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Lisa

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Blog Entries posted by Lisa

  1. Lisa
    Hi All
     
    Today I have been building the new cassette location and electrical connection for the train cassettes on Chagford. Despite the new electrical system being much more straight forward, on the first attempt I got the wiring cassette wiring reversed and found a complete short when I tested it.
     

     

     
    This done I next wired up the section of track to the left of the cassette which had previously been unconnected. Then did some rectification to the point wiring and added the point tie bar.
     
    Then I ran the first train around the whole oval including over the cassette.
     
    2nd_Train.mov
     
    Building points that are not built in a 2mm Association jig is an artform. I am learning fast and hopefully my next point will be easier to build and have the need for less rectification before a train will run over it without derailing.
     
    Lisa
  3. Lisa

    Chagford - Layout Design

    By Lisa,

    Hi All
     
    I started to build Chagford before I stared blogging. So in this entry I will attempt to start to fill in the missing story.
     
    Initially the layout was conceived as a circular layout rather in the style of Mark Fielder's Pizza and the baseboard was built as a circular board. But it soon became obvious that most containers are rectangular, and not having a car and using public transport, the baseboard was trimmed to make it fit.
     

     
    The size of the layout is increase by using the device of the hinged cassette fiddleyard. The position of the backscene has to be positioned so that the fiddleyard can be accommodated when packed for transport. The backscene height is fixed by the box at 85mm.
     
    The blocks are the central fixings for the backscene, and the are composed of two pieced because my carpentry skills are not up to cutting a piece of wood at 90° in two planes. The first piece is fixed to the baseboard top, the second is fixed to the first by a screw in one vertical face. The angle of the back face of the second block was then adjusted using a engineers square to the correct angle and the the screw is tightened.
     

     
    The space between the backscene and the cassette location can be used to store other cassettes during operating sessions, but since the layout sits on a table storage space is not limited. The one advantage of a circular baseboard is that the frontage for a given area is larger than for a conventional rectangular design.
     
    The hinges are placed on blocks to lift the cassette fiddleyard up to make sure that the tracks do not get damaged when the layout is in transit. The two pieces are held together using over centre catches, these have had to be slightly modified to allow the layout to sit flat in the transport box. This increase the height of the backscene and thus the scenery by 12mm and also reduces the possible damage too. Photograph below shows layout seating after modification, which consisted of cutting 5mm from the catch lever.
     

     

     
    To be continued ….........
     
    Lisa
  4. Lisa
    Hi All
     
    Once the final layout size was determined, I then started to design the track layout.
     
    At the initial stages I had decided the the main line curve would be 190mm radius. An arc of this radius was drawn on the front of the baseboard, using a ruler type compass. Templates for the various points were produced, complete with sleeper centrelines, using templot.
     

     
    The point templates were laid out as shown in the photograph above. This allowed the lengths of the loop and sidings could be checked using actual wagons. I knew that my length of my trains would have to be shorter than on the prototype but I feel that a train of 4 wagons and a brake, in BR days and 5 wagons in independent days would capture the correct feel. The tramway company did not believe in using brake vans, and because it was a tramway the Board of Trade could not force their use!
     
    I had decided early on that I would decrease the distance between parallel lines from the generally accepted 12.5mm between the centrelines. This has the effect in making the layout appear larger than it is to the viewer.
     
    Sidings on the model will have well very severe curves, but the only restriction on the radius of curves was would the wagons go round them without coming off.
     
    The station is a terminus, despite the layout being an oval, the line after the loop and the platform becomes a private siding for the Dairy, and on the prototype there was a baulk bridge over a stream just beyond a white gate. My intention is to include the bridge, but to leave this until I have laid out the loop and sidings.
     
    At this stage the layout was checked to see if the proposed operation sequence would work. Initially I had intended not to have a carriage siding, but the early part of the sequence would have required excessive shunting if the carriages were left in the platform overnight. It is much easier to check the sequence using real rolling stock rather than using paper based methods.
     
    The track in the area where the bridge will be installed is not glued down, but is held in position with screws for ease of removal. Once the track has been removed the baseboard will be able to be cut and carved to represent the stream channel and a link piece will be screwed and glued beneath to maintain baseboard integrity.
     

     
     
    Lisa
  5. Lisa
    Hi All
     
    The trackbase for 2FS Easitrack is moulded in scale 60 panels. Once the code 40 rail is inserted, whether you have chosen the wooded or concrete sleepers it looks the part. But for beginners it is difficult to lay sweeping curves, without kinks occurring at the join between the trackbase sections. This was first pointed out to me by Noel Leaver at a 2mm event some years ago. This blog entry is the result of my musings on the problem!
     

     
    My considered solution, this may to some appear to be a bit of a faff, but the technique should not be beyond the skills of a beginner. The resulting track sections can be laid using the same techniques as for example laying Peco Streamline track.
     
    By inserting the extra piece, using the same material, from which the track base is manufactured from, using the Easitrack glue. The result is as shown below.
     

     
    Lisa
  7. Lisa

    Chagford - My first posting

    By Lisa,

    Hi All
     
    I have been working on layout today! I model in 2mm finescale.
     
    Today I have run my first train on the layout using the non DCC option on the controller, as of yet I don't have a decoder equipped loco yet.
     
    Lisa
  8. Lisa
    Hi All
     
    Last night I completed building my own workbench, up to now I've been working on the kitchen table. Currently I get the power supply from a extension lead on the top of the bench, hopefully I will soon have the 4 way attached to the side of the bench instead.
     

     
     
    I also need to fit a side and back to the bench to prevent items and tools from falling off, and getting lost.
     

     
     
    Lisa
     
     
  9. Lisa
    Modified 23-05-12 & 26-05-12
     
    Hi All
     
    It is my intention to operation of Chagford on a sequence, based on the operation of the prototype. The red entries didn't run every day.
     
    The sequence may seem at first sight complex, but every tram operated is a minimum of three lines in the table below
     

     
    My intention is to use some form of random number generation, to decide if the non regular trams are included in the operating sequence.
     
    The next stage of the design process is to dry run the sequence, to see if it works, including if the sidings are long enough to hold the wagons.
     
    Lisa
  10. Lisa
    Hi All
     
    More details of the prototype
     
    The layout is a model of a mineral tramway, and not a railway. The difference is that a tramway can either go along it's own right of way, or along a public road, either in the road surface or on the verge.
     
    To build such a tramway the permission from the local highway authority to cross or go along public roads is all that is required, together with the purchase of any land required for depots and private rights sections. No acts of parliament are required.
     

     
    A maximum speed of 15 mph where the tramway is on the verge, 5 mph when crossing public roads and 25mph when on a private right of way are imposed by the Tramways Act.
     
     
    Lisa
     
     
     
     
     
    The only restriction on the radius of curves, is whether the locomotives and rolling stock can negotiate them, when a traversed at an appropriate speed laid down by either the highway authority or the tramway operator.
  11. Lisa
    Hi All
     
    Can anyone tell me why when three 2mm modelers meet, they have four preferred track building methods?
     
     
    I seems to be quite fashionable in 2mm circles to lay track, have a problem, rip it up and then relay it. Well now I’ve joined in with a 'Y' point that caused derailments. I have made some plain track to temporally replace it, so I can run trains!
     

     
     
    My re-inventing is in the design of my cassette fiddleyard. The mechanical alignment and electrical connections are achieved using two DC power connectors, see photograph below. The problem is that when I reverse the cassette I reverse the power connections and thus I get a short when I drive a DCC equipped loco onto the cassette! Otherwise the system works well. Why could I just use the standard system?
     

     

    Lisa
  12. Lisa
    Chagford - Operating Sequence Updated 26-05-12
     
    Hi All
     
    The layout design, in the last post, needed to have the loop entry points simulated by the use of train cassettes. There is nothing wrong in principle with this, but there would have been 3 tracks leaving the scenic area in parallel, at the right hand end of the layout.
     
    By having the main and the other lines curved, and by using asymmetric y points, it is possible to have the loop entry point in the scenic area.
     
     

     
    This arrangement also makes the appearance of the Depot more appealing to. It also allows goods tram of 4 wagons and a brake van possible, as per prototype.
     
    BUT more important is allows a partial relief gas holder to be modelled in the between the main and the mineral branch. This both mimics the prototype and partially hides the necessary aperture in the backscene.
     
    I've spent a long time looking at tram sequences and track layout. He design I have arrived at meets my requirements of an interesting to operate layout, within the very small space.
     
    With the above paper layout, I simulated the sequence, to check that it was possible to run it. With a few minor amendments it worked well. It is my intention to use a PDA running a spreadsheet to produce the live sequence, incorporating the as required and special tram services.
     
    Lisa
  13. Lisa
    Hi All
     
    Havn't been around for a while. I've just come out of hospital, good old NHS, having just had some surgery to my left jaw. There is no pain for the first time in months.
     
    I hope to do some modeling tomorrow after i've walked Maisy. You probably guessed Masiy photograph is used as my icon.
     
    Lisa
  14. Lisa
    Hi
     
    Whilst the initial design worked with the sequence. The modified design has two goods sidings, like the prototype. The back siding is the coal siding, and the front one for general goods.
     
    The design, is designed to fit into two plastic boxes for transport, measuring 380mm by 140mm by 140mm. This allows for the loop being the correct length.
     

     
    This idea of using two boards, came from reading page 305, of MRJ No. 75 on buiding a simple diorama.
     
    Lisa
  15. Lisa
    Hi All
     
    Railways have station and halts, whereas tramways have depots and wayside stopping places. Tramways generally have very rudimentary signalling if any at all and where they do it is often not interlocked with the points. It was the drivers responsibility to check that the points were correctly set.
     
    On rural tramways, the points were indeed often operated by the tram crew, usually on steam operated tramways, by the fireman. Points were often operated by lineside weighted levers, photographs exist of these levers, in books about the Hundred of Manhood and Selsey Tramway, later refereed to as the Tramway section of the West Sussex Railway. On tramway loops the points were and still are on the Croydon Tramway spring operated, and trams entering the loop are required to traverse these points at a maximum speed of 5 mph. Thus all down trams will use the same track in the loop, regardless of whether an up tram is present.
     



    A loops the service operates on a timetable basis, if the timetable says the trams will pass at the loop then the first tram to arrive cannot proceed until the tram in the opposite direction has arrived, regardless of how late it arrives. On urban electric tramways, since trams are frequent this does not present problems.
     
    In the past in this country,and often on mainland Europe and other parts of the world tramways convey freight, which is transferred from the railway at a set of transfer sidings and either conveyed on the tramway by a special locomotive or as tail traffic on passenger services.
     
    Another difference is that tramways often have much sharper curves and steeper gradients and many ungated level crossings than railways. The points are usually much smaller radius and trams and as a result usually traverse then at 5 mph.
     



    Tramways are regulated not by the Railway Inspectorate, but by the Tramway Commissioners, which these days are part of the Department for Transport. To build or extend a tramway does not require an act of parliament, but simply the tramway commissioners to issue a Tramway Order and outline planning permission. Many links between mainline railways and industrial plants e.g. cement works, were constructed under a tramway order, and are officially refereed to a Mineral Tramways.
     
    Previous blog entry - Chagford - Building structures for tramways and light railways,was posted 4 days previously and can be accessed using the link below.
     
    http://www.rmweb.co....light-railways/
     
    Lisa
  16. Lisa
    Hi All
     
    I've been quite recently, i.e. no blog entries this has been because I had a problem with a painful molar! I've now seen the dentist and hopefully the problem is now sorted out.
     
    Either a micro 2mm layout has a fiddleyard or not is a matter of choice. I first considered Mark Fielder's Pizza Layout, Pictures and details can be found via the links page at www.2mm.org.uk This layout has a circle of track with a single siding with all the area covered with scenery.
     
    David Eveleigh's new layout, Framsden, takes a different approach of having the main board which is oval in shape, and has two detachable cassette type fiddleyard, which are attached externally to the layout.
     

     
    The approach which I have taken has a fiddleyard which is physically part of layout, using train cassettes. Which option is used on layout is a matter o choice. On Chagford the fixed backscene is only 57mm high, but the blocks holding this is place is on the scenic side, so that an flexible extension can be fixed to the fiddleyard side.
     

     
    The corners at the ends of the fixed backscene have been rounded so that there is no corner in the extension sky. The intention is to fix a background of fields, trees etc to the fixed backscene. Then to carve the top edge to follow a hedge line. When the buildings are placed in front the amount of this illustration will be restricted. By adding read depth in this way added to the feeling of distance between the mid ground and the sky. The sky will be able to be rolled up using a napkin type ring.
     

     

     
    The above design allow the layout to fit into it's carrying case for ease of transport, whilst having a decent height of backscene whilst the layout is being operated. The blocks which hold the fixed backscene in place will be hidden by buildings and other scenic features.
     
    4th_Train.mov
     
    Lisa
  17. Lisa
    Hi All
     
    Since building the circuit of track and starting running trains I have had problems with derailments. Upon careful examination of the track I discovered that the alighnment of track section joints was not as good as I thought.
     
    By running a train around, whist running in the locomotive I found that it derailed at a point, I then carefully examined the track near the site.
     

     
    I found that small blobs of solder on the inside of the rails, this is much more critical when the track radius is sub 600mm radius. These blobs were removed by applying the soldering iron to the outside of the rail, and then by using a solder sucker to the inside of the rail when the solder was molten. The process of finding small problems with track and the rectifying them is called fettling.
     

    I also had problems with electrical pickup on the aluminium allow runners of the removable cassette. When I closely examined the inside edge, I found that there was a bur. The locomotive wheel was only in contact with a strip less that 0,2mm wide. This problem was rectified by using a needle file to remove the bur and apply a small radius to the edge of the aluminium section.
     

     
    The above processes took several hours but the time was very well spent as I can run a train around the circuit for one hour without any derailments, even on the very tight curves into the cassette fiddletyard. This has allowed me to run in the new 04 locomotive prior to insulating the DDC decoder. This is essential as doing so will invalidate the Farish warranty as the installation required that the locomotive is modified.
     
    Lisa
  18. Lisa

    Chagford - Track Plan

    By Lisa,

    Hi All
     
    I've now done the basic track planning. The main track in the diagram below is shown as straight. When the track is laid it will be curved, because it was curved on the prototype.
     
    I am current planning to lay the track on thin foam board both for sound insulation and to allow the final track track position to be adjusted to make the best possible use of the very limited area.
     
    The track diagram below was drawn using Trax 3. The points have a radius of 190mm, but it is a tramway and not a railway and the largest locomotive was a small wheeled 0-6-0 and no passenger or freight vehicle on the tramway had a wheelbase of longer than 15'.
     
    It should be noted, that the prototype had a coal siding and a separate general goods siding, but space consideration forced me to combine them into one!
     

     
    The photograph below is the plastic box, into which the baseboard, fascia panel and supports will have to fit for transport.
     

     
    Lisa
  20. Lisa
    Hello All
     
    I have been wiring the track for DCC, this I though was a simple task, but when I checked my work with a multimeter the rails were shorted. After disconnecting various wire I discovered that one of the pre-cut sleepers was not cut properly. This corrected and the wires reconnected the short has been corrected.
     

     
    Three of the sections of track are held in position using two screws. This is to allow them to be removed to allow a cross over to be installed later.
     

     
    Next I ran a locomotive, which I recorder using my camera phone.
     
    1st_Train.mov
     
    I could not get the locomotive to go round the 78mm radius curve, but this is caused because of a problem with the baseboard join, and the track currently has a hump in the track.
     
    Lisa
  22. Lisa

    Guernsey Railway

    By Lisa,

    Hi
     
    I am currently on holiday in Guernsey. On Monday, 26th August, bank holiday, I visited the only railway on the island.
     

     
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/guernsey/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8849000/8849444.stm
     

     
    2nd Picture posted from phone.
     
    Lisa
  23. Lisa
    Hi All
     
    Having no car it is an important consideration that the layout should be convenient to transport by public transport. The packing system consist of two components, these are a plastic box, to keep it dry and a bag with a strap that goes over the shoulder to make the carrying easier.
     

     

     
    In doing the measurements to check the maximum height for the backscene, which is 55mm, I decided to redesign the positioning of the overcentre catches to fix the cassette board to the main board. This change simply makes the layout packing easier.
     

     

     
    Lisa
  24. Lisa
    Hi All
     
     
    I been using a device that I purchased last Christmas in Cardiff. It allow the user to cut thin strips, hence the name, of card or plastic strip. When used with plastic card thicker than 10 thou, the stripper only scores the surface. But by bending the sheet is snaps along the scored line, cleanly.
     

     

     
    I am currently experimenting using plastic card, to build track bases, instead of using PCB sleepers or Easitrac base. Below is a photograph of some base made, before I found my stripper. The stripper allows the strips to be uniform width.
     

     
    I feel that using the stripper will make this method of track construction feasible. Once the ballast is applied the sleeper joining strip will be hidden, as per commercial flex track, but my track will be built to 2mm fine scale standards, with code 40 rail.
     
     
    Lisa
  25. Lisa

    Hitting the Roof!

    By Lisa,

    Hi All
     
     
    This is my first venture, of modifying a card kit. I am finding working with Rocket Card Glue really easy.
     

     
    Today I have finished the back of the building, which will be against the back scene. The slot in the back, is to allow for a block, which strengthens the back scene, as there will be an opening for trains coming from the Dairy Yard, next to the building.
     

     
    It is my intention, to give the roofs, a slight 3D feel, by adding tiles, made from very thin paper, Pendon style and hence the sloping roof finishes flush with the virtual walls.
     

     
    The paper tiles, will slightly overlap the walls, and a thin paper barge board will be added to complete, the roof. The only extra that will then need to be added will be the down pipes.
     
     
    Lisa
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