sir douglas Posted February 17, 2022 Author Share Posted February 17, 2022 (edited) I found the problem, i had wired the plug socket wrong way around, that was fixed and had a loco running along all the tracks, even my idea of wiring the crossover works, now a new problem even more puzzling than the last, i'm getting interferrence or shorting on the front siding only which i can't understand since anything like that should be spread to all tracks by the bus Edited February 19, 2023 by sir douglas 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted February 19, 2022 Author Share Posted February 19, 2022 (edited) Again it was me jumping to conclusions, the dead siding was just a loose dropper wire. The next puzzle to sort are dead frogs on the 3 way point, also 2 dead isolated sections of rail there which i didnt notice before have now got droppers On the switch gear, Phosphor strip is bolted to the bottom of the levers These strips run on copperclad board with isolating gaps Mounted to the panel, a large rectangle had to be cut out to fit the switch assembly into, The right hand end of the frame has styrene packing under it because one of the pivot rod holes is lower than the other A look inside after the wirng has been tidied up. Ive plugged it in and all the point fire but after a few tries it has stopped Do i really need the CDU? because it seems to my untrained eye that those 2 big capacitors are just sucking up too much power Edited February 19, 2023 by sir douglas 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted February 19, 2022 Author Share Posted February 19, 2022 I'm gonna need to do something else for a while, its not going well. Just when i fix one thing something else stops working and now the layout is completely dead and i'm getting quite irritated so back over to the stock thread for now 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted April 2, 2022 Author Share Posted April 2, 2022 the motivation came back a bit but still not enough to sort the point motor wiring, i have some 4mm scake sleeper strip from a friend to do the tie bars which are now on. I tried doing the "V" type throwing springs but it didnt work for some reason 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted May 18, 2022 Author Share Posted May 18, 2022 ive figured out a few problems getting this working, firstly will be to have the point motor power on a seperate power supply to not interfere with the controller, secondly i need to adjust the copperclad contact plates unde some of the levers, next is that i need to change the point motors since i didnt know anything about point motors before doing this i got the version without throw springing and didnt notice until some time later that there another version with them, these have just been ordered. Lastly i wasnt happy with the way that they do the frog polarity switching, which gave an intermitant contact and will be replaced by microswitches mounted on brass brackets 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted May 25, 2022 Author Share Posted May 25, 2022 The CDU and controller power plug have been moved to the board to make the lever box less cramped and since the point motors will have a seperate power feed, ive made a new mounting for 2 plug sockets. a piece of wood was added onto the underside of the board to the mount them and the fixings are made from styrene. 2 wires had to be added to the cable to the box and a while back i found one of those twisting cable tidies just the right length for it the new point motors fitted and fettled, and at some point i realised what the actual problem might have been for my frog polarity feed but it doesnt matter now anyway. i'll mention just incase anybody else gets stuck with them. (gaugemaster GMC PM4 frog polarity copper clad point) adding the words just so it comes up in search results if anybody needs it I think that i might have been getting an intermittent short through the motor's rod since the top end sits in the tie bar without an isolating gap between it and the near-side rail; and on the motor, the polarity is done by a spring and washer on the same rod, so depending on which way the point is thrown, it could have been shorting throught the rod, the solution would be cutting an isolating gap on the tie bar between the rod and the stock rail 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted May 27, 2022 Author Share Posted May 27, 2022 made the micro switch frame from 1mm nickel sheet. the switch is held on by 2 10BA nut & bolt which the left hand of each (on the photo) is in a slot on the frame for adjustment In other news, i just happend to come across a thread about an old lever frame which looks just like mine, so now i know what make it is https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/148708-milbro-lever-frame/ 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted May 29, 2022 Author Share Posted May 29, 2022 some issues with the electrical contacts on the lever frame so thats dismantled, but the points all work and ive had a loco running around all tracks, changing the points with a bit of wire against the contact wires like a touch panel 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted June 3, 2022 Author Share Posted June 3, 2022 Over a few months, some bits of blue foam have ben built up and cut to shape to shape for the embankment and ive also been working the loco shed foundation with inspection pit. a dis-connected second road was added. The building will be made to look like its been cut back becasue of the new line on the embankment and the second road was demolished Back to current work, i wasnt happy with the long curved front siding so its been relaid straight just like how i fed the fiddleyard rails through the pivot bolt previously, this time its throught the runner. The runners have ball bearings in them so there is constant contact 4 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted June 7, 2022 Author Share Posted June 7, 2022 i can't remember if i first wrote about this here or my main thread but since its for the layout. A year or 2 ago i built a second hand whitemetal kit for a 1930's Morris van, but the wheels were knackered, whitemetal centres were a bit squashed and the rubber tyres were old and stiff soo couldnt be stretch onto the centres without snapping, ive got some replacements done by my 3D printing friend 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted September 20, 2022 Author Share Posted September 20, 2022 About the photos, i think i will only go back to when i started on this current version (oct 2021) and leave most of the old light railway era un-fixed Yesterday i was doing some planning and track slewing but when i got the 2 vans out and realised one of them is wrong, i have not had them next to each other before so didnt notice it, the diecast Ford which i repainted is much bigger than the kit Morris, so must be a much bigger scale. Ford, left and Morris, right plan for the siding numbers being refered to The slewing started with siding 1, moving it over a bit so its parallel to the main running line A much more drastic change was on No 3 which used to run nearly parallel to the headshunt and now curves away There will now be a road crossing just to the right of point 5 so the check rails for this went in yesterday On the other side of the headshunt there will be road running along side and another crossing at the end but this will be block off by a bufferstop, the position of this is marked by the arrow This roadside running is mainly inspred by Balm Road, Leeds and Trafford Park, Manchester https://www.flickr.com/photos/whypiers/30066535207 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcP0AfHWYAAj37J?format=jpg&name=large I tried making the loco shed from MDF several months ago but ive always found it awkward and dusty to work with so ive staretd again in styrene but had to wait until i got more 2mm. Below shows the ends proped up in position. The water is now in position, the base had to be cut down, and the truncated second road had to be cut back further 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sb67 Posted September 22, 2022 Share Posted September 22, 2022 That's all coming along nicely, I like the roadside running, look forward to seeing that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted September 22, 2022 Author Share Posted September 22, 2022 filling in the shed and crossover area with foam board 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted September 25, 2022 Author Share Posted September 25, 2022 a bit more on the surfacing and a question, i would quite like to cut a dock/harbour/wharf at the front to go with that siding and the board will be cut along where the knife is but i cant decide wether to cut the other edge along the pencil alignment or the pen? 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold GWR57xx Posted September 26, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 26, 2022 On 25/09/2022 at 16:36, sir douglas said: a bit more on the surfacing and a question, i would quite like to cut a dock/harbour/wharf at the front to go with that siding and the board will be cut along where the knife is but i cant decide wether to cut the other edge along the pencil alignment or the pen? All else being equal, I’d say follow the line of the pen as it looks more natural to be parallel to the track going off to the left. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Northroader Posted September 26, 2022 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 26, 2022 I’d be inclined to cut parallel with the pencil, two inches to the left of it, then radius round into the knife cut Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted September 30, 2022 Author Share Posted September 30, 2022 Earlier int h week i got the dock cut out, i kept it to the right of the board join to makje the job easier 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted October 2, 2022 Author Share Posted October 2, 2022 Got most of the crossing in but now I dont think the pararell road idea will work, with only having a thin area and i dont think it will look right having only half a road width up against the backscene, the crossings will stay but not connected to each other by road Photo from the other side, just becasue i felt like it On the left hand end, most of the inset is done apart from scribing it 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted October 4, 2022 Author Share Posted October 4, 2022 Some scribing Shed and crossover area, the parts elft blank around the point and crossover will be painted as concrete to represent them being a later addition To the right of that is the access road tot he yard 10 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted October 23, 2022 Author Share Posted October 23, 2022 (edited) i'm now building the loco shed which is keeping me quiet on here, the road surfaces have got a base coat of grey just so its not white. Highwind is being used for clearance since it has the tallest chimney and the GW van is in the siding to get an idea of fence height, represented here by a section salvaged for the previous layout and yes i know i still need to fill in the surface in that point behind the shed Edited October 23, 2022 by sir douglas 9 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted December 3, 2022 Author Share Posted December 3, 2022 Going all the way back to May, i scrapped the electrical contacts for the lever frame, a few days ago i bought some microswitches, and since yesterday i have cut & drilled brass sheet for the mountings and just about an hour ago as i was nearly done with the wiring to then realise why i never used microswitches in the first place because they are constant contact while i need passing contact. While everything ive just done has to be scrapped, it was not completely worthless since ive figured out a different arrangement to make then work as passing contact 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted March 22, 2023 Author Share Posted March 22, 2023 At Narrow gauge North i got some 1.5mm brass to cut some new levers since the originals were too short at the bottom end, but at the moment ive continued with the stonework on the shed and bridge i was going to work on the back siding buildings but realised the bridge and embankment would have to done first. Pavements and curb were added to the road at least. a basic sketch of the buildigns was made to give an idea, the right-hand third of thhespace will be a victorian industrial office like the surviving Hunslet and Manning Wardle buildings and the rest will be a warehouse/factory more modern such as 1930's-50's replacing an older building as the business changed or expanded, this will have a loading platform for 2 wagons, though i still cant quite see exactly what the building will look like All stonework done on the bridge Nearly all done on the shed 8 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted April 3, 2023 Author Share Posted April 3, 2023 patched up the gaps inbetween the bridge and the embankment and covered with filler and added a wall on the near side behind the shed back to the lever frame, i made the new levers and started the mechanism with 2 microswitched positioned so the lever flicks over them and releases at the end of the throw. mounted to the box, wired and it works. now just need to trim down the length of the wires 3 4 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted April 5, 2023 Author Share Posted April 5, 2023 I felt like starting with the door this time while thinking about that office 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sir douglas Posted April 8, 2023 Author Share Posted April 8, 2023 Making use 2 big sheets of 3mm styrene I was given a while back 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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