Bas Knippels

Hello, I have a question. I started to shunt recently with all my new english rolling stock and I really really would like to get rid of those horrible standard tension lock couplings. They bug me on more than way. - I cannot uncouple cars by lifting a car. - They have far too much backlash (like 2 or 3mm) - The uncoupling rods on the bottem side are spaced out to far so you need a really wide uncoupler - They lack pre-uncoupling - too big a distance between the wagons However these became the standard in the UK is a mystery to me. Anways on my dutch Marklin layout I like to use the Marklin Relex couplings because they have good coupling capabilities, I can uncouple manually by lifting one of the two cars and they have the pre-coupling functionality. Kadee couplings share the same features. I believe kadees also allow for shorter coupling between wagons than marklin relex couplings. The kadees can also work with hidden magnets but they also cost more. I am still in doubt which couplings I should buy for my Hornby/Dapol rolling stock. It is not that common to see the relex couplings on 2-rail systems. I am aware that there are youtube videos available in which every known coupling is compared to the others. But I am only curious if people here are using the marklin relex coupling on their 2-rail systems and what their experiences are? Kind regards, Bas

I managed to finish the coal bunker Added some coal And I put down some more dirt and ballast Kind regards, Bas

Busy day today. I repainted the brown ground and I aplied dry dirt to it. Also painted the front side of the base boards black. I have to do this one more time It does look make a huge difference compared to the wooden color And I wanted to ask. What do you guys think of this color of ballast? It is Noch red brown H0 ballast. I usually use iton my Dutch layout. Ofcourse it becomes slightly darker when I glue and drybrush it. I have also started on the coal bunker. I was not entirely sure how high it should be. It is 3cm or 228cm in 00 gauge I think compared to the Peckett it is alright I guess? Good evening, Bas

Today I painted the background, typical Scottish weather. I know I am not that great a painter. I simply mix some white with some black paint, added a little purple/blue tone and I simply start brushing a la Bob Ross style. I am not yet done with the background. I made a small stretch of highlands which is currently is standing on my wardrobe in the bedroom. wardrobe. Again nothing fancy really, but I like the looks of it. It was done with the cheapest paint available. For Rosedale Abbey I want to do the same only with good paint this time. Further finished the paintjob on the distillery And I gave the B&K dairy factory a finishing black wash. What a little bit of black paint and water can do. The next thing I want to do, is to repaint the brown baselayer in a black or really dark brown. I also dug up some black soil from my backyard, I put in the oven and now I am letting it dry. I will use the soil as a natural base before I start sowing gras, bushes and trees and lay the ballast. Kind regards, Bas

There are several ways of setting points, one switch per point, switches for entire routes (setting multiple points with one switch) and setting points by means of a remote handcontroller. I did not want to build in a switch panel inside the board so I chose the last option, handcontroller style. I once worked with a roco multimaus, that can do precisely this but I found the the device to be rather cumbersome. Also being owner of a terrible marklin mobile station and central station, I prefer user-friendliness above all. And so the 2 button idea came to mind. My idea needed the control system to keep track of the train. So I could have bought expensive dcc controllers and command centers and a raspberry pi to host a computer program like iTrain.. Or I could use a cheap arduino nano clone for 1 buck 50. So this choise for a control system was an easy one. Than the problem of detection arose. How was the controller going to see wagons? I figured out that I had no need for permanent detection. I just had to know to where a train is headed. I had three choises for detection: - Current detection. I would have to glue SMD resistors and solder wire under every wagon + I would have to cut in my tracks alot. I also had no need for permanent detection. - IR sender/receivers. Expensive, cumbersome and ugly contraptions. Did not consider this option for longer than 2 seconds. - Light Depended Resistors. Painfully cheap, but hard to program correctly. No need to cut in the tracks for them. As option 1 and 2 were no options, I had to go with LDRs. LDRs cost less than 10 cents but they are not known for their reliability especially under varying lighting circumstances. I honestly can wright a short book about this subject. These problems however were completely fixable with writing good code. The last problem I faced, was the most interesting problem. Where was I going to put the LDRs? And how many would I need? I thought and sought days and days for these answers. I drew dozens of pictures and ran all kind of situations in my head untill I had 'em. The answers are: in front of each point and six (marked with purple numbers). Usually a block is flanked by 2 sensors. Were I to do that here I would need about ~18 sensors. I theorized that by putting a sensor before every point, I would work. There is obiviously lots of code to show but I will stick to this table. /* > leftSensor | > rightSensor | | | | > leftTurnout ; these must jump by the buttons | | | > rightTurnout | | | | | | | | > leftTurnoutBlind ; 1st bit true = curved, false = straight | | | | | > rightTurnoutBlind ; blind turnouts must jump when train enters new section | | | | | | | | | | | | > leftUpSection ; last 4 bytes contain information about which new section the train is heading for | | | | | | | > leftDownSection | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | > rightUpSection | | | | | | | | | > rightDownSection | | | | | | | | | | */ Section section[ sectionAmount ] = { // this table is the layout NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA , // Dummy NA, 1, NA, 2, 1|T, NA, NA, NA, 4, 5 , // 1 NA, 1, NA, 2, 1|B, NA, NA, NA, 4, 5 , // 2 NA, 2, NA, 5, NA, NA, NA, NA, 6, 7 , // 3 1, 3, 1, 3, 2|T, NA, 1, 2, 8, 9 , // 4 1, 4, 1, NA, 2|B, 4|T, 1, 2, 10, 10 , // 5 2, 4, NA, NA, 5|T, 4|B, 3, 3, 10, 10 , // 6 2, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 3, 3, NA, NA , // 7 3, NA, 1, NA, NA, NA, 4, 4, NA, NA , // 8 3, 6, NA, NA, 3|B, 7|T, 4, 4, 11, 11 , // 9 4, 5, 4, 6, NA, 7|B, 5, 6, 11, 12 , // 10 6, NA, 7, NA, 6|T, NA, 9, 10, NA, NA , // 11 5, NA, 4, NA, 6|B, NA, 10, 10, NA, NA , // 12 } ; Sections can have sensors both left and right. There may be a left and a right point to controll. And there may be points lying in blind directions which are to be set when a train enters the section. For instance: if a train enters section 5 from the left. Than it is vital that point 4 is set to straight. The latter 4 numbers are the numbers of the adjacent sections as you can read in the code comments. Two routines takes care of the layout. The first routine monitors the buttons. If a button is pressed, the routine will examine in which section the train is and in which direction it is traveling (by reading out the the turning knob's position). Than the routine can figure out which point is to be set. The other routine keeps track where the train is. It takes sensor input, direction of travel, current section number and the state of the adjacent point in acount and the train will be put in the corresponding adjacent section when it trips a sensor. Perhaps zhat I can make a video of the system wizh a vocal explanation in a stronk Dutch accent The system is not yet entirely perfect. Currently it works with 1 train at the time. That is not a big an issue (I only have 1 controller + the layout is analoge anyways). What is an issue, is that a train has to go back to the FY before an other train may enter the field. There can be only 1 train. I cannot send the bubblecar to the station and than send a second train after it to shunt some wagons. Thankfully I can fix this in software. The layout also has the ability to use DCC instead but I have disabled it. I prefer analog for layouts like this. Were I to do the entire project over I would propably be using 18 sensors. I would definately add sensors to all track ends so the controller can stop the train if you try to push the wagons or a loco of the tracks. By using a more conventional blocksystem, I would enable the circuit to operate more trains at once on the layout. And lastly I would add an SD card module on which I would store the layout information alongside some other variables like sensor sensitivity and servo positions (and perhaps with a simple automated shuttle service timetable) If you are interested in the source code: github page I hope I have been a bit clear with my explanation. I am guessing it's alot to swallow? Kind regards, Bas

On a Dutch forum I made a separate thread about the construction of the baseboards https://forum.beneluxspoor.net/index.php?topic=94006.15 The 2 halves can be put on top of eachother so that the high side fits on the low side of the other. The top sides are pointed to eachother. This mean that the front sides of the halves cannot have high scenery parts. The outer station tracks and the outer fiddleyard can each be slid into the 2 halves. You can see there is not much space. If I ever put the track on display I will take the station buildings with me separately. There are ofourse more than 1 way to do what you want. The biggest issue with storage of baseboards is the height of the scenery. Imagine if you build a forrest part and you want to store two halves with the tops facing eachother. You will need atleast 15 to 20cm extra space per half to accomodate the trees. If you only plant trees to the backside and you make sure that the front sides are not too heigh you can safe yourself alot of space The halves of Rosedale have about 10cm of space underneath the baseplate. This is because I wanted to slide the 2 outer parts inside the box. Obviously you will need some space for electronics. But this space can be kept small if space is needed. What I have also seen for storage and transport is a system that you can put special shaped wooden blocks to the heads' side so that you can stack you'r baseboards. You use the same holes for mounting them as you use for connecting base boards to eachother. I can imagine you can enhance this idea, by fitting it with a system so the stacked components can be fixed to eachother. You can also uses a similar method with which you can connect two baseboards with eachothers. The top sides would be facing togather. These ideas are not my own. These are simply the most clever 'contraptions' I have come across. It really comes down to the scenery and planning. Do you have high scenery? Is your scenery fragile? Can you remove the high scenery parts for separate transport? etc. And ofcourse it matters what is important for you. Do you want it to fit in your car? Do you want the parts to be carried up and down stairs? Think practical and think lightweight, that's the best advice I can give. Our model train club made wooden boxes with handlebars and each box could hold two baseboards. It works, all the scenery was safe but the blasted things are uncomfortable heavy.. The last thing I can come up with, is making a rack or frame of aluminium in which you can slide your baseboards. I have seen mobile frames which could hold entire layouts. The club in question did have to use a truck or large van to transport the whole, and the racks could ofcourse not be moved up or down a stairs because of weight and size. I hope I accidently typed something clevers which suits your needs Kind regards, Bas

Hello, I am gently transitioning from modeling dutch railways to modeling railways from across the sea aka the UK. I am currently building a small portable shelf layout which I call Rosedale Abbey. They layout is pure fictional as the real Rosedale Abbey does not even have a railway. The whole also serves as a test for several technologies I am develloping. The first thing is the wooden construction itself. I wanted to make a model railway which could be transported as a suitcase. I made a mistake of making the suitcase 122mm long instead of 90cm. So it is actually a big box of 122x40x40 cm. It still fits in my car though! When folded out, it transforms into a base for a model railway which is 364cm long. The trackplan is essentially a stretched out timesaver. It has a cattle dock, dairy farm, goods shet (which is a distillery now), coal and water place and a loading platform (which is now a station track) Meanwhile I have finished laying the tracks and I made an interesting fiddleyard. As for the scenery. So far I have a made a milkfarm A distillery: And I made a couple of these: I am 100% aware that the paintjob on this romney shed is just terrible. So worry not, I will make it look pritty!! The other 'real' technology I have develloped is a new method of controlling turnouts (what word is generally used for these? points or turnouts?). I can controll all 7 points with just 2 buttons. The layout itself is controlled analoge. The turnouts (or points) are set with servo motors which are controlled by an arduino nano. I have built in 6 light depended resistors (LDR) to detect both wagons as locomotives. The arduino uses these LDR's to keep track of where the train is, so it knows which points it must set when I press one of the two buttons. The LDRs are programmed so that the program responds to rapid changes. This means that the LDRs can be used with different light circumstances. To show how it precisely works I have made a demonstration video for you. With the 2 red buttons on the controller I can set every point without having to look at the controller. It is like if you are setting points with your mind. The next months I will be working on the scenery alot, the fun part. I have had a hard time getting the servo systems to work properly so now the relaxing part starts. I intent to post an update of my progress once in a while. I already purchased a 0-6-0 pannier and an 0-4-0 andrew barclay ST from Hattons this week. I hope it does not take two whole months for them to get airmailed to the Netherlands... again. And I think I'll be making some more videos in which I will be shunting some wagons around with my beloved W4 peckett. Or I will let my bubble car drive from one end to the other. So I hope that some of you here may enjoy my posts. I also hope I can learn things (like painting a romney shed properly) from you. And please don't hesitate with any critisism, I can take it well and I still have much to learn. Kind Regards from the other side of the sea, Bas

Hello, This is my first post on RMweb after my introduction. And I am not quite sure if I have found the right place. I came across this picture of a class 37. I am interested in the landscape. When playing Train simulator 2020 I recognized it when passing through. So I know precisely where it is. It is just east of Lochailort on the WHL between Mallaig and Fort William. https://www.google.com/maps/@56.8811392,-5.6264037,16.5z I'd like to model it later on, therefor I am looking for some more photo's. I'd like to go there myself on my next holiday but... Corona. As far as I know this place does not have a particular name (not in google maps atleast). Therefor I simply call it 'the triangle' Can somebody help me out here? Kind regards, Bas

Hello, My name is Sebastiaan Knippels (call me Bas), I am 29 years old, live in Heerhugowaard, Holland, I am married and have 2 pet cats. I've been developing an increasing interest in British railroads and stock (Scotland in particulair). After me and my wife came back from our honeymoon in Scotland I obviously had to purchase a class 156 in Scotrail blue saltire livery and now I am in the possession of the class 156, 2 W4 pecketts, 2 class 37s (large logo and dutch yellow grey), and a class 122 bubblecar (BR blue) oh and I have a Mallard. I have also started to build a 2 piece modulair layout called 'Rosedale abbey'. I also have a fixed layout in dutch style. When the time is right I'd like to build Corrour in 00 gauge which may be used in the BMB's (british modulair track) modulair layout. During the trip from Oban to Fort William we got out at Corrour. A fellow passenger asked: "what are you going to do there?" Well the answer was: Having lunch, taking a short hike, sit at the fire place with a dutch rail magazine from the shelf and waiting on the next train. I have a degree in electrical engineering, I am currently employed as a software engineer. I program in Assembly language for the 8051 uController for a living. I built my own DCC central from scratch, software included. And Currently I am developing several PCB designs, varying from digital to analog shuttle layout solutions to make all our lives easier. And I like to believe I am really really good at programming arduino's. I have even developed my own software tools which can do a part of the programming for me. If you ever want an arduino to do something for you and you can't program yourself, you can send me a message I must warn you, I am like a walking idea box, I poop out a one idea after another. And I think about 2-5% are actually good ones . Kind regards, Bas P.S. For those who are wondering, the K in Knippels is not a silent K.