Steve Hewitt

Second training day completed successfully.........................

 

Another great day with John getting used to the new ways of working.

It's quite noticeable how the superb control which DCC affords, together with the synchronised sound effects, encourages much better driving by the operators. There used to be a temptation to drive too quickly and rush through the operating sequence. This seems to be replaced by efforts to simulate prototypical practice, as best we can remember it!

By lunch time I felt confident with the Station control panel, so I moved to the Sector Plate controls for the afternoon.

With only one operator on the Station panel this gives the Sector Plate operator an opportunity for a stroll around the whole layout.

I took advantage of these little breaks in activity to capture a few shots on my phone:

John, busy on the Station control panel, with my empty chair beyond!

 

A view over the station roof looking towards the hotel.

 

Lime Street and the Station Hotel.

 

The old carriage drive entrance to the station with the main platforms beyond.

 

Quite busy on Lime Street!

 

Looking across the station throat to a London express waiting the "Right Away".

 

Locos waiting their next turn of duty.

 

A little video clip as the station pilot takes the mail train up the shunting neck. 

 

This is the sector plate and fiddle yard, which I am supposed to be operating!

 

More when we can..........

 

Steve

 

Hello Steve45,

 

Thanks for your comment and question.

 

The situation around exhibitions is as follows:

We have discussed the way forward for the layout and decided reluctantly that we will not be taking it out to any more exhibitions.

 

The reasons behind this decision are

1.  The Lime Street Crew, currently some seven strong are beginning to feel the passage of time. Three of our team are already in their eighties, and only one is not a pensioner.

2.  Consequently we have decided that it will always be necessary to have extra accommodation both before and after an event.

3.  The size and weight of the layout now demands the use of two vans - a Luton box van with tail-lift and a long wheelbase Hi-Top.  We also need to take a car.

4.  The usual drivers are now past the age at which it is possible to hire the necessary vans.

5.  The financial consequences of the above mean that very few if any Exhibition managers can afford to invite us even though we usually take some of the cost ourselves.

 

We now see the future of Lime street involving regular and frequent operating sessions in its home location.

 

In this situation we envisage hosting small groups for one-day visits where they will have the opportunity to "get under the skin" of the railway and have hands on operating experience if they so desire.

The maximum size of a visiting group would be six persons.

Such visits would be strictly by invitation. There will definitely not be any "Open Days".

 

There are still one or two technical developments to be completed before the whole layout will be fully operational, but we are anticipating have "proper" running sessions by the summer, hopefully 2024!

 

I hope all this is clear and we await reaction with interest.

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

Running time at long last.......................

 

It is several years (four?) since we were last able to run the railway.

Covid and the Burglary are now behind us and many updates/improvements  have been completed.

In addition to the many scenic improvements we are well on the road to our conversion to DCC for train control.

Two of the three operating positions have been converted and we look forward to having the third available in the not too distant future.

 

As part of the DCC conversion it has been agreed that all the operators will need to undergo re-training. 

Initially this is being done on a one to one basis with each operator spending one or two days with John for intensive learning.

 

I have just completed my first training day and will have another in a couple of weeks.

A lot of the system is unchanged and familiar. The route setting is very familiar, but when it comes to driving the trains much has to be re-learnt.

Fundamental is the use of Forwards and Backwards direction of the locos as opposed to Up and Down directions of the track.

A whole new system of Sound control has been developed using control buttons with dedicated functions, such as Short Whistle for a steam loco, or Short Horn for a Diesel. The actual sound produced in response to each button is determined by the individual loco's sound chip.

 

Actual control of the trains is improved beyond anything we could have imagined. The use of Momentum and Inertia have eliminated sudden starts and stops , and "Stay Alive" has smoothed out progress particularly at very slow speed in the platforms and for Coupling and Uncoupling. Combined with the synchronised "Chuff Rate" we seem to have eliminated the tendency to drive at excessive speed. Remember there is an overall speed limit of 25 mph.

 

I did manage to get a couple of Video clips on my phone:

 The Jackshaft shunter leaves the "Back Road" for the Cutting.

 

 A Jubilee climbs through the cutting towards Hedge Hill.

 

I'll try for more videos and photos at my next training day.

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

Tuesday was a busy busy day.................

 

Two sessions at the Clubroom on Tuesday saw very good progress.

The Down Main line has been laid and the connections to and from it installed.

Looking North the two main lines have been laid but only the Up line has been checked over its whole length for alignment.

This point work is straight on the prototype, but we have introduced the curve to reduce the space required. 

In the centre of this shot can be seen a coach used for checking the alignment etc. It is on the Up Main just beyond the end of the Station Building, adjacent to the Up Bay trackwork. Following the line south past the Bay Exit the next feature is the trailing crossover from the Up to Down lines. This is where banking engines returning light engine after assisting a train up to Beattock Summit on the Down Main will reverse and gain access to the Shed  (Northbound) or Banker's Siding (to the South).

This access from the Down Main to the Shed is also the access to the two Down Loops used by goods trains which have to allow faster  trains to pass.

The trailing crossover between the Down Main and the Banker's Siding allows a waiting Banker to follow a northbound train towards the station from where it will assist in the long climb to the Summit.

 

All this point work has been constructed in the last couple weeks from the excellent British Finescale 00 Kits.

We think the "flexible curves" are very effective.

 

By the end of the evening we couldn't resist the temptation to clip a couple of leads to the Down Main at the North end of the layout and give a Caley 0-6-0 a first run!

 

Next will be aligning the Down Main followed by laying out the track for the Goods Yard and Moffat Branch, both accessed from the Up Main, and the Engine Shed and Goods Loops which are accessed from the Down Main.

 

More soon I hope.

 

Steve

On 12/02/2024 at 21:19, Steve Hewitt said:

Turning the Corner...............

 

A long time has passed since we were able to operate the layout properly.

This has been fruitfully spent with the replacement of the stolen stock, and the conversion to DCC operation as well as a number of other improvements and developments.

 

Last week Rob and Noel spent one day with John dismantling the whole layout and storing it as if for transport.

With everything safely stored it allowed a decorator to repair and restore the ceiling where some water ingress had occurred.

 

John is now re-erecting the layout and completing any outstanding tasks board by board.

In addition to a thorough cleaning, these include repairs to a damaged point mechanism which has been inaccessible previously and modifying some wiring to accommodate our DCC operation. The ten long storage roads at the rear of the layout each previously used a diode controlled section to prevent locos over-running into the buffers. This method doesn't work with DCC and has been replaced by relays to isolate each track end.

The camera which presents the view of these tracks to the operator has been relocated to improve control.

 

The first two boards are now complete and re-erected including all paperwork and are fully tested.

 

The next board ( Board 7) will not be as easy as there is quite some wiring to do.

This one has the new circuit board for the fiddle yard  loco release and all associated wiring plus through wiring for the re-sited fiddle yard camera.

It’s going to be a case of shoe horning a place to site the circuit board !

 

Only another dozen boards or so then we can start operating again.

 

Steve.

 

 

Board 7 ...............

 

As mentioned above, the modifications to Board 7 are to facilitate the Engine Release function for each of the 10 Fiddle Yard tracks.

 

This is the circuit board John has made:

John explains: "This shot is a close up of the new circuit board I made before Christmas for the loco release, each of the relays will serve two fiddle tracks, shorting out the dead sections at the far end of each track. The blue and grey wires lead to the individual droppers."

 

And here you can see where John has managed to fit the new circuit board to Board 7:

Quite a lot going on !

 

Once John has completed the documentation and erected Board 7 it will be on to Board 8.

 

Steve

Flexitrack and now Flexipoints.................

 

We have chosen Peco Bull Head 00 as the track standard, and here we see the two main line tracks passing through the station area.

This is the view looking South down almost the full length of the railway.  the Station Buildings, Goods Yard and Moffat Branch will be to the left. The Engine Shed and Goods Loops will be on the right.

The white line over the Up line is builders string used to ensure the track is straight!

This code 75 track is very flexible and has been secured at about 4 inch intervals to try to maintain accurate alignment.

 

At the South end of the layout we have had to curve the formation towards the fiddle yard. Where in reality there were several points and crossings based on the straight track alignment, the curvature has raised the need for several points to be built on a curve.

We had originally planned to build these from scratch if necessary, but the EMGS published an article on curving the British Finescale point kits.

Our chief track builder experimented with one of the kits, and has developed a method which allows a point to be "flexible".

 His method involves cutting the inter-sleeper webbing on the "inside" of the required curve , leaving the webbing in place under the outer stock rail and in the frog and tie-bar areas.

The resulting flexibility should be sufficient to allow us to use the British Finescale kits for all the points in the scenic section of the layout.

 

More progress will be reported as it is made.......

 

Steve

Turning the Corner...............

 

A long time has passed since we were able to operate the layout properly.

This has been fruitfully spent with the replacement of the stolen stock, and the conversion to DCC operation as well as a number of other improvements and developments.

 

Last week Rob and Noel spent one day with John dismantling the whole layout and storing it as if for transport.

With everything safely stored it allowed a decorator to repair and restore the ceiling where some water ingress had occurred.

 

John is now re-erecting the layout and completing any outstanding tasks board by board.

In addition to a thorough cleaning, these include repairs to a damaged point mechanism which has been inaccessible previously and modifying some wiring to accommodate our DCC operation. The ten long storage roads at the rear of the layout each previously used a diode controlled section to prevent locos over-running into the buffers. This method doesn't work with DCC and has been replaced by relays to isolate each track end.

The camera which presents the view of these tracks to the operator has been relocated to improve control.

 

The first two boards are now complete and re-erected including all paperwork and are fully tested.

 

The next board ( Board 7) will not be as easy as there is quite some wiring to do.

This one has the new circuit board for the fiddle yard  loco release and all associated wiring plus through wiring for the re-sited fiddle yard camera.

It’s going to be a case of shoe horning a place to site the circuit board !

 

Only another dozen boards or so then we can start operating again.

 

Steve.

 

 

Moving on from Paper Templates....................

 

Having developed the track plan using paper templates we have ordered our first batch of point kits.

These are intended mainly for the area controlled from the Beattock South box.

We have chosen to use British Finescale 00 Code 75 as the basis for our pointwork.

They produce a very nice result and are significantly less costly than the new Peco Unifrog points which offer a comparable all metal product of very similar geometry.

 

Here we have our first order delivered:

 

A number of new club members wish to develop their skills by assembling these kits between them.

 

More soon.............

 

Steve.

Another step forward........

 

Prior to the return of our stolen locos we were making good progress in rebuilding our stock and in the process adopting DCC features in the new locos - including lighting and sound.

In our time period Edge Hill shed had an allocation of ex-LNWR 0-8-4T engines which managed a lot of empty stock movements.

The prototype on shed.

 

Here is a model we have made of one of them:

 

 

The model is based on a Brassmasters kit, but incorporates a G2 0-8-0 chassis by Bachmann.

You see it here in its almost final state.

It has been backwards and forwards between myself for the basic construction as a DC model in EM gauge.

Rob then tackled the painting after contributing many of the fine details.

Back to John for the installation of the DCC features and addition of the Transfers.

This is the condition you see here.

It will be back to Rob again shortly for matt varnishing and touching up of the weathering, after which it will be returned to John and be ready for service!

 

Speaking of "service" , we are hoping to be able to start running sessions during the first quarter of 2024.

First there is completing of the DCC installation and its integration into the existing control system.

Then there a couple of repairs to complete, which because of their nature and location will require the dismantling of quite a large part of the layout to gain access.

Only then will we be able to start operator training..............

 

Steve

 

On 14/12/2023 at 16:45, Steve Hewitt said:

Alignment dowels and case catches will be used to bring everything into proper alignment.........

 

Steve

 

Like this.............

 

The end of the static board.

The support for the lifting section is 20mm x 20mm x 2mm aluminium angle.

The receiving hole is reamed 7mm dia.

 

The mating end of the lifting section in the open position.

The 7mm dia dowel is located accurately in the strengthened edge of the board.

The holes were made with the lifting section closed and clamped in alignment.

 

The lifting section in the closed position.

The dowel ensures accurate alignment in the horizontal plane.

The two thumb wheels adjust the vertical position of the edges of the lifting section as they bear on the aluminium angle when closed.

 

The track plan will have only two running lines across the lifting section - The Up and Down Main lines.

The necessary electrical safety interlocking to ensure trains don't proceed when the lifting section is raised has yet to be finalised. i.e. we know we need it, but not sure how we will achieve it!

 

Perhaps the upcoming festive season will inspire some creative thinking ..........

 

All the very best to our readers for a Merry Christmas and a busy modelling New Year.

 

Steve.

A Circuit complete................

 

Our club exhibition last weekend has given the opportunity to relocate several items within the clubroom.

This in turn allowed us to erect the final baseboards to complete our 30ft by 12ft layout.

We had started assembling the boards in the North West corner, and as seen in previous posts completed the scenic section in a southerly direction.

We then assembled the boards to the East  which will be the Fiddle Yard.

When we came to install the final board, which will be the "lifting section" we were delighted to find everything lined up within about 4mm! 

 

The view from inside the North West corner of the layout, with the final boards in the South East corner in the distance. There are some thirty boards plus several triangular corner fillers.

 

The alignment between the East and West sides prior to any adjustments.

 

The West side of the layout seems to be about 4mm longer than the East side.

 

Alignment dowels and case catches will be used to bring everything into proper alignment.........

 

Steve