BusDriverMan

A quick and dirty method is to go through the thread page-by-page and "Print to PDF" each one. (Browser menu, Print, select "Print to PDF" from the list of printers, set page scale to 50%, hit Print, choose a filename and location to save.) It's very far from perfect but means you can still refer to it come the day your ISP shuts down due to rising power bills.

However if someone had done the hard work of filtering out the off-topic posts (like this one) and collating a booklet, that'd be worth a couple of quid to me too.

Since this was published at midday UK time I'm taking it that it's not an April Fools prank?

Steve from Railtec is a gent (and I need to get momentum again and actually use the transfers I ordered from him)

Was that style of headcode display common?

Talking of servos and DIY circuitry - I've completed my servo tester:

This will mostly assist when installing a servo, to let me confirm that the servo can move whatever it's connected to correctly (usually, point blades)

Mini-USB sockets are on order - meanwhile power is connected through the chip's programming header!

I've procrastinated with this servo-testing circuit, which I'll use while mounting the servos that control the points. It's a microcontroller, numeric display, and a knob, plus a connection to plug in a servo. Turn the knob, the servo moves, and the display shows what angle it's positioned at.

The microcontroller is an ATMega328P, same as what's in an Arduino Uno and programmed the same way.

Now the concept is proven, I'll rebuild it on prototyping board to make something a bit more compact and permanent.

This is really looking the business!

Wish they'd just paid some overtime to the p/way dept and got those sidings and loops lengthened...

It will basically be an Arduino - it will have the same microcontroller that sits in an Arduino Uno and be programmed as if it was one. I'm going to write it up!

Just now, ISW said:

What's a servo tester? The only 'testing' I do is make sure they operate and more the correct distance! I might be missing something ...

 

Ian

It will be a gizmo you plug a servo into, and lets you drive the servo do different angles, so I can check I've mounted the servo correctly under the baseboard (or in whatever setup I've installed a servo). Will have a 7-segment display and a rotary encoder to display and set the angle, and be powered by a USB cable.

Very much enjoying the neat wiring!

I'm at a tracklaying and wiring stage on my 1200x200mm layout… and that's enough to stall me. Am procrastinating by designing a servo tester instead.

And just like that the layout got 300% better

4 hours ago, Gibbo675 said:

Hi Dave,

 

Anywhere south of Crewe as far I'm concerned !

 

Gibbo.

Anywhere south of Dundee, frankly.

To kind of repeat my earlier replies - I didn't realise it was feasible to make turned brass parts using a dremel (which I own) and a small file (which I have) on a kitchen table (which… I don't have, my flat is too small, but I have a desk).

I got back into this hobby when I discovered DCC didn't need to be prohibitively expensive thanks to Arduino base stations running DCC++. Now I want to be scratchbuilding/kitbashing/modifying unique what-if vehicles too!

That just looks fantastic!

What I'd really like to know is, if BR was capable of commissioning trains like this in the late 50s… why on earth did so many areas end up with EPB-derivative slam-door compartment stock instead?

Child of(/in) the 90s here - so for me it was 081 811 81 81, and later 0₁81 811 81 81, which didn't quite scan

In electronics, a closed switch is on and an open switch is off - because there's an open gap between the contacts… the "normally closed" terminal will be "normally on" unless something pushes the switch!

Painful lesson to learn, though...

Very much enjoying this digression from blue diesels - and looking forward to your forthcoming what-if Liverpool & Manchester Railway driving van trailer model

Without meaning to disrespect whoever designed that red and white livery, real or fictional - it looks a heck of a lot better in yellow!

Ah, sadly, the bodyshell is somewhere in my parent's house on entirely the opposite side of the world. I'd stayed up all night reading or playing computer games some time in my late teens, and inspiration struck at about 6am. Had it working by lunchtime!

I've got nebulous ideas about a simulation of TOPS, where an embedded computer on the layout holds a list of all the stock available, you construct a train in the system as well as physically on the layout, and move the train from one place to another under an actual TD number, which could then be meaningfully displayed on signalling panels… possibly overkill for a 1200x200mm layout though!

@HAB - pipe this directly into my veins - those examples are gorgeous.

David Barham has used servos for locks, under a Scalefour frame:

Bonus points if you can make the roller blinds work.

I managed it once, in 4mm, with the Lima Class 73...stick a small screwdriver into the exhaust port, turn a plasticard cam, move the blinds at both ends simultaneously (a strip of acetate running the length of the roof). Inspired by the guy who did something similar but motorised to a 7mm Class 73 in the 90s and wrote it up in BRM. Think I met him at an exhibition once.

So many details in that photo - like the huge steel panels behind the buffers descending almost to rail level - I was trying to work out if the image is a direct photo or some kind of 1930s photoshop!

Which component is the generator? The red apparatus between the smokebox and the running plate?

You could possibly use the loco sidings as a modified Inglenook shunting puzzle too.

I think my mind has been poisoned by YouTube videos sponsored by sellers of CNC machines… am I right in thinking you're making these chassis (chassises?) using only hand tools? I mean, drilling out the bearing holes with a handheld powerdrill?

As someone who lives in a flat, with an assortment of the cheapest household power tools Homebase has to offer, (and a CNC engraving machine purchased off the back of said sponsored videos but probably not suitable for milling brass with precision,) this is quite inspiring.