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GWMark

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  1. GWMark

    1701 nearing completion

    By GWMark,

    My "quick diversion" ended up like all my other projects, victim to my lack of time, or is the a lack of commitment leading to excuses why I don't have the time. Either way it took longer to get to this stage than I had planned, but now I have the little saddle tank running and pretty much finished, it just needs some lamp irons on the front and the brake gear.
     
    I am holding off on the brake gear until I have resolved a clicking sound, which I think is a pickup catching on a spoke, but so far I have not found the cause. When I run it upside down the noise goes away, so it is proving difficult to see the cause.
     
    The lamp irons are another issue, the sand boxes are so close to the buffer bean there is no space to mount them conventionally on the footplate. I need to try to see how they should be mounted, either attached to the buffer beam or the front of the sand boxes seems to be the two options.
     

     
    Sorry about the quality of the images, I think I need to get a better lighting setup.
     

     
    The roof and toolboxes are not attached, they will be painted seperately and then attached. Also the whistles will be added after the roof has been painted.
     
    A little green putty was needed to fill a few gaps, this still needs to be sanded back when it has dried fully.
     
    It will never be described as a fine scale model, but it has a certain charm to it.
  2. GWMark

    72xx In Motion

    By GWMark,

    As promised I did a little video last night of the 72xx moving on Hinton Parva. It's not the best video ever and it is a little short, but it does show it moving.
     
    http://youtu.be/xWOIUcAB2Fo
     
     
    Later I had it doing circuits of the club test track, it was taking 10 minutes to do one circuit, I'm not sure of the size of the test track, but I think it is about 20 feet by 10 feet. Now all I need to do is finish it, there's that word again, "finish", I must look it up some time, something to do with Scandinavians I think
     
    Mark
  3. GWMark
    Having now applied another coat of the Lifecolor acrylic loco green to my 72xx and brush painting the buffer beams and safety valve/whistles, I couldn't resist putting it back together to see how it looked.
     

     
    The black is Halfords Matt black car spray, the green is Lifecolor as already mentioned, the buffer beams Phoenix Precission enamel, the safety value/whistles are Humbrol enamel. All on a base of two coats of precision etch primer. So quite a mix of paints on this one.
     
    There are a few issues;
    My masking was not too good. I made the same mistake I have made before and sprayed the black first up to the edge of where the colour was needed and then tried to mask that off and spray the green up to the same line. There are inevitable small gaps that have crept in that show primer through.
    My surface preparation was not good enough, there are places that could have done with better sanding/filing. Some bits of the fibre glass brush have appeared in the paint; even after several attempts at washing the model before painting.
    I wish I had not used the whitemetal safety valve bonnet, the raw brass for the chimney cap looks so much better than the painted safety valve.
    I need to improve my method of holding the cab roof down, it shows up a gap in this closeup picture.
    I need to do something about the white metal crosshead/piston rod - do people paint (spray?) these successfully?

    I think I have hurried this final stage a little too much, I wanted the model "finished" to take along to the next Missenden weekend. If I had perhaps been a bit more critical during the preparation stage I would have something that looked better now. Still, I think I will complete it from here, as much as anything it gives me some practice. At least that way I can have mine done before Hornby bring out the RTR one later this year. If this ends up on the club layout we are just starting it would need a repaint into 1960's condition anyway, so that would be a good opportunity to strip it and sort out some of the issues. Also, if you view it from more than about 6 inches away it looks alright even with these problems.
     
    So now it is a case of touching up the paint, another coat on the buffer beams, transfers, plates, crew and coal. Then do I try my hand at weathering it? Most likely the answer to that is yes.
  4. GWMark
    The 72xx that have have been building for quite some time now has progressed a little more since my last posting here. For some reason I only ever seem to work on this when I go to the Missenden Weekends, so one or two weekends a year makes for slow progress.
     
    The job tackled this year was to get the chassis moving under power - this took somewhat longer than expected, mostly because it turned out that not all my insulated wheels were! I'm sure you can guess how I discovered that one. A lot of time was also spent in fine tuning the chassis, effort that was well worth it. It now runs so smoothly and slowly that I'm really pleased, I measured it at a scale 3 miles per hour without any stalling, on clean track. I've also done some trimming of the rear of the cylinders to allow it to take the curves on the club layout, Hinton Parva. I've had it circulating the 32 foot layout, but at slow speed it takes several minutes to do so, it moves at a real crawl. It helps that it has pickup on 8 wheels, a big motor (Mashima 1632), a 50:1 gearbox and no shortage of weight.
     

     
     
    It also proved it power when I sent it down the wrong road and it pushed 6 Bachmann collets and the mogul on the front out of the siding - the mogul was unpowered at the time! I really should have keep an eye on it, but it was taking so long to get around I got distracted. The chassis has been painted, at least behind the wheels, and the brake gear added. Unfortunately the sand box casting where such a mess I decided not to use them. Thankfully a quick email to PDK has got some replacements, so I need to simply add them and the missing rear guard irons and then that is the chassis done. Then it is some final detailing of the body and time to paint it. Maybe it will get a coat of paint before the summer is out
  5. GWMark

    A day of mixed motions

    By GWMark,

    Today Daniel and I spent the day in Princes Risborough community centre at the club's modelling Saturday. We both choose to spent the day working of value gear, in my case the valve gear of my NuCast GWR Steam Railmotor and Daniel on the inside motion for his Finney Hall.
     
    In my case it was adding the cylinder covers, soldering the slide bars and adding the eccentrics. It all went really well, with the exception of the eccentrics that just would not stay attached to the crankpin end. I must have applied about 5 lots of loctite, but it just fell of at the slightest touch. I shall have to look into that some more. Despite this setback I'm really pleased to have seen the rail motor move, with all the motion down the right thing and the motor actually managing to move the large white metal lump. I'll do another post on this with some pictures/video when I get the eccentrics to stay attached.
     
    Daniel completed the second set of his Hall inside eccentrics - lots of eccentricity going on! Towards the end of the after it put it all together for a test run. It was good to see this, his first attempt at working inside valve gear start to move. The video below is a short clip I took of his test run using my phone, so please excuse the quality.
     

     
    The blutak is only there to hold things temporarily, it will all get taken off and painted before being finally fixed with loctite once the set of Alan Gibson wheels he has are added.
  6. GWMark
    Well, the 72XX has taken a few small steps forward. Now we have the next problem, the motion bracket has been laminated from three thicknesses and now doesn't fit over the slide bars. I think I will ned to look at that when I am feeling more awake. But for now this is were I am. The cab roof and the slide bar are just laid in place, everything else is firmly attached.
     

     
     
    I really do like this loco and can see it getting ever closer to being finished, or at least to be ready to be painted.
  7. GWMark

    A Quick Diversion

    By GWMark,

    Partly from frustration and partly because I like to see things move I decided I wanted to do a little project that was going to be reasonably quick to get to a stage were I could run a loco. About 2 weeks ago, at Expo EM I purchased an unbuilt Wills Finecast kit of an 1804 GWR Saddle tank, last week at Railex I also obtained the etched nickel silver chassis from SE Finecast and some Gibson wheels for it. So on Friday evening I decided to make the chassis. These Finecast etched chassis go together really quickly and using my Avonside jig made a nice square chassis in no time at all, a Comet GB1 50:1 gearbox and a Mashima 1620 mated to t made up the power plant. So on Saturday morning I sprayed the chassis with etch primer and left for 24 hours. Meanwhile Saturday evening gave me a chance to start on the body. So far all was going I might have my running chassis in time to test run it at our club evening on Wednesday.
     
    Sadly Sunday did not go to plan and I had no time until the evening to touch it again. Still I managed to paint the chassis at least and solder a few more bits on the body. I like to only fit Gibson wheels once if I can, so wanted to paint the chassis before fitting the wheels for the first time. Monday evening was spent adding the wheels, making the motor fit and working on reaming the rods out to take the Gibson crank pins. Only a few hours, so it has motor and wheels fitted, rods on one side ready but not finished on the other.
     

     
    Maybe I will get time tomorrow to do the rods on the other side and add the pickups, if not then the test run will have to wait another week. Still I did cheat and have run it with a 9volt PP9 battery and the rods loosely fitted, it seems to run acceptably, but the proof will not be known until the chassis is finished. I am a little nervous about the crankpins since I had to drill the wheels as the holes for the pins were missing. It would be easy to have one of the crank pins out of alignment and end up with a binding chassis.
     
    The other interesting thing is what the prototype really is. It is not an 1804 Class saddle tank as it says on the box, nor is it really an 1854 which is what it was latter renamed to be. From looking at my copy of J H Russell I suspect it is really a variant of the 1701 class - maybe somebody out there knows for sure?
     
    As a quickie project, for some nearly instant gratification, it is not looking too bad - of course finishing it is another matter
  8. GWMark

    Absent but not idle

    By GWMark,

    I realised it had been a long time since I last did an update when Daniel asked me if I was planning to post about our recent weekend at Missenden Abbey. I decided that before doing that I really should do an update on the things that I have been up to between the spring Missenden Weekend and the Autumn weekend.
     
    At the spring weekend I took a break from my usual locomotive construction topic and spent the weekend with Ian Rathbone in the painting and lining room. This is not a subject I am good at and my expectations going into the weekend were, in retrospect way too high. I thought I would come out of the weekend being a master painter - not so of course. As Ian righty said it takes lots and lots of practice. So since that weekend I have done a little more painting, it can not be called perfect, but it is possibly passable. I plucked up the courage to paint a couple of the models I took with me, namely the Nucast GWR Steam Railmotor and the Mallard Duke.
     

     
    The rail motor still has a few issues, some of my masking was not accurate enough so I need to touch up the chocolate in places. But it has a base coat now, it needs window detailing, glazing, interior and of course the roof needs fixing. The roof is not joined exactly straight, so it sits up too high in the middle, I will adjust the joint to bring it level and then make it sit correctly. After that a quick spray with white primer and some black on the pane above the motor bogie should see it look a bit better. It is now fitted with DCC sound and manages to haul itself along reasonably well. It is never going to be a perfect model, the engineering of th white metal bogie is too crude for that. Plus it is a bit of a lump with the white metal body and roof.
     

     
    The Mallard Duke is a slightly better paint job, but there is some touch up needed on the splasher tops and the spring details. Once that is done I will matt the finish down a little and add the plates - when I can find where I have put them! This too will get DCC sound shortly and I am thinking it needs some brake gear - there was none in the kit, but I should not let that stop me. The backhead looks a little strange in the picture as it is laid in and not exactly straight. It will be fixed once I have painted the floorboards in the cab. I also managed to break off the brake standard on the tender - careless - so I need to reinstate that. I also need to add the buffer heads and front coupling hook. The current high gloss finish does show off the ripples in the tender flare where I did not do a perfect job, but hopefully the will be less obvious after some matt varnish to dull it down. The high gloss finish did allow the transfers to bed down nicely however - much better than my previous attempts.
     

     
    I even had another go with the bow pen. Using a Mallard 57ft rail motor body I tried my hand at panel lining. Not my most successful experiment, this will eventually be stripped off for another go at some point. I think I will do more painting however before I try to move on to lining.
     
    I have also started to paint my Black Hawthorn, but I will post that later when it is more advanced than it is now, and back in one piece.
     
    At least I have filled some of the gaps between spring and autumn, there are other things that I will post over the next few days before the update on the Missenden Autumn weekend.
  9. GWMark

    An old project resurrected

    By GWMark,

    The very first locomotive kit, if you can call it a locomotive, was a NuCast Steam Railmotor. In retrospect this was a poor choice for a first kit and could easily have put me off kit building for life, but I have liked the look of the rail motors since I first heard about them and the guy on the exhibition stall where I purchased it said it was not that heard to make. Oh well, you live and learn.
     
    Anyway, I started on this kit back in 2004 (as far as I remember), managed to solder the body together but got totally flawed when it came to the valve gear. SO it went back in it's box for about 4 years. I then tried again, using a Blacksmiths etch of valve gear, but again failed to make the thing go together. So back in the box again. A couple of weeks ago I thought to myself I would give it another go, so out it came again.
     
    The body was looking a bit sorry for itself, it had been stored on its side in the box on top of a kitchen cupboard. Perhaps it got a little warm, or perhaps it was just sheer weight, but the sides had sagged badly and at some point the buffers had taken a knock, near mind those are both easily solved problems. So I thought I would start with that troublesome valve gear.
     
    I decided to try the original Nucast etch again, it was somewhat more substantial than the Blacksmiths one, but had mostly the same dimensions. It would also mean I could save the Blacksmiths etch for an etched version of the 56ft rail motor I picked up on an exhibition stand. This was missing the bogies, casting and a crosshead, maybe I could make a second rail motor out of this, but that will hopefully be another entry in the future.
     
    This time I managed to get the Nucast etch to go together fairly well, a little fiddly, but it did all fit, or at least I thought it did. Then I found the wheels I had, 16mm Romfords as recommended in the instructions, had too much throw and caused the piston rod to need to be cut so short to avoid going out the front of the cylinder that it would fall out of the rear of the cylinder at the opposite end of the stroke. So off came the Romfords and on with a set of Gibson wheels instead. That solved the problem.
     

     
    The picture above shows the assembled vale gear, except the eccentric has been removed since it turns out the eccentric is too long and would cause the gear to jam at each end o the stroke. Looking at the Blacksmiths etch the eccentric on that set is smaller. So now I have the choice of making the Nucast rod shorter or stealing the rod from the Blacksmiths etch. I think I will at least try the former so that I can keep the Blacksmiths set complete.
     
    The other things that still needs resolving are the cylinders, which do not line up and slope downwards to the rear rather than being level with the wheel centres. Also I need to do something about attaching the eccentric to the crank pin, since to ream these out enough to fit over the Gibson crank pins would mean there would not be enough material left on the little cranks. I also need to look at a better way of attaching the motor to the motor/bogie mount as well, currently it is simply held in place with some wire wrapped around the mount. I had thought to replace the worm and final drive gear with a proper gearbox, but it seems to run well enough and that would mean changing the way the bogie is mounted to the body.
     
    I have to admit that it is really nice to see this motor bogie trundle down the test track with the valve gear moving as it should. Hopefully it will not be long before I have a completed rail motor.
     
    Another slight confession, as I finish this I do now remember that I did start to make a K's kit when I was a teenager, back in the dim and very distant past. However that was never finished, it did convince me of my hatred for epoxy as a method of construction however. That effort is now lost forever thanks to a house fire in the late 70's. So when I say this was my first kit, it was my first kit following my reintroduction to the hobby.
     
    The thing that is encouraging about all this however is that I think it must mean I have got just a little bit better at building loco kits over the years. So maybe there is hope for me!
  10. GWMark
    I attended the Amersham model railway show on Saturday with my teenage son, and he came away with a purchase. A part finished Cotswold kit of a 72XX! Now, I wonder, is he trying to outdo Dad here!
     
    Anyway, the upshot is that my planned day of working on the PDK 72XX got highjacked, first by household jobs like fixing a leaking tap, but then by aiding Daniel get his 72XX chassis working. By Sunday evening I had lost my work area and tools to Daniel who was busy soldering whitemetal steps to his new 72XX kit.
     

     
     
    Now with school term starting again in the morning, maybe I'll get to build while he is doing his homework. Still I guess he could be doing worse things at thirteen than soldering whitemetal together.
     
    Mark
  11. GWMark
    For some time now I have been thinking about ways to make things other than the locomotives move on my layouts. Radio Control servos have become an accepted way to control the points and semaphore signals, but we could use them for more if we had a good way to integrate the proportional control of them into our control systems. So instead of just having something move between two positions we could make it move to any point we wanted.
     
    It was with this idea in mind that I started playing around with ideas for how to get better control of servos. The obvious thing we all have is a speed control on our layouts to control the speed of our trains, so what if we could use that to control the position or speed of a servo. Given that I am a DCC person, the natural choice was a DCC decoder that instead of driving a motor could drive a servo. My first prototype was simply a decoder, based on an Arduino processor, that moved a single servo at the speed set by the throttle. This would allow me to position one servo to any point I wanted in its travel, setting a speed of zero would stop it. This was a good first step, but something like a crane would need more than one servo, it would be a pain, and a little expensive to have a decoder per servo. So the next step was to control multiple servos from one decoder. What I did was to write code for the decoder that would use a combination of a function and the throttle setting. Turn on function 0 and the first servo could be controlled by the throttle, turn on function 1 and you control the second servo. Turn on two functions together and you control two servos. Added to this I allowed the maximum travel to be defined, and the minimum time for that motion.
     
    So now I had a way, via DCC CV's to define the two endpoints of the movement of a servo, expressed in degrees, and a time in seconds that it should take to move between those points if the throttle was set to full speed. This gave me what I wanted to control something like a crane with 3 servos for the rotation of the crane, the angle of the jib and the winding of the chain. The prototype decoder was shown to my local MERG area group, who liked the idea so much we ended up doing a couple of tutorial evenings during which about 20 of the members built the electronics and learnt how to program the servos and DCC library for the Arduino.
     
    ​Following on from this the idea of extending the decoder to also control stepper motors was introduced. In fact the motion obtainable from stepper motors was much better and smoother than the servos. I introduced the idea of either having the stepper motor run continuously or confining it to a number of steps in each direction, so that it behaved more like a servo. Next came the addition of lights to the decoder, so that we could put warning lights on our cranes. Until I ended up with a DCC decoder that could drive 3 servos, one stepper motor and 4 lights (with various effects). If anybody is interested the code for what I did is available on GitHub.
     
    I have been working with one of the members of the local MERG group to automate an LGB cement mixer in G scale. He now has a cement mixer mounted on a wagon that drives up to you, with the mixer turning via a stepper motor, swings the delivery chute out towards you, using a servo. Turns on a warning light. It then reverses the direction of the mixer and dispenses Smarties down the delivery chute into the hands of the waiting admirers!
     
    I also took the Arduino DCC decoder idea a slightly different way and created a decoder that could play sound effects, essentially a primitive sound decoder. The effects were recorded sounds files placed on a microSD card that was then inserted in the Arduino system. A particular function key would trigger the playing of a particular sound file. These effects could be adjusted to match the speed setting of the throttle, and hence give a synchronised chuffing effect. Nowhere near as good as a commercial sound decoder, much more a toy, but the bits for it cost me less than £10. It was more for my amusement than anything else, but it was fun to try.
     
    This has been another diversion for me from building rolling stock, working on my layout or all those other projects I have started but not finished, but it has got me to learn a lot more about the DCC protocol, I now understand exactly what gets put on the rails and makes the locos move. Also I have something that is at least able to animate scenic items under the control of the same DCC handset that I drive the trains with. Plus I have enjoyed working on it, so does it matter that it has diverted me from other things - it's only a hobby after all!
     
    ​Maybe the thing that makes this an enduring hobby is that there are so many ways we can go, just because I am not good at painting a back scene or my weathering skills are a bit dodgy it does not mean I can not enjoy some other part of the hobby. Equally I like making locos, but if that's all I did I would probably get bored with it after a while. It makes you think, or at least it does me.
  12. GWMark

    Back to GT3

    By GWMark,

    Well, the New Year period has enabled me some time to get back to doing a bit of loco building. The project, a resin GT3 from Golden Arrow with the detailing etches from Bill Bedford and Ian (macgeordie) of RMWeb. Progress has been slow until now, as with most of my builds, being interrupted by other projects, electronics modules for club layouts and the general things in life that take away our time. However since getting home from a Christmas visiting my mother I have built the buffer beam, cab windows, cab steps and front grill of GT3 from Ian's etches. I already had the top grill, and tender detailing done. So now I need to do the brake rodding and the tender axle boxes. The final thing to do is to sort out a tender coupling - I have decided I want to keep the Hornby tow bar so that I can have electrical connectivity for tender pickups and possible lighting in the tender. I have already got fibre optics and LEDs for the front head code lighting, so I amy also add cab lighting and lighting in the toilet compartment. I have needed to add some weight to the tender to keep it down against the springs in the Hornby tender coupling, but I think I am going to have to do something to open the tender to cab gap up, otherwise this will never get around any corners. In the picture the side grill and the cab steps are just held on by blutac and the tender has a simple screw to couple it to the loco.
     

     
    Two areas I still need to think about are the bogie side frames, I am not happy with these and may just cut off the moulded springs and buy some cast white metal ones - anybody know what might be suitable? Also there are wheels guards on Ian's etches that I have to work out how to fit.
     
    There has been a bit of filler added to fill the air bubbles and to try to get a better edge along the bottom of both the loco and tender body. Not long now until it gets primed and hopefully any blemishes that are left will show up better and can also be filled.
     
    Hopefully within the next few weeks it can get painted, it depends very much on the weather. I plan to use Halfords spray cans, so it will avoid by issues with airbrushes, but that's a whole other thread!
     
    Mark
  13. GWMark
    I see it has been a while since I posted here, this doesn't mean I have done nothing, just not written about it. I even failed to do my post-Missenden entry that I normally do - more on those projects in another post.
     
    This week I have been doing some weathering, mostly of Daniel's RTR stock that will be appearing on Hinton Parva when it goes to Quainton for the May Bank Holiday Steam Gala. However I also thought I would have a go at my GT3 since it now has the transfers on the tender, from Cambridge Custom Transfers. So here it is with a first attempt at weathering it - looking at the picture I think I will add a few more touches to it. However I am thinking of changing the chassis for the HighLevel one when it comes out, so maybe some of it will wait until after that.
     

     
    My GT3 will also be on Hinton Parva when it goes to the Quainton event.
  14. GWMark

    Command & Control

    By GWMark,

    Progress has once again been slowed due to a combination of work, domestic and revision issues. One of the reason for doing this layout was as a joint project with my teenage son, sadly he is in mid-GCSE season, so is unable to do anything other than revise at the moment. So I am restricted to doing things he has no interest in and sympathising over the revision. Hence no scenic work has taken place and I have spent a little bit of time assembling the electronics that are going to run the layout.
     
    In my original plan for the layout I wanted to use it as a means to try out some different ways of doing things, so it will have a control system rather more complex than is really needed for a simple shunting puzzle. Partly I feel justified in trying things out on a small layout rather than jumping in with some big project and then deciding I had taken the wrong approach or simply wasting large amount of time and money. However it is also a case that I enjoy the electronics side of things anyhow and want to have a use for some of the neat ideas that are around.
     
    The trains are definitely going to be driven via DCC, but all the accessories and the interface to the DCC is going to be handled by the MERG CBus system. With such a small layout I don't really get or need, some of the advantages of having a layout control bus, but I still think it is simpler longer term. For those that do no know, CBus offers a way of sending messages between bit of electronics on the layout. This means that using the same pair of wires you can send a message to control some item on the layout, and also get status back from other items. You may think you have heard this before, when people preach the "DCC - two wires is all you need" message. But this does something different, it works both ways, allowing feedback as well as control. It does not replace DCC on the actual tracks however.
     
    The picture below shows the things I have built already...
     

     
    Starting at the back left, I have 4 block occupancy detectors, each one will support detection in 2 blocks, so this gives me 8 detection blocks. They are actually a MERG kit, DTC8, with the original circuit board cut up to give me four separate pairs. They are not CBus kits, but will provide input to a CBus module.
     
    To the right of these are a pair of DCC distribution boards I have built. These are basically terminal blocks mounted on stripboard. The DCC bus is connected at the two ends, one for bus in and the other for bus out. This is then connected to a pair of four way terminal blocks. this allows for 4 dropper pairs to connect to the DCC bus. There is also an LED and resistor on the board, this allows an indication that the DCC bus is functional to as far as this distribution board. I have done it this way as I do like like the idea of bare wires to run the DCC bus, once is one way I have seen people tap onto the bus. The other approach I have seen, using scotch-lock connectors also seems a little hit and miss to me - other may get on with it, but I personally am not keen. Therefore I am wiring by DCC bus through a set of distribution boards that allow be to connect droppers in a "hub style" network. The LED is part of my obsession with having diagnostic aids for when things go wrong.
     
    The next pair of boards to the right are a couple of MERG kits, CAN-ACE8 to be precise. These are general purpose input boards that will taken inputs from the block occupancy detectors and other sources and send them along the layout control bus - the CBus. This will let be sense things like point settings, train detection and possibly also switches on the front of the layout that viewers can operate. Each board allows 8 things to be sensed and will translate the state of these 8 items and send CBus messages whenever they change - e.g. a train enters or leaves a section. Other CBus modules can then act on this information.
     
    Below these boards are a collection of RJ22 interface boards that will be used to plug the control panel and the handheld controller into the CBUS. I have yet to build the MERG hand-held, this is the most daunting kit as it requires surface mount soldering.
     
    To the left is the MERG DCC command station, this is one of the few that I have tested out, and it works brilliantly. It is driven from the CBus and connects to the track with an inbuilt 1A booster. I have not yet got the external booster kit, I need to wait for MERG to get the kit back in stock. However I will probably not need more than the 1A from the command station anyway - this is only a shunting puzzle.
     
    To the left of the command station, and connected to it via CBus, is a USB interface - this is how I tested the command station, I sent CBus commands over USB from JMRI - using an iPhone as a throttle, to the command station and hence drove trains from the iPhone. This will be attached to the layout to allow JMRI panels to be provided for point control and mimic diagrams etc. Also I will probably have the JMRI setup for driving trains with an iPhone as well as the dedicated handheld controller. One thought is to have a touchscreen and display the mimic diagram on that and hence set points etc directly from the touch screen.
     
    The next board along is an LED driver - this will go into the dedicated panel and provide all the indications as to what is happening on the layout. Again connected by CBus, so just 4 wires have to go to the panel. This board is capable of driving far more LED's that I will need for such a small layout.
     
    Next we have a simple power supply board that will give me a source of both 5 volts DC and 12 volts DC - I need to produce a few more of these, since this on will only give me 1Amp of each voltage. I need a 12 Volt DC source of 1.5 Amps to drive the uncoupling magnets. I also need an interface between the CBus output module and these magnets - so yet more circuits to design and build. Although this should be fairly simple.
     
    To the left and below the power supply board is a CANSERVO8 board - this connects to CBus and allows 8 RC servos to be controlled. Three of the servos will be used to change the points whilst the others will be used for animation effects on the layout. I already have a setup for an animated figure and am looking into putting a moving crane of some sort on the quayside.
     
    The last two boards to the right of the servo controller are a panel switch board and an auxiliary output board. The panel switch board, along with the LED driver, will be inside the mimic panel and will take all the inputs form the push buttons and send them out as messages on the CBus, thus forming the other part of the panel.
     
    The aux. output board allows 8 accessories to be driven by the CBus, messages from any device on the bus can thus cause things to turn on or off on the layout. Five of these outputs will be used to control the uncoupling magnets, whilst the rest will perform functions like controlling the lights on the layout or operating other accessories.
     
    As well as these boards I have also been building the mains power supply, it will delivery 2 x 16V AC circuits to the layout and is in a separate plastic box, well insulated with short circuit protection and supply status indication built into it. The idea is that the mains stays on the floor in an isolated box and never comes anywhere near the layout itself.
     
    I also have some ready made frog juicers that I will use to switch frog polarity, these really are a bit of a luxury, since looking at the CBus way of doing things it would have been a lot cheaper to switch the frogs via relays that are triggered by the same CBus events that trigger the point motors (servos). However I wanted to try these out, and with only three points it is not a huge expense.
     
    One things I have to look at is how the frog juicers will interact with the block occupancy detection, I may have to live without detection on the frog, which is a little bit of a shame.
     
    I still have a few more circuits to build, the hand held controller, uncoupling magnet interface and probably another CBus output module. Then it is a case of wiring the layout up with this lo, once I have mounted all the boards, and building the control panel. I think the GCSE's will be over before I have done all of that and I will be chased up by Daniel to get a move on - oh well there never is enough time in this world.
  15. GWMark

    Commanding progress

    By GWMark,

    In order to keep up some momentum in the project and whilst waiting for the plywood to arrive, I have built the first couple of CBUS modules, a USB computer interface and the DCC command station. Both went together without problem, very well designed kits, and worked first time. The result is that I now am about to drive trains using these modules, albeit a little bit of a convoluted route.
     
    I have JMRI Panel Pro running on an old PC talking to the USB CBUS interface with the DCC command station attached on a very small bus. From JMRI I can use the on screen throttle or via Engine Driver from my phone. Maybe not the most exciting progress to anybody else, but is a small step forwards in the number of tasks to get a small layout that actually runs.
  16. GWMark

    Cylinder slope

    By GWMark,

    I think Horsetan is right, there is not enough slope to cylinders, this view shows them better.
     

     
     
    A little more progress last night, I really ought to get on with the chassis however.
  17. GWMark

    Daniel's Various Project

    By GWMark,

    I realised after Captain Kernow's comment on my last post that I had not been true to my word and posted some of my son's projects. So this post is really to redress that. I apologies for the heavy photo content. These are things Daniel has put together either at the Missenden weekends or when he was at home from University during the summer.
     
    The first item has been here before, at least in incomplete form, it's the High Level Hawthorn Leslie that he has been building. All finally ready for painting.
     

     
    The roof is not attached yet, since access to the cab is needed for painting and installing the backhead - which is not in place in this photo but all done ready to go.
     
    The next item is a white metal kit he picked up a long time ago, the floors are plastic and I noticed after I took the picture the floor of the crane has come loose, so will need to be secured again.
     

     
    It's an ABS models kit, soldered together, expect of course for the plastic floors. Like me Daniel has an aversion to glue!
     

     
    This next item is somewhat braver, a Falcon Brass 6 wheel tool van. I've heard these kits described as unbuildable by others, but I think he can be justifiably proud of the end result. Again the roof is not attached it will be once the model is painted and glazed. He really enjoyed putting all that strapping on, the RSU got a lot of use. I think this makes a nice and somewhat different addition to any yard scene or P-way train. I think his idea is to add it to the crane and a couple of other vehicles he has planned to make a works train.
     
    This next item is a resin bodied kit from Dean Sidings, a Taff Vale C Class. The kit is designed to be fitted to a Hornby 14xx chassis, cut up a bit to fit. However the chassis Daniel had was of a different vintage and would have needed to be cut through the motor to fit. So that wasn't happening. Rather than buy another Hornby chassis he decided instead to make an etched chassis by taking a comment 14xx chassis, cutting of the leading wheel and building a trailing bogie out of bits of scrap Nickel Silver. This way he got to keep the ashcan at the right end and come up with a chassis that runs really well.
     

     
    And finally, this is Daniel current project. It was started at the Missenden weekend back in October. He also spent a day at the club modelling Saturday building the working inside motion that can be seen resting on the ballast in front of the chassis. It is a Martin Finney kit, now available from Brassmasters, for a GWR Hall.
     

     
    The working motion is a rather wonderful thing, and I have to admit I like it a lot and am thinking of doing the same for the new Saint chassis I am building. There is something rather pleasing about building all these little bits up and seeing them move. Of course he has not yet got to the stage of trying to sandwich it all in between the frames yet.
     
    Daniel tells me the wheels are temporary, sine they are slightly the wrong size. He has a set of Gibson wheels he will fit once he is happy with everything and painted the chassis. Neither of us like taking Gibson wheels on and off more than we have to. The blutak is also a temporary feature to keep the motor/gearbox aligned until the rest of the chassis is complete.
     
    There is a common theme with Daniel's projects, none of them are painted. He does have a plan for this, sadly it involves me doing it! To this end I have enrolled on the Painting and Lining course at the Spring Missenden Abbey Railway Modellers weekend. I'm not sure if I will get to paint many of them there, but Daniel tells me he is generously giving me items to perfect my skills on - no pressure there then!
  18. GWMark
    As a bit of a diversion I also built this back in March.....
     

     
     
    I purchased it as a used kit at Astrolat, the "chassis" had been built and I just had to finish it and build the interior and body. These went together very quickly, most unlike me. Unfortunately the wheelset was P4 - how did I not notice that one! So I ended up cutting the axles, big mistake, one is now too short and the back to back is a little too small - need to replace the axles some time.
     
    True to form, I may have got to this stage in about 2 weeks, but then I left if or 2 months before getting it out to photograph and starting to think about finishing it - don't panic - I've found another diversion now so the danger of actually finishing something is passing again.
  19. GWMark
    As I said in my previous post I am now less than a week away from my next Missenden weekend, this time I am down to do painting and lining with Ian Rathbone, so my plan is to try to get as many of my current projects ready to be painted, at least in some state. So I have spent much of the weekend, and last week, doing those last little jobs, you know, all those things you have been putting off because they are fiddly. In my mind at east none of them would take long, but of course I was deluding myself. I have to thank my wife for putting up with me taking over a corner of the kitchen and spending so much time on modelling, especially given it was the weekend of our wedding anniversary.
     
    The Black Hawthorn needed one little job, as it now ready for cleaning and primer, the Neilson needed more work, especially in the cab area, but that is now done, although I did note after taking the picture that I have still to add the makers plates. The under frame still needs work, it only has half of its brake gear for instance!
     

     
    The Duke I know needed more work, in particular I had been putting off the handrail due to lack of holes for the handrail knobs, but that is now done. The only thing left is the top feed - although to be honest it has been on once, but I detached it (broke it off) when adding the pipe run.
     

     
    After taking the picture I noticed it was not on the rails correctly, why is it you only see this when you upload the picture! I hope to add th topped, again, on Monday and do the pipe runs from it. I need to think of the best way to do the pipes, my issue was using stiff brass wire that as I bent it around the boiler put to much pressure on the topped and pinging it off. Maybe this time I will use fuse wire. the handrails turned out to be easier than I had thought, thanks to a tip I picked up from Tony Wright about how to mark out the positions.
     
    My next project was my NuCast Steam Railmotor, the main job to doing being the steps. After my last post it was suggested I look at the Dart Casting Autocoach detailing kit to get a set of the folding steps. So pending a decision on that I put off the NuCast for now in favour of a different Railmotor.
     
    Many years ago I picked up a Mallard 57ft Railmotor for £10 at an exhibition. It was part built but missing its bogies and all the white metal fittings. My thought was I could make use of some of the bits on the NuCast version, in particular the bits of valve gear it had. However that never happened and it has sat in a cupboard for nearly 10 years. Over time I have collected all, or most of the bits to complete this, but not actually started. I decided it would not take much to get the body ready for paint, with the thought I could paint it in GWR Lake and use it for lining practice, even if I would need to strip it later so that I could complete it. When I got it out of it's box it looked like this...
     

     
    First order was to clean of some of the tarnish and then make a start cleaning it up, removing excess solder, before adding body detail, after making sure I have added the captive nuts that would allow me to fix the under frame on after it was painted, and once I had made it! These things have a lot of handrails, so a lot of .45mm brass wire has been cut, bent and soldered on. A few of them still need a little bit of tweaking, but now they are all in place. As are the lamp irons, steps on the front and those that hang off the buffer beam. Also some buffers are now in place. Once thing I did discover was that the original builder had soldered the body together but glued the overlays for the droplights - the glue was not very good and did not stand being drilled into, these are fiddly to put back when the body is soldered together and the internal partitions are in place. Then I was struck with the idea of tinning the body side and using a rubber block to manoeuvre the droplight in place whilst looking from the outside. I could then apply the RSU to the outside of the body, having attached a clip on the body itself and generate enough heat to have the droplight tack solder themselves to the body. Then I simply applied the RSU on the droplight itself to get a permanent bond. This solved the problem of lining the droplight up and getting them soldered in such a cramped spot. By the end of the night it looked more like this
     

     
    As a footnote, whilst researching handrail positions for this railmotor I looked at lots of pictures and noticed the different door arrangement, some with single doors and some with double doors. So I need to look at a DK1 kit from Dart Castings to see if it is for the same door arrangement as my NuCast has, otherwise I might be back to square one on this one.
     

     
    I still may look at taking this, since my plan is to paint it in chocolate and cream, much of that work can be done without the steps in place, so maybe it will get some paint after all.
     
    In the few days left I want to at last apply primer to a few models, so I can practice top coating them, and hopefully have at least one I can use to do some lining. If that is to happen I really only have one more day to attach any more bits to these models. I also have a couple of ready to run body shells to play around with and a scratch build loco I picked up secondhand for £10 - that spent a few hours in paint stripper, so will hopefully make a good thing to experiment with. Maybe one day I fix it up and have it running again.
     
    What all this does prove, to me a least, having a deadline really does focus the mind to get things done. But even then I put things aside as "too difficult", like the second go at the top feed and those pipes!
  20. GWMark

    Duke at the Abbey

    By GWMark,

    This weekend marked the 30th anniversary of the Missenden Abbey Railway Modellers weekends, I have only been going for a fraction of that time, and my son Daniel even less, but off we trotted on Friday afternoon for the now familiar routine of a weekend of uninterrupted modelling at Missenden.
     
    This time my Mallard Duke made a second appearance, all started well until I realised that the motor and gearbox choice I had made was not going to fit within the confines of the firebox and boiler. So I wasn't able to proceed with fixing the firebox, boiler and smokebox to the footplate and cab that I had prepared at the event in October. Despite the intervening time, I actually managed to do the sum total of no work to my Duke between these two weekends - I had been either finishing my 72xx or distracted by other things. This is the advantages of the Missenden weekend, as well as having plenty of help and advice on hand, you just do not have the same distractions as working at home on a project.
     
    I satisfied myself with building a number of components that can be added to the model once the motor and gearbox have been replaced with a new one, probably High Level, the will push the motor forwards and clear the cab interior.
     

     
    I was particularly pleased to have formed the firebox and the complex curve on the smokebox. The boiler overlay on the boiler tube was soldered into place courtesy of Bob Alderman's blow torch, another tool I need to get myself.
     
    A number of overlays have been added to the footplate valances and the front bogies was made up of 21 pieces, with some very small overlays that took ages to get lines up, and in the end are covered by the spring hangers!
     
    Daniel and a good weekend working on the running of his GEM Prince of Wales and building the complete tender and tender chassis over the course of the weekend. I think he particularly enjoyed hacking out vast amounts of white metal in order to get the tender chassis to fit onto the body. A technique he picked up from our tutor for the weekend, Tim Shackleton. It is amazing that both the body and the chassis are from the same manufacturer, yet if you try to attach the body to the chassis the ride height is about 1cm too high.
     
    It may not seem like much to show for Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday morning, but it was actually a fair few modelling hours, and above all lots of time in the company of fellow modellers swapping tips, views and general comments. Over the 3 years I have been going to these events I have picked up a fair number of tips, met some great people and had an enjoyable time, hopefully they will continue for many years to come.
     
    Now the question is, will any work get done to the Duke before the next Missenden weekend in October?
  21. GWMark
    If you read my previous entry you will have seen that I managed to mess up somewhat when I did the assembly of the smokebox and boiler on my Duke. Both the boiler and smokebox had been assembled the wrong way around, this resulted in the chimney being too far forward and the dome being on the wrong ring on the boiler.
     
    I had thought of two option, reverse both the boiler and the smokebox or reverse the smokebox wrapper and move the dome without removing the boiler. I have had to go for the second option as there is a cutout in the boiler bottom to allow the motor to slide in. If I reversed the boiler I would have this cutout behind the smokebox and it would be very visible.
     
    In looking back at the instructions the smokebox is formed onto white metal formers, so I had tinned the wrapper and soldered it on with low melt solder. The edge of the wrapper, where it met the footplate was soldered with 145 solder. So tonight I unpicked along the footplate, bending the wrapper back slightly with a knife blade. The I filled the smokebox with boiling water and with a little bit or gentle persuasion removed the wrapper and the white metal smokebox front. Dipping part of the boiler in the boiling water I also managed to get the dome off without removing the springs - I really did not fancy having to redo those, they were hard enough the first time.
     

     
    The picture above shows what I am left with. I will need to clean off the solder that was used to attach the dome, fill the hole that the peg on the base of the dome went into and add the missing bit of boiler band. Then I should be able to remove some of the rear boiler band, drill a new hole and attach the dome in the new position.
     
    As for the wrapper, it will need a little bit of work to remove some surface solder and to get it back into shape, but I hope I can resolver it the correct way around. Then refit the smokebox front and the two little fillets I removed from the front and hopefully I can start to move forward again. One thought had been to use the RSU as a way to reattach the former from the output, but I have never tried an RSU when it comes to attaching brass to white metal. Has anybody else tried this? Filing the I can just about get a soldering iron into the smokebox from below, at least I could do some from the inside.
     
    I've yet to come up with a method to fill the hole, any suggestions are welcome. I did think of using a plug of white metal that I could solder in and then file to shape. Not sure how well that would work.
     
    I have to admit I was sorely tempted to put this kit back in its box and move onto something else, but I decided that would be a bit defeatist and against my new policy of finishing this - but it was very tempting!
  22. GWMark

    Duke relocation

    By GWMark,

    Just to close this sequence of entries for the bank holiday weekend and my attempts at fixing the mistake of a few years ago I thought I would show where I was in the process of getting the dome and chimney in the right places. Basically I had fitted the smokebox and boiler the wrong way around and this resulted in the chimney and dome being further forward than they should have been.
     
    Today I had less time than I had hoped, domestic duties meant the toolbox was employed on garden gates rather than etched brass models for most of the afternoon. Also I persuaded my son to get out his E2 kit that he started several years ago and to have a go at finishing it. So of course I ended up spending time with him putting pickups on the Wills etched chassis and spraying the body with primer for him. However I did get some time on my Duke, I filed off the front, incomplete, boiler band where the dome had been incorrectly fitted. I also filed a gap in the rear boiler band to make space for the dome in its new location. Then I soldered a new boiler band on to represent the front band, now a complete circle rather than having a gap at the top.
     
    Finally I made the hole for the plug of the dome to fit in before trial fitting the dome.
     

     
    I seems I need to file back the boiler band under the dome slightly more as it is sitting on the band rather than butting up to it. Also I need to tidy up around the chimney and polish out some of the scratches the filing has left in the boiler. The than that there are two small components to go back on the footplate in front of the smokebox door casting. Once that is done and the dome soldered in I am back on I will be back to where I was on Friday!
     
    I would much rather have spent my time getting closer to finishing this, but I am pleased that the issue was pointed out and also that I managed to resolve it. Certainly in the past I might well have had the reaction of putting it back in the box and it never seeing the light of day again - much as I did with the first two kits I tried to build. Rather than do that I vowed to do something about it and do it quickly so as not to get despondent with it. And I have to saw it has worked, so even if I can't say I made big steps forward this weekend, it kind of feels that way.
     
    It even makes me think I might pull out those first two kits I tried, a Nucast steam rail motor and a SE Finecast Saint. The former has major issues with the power bogie and the later has a strange shape to the footplate and a white metal chassis that doesn't run properly. Why I thought trying to build a steam rail motor was a good subject for a first kit I can now now believe. Maybe these will appear in a blogpost some time in the near future.
  23. GWMark
    I wanted a little project to do during that time between Christmas and the New Year, it had to be a small project as time would be an issue - it isn't fair to lock yourself away from the family for too long at this time of the year after all! But I wanted something I could look back on in these depressing first days back at work and think - 'I actually did achieve something during the holidays'.
     
    I decided my long mothballed GT3 project would fit the bill, no major jobs, just lots of finishing touches to do, or so I thought.
     
     
    The tender had been painted already, and glazed, it just needed the round grill painting and the pickups adding - this ought to be a nice little job to get me started. So day one of the project saw the pickups added to the outer axles of the tender and the drawbar coupling arrange sorted to allow current to be feed to the loco using the original Hornby drawbar and a custom built arrangement on the tender. Also the buffers were added to the tender, round sprung buffers have been used, GT3 had round buffers on the tender and oval on the loco.
     

     
    The next day, and several days after that, were spent on the loco itself. The paint surface was still not right, so a little more time with fine wet and dry and a fibre glass brush was followed by a good wash and dry. In a break form the winter rain time was found to spray the loco body with the Halfords Rover Russet colour (probably not the right choice in hindsight). Once dry, the next day, Humbrol Metal Cote Silver was used to paint the window frames and the handrails. The interior of the cab was painted with a white acrylic, just to brighten it up before adding detail. the top grills got a coat of Chaos `black as did the steps on the front buffer beam.
     
    The brake gear was laminated, from Ian MacDonalds etch, and the front bogie guards bent up and soldered. I also added a section across the from of the bogie frames to fill in the gap between the resin fake frames. These brass and plasticard parts where then primed and painted with a Matt black Halfords spray can. The headcode discs similarly primed but painted with the same white acrylic used for the cab interior. Them came the job of assembling these parts, added the front buffer beam assembly, the oval sprung buffers at the front, inserting the front grill and starting to build up the loco.
     

     
    It is not finished yet, I still need to add the side grills, however I am not happy with the paint job of these, and it is easier to paint them before attaching to the loco. Also cab detailing and glazing is needed, transfers, lining and some more painting. Also, looking at these photos it is clear that a lot of the paint on the handrails has come off with handling and there is a bit of a droop in the front buffer beam area that needs to be sorted. I also have some fibre optics to add to illuminate the headcode disks.
     
    My quick little project for Christmas, with the satisfaction of "finishing" something before going back to work has not really succeeded, but I have a least made some noticeable progress. Maybe it will not take me another 18 months before I get GT3 out again to work on. In fact I will probably take it up to our clubroom tomorrow to give it an outing on the test track - the clearance between the tender and cab is a little tight, so I want to see if it will go around curves and negotiate pointwork, I may need to readdress the loco/tender coupling arrangement.
  24. GWMark
    I've recently made myself a promise not to start any new projects until I finish some of the part built, stalled projects. We will see how long that one lasts, but by way of a start on this new resolution I got my Mallard Models GWR Duke out of its box and have done a little work on it over the last week.
     

     
    Although it may not look like it has progressed much, there has been a fair bit of fettling going on. I removed the pickups I had put on before, they were a little fragile and prone to get caught and short on the body. It now has much neater pickups made by winding some springy wire around a small diameter rod to create a spring. It means the pickups are very much shorter and less prone to getting in the way or moving around and creating shorts. The rear wheels have the pickups mounted on the underside of the frames, the front drivers on the top surface of the frames. They still need a little adjustment, and I managed to bend one so have a short again at the moment, but I think they will work out better than before.
     

     
    I have also put some work into the balance, with lead added where possible and making the tender bear down on the loco to help move the balance aft. There is still some room in the firebox for some more lead, but I want to get some sheet lead to cut to profile rather than using the lead shot. I should be able to add about 5mm thickness of lead against the cab bulkhead - inside the firebox. Also by the time there is a white metal crew on the footplate I should have more weight to bring the balance back.
     
    The dome and safety valve went on, the former being a large white metal lump that had an adverse effect on the previously mentioned balance. The cab roof was rolled and soldered on tonight, along with the ribs underneath and progress has been made on the tender with the addition of the axle boxes and some white metal castings since the loco last graced these pages. I have also put the steps in place, although I managed to melt part of one of the etched steps (middle tread overlays) with the RSU when I removed the probe before taking my foot of the peddle - actually I sneezed so it was not entirely my fault. There is still need for a considerable amount of cleaning up to remove some of the excess solder. Also the fall plate has been put in place and the ride height of the tender and loco is now much better.
     
    I also found I am missing the tender tank vents, hopefully I'll be able to pick some up at Railex this weekend.
     
    I've started to make up the cranks ready for the fitting of the rods, but I want to get the thing balanced better before I put the rods in place. Drive is to the rear axle via one of Chris Gibbon's very neat gearboxes. this means I can keep all the cab detail whilst keeping the gearbox between the frames and nothings shows below the frames. The motor is a Mashima 1020 mounted vertically in the firebox - not sure if this will ever be up to pulling much of a load - we shall see.
     

     
    Still lots of little jobs to do, making up the last of the cranks, tank vents, smokebox dart, lance cock, more cab detailing, handrails, buffers, lamp irons, sand boxes, the list seems to go on forever and all that is before any thought of painting, transfers etc. Although my new resolution may not include painting as I might well go for a batch painting session or save up the models to take to Missenden and do the painting there under the expert's eyes!
     
    [Edit - addition of the two later photos to illustrate what I was trying to describe]
  25. GWMark
    It has been a while since I managed to do much (anything) to the little shunting puzzle, my problem has been that the layout had to go up into the loft in order to free the spare room for a visitor and has not made it down since. The problem being it is a big hassle to get it out of the loft to spend an hour working on it and then put it away again. Given the current weather conditions, and the amount of juke currently residing in the loft, the prospect of venturing upwards and doing work in the loft is also not very appealing. I was having the discussion yesterday when I said "I can tell you how long it is, I will look at my blog". It was then that I realised I had failed to document the last bit of progress I made, so in an effort to reawaken the enthusiasm I thought I would "back fill" the story.
     
    Soem years ago I started dabbling with RFID for train detection, this result in the production of a MERG RFID reader kit and has found use on a club layout. I wanted to also employ RFID on my little shunting puzzle, mostly because I wanted to use this layout as a testbed for ideas, but also because I thought it would be fun. The big question was how to link it into the control system, I didn't want something that just triggered slide displays like I had done before, I wanted to have it integrated. This layout uses the MERG CBus system for control, all the accessories, the DCC command station and the throttles are connected to the single CBus, so it seemed logical to connect the RFID to this as well. So the first task was to build an interface between the RFID reader and the CBus - those members of MERG that are interested can see how this was doen in the MERG Winter 2012 Journal. This gave me the ability to send a message to every device on the layout whenever a train passed over the reader, know the question was what to do with it.
     
    The layout currently has no dedicated control panel, instead it uses JMRI running on a laptop display a mimic diagram and control the points. The laptop has a connection to the CBus in order to allow this, so therefore the laptop and JMRI is able to receive the messages from the RFID reader. So my next step was to add functionality to JMRI so that it could understand the messages received from the RFID. Fortunately JMRI has the ability to have something called "Reporters", these are devices that report back train information to the software, they are designed for system like Railcom in DCC that can send train identification from block occupancy detectors. So I created a new one of these reporters to understand my new CBus message for an RFID tag read. The reporter allows a message to be placed on the control panel window when a report is received, this message can be tailored to contain any text you require for a given train identity. Since the layout also has block detection, once a train is detected using the Reporting, as the train moves from block to block, the report can follow it around the layout.
     
    The upshot of all this is that I now have an RFID reader on the single line that feeds into the sidings of the layout, as a train passes the reader a string is displayed that identifies the train. When it moves into the adjacent block the message on the screen will move with it, and stay with it as long as it is detected within any monitored block on the layout. When a second train enters it is also read and can be tracked in the same way. As long as both trains are not is the same block they will be tracked independently of each other. So I now have a mimic diagram that shows me not just what block are occupied but also the identity of the train in that block - just like the real railway does these days.
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