Wednesday 8th May 2024

Worklist:

Review new wagons.

Review water tower feed pipe and make a canvas hose.

Final weathering to Edwards yard and buildings.

Trees - titivate existing and finish a new one.

Review everything needed for exhibition.

Paint reverse faces of end backscenes.

Geoff had produced 4 of his new 4 ton block stone wagons and Stephen 3 of them. Geoff had gone for the 'heavy wear' appearance, applying considerable distressing to the timbers and Stephens' had mild dents and scratches. 

Geoff had added the loco water tank feed pipe with an isolation valve and a tap. Stephen later added a canvas pipe using a length of black heat-shrink tubing.

Stephen displayed all of the 3D printed yard clutter he had painted and weathered, which will be added loosely, along with a few vehicles. Geoff now applied a mixture of weathering powders to the yard roadway, doors, windows etc. After 'refreshing' the foliage of the tree overhanging the bridge, Stephen added foliage to a small spare tree wire armature, which was then 'planted' on the front of the layout.

We then turned our minds to the exhibition, just 11 days away. Going through a previous checklist, we were able to tick quite a few things off  fairly quickly. However, the new boards meant a few things had expanded or changed e.g. the spare controller was now the new board controller, so a new 'spare' was required. We checked through 'special' bolts and tools required for the new support frame. We seemed to have acquired a third box of bolts, but couldn't conclusively match bolts to boards. The answer was to separate what we could identify (backscene bolts) and put the rest in one box. After we set the layout up at the show, a proper sort-out can be carried out.

Equipment - Power supplies for the layout and lighting were assembled together with extension leads, RCD's etc. Tools, repair items, spares, were all identified and boxed up. An hour later we had a good grasp of the situation and were happy. We then discussed the route and timings for the trip down to Wilton, including hotel and exhibition hall check-in times etc. When finished, we were greatly relieved and could now look forward to the show. The final job was to paint the back of the end backscenes dark grey. These had several splodges of white paint when the front was repainted painted.

Stock will be checked over, cleaned and oiled. One more Wednesday and then were off!

Wednesday 17th April 2024

Worklist:

Fit a new controller socket on the main control panel.

Check-out the electrics on/in the main control panels.

Paint the backscenes.

Paul, another of our guest operators, made an interesting suggestion when he visited recently; why not add another socket for the handheld controller to allow a great extent of control along the layout? He was correct - our current socket was plugged into the left-hand end of the panel i.e. close to the end of the layout, whereas a socket at the other end (mid-way down the layout) would allow operators to move further down the layout - a 'no brainer'. A hole was drilled in the other end, another set of wires and socket was made-up and fitted. The new socket will be a great addition.

After making the changes, the main control panel was examined for potential failures. A number of issues were identified and rectified, which although taking longer than expected, left us with a lot more confidence in the system.

Some time ago, Geoff had 3D printed some ogee gutters and downpipes for the factory building, which Stephen had recently painted and weathered. Pre-glued in two sections, they were easily trimmed to length and glued in place. We were very pleased with the effect. Two other sets will be added elsewhere.

The layout was then taken apart and stored away. Some went into the main rack, but the two new boards went into their dedicated rack next door. However, the now completed cottages were too high for the designated space so a shuffle-round was required - but it all fitted - just.

The final job was to hoover everything as much as possible, set out all of the trestles and cover with newspaper. All of the backscene boards were then laid out, ready to be painted. To a half used tin of white undercoat, some grey undercoat (used on the baseboards and panel backs) was mixed in. Several existing boards had a creamy tinge, so some magnolia undercoat was also added. Eventually, all of the panels were painted. It looked good at the time, but we'll reserve judgement for when it has fully dried. 

Wednesday 21st February 2024

Worklist:

Check over control box to remind ourselves what is in there, then....

Make sure we know what it all does.

Drill holes in new backscene for the control box fixing bolts.

Modify new bolts for leg fixings.

Paint some more of the back scenes.

It was interesting looking at and into the control box after such a long time. After a while, we'd worked out what most of it did. We then clamped the back scene in place, drilled the holes in it for the control box bolts and bolted the box in place. We were surprised how near the end of the layout the control box was. We then noticed that the control box prevented fixing a lighting pole to the end leg, which we couldn't accept. Another concern was that the position of the uncoupling magnet in Edwards' yard, in front of the loading dock, was completely obscured by the loading dock roof.

Original location

We cogitated for a while and then decided to move the control box to the left - towards the centre of the two boards. The loom was the restricting factor and there wasn't much room for manoeuvre - maybe 80mm - enough.

New location

New bolt holes were drilled, tee nuts fitted and the box mounted. The hand-held controller plugs into the left hand side so by shuffling along a bit, the uncoupling magnet area is visible.

We've always meant to colour-code the bolts on the layout. The M6 hex-socket furniture bolts were standard length, but the remaining M8 hex-head bolts vary in length. The control box and leg bolts were duly painted AND, labels were applied to the boards identifying what went where. (We later plugged the original box holes to save time hunting for the tee-nuts!).

To test the panel and re-educate ourselves with the track sections, power was applied. The panel had been designed to operate in two modes. At an exhibition, and in the workshop. In the workshop, the new boards would run down a wall parallel to the main board via four additional boards, but in the opposite direction. The control panel was rotated 180 degrees, so the switch layout/notation had to work both ways up. The on/off, push-button section switches and point knobs were no problem, but the three rotary switches on the end determined which control panel (Main or Local) fed each of three zones on these two boards.  However, we'd forgotten what the 3 zones were, so with the aid of a small track tester, we worked through all combinations and resolved the issue.

Two were obvious. One switch determined who controlled the 'mainline' along the front into the fiddleyard and one determined who controlled the rear hidden track to the quarry (fiddleyard). It transpired the third determined control of the engine shed area and didn't include Edwards' yard, which we had expected. However, as we don't ever envisage setting-up the reversed layout again, the rotary switches will be replaced with toggle switches, for simplicity. Luckily, we found our pack of coloured vinyl sheet to line-out the track diagram, and we'll try and come up with a way of defining the three zones on the control box. 

The two leg bolts, initially secured with re-tapped imperial bolts, were replaced with long M8 bolts and colour-coded, to make Stephen happy! 

The fun over, we got on with some serious painting, applying a coat of grey undercoat to the backs of the two back scenes.

We need to finish these and get on with 1 (or 2) lighting poles, a 'gutter' fascia and led lighting. There's trees to finish and plant, gutters and downpipes to fit on the factory buildings, wagon loads of stone to design and 3D print. Some people would be nice...

Wednesday 14th February 2024

Worklist:

Make the end backscene.

A simple project this week. Make the new end backscene using 6mm MDF sheet. The first job was to use the old panel to mark and drill the three fixing holes.

Cut the panel to the right height, including radiusing the spectator-facing corner.

Using the pipe gantry as a guide, the hole to access the fiddleyard was cut out, with radiuses to the top corners. The opening was then routed with a radiused edge to 'soften' the sharp edge.

The hole will be further camouflaged with rampant climbing weeds.

'Atlantic', the largest loco in the stock box passes through comfortably.

The top of the corner junction will have squares of Velcro and a complimentary strap to hold it close together.

The main backscene was taken down and given a thinned coat of primer. As too was the back of the fiddleyard tunnel.

Only 10 weeks until the Salisbury show......