7mm Birmingham Moor Street

Focalplane

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
I just laid the last piece of track (discounting the traversers and hoist) with the last drops of Copydex. Once the weights are removed and I have cleaned up the area, a photograph.

Meanwhile, on the first traverser I cut two slots for the drive pins to pass through from the drive unit below to the Tufnol traverser table above.
 
Focalplane

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Well, the boring job of wiring track and setting up the point motors has started and I won't bother with posts on this subject! But work on the traversers should keep this thread going for a week or two while the wiring is done. Simond will be pleased to know the veroboards arrived today but still no word on the Tufnol sheets for the traverser plates. I really need them to complete the mechanical side and I suppose I will need the mechanical side completed before I can test the electronics.
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
SimonD is playing with Arduinos, as serendipity requires the same technique for another application. Some you win.

If luck is with me, it’ll work this evening. That said, the first beer of the evening is being sipped on the patio as I write this...

(Bath ales Dark Side, for anyone who cares! It’s rather nice)

Atb
Simon
 
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Brian T

Brian T

Western Thunderer
This is all looking very good Paul, and i also like the way that the traversers are coming together too.
I live not far from the North Warwickshire line and for my sin`s never really go into town (Birmingham) as i can`t stand the place....
that is unless beer and music are on offer!.
But if you need a picture or two please shout up as i`m more than happy to oblige.

simond said:
That said, the first beer of the evening is being sipped on the patio as I write this...

(Bath ales Dark Side, for anyone who cares! It’s rather nice)

Atb
Simon
Click to expand...

It`s been a while since i`ve had any Bath ales,but nice choice Simon.
Though i think on this occasion i`ll stick with my Wychwood brewrey 'special reserve' King Goblin, all 6.6% of it hummm!.

Brian.
 
Focalplane

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
I am a Hooky Man when in the area, Old Hooky being a good tipple year round though they also produce seasonal beers as well which are very palatable.

In Africa and France I go for Seize which I believe is called Kronenburg in the UK. I always get a smile on Brittany Ferries when I ask for "deux grand pression de Seize, svp". I have a liking for Kent's beers, Simon. Spitfire being a good draught ale. When I was at University (Southampton) we had Courage and needed courage to drink the stuff!

Aren't us Warwickshirites lucky having a dedicated web site as well as some excellent books? In July I am going to get a lot of photos of the existing infrastructure that was there in the late 1950s. Measurements as well.

Brian, we tend to avoid going to Town for the reason that it hasn't been easy since Beeching. I do wish that Railtrack had considered extending the North Warwickshire Line to Honeybourne after the landslide fiasco on the Chiltern Line at Harbury, but they say the economics aren't there. Well, the huge new housing developments at Long Marston, etc. suggest another story, one where Clopton Bridge will finally collapse into the River Avon at Stratford. The developers at Long Marston Airfield even offered £17 million toward a dedicated station. By the time Railtrack realize their mistake the station will cost £50 million.

Back to Moor Street, some wiring was accomplished this evening. No pictures, though, that would be too boring for a Saturday night!
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
Well, gents, fill your glasses, gird your loins, sit back and enjoy all 18 seconds of...


I didn’t capture the “calibration run” which set the limits, by chance the flag on the motor shaft is at 9 o’clock at the up position and the down position, but no matter. You’ll see me prod the button, the led changes from green to red, it goes one way, and stops and the led changes back to green, and then I prod the other button, and it reverses.

I want to add a couple of protective bits & pieces, and make it accelerate smoothly. Tomorrow maybe.

Paul, can you confirm the pitch of the leadscrew, and the total travel for the traversers? And how fast or slow you want it to move - time to make the move from one position to the other would be ideal?

Best
Simon
 
Focalplane

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Simon

Most Interesting! The travel is around 8 cm and the time to traverse would probably have been about 30 seconds. I am not sure how to measure the pitch, I assume it is the lateral travel for one revolution of the shaft? I’ll measure it in the morning.

Thanks, Paul
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
Precisely, one turn of the shaft is equal to so many mm of travel. I guess it’s 5mm per turn.

It’s all adjustable in the software, but it’ll give me a starting point.

30 seconds sounds a bit quick, I never saw the real thing, but shifting nigh on 100 tons about 11 feet, smoothly, feels like it ought to take a bit longer? Again, can be adjusted later.

Just finished my beer.

G’night
Simon
 
Focalplane

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Simon

A bit of research this morning. The pitch is indeed approximately 5mm per revolution. The prototype moved up to 170 tons at a speed of 10ft per minute. If the total distance between track centres is 12ft (8.4cm scale) then between 1 and 1-1/2 minutes would be reasonable, particularly if you can add acceleration and deceleration to the program.

Also, the wagon hoist took about 30 seconds to lower or raise each wagon/van.

Hope this helps, Paul
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
Focalplane said:
Simon

A bit of research this morning. The pitch is indeed approximately 5mm per revolution. The prototype moved up to 170 tons at a speed of 10ft per minute. If the total distance between track centres is 12ft (8.4cm scale) then between 1 and 1-1/2 minutes would be reasonable, particularly if you can add acceleration and deceleration to the program.

Also, the wagon hoist took about 30 seconds to lower or raise each wagon/van.

Hope this helps, Paul
Click to expand...

Perfect. Indeed, better than I imagined. I will see what I can do with this info!

Atb
Simon
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
Hi Peter, it’s a metric ball-screw, so the pitch is quite large. The ones I saw on-line were 5mm per turn, and Paul has confirmed that his is also.

Latest state of play is that the program is now outputting a signal that starts slow, accelerates for 25% of the travel, goes constant for 50% and decelerates for the remaining 25%. Unfortunately, the motor is not doing that, it’s jittering during the accel and decel phases, which suggests I have something wrong in the setting of the current in the A4988. More experiments required.

I’ve also interlocked it so if it’s down, (or left) it’ll only go up (or right) and vice versa.

The initialisation works, to measure the travel and set itself for that too.

So progress, but no “Eureka”.

Watch this space. But I’m now going to play with a recalcitrant strimmer. :(
 
Focalplane

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Jordan said:
When I see these 'sprawling' photos of this layout I have to keep reminding myself it's O Scale!! Wow!!
Click to expand...
Jordan

That's an interesting observation and the access "triangle" is very necessary. But in fact Moor Street was designed around a very compact space (hence the Goods Station was mostly underground). What I have had to do is spread the tracks out a bit. For two reasons. First to fit longer platforms though they are still too short. Second to give access to the Hoist Roads so that a visitor can manipulate the 20 ton hoist with relative ease. I can easily access all these spaces and I hope I will continue to be able to do so for many years to come. Having a three story village house goes against all the wisdoms of getting on in years but as I once heard on the BBC, two 100 year old sisters were asked what their secret was to living so long. "Why? Because we live at the top of a steep hill!"

I also have to say that LarryG made the observation that Penmaenpool would be too quiet to give satisfactory operation interest. So it was scrapped in favour of a lot more track and points. Now the problem is I have to wire up all those Tortoises:

IMG_0340.JPG
 
Focalplane

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Good news! The Tufnol sheets for the traverser tables should be delivered tomorrow. That means I should have all the mechanical parts and can start to assemble the first structure.

Last evening I installed (but have not wired up) all except 2 Tortoises. I am getting quite good at this awkward job. I have a couple of tips for others:

  1. Use heavy duty double sided tape to position the Tortoise under the point and then screws to fix permanently
  2. When finding the hole in the tie bar from underneath, place a light source on top of the tie bar; I used my iPhone
  3. Centre the Tortoise lever and the point blades before aiming the wire at the tie bar hole, then test before screwing down. Move the Tortoise lever with care!
  4. And if modelling in 7mm scale use heavy duty piano wire, what comes with the machine is useless.
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
I’d agree with all those suggestions, except possibly the last one, but then I’m using diy points with loose heels, so the loads are less than the Peco over-centre spring.

I also pre-wired my Tortoises to a choccy-block connector before installation.

Best
Simon
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
adrian said:
How are you going to interface that with the Arduino? :D
Click to expand...

Funnily enough, whilst the strimmer has a carb fault, my thesis was on fuel injection of two-stroke engines.
If only we’d had Arduinos in 1982...

Best
Simon
 
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