Review Stephen's Christmas modelling project.
Discuss magnet and section breaks on the new stonemasons/engine shed boards.
Extra point actuator units for the same boards.
Fiddle yard section indicators and switches.
Christmas took it's toll on our workdays, but we managed to arrange an extra day on Friday 3rd January. However, Laurence managed to bash himself a few days before and was deemed unfit to make the drive down. So, after a cuppa with a mince pie and a general discussion about the festivities, Geoff and Stephen wandered down to the workshop. Stephen got the stonemasons board out and displayed his Christmas project inspired by the last meeting of 2019. We'd modified and finalised the road and building layout, and had discussed the possibility of a forklift truck in the yard. A quick Google image search had unearthed a 1940's Clark forklift truck - perfect. Stephen subsequently recalled the search and managed to download some basic drawings of the same vehicle and started to make one.
2mm plasticard was perfect for the bodywork of mainly heavy cast panels. Additional photos of various trucks of the time filled in gaps in the drawings. The finished model was spray painted and lightly dusted with weathering powders. It certainly looked at home in the yard.
The engine shed board was then offered-up to complete the scene and the magnet positions discussed again. The radius of the mainline track was deemed too sharp for the Kadees to work reliably and the transition point, albeit in the middle of the road, was confirmed. The new road layout meant that the yard magnet could be moved fully onto a straight section of track. However, Geoff was keen to keep options open, so both old and new holes would be routed out for potential magnets. Left out of the last report was the fact that the Peco track in the yard would be supplemented with a fabricated tin-plate angle mimicking tramway track, so that a level stone road surface can be installed across the yard.
Geoff then decided he would make the three required point actuator units (plus a spare). Unfortunately, the template drawing used to set-out the required holes could not be found, so an existing unit was measured up. The four plates were marked up, cut out and the holes drilled before being bent in the small press.
(In an attempt to narrow down when the units had originally been made, Stephen had searched the blog and was amazed to note that the final design was achieved in September 2015!).
Over Christmas, Stephen had also been experimenting with SMD (Surface Mounted Diodes) LED's for the fiddleyard live-track indicators. A strip of 25 had been ordered on eBay, but clearly, their size had escaped his notice (1.5 x 1.25mm). Undeterred, one was soldered onto a small piece of vero board, but the light was no-where imposing enough for the task. He'd then tried filing standard 5mm dia. LED's to make a flat/shallow unit, but again, the lighting effect was not adequate. Finally, a test where a 5mm LED was semi-recessed into a piece of wood proved ideal. Now, the LED's were fitted into holes in the the end block, the switch box was screwed down and the LED's/switches were wired up. The effect was perfectly acceptable.
Next week, the loom will be connected to confirm which wires serve which track route (labels on the wires when being dismantled would have been useful!). The wiring will then be completed to put the fiddleyard back into full use, ready for our next show in April.
