Stockrington - Mojo ignited. Thanks, Heljan!

[jukebox]

When those NEM Kadee's arrived, I realised it was as good a time as any to start detailing bufferbeams.

 

KOYLI came first; 3 hoses, 3 hand rails, a lamp iron, and a winged thistle headboard (from Fox).

 

I've had a bit of practice doing detail work, installing GWR nameplates for a fellow modelling friend over the last few months (see Thommo, there was a reason I was glad to muck in and give you a hand!), but this lot really tested me - very hard to do a neat job without mucking up the nose paint.  I feel sorry for those modellers who aren't so agile with thier mitts these days, or who have always had ten thumbs.

 

A good end result, though - and perhaps even possible first train candidate:

 

Note to self: MUST fit screw link to this end.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[Jaz]

I worry about the constraints though

 

 

CONSTRAINTS

Do not use:
On surfaces that are either wet or frozen
At temperatures below 10°C
If the relative humidity is above 70%

 

Is this when initially used, or is it an issue afterwards? The humidity might not count but the winter temp and the wet query concern me

[jukebox]

I worry about the constraints though

 

 

CONSTRAINTS

Do not use:

On surfaces that are either wet or frozen

At temperatures below 10°C

If the relative humidity is above 70%

 

Is this when initially used, or is it an issue afterwards? The humidity might not count but the winter temp and the wet query concern me

 

Didn't notice any of those in the Bachmann service sheet, Jaz...

Edited June 23, 2013 by jukebox

[jukebox]

Progress was as expected this weekend.  I was able to cut and stick down the final two closures for Stage 1 of Stockrington. 

 

There is now a complete circuit of track around the room:

Luckily, I only need two, maybe three of these turnouts operational to begin with. Still, I will motorise them all now, and test them so that I don't need to go back and sort them out later, as construction progresses.

 

I still have a little soldering to do, to attach the rails to the screws on the far side of the bridge gap, and three more Cobalts to fit and test.  I will also extend the down main across the bridge from the double slip, to give myself something of a headshunt when it comes to testing time.

 

Looks like it won't be long before I have to dig out my stock box and unpack some of the coaches and wagons that I've accumulated, and go for a test run!

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[jukebox]

You know what they say about buses: wait forever for one to come, then you will get two at once. Well it's true at Stockrington, too!  Not only did I run a DC bus today, (well, two actually) but I also managed to knuckle down and get the Stage 1 DCC bus wire run, too.

 

The DCC bus is up high, nice and close to the track; down low is the 9V DC bus - some heavy duty speaker cable.  That third riser sure looks ropey!  I'm guessing it's just not flat on top (it's an off cut).

 

Under the storage yard.  That loose loop will be pinned up - I figured I would leave about 500mm of slack under here - just in case I needed to shift the bus for whatever reason. (no DC bus here - I've decided that I'll use two accessory transformers, and as there are no turnouts along the long wall, I don't need to run a DC bus here.  I can always tee on in later if needs be.

 

I spent most of this morning on my back, screwing in the 16 Cobalts I'd previously installed just using the double sided tape DCCconcepts provides.  I've decided that is a god forsaken task, as the shape of the Cobalts means a battery/power drill can't be used, and the distance from floor to bottom of board is just a little more than maximum reach when lying down...

 

Curious fact: did you know that the screws that are used to hold Cobalts in are only slightly larger than your nasal passage?  I know this as a fact, because as I was screwing up my second Cobalt, the screw slipped, and tumbled neatly into my nostril and up the back of my nose. I tried to pull it out, but we're talking the back of your nose - the passage to your throat and lungs. Thinking a trip to Emergency may by on the cards, I carefully sat up off the floor, blocked my free nostril and puffed... lucky for me, the errant faster freed itself and landed in my lap. Needless to say I avoided placing my noggin anywhere near the "drop zone" for the remainder of the installs.

 

Despite that excitement, I did complete the task, and by lunchtime had 16 Cobalts in, and the actuating wires nipped off with the Dremel:

 

In order, from closest to camera: MPD turnout; up mainline, coaling stage...

 

Just to prove it's been a productive day, I even fitted the two push-to-make switches that will isolate power to and either side of the lift bridge:

 

I will cut the red bus wire and feed it through the switch in the top left corner...

 

I tested those under track Kadee uncouplers, and they work exactly as advertised - so no shimming needed, and I can go ahead and continue installing the remainder the same way as I lay more track.

 

And to top it off, I managed an arty high contrast photo of my DCC bus:

 

 

But it hasn't been all layout fun; I tried to fit a decoder to my Heljan Falcon - even used the TCS UK 8 pin version - but Heljan have a couple of resistors hard up against the socket that mean you cannot seat the decoder properly:

 

It may have worked - but I wasn't going to risk leaving it that way.

 

Grrrr!  So I had to grab an 8 pin harness and install a normal T1 decoder into Falcon.

 

All good in the end.

 

 

Cheers

 

Scott

 

PS: I see Hornby have just posted first pix of the P2.  If you haven't seen them, take a look here. Very nice looking test model!  How many can I justify for Stockrington....?

Edited June 29, 2013 by jukebox

[Jaz]

Jukebox, you do make me laugh, I don;t know about you in emergency, The thought of a screw in your nose and the probable look on your face, immediately after , a few secs after and the relief when it shot out was priceless. Bulging eyeballs definitely came to mind!!!!! 

Has there been any swearing when you find the cobalt is JUST in the wrong place to reach the point? And you have had to resort to s chisel to make room?

Edited June 29, 2013 by Jaz

[jukebox]

Ah, yes, Jaz, well you see I know all about the need to visit the hospital for a blocked orrifice... my younger son put a 5mm bead in his ear at school when he was six ( Why?????   "....Because I wanted to see if it would fit" !!!???????) and the Dr here couldn't readily remove it, so prescribed day surgery so they could put him under general anaesthetic, as it's simple to get said bead out, but rather disconcerting for a 6 year-old, so apparently it's easier to knock 'em out.  I offered to use a frypan...  and then there was my grandmother, who woke up one morning and was telling everyone she could hear footsteps and scratching inside her head... we all though she was going crazy, but her Dr recognised it was an ant that had found it's way onto her eardrum. The soloution, if you'll pardon the pun, was to lie down with her errant ear skyward, and flood the ear canal with some sort of fluid, that killed the creepy crawly, and floated it's body up and out of her head!

 

So my nasal insertion was, quite frankly, just keeping up a decade old family tradition.  But you are right... I watched it fall in slow motion and could not believe when, like some miniature Tallboy ordinance, it slipped down the rabbit hole, and into Wonderland.  I was seriously relieved I was able to reverse the trajectory with no fuss.

 

***

 

I had no major issues aligning Cobalts, although I ended up not using the template DCCc supply. But those screws! I guess it was the thought of doing sixteen at once that didn't help either...  next time I'll do them in small batches. My forearms are killing me from holding the battery drill above me, and my wrists ache from screwing the self tappers into the play (yep, soft hands here!).  Of course if I had used the template and drilled pilot holes...

 

Whenever I had a Cobalt that wouldn't fit, I spun it through 180 degrees and it seems to have been okay - although I did juggle a couple of them on the trackplan when I was setting out, so that explains the "luck" part I guess. So no chiselling needed - although I was a bit precious with my first few holes, and by the time I figured out what was going on I'd opened up a lot larger slots.  So I did go back to install #1 and 1/. swap the motor out for one with a full length actuator and 2/. open the hole up so I got a firmer throw. When the time comes to ballast I'll slap on some of the hole covering stickers to disguise the larger excavations.

 

I still have the one "low clearance" install that I couldn't get any clearence to use a screwdriver to screw in. I need to buy some silicone and "bog" that one in, per DCCc's suggestion on their install literature.

 

***

 

I took a couple of Bachmann Mk2 Pullmans for a freehand spin around the track, to check none of my track gaps were too large.  As was expected, I discovered some dodgy dynamics on the steep down chute - there was one corner where the curve was a little uneven, and I could generate buffer lock and derailment at the same location repeatedly.  I solved this by easing the curve out a little, and adding extra washer screws to hold the shape to one that the cars passed without incident.    The other area was when I brought the cars up the chute.  I was getting the leading wheel of the inside pair of bogies to lift of, and because it was a reverse curve, run up and over the rail. Now whilst this movement ("up" the "down" chute) is not likely to ever need to happen in normal operation, there's no point in having a track fault you know about if you can get rid of it.  I eyeballed it, and could see it was at a point where the vertical curve increases, so I added a wedge under that section of baseboard to flatten the transition by about 3mm.  Result, the carriages now track up and down without leaving the track.

 

I will still need to see how a train of coaches behave, and also how both Co-Co and 2-10-0/4-6-2 wheelbases react on these curves, once the power is switched on.

 

***

I had marked up and drilled out three small boards to use as temporary local control panels in the areas where I am going to make the Cobalts live for Stage 1. Pity I didn't look at how far the thread on the DPDT switches projects. My wood (floorboard offcuts) was twice as thick as it needed to be, as the thread didn;t even project... and so I ended up wasting a couple of hours this afternoon marking out, and drilling these ready for switches, only to have to scrap them. 

 

At that point it was 20C outside, and the sun was shining, so it was time to cut my losses for the weekend:  I upped sticks and walked the dog!

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Edited June 30, 2013 by jukebox

[Jaz]

20c???? You jammie bxxxxxr. Although to be honest I don't like really hot summers (looks over shoulder to see if a slap is coming) We have just attacked the garden last weekend, and spent yesterday destroying a rather large cottoneaster horizontalis. and fitted in tidying the garage this weekend (it's amazing what you dump in there and forget when you stop keeping a car in it.) And am looking forward to saying a good job well done, and get back to modelling.

 

Those red and black tiwsted cables look very familiar Kal tends to use tortoises , but he noticed the price has come down on cobalts so he might be tempted when we get into the next area. And no its not the garage, we tidied the loft for the next area, but this involved tiding the garage, which involved tidying the shed. The garage is now looking rather large and a certain person is now saying I might get my dining room back as he moves into a bigger space i.e. the garage (20ftx20ft) (6mx6m). But, I have a sneaking feeling he'll end up with both (to be fair I think the garage is not likely to be wrm enough during the winter). As long as we can keep the freezer and lawnmower in the garage I'll be fine. Although I do wonder if he gets into the garage weahter he wont just manage a little itsy bitsy bit of track.....and we are definitely not doing a helix up to the loft 

[artizen]

Helix to the roof, eh? Have a look at this for inspiration -

[jukebox]

There is an interesting discussion underway on the Kirkby Luneside thread about ballasting.

 

One of the things I have observed in looked though the many NER/LNER volumes I have collected, is how lean the ballast was in the steam era.  Whilst 300mm underneath the sleeper is not uncommon today, with a resulting "shoulder" that has quite a visible slope, many if not most of the images of the LNER I have show a very flat shoulder. Even the EMCL is not immune to this trait.

 

It is for this reason that I selected 3mm foam to go uner the track, rather than 5mm - I just felt that having a distinct shoulder 380mm thick (plus the sleeper thickness - so coming on towards 500mm from top of sleeper to trackbed - was too deep.

 

Another observation of mine was the way the (L)NER were not fastidious about bringing ballast up level with the top of the sleeper, or surrounding the end of the sleeper.

 

I know there will be images out there contradicting all of the above, but to illustrate what I mean, here's a few NE examples,

 

(for more wonderful photos like this, visit Railphotoprints, who provided links for embedding the following photos)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[Andrew P]

Hi Scott, nice pics and it seems to be coming on well.

 

Keep the pics coming.

 

Andy

[jukebox]

What seems like a long time ago, I described making the Shinohara turnouts and slips I am using DCC ready.

 

I've just discovered I made life a little hard for myself.

 

 

You can see I have marked the gap I cut behind the frog; I've done this to make the frog live - the companion gap is the space between the two turnouts, nine bearers to the left, if you are counting...

 

What I didn't realise at the time was that Shinohara don't use cast one piece frogs; these are similar to hand built ones, in that the wing rails are separate to the crossing rails.

 

I know this because...

 

Yep, t'was starting to solder droppers this morning.  Did a continuity test with my multimeter, and kept getting a dead section just in front of my frogs. Looking, looking, looking - could not work out why.  So came downstairs and got the spare double slip I have in my materials stockpile, and turned it over (rather hard to do on one in track!) and the plastic moulding holding the track in gauge is a lot clearer to see.

 

So... I shall need to add some discrete jumpers in situ, from the crossing rail to the wing rail, to energise the whole frog. 

 

 

If the turnouts are built the same way, that means I have five to do.  I guess I will be good at it by the time I do the last one!

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[jukebox]

Well, there goes another productive weekend on Stockrington.

 

I started off by sorting out the dead frogs on Saturday.  Luckily, it was only the double slip that was affected - I must have soldered the jumpers on the turnouts with my brain engaged, as they all tested fine.  Anyway, a 40mm long filament of copper wire was tinned and manipulated into a T, then slid in place after I cut away some trackbed foam.  It was tucked in hard against the frog ends, and soldered up, then the free end soldered to the side of the rail from above - quickly in and out to avoid melting the foam.

 

The end result should be less than obvious once I paint it up, and ballast:

 

This evening I had something of a dropper fiesta (!), connecting six turnouts and the all nearby track, that will be switched on and off by the lift bridge, to the DCC bus.

 

Ah, the joys of soldering underneath a layout...  May as well let the pictures tell the story:

 

The warm and fuzzy satisfaction of seeing six Cobalts with (blue and white) DC feed wires, (red and black) DCC feeds and the (green) frog powering wire, all in situ.

 

You can also see I was out a touch with my estimate for the length of a Shinohara #8 turnout - and needed to solder an extra 50mm to my frog droppers.

 

 

I cut and drilled some temporary "ground frames" - panels for those turnouts I need in Stage 1.  These have been painted up and are drying, so next week I will use some time to wire those up - no more 9V battery to drive the Cobalts after that.

 

The bridge section is also wired up and push-to-make switches are installed and working.  In this view you can just make out the red circuit detouring via the pressure switch:

 

 

The end of the bus under the door bridge needs a filter, and I should also tee off enough bus to connect the other four tracks that will eventually cross here.

 

Last, but not least, I laid the second track across the door bridge.  So I have about 5ft of double track mainline in place.  The camera is rather cruel, and I noticed in this shot that the slight ramp up from Shinohara to Peco on the right hand track looks like quite a ski jump:

 

 

The reality is a lot kinder.

 

It's been rather perverse that one of the most complicated pieces of trackwork I have planned has to be the first I lay, and wire up.  It is working, and I've been pushing stock through it to see how they handle it and it seems okay.  I would not discount the possibility of "one day" replacing the Shinoharas with some handbuilt [by others] turnouts here, but unless these give me grief on a regular basis, they will be good enough to get me underway and see trains running.

 

Three weekends till August!

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[Jaz]

warm and fuzzy feeling? I'd get a doctor to look at that........LOL

Seriously though nice work.

Edited July 12, 2013 by Jaz

[silky_jack]

Hi Scott....I have just caught up with your thread since being on RMweb.  My you have been busy!!  It's all looking fantastic.  I am now following your thread so can be kept up to speed more regularly.

 

[jukebox]

Nothing a Doctor could do about what I have, Jaz...

 

***

 

Welcome aboard RMWeb, Ian!  Yes, I have been documenting Stockrington in detail here for almost 9 months now.  Being told my trackplan was "becoming a 'Rabbit Warren' layout with absolutely no resemblance to real railways. Railways run 'through' the countryside but it seems your objective is to sqeeze as much track into the space as possible with the scenery being contrived to suit" at the other place pretty much sealed my desire to pack up shop there; some insanely heavy handed moderation of the last two post I made was the final straw. This week's meltdown was inevitable, and sad to hear/see. 

 

The upside is that RMWeb is a massive resource - many, many specialists here, who are passionate about their fields. Living so far away from what I am modelling, I'm very grateful for the broadminded and supportive way people have joined me on my build. 

 

***

 

I had a small parcel arrive this week - some extra Bachmann hosepipe coach connections , plus some Hornby Roco style couplings, that I will use for the "inside" coches on my fixed rakes (the outer coaches will of course need Kadees).  I need to give a shout out to Mike Parsons, from C&M Models in Carlisle - he had these items at a rock bottom price, and shipped them out to me in double time, with no fuss and no hassles. Please check out the C&M website if you are shopping for bits and bobs - he was cheaper than the big box shifters, so deserves a go! Usual disclaimer - no connection (well, actually, he did - thats what I bought   , satisfied customer etc...)

 

Cheers

 

Scott

 

[Kal]

Hi Scott

 

Have you seen that NRM have done a limited edition of class 47 Prince William, I know you would prefer the Prince Harry version but I do not think they have the rights to the logo.

 

[jukebox]

Ah, so you saw that post before it got deleted then, Kal?  That was the penultimate one: My final post resulted in a PM to me  "snide comment - post deleted"... so I did the same with my account, blog and gallery. 

 

Anyway... I havn't got the stamina to keep updates on multiple hobby sites, so RMWeb it is. 

 

Just don't mention the war, whatever you do! 

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[silky_jack]

I mentioned it once....but I think I got away with it!

[jukebox]

I did too.. but didn't!

 

(or was it just that I cribbed a photo from The Sun? Never thought that would be a hanging offence...)

[silky_jack]

It doesn't take much nowadays!

[Kal]

HI 

 

I saw the picture, strange thing is the one making the fuss never saw it , go figure

Edited July 12, 2013 by Kal

[jukebox]

Another good session at Stockrington today.  How good?  So good, I ran out of solder.  I thought I had another card of the 179 downstairs, but apparently not.  Lucky for me I'd met my goal of finishing all the droppers with about 10cm to solder wire to spare. 

 

So I did make a start on the control station - I have a six pin plug and used the last of the solder to make up the looms for that, so I can continue the rest of that exercise during the week as they are all screw connectors.

 

Probably just as well, as I am over soldering overhead for awhile. I only managed to burn myself once - small solder burn to the palm   - so I guess I'm lucky.

 

***

 

For those who are interested in these sort of things, I attached a multimeter to one end of my DCC bus before the start of each dropper soldering session, and switched it to to "continuity" mode. That way, if for some bizzare reason I managed to transpose the droppers, the buzzer will go off.  Mind you, my mnemonic is "Red towards the Middle" and I was careful to lay the pre-droppered track that way as I went, so I didn't expect issues.  The Cobalts are not hard to do once you remember the central two wire terminals are for common wires, and the pairs either side just need to be wired the same way the track above is - again "Red towards the Middle"

 

At the end of each session, before removing the multimeter, I take a wire and "short" the track - this confirms where I have a circuit going to, and also is a check that I have not transposed the frog switching for the turnouts (the side the turnout is not running into should have frog and closure rails common polarity, so they should not buzz).

 

***

 

Something that struck me (other than hot solder  ) as I was prone under the layout: I wont be able to work like that to solder the feeders for the upper layer of track - where in some areas I have just 250mm of clearance from the storage track below.  I shall need to run the Mainline DCC bus in the open, out from under the trackbed, so I can solder from above.  Which in turn will mean I need to solder longer droppers so they can be brought out from under the track...

 

***

 

So the tasks for this week include wiring up the PSX-4, and the NCE Booster, plus - once I get some solder - making the mini panels to control the access to the yard, and the panels for each end of yard itself.  The first, located between Stockrington Station and Northmoor MPD, would be Stockrington North Panel.  I'm going to do a little research/reading tonight and see if I can come up with a suitably feasible North Eastern name for the storage yard, and therefore its North and South Boxes.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[jukebox]

Turns out the DPDT's have screw terminals, so no need to wait for solder.  For those who prefer pictures...

 

Temporary control panels for Stage 1 operations, now wired up and ready to drop in:

 

Hmmmmm. Now I look at it, I wonder if I could have used just the one switch on that crossover. I didn't see it at the time, as half of it is a double slip. I need to get my head around how that D/S operation relates to the facing turnout.

 

And in case anyone feels a need to see the knitting...

 

 

So if I've done this right, it's a pair of control wires from each switch to each turnout, and a +ive and -ive 9V feed to the two free leads.

 

Did I mention I'd never make an electrical engineer?  If I can't "see" what is happening, I struggle. So don't get me started on Chemistry, either....

 

***

 

If I'm happy with the way those DPDT switches feel, I'll order a batch in bulk to do the rest of the layout.   

 

Cheers

 

Scott

 

 

[silky_jack]

Morning Scott, I too am justworking on the first of my point switch boards...the wiring on the switches is done, I just need to wire from each switch to each point now!!! Gulp.  Psyching myself up to that one.