Setup layout and play trains
Discuss, design and make a new power supply box
Full house this week by moving to Wednesday.
As we started to assemble the layout, Stephen produced a bag of AC power supplies. A discussion at the end of the previous session had included the possibility of creating a dedicated AC power supply rather than rely on one of Geoff's old controllers. Although none of the transformers were suitable, Geoff produced a suitable transformer. The unit was uncased, which required a case/box to house it. Geoff produced a small solid wood drawer, which was perfect. In fact there was room to fit the DC power supply as well. Brains racing, we realised that the two units could be fed from a single plug, and then a single 4-core flex to the control panel would remove another cable. For the final connection, Geoff produced a XLR plug & socket, like that he was using for roaming controllers, on another layout - perfect.
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| The draw had ventilation holes drilled. |
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| AC transformer located on one side. |
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| Geoff pondering the safest way to wire the new box. |
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| A PC power cable and socket provide the initial mains feed. Connector block to be fitted for connecting to the future panel feed. Earth pin bolt fitted to transformer frame. A solid wooden lid will be screwed to the top of the box. |
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| Stephen had brought his latest Gn15 battery loco and a prototype wagon. The wagon uses 3D-printed axleboxes, and Kadee On3 couplings. Laurence's heavily-weathered diesel uses a Bachmann switcher chassis. |
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| A small Roy Link diesel and a whitemetal workmans coach. |
Operating the fiddle yard has prompted the addition of isolation switches for the two tracks, duplicating those on the control panel. This would allow the yard controller to prevent trains from moving until everything was ready to do so. This, probably very obvious feature, has only become apparent since running the layout and fiddle yard in earnest. Some thought is required to locate the switches for easy use, but also because the feed wires have been glued in place and wholesale changes might be awkward. Another issue with the fiddleyard is the best way to rotate the cassettes. As there are two tracks into the storage area, the cassettes cannot be rotated on the board, as they clash, and so have to be lifted up first. L & S both remember seeing a layout at the Epsom & Ewell show, where a post (possibly with a rotating head) was located on the storage board, which allowed one end of a cassette to be placed whilst hands were swapped over. A suitable design, possibly using a 'lazy Susan', will be developed.
The considerations given to the fiddleyard prompted Stephen to investigate back-scenes. Boards were placed into likely positions, to see if any switch or turn-post positions looked obvious. However, the other two questioned the need for back-scenes at all, and a new subject for discussion was opened ...
Nevertheless, we had an enjoyable and productive day.
