Trainshed

Hi Bogie, Near perfection also takes a very very long time to achieve and also requires great skill, neither of which I have :-) So onto 2022. Not very much happening, except of course, me being made redundant at the end of February after 39 1/2 years of service. Bit of a shock, but it has happened to a lot of people, so just have to get on with it. And to the railway. I decided to reduce the energy consumption of my railway shed, so installed two 120W solar panels on the roof. This is allied with a 500W inverter to provide 240V and a 70AH battery for storage. The lighting in the shed consisted of ....wait for it... 2 x 5 foot twin and 2 x 6 foot fluorescent fitting, using approximately 600W of power! That was way too much, so have replaced all four fittings with 2 x 5 foot LED fittings (approx 120W). A lot better and now able to be run from the battery/inverter. To the pictures. Someone I know started making wire trees, so I thought I would give it a go. I have absolutely no imagination and so downloaded pictures of trees and tried to copy the branch formations. These are the basic green wire. Then covered with filler mixed with brown paint and PVA. For my second batch, I used liquid latex to coat the wire and this was more successful, as if you need to adjust the branches, the filler would crack, whereas the latex has flexibility. The first go at adding leaves This is the Seafoam laid out ready to be attached to the wire form And some trees that are waiting for their leaves.. To combat moisture in the shed, the dehumidifier below, was purchased. It only uses 12W. Please be aware that it is tiny. only about 12 inches high. I am also having a go at growing my own seafoam The seeds germinated okay. and were growing quite nicely But I gave them too much water and they became all floppy, so had the bin the lot. I am on batch number 2 and will water less frequently, especially as they are native to the Gobi Desert. So that is me up to date. Since becoming unemployed, Wifey has made a huge list of things that have to be done, so will not have much time for the layout over the next few months. I will try to post updates, but they may be few and far between for a while. All the best and keep on modelling.

2021 cont. And then some resin added These are the extra 4 tracks I added, showing the RFID detectors over the track that identify the loco in that track and then displays it on the control panel. The main fiddle yard, also showing the RFID detectors. One of the Evemodel wagons, recommended by Sam's Trains. Bought 12 wagons and worked out at £10 per wagon. Had to add all the handrails myself and the stickers, but very good value for money. Just need a bit of weathering. The start of the pop concert area. Linear point servo version2 (really version 12, as need lots of tweaking) Got these off Ebay Some pics of the river Some detail of the diesel area A few overview pics To get my DCC remote control to work, I had to have a VB.NET program running, so that I could access the COMM port on the PC. This allowed the NCE USB adaptor to receive commands from the remote control. I searched the web and someone had devised a way of altering the NCE USB adaptor to take direct input. Now I can use the remote control without having to run the VB.NET program. That's all for now. See you soon.

Hi again, here we go with 2021. Added the track bed to the swing section and started to add landforms. This is the section that joins the layout to the main helix. It used to have 4 tracks and is now down to 1. Removing some excess weight. The best tool I own is on the floor - the Worx Multitool. Fantastic piece of kit. Had to cut out a section of the mail helix to add the fiddle yard return track. Of course, it had to be at the back and I had to do it whilst the helix was in place! good old Multitool. Template of the new piece to be inserted (foam board - easier to cut than plywood. New piece of plywood inserted and the fiddle yard return track bed connected. This is what is left of the second helix and the arrows show the direction the trains take from the fiddle yard to the main helix. This allows them to join the main layout. The track then crosses over the fiddle yard and runs along the wall. Then a 90 degree bend To join the main helix. The new track being laid. More track laying And even more track laying New point being installed on access track to main helix. Point and track laid and expanding foam added. The swing section Facia being added Needed more train storage, so added 4 more sidings coming off behind the helix The two full height wall units had to reduced in height to allow the baseboard to rest on them. New baseboard added Points laid, but due to the shortage of Peco track during the pandemic, I had to use concrete points. The new incline to access the fiddle yard New walling installed...again! And painted The new control panel And the dodgy wiring New bridge section ready for expanding foam Expanding foam added, and then shaped and a bit more added, as there was a huge air bubble in the middle. J-Cloth and PVA laid over. Plastered And static grass added. The bridge sides are laser cut MDF. Plaster added to the swing section And to the other embankments The beginning of the waterfall. I am no sculptor, so I just had a go and am happy with the result. Base colour added And then just winged it with some browns. Some clear silicone water added for the fall I have reached my upload limit, more to follow.

2020 part 2. I also scrapped the computer control and went back to a control panel. But kept the Arduinos as they controlled the servos and point position indicators. The new control panel The Arduinos for point control and point position. A major redesign to allow trains to go round and round and only access the fiddle yard when I choose. That's all for 2020 See you in 2021.

Hello all. So up to now my layout has been displayed on the PC and point control via buttons on the desktop. The fiddle yard is fully automatic, in the following respects... When a loco enters the helix, The program looks for the next available fiddle yard track and sets all the points accordingly. The loco RFID tag is read and looked up in a table to find the loco number. With this number, the program then looks up two figures - The locos current speed (from the DCC Sniffer) The fiddle yard speed (the speed at which the loco should enter the fiddle yard . The program then works out the difference and slows the loco in three steps as it goes down the helix. As the loco gets near to the end of the chosen track, it triggers an opto sensor and the program stops the loco. Anyway, one day I went in the shed, fired up the PC and ....nothing. The PC wouldn't boot. No PC, no points! I had had enough. I had taken me 4 years to get the program working and now the PC had crashed. Time for drastic action..... So follow me through 12 months of madness. Decided the layout need another crossover. Track removed. New crossover installed Painted Ballasted. Remember the little playground that I scratch built? Well, on a trip to Gaugemaster, my wife saw the Adventure Playground kit and insisted that I get it. What could I say. Bit of detail added to Diesel area. Added a couple of sidings to allow a few locos to be stored. My second attempt at a remote DCC controller. This time wireless and a Li-ion battery (very small) please ignore the purple elastic band :-) It has speed and direction control and can switch functions 0 to 3. A few pics of the station (not finished) Now we get to the madness bit. I decided that I didn't like the fact that the trains could only go through the station once and then had to return to the fiddle yard. So I hatched a cunning plan... Remove the second helix (yes, the one I had only just built) You can blame Jenny Kirk for this after seeing her trains going round and round and having one siding down to the fiddle yard. Start of the dismantling Kept the bottom two loops only. Removed the tunnel to the second helix. Ripped up the bridge on the swing section levelled out the baseboard Added back the framing that I had removed to make way for the helix. Ripped out the bridge And this bridge. Laying out the track to get the best curves. Where the two tracks went over the reiver will now be one track, but needed to lower it by an inch or so. Baseboard cut away to allow the incline down. New river bed added More baseboard cut away for the incline. Mock up of the new bridge River banks added

Just been looking at the pics for 2020......they even shocked me!

As 2018 was so short, I thought I would also upload 2019. a little playground I made for the camp site. bits of wire soldered together and a cheap bracelet from Claire's Accessories for the swings! Wifey bought me this, as used to be in and out of the one in Holborn all the time. The basic town area. All the paving slabs are hard carved into sheets of plasticard and the kerb stones scribed on. Road markings added. Mostly hand drawn with a bow pen and acrylic paint. Car park wall added Some barriers and cones for the road works. I think they are Scale Model Scenery. Security gates for the second-hand car sales area. Pedestrian crossing. overview of current work war memorial, bus stop, speed camera and lights added A few signs dotted about Home-made bike shelter for the station Plasticard, wire and paper clips. A few more details added The bus stop Trees in the pavement. Bought some moped figures, but as this is the UK, they needed helmets... Before.. After... Just a big blob of acrylic paint shaped to look like a helmet. A few close up shots of the buildings. The low level fiddle yard. Managed to squeeze in two more roads when I added the second helix, as it no longer needed a return loop. The town (just visible to the right) removable and is on the floor so that I can work on it more easily. The left hand side of the layout The right hand side of the layout Over so soon? yes...goodbye 2019 and here comes 2020. see you on the flip side :-)

Hello again, Only a few pictures for 2018, as everything I did seemed to take forever. Started replacing the peco point solenoids with servos. mocking up the new tunnel entrance to the second helix. In place and landforms added. removed the 4 track tunnel entrance, as it was no longer needed. 2 track tunnel entrance to original helix in place. Plaster slopped on! New walling added for the second helix tunnel And some ballast I told you it was only a few! See you in 2019. TTFN :-)

Thank you Stueyboy43. I will try to load the rest up as soon as I can :-) And so we get to 2017. Not a good year for me or my family. In March, my Mum contracted double Pneumonia and Flu at the same time and was hospitalised for several weeks (She was 76 at the time). In April, I got Sciatica in my left leg and was on strong pain killers for 2 weeks. This has left me with four slightly numb toes - even 5 years later. My Dad's bladder cancer spread to his groin and pelvis and he was put on Morphine. In August he was moved to a Hospice and he passed on September 10th. So as you can see, not a good year. I did get some stuff done, more to take my mind of things than anything else. Here we go. The steps completed. Access to the diesel servicing area The interface between the point frogs and the PC, to tell the program which way the points are switched. It comprises of a diode (half wave rectification of the DCC signal, a smoothing capacitor and an opto-coupler to separate the 15v DCC from the 5v input to the Arduino Mega) Home made automatic track and wheel cleaner. The oil bottle held isopropanol and when the train passed an infra red detector, the pump would inject a small amount onto a cloth placed on the tracks. This is the cloth. it is held down, close to the tracks, so that the wheels can pass over without derailing. There is a fine silicon tube coming through the baseboard, which feeds a brass tube under the cloth. The brass tube has several holes drilled to allow even coverage of the cloth. This is the detector. Someone showed me a way to check if the infra-red led is working. just use the camera on your phone, it can pick up infra-red (That is the pinky glow). Also useful for the TV remote. This is the mould I made to cast retaining walls in resin. I decided to replace all my printed paper walls with resin. These are a few of the castings propped in place to see if I had enough. This is my workbench, where I wrote the program to display and control the layout via the PC. Adding a new back scene board. Adding the walling for the town area Adding the capping Just a test for the grassy areas using my DIY static grass applicator. Ripped out the paper walling To be replaced with resin walling. And then painted. More paper walling ripped out (waiting for the resin walls) Just some of the casting I made (undercoated with Halfords red oxide primer) My cat having a snoop,, And time for another change. The inner loop of the main helix was too tight, so decided to add a second helix. This required major surgery,,, Yes, that was where I had just replaced all the walling! This was the return loop for the main helix. It is now to be used as the base for helix no2 Relaying some track, as don't need 4 tracks going to the main helix. The new incline from the layout to the new helix. Test fit of the helix loop. Bottom loop of the helix Progressing upwards. One loop to go. Helix No2 in place and connected to the layout. My year from Hell is now over and looking forward to a new year. See you soon.

Hello again, 2016 coming up. First off, is a shot of the 4 track tunnel to the helix A bit of scratch building with a Ratio relay box on a home made stand Some more scratch building - a car park A shot of the hill And some more scratch building - steps between levels DCC Concepts buffer stop lights Lights added to the road bridge over the river My first foray into RFID loco detection - 15KHz My first attempt at growing Seafoam (didn't end well) - got too hot in the conservatory while I was at work and they all died. Moved on from 15KHz RFID to 34MHz and works a bit better. This was to detect the loco going down the helix. The automation would then slow down the loco before it entered the point work for the fiddle yard. These are the Arduino Nanos that interfaced the RFID detectors to the PC (VB.NET) Muddy tracks into the fields Comparing my hand painted backscene.... To the photographic backscene... No contest :-) A shot of the RFID tags that I use for loco identification I put them at the top of the loco, as the metal chassis blocks the signal if I put them under the loco. So that was 2016. See you in 2017. Bye for now.

Hi all, Is it 2015 already :-) here we go... Added a Lanarkshire Models track cleaner (TC01) to the brake van. Some of the point motor servos built, ready for fitting to replace the Peco solenoid point motors. The second bridge over the river A few pictures of my home made signal gantry (not based on a prototype - just free handed it to fit the layout) Occupancy detectors to trigger the signals (from a circuit I found on the web) only a few components - which is a good thing :-) A few pics of the layout as it was in 2015 My first attempt ata DCC controller to back up the NCE Powercab. Connected by USB cable to the PC (hadn't got round to wireless yet) Next is the camping area with the "pipe cleaner" trees. And voila, the trees are now green. A couple of shots of my home made static grass applicator. First go at computer loco control (VB.NET and the NCE USB adaptor) The beginnings of my track vacuum cleaner. That is 2015 done - 2016 soon.

Hi all, 2014 starts with laying the four tracks to the helix.. Next are a few of the terrible wiring under the layout that interfaces with the Arduino microcontrollers.. A bit of a break from the wiring and onto some ballasting The usual granite chippings sprayed with watered down PVA. A few pics of the swing bridge Adding the facia One of the bridge over the river with a part view of the second bridge in the foreground Bit of an overall view Adding spray foam for the ground under the bridge After carving to shape Scratch built 4 track tunnel portal And lastly, my foray into building a second controller for the NCE DCC system using an Arduino Nano an Microsoft Visual Studio (VB.NET) That's it for 2014...2015 coming soon. Bye for now. Keep safe :-)

Hello all. Me again. Hope you are all keeping well. Now that I have a bit of time, I can run through what I have been up to since 2013! Started by ripping out the second station to make way for the ramp to the new helix... Station before.. And after... Dropping the baseboard to add the incline to the new helix Adding the swing section The bottom section of the new helix 4 track helix nearly done....unfortunately, completely unaware that the inside track radius would be too small for most of my locos.. more of this later. Helix lifted into position Section added to join the main layout to the helix Fiddle yard boards being added Fiddle yard tracks laid Tracks on the bridge and incline added Well, that is it for 2013. 2014 coming soon.

Hi all, My problem was the servos twitching when the 5V power was switched on. My latest creation seems to have eliminated this... When the power is applied, only 3V passes to the servos. The relays then energise and switch out the diodes one at a time until the full 5V is applied to the servos. It seems to have worked, as normally all the servos on my layout (approx 60) twitch a few degrees when the power is turned on. With the circuit attached, I can't hear any servos twitching.

Hi bickybtrains, If you are happy that every time a train leaves the station, it has to go down the helix, then ok. My layout was like that and I soon wanted to just watch the trains go around the scenic section and not have to go up and down the helix every lap. Just something to think about before you go too far. P.S. has taken me 3 months so far, to alter the layout to change it to the new version........and still not complete! Mick

Hi Paul, take a look at this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK0Ry2DpbCk paste it into your browser. it shows how to bend Noch walls. All the best Mick.

Hi all, I was also a bit confused by the track plan at first. You have to set points A, B, C & D to their curved direction to get double loop running. But you have to be careful, as the two trains will collide at the cross over if they get to it at the same time. I have shown the 2 loops in red and blue on the attached image

Hi, as ianLMS said, a single turn of thin PTFE thread seal tape (from Amazon, B+Q, Screwfix, plumbers merchant etc) would do the job of the "O" ring, which is just to seal the join between the two pieces of the airbrush.

Just for identification. it tell Visual Studio (VB) which loco to stop automatically when it reaches the fiddle yard.

And is now wireless, using the XBEE wireless modules.

Just a couple of pictures. The first of when I was trying to get the wireless remote control working and the second of the working unit. A bit rough and ready, but it works. It can select any loco, has forward / Reverse, Functions 0,1,2 & 3, and momentum select. I have changed the potentiometer shown on the prototype to a rotary encoder (continuous rotation)

Hi BG John, I use the MFRC522 module. I started using the standard key chain tag, but now use the self adhesive tags. The only difference is, I stick them in the roof of the body and the detectors are fitted above the track.

P.S. I am not very good at writing code, so it is a bit messy and probably doesn't follow all the correct etiquette. Subs / Functions etc.

Hi Keith, I have been slowly developing my programme on Visual Studio (VB.NET) for a couple of years to partially automate / control my layout using Arduinos as the interface. I communicate with the Arduinos via the USB, using Serial communication (took me a while to figure it out ) I use Megas and Nanos, Megas for point changing and relaying point position back to VB (lots of outputs), and the Nanos for the RFID detection (each of my locos has an RFID tag, so that VB knows which loco has entered the fiddle yard. I also use a Nano in a home made wireless controller, using the NCE USB Interface, so that VB can talk to my NCE Powercab. (that took a long time to figure out). I am at work at the moment, but if I get time, I will share some photos.

Hi again, just to let you know that the replacement loco has arrived (Network Rail) and it is excellent. I'm a happy bunny again.