woodbine

I have some leftover snippets of 12v LED strip. If I snip it up into elements and pop them into buildings, wired in parallel from a bus and powered by an AC/DC 12v 1.25 amp converter walwart, are there any things to watch out for? Such as maximum/minimum number of units? What might blow the LEDs, burn the house down etc. I think I'm OK, but want to be sure. I don't mind simple yes (with reason)/no.

Doesn't time fly? I realised that though I'd shown the signals being constructed I hadn't yet got around to showing how I made them work, so here goes. In the end I found that they work fine even without a locating plate under the baseboard for most of the signals, except for the combined distant + down starter, which needed more accurate guidance for its two operating rods through the thickness of the station platform plus the baseboard. Here’s an operating rod in action beneath the baseboard, using a digit. The need is to be able to do this from the baseboard edge, and my fingers being no longer than average I decided to use a crank, wire-in-tube, and a DPDT toggle switch, which as previously mentioned in another thread is better able than a sliding switch to withstand the spring pressure from The Gubbins. For the cranks I used ‘nylon cranks and bushes SM8’ from MSE/Wizard Models. I made a locating cup from a slice of square tube and some bent over scrap brass, bolted to one arm of the crank. I fixed the WIT wire to Servo Push Rod Linkage Stoppers , available from Ebay or RC Model Aircraft suppliers. The type I used have an allen key supplied for fine adjustment. The crank was mounted on a cheap and cheerful home-made wooden axle-support bracket, sized bespoke to hold the locating cup at the appropriate height. The cranked axle-support bracket allows the necessary access to the adjustable linkage grub screw when in position. The axle-support was pinned and glued to a ply baseplate, which has two slightly too-large holes for dome-headed screws and washers. This allows for fine positional adjustment to make sure the cup accurately aligns with the signal operating rod. The ply baseplate and crank had to be designed slightly differently for each signal, to avoid obstacles such as point operating equipment and wiring. The toggleswitches are placed where convenient at the baseboard edge, avoiding baseboard joins. A flat was filed and a small hole easily drilled by hand through the soft iron lever, the wire passed through and wrapped around the lever a couple of times. The toggle switches can’t simply be fixed directly to the baseboard edge, I had to make mounts for them as per the photo and drawing. A suitable switch-mounting-hole was drilled in a scrap of 15mm x 15mm (I think) aluminium angle, a tube-support of the same material bolted on the end, and the whole lot screwed to a small block of wood. To save bolts and screws I could have epoxied them all together. The switch was then attached, and the assembly screwed into position inside the hole in the baseboard. (I could even have dispensed with the assembly and epoxied the switch directly - but irreversibly - to the baseboard edge). Wire-in-tube was used to join the lever and the crank. (NB glue on nuts to prevent them unwinding in operation). To avoid sharp height transitions I hot-glued the tube to ramps, made from scrapwood hot-glued into position. It is evident where WIT could have been replaced by servo operation in one of several places, either directly under the operating rod, or moving the crank, or moving the WIT from a distance, but remember that the servo limits the upward travel of the actuating rod, and I think may be harmed by a fixed limiting clamp on the rod. Blu-tac was used to hold the tube in position in the aluminium tube-support. In this picture you can also see a sliding switch and WIT to operate a point. A little bit of tinkering with the Allen key and the wire and there it is, and still works two years later.

If anyone has been wondering whether I came to any conclusions and actually made some signals, well yes I did. I opted for manual operation via wire in tube and it all works surprisingly well, though it ties the operator to a fixed location for each signal (i.e. the particular hole in the front of the baseboard). Had I been younger and with more years to go I think I would have gone for one of the servo methods. I'm glad I made them removable as I can work on the layout without fear of knocking them over. Here's my thread about it.

A further question regarding the text since I have zero knowledge of how these things work. When I try and hatch around the text (which is in red) it merely hatches under it. In order to produce a tool for the front of the sheet the red Front Half Etch layer has to be turned off thereby changing the blue areas to white, but turning off the Text layer makes it disappear altogether. So is the answer simply to simply change the colour of the text to white and leave it switched on? It sounds suspiciously obvious.

I'm back on this after a couple of weeks absence DIY'ing and family stuff. I've got all the parts individually drawn out in their final dimensions and I'm ready to assemble them onto the sheet, but I'd like to get the layers clear in my head. I don't mind if I use more layers than strictly necessary if understanding them helps me in future projects. PPD offer the following :- "Full Thickness Metal - black Halfetch Back - blue Halfetch Front - red Outline Parts - magenta Outline Sheet - magenta Tags - black Text - red Include a mm scale" Presumably that reflects the drawing order. I have it in mind to have Layer 0 as the parts outlines layer (even though DoubleCad won't allow me to call it anything other than "0") A new layer for the frame and tags outlines. Both these layers drawn in magenta according to PPD. Then open a new layer called Full Thickness Metal and solid-hatch in black appropriately. Likewise new layers for Rear solid-hatched in blue, and Front solid-hatched in Red. All this hatching to be done for the whole sheet including frame and tags. (Why do PPD suggest a separate layer for tags? Is this so that they can be toggled between full thickness or half etched according to preference and brass thickness?) Does the centimeter/millimeter rule just get inserted on its own layer, off to one side? And lastly for now, having solved the issue of getting the red text to show up against the black full thickness hatch, how does that get converted to white for the front etching tool?

Thanks J, solved at last. I'd suspected that Draw Order was involved, but the 550 page PDF only has two pretty vague references to 'draw order' and for two days I couldn't locate how to do it. I was on the point of defenestration, but decided to have another look at the 'layers' dialogue box. One of the columns is called simply 'or' and each layer is by default labeled '0'. I changed the '0' to '1' in my text layer and Hey Presto! --- 'or' stands for 'order'. Doh! So searching for 'Order' fetches 66 references as against the meagre 2 for 'Draw Order'. I am following the PPD guides eventually, but first I needed to get the basic workings of Doublecad XT in hand. This was the one holding me at level 1 so I can get on with turning the drawing into a useable file when I understand a little more of the PPD requirements. I think I may change the title of the thread to a more general help request.

First attempt in Doublecad XT at drawing for an etch, and I'm stuck (for several days now) on how to get my text in solid red to show up when I have a solid black hatch/fill. It doesn't matter which layer I put it on nor at what stage I add the fill, the red text disappears from view. Am I using the "wrong" sort of text or what?

No progress in the rolling stock dept, but some fitful progress in the signals dept. This loco is awaiting some upskilling in the paint shop. My unfinished layout was looking accusingly at me so I had to give it some attention.

I have restored the images lost in the '22 Great Server Disaster.

I have revisited this thread and restored all the images that were lost in the April '22 Great Server Crash!

I can't find any reference on here to this problem I'm having. For some time now many/most JPGs in both mine and other peoples' posts from a year or two ago no longer work, and yet some do, on a seemingly random basis. It doesn't seem to be browser dependent. What is the cause of this and what can be done? Do other people have the same problem?

Ground Signals The starting point for these is the MSE GS0010 L&YR Ground Signals kit, single arm pattern, which contains parts for two signals. It represents the earlier, Railway Signal Company, version, which they also supplied to the London Tilbury & Southend Railway. This is OK for me and correct for my model, but the later Horwich L&Y arm should have raised edges and a large counterweight. The cast whitemetal post represents a solid wooden post, compared to the steel H-section of the real thing, but it's so small that it doesn't notice. The balance weight arm is so fine that it is unusable as a working arm, being too fine to take a hole for the operating wire. I tried soldering it to a piece of scrap as a backing reinforcement but gave up and made one from scratch. I drilled the holes first and then cut out and filed to shape. The movement required to operate the signal arm is only a couple of millimetres, so rather than have a single operating rod emerging from the foundation, going through the balance arm in passing, I used the lever principle and brought the rod up from the foundation way back at the balance weight end of the arm. The resulting 2:1 ratio of travel gave finer control over the signal arm. Now there are three joints, which is noticeably slack, it's all so small that it doesn't matter. The signal arm again is very fine. I opened out the holes in the arm for the axle and the operating rod, then opened out the two spectacle holes with a broach as much as I dared. The post is too narrow to take brass tube bearings, so bearing holes were simply drilled through the whitemetal. Nickel silver .45mm lace pins and spacers were soldered to the arms. The cylindrical whitemetal lamp is completely of the wrong sort. All the photos show that it should be square. Later on, when the signal was complete and working, I came to fit the lamp and it didn't fit. The gap between the signal arm and the backblinder (which I had to make myself) should have been increased by adding bigger spacers between the arms and the post to allow for the lamp case. I filed the lamp case square until it fit, so it ended up the right shape by accident! The Gubbins below was made to my normal-by-now pattern, on a slightly smaller foundation plate. After it was all assembled and painted the operating rods were fitted, not without difficulty due to the small size of the whole thing. Well, it works.

The Result I painted it as before, then set about fitting the operating rods. This was quite a lot fiddlier than my previous efforts, consisting of four separate rods. some swearing and brute force was required working in among the railings and other obstacles; I'm amazed and relieved that nothing was broken. Firstly a short rod from the signal arm to the balance arm, then another from the balance arm to the doll crank, the next from the doll crank to the main post crank, and the last one from the main post crank to the 1mm tube rising from the Gubbins. These were all trial and error, and I tried each in turn with sacrificial brass rod until I was satisfied before moving on to the next. A fair amount of motion is lost at each joint but it doesn't worry me. The Gubbins Mk3 is self-explanatory, and the simplest so far. There will be a locating plate and square peg when it is fitted to the layout, but it's not shown here. It all works quite well I think. Again, no glazing or lamps fitted yet as I have not found a way of making the spectacle glazing and I'm loathe to spend upwards of £6 for the two square inches I need for the whole layout! I will experiment with clear glaze and permanent markers. Any suggestions? The next project is the two ground signals. See you there.

3. Bracket Signal. Something more complicated this time. I made some mistakes adaptations due to the difficulty of reconciling the generic instructions for the MSE S0026 signal bracket with the particular signal I had in mind, but I can live with them. The main post is an MSE S0017 20ft tapered whitemetal post, the doll is cut from an MSE S0028 37'6" Timber Signal Post. I should have been more careful making sure that the horizontal platform supporting beams were evenly matched. Each beam is made of two thicknesses of etch folded together, and I couldn't see how the doll support lozenges worked so I cut them off. And had to glue them back on later! I then had to ignore the advice to make sure that the beam tops were level, as the consequent mismatch to the bottom of the beams would have been visible. Later on that led to a bit of fudge when positioning the platform, but nothing dramatic. Here are the posts and beams, with 1mm brass bearings for the various moving bits, and the finials epoxied in position. The real thing would have had pulley wheels, but I chickened out of that and filed a couple of tiny cranks out of some much larger Mercontrol cranks, and soldered in a 1mm bearing. I arranged this before the platform as I needed to know where the operating rod was going through the platform. The balance weight arm needed bulking up and a 1mm bearing inserted. I didn't make a cradle for the arm, I forgot and only just noticed when writing this! No pictures, you wouldn't have liked the mess anyway. The cantilever bracket is straightforward and needs no elaboration, except to say it's fiddly getting it just right. The platform in the MSE part needed cutting down to match my prototype. I used the same technique for the railing as before, with the lace pins and the 6mm balsa sheet. This had to be fitted now, before the cranks and the balance weight arm were put in position. As I was making this I realised that the railing, if continued all round the doll as per the drawing, would foul the balance weight. The only option was to not have it do the full circuit. I'm sure you wouldn't have known had I not given the game away! Here it is before painting The ladder was made as before using my asbestos fingers and yogic breathing technique. Here it is with a coat of Halfords etch primer. After I've painted it and fitted it out, I'll make another post in a day or two to show the operating and underground parts.

I should have included this snippet of the Gubbins in action in the last post. The Signal The extra height needed meant that this time I used an MSE S0028 37'6" Timber Signal Post, with the unwanted height cut off from the top. There are two in the pack so I will use part of the unused one as the doll on my bracket signal, still to come. Again I cleaned off with a file. I keep a poor file just for whitemetal. I find it jams up and ruins them pretty quickly, and I don't know of a way of cleaning them. This signal wouldn't benefit from backblinders as the rear of the starter is not visible from the station signal box, and the distant is blocked from the next box being up against a bridge as it is, but I fitted them anyway . Would this have been an argument for doubling up the signals on a very tall post? Too late now. The balance weight arm is the same as in the Down Home signal except there are two of them. One is slotted from the next box, but is cosmetic only so has been soldered on to one of the other arms. I hope it was the right one (the Distant)! The only other difference from the Down Home built previously, is that this time there are platforms. These I made from scrap. The hand rail stanchions are 0.5mm n/s lace pins and the hand rail itself is n/s wire. I used 0.3mm, but I think it would have been better to use 0.5mm. The pins are c17mm long. I have a scrap of balsa which is 6mm thick, so having drilled the platforms to take the stanchions, it was easy to pin them to the balsa leaving a level 10mm of each pin sticking up above the platform, taking care to get them vertical. Having soldered them into the platform it is all left in place on the balsa while the handrail is bent around and soldered under the pinheads. Keeping it all pinned to the balsa stops it all from accidentally falling apart when the heat travels down the pin and remelts the solder at the platform. The heads were filed a little to remove some of the bulk, and the unwanted pins snipped from the underside of the platform. This is then soldered to the post with an angle made of scrap (you can't see this). The top platform is a little too far up so I had to shorten the backblinder to accommodate it. Painted and all joined up and sprung as before, here is arear view. The camera has done something to the black, which is not like that really. And here it is in action.