Bloodnok

Am I straying too far off course with Queenborough? A nice looking station with an interesting history...

I think it's the almost two decades of messing with train simulators that has ruined "traditional automation" for me. Once you get back to software, I don't see why all the same features wouldn't be possible.

The problem I have with many layout automation systems is they are all or nothing -- you can automate part or all of a layout, but there is a hard boundary between the automated part and the manually driven part. You can't just weave a manually driven train in between the automated ones. My plan is to use the block detection to drive a signalling system implemented on the computer, and have that signalling system include ABC for the track. This means that manually driven trains will automatically stop at red signals, but remain under manual control. In that way I can run multiple trains without having to speed match them all manually and they will self-regulate using the signalling system. All I need to do is start them off in the first place. Assuming I can write some ARS magic into the signalling system, I can then have trains with unique paths, which will produce an effect sufficiently close to full automation when I want to 'watch the trains go by', but still allow me to weave my own train through the other traffic.

The thing that makes PN stand out for me is the coaching stock. You have individually great coaches when seen in close up, and such attention to detail in putting rakes together, too. So I'll vote for any view that shows off coaches -- either close-up or as a long rake.

A short video of the train detectors working: The train detector is a MERG DTC-8, which detects the presence of a vehicle by current draw using the coils as transformers. Any kind of power draw (whether it's a DCC chip, a coach lighting circuit, or even just a resistor or capacitor across an axle) will trigger it. The feedback bus is MERG CBus. I've got the DTC-8 connected to the expansion socket of a CANMIO-SVO (which is also driving my points). The software is JMRI, which I'm fairly new to -- I haven't got it to do anything other than display occupancy so far, but the data is reading reliably.

Aaaaand ... it now works right through to JMRI. I have a configured panel, I can set junctions and routes, and the first train detector is working -- the block goes red in JMRI when a train is on the track. Well, modulo one dodgy joint I apparently completely forgot to solder. But I've fixed that now. ... Concept proven. Serial production can now commence.

It's alive! Okay, my first train didn't go far, but I've only got one block wired up so far. I want to confirm I can actually read the train detector before doing much more...

I wanted to upload some video of things like point motors moving, and that required creating a YouTube channel. Which required a name. Which kinda forced me to actually make a decision. I put a first video there which is mostly a slideshow of what's been posted in this thread with a few extra / different shots here and there: ... Actual video content (of things which move!) coming soon.

Lessons learned today: Check points for electrical conductivity *before* laying them. I have spent quite a while today trying to work out what was wrong with my wiring where the frog of one point was not reliably powered. Solution: One of the three rails that make up the frog was not connected to the other two. So if I tried testing connectivity on that rail, it would always fail. Hence failing about 1/3rd of the time, and not with any correlation to which way the junction was set.

Wow, did I ever forget to keep this updated Oops. Outside of the overtime I'm doing for work (which is why I've not been on here so much), I finished laying the storage yard track and I'm now wiring up the bottom level of the layout. I have the electronics mounted in four of the concentration points. There will be more of these later when the upper levels are more complete. The servo controllers are all built, as is the DCC command station and booster. The canbus data cabling is in, but I'm now waiting for some reels of heavier gauge wire to arrive before I complete the power distribution and DCC block wiring.

... And this had me scurrying back through the thread to find if "design" or "build" (or either ... or both) was specified for the Doncaster poll. We've had various options specified previously. This time, it just seems to have been "Doncaster", with no obvious definition. So I await a ruling. If the 56 is ruled out, then I suppose that would leave me voting for the 58. A loco which was a very unusual design for the UK, and one not to be repeated. It was half-aimed at the export market, a market on which it attracted precisely zero orders. At home it was notoriously slippery (not a good thing in a freight loco), and was ultimately outlived by the earlier and more numerous Class 56s. Although to be fair, the 56 inspired the creation and purchase of the class 59 by it's own sheer unreliability at one point, so it's not like they didn't have their own faults...

Class 85 for passenger, and Class 56 for freight.

Modern tanks don't fit in the loading gauge anyway. They are too wide. ... Unless you are modelling the channel tunnel.

... Oh, but there are so many. The SAR Class 24, Class 25, and 4E, and the NZR J class get "honourable mentions". But the real prize needs to go to ... errr .. either the SAR GMAM, or the Victorian R class. No, I can't decide between them, they are both epic in their own way. And if we don't get tomorrow's poll, for their worst flop, I'll answer it early. Class 41.

Crewe? No contest. Class 87s. The original batch, not the later build 87/2s which got released with '90' scrawled on the side of them. (I mean, this is a locomotive poll, which kinda rules out HST power cars. With these included, there would have been something to think about...)

I definitely got distracted by derbysulzers.com and completely failed to pick anything in time...

Yesterday I built two more servo controllers. They have been power-tested and are awaiting installation and configuration: This DCC booster kit is at the 'initial low-current testing' phase where I make sure the relevant sockets are receiving the right power voltages before I finish construction: I built it in the 5A configuration. I got stuck with this relay driver, as one of the capacitors is missing from the bag of parts: I need to source a replacement C7. Once complete, I'll be using this to drive relay controlled ABC braking sections. Oh, and I have to call this out, too. Take a bow, Rails of Sheffield. You have outdone even Amazon in the wasteful packaging challenge. You managed to send me a couple of packets of insulating rail joiners, which would happily fit in an envelope ... in a box large enough for a large OO gauge locomotive.

"I'll be mostly building electronics". <Cue the kazoo music> ... Amount of electronics built: Zero. That should change now, as I've used the last insulating rail joiner. Well, unless I find the one that went 'ping'...

12 more servos have arrived, and I have now built enough point motors to get me as far as the visible surface of the layout. didn't actually order 12 servos though, I ordered 30. I've asked the vendor where the other 18 got to. They have promised to actually ship them this time... I'm expecting a couple more servo controllers soon(tm). The next 'pinch point' in construction is that I'm running out of insulating rail joiners. I have a grand total of 7 left (I'm not counting the one that went 'ping' -- the chances of actually finding that one are minimal). Apparently I've got through all the packets I bought, while ending up with more unopened packets of metal ones than I started out with. There must have been some spare packets lurking somewhere. Shame there wasn't any of the plastic ones lurking spare really. (Or maybe there were, and I've used those too?). While those are on order, I'll be mostly building electronics. I have a DCC booster to build, plus some asymmetric braking sections (and their controller) to build. I've also been told I should have done my block detectors differently, so I'll need to modify those.

After a lot of cleaning up and moving stuff about, the underlay is complete at this end of the layout: And the two-to-three track junction in the gradient (which is one end of the reversing section) has been located and is gluing: (... now covered in weights). I need more servos to arrive before I can mount point motors on these points. I also finished the track circuit detectors, but then discovered the cable I was intending to use to connect them to the layout bus has a blind pin in the socket. I needed a 10 pin cable, and this one only had 9 of it's 10 wires connected, and the tenth doesn't even have the hole in the plug, so it won't even connect the other 9. I've ordered new cables, although the delivery estimate is early July to mid August -- doesn't fill me with confidence.

A fairly productive day yesterday. The 6th and final yard track is installed and complete: All the point motors have been built and installed at the yard exit: The baseboard for the horseshoe into the gradient has been finished and has underlay on it: ... and I started building the first 8 block detectors.

All the sectorisation liveries seemed to work quite well, but I'm going to have to second Clive's recommendation for NSE - this was a particularly bold departure from corporate blue, and sat well on a lot of different trains. I just about remember it's initial introduction, and the transformation of the railways that occurred with it form part of my early Railway memories. If I can call out a second livery, it'd be LoadHaul -- despite at first glance looking like a really odd livery with all the angled lines, it ended up suiting just about everything it was applied to, no matter what the shape.

It certainly makes for an ... interesting backdrop ... when I'm in a virtual meeting.

All six tracks glued at the yard exit, and point motors fitted: And five tracks complete through to the yard to the entrance: Time to get that sixth and final yard track installed...

No more photos yet but track #5 is gluing, more underlay has arrived, and I've now got enough point motor kits for both ends of the yards. Still waiting on another controller for the north end. It has been ordered. I am hoping for some good weather this weekend so I can finish sanding the replacement board piece and complete the baseboard at the far end of the layout.