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Dave Holt

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Blog Entries posted by Dave Holt

  1. Dave Holt
    I collected the superb station building, platform, goods shed building and signal box from Gravy Train on Saturday and couldn't wait to try them in situ. Thought I'd place an appropriate Donkey train in the platform for some of the shots.
     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  2. Dave Holt

    Delph - Trial assembly

    By Dave Holt,

    Now I've got all three boards with track laid at home, I was able to assemble the three together for the first time on the lounge/diner floor - after moving a bit of furniture and a rug! The three sections together are just over 12 feet long, with another scenic board (as yet without track) to take the line off to the fiddle yard (at the far end, in the photos). Current work includes fitting the point motors, TOU's and Alex Jackson uncoupling magnets under the boards, together with trimming some rail ends at the board joints, opening up some rail joints for rail expansion and electrical isolation purposes and cosmetic rail joints at the appropriate positions (these latter cut into or through the rail head but not right through the full rail section). Then it's on to the wiring.
    I think I will get three of the support boards made up, so i can have the boards at a good working height. Kneeling on the floor isn't doing my knees any good, despite use of a foam kneeling pad (intended for gardening!).
    Photos show the three boards assembled on the floor.
     

     

     
    Dave.
  3. Dave Holt
    Following some final adjustments to the deck sections (some time ago, I accidentally broke the deck into two pieces by dropping it onto a quarry tile floor!), I have now got the fit to my liking and have made a final dry run with the assembly. Now it's take a deep breath and fix it in place on top of the pillars, permanently. I've not quite decided on the best adhesive, yet. The options appear to be PVA, Uhu or epoxy. The deck is wood and the pillars a mix of wood and plastic, on the contact areas.
     
    Here are a few rather poor quality photos of the deck in place. I think more lighting or the flash would have been beneficial!
     
    First, a plan view. Some of the cross beams are missing and will be added once the main longitudinals are fixed
     

     
    Some views from the front.
     

     

     

     
    Mmmm! That angle-poise lamp does look a bit out of scale!
  4. Dave Holt
    Finally got fired up again today and went over to the work-shop to retrieve two more boards for equipping with point motors, AJ uncoupling magnets and wiring. Based on how long it took to wire the first board, I expect to re-emerge some time next year!!!
     
    Took the opportunity to trial fit the coal drop deck with the boards assembled. This revealed the need for a bit of trimming to length which was done. Unfortunately, there's been a slight warping of the main timbers, so this will have to be sorted on final attachment. That explains the slight vertical misalignment between the deck rails and the siding rails at each end, visible in the photos. Some rail ends also had to be cut back to avoid them touching at the board joints.
     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  5. Dave Holt

    Delph - Coal drops latest

    By Dave Holt,

    Due to personal reasons, I haven't done much modelling in the past 7 months, but some slight progress (and a bit of regress) has been made with the coal drops. The latter was caused by my dropping the deck unit onto a quarry tiled floor, causing it to disintegrate such that the two longitudinals carrying the rails are now separate items which will have to be fixed to the supports individually.
    The progress has been to make the hand-rails for the deck and do the basic painting prior to fixing. On balance, I think it's probably a bit too dark as heavily weathered wood seems to be a silvery grey colour but I have no idea what the actual Delph drops looked like in this respect.
     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  6. Dave Holt
    It's been a while since the last entry, so I thought I'd just give a brief up-date. Not very much that's photogenic, but steady progress has been made with the electrics on the first board section. Most recently, I've been assembling the jumper cables and connectors which will link this board to those either side. Besides the two cables at the ends of this board (B3 in my notation), I've wired the mating plug connectors and jumpers for the adjacent boards (B2 - with the station throat pointwork and B4 with the station and the control panel ). It's quite laborious work and requires great care to ensure the correct wires go from the plug/socket pins to the appropriate tack on the base board. A check with a multi-meter appeared OK, so hopefully, everything is in its correct place.
     
    Photos show the completed B3/B2 jumper wired to the tag strips and illustrating the storage clips which keep the jumper cable safely stowed for transport.
     

     

     

     
    Now to the other end!
     
    Dave.
     
     
    Jumpers at the other end now also attached. Too many wires for a single (37 pin) plug, so two x 25 pin connectors used here - one socket and one plug on this board to prevent connecting the wrong ones together. Not all the pins used on one as there are not 50 wires!
     

     

     
    That's the electrics done on board No.3 except for fitting one Alex Jackson uncoupling magnet.
     
    Dave.
  7. Dave Holt
    Have made a bit of progress with the coal drops, recently. The stone retaining walls and brick support pillars have been painted and are almost ready to be fixed in position. I've also added the deck to the top of the structure - hand rails still to go and also some support beams and other bits underneath the deck.
     
    First set of photos show the parts painted in as-built condition. The pillars are brick with ashlar stone bearing pad inserts. These all look a bit garish but were later toned down to a sootly/coal black. Think I might have overplayed the engineering blue bricks on the corners of the pillars i the paint swatch on the tin lid looked much more like the colour on a photo I took of the real thing, before it was demolished.
     

     

     

     

     
    The walls and pillars were then heavily weathered using a process kindly suggested by Peter Leyland, as used on the marvellous building he's built for the layout. Basically, the base colour is allowed to dry really thoroughly, then the whole surface is painted matt black and this is wiped off before it has dryed. Unfortunately, the photos have come out a bit dark, but give some idea of how they look. Maybe a hint of green moss round the steps, later?
     

     

     

     

     
    Cheers,
     
    Dave.
  8. Dave Holt
    Powered up the wiring of the first board using various jump leads to connect 16 V AC, a hand-held Pentroller and a second controller to swith the point motor. Ran my part finished Ivatt Cl 2, 2-6-2 tank up and down the platform road, then transferred everything to the loop road. This has a point giving access to the siding which runs along the side of the goods shed. Was able to switch the point using the second cpntroller and found that by chance, I'd wired the route indicating LED's correctly for the diverging roads. Had to do an adjustment to the Tortoise travel to get the point blades to sit hard against the stock rail for the siding, in order to get reliable running in the facing direction.
     

     

     

     
    Photos show an overall view of the test with the Pentroller plugged into it's socket on the facia of the board. The adjacent socket is for the DCC Xpressnet connection. Also seen is a close-up of the facia showing the point switch, route indicating LED's (with the diverging road set and the LED illuminated) and the red button is for an Alex Jackson uncoupling magnet. Lastly, a view of the loco taking the diverging road. Now for the rest......
     
    Dave.
  9. Dave Holt
    After what feels like a lifetime of back-aching effort, leaning over the board to focus my magnifying head set thingey, I have now completed fitting the cosmetic chairs to the point on the current board. Not only did thids involve cutting each chair in half to fit round the rivet, but also reguired lots of grinding of the rivet heads either side of the rails to enable a snug fit for the chair halves. On some, I didn't quite achive this, but the overall result is quite satisfying. I did consider only fitting chairs to the visible side of the rails, which would have halved the effort, but in the end I decided to fit both sides - must have too much time on my hands!!
     
    I've also experienced some problem getting the point blades to throw over fully, especially on the diverging road. This was causing derailment of the loco front pony truck when travelling in the facing direction. This seems to have been solved by increasng the Tortoise throw to near maximum and an adjustment to the operating link to the TOU.
    Photos show the completed point with BR Standard Cl2 tank being used to test the throw of the point. Also a close-up of the loco in its part completed condition.
     

     

     

     

     
    Next to do on the track on this board is represent the rail joints by cutting through the rail head at the appropriate locations to represent 30 foot and 60 foot rail lengths. Intending to use a slitting disc on a flexible shaft drive for this. Then it's cosmetic fish plates.
     
    Cheers for now,
     
    Dave.
  10. Dave Holt
    Philbax was asking about the Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2 tanks which appeared in some recent photos.
     
    The Ivatt is an as yet unmodified Bachman body on a chassis based on the Comet kit, with some additional detail and the valvegear modelled in forward rather than mid gear. The chassis is compensated as an 0-6-0 using twin beams on the rear two axles and a central rocking support on the front. Drive is a 1616 Portescap on the (floating) centre axle. The trucks are sprung.
    On this loco, the pony trucks are scratch built and sprung using hair-pin springs made from 0.33 brass wire. These are just visible through the frames of the truck, but not too obtrusive on this rather open, bar framed truck design. The two trucks are quite different in appearance as one has spring side control and the other swing link side control (the difference was to avoid the risk of hunting caused by having the same natural frequency at both ends if two identical trucks had been used). On the Ivatt, the swing link truck was usually at the front.
    The BR Standard loco is a stretched DJH body on a cut-down Comet based chassis. On this loco, thetrucks are the Brassmasters etches, suitably modified to represent the swing linkat one end. On these locos, the swing link truck was always at the rear.
     
    The two photos try to illustrate the differences in appearance. (Sorry for the slightly out-of-focus on the front shot.)
     

     

     
    Dave.
  11. Dave Holt
    Have started to do some of the electics under the board I currently have at home. Frighteningly slow progress and vast quantities of wire being consumed - and this is one of the more simple boards, with only one point and one AJ uncoupler (not yet started). I dread to think what the station throat board will be like!
     

     

     

     
    Photos show progress to date. The tag strips will eventually carry the connections to the adjoining boards.
     
    Dave.
  12. Dave Holt
    Today, a construction worker engaged in reinstating the railway at Delph station site discovered a tortoise buried beneath.......
     
    OK, in a slight break from the coal drops (awaiting more plastic supplies), I decided to mount and connect the first point motor to the TOU on the only turnout on this board. On fitting and attaching the droppers from the switch blades to the pre-made TOU I found that the blade opening at the tips of the blades is slightly over the scale 4.5". I think I'll live with this (hard to correct anyway, without making a new set of sliders) as it's better to have a larger than smaller gap for running purposes. I then fitted and connected the Tortoise point motor with the blades/TOU and motor drive set in the mid-stroke position. I then adjusted the throw of the actuator to give a fairly firm pressure in the closed position. Being the first time I've fitted on of these, I'm not sure how to judge the correct amount of over-travel at the motor (how much bend there should be in the actuating spring steel wire at full throw). Advice on this from experienced Tortoisers would be welcome.
     
    Here's a couple of photos of the under board installation.
     

     

     
    The motor is mounted on an Exactoscale adaptor plate, which in turn is screwed to a mounting pad fixed under the board. All the motors are set along the back edge of the boards, clear of the track above.
     
    The operating rod from motor to TOU passes through a mouse-hole slot in one og the strengthening ribs under the board. This connecting rod is actually a length of rail from some Peco "OO" flexi-track purchased specially for the purpose at the recent Leamington show. P4 friends operating Amlwch took great pleasure in taking a compromising photo of me carrying said track in it's distinctive bag. "Traitor" was one of the words used.....
     
    Dave.
  13. Dave Holt
    Having brought the coal drop board home from the workshop, I've been able to make better progress with the stone retaining walls, in comfort! The brick pillars and stone retaining wall sections in between and at the ends are now ready to be coloured (not sure if to paint or try the crayon technique being used by Barrow Road on his excellent loco shed buildings). Anyway, had a trial fit of all the bits which are on this board (the RH wing wall is on the next - station - board). Couldn't resist placing the deck and putting a few unfinished coal wagons over the cells to visualise how it might finally look.
     

     

     

     

     

     

  14. Dave Holt
    Have made a start on the stone retaining walls for the coal drops. These were along the back and both ends of the drops and also a section set back at an angle where the road entrance was located. The walls were of coarse stone and appear to have been a 76.2 times scaled-up model of the Wills coarse stone plastic sheets!!
    So far I have cut the basic wall facing sheet along the entrance section and part done the right-hand end wall. Later this will be split into two sections, one each on the two base-boards which a have a joint in this area. Hope I'll be able to paint and weather this stonework to match the magnificent station and goods shed which Gravy Train has made for the layout.
     
    Here's a couple of shots of the two Wills sheets loosely set up on my work table. Visible in the background is a photo of the real thing I took in 1991. My wife, Sue, is standing roughly in the middle of the right-hand end wall, acting as a 21 mm scale rule!
     

     

     
    Unfortunately, the Wills sheets are too short for the longer wall, so it has a joint which I've tried to disguise by carving of the stones. Hopefully, when painted this won't be too obtrusive. Also, where the corner joint occurs in the wall, the moulded stones didn't quite suit, so some smaller or very short ones have been replaced by plain Plasticard pieces carved to roughly match the moulded sheet - those are the white bits on the corner. Again, when painted, hopefully not too visible.
     
    Happy New Year and good modelling in 2010 to all.
     
    Dave.
  15. Dave Holt

    D333 comparison

    By Dave Holt,

    Here's another shot of my part finished D333 ex-LNWR coach taken from a similar angle (but a rather drunken angle and poorly lit, in my case) to the shot Coachman has put on his blog - I would have posted this as a comment or reply to Larry but can't find a way to put photos into either.
    Anyway, here's my coach again for comparison. I've just noticed that although this is an ex-LNWR diagram, I've fitted standard LMS buffers (only the stocks, so far) rather than the LNWR types on Larry's example - must have been a reason for that.....
    Mine's a bit more advanced (roof detail) but I bet Larry's is finished first - I've been putting of fitting the glazing for ages - all those separate pieces to make and fit! Stick to large window corridor coaches I say!
     

     
    I'm surrounded by brick and stone embossed plastic sheet at present, so hoping to get some of the scenic work for the coal drops done before fitting the deck/track unit.
     
    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone.
     
    Dave.
  16. Dave Holt
    I'm working on the point operating mechanisms for the layout just now. In the connections from the Tortoise motors to the TOU's, I'm intending to fit omega loops or Z sections to allow for any over-travel of the motor output bar (I'm using the Exactoscale conversion units). Any suggestions about suitable wire gauge and approximate dimensions to be sufficiently flexible not to wreck the TOU/switch blade actuators but still hold the switch blades hard against the stock rails?
     
    Cheers,
     
    Dave.
  17. Dave Holt
    In a comment on part of my blog, Coachman mentioned making model of a digram D333 ex-LNWR non-corridor brake third. Here's my attempt at one of these (part of my fictional non-push-pull local train) which was made from a 51L Models kit, modified to represent the version with just two end windows. The model is not yet complete - lacking the glazing and buffer heads. Model was painted and numbered by Coachman - and very nice, too!
     

     

     
    The odd contraption visible at the left-hand end is a cast coupling bar (one of Bill Bedford's, if I recall).
  18. Dave Holt
    Track laying continues and I am now starting to work on the coal drops. No photos of these in full condition have come to light, so the model will be a bit generic. I know there were 6 cells with brick (with stone inserts here and there) dividing walls/support pillars but have no idea of how the track support structure looked like, so I'm basing mine on an open wooden structure with beams under the rails and angled bracing struts (as evidenced by recesses and stone bearing pads part way up the pillars. On the model, the structure is being made from 6 mm square and 6 x 3 mm obeche strip and 0.8 mm ply decking. The main beams which carry the rails have been prepared and trial fitted in place, as shown in the three photos below. Otherwise, track advances on various fronts, some of which is also visible in the photos.
    If anyone has any recollection or photos of the coal drops, I'd be only too pleased to hear, before i commit myself irrevocably to something wrong! Help!
     

     

     
    ]
     
    Dave.
  19. Dave Holt

    Track creeps onwards

    By Dave Holt,

    The snail's pace addition of track continues. The main running line has reached the (country) end of the platform and the yard tracks progress slowly. Since these photos were taken this afternoon, I've extended the coal drop road as far as the drops and the mill siding as far as the connection to the buffer stop track.
     

     

  20. Dave Holt

    Track laying under way

    By Dave Holt,

    Have started to lay the track at long last - couldn't think of any more excuses to put it off any longer. Being my first ever layout I thought I'd dip my toe gentley in by starting with the main station throat pointwork! As can be seen, I used some mini jam jars full of "liquid lead" to hold the track down whilst the glue dried. The items were first laid dry, adjusted for position and long pins inserted at the ends of sleepers at key locations. The track was then lifted, PVA glue brushed onto the underlay and the track replaced, being automatically realigned by the pins, pressed down and the weights added. I think it's all gone well so far.




    Just the platform release cross-over and one turnout for the goods yard to go. Then it's the plain (flexi)track to join it all up.
     
    Dave.
  21. Dave Holt

    More track & trains

    By Dave Holt,

    Track laying continues, but progress is quite slow. I thought plain track would be quite easy, and I suppose it is technically, but it still takes an age. Progress is not really helped by my attempt to replicate the 60 ft and 30 ft track panels used on the real thing. It appears that only the main platform road was 60 ft, all the other being 30 ft. To achieve this, all the sleeper ties on the flexi-track have to be removed and sleepers moved along to the correct spacings. I've already marked the position of the rail joints as near as possible from the Templot track plan. All this cutting and sleeper moving takes time. Then there's a limit how many jar-weights I have to hold the track down whilst the glue dries and there's the ply sleepers with panel pins to be soldered at the board edges......
     
    Anyway, I've now got most of the track in position on the station throat board - just the loop head shunt left to do. Meanwhile, a Delph motor train arrived, hauled by the Fowler Cl 3 2-6-2 tank and consisting of M45 driving trailer M3419M and M12 non-driving trailer M3425M - both beautifully modelled by Coachman. Thanks Coach!!
     

     
    Overall view of the station throat track-work. Lead filled jam jars on the coal drop road whilst glue dries.
     

     

     
    A taste of things to come. Typical 1950's motor train crosses the curved diamond which gives access to the mill siding.
     
    Dave.
  22. Dave Holt

    Taw Valley

    By Dave Holt,

    Not often seen at Delph, but Ijust happen to like modified Bulleid pacifics! This is my effort at Taw Valley. Based on a Model Loco Co (DJH under a different name) kit. It is in P4, with full floating compensated chassis using hand sawn frames, Gibson wheels and valve gear from kit, Comet and some bits left over from a Brassmasters black 5! What can't be seen is the crank axle, inside con rod and full valvegear - but it is all there.
    Lined and numbered by Ian Rathbone.
    Photo at Scvaleforum by Phil Hall.
     

  23. Dave Holt
    Hope this works - continuing the story of my layout and workbench. On the old RMweb thread (which I no longer appear to be able to access), I had posted regarding the setback experienced when the paper track plan which I had stuck to the cork underlay and on which I had intended to lay the track, wringled up very badly with the recent damp weather. The following photos show the trial fitting of the station throat pointwork on the track plan.
     

     

     

     
    Fortunately, the wrinkled paper came away quite well and did not damage the surface of the underlay, although it did reveal a few areas where the cork was not well adhered to the base-board top. Following removal, I have had to mark the track position directly on the cork and this stage is shown below.
     

     

  25. Dave Holt
    I've made some further progress with my PenBits sprung bogies for the Class 40. The modified Bachmann drive gears have been fitted to the new Gibson axles and the pony truck frames have had the axle bushes opened out to 2.4 mm ( from 2 mm) to accept the extended axles that I recovered from my part-completed Lima Class 40.
     
    Here are the three driving and pony truck axle (for the second bogie) The gears have been drilled out by a friend to be a good push fit on the axles, but I applied a smear of Loctite Bush Retainer, as a precaution. The pony truck axle has been reduced to 2 mm diameter in the centre to make sure it clears the truck retaining wire:
     

     
    Next, the first bogie with the wheel sets and springs fitted. I'm pleased to report that it pushes along very freely, so all that hacking about of the gear train, which caused some trepidation, appears to have been successful. Mind you, testing under power will be the key. Regarding power, the kit instructions describe a pick up system using shorted out wheels on opposite sides of the two bogies, but I don't really fancy trying to solder wire to the wheel rims (seems like a recipe for melted wheel centres to me) so I'm going to fit conventional wiper pick ups. Two pick up mounting bus-bars have been attached to copper clad pads to facilitate the pick up wires (still to be made and fitted). These bus-bars have to be in two parts because of the articulated inner chassis, hence the blue insulated wire loops connecting the two sections. There will also be a further jumper wire on each side to take the power up to the bogie mounting piece. From there, the original Bachmann arrangement connects to the loco circuit board via sprung contacts:
     

     

     
    The second bogie has now been assembled to the same stage, so they have been fitted to the loco for trial pushing through some point work, prior to fitting the pick-ups. Here are three shots of it at the yard throat on the layout. After an initial derailment, possible due to not having all the wheels properly on the rails, it has pushed successfully through the double slip and even round the extremely tight connection to the mill siding. It wouldn't be expected to go round there during operation.
     

     

     

     
    No excuses not to move on to the pick-ups now and then test under power.
     
    Dave.
     
    Dave.
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