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BMS

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Posts posted by BMS

  1. One thing which puzzles me is model rail height. 

    I understand, for example, that model code 100  represents a real rail height of 100mm (4mm)

    British Steel provides rail to the railways and their MINIMUM EN13674-1 rail height is 145mm and ranges up to 172mm. Therefore TALLER than code 100.

    This is (obviously) for current railways - historically obviously  smaller sections were used.

    So is 85mm (code 85) actually used in new installations on the real railway?

     

    Comments?

     

  2. 14 minutes ago, Hroth said:

     

    All I need say at this point is "Sinclair RAMPack wobble"...

     

    The amount of blutack that got stuck above the expansion port of the ZX81 must have been phenomenal!

     

    And  milk cartons from the fridge to cool it down.

     

    My wife at the age of 19 or so had some of her work in the Science Museum displays as a result of working at NPL where she worked on early computers.

     

    Not to mention professional computers where you could only edit text a line at a time and moving forward through the file "George 4"?.

     

  3. After several weeks of battling with this point I have solved it - at least for myself.

    The problem in any case is inhibiting a short between the switch rails controlled by both motors when the first point is routed to the right, and the second motor is trying to go to the left (as viewed from above)

     

    I am using  a pair of DCC Concepts DCC Cobalt motors. So i have insufficient power switches to follow the Analogue, non-dcc fitted wiring. as I have separate  DCC Buses for point and train.

     

    Solution is a micro-switch at the first tie-bar.

    This is wired so that when the first motor is going to the right then NO power is on the second point rails.

    When the first motor is set to the left, effectively passing traffic to either of the second point routes. then the second motor common power terminal is selected allowing it to apply power to either route as appropriate.

    So the microswitch common contact is wired to the third frog (the left-hand one)

     and the common from the second motor is connected to the micro switch contact that is active only when the first point is switched to the left.

    Regarding the improvement to the wiring - I would strongly suggest proceeding with extreme caution on removing all the existing internal wiring -there are a large number of connections. However it may be possible to common up at the start of the point; but your red wires will NOT fully power the point and create shorts. 

    Hope this helps - the peco silver small contacts are very vulnerable close to the tiebars, as your photo shows.

  4. On 04/07/2020 at 13:29, Edge said:

     

    My comments about the motion were simply that no RTR model with the authentic vertical cylinder motion from that era has ever been produced and making it functional , robust enough not to snap at the slightest provocation and aesthetically accurate would be essentially impossible, not that the motion should prototypically transmit motive power to the wheels

    Not entirely true- I have a HO model of Locomotion from "GB Loco series" - static but a half-sized copy of an O gauge ?Bachmann" version which i understand ran. The verical motion (fixed on HO) looks good

  5. Just to make the point which may not be relevant - while track spacing on curves may need to be say 55mm that does not apply to straights. On my layout the straights are at 50 and the curves are at 60; achieved by lengthening the outer straights by 5cm or more compared to inner adjoining curves; This also gets away from the toy train potential point that all tracks are equidistant all the time; look at the prototype. The minus is that the inner straights tend to be shorter than otherwise.

  6. I m making a rather simpler model than most of the correspondents but I am particularly interested in ballast colour in the SW valleys, and rather less SW mainline, esp. pre-grouping. My memory from the 50s would be black (coal dust I imagine) everywhere except where recently replaced. And composed mainly of ash. 

    Comments?

  7. One technique i use to get max number of tracks on the straight is to make outer tracks longer before starting a curve;

    also on my layout I further use the difference in straight lengths by

    a full quarter circle of 4th radius,

    adjoining a quarter circle of 1 4th piece of track followed by 1 3rd radius piece of track 

    adjoined a quarter circle of 1 3rd and and 1 2nd

    adjoined a quarter circle of 1 2nd and and 1 1st . 

    So on the straight trains are protoypically close to each other on adjacent tracks and as they enter a curve the spacing increases. I've got three tracks going under a Hornby footbridge (but tight on the platform edge!!)

    All helped by the fact that using Hornby track each track piece covers the same angle. 

    When did you see ALL track at the same spacing on the prototype over a significant distance?

     

  8. Statins

    I was put on Atorvastatin 40mg and aspirin 150mg (both daily) after a quadruple bypass op. So I've been on it since 1997 and have never been fitter. Bypass op caused by bad chloresterol; reading was around 11 when 5 was the max target figure and main heart arteries were blocking. 7 days after the op the district nurse couldn't understand how I managed to get to the door to let her in the house. 76 birthday was last month and I'm still active- indeed my understanding is being sensibly active is good for a weakish heart.

    Hope this helps others.....

     

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  9. Just to correct my previous entry and agree with others: TVR 30T  Timber Truck, later GWR Macaw G. Length over headstocks 35 ft, width 7ft 4", The bolsters are removeable and don't revolve. Bogies axle spacing 5ft 6", Distance beween middle of bogies 24ft. distance between buffer centres 5ft  8 1/2in. This from the outline diagram I prev mentioned. Presumable removeanle bolsters suggest the are relocatable; as drawn the spacing beween the outer pairs is less than the next inner and the middle pair are between the others. Diagram has no overall length over buffers.

     

  10. On the uk modelshops directory listing there is a list of "local" railway stations; all are fine except the last "West Kirby" which is "9" or so miles away it says. This is, I think,as the crow flies and ignores the river Dee which would need to be crossed. Chester is closer for people without boats! 

    I have put a note to uk....

     

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  11. Not all platforms on a line were necessarily the same length;

    Halts could be shorter for example because the train/autotrain predicted to operate them was say 1 or 2 coaches as opposed to the more significant stations which could be expected to handle handling 5 or more coaches. Also some platforms could be for more than one larger train.

    Contrast Alberta Road Halt/ Llandough Halt, Abercwmboi Halt, Penarth Town, Cardiff General (Central?), Queen St  and at the long extreme Pontypridd from my memories.

    Regards

  12. GWR, or rather BR(WR)  typically modest have apparently hold the steam speed record and over a long distance and with a 45xx in the 1950s!

    Source ;Back Track Back Page of Oct 2019

    122 and half miles in around 35 mins!

    How they did they make the coal last out,!

    3717 efforts pale!

     

    (PS I think it should read 12.5 miles)

    • Funny 1
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