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.
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| Cutting the actuator wires to length |
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.
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| Decauville on a Fleischman chassis |
