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BusDriverMan

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Posts posted by BusDriverMan

  1. By NSE days, stations had rationalised their trackwork a lot, with big pressure to use simple, standard pointwork wherever possible… lots of double slips in a station throat suggests steam era or Kings Cross ;)

     

    If you already have three-way points, double slips, or scissors crossovers, might be better to use them to improve the fiddle yard!

     

    I've had to cut back the scope of my own layout… which is a shunting layout in N on a salvaged 1200x200mm board. Which will no longer have a loop. Which means… more shunting, ok, not so bad then :)

    • Like 2
  2. I received mine yesterday - D8606, BFYE, weathered, and very pleasing!

     

    It's my first loco with a Next18 socket and I haven't ordered a decoder yet. Was wondering if anyone can advise how many LEDs are used for the head and tail lights and can they be individually switched? By the look of the exploded diagram there's two LEDs under the nose at each end - one for the headcode box and one for the tail lights. I'd like to be able to control all four LEDs explicitly from four decoder functions - is that possible?

     

    Tail lights switched on when the loco's not running light is a particular annoyance of mine. Another is having both tail lights on at once - until the late 80s the only train that did that were the Edinburgh-Glasgow push-pulls and trains carrying the head of state. Looking at the diagram, the tail lights operate with a lightpipe from a single LED, so turning one of them off would be a permanent operation by removing part of one lightpipe - has anyone done this?

     

    Finally has anyone customised the headcode panel and retained the lighting? Applying Rule 1 - in the alternate universe my layout is set in, by a quirk of fate, these designs turned out to be reliable and became the standard Type 1 loco. So I'd rather like to give it a domino headcode and TOPS markings for that post-1977 look ;)

  3. I built a DCC++ throttle, and expanded it awkwardly into a decoder programmer, after losing all patience with JMRI DecoderPro for this. The Bodnar code was the inspiration but I wrote mine from scratch, sending commands to the DCC++ base station over its serial interface.IMG_20210115_005924645.jpg.608561028b9ae175a7e6bac13a093446.jpg

    IMG_20210115_010000338.jpg.2b226e3f12c905e7186b0a4dc3f27644.jpg

     

    The control panel was an early experiment in CNC engraving, with one of those cheap desktop mills apparently intended for engraved circuit boards. Key lesson was not to expect good results from plywood offcuts… Electronically it's an Arduino Nano with an encoder, some keys, and that 7-segment display all wired directly to it with precarious ribbon cable.

     

    I built it to act as a basic controller - turn right to make loco move right, turn left and it goes left. Then I added other modes, experimtally. In one, the encoder became the reverser, and the two function buttons below became "Accelerate" and "Brake". This made shunting an Inglenook layout more fun.

     

    I've stripped everything off my layout and will be rewiring it from scratch, with a sensible power supply arrangement that's not the bodge you see in the photo. I plan to build a new controller to be fixed to the edge of the layout, along with separate or swappable throttle units which more accurately reflect a real train's controls e.g. reverser, power lever, brake lever, physical head- and tail-light switches, speedo showing MPH… but that's some way away at the moment!

     

    I'd like the layout controller to be able to act like a TOPS terminal. Rather than plainly entering a decoder ID and sending speed instructions to it, you'd define a train (possibly including several locos/motors/decoders) and assign a specific cab to a throttle unit. Config info stored on an SD card then will map the throttle inputs to speed commands to specific decoders. (I'm dimly aware of stock DCC techniques for consisting, involving writing CV values, but I strongly believe the only job a decoder ought to be doing is making a motor turn at a specific speed, and all the fancy stuff should happen in the controller system.)

     

    I'll award myself bonus points if I build a throttle unit that's a facsimile of a 1st-gen DMU control desk complete with gear-shift control, that can also be plugged into my computer and used with Diesel Railcar Simulator ;)

    • Like 1
  4. Stripped out the redundant track, most of the original wiring, and the original controllers. Skimmed everything with plaster and painted a neutral grey - looks a lot neater now! I'd started cutting track but realised the loop was far too cramped, so it will be a siding instead.

    IMG_20210113_131427405.jpg

  5. I've thought about making an experimental miniaturised NX panel, either standalone (with probably Arduino-based interlocking, TD berth control, and train simulation) or interfaced with SimSig. Probably using pushbuttons and a "CANCEL" Shift key rather than push-pull switches because cost / availability. I'm thinking of a design based on ~25mm square tiles, probably cosmetic rather than actually modular, using 64x32 OLED screens for berths and possibly addressable RGB LED strips for the route lights.

     

    Gratified the relevant Railway Group Guidance Note gives provision to have the first route light to flash white instead of strictly requiring the routesetting switch to flash!

  6. This is just to say you're building my dream layout here - 3rd rail with fully prototypical signalling…!

     

    I'm actually devastated that you've had so much success with JMRI as you expertly documented in the other thread. It confounds me, so I was convinced I'd need to write my own system running on a Raspberry Pi and a network of Arduinos (or Atmel microcontrollers with Arduino firmware) to achieve a layout with working signalling controlled by a route-setting panel. But now I know JMRI is definitely a viable option :D

  7. Looking very good! Wish I had the wherewithal to create ad-hoc apps like that. I think there's scope for 1-3 Dapol signals plus perhaps two dummies.

     

    The station would probably have had a distant, home, and starter in each direction, plus a subsidiary to signal from the platform to the yard and a shunting signal from the yard to the platform. I've wanted to have a go at sketching signalling diagrams for ages, so thanks for the pretext. Not to scale, these are the signals and points (and facing point lock on lever 5) that would probably have been operated by the signalbox:

     

     

    image.png.bdb44b436718a08b8aa7627ae6477a61.png

     

    The numbering is semi-realistic for a lever frame, I think - in reality they wouldn't be numbered 1-10 with no gaps, there'd be two or three spare levers in the middle somewhere.

     

    Signal 8 you'd definitely want, for signalling trains from the platform to the fiddleyard

     

    Signal 7 is a subsidiary signal, for trains going from the platform to the yard. I think you could either

    - scratchbuild or kitbash a dummy subsidiary signal onto the post of signal 8

    - omit Signal 7 and use Signal 8 for movement into the yard - not particularly realistic but a good compromise

     

    Signal 2 could either be in the scenic area or assumed to be further back out of sight. If it's in the visible area it would be positioned so approaching drivers can see it.

     

    Signal 3 could either be in the scenic area or beyond the backscene. it wouldn't get used much unless you're using the fiddle stick.

     

    Signal 4 is, I'm not 100% sure of the correct name for it, a yellow shunting signal. It only applies for movement over the crossover. When the crossover points are normal trains can pass it at danger to get to the other side of the yard. When the route is set over the crossover, trains leaving the yard must wait for it to clear.

     

    Signals 1, 9 and 10 would definitely be well outside the scenic area.

     

    There would probably be a small signal cabin, big enough for a 12-lever frame, somewhere near the fiddleyard end of the platform.

     

    I have no idea how the ground frame would be set up - I some of the points could've been operated with an individual lever near the point blades!

     

    If you really felt adventurous, you could add a page to the phone app representing the 10+ levers in the signalbox, and operate signals that don't physically exist… ;)

    • Like 1
    • Informative/Useful 1
  8. On 09/08/2020 at 22:48, Gibbo675 said:

    With regard the Pullman's for the PDVT I have added handrail and door details and cut and shut another spare chassis from building a Gloucester class 100 also form a TSO. I decided that a class 123 DMU style route indicator boxes were the way to go with the driving end, I had thought about putting the indicator into the corridor end as with the 309 Clacton sets but decided against it.

     

    DSCF1089.JPG.99e9ff4163cda2b3f7bed5eeb5dd3b9d.JPG

     

    Oh, I like this very much! I'd always wanted to make something similar - maybe a Mk1 BSK or BFK with a 504 cab end, roof destination box, no jumper cables... What's the theory - Blue Star control with the other coaches through-wired?

    • Like 1
  9. Plankton is my first layout. It's intended to be a small fun shunting layout where I can develop my skills and play with ideas, set in the late 70s somewhere in the fictional Scotland in my head, where rail transport receives subsidy that's at least proportional to that of roads, and air-braked wagonload freight fits between turn-up-and-go passenger services on lines purposefully worked close to capacity.

     

    I've always had an interest in railways, and had a few 00 models as a kid, but layouts never progressed beyond ambitious track plans. I came back to railway modelling when I found I could make a cheap base station with DCC++, cheap block detection with current transformers and an Arduino, and thus build a layout with working signalling and interlocking. Not that I've managed to get the block detection to work yet, but I'm working on it!

     

    Plankton started out as a 1200x200mm baseboard for an unknown modeller's uncompleted layout. It sat in my local MRC's scrap pile for a while until I nabbed it in 2017. I quite quickly laid down an Inglenook layout, stuck the DCC++ base unit underneath, made a homebrew controller based on another Arduino, and was up and running. The points are motorised with SG90 servos superglued directly to the underside of the baseboard, and with some adjustable feet underneath it has a semi-permanent home in the living room on top of the piano:

     

    20200816_004011.jpg.645ce6df995555f215ef75d1231535a3.jpg

     

    The original plan had been to cram in Timesaver alongside Inglenook. Perhaps Timesaver could've been a wagon workshop, and Inglenook the marshalling yard for arriving and departing wagons. But when I placed the tracks down it looked very contrived and cramped, with a requirement to stable wagons on the turnout linking the two sections, so I abandoned that idea.

    timesaver.png.38d31b715cc40ada9b40a829a22ea84d.png

     

    This is the new plan - a branch terminus with a run-round loop long enough for a Type 2 + five 15ft wagons (or two coaches), with a crossover to the yard. I've suggested where signals would go - PL is "Position Light", either shunting or subsidiary, and YPL is a yellow position light shunt signal for movement over the crossover onto the main line.

     

    draft_plan.png.83db7e60d2a8e6cdf32112dd16057aa6.png

     

    Inspired by @Izzy's Priory Road, I think I can get a 450mm sector plate overhanging the edge of the board which can fold out of use - possibly a train turntable. Alternatively the line would continue to the board edge, with a kickback siding for stock storage.

     

    The operating pattern would be:

     

    1. With eight wagons and a shunting engine in the yard, assemble five wagons as per Inglenook rules

    2. Freight train arrives with five more wagons and is signalled into platform

    3. Train engine leaves wagons in platform and runs round back to the home signal

    4. Train engine backs onto prepared train in the long siding and departs (into the sector plate road it came from, filling it)

    5. Shunting engine collects wagons from platform into yard (pulling forward into an empty sector plate road)

    6. While shunting takes place, DMU or prototypically short loco-hauled passenger train arrives and departs from the third sector plate road, giving a rationale for not using the extra space of the main line and loop for shunting.

     

    I want the signalling to be colour light, partly because I like colour light signals but also because I am deeply unenthusiastic about making working lattice-post semaphores in N gauge. Also because the idea of building an NX panel is what brought me back to railway modelling. Now, "colour-light 1970s branch terminus" is a bit contrived - maybe it's a short urban/suburban branch included with the resignalling of a larger station and controlled from its signalling centre as a rationalisation measure and operated under Track Circuit Block. Or maybe the line is Absolute Block and there's a signalbox and signaller at the terminus, and scope for simulating block instruments.

     

    I was scratching my head a bit about how to signal freight trains departing the yard. Should they get a starter signal, should they just proceed under the authority of the yellow shunting signal, or should there be another Up signal on the other side of the two turnouts to the platform starter? Since making the diagram I've decided there'd be another signal a short distance down the line.

     

    Next steps will be to get block detection working as this will inform how the rewiring goes, lift some of the track, remove the controllers from the board edge, then give the whole thing some paint. I'm pretty tired of staring at the blue board!

    • Like 1
  10. I like the electronics board! I also have Arduino-controlled servo-driven points on a similar layout, but on mine the electronics are mounted directly to the underside of the baseboard - I think your way is better. I don't recognise all the components here - top left is a bluetooth or wifi module, right - will you operate points with your phone? And how did you select the DC converters?

    • Friendly/supportive 1
  11. Looking really good!

     

    Is that a little chunk missing from the top of the destination display mounting? How are you planning to glaze the cab front? The horizontal line where the offside panel is bonded to the destination box is quite distinctive - worth painting a stripe directly onto the inner side of that glazing panel?

     

    image.png.ea405c0e2c148ae5ea04e89dd3324ffd.png

     

  12. 36 minutes ago, TurboSnail said:

    Nice! I've tried to avoid ending up with a sea of rails, but might not have succeeded...

    Your layout looks grand IMO - there's plenty of separation between the sidings at the back and the loop at the front for a start, it looks like it won't crowd out the scenery and the industry the railway is there to serve. And the contrast between the buildings at the right hand side and the trees on the left.

     

    If I'd gone ahead with my plan, it would be very obvious there's no space to access these wagons to work on them or unload them or do whatever they've been shunted here to do. The schematic cut into the control panel is much more spacious than the reality - didn't fully appreciate how dense it would look until I mocked up the trackplan fullsize.

  13. That's a coincidence! My layout (more of a test track) is also 1200x200, on a salvaged baseboard section, and originally intended to hold Inglenook and Timesaver in their entireties which is just about achievable in N. Fits neatly on top of a piano-keyboard on indefinite loan from a friend.

     

    Only got as far as building Inglenook though. The original plan would've resulted in a ridiculously dense sea of rails on the left side of the board while the other end basically just has a headshunt. Points are motorised with SG90 servos superglued directly to the underside of the board with a paperclip tie-rod and driven from an Arduino. The control panels are an early experiment into CNC engraving.

    IMG-20180927-WA0000.jpeg.fb6f6512873e69ff711d15037e895e3a.jpeg

     

    That photo was nearly two years ago, and since then… it looks almost exactly the same! Going to rebuild or possibly start over - have decided the headshunt needs to be the specified Inglenook length, with a facing connection (guarded with a yellow position-light signal) to the rest of the layout.

  14. On 22/06/2020 at 11:03, JDW said:

    (Re-)Start the engine with doors open and an alarm shrieks at you til you close them.

    I drove a Wrightbus-bodied Volvo which was worse. Start the engine with the doors open and the bus silently stays in neutral when you put it into gear. Bit of a surprise to be rolling backwards when trying to leave a bus stop you were waiting at for five minutes on a hot day with the doors open.

     

    Cue fifteen minutes phoning call with the depot, who haven't got a clue, turning everything off and on again, attempting the engine bay start button, before more or less arriving on the solution by chance.

     

    Never drove a Streetlite but disappointed by the reports upthread. Was always supremely disenchanted by the Optare Solo and hoped that the Streetlite, while too big to be a Solo replacement, would at least be better :/

     

    We had one Solo which, IIRC, would ignore movement of the accelerator pedal if you didn't leave a considerable pause between releasing the handbrake and pressing the accelerator. Great way to take the driver's attention away from the road and into the cab when intending to turn right at a traffic light, or leave a bus stop. Resulted in consciously breaking the habit of applying the handbrake whenever stopped for more than a few seconds.

     

    What? Oh, the trains? Yes, very very nice modelling! Good info on the Railmatch cans. I've got a few which I intend to use for total resprays - starting with a 122 - and now I'm mentally prepared :)

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