the relay not operating (assuming it is the correct type of relay) is that it isn't getting enough voltage because the SEEP is stealing all the current, as was mentioned earlier in this thread.