Nothing positive to report this week either. We spent the afternoon tracing wires across the undersides of the two boards and through the loom. Progress was made, but we don't have a complete solution yet.
Wednesday 10th December 2025
Unfortunately, this week, there is nothing 'interesting' to display as we continued to investigate the existing track sections and wiring within the crossover, in order to bring it in-line with the other points on the layout. This was made a bit more difficult as the crossover spans two boards and links have to be used.
A new track break was cut and some repairs were undertaken, but it was a frustrating session and the crossover is still not functioning fully.
Wednesday 3rd December 2025
Other commitments prevented the previous weeks session taking place, but we were ready for this week!
Continuing with the crossover alterations and new switching, Geoff worked on the second frog and had completed it in no time.
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Attention turned to the control panel switching. At present, there are 4 rotary switches, (M3-4, M5-6, M7-8 and M9-10) one for each point motor. The idea was to replace these with one of our normal multi-way switches, wired to facilitate the required three positions. Stephen found an old switch and cleaned it up. This was then fitted into the centre of the existing 4 switches to allow wires to be re-arranged.
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| The four central switches will be replaced by a 12-way switch like the white one on the left. |
Stephen fitted the new switch centrally between the 4 existing switches. The future point routes will be Centre = both tracks parallel, \ diagonally sloping left and / diagonally sloping right. Temporarily, the white bar will be extended across the whole top of the knob, but a new, larger knob will, no doubt, be made in due course. We'll see how things look once it is in operating.
Stephen had tried to work out how the switch wiring would be altered, but soon stopped when a headache developed. However, it did take Geoff quite a few attempts, but the process Geoff used was fascinating and educational and required a chart to assess the functions. The wiring was actually far simpler than we both expected!
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| How the cross-over rails are electrified and the 'simple' switch wiring. |
We had run out of time, so the actual switch rewiring will take place next week.
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