Thursday 17th December

Worklist:
Continue testing track
Form yard siding extension
Complete plastering of tunnel interior

The layout was set-up and Laurence supplied some loco's for testing. One diesel in particular caught Stephen's attention - one he wasn't familiar with. It ran 'alright', but was occasionally a little 'tardy' and even seemed to disobey the direction it was sent. Geoff overheard his misgivings and asked if it was a DCC enabled loco, which Laurence denied, then queried himself. However, the letters DCC on the bottom gave it away. Geoff explained that DCC loco's displayed exactly the features noted when run on standard analogue powered track. As the loco was unlikely to run in DCC mode it was suggested the chip be removed and replaced with a blanking-chip, which Geoff supplied. After replacement, the loco performed perfectly!

During a previous running session, Stephen had expressed concern about retrieving wagons from the yard siding as it was easy to become 'trapped' between the buffer and magnet. As there was a road beyond, he suggested an extension be formed across the road. Geoff wasn't too enthusiastic about having such an unprototypical feature, but suggested the track run up to the long wall, with an arch and a pair of dummy doors. All agreed, and he got on with the job.

Rails across the road

Overview

A plasticard arch and trial piers. Only small loco's would go into the house grounds.

Stephen progressed with his work on the tunnel interior, which needed additional areas of plaster before it could be painted. Once applied, the set of led lights were tested. These had been made-up several months previously, in fact, probably just after last Christmas, as they were Wilkinson Christmas decorations! The wires had been twisted together and painted black. The led surrounds were painted to reduce the size of each 'bulb'. Only about half were needed and they were mounted on a scale 'plank', to be fixed to the wall side, once the tunnel was painted. These lights will be powered from the new DC supply, and via a voltage regulator and switch - the first use of the power feed.

Tunnel mouth

Thursday 10th December

Worklist:
Fit a new switch in the controller
Run trains and check the track
Enjoy a Christmas lunch!

The ECM hand-held controller comes with a three position direction switch (on-off-on). The centre-off position has caught us all out, right from the start, causing some annoyance to operators searching for faults when the switch was in 'neutral'. Stephen sourced an on-on switch, which Geoff swapped over. Throughout the subsequent running session, we all agreed it was a great modification.

We then turned to track testing. We're still finding sections of track where back-to-back, stray ballast, rail mis-alignments etc causing issues with running. We try and employ a wide range of stock and loco's and this week was no exception.

Backman HO diesel shunter with new cab and detailing - L

Ruston (Roy Link?) - L

Simplex and etched brass coach kit - L

Geoff's 'Boxcab' Bo-Bo diesel on a Bachman HO GE44 chassis. The original loco's were used by Ford in the USA and three Britsh Thomson Houston Company versions at Dagenham, UK. Geoff's loco is based on further BTH designs that were prepared for a new variation, but never produced. The surviving BTH loco is preserved on the Kent & East Sussex Railway.

BTH boxcab information
KESR stocklist

Gn15 battery loco - plasticard body an a Tenshodo Spud chassis - S

Finally, the 'oddities' were joined by Laurence's O-16.5mm Decauville.

We then adjourned for Christmas lunch at a nearby pub! 

---

Gn15, as the name implies, is G scale modelling on 15" gauge track. Scales of 1:22.5 and 1:24 are used. Below is the loco on a small display board, which uses code 125 flat-bottom rail with Peco track spikes, on timber sleepers. After experimentation, On3 Kadee couplers were chosen, being part-way between the Cottesmore/Worton Court standard gauge HO and O gauge fittings. The figure is Toryn Farr - from Star Wars, which is very well detailed and articulated.

For more information on the model see:

http://belfieldengineering.weebly.com/stock.html

Thursday 3rd December 2015

Worklist:
Practice assembling the layout
Continue to test the layout by playing trains

Setting up went well. We forgot to plug the loom in first, but the new supports allowed us to fit the loom with the layout down. We also re-drilled the holes for the storage board bolts and made a plywood end support.

Before we got running, Stephen suggested we fit two power lights (LED's) on the control panel, for the DC and AC power supplies. Geoff found two 5mm LED's, suitable resistors and a diode. The LED's were mounted on the panel front and wired up. A great reassurance when things weren't running.

Stephen got his £10 loco running first. Geoff was keen to test his new trackwork, but running onto the relevant section, a short occurred. Geoff had anticipated that somewhere in the old trackwork, there was a section gap and this was confirmed. A new break was cut and test running continued. We worked on until lunchtime scraping ballast, checking clearances etc. After lunch, Stephen and Laurence got more stock out and more playing ensued.

Geoff mixed up some paint and touched-up all of the unpainted and badly painted sleepers.

We came to the conclusion that some form of protection on the end of the storage cassettes was required. Our first thought was for an extension to the board, but then turned to hinged end-caps. We have some 2.5mm plastic, which Geoff will experiment with.

The siding became a problem at one point, where stock was trapped between the buffers and magnet. Stephen had proposed having an extension across the road, for interest and to alleviate the problem. Geoff countered saying that it was not a realistic solution, but proposed that a gate be provided in the wall intimating that the railway continued beyond. Proposal agreed, the buffers were removed.

Stephen's Peco timber bolsters with new pit props, pulled by a Laurence freelance diesel

The returning empty bolsters

The tunnel needs 'finishing off'

A Laurence Simplex with Stephen's Peco van, scratch WD van, scratch GVT brakevan and 'Mikes' crane on a pair of Peco flat wagons

Stephen's freelance 0-4-0 loco (plasticard on a Fleischman chassis), Brakevan - a stretched/converted Peco van, peco open wagons. The crane wagin pulled by a Laurence scratch diesel.

Thursday 26th November

Worklist:
Fit tee-nuts to board joints
Make 'permanent' packers to support baseboards, for running sessions in the shed
Repair trackwork around electromagnet

Stephen had purchased 8mm Tee nuts on eBay and these were fitted on both ends of the Platform board. This board was chosen as there was more space on the adjacent boards for turning the bolt heads.

Stephen had also purchased some 63x38mm timber for making permanent supports to speed up erecting the layout. There was much discussion as to whether they should be 'over-sized' and completely loose, captive - fixed to the baseboards, or something in-between. Geoff came up with the idea of cutting them exactly as the board widths and fixing two blocks that went either side of the central board stiffeners. This restraint was tested on one support and the boards could be rotated from the vertical (when the bolts were tightened) down to the horizontal, without them slipping away. Another two were made for the middle boards and a similar design with a longer, single down-stand, was made for the yard board. The supports then had additional strips of wood glued and/or screwed to them, to bring the layout level. They were then marked to record their order. We all felt that the layout had never felt so level or solid before - a good job!

We then turned our attention to the track over the electromagnet, which was found to be a 'switchback' and highly unstable. After a brief discussion on how much and how the track would be repaired ensued, and the track cut out. By the end of the session, new wooden 'stringers' had been glued along each side of the magnet plates. Geoff subsequently covered this with tape and new track of PCB sleepers code 75 flat bottom rail fitted. New ballast completed the repair.

Thursday 19th November

Worklist:
PLAY TRAINS!

It's been a while and we needed a 'fix'. We'd also decided that the layout needed to be used, so we could identify any issues and get an overall feel for it.

We'd all been to Tolworth Showtrain the previous weekend and Stephen was interested to review things like baseboard colours and backscene construction.

We always set the layout up straddling our three work-benches, which requires several lumps and lengths of wood. We decided that it was high-time we produced permanent fittings to make this much easier. We assessed the requirements and Stephen will purchase the necessary timber, in due course. We'd long-ago upgraded the bolts from 6mm to 8mm, but never put a set together. 8mm nuts and bolts, purchased for the purpose were 'dug out' and fitted. Some would need adapting - Geoff to sort out. We also decided that free-nuts were a nuisance, so tee nuts would be fitted. Stephen to source.

We then realised that we'd never fitted the new control panel before, so two brackets were fitted, for today's session. They get in the way, so permanent fittings will be designed and made.

After we finally assembled the layout, Stephen produced a second-hand loco he'd purchased at ExpoNG, Swanley. It was a long wheelbase 0-4-0 Piko (East German) loco. A test run showed it to be a superb runner and after checking/adjusting the back-to-back, it was soon showing up issues with trackwork all over the layout, which took until lunchtime to rectify. Post lunch, a major problem with trackwork over the electromagnet could not be resolved, so we decided to replace the track completely. One for another week. Let's play trains!

More stock was added - John's Hunslet loco, coach and GVT brake van are always to hand, together with a rake of ore wagons and verandah brake van. These were joined by several of Laurences loco's - including some small IC's and a Deceauville on a Fleischman chassis.

The session threw up some issues with the control:-

We'd changed the AC/DC supplies to the controller to eliminate a shorting problem due to John's unusual point manufacture, but this did not solve the problem, so a policy of never switching points while a loco is running, will have to be employed.

Power lights would be useful to confirm both supplies were working.

A space to 'park' the hand held unit on the top could be useful for one-handed operation.

And general realignment of switches and features on the panel to reflect the actual layout.

All-in-all it was a very positive and enjoyable session.

Thursday 12th November

Worklist:
DC feature power to the baseboards.

Laurence on another lunchtime jaunt, so just two this week.

To run DC power to the boards for lighting, motors, sound(?), we could either run a separate supply to one board and have jumpers across the two joins or add it to the loom. The latter was neater, but the central ('platform') board had no spare pins. We decided to add a separate 2-pin plug on this board.

We have a DC and an AC supply to the control panel. The AC supply for the speed controller was originally used for the point relays and servos as well, after running through a bridge rectifier. However, we discovered that the frog micro switches on the point actuators created a momentary short-circuit which interfered with the loco speed. We subsequently added a 19v DC supply (laptop) to power the electromagnetic uncoupler, and this supply could be used for the point power.

First job - move the feeds to the point actuators to the DC supply. At the same time, a pair was taken to two spare pins on the loom wiring strip, off the same supply.

Pre rewiring layout. Blue/brown AC feed.

Instead of running three new pairs from the control box, a single pair was taken down to the first junction in the loom and then three pairs joined with crimped connectors. The DC supplies (black/red) were run out of the board sockets to a 2-way connector. From here, supplies can be run to individual voltage regulators, for each 'feature'.

'Bridge' board

'Yard' board

 The 'Platform board pair ran to a floating, female socket, with a male plug mounted on the board, running to the 2-way connector. Not very pretty, but it prevents accidental short circuits of the 19vac 3amp supply. We'll keep our eyes open for a neater plug/socket.

'Platform' board

 The final layout. The bridge rectifier has been left in place, as it doesn't have to be removed.

Thursday 5th November

Worklist:
A mixture of tasks today, but mainly scenery and track cosmetics.

Laurence filled in loads of holes all over the layout - old fence posts, redundant track-side equipment, pointwork and wires etc. He and Stephen then shared the over-painting of the old grassed areas with brown acrylic paint. Laurence then switched to painting sleepers, with a paler colour than before - a light grey/brown instead of dark brown, which Geoff says is very un-prototypical.

Geoff worked on trackwork ballast, infilling delicate areas such as around point actuators, then moved on to patching sparse and missing areas of ballast.

Stephen laid out buildings and features around the main yard. The coaling stage was moved to the head shunt, as discussed previously, which was approved by all. There is a separate track electrical section in front of the coal stage, which is perfect. The coal will be delivered via the yard access road, which will require a little amendment to accommodate lorry access. An old crane from Langley Works (Geoff's section of Cottesmore) was tried-out in the yard. The crane legs worked well with the rock mound whilst maintaining access to the store and the access road. Approved by all. (NB it's steam powered at present, so updating to electric power might be in order).

The water tower will remain in the station. Our reasoning is that loco's need regular supplies of water, but coal is taken-on far less frequently.

One of the running sessions had identified an area of road crossing timbers that were too high and fouled the coupling. Geoff first tried a chisel, but changed to a Dremel sanding tube, for much better results.

All areas of the original grass was also given a coat of dark brown acrylic (following Gordon Gravetts advice), prior to base flocking and then electrostatic longer grass. A final added feature was the shed and decking that used to be at the very end of the layout (where the bridge was moved to), has been placed in the gap left by the bridge - effectively swapping places! It's in keeping with our efforts to retain what we can of John's original layout.

Brown paint everywhere

As a finale, we discussed the power supplies for both the layout and future features.

Layout: the new DC supply installed last time for the electromagnet would now be used for the point relays and servos as well. The AC supply would be used solely for the ECM loco controller.

Features:
Mine board - lights down the tunnel and the workshop.
Middle board - Generator building lights and engine motor. Goods shed lights.
Yard - store lights.

As there are no spare wires in the middle board loom, it was decided to provide another power feed to one of the end boards, through the loom. The other boards would be fed though a 'power bus', with some form of jumper, at each board joint. Transformer units would be supplied to each feature, adjusted to provide the appropriate voltage. Switches would be located on each board, for each feature.

Thursday 22nd October

Worklist:
Fit new knobs
Run trains and test points

The knobs (guitar effects knobs) finally arrived from China (10 in a pack with a screwdriver - £4.41). They are only 19mm in diameter and are very neat.

Guitar effects knobs from China, via eBay

The layout was assembled ready for another test run, following Geoff's rewiring work, which comprised linking across track joints with poor sleeper adhesion by adding droppers and joining underneath. However, after running over virtually all of the track, Laurence found a section with a short circuit. We spent the rest of the morning trying to isolate the problem,  We tested for faulty micro-switches, stray hairs of copperclad sleeper, cross-feeds from other points etc., all with no success. After lunch, Geoff took the decision to apply a heavy-duty jolt, from a 12v battery, and the problem disappeared (there was no 'bang' or spark as we normally find, so we were not sure what the problem was).

We also tested the electro-magnet uncoupler, which had failed to work during the previous tests. The wiring was double-checked and the switch unwired and rewired. It was then remembered that the original control panel had a separate power supply for the solenoid points and uncoupler. The original supply was found and installed, solving the problem. Trains were shunted and uncoupled on all of the magnets.

Around this time, Geoff proposed that another section be introduced at the end of the platform, next to the refuelling area, so a loco could remain in there while the coaches were removed. It made sense, but there were no spare ways through the loom. Thoughts turned to why the coaling stage was sited there at all, as the coal and water were the wrong way around and it looked a bit 'clumsy'. There was also a bay on the end of the head shunt, which could be used for coaling. One for further discussion.

John's Peco Hunslet on a scratch chassis with a Gakken coach on a scratch chassis.

We enjoyed the investigative work, but we vowed to do a lot more running to get a better idea of how the layout worked. No hardship in that!

Thursday 15th October

No work this week as we'd decided to test the new control panel with a running session......

Geoff had assembled the layout and connected the new panel, but one problem remained - the missing relay hadn't been found. Rather than 'work-around' the problem, he popped down to the local Maplins for a replacement.

In the meantime, Laurence and Stephen cleaned the track and, as several bits of new ballast needed to be scraped off, the hoover was pressed into use as well.

One last job was to trim the actuator wires to the correct length, which Geoff completed with a cutting disk in the Dremel.

Cutting the actuator wires to length

The panel now complete, Laurence laid out one or two loco's and we played trains for a few seconds..... until the loco stopped. A short on the power supply indicated a problem. Disconnecting the loom showed it was on the boards. What seemed like ages looking for likely problems eventually focussed on a faulty micro-switch, which was replaced.

Back 'on track', we then discovered a rail-end had come loose from the PCB sleeper, which was repaired. Then another, and another. By lunchtime, our patience was wearing pretty thin, so we stopped for a break. Fortunately, just one more repair was required and we finally ran a loco across the whole layout. A few pieces of stock were added, to test the magnets, which seemed to work OK, except for the electro-magnet, which needs further investigation.

It was good to see the layout in one piece again, and we decided that a regular running session would be a good idea to make sure everything was still in working order and have a bit of fun.

Why so many track problems? They had certainly all appeared since the last running session. We think that the man-handling of the boards in-and-out of storage each week has probably played a part, but the age of the system must also be a factor.

Decauville on a Fleischman chassis