peach james

The Brits were also used on the anhydrite train, as both a mileage train (wring out the last few before the general overhaul) and as a break in after the overhauls. There is an account in one of the backtrack's about that. I know they were more limited in their haulage than a 9F or even a 8F, which isn't a big shock given the rather larger wheels. I have 71038, which is totally wrong for the S&C, but since my 3.5" gauge one is also '38, I was kind of stuck with it in any case. James

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/13244-long-marton-sc/page__st__25&do=findComment&comment=839401 (brief update on the lego bridge...I think I may have to go to version 4, as the sag is a bit excessive) James

OK, Physicsman asked me about what was going on @ my home- where I've been building a new lego trestle bridge...(so LM is unuseable)... DSC_0020 by Peach James, on Flick So, the whole purpose of to-nights fun was load testing the bridge. The total load is ~3 kg, spread over 8 lego container cars. This probably does not represent the worst case possible loading. I am debating rebuilding the bridge again... (I thought I should add- this week is a bit busy for me, as a serving military member, I was at my son's school today, doing a very brief presentation as a serving member. There were no WW2 vet's there, just me, unfortunately. It is a great honour to be standing on the shoulders of giants like my relatives who served in various conflicts)(& the briefness is because the school is kindergarden-grade 5, so 5-10 year old children, it's much easier for all involved to be brief & then available than long & boring (zzzz!) PO2 James Powell, CD, SWACM, RCN

A couple of comments: 1. The rate of progress has been quite staggering ! 2. Go buy a door & fit it. You will find it much more comfortable at 10C or 15C rather than 6 C 3. BoCo's on the S&C- http://nicwhe8.freehostia.com/d5705/start.html Condor would be the named freight. I have a pair of them (5718 and 5705). '18 has been stripped to a single power bogie, and a smoke generator added. It's supposed to have 2, but I haven't gotten the replacement generators for it. (I need the 12v versions, not the 16v version, which it presently has). I'm running with regular conflats, rather than Conflat P's, which are available from Judith Edge Models. http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/judithedge/kit/293 4. I've got a 3F, I could do with a couple of 4F's. As regards timeframe, I don't think there would be much on Long Marton which would show the timeline either. Things changed, but slowly. I've been mucking around with the lego at home, which has meant making new tables, moving stuff around, and painting. My wife is happier, as I painted a bit of floor that hadn't been painted since we bought the house (12 years ago). I've got a "new" bridge built, it needs testing. No, it doesn't look as good as your viaduct !, but it is a functional lego truss bridge which is ~140" long. The staging yard for Long Marton got occupied for some of the lego storage...and the layout got covered in books on Monday, to allow me to move bookshelves to paint under them. James

better 1-2mm than 12mm...which I had on the "temporary" version of Long Marton, built on 1x4's. You'd think, that given the trees around here, I could get decent lumber. Nope... (sorry, I don't have any photos of the stumps out back- suffice to say, in next door's yard, the largest stump is carved (with a chain saw) into a rather large chair, that comfy holds 2 people, and has had 5-6 on it in past) I was very tempted to get made up Aluminum frames for LM v3, because of the long term stability of metal being rather greater than wood. In the end, I went with 4" deep (~100mm) plywood, (3/4" / 16mm) with a 50mm (2") strip dado'd into the middle, to make T shaped framework. It seems to work quite well, with little sag over the 6' (1800mm) long baseboards. If the foundations are not right, the rest is going to be bad too. Tracklaying, take the time to do it right, it's a pain to go back and lift and redo. I know, because I have several bits where I have had to relay track. I like the look of the SMP, I could be very tempted to go that route if I was going to relay LM again. James

Torti/Cobalt's- I used some .022" stainless wire I had as a replacement originally, now I think I am using something like .043 brass, based on availability. I found the original wire was very weak if you were trying to move peco switchs with the over centre mechanism intact. (and that can lead to big problems if they are electrofrog, with the contacts in the Torti changing track power...) DCC operation of turnouts is NOT needed unless you are planning to automate. If you are planning to automate, then it is basically mandatory. If you are planning on just using DCC for track power, then don't use DCC to power the turnouts, it isn't worth the cost. Wiring motors: I use some 8 wire phone cable (22 ga), or cat 5e network cable, make a terminal strip ~2 ft from the motor. YMMV, but I find it much easier to wire a batch of turnouts the right way up on the bench, then install & connect wiring, rather than trying to solder wires upside down on the layout. (which I try to avoid...) With Torti, because of the strange edge connector they are designed to fit, it is fairly easy to wire them that way & be done with it. Yes, it costs choc. strip to do each one, but that's OK to me. It makes them easy to reuse as well... James

Somewhere in the stuff I have, are photos of my mom swimming off Sellafield...she lived close enough that the local farmers were some of the ones who dumped milk in '56. "they all used to go swimming there because the water was consistantly warmer there..." (good thing I'm about 20 ft away from our CBRN instructors desks right now...it was "warmer" all right !) Ballasting- I used Woodland Scenes medium gray HO ballast on Long Marton. There's still some bits that need ballasting (two sections of track, I think). One of our local modelers uses sand taken from the Sooke River (may contain gold...), and finds it works quite well. The trick is to use something which appears right...it doesn't need to be right, it just has to look the part. James

I bought the Hornby Dominion of Canada, kind of had to, since it normally is the closest A4 to here ! Kind of curious to see how the Bachmann DoC runs, as the Hornby one is a little tender in the valve gear, and the older split framed Bachmann A4 I have pulls like a mule, its one of a few locos I have that can manage a full 12 coach train around Long Marton. (when the coaches don't derail...or come apart) As regards engine allocations, Stephen Rabone has a couple of pages on his web page: http://steverabone.com/ that includes a couple of days of trainspotting he and his dad did in 1957, 58 and 63, which gives loco details. It is not an exclusive list, but gives some ideas as to what was on the S&C on those days. James

You'd be shocked how much 25x100mm wood sags on a 1800mm span...the intermediate version of Long Marton suffered horribly from sag, to the point where I had to lift some bits by 10mm or more to "level" (crudely) the boards after the wood had sagged. The motto of the field engineers comes to mind : no thrill like overkill (usually used with regards to removing bridges...in small pieces) As regards risers, I have a box platform for in with the lego- it's a 200x200mm piece of the tables that happens to not be needed right now- it gives me about 150mm of rise, which makes quite a difference, even to me at 183 cm tall. The lad loves it, that and chairs...both of them like chairs. I suppose I should make a taller/longer one for the boys in the railway room, as Daniel enjoys taking dinky cars (an assortment ranging from genuine to current ones) and pushing them around on the roads. That, and I should set up the thomas the tank engine layout again...but, to-morrow the two of us are going to Seattle (Washington State) for a lego convention...so there goes one weekend, and the following weekend we are doing a lego display, that's got a bunch of the train stuff ready for that...a good couple of weeks here ! I seem to remember "The Railway Club of Toronto" (37 Hanna Ave) had step stools for those of us who were vertically challenged and very train interested . It's a grand layout, that is. (O gauge, 40x120 ft, in a former sten gun range) I hope that the mix of Metric & Inch doesn't confuse too many people...I'm used to working in both, as school was metric, dad is inch, and I work in both. (converting between 3 systems, because of US and Imperial volumes being different James James

No, in this case it isn't Lego, but Tamyia. The big issue that I found was that because I am using Torti, but they needed to move turnouts horizontally- rather than vertical orientation. So, I had to translate the movement 90%, and I needed an adjustable linkage. The Tamyia parts work well for it. Mine came through Britannia in Vancouver, but I know they are available worldwide. (some of mine came from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yodobashi_Camera ) http://www.borgfeldt.ca/product.htm?Product=799-70143&Source=Category&Category=799_70000_EDUCATIONAL Is the items that I am using. That should give a # for UK purchase, if you are seeking to do similar James

Oh, I don't know- my assistant was quite photogenic when I was last working on turnouts Xmas 2009 281 by Peach James, on Flickr James

So, todays fun: Well, that easy fix, wasn't easy at all... Some photos: (this is the storage yard, 5 tracks, intended as 1 mixed, 1 passenger, 1 goods, through, and DMU/Local) How we started the day, and ended it too... The bit of track which is unballasted, was the last track I laid. There's not much to end up ballasting, and I should get on with ballasting it. And the problem... where the brake van is sitting, the detection section wasn't working. I could see it working on the DB4, but the DS64 was NOT registering the change in state at all. First tried flashing the DS64, and that got me no-where. Then I tried to see if it was the DB4 or the DS64, but that didn't quite work out- I tried to prove the inputs on the DS64 by using the laptop and watching Loconet to see what happened. The DS 64 could see each input when it was used as a switch, but it is not seeing the 7th section. This is one of the cases where I am stuck, as I have used a total of 10 sections on this board...3 of them ported over from an adjacent board's BDL168. So, we did this: And, then after changing the DS 64, I put it back to DSC_0033 by Peach James, on Flickr It only took me most of the day to get it all apart, and put back together. I also went and helped my friend with building another bridge on his property next to mine- we cut down a piece of fir ex a warehouse in Victoria, into a 3x10 beam by 17 ft long. The bridge will end up being made up with 3 beams like that, then 5/4" wood for the deck. (& yes, that's how it would still be said, 5/4'ths, vs 1 1/4", because it is decking...) Now, to go and try and get the yard to finish emptying itself- it filled OK, but I still had a unexpected visitor when I went to empty it. The long mineral came trundling though, and caused total caos !. (fixed that though, now it won't try running when the storage yard is set to empty) James

Jeff, Is there a reason why not to use curved turnouts and move the start of those two loops even closer to the other turnouts? I am aware of the price difference on curved vs straight turnouts, but if they are going to be electrically operated, that almost becomes moot. Also, you can NEVER have sidings which are too long. (except when 2 trains try to occupy the same one...) It also may make the transitions smoother into the sidings, I have found that curved turnouts seem to be smoother from that than going through the S bend of a regular turnout and then straightening out again. (it all does depend on what best fits the space, just like real life...imagine that !) James

So, continued running today: results 1 rear end collision. 1 broken set of buffers (3 ft freefall of milk tanker...). Lots of frustration. Small modifications to the program, which seem to have cured some of the worst bits. It still won't empty the storage yard right, I will have to have another dig into how that is supposed to work. (If I remember to get the usb stick, perhaps tomorrow...). I'm back to work tomorrow, after 2 days of being home on a sick chit. (I had my wisdom teeth removed on Tuesday, but hey/ho, that's the way things go). It took me about 30 min tonight to empty the storage yard, and I still think (based on what I've seen), that I have at least one segment there which is not correctly ID'd, and is causing confusion and delay (oh, bothersome buffers...). I'm also showing one of the staging tracks as being full when it clearly is not- again, I think I know the problem, but without fiddling around a fair amount, am not sure. (I think I have 2 segments mis identified, and the Hoover was holding a different siding than the one it was sitting in...good thing it's sitting on the "through" track which doesn't get used in the current program !). Yay, this computer controlled stuff is SO easy. Better this than relays... James

So, after finishing painting some stuff upstairs, I went and started up Long Marton last night. Lots of track is fairly dirty, which didn't come as a big shock to me. The dirty track makes for some interesting performances from the computer controlled prospective- I have ideas how to make it work a bit more reliably, but that requires some more work on the RR&Co front. (mostly to do with passing off trains at the start, where I want to randomize which train starts, and that then forces a transition between two schedules, when if the train starts moving enough to get into the next block, but then stalls, it gets "lost" when I go and give it a push...). Also, the empty feature for the storage yard doesn't work right- especially with 3 vs 2 "DMU's" on the layout. (one is a Class 4 tank, one is a 108, one is a 153). But, it wouldn't work at all right, not to my shock because that was the first time I've tried it. (I have ideas, but I'm not sure yet...) Also, the "new" signals are not working right, these are servo activated signals. (they use 4 positions, so I suspect I have a couple of the positions going wrong in the software...not a big shock there either) All in al though, I was quite happy, at one point the computer was running 3 trains around, avoiding each other. It's supprisingly loud when 2 of those trains are ~15 wagons, and one is ~35 wagons ! James

The OO is all Peco, code 100. (I know...it would have been 75, but that came out after I had started version 1, and I wasn't replacing double slips on my then income). There's about 6 boxes of track (150 yards) in total, the scenic section is 36' including the 2 curves at the ends (30' scenic, or just under 1/2 mile). The staging yard is ~24 ft long, with ~15 ft of that being 15 track wide, the remainder being the turnouts in/out to single track. The storage yard is ~16 ft long, 5 track (including part of one wye). As with the lego, it tends to fill the available space- the deal with my wife was when we bought a house, she got land & a barn (she has a mini horse, and used to drive draft horses downtown Victoria), and a fireplace...and I got the basement. I only lost the area which is the laundry room & bathroom (12x8 or so) out of 36x24, so I did fairly well on that deal . (both of us did, I think...) Trout Beck really needs more work put into it- now that I am to a point where the trains run reliably (ish), I should spend more time on the scenics. But, as I have 2 autistic sons, it can be a challenge to get time on that side of the wall- the lego is easier for now, as it isn't quite as fragile. Daniel, who appears in the video (I'll go make them links...I guess RMweb doesn't like the way flickr does videos) LOVES the signalbox, and Allen (2.5 year old) loves Choo Choo. (which is good, it's one of about 25 words he speaks...) I'm a PO2 in the Royal Canadian Navy, with just over 16 years in. I hold a Cert 3A for HMCS Protecteur, as an Engineering Officer of the Watch. Currently, I am teaching at HMCS Galiano (*), the west coast damage control school. I'm at the flood cell, teaching how to keep bad water off your perfectly good boat...I expect to go back to PRO in the late fall, as there are a noticeable shortage of 3A and 2A tickets (Steam turbine, engine room/boiler room), and I am the senior controls tech for her. As regards plans for expansion, there are no real future plans to expand the OO at this time, because I don't have a lot of room more to take up. I also store the Gangers (Victoria, BC)'s portable layout here, and have enough room to "just" set it up in the addition to our house. (24x8). It doesn't live put together, but it makes it far more convienent that someone can put it together and leave it up for more than at a show. (and once again, if anyone is in the Victoria BC area, feel free to drop me a line...) If I was going to build something else, I'm not sure what it would be-there are a couple of things I'd love to do, but money or time both play against them. James (*) http://www.navalandmilitarymuseum.org/resource_pages/ships/galiano.html (I had an extra L in there...). Only RCN World War 1 loss...

I have a video of my helper with the cleaning: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47105471@N05/7666194912/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/47105471@N05/7666178940/ James

OK, some more photos taken ~ a year ago, finally put them up on Flickr: We are starting at the Appleby end Y, with Next, is the track behind the chimney The other way, coming out of the Appleby Y, leading onto Trout Beck Viaduct via a ~36" curve. Crossing Trout Beck. No-where near as nice as Jeff's viaducts... Bridge 253 & the start of Long Marton station. Track layout is as without the mine, when the mine was operating there was an additional siding in the goods yard. (I may add it at some time I have 3 DCC'd Thomas locos...this is one of them. (along with 2 non DCC'd Thomas fans in the house...the 6 year old, and the 2 year old who loves choo's) (& if you can't take a joke, you should NEVER have joined!) The other end of the goods yard. The signal has been moved to as close to the baseboard end as I could since this photo was taken, as it was too close to the fouling point before. (based on the OS servey info I had, vs the info in Stations & Structures) Long Marton Station. Yes, one of the platforms was askew when I took this- they are still just sitting on the scenery. The New Biggin end of Long Marton. The chassis in the upper right is a Class 28, the one without the smoke units fitted. (that one got completely trashed in order to fit a pair of smoke units into it, which it still doesn`t have both of them...and the one in it needs replacing as it is a 16-18V job, and I run closer to 12V... We`ve turned the corner, past the start of New Biggin Y, and are looking at the storage yard before it was finished. I`ve painted a lot of the pink Styrofoam with poster paint since this was taken. The pink is a bit startling ! Another view of the New Biggin Y That`s it for now...I should get busy and take some videos, I suppose.

As regards light polution, the best place I can think of to stargaze from is off a ship in mid pacific. (particuarly, a military ship). We tend to avoid other shipping, and it gets _very_ dark out. I'm fortunate, in that I am ~30 km from Victoria (BC), and enough around the curve that light pollution @ home here isn't bad at all- nearest street lights are about 500m away (single), and for any quantity, 22 km away by road. Of course, the commute is a bit long... (45 km each way to work right now, 52 if I am in dockyard). Off to see if Long Marton will run- I haven't had power on it for about 2 months. James

I got my copy off here, for, I think, 20 quid. Be patient, they do show up for reasonable prices- remember that Amazon isn't always the best way to get a copy. (but sometimes it is...) http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0860933601/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&condition=used (25 quid, in the UK...) James

One thing to be aware of is that "Rails in the Fells" isn't 100% accurate as to the building material of some stations- I _know_ Long Marton is wrongly labeled as being a stone structure, when it is in fact, brick. (and I have photos to prove that !) Not quite so serious with you, as either brick or stone are your choices, and it not being "this" station, but "a" station, either would be acceptable. Stations & Structures is a good book- I'm glad I picked up a copy in 2010. If I'd had sense, I'd have done so 15 years before ! James

Shop around for Torti. For DCC, I have found them to be very reliable, fed with DS 64 (Digitrax) decoders. (52's are OK too, but not the 44's, because they seemed to be a little over sensitive to loosing the stored # for turnout motors, and are a pain to re-flash) I've got something like 60 of them (Torti) in Long Marton, bought 12 at a time. (I've also got 12 more in the Thomas layout that the sons play with...it was automated for a while with Mindstorms (Lego PIC Bricks) ). The choice of decoder will be a bit dictated by the command control system you are using. I cannot see any point to using detection on track switches, the worst that happens is a derailment, and that is very infrequent due to a failure of the turnout to change position. James

Indeed, I love the sight of a Starship dragging the long goods uphill, with something else (be it the 108, or the 153 (!) or any other train) passing each other in Long Marton. 35 MPH, and you _hear_ the train coming first, then see it... James

The whole layout does run, right now. With the exception of the signal box, which is presently in pieces, with a file (riffing file) to adjust some of the clearances. I haven't tried running trains on the OO for the last week or so, as I have been busy getting Lego trains running. My lego club (VICLUG) is coming out here in 3 weeks, and I'd like it if all the track is runable for it. It's meant a lot of cleaning with IPA to remove the grub off the lego track. There's a bit more than 200 m of lego train track in the Lego layout. (think a large O gauge layout...) Yes, I live in Victoria, BC, Canada. Fortunately, with the support available from Britannia Models, and The British Connection & Model Railway Imports, I've been modeling UK trains for 25 years now. (I'm 36 years old). I've been to see Long Marton twice, in 1996 and 2006. (but I'm yet to visit Pendon...we were supposed to go in 96, but my grandmum broke her hip on Carlisle station platform...instead, I went to Ravenglass and rode Ratty for a day)

Progress this week (or so) has consisted of: 1. Build DCS 100 board (relay,DCS 100, 12VDC power supply on a hunk of plywood with choco blocks to connect them 2. Getting all the engines to have theshold and profiles in RR&Co 5.0 3. Cleaning a few sidings that have never seen use before in the staging yard 4. A little programming 5. getting the last few track detection sections ID'd into the file And, I am now to the point where the storage yard just filled itself using Auto, up and down both work, and I need to fix 2 microswitches in the lever frame to make contacts work reliably... Tomorrow, I will see if the "empty" mode works for the yard, followed by some train running. (hopefully). On the lego front, the logging truck is now finished, with a stupid number of pnumatic cylinders in it. (10 cylinders, divided into 6 functions- 3 gearshifts, the grab arm, auto pressure control, stabilizers for the crane). I am awaiting some more motors to finish motorizing the crane functions, they are here in Victoria, but I haven't gotten them yet. My oldest son's "new" bedroom is also progressing- it needs trim before he can move into it, Andrea, my wife is painting road signs in it for him as well. Hopefully soon he will be moving bedrooms, then we can finish the other one and then be back to our own bedroom w/o any children in it. (this all feels a bit like we have been playing one of the 9 space/8 piece picture games...lots of moving of stuff over a longish time to get to where we are now). On Friday, I went and saw the Kinsol trestle, which is the largest/highest still standing wooden trestle in the commonwealth. (177 ft high, or so the facts sheet says). Quite the impressive feat of engineering. James