Geoff - repair a point actuator.
Stephen - extend loom to the future fiddle yard.
Laurence - provide constant verbal support from a chair (excused from work due to a dodgy hip).
After the 'highs' of last week, this weeks anticipated a running session, never happened. A quick repair to a faulty point identified last week, turned into an extended work session. The point just wouldn't throw fully both ways and needed attention.
The standard method of point actuation on Cottesmore used the rotating tube of the H&M motor. A rod, from the tube, extended through the board and with a wire arm locating into a hole on the tie PCB bar. See below:
John often assembled his points using silver solder, which softened the nickel-silver rails. When adjustment was attempted, the blades deformed and had to be re-made. Geoff decided to change the actuator to the direct method used on the two new points (and all on his 00 layout), where a wire is soldered to the bell-crank straight into the tie-bar. Slivers of stiff paper will be inserted either side of the tie-bar to cover the much larger hole in the baseboard.
The fiddle yard only needs three wires - two feeds for the main line & mine track, and a track common. Rather than run these from the control panel, they were simply piggy-backed off the adjacent loom plug-top.
The fiddle yard design is still being debated. We're pretty sure it's going to be a 'cassette' type rather than points & sidings, but we're tempted to try using track on removable wooden strips. If we make it the same length as the new board, the two can be stored together - facing each other, as the main boards, but we haven't decided yet.
