Nothing planned for this week, so setting-up the boards to start with.
Laurence on family duties so just two.
As the trestles and boards started to be erected, a query arose. The two main station boards have central stiffeners and require two bespoke trestles with restraint blocks in the middle. The other two trestles have blocks on the edges, which have caused problems with the Masons boards. These have had blocks adapted or chopped off! A few moments consideration resulted in the trestles being swapped around to perfect positions! The adapted and removed blocks will be repaired reinstated - Doh!
Geoff decided to tidy up the wiring on the two new boards. Connectors had been moved around to suit later additions and mods, and the servo cables flopped everywhere. An 'operating theatre-like' setup developed to ensure the different tools i.e. ferrules, cutters, strippers, crimpers and drivers, were available at the right moment - a very satisfying exercise.
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| The senior surgeon at work |
To begin with, Stephen had been studying the existing wiring relating to the possibility of extending the Masons control panel area of track control onto the Worton Court boards. A working option emerged.
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| Existing and proposed |
Button A2 controls section A2 which incorporates a historic track section. Button A1 controls the section on 'the next board' via the loom with an 8-way plug. This board can be the fiddleyard on a 4-board setup, a transition board for a 10-board (J-shaped workshop setup) and the engine shed board on a 6-board setup. In the diagrams above, A1 goes to the Masons controller selection switch. The output from this switch goes to section C2. A spur from C2 needs to be brought back through the loom to extend control to the new section on WC. Normally, this switch would need only to be set when the layout is set up and so it could be under the layout. However, it is possible that a shunting manoeuvre on WC might require access to the new section and so it needs to be 'reasonably easily' switched. It was decided to locate it on the rear face of the layout, beside the signal switches.
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| The panel was moved to the left and a new switch and panel started on the right. |
Having agreed the scheme, work started. The extra wire was inserted into the loom and as the session ended, a fixing panel with a switch was being assembled. It was a far more tiring session than the description implies.
