A garage, O scale and the Ploughley Hundred Light Railway (was Gawcott & Westbury Light Railway)

[Ray H]

Here's a picture of the (external) garage door end of the layout. The vertical silver faced part on the right is the foundations of the gradient. The track on the gradient is about to cross the two lower level tracks and the (upper level) LR's Gawcott terminus will be on the left above the lower level tracks.

 

 

Below is much the same area viewed from above. It is just possible to make out the LR's inclined track which is outside the other two tracks on the right on the plan. It crosses the two lower lever tracks to end (on the plan) on the inside of the two lower level tracks.

 

 

My original thinking was to have a bridge to carry the LR track over the other two with the two lower tracks uncovered between the back of the bridge and where they disappear under Gawcott.

 

However, the tight radii of the layout's curves and the need for one curved track to cross over two other curved tracks at a shallow angle would require a very long bridge deck which would be a bit difficult to hide let alone support realistically especially as it too would be curved.

 

I've more or less decided that the lower tracks will have to enter a tunnel more or less where the gradient currently ends or a couple of (actual) inches before.

 

I'm not too worried about the back of the LR track which will probably have a bendy MDF backscene against it. I'm puzzling over how land form on the inside of the LR curve would be shaped.

 

My probably distorted logic suggests that the area inside the curve needs to be more or less at Gawcott's level, possibly with a chunk scooped out towards the rest of the garage part way round the curve. This is because I presume the land behind the tunnel mouth will need to be at the same height as the top of the tunnel mouth.

 

Alternately, do I forget tunnel mouth and bridge (as such) and start a deep cutting at bottom left with the lower tracks - which would only be easily seen from above - simply disappearing under the LR's track bed?

[Ray H]

This is the kind of thing that I have in mind, viewed from a little closer to the layout than visitors might be.

 

 

Its just possible to see how long the bridge deck is. It will probably be even longer in actuality.

 

In an ideal world it wouldn't be so high. That can't be avoided because that's the height of Gawcott station. In fact it may yet end up a tad higher to provide more wriggle room below Gawcott to resolve problems with errant vehicles on the hidden tracks.

 

The far side of the lower track i.e., the inside of the curved face of the incline, will probably become brick just before the bridge deck begins as it has to be vertical by then because it is right on the edge of the cess at track level.

 

Looking at the picture now I will probably increase the height of the embankment nearest the camera by another inch to hide the bridge deck but keep it low enough that trains on the bridge can still be seen.

Edited May 18, 2022 by Ray H

[Ray H]

A trip to the DIY shed this afternoon for some compost and the like was combined with the purchase of the relevant wood for the Gawcott baseboards seen here resting on some boxes of O gauge Parkside (unmade) kits - ignore the top of a terminally ill fluorescent tube fitting lying underneath, that's waiting a trip to the tip when I can muster up enough rubbish to make the journey worthwhile.

 

There wasn't much change out of ten £20 notes, I can tell you (and that excluded the cost of the garden stuff) 🙄

 

 

There's also some bendy MDF there for the backscene across the boards nearest the up & over door. There's a piece of aluminium angle for the front edge of the 1800mm long board over the traverser as its front edge can only be supported at each end.

 

My current thinking is to fix some timber strips along the wall behind the traverser at least - that may not be possible for the board in the area in the above picture because the gradient is well under way in that area and may require that Gawcott board to be narrower - I'm thinking of having some low relief buildings along the back edge of that board partially to disguise the presence of the rising track. 

[kes]

On 12/05/2022 at 09:40, Ray H said:

The LR gradient track is now pinned down to what for the time being I'll call Clock Corner.

 

I've also made another (terrible) video - 

 

 

 

For those new to this thread, the train starts from what will be the BR/LR interchange station (Westbury Crossing) - the BR track is at the same level but on the far side of our train. There will shortly be a slight climb (ultimately this will be "hidden") to enable the LR track to cross the BR track slightly above baseboard level.

 

Once across the BR track - which then drops back to baseboard level to continue to Westbury Crossing- the LR begins to climb in earnest until the track levels off as it emerges (eventually) from the back of the hidden sidings to pass through what will become the Halt at Tingewick with its single siding served factory (for what is not currently decided).

 

Below and slightly in front of the LR track is the BR track as it too emerges from the low level hidden sidings heading for Westbury Crossing.

 

The LR track continues initially at the same level beyond Tingewick as it crosses the lifting access flap/board then resumes climbing en-route to its current limit of "steel" at Clock Corner. Shortly - i.e. within the next few feet -  the LR track will pass over the two lower tracks - which will probably have already delved into the mirk of the hidden sidings staging yard - and finally reach Gawcott.

 

Ironically, apart from a spin or two around the BR track earlier in the week by the railcar - the 2-4-0 is the only loco so far to have appeared on the layout and, most definitely, the only loco to have traversed the LR tracks even though ultimately said loco will only ever journey along the BR tracks.

 

I've started trimming the edge of the cork back on the running lines in readiness for ballasting but I need to save up the pennies for the amount I'll need 😐.

I really must get back to wiring up the club's control panels because they take up a lot of space and have to be shifted temporarily onto the dining room table (with SWMBO's agreement) to give me free access to the layout.

Very impressive slow and smooth running.

[Ray H]

I hope to make a start on the Gawcott baseboard(s) today if all goes to plan today.

[Ray H]

Gawcott's baseboards are now finished. I hadn't realised how close they come to the underside of the cabinets at the camera end of this view.

 

 

Here's a closer view of the currently empty fiddle yard below the newly erected boards. There's a 2 metre length of aluminium along the front edge of the boards over the traverser (at the far end of the picture) to stop the upper board sagging because there's nowhere that I can support the board otherwise.

 

 

I wonder how long it will stay like that?

 

The following image shows the end of the Gawcott baseboards where they meet the start of the Tingewick board. The horizontal support had to be cut back because the 2-4-0T's chimney fouled it when on the gradient. I'm prepared to re-think the back of the end (Gawcott) board if necessary should anything else foul it in the future.

 

 

The LR track passes very close to the wall and even closer to the support for the back end of the end Gawcott board. Faced with reducing the length of the said support and drilling yet another hole in the breeze block wall - a job I detest completely because the drill bits always seem to move with the result that the hole doesn't end up where you want it - I put a piece of packing under the edge of the sleepers on the outer side of the curve which solved the problem by tilting the rolling stock away from the wall. It was the DLW railcar that was hitting the support when I decided to test it. I'm not too worried about it as none of the BR stock is supposed to travel up the LR's gradient.

 

 

I should add that other than the sheet material and a few lengths of planed timber bought when I was acting as SWMBO's chauffeur when she wanted some stuff for the garden, I'm trying to use up as many oddments of timber that I've accumulated over the years as I can otherwise I might have used a thinner piece of timber screwed to the wall. 

 

I still need to "bridge" the gap at the other end of the garage. My mate Jim called round today and we discussed a few options which I hope to be able to take a closer look at tomorrow by building the final baseboard which will probably be positioned a little lower than the Gawcott board - the corner of which is at top left in the following image.

 

 

Finally I was surprised to receive the following 3D printed coach kit from Mannin Models today as a late June delivery date was given when I placed the order. This will probably be the first (LR) passenger vehicle to grace the layout - the two Slater's kits I bought some time ago are still waiting to be assembled.  😐

 

My intention is that LR passenger trains will normally be limited to 1 or 2 vehicles with any surplus stock being left in a siding for the grass to grow around it!

 

[Ray H]

My mate Jim of Ayr Road fame called round last weekend and made a few (polite) suggestions that were easier to implement before the track was fixed down on the upper boards.

 

One suggestion was to add a bit more rail based storage under the upper station. This is the result:-

 

 

There's a short siding accessed from the traverser (bottom right in the above image), There's also two new sidings (and two new points) in front of the through track ( top left in the above image). I now need to buy some more rolling stock to fully utilise the extra storage😄.

 

The upper boards were re-instated once the new tracks had been tested. My attention then turned to installing the ground work (aka baseboard) to finally connect the lower level to the the upper level.

 

 

The two ends are supported as is the rear side. There will invariably something to support the front edge once I've decided what's going to happen on the scenic front.

 

Track has appeared on this board since the above picture was taken. Track has also been fixed down on the upper level boards save for that associated with the two remaining points that have yet to be built. I'm hoping that will be achieved tomorrow (along with fitting them and their associated sidings). I'm also hoping to install the frog juicers tomorrow as a couple of club members are hoping to visit on Friday morning for a running session.

 

The juicers may still be subject to relocation and I have yet to decide where the servos will go as they need to be mounted above the baseboard so that they do not obstruct access to the lower level hidden siding's tracks.

[jcarta]

1 hour ago, Ray H said:

My mate Jim of Ayr Road fame called round last weekend and made a few (polite) suggestions that were easier to implement before the track was fixed down on the upper boards.

 

One suggestion was to add a bit more rail based storage under the upper station. This is the result:-

 

 

 

 

I just needed somewhere to stable the blue diesels ..........

 

[Ray H]

Gawcott's track is now in position and wired up. I've made the decision to have the minimum amount of wiring, relying solely on rail joiners other than where individual rails need to be electrically connected to another to provide its power. I'll then look to bond any rail joints when the rail joiners fail.

 

Gawcott's frog juicers were added yesterday on the top side of the baseboard. However, today's visit by a couple of club members resulted in the suggestion to mount the juicers vertically on the (garage) wall behind their present position to make disguising their presence easier.

 

Both railcars and several locos have successfully run around the areas where clearances were previously thought to be tight.

 

One of the newly installed low level points needs a slight adjustment as the blades are a shade too far apart causing some stock to derail.

 

I now need to fit the servos to Gawcott's points and then add the lever frame, but at least I can now run trains if I want to.

 

I bought a selection of various wagons via eBay when I built Puzzel Yard. This included several with the wide treads which I was led to believe are coarse scale. One of these was part of the train used to test the low level tracks and seemed to bounce over at least one of the points. As a result I was planning to pass the wide tread vehicles on.

 

I mentioned this to my colleagues this morning and chose one of the so fitted wagons at random and it seemed quite happily negotiating the various points that we tried it through. I shall couple of the similar wagons together and take them around the layout and see how many don't object at my home made points.

[Ray H]

I fitted HobbyKing HK5320 micro servos to the Gawcott points based on a similar arrangement used by one of last week's visitors.

 

They're small enough to lay on their side with the horn movement in line with and the horn itself very close to the tiebar. I wasn't convinced that all the horn fixings were secure but it dawned on me the following day that because the servos were as close to the points as could be, their leads would either need cutting to add an extension piece between connector and servo or I'd potentially have the problem of having to lift the track that the servo leads (and more importantly, the connector on the end of the lead) passed under if one failed. A nice (original) concept but not for me given that I don't have room for wiring under the upper level baseboard.

 

Out came the HK5320s to be replaced by the larger and more familiar SG90s, also laying on their side but mounted at the edge of the board with wire in (copper) tube driving the tiebar. The copper tube shouldn't be too hard to disguise and all the servo's leads can run along the front (top) edge of the baseboard which would make replacement, should it be necessary, much easier.

 

I keep looking at the lever frame and wondering exactly how to mount it. Westbury's frame has been sunk into the narrow depth extension to the lower baseboard where it can be reasonably easily removed. The Arduino and the PCA9685 servo board are mounted on the underside of the piece of plywood to which the levers are fixed and everything screwed into two of the supports of the depth extension pieces.

 

I don't have that luxury at Gawcott where the (interior door style) baseboard comprises sheets of 5mm plywood affixed either side of 15mm square softwood.

 

'm tempted to cut a hole in the baseboard towards the front, reinforce the void between the plywood sheets with some further softwood and support the frame on a piece of 15mm thick plywood (or similar) which, in turn, is supported from below by a means yet to be determined.

 

There are a couple of concerns. One is the infringement of the space below the upper baseboard especially as the only suitable area with space for supports on the lower board is adjacent to a hand-worked fiddle yard point. As we all know, points are the more likely areas for derailments, no matter how infrequent.

 

The other concern is somewhere to mount the Arduino and the PCA9685. This is a concern regardless of where and how I mount the lever frame. There is a platform between the rear of the lever frame and the nearest track. There also needs to be a station building of sorts somewhere along the platform. Maybe one or both of these could become the home for the Arduino etc. Under or inside the station building is probably best as this would be easier to lift off if access was required to what was within.

 

Ho! hum, decisions, decisions. 😒

[Ray H]

I bit the bullet and decided to do roughly the same for Gawcott as I had for Westbury although I spent well over an hour trying to work out how best to achieve it (without physically doing any work!). I think there's still enough room to be able to access the track below should the need arise.

 

 

I cut the appropriate size hole in the baseboard to accommodate the frame. Having had to remove the Westbury frame a couple of times to get to the servos mounted alongside, I made sure there weren't any servos too close to this frame.

 

I inserted 15mm softwood screwed to both upper and lower plywood skins of the baseboard in order to maintain the strength of the board.

 

The Arduino is mounted on the underside of the shelf on which the levers are fixed. The PCA9685 (to which the servos will be connected) can be seen mounted vertically to the right of the levers. These boards (shields?) are brilliant because you can have up to 62 of them connected in series, each holding a maximum of 16 servos and requiring just 4 wires from the Arduino in total regardless of how many of them there are. They can also work with LEDs which is brilliant for control panels. A slight draw back is that you can't mix LEDs and servos on the same PCA9685. The blue and brown wires are the board's 5 volt supply to power the servos themselves - the Arduino just tells the servos what to do, the 5v supply provides the power for them to do it.

 

Just below the PCA9685 and also mounted vertically is what is known as a Buck Converter. It is a means of lowering the voltage between its input and its output, in this case from 12 volts to around 9 volts. Some say that Arduinos will run quite happily on 12 volt  but are quite happy with a lesser voltage. I've tended to standardise on 9 volts to avoid generating too much heat on the Arduino.

 

The red & black wires are the layouts 12 volt supply which, besides powering this Arduino indirectly, will provide the power for isolated servos. One for the Tingewick Siding point and (possibly) replacing the (Wren style point) levers of the three hand-worked points in the hidden sidings below.

 

There was originally only one point in the hidden sidings. The extra sidings recently added necessitated two further points which I had no qualms in also using the hand levers. However, two of the three points now make what amounts to a crossover so it makes more sense to convert them to servo operation, which will just require two switches, three servos and a MERG Servo4 kit which I already have made up.

 

The 12 volt supply is also going to be used with a couple of short LED strips to illuminate the layout under the wall cupboards mounted above the factory sidings at Gawcott - i.e. the two sidings at the back of the layout to the left of the lever frame.

 

Tomorrow's first job is to make up some extension leads for the Gawcott servos, fit them between servo and PCA9685 and then set up the servos on the Arduino.

[Ray H]

The three points in the hidden sidings are have now been converted to servo operation via two switches - one working the crossover - and controlled via a MERG Servo4 that I found that I had to hand and assembled.

 

The servo controlling the Tingewick siding point has also been commissioned, this time using a recently purchased MERG PMK18 Ezypnts kit. This is the later version of the PMP18, this latter built on strip board whilst the newer design has a bespoke PCB and looks much neater.

 

The two short LED strips have been installed. They're better than nothing but I think a single (much) longer strip would be better. I did buy such a strip several years back, for the same area but the adhesive on it wasn't strong enough and it had to be held in place with cable clips. I'd be pleased to learn if anyone has found a strip of around 4ft length that has strong enough adhesive to allow it to be mounted on the underside of wall mounted cupboards.

 

I undecided about the next job. Do I try to make a start on the embankment between Westbury and the inclined LR track (so that I don't keep tipping over the stiff cardboard boxes that I've retained for the purpose or do I convert change the Terrier's couplings to Dinghams/Flipem. I do need to swap the Dingham's round on a couple of locos because all the locos would need to run chimney first up the incline to keep the firebox crown covered with water.

[Ray H]

Westbury Crossing now has the basis of a platform. The vertical elements are currently plain plastic set back from the ballast edge. I plan to use brick papers for the platform walls but know from bitter experience that putting them in place too soon means the colours run when the ballast is sprayed with water/PVA. I'll try spraying the brick paper with matt varnish to try to seal it. The platform surface is currently card as this is a bit easier (& cheaper as the card was free!) to work with when trying to get the shape right. I can't make up my mind what to use as the final surface.

 

Tingewick also got the basics of its platform yesterday before Westbury did. The structure is the same as Westbury's save that I glued the car surface down late yesterday = whereas Westbury's card surface required slightly lengthening and I ran out of time before fixing it down. This was fortunate . . . .

 

I decided this morning that I should have pinned rather than glued the platform surfaces down to make them easier to remove if I need to - especially as Tingewick's platform is difficult to get to. Luckily, the adhesive (UHU) hadn't completely set so I was able to uplift the card this morning and will scrape the remnants of glue & card off the plastic frame later.

 

I've also added the corrugated card vertical supports for the embankment between the BR track (at baseboard level) and the LR track as it climbs towards Gawcott. The first 50mm (height wise) will be fronted by a brick wall as I reckoned the embankment slope would have been too steep if it had gone all the way down to the baseboard.

 

I haven't covered the corrugated card yet. The slope will be made up from narrow strips of card, probably hot glued in place. That in turn will most likely be covered with Mod-Roc (or similar) whist the brick wall will, like the platforms, be plastic covered with printed brick paper - with the same concern about the ink running if the paper gets wet when gluing the ballast down.

[Ray H]

Here's the Westbury platform with the test train alongside.

 

 

The platform surface has yet to be pinned down but the railcar happily passes clear off both sides.

 

The basis of the embankment can be seen on the right.

 

The OO track in the foreground is looking for a more permanent home within the garage in case I have cause to test a loco on it.

 

I decided to remake Tingewick's platform surface and marked it out using a very much makeshift trammel in the hope that I would at least get a smooth curve on the trackside edge. I got as far as marking but not cutting the shape before I had to stop for the day.

 

Its shape should reflect the constant track radius but laying the Mk. 1 surface over the newly marked one makes me wonder if the track's radius is smooth. I'll find out tomorrow morning.

[jcarta]

Mr Ray, this looks very good, especially the lever frame and the platform, I just need to see if a class 40 passes the platform 😀

 

Glad to see that you have started the terrain by the station, it looks great... will there be a small wall and then a hill up to the LR?

 

 

[Ray H]

13 hours ago, jcarta said:

Mr Ray, this looks very good, especially the lever frame and the platform, I just need to see if a class 40 passes the platform 😀

 

The class 40 is always welcome, just make sure its accidental insurance policy is up to date 😄.

 

I'm home all weekend if it wants to give it a try.

 

13 hours ago, jcarta said:

Glad to see that you have started the terrain by the station, it looks great... will there be a small wall and then a hill up to the LR?

 

That's the plan. It may get advanced a bit today.

[Nearholmer]

I am in awe of your business-like focus and rate of progress!

 

Looking very good.

[Ray H]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I am in awe of your business-like focus and rate of progress!

 

Looking very good.

 

Thanks.

 

I've spent much of today getting plastered!

 

The embankment on which the LR runs from emerging from under Gawcott round to where it crosses over the baseboard level tracks has had card strips glued to the vertical card supports seen in the most recent picture above.

 

These have then been covered with a first layer of plaster impregnated cloth.

 

I'm now debating whether to just mix up some ordinary (white) plaster and apply that over the first layer, whether to hope that I have enough plaster cloth for a second layer or buy and use Sculptamold. I've seen the latter used on the club O gauge layout and was quite impressed.

 

I have extended the cloth downwards from the bottom of the "to be grassed" slope to disguise the gap between the card strips. The "brick" wall should help disguise the bottom of the grass as well so I wasn't planning the apply further cloth (or whatever) beyond the bottom of the slope.

[Ray H]

So much for having a plan.

 

I couldn't find anywhere locally (via the Internet) that sold reasonably small packets of white plaster e.g. something akin to Polyfilla. However, during my search I saw mention of Artex which reminded me that I had bought some a while back and that I should have still had plenty on hand. And so it turned out.

 

Consequently, all of yesterday's plaster clothed area has been treated to a coat of Artex mixed with some light brown powder paint that has turned out nearer to grey than brown!

 

I shall now leave it be (I think) while I turn my attention to sorting out the couplings of the Terrier and the recently acquired wagons that still have 3 link couplings and the two locos that need their Dingham couplings changing ends as mentioned previously.

 

I ended the day with a bit of running.

 

One of the recently purchased vans is made from brass and weighs a lot more than the various plastic kit types that I have. I decided to use this with another five recently bought (plastic kit) vehicles (and a brake) to see if the Terrier could manage the incline with this train.

 

I'm pleased to report that it did. Mind you it has highlighted a couple of trackwork problems that need looking at, including the possible replacement of one of the servos at Gawcott which seems reluctant to respond to its lever's operation.

 

That should be at least tomorrow taken care of.

[Ray H]

One of the things I noticed yesterday was the frog on one point had a decidedly strange shape viz:

 

 

The left hand rail leading to the nose had a very strange shape. Fortunately I was able to remove the point from the layout, remove the frog rails - both of which were replaced and lengthened to remove some dodgy infill that I'd applied when the point was initially laid - and make a new frog and adjust the gauge around the frog. Subsequent movements over the frog today were much less bumpy.

 

 

I've also managed to change the Dingham couplings around on the two loco's facing the wrong way. One took seconds, the other - the Ixion Hudswell Clarke - took a while because I couldn't remember how to access the chassis - i.e. so that I could get to the couplings, so I left the hooks in place and swapped the rest over. Thank goodness for 16BA nuts & bolts to hold the couplings together,

 

I had intended to fit Dingham's to the Terrier today as well but I decided to tackle a wagon and a brake van and then got diverted into modifying the bodywork on the brake van. It won't win any prices but it will look a little more like something that could have been around in the early BR days (as it will be the BR train's brake van). A picture (in the unpainted state) should appear tomorrow.

 

I've now run all but two LR locos down and up the incline with a train without any problems. I'll run the others tomorrow probably.

[Ray H]

Here's the result of much of today's labours.

 

 

The one on the left is as I received one of the same kit some while ago whereas the right-hand model is how I've amended said kit. It won't win any prizes but it suits my needs.

 

The longer of the traverser's four tracks can only hold a loco, 6 wagons and a brake. Using a more recent brake van, which tend to be longer, would probably reduce the capacity to 5 wagons, especially if the train comprises more vans than wagons because vans tend to be slightly longer than the open wagons.

 

I've now exhausted my supply of (already) made-up Dingham couplings so will start making up some more to use them up before I start using the newer Flippem couplings.

[Ray H]

I managed to toast a resistor on one of the frog juicers during yesterday's tests of loco capabilities on the gradient. Neither resistor nor juicer failed but the resistor's excess warmth probably didn't help its longevity. Unfortunately said juicer is the one attached the long crossing which is in close proximity to the garage wall on the low level baseboard.

 

I had overlooked to consider the possibility of a failure of the juicer when I added the Gawcott baseboard above it. This toasting made me think that I maybe ought to relocate the juicer. This was today's main task and the juicer is now on the garage wall above the Gawcott baseboard and alongside a pair of Gawcott's juicers. All done without removing any baseboards!

 

The next task that I opted to do was to fit Dingham/Flippem couplings to the Terrier which still had its screw couplings. I went for the Flippem ones on the basis that their loop is wider than the Dingham loop which might be useful with the layout's tight curves given how small the Terriers are.

 

Puzzel Yard was equipped with some home made electro-magnets, something I hadn't considered for the new layout. Instead, I happened upon some Neodymium magnets that were a leftover from my OO layout. I stuck one of these magnets on top of one of the sleepers at Gawcott and saw a significant improvement in uncoupling performance compared to the electro-magnets. I know that there's a potential for every wagon to become uncoupled from its neighbour by using these "permanent" magnets but I have found this not to be a problem. Why, you may well ask!

 

I haven't been too precise about fitting the Dingham couplings as I should have been. As a result many of the loops protrude further from the buffer line than they should. Consequently, when two wagons are coupled together, the outside of the loop is touching the back of the hook of the neighbouring wagon. As a result, the friction associated with the touching is enough to stop the loop lifting when the soft iron drop wire passes over the magnet.

 

 

 

 

[Ray H]

With a couple of temporary exceptions, each for a good reason, all the locos and all the freight stock is now fitted with either Dingham or Flippem couplings.

 

We had a running/shunting session yesterday having first tried to see if Jim's Class 40 would negotiate the layout's curves - no such luck 😒.

 

We also tried having tail traffic attached to the rear of the DLW railcar (which BR has temporarily loaned to the LR until the LR get their house in order and assemble at least one of the three coach kits that are waiting to fulfil the role for which they are to be built). We eventually overcame the derailments (caused by the railcars couplings not stretching far enough on the curves), by using an ordinary paper clip as a coupling.

 

The signal kits have migrated to the work bench as their installation/commissioning will wrap up the Arduino based jobs on the layout.

 

In the meantime I'm trying to arrive at a workable system for moving the freight stock around. My current thinking is to print cards each with a picture of a wagon on it. There will be a receptacle at each station (and one or two in the fiddle yard) into which the cards will go to indicate the presence of the wagon at the place where the receptacle is.

 

There's a limit of six wagons (plus loco & brake van) per train and potentially three destinations from each origin point for each wagon - the fiddle yard mimics both ends of the BR branch so wagons can start and finish there at opposite ends of the same journey.

 

I envisage having two BR return (goods) trips in each full running session so there are potentially four opportunities to exchange wagons between BR & the LR. The cards will be manually moved around the layout in parallel with the train conveying the wagons depicted on the cards. The reverse of the card could indicate the siding/berth where the wagon is to end up at a given "station"

 

There has to be another related system that indicates how many wagons originate from each place (and where they're bound for). It should be possible to work out all the permutations of possible wagon movements per BR train - the number of wagon moves solely on the LR are so small that they can be ignored. I could print a sheet detailing all the permutations, with each permutation being numbered. I could then run a spreadsheet macro that randomly allocates a permutation (number) to each day of a month. I'll need to consider whether to have a single permutation detailing all four BR trips on a day or having one permutation per BR train.

 

I'm also minded to throw in a couple of curved balls that cause a variation from the normal. Examples could be a loco (or railcar) failure, an extra goods train, etc., etc.. The easiest way to incorporate this is via (for example) 25 cards with the majority saying "normal service today" and a few randomly placed ones detailing a variation. One of these cards is chosen at the start of each session and returned to the bottom of the stack before the next session starts. The stack could be shuffled on the first operating day of each month to build in some more variation.

 

There are currently 34 wagons on the layout (and another 10 or so as currently unbuilt/awaiting painting) which give plenty of variation.

 

 

 

 

[Ray H]

I've finished making the LR's signals - the BR side of things will have none, as the LR connection is deemed to be via a ground frame locked/unlocked via the single line's train staff (or whatever).

 

The two upper quadrants are most likely to be the LR's home and starter signals at Westbury Crossing - signals are only required at one end as the LR side of the station is a terminus. I've also got access to the underside of the baseboard here so the servo leads can be run under the baseboard without fear of being disturbed.

 

The other signals will therefore be those for Gawcott which, as some distance from BR in theory (in practice the BR track is underneath Gawcott 😀) - missed out on the signalling upgrade which, at Westbury saw the BR signal box closed and dismantled and two of the previously BR signals "donated" to the LR.

 

 

There are no prizes for recognising that the above need a clean and painting before they're installed.🙂

 

Although the majority of the layout's points and signals will be operated by SG90 servos, Gawcott's signals will probably be operated by two HobbyKing HK-5320 Ultra-Micro Digital Servos. Besides being a lot smaller than the SG90s, their leads are much smaller as are their Micro JST connectors. As a result I think I can get away with cutting the relevant size hole in both skins of the upper baseboard and run the servo leads on the surface of the bottom skin, held in place by adhesive backed cable clips without too much of a risk of any access to the tracks below disturbing said leads. We can but hope.

[Ray H]

The signals have been painted, had their servos fitted, been installed on the layout and connected to the appropriate lever frames. We won't go into the two days lost trying to work out why delving into the Arduino sketch to facilitate commissioning the lower quadrant at Gawcott stopped the points operated by the frame's first lever. The full story can be found in the Arduino section of the MERG website.

 

I happened upon a picture in one of the threads hereon of a couple of sidings associated with a wagon repair facility. That's set me wondering. I had the idea of placing a lineside factory against the garage wall at the loco shed end of Gawcott. Now I'm minded to have a small shed alongside the loco shed that could act as the LR's workshop which undertook some basic stock repairs. That might help to disguise the end of the upper baseboard.

 

An alternative is to move the Goods shed/yard to be alongside the loco shed and have the "works" at the other end of the baseboard.

 

The name of the line came about because I'd bought a Dapol Terrier numbered 5 & named Portishead and didn't want to disfigure the tank sides thereby leaving the GWR crest alone. It transpires that No. 5 was bought by the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead railway in the late 1930s. It then went to the GWR where it was renumbered to 5 and (so the story goes) was cut-up in 1954.

 

However, we all know how accurate some of these historical stories can be and I'm only too pleased to report that No. 5 was loaned to the Gawcott & Westbury Light Railway for a couple of years before being returned westward to face the cutters torch.

 

Similarly (and possibly stretching things even further, at least temporarily), one of the Derby Lightweight railcars built in 1954 that plied between Banbury & Buckingham has been loaned to the LR whilst the LR's 4-wheeled coaches are outstanding some attention in the works (also known as waiting to be built  🙂). BR in turn borrowed one of them there newly built Pressed Steel Company railcars that were later to become the Class 121 of which some found their way to Bletchley.

 

I've been reading a book on Light Railways and have found reference to at least one of the other members of my LR's loco stud. I shall see if I can bend its back story to fit mine.