adrian
Flying Squad
Time to resurrect a long dormant thread. Having finished* my JLTRT Midland 3F build I decided to return to a little 2mm modelling for a change in perspective.
*by finished I mean building the loco - it still has to go through the paint shop.
What modelling time I have had available I have been able to progress on my 2mmFS layout. However much of it has been concentrating on the electrical side and under baseboard side so there is little progress to show, and there have been a few little real world issues that get in the way.
With respect to those real world issues I hope that everyone will indulge me in a slight off topic and personal digression, and this is really a reflection on how much I value the friendship I have on this forum and feel comfortable discussing it on here where I would struggle in a different environment.
I've not really mentioned it in posts to this forum but like at least one other member I know of on the forum I volunteer as a Blood Bike rider. We are a group of enthusiastic bikers who provide a vital out of hours transport facility for hospitals around the country, moving blood/plasma/medicine/notes/samples/breast milk between hospitals. I've even been asked to take traction weights on a motorbike!! It's not something I do for any plaudits but in volunteering to transport these supplies it means one less journey that the hospital has to pay for a taxi, it's just the way I choose to support the NHS in the work they do.
Anyway to cut to the heart of my digression - last week I finished my Blood bike shift on Saturday and later on that evening I got an email that one of our riders, Russ Curwen was involved in a road traffic accident whilst on a call and sadly died from his injuries.
Volunteer blood transport biker killed
So my apologies for being slightly maudlin and absent for a while but it has been difficult to focus this week on anything else. However I have returned to my modelling as a little bit of comfort and spending a little bit of time relaxing and letting the world go by. So where ever you are there will be a blood bike group near you - please give them a little support.
So personal digression over - back to my recent modelling efforts. As posted else where I have been volunteered to display my 2mmFS efforts at the forthcoming supermeet at Chelford
Association Events
I think my efforts definitely falls into the "some under construction" banner although I'm not too sure how Andy Carlson's effort gets labelled as "early stages" and mine doesn't. Anyway if you are in the area come down and say hello - it'd be great to see people.
My effort has been focussed on getting all the electric up and running - despite all the effort there seems to be very little to show for it as most of it is going to be hidden under the baseboard or tucked away in a casing.
It's probably taken 3 or 4 iterations to make it fit but one of my goals was to use the MERG CBus system to make a neat little control box for the layout. There is one CBus module CANPAN geared specifically for control panels, allowing a mixture of switches and LEDs linked to one module. I thought I could squeeze this into one small aluminium instrument case. So this shows what I have managed to achieve. The switches and LEDs are mounted on the veroboard with connectors to the CANPAN modules, all to fit in to the aluminium case. The CBus connection to the layout is via a standard ethernet connector.
The switch and LED layout is to represent track diagram. This was cut out on my laser cutter and I used this as a drilling template on the aluminium casing. The fit was rather tight, the rear of the veroboard had to be filed down to clear the cables and a couple of components re-arranged to make the board low profile.
However after a few iterations I did manage to get it all to fit.
To give an idea of the size - although come along to Chelford to see it in the flesh!
So work has continued on fitting the turnout operating units, built up from a bit of evergreen plastic tubing and piano wire.
These have all been fitted and much of the wiring installed. A bit of a mess but I know what everything is for!!
The n-gauge track has been used as the track bus bars, the turnout units have been fitted and all the servo actuators and CBus units. Halfway down on the lefthand side is the ethernet connector for the control panel interface and the CBus unit next to it is the UCB interface.
Still plenty to do for Chelford but I have managed to get the first loco (railmotor) running on the layout yesterday and I turned on the CBus modules for the first time tonight. There were a few teething problems, most down to dodgy connections but everything seemed to work ok. All modules have been recognised so now I just need to go through all the events to link the switches in the control box to the servos and the switches on the servo actuators to the LEDs on the control panel.
*by finished I mean building the loco - it still has to go through the paint shop.
What modelling time I have had available I have been able to progress on my 2mmFS layout. However much of it has been concentrating on the electrical side and under baseboard side so there is little progress to show, and there have been a few little real world issues that get in the way.
With respect to those real world issues I hope that everyone will indulge me in a slight off topic and personal digression, and this is really a reflection on how much I value the friendship I have on this forum and feel comfortable discussing it on here where I would struggle in a different environment.
I've not really mentioned it in posts to this forum but like at least one other member I know of on the forum I volunteer as a Blood Bike rider. We are a group of enthusiastic bikers who provide a vital out of hours transport facility for hospitals around the country, moving blood/plasma/medicine/notes/samples/breast milk between hospitals. I've even been asked to take traction weights on a motorbike!! It's not something I do for any plaudits but in volunteering to transport these supplies it means one less journey that the hospital has to pay for a taxi, it's just the way I choose to support the NHS in the work they do.
Anyway to cut to the heart of my digression - last week I finished my Blood bike shift on Saturday and later on that evening I got an email that one of our riders, Russ Curwen was involved in a road traffic accident whilst on a call and sadly died from his injuries.
Volunteer blood transport biker killed
So my apologies for being slightly maudlin and absent for a while but it has been difficult to focus this week on anything else. However I have returned to my modelling as a little bit of comfort and spending a little bit of time relaxing and letting the world go by. So where ever you are there will be a blood bike group near you - please give them a little support.
So personal digression over - back to my recent modelling efforts. As posted else where I have been volunteered to display my 2mmFS efforts at the forthcoming supermeet at Chelford
Association Events
I think my efforts definitely falls into the "some under construction" banner although I'm not too sure how Andy Carlson's effort gets labelled as "early stages" and mine doesn't. Anyway if you are in the area come down and say hello - it'd be great to see people.
My effort has been focussed on getting all the electric up and running - despite all the effort there seems to be very little to show for it as most of it is going to be hidden under the baseboard or tucked away in a casing.
It's probably taken 3 or 4 iterations to make it fit but one of my goals was to use the MERG CBus system to make a neat little control box for the layout. There is one CBus module CANPAN geared specifically for control panels, allowing a mixture of switches and LEDs linked to one module. I thought I could squeeze this into one small aluminium instrument case. So this shows what I have managed to achieve. The switches and LEDs are mounted on the veroboard with connectors to the CANPAN modules, all to fit in to the aluminium case. The CBus connection to the layout is via a standard ethernet connector.
The switch and LED layout is to represent track diagram. This was cut out on my laser cutter and I used this as a drilling template on the aluminium casing. The fit was rather tight, the rear of the veroboard had to be filed down to clear the cables and a couple of components re-arranged to make the board low profile.
However after a few iterations I did manage to get it all to fit.
To give an idea of the size - although come along to Chelford to see it in the flesh!
So work has continued on fitting the turnout operating units, built up from a bit of evergreen plastic tubing and piano wire.
These have all been fitted and much of the wiring installed. A bit of a mess but I know what everything is for!!
The n-gauge track has been used as the track bus bars, the turnout units have been fitted and all the servo actuators and CBus units. Halfway down on the lefthand side is the ethernet connector for the control panel interface and the CBus unit next to it is the UCB interface.
Still plenty to do for Chelford but I have managed to get the first loco (railmotor) running on the layout yesterday and I turned on the CBus modules for the first time tonight. There were a few teething problems, most down to dodgy connections but everything seemed to work ok. All modules have been recognised so now I just need to go through all the events to link the switches in the control box to the servos and the switches on the servo actuators to the LEDs on the control panel.