Dublingham Goods Station

[76043]

As previously indicated I decided to put in a run round loop on the layout. But I couldn't help chuckle when reading George Dow's Great Central trilogy this week, when it seems the South Yorkshire Railway forgot to put one in on the real railway.

Maybe I shouldn't worry too much about all this prototypical operation lark anymore if the real railway couldn't be bothered.

Text © George Dow

 

[76043]

I've 'cut the first sod' and made the back panel of the main board, not a large amount of work, but a start nonetheless. My desire to have a sweeping front curve may well 'get the elbow' as my chosen construction method of ply and foam looks like it will not have the strength to allow the front ply section to be under tension. Seems like the flat front approach will have to do sadly.

It will mean the fiddle yard board will look more integrated so is probably a good thing in the end.

 

[76043]

The sweeping front curve is back! I procured a perfectly warped piece of ply at Leyland SDM, no need to worry about tension stress.

 

[76043]

When I started this project I thought my Mac mini would suffice to drive the monitor display, but small though it is, it is still quite a lump along with the power supply.

I had a couple of Raspberry Pi's at work and realised the Zero W version being smaller than a credit card, powered by a mobile phone charger is perfect in size and weight. In fact there isn't any weight to it.

On firing it up, I quickly realised it's a bit underpowered with the full GUI, so I'm delving into running it via the command line. Not my preference, but that's life. I only need it to display a PDF or a series of images, so how hard can that be?

 

[Simpas]

Thanks Tony, I'll watch this with interest. Nigel Cliffe was talking to me about using the Raspberry Pi when we were at a 2mm Supermeet in Perth recently and it's something I've fancied getting into for other bits and pieces.

Keep up the good work, I'm watching even though I haven't managed to post anything lately.

Mick S.

 

[76043]

Thanks Mick, I will post more about the Pi in due course. I haven't posted much either, but have been working on my Wrenn 08's in addition to the baseboards and the Pi. I now have two 08's completed, with two complete rebuilds to go.

 

[76043]

Quick progress update:

• Baseboard construction slow, but progressing without hiccups.
• 08's doing well, two bodyshells in the paintshops and two chassis to be converted to 60:1 gearing. Hopefully four will be available for use, representing all four Neasden 08s in 1958/59, three black, 13304, 13305, 13306 and one green D3573.
• Raspberry Pi display working with PNG versions of the PDF and with the full GUI. Not now overloading the system. My PowerPoint clicker works with the Pi, but the arrow keys are up and down, when they should be left to right, so slides decrease in size instead of advancing, which is comic and annoying.

Tony

 

[76043]

For DC layouts are there other options for frog polarity switches other than the two Peco switches (PL-13 & 15) or cobbling together a micro-switch?

I am using the old peco point motors, so the Peco switches would seem sensible, but I just would like to know options.

Views on high reliability would be welcome.

Thanks in advance.
Tony

 

[Simpas]

Tony,

Sensible is best. I've used a couple of different types of micro switch through the years and I've yet to have a high failure rate (in fact I've not had any appreciable failure rate) but, if Peco have made it easy for you and it does the job why complicate things? How many do you need, how much do they cost, do they do the job and can they be changed out quickly? If the answer to the questions are Not many, Not much, Yes and Yes then you have your answer.

Mick S.

 

[76043]

Hi Mick,
Thanks again for your advice, I have opted for the Peco PL13 single microswitch. I only need four, they are £3 each, they do the job and can be changed quickly because they fit the point motor.

Cobbling together a version from a microswitch that is hot glued to the baseboard is not my idea of a great solution. Nor was being tempted by the higher priced twin microswitch option from Peco that allows a route setting LED function. I've only got four points, if I don't know what way they are facing I probably shouldn't be doing this. I also didn't fancy the extra wiring that takes time to do and just leads to more complexity. keep it simple.
Cheers
Tony

 

[76043]

I don't have any pictures, but my cameo fish tank is coming on nicely. Back and side panels are glued and dowel pegged together, with one part of the lower front bracing on. The blue foam is trimmed to fit, just needs the front curve to be drawn and cut.

For a layout just under 120 X 60 cm there is a lot of volume to a cameo fish tank. I'm beginning to see why I never built anything before; because it's a lot of work!

The sad demise of Maplin has meant I have bought lots of 24 strand wire very cheaply in six different colours, I may start a wiring diagram this weekend.

Tony

 

[76043]

At last, a baseboard and with my curve. I'm a bit annoyed with the top end beams as they will foul the curved backscene, I'll have to see what can be done, but 5.5mm ply does need some support. Once the front top beam goes in the foam can't be removed, but it will make it stronger. I've been drawing the aperture of the facia onto the wood and am looking at 100mm wide bottom, 90mm top and wings, the width of the wings will allow the edges to drift off nicely I think.



I'm thinking I shouldn't glue the foam in yet, but could lay the track onto it, Longwood Edge style. Get all the wiring done too then glue it in, and then add the facia. Any thoughts? If I do glue it in, I still would put the facia on afterwards.

The foam underside has support around all the edges, once the trackwork is down I can then think about a cross beam if it needs it.



The whole thing is still pretty lightweight, obviously it will only get heavier, but I am confident it won't be real lump.

Time to start the fiddle yard with integrated monitor and Raspberry Pi next.

Tony

 

[76043]

I like jigs. Jigs are good. I like making jigs, I'm not so good at dancing jigs. (Best get that poor joke out of the way)

So here's a jig to hold the third rail whilst the chairs are glued, made from two pieces of aluminium tapped so they can be screwed together, the central spacer is the code 75 third rail I'm using. I can now crack on with tracklaying, making complete track sections in one piece to be glued to the blue foam.

 

[76043]

First track panel coming on, with third rail in place, and the dropper wires starting to sprout. Each track panel requires a feed, so whilst the third rail only requires one feed, each setrack panel requires a feed, albeit the same polarity.

A quick reminder that I'm using setrack panels, because you can't glue the chairs to peco flexitrack. Apparently Peco's technical advice bureau has previously confirmed this.



You may notice two slits near the frog in the pic below, this is so that I can switch the current from outside rail to centre rail on the point blade, giving current continuity on the centre rail as the loco goes through the turnout. Had a hairy moment cutting these slits when it looked like the collector spoons on my 08 were going to create a short. Solved by making sure the additional centre rails were the same height as the rail height using plastikard packing.

Must admit it doesn't look quite as weird as I thought, but suspect that maybe because I grew up going to London on the tube.

 

[76043]

I'm also working on the AV side of the layout, so below is a sample of where I am currently on the slides.

I'm looking at display on a 24" monitor so the text is large and clear.

This is the sort of basic amount of info I need to help me run the layout, but I think it needs more detail. I will have to do some more research but would be very open to suggestions for what sort of content I could add, to enlighten spectators on timetabling and shunting.

I am still planning on a free leaflet on timetabling, so maybe this is all I need.
Tony

 

[adrian]

On St. Ruth they have a similar slide layout but they also include a small photo indicating the type of stock/train, so in this case it would be a few milk tankers.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

You could also introduce random 'joker' slides on the lines of.

Locomotive failure - stop shunting and remove to RIP (Repair Inspect Paint) track for four moves. At which point a second locomotive (steam?) is used to complete the next four shunting operations until the original loco has deemed to have been repaired.

Van/wagon at position X needs minor repairs - move to RIP track for two moves.

Delivery for vans at position Y are late. Leave in situ for four moves. Meaning if they are blocking access to another loading bay they would have to be moved and replaced when the new vehicles are in place at the blocked loading bay.

etc, etc.

This would mean programming so they are random and not in the same place in the sequence.

 

[Ian Smith]

On St. Ruth they have a similar slide layout but they also include a small photo indicating the type of stock/train, so in this case it would be a few milk tankers.

It's true that the slides we show on the St Ruth displays also include an image of some of the stock, but this is only on the 2 displays that are on the operators side of the layout, the 2 displays on the front of the layout don't have stock pictures but do include a more descriptive text of what the viewer is looking at.

We introduced these stock pictures relatively recently because operators like me (probably only me!) have little idea what some of the trains being pulled (or pushed) by the green or red boxes actually represent - even now I still get confused. For example we have trains representing the "Acton Goods" and it helps to know that this train consists of box vans rather than mineral wagons. Similarly it enables the Cornish Riviera Express to be distinguished from the Cornishman (or other trains made up of coaching stock!)

Additionally, the operator displays also include details of which fiddle yard road is to be used, whether the engine needs to be uncoupled (if it's an incoming passenger service), if the engine needs to be swapped to the other end of the train (if it's an outgoing service to the fiddle yard), and a couple of brief one liners that indicate the next 2 train movements.

I perhaps should have mentioned at the outset that St Ruth use digital photo frames for the displays, although the internals have been doctored slightly so that the internal switches (to advance through the image sequence) have been bypassed and connected to a black box on the rear of the layout so that a single button press will advance all 4 displays simultaneously (there are also buttons on the black box to go back through the images (all 4 displays), or individual displays in case they get out of sequence for any reason (although that very, very rarely happens).

Hope that is of use,

Ian

 

[76043]

Thank you all very much for your replies, much appreciated. I have a good friend who is a St Ruth collaborator and he told me a while back about the St Ruth setup. I will investigate a set of icons for wagons.

I like Dave's wild card idea, so I will look into SwitchList to see if it can be done there. It's definitely a good idea.

I think what I am trying to achieve is to offer some deeper insight into wagon load flow. So I am thinking of either displaying how local staff requested and dispatched wagons or the destinations of the goods conveyed.

There's a lot here to convey, the display is large but not that large, so maybe just adding the following:

Destinations: 1 x Leicester, 1 x Nottingham, 2 x Woodford and 1 x London. (It is a GC based layout)

2 vans requested by goods manager, 3 available. 5 in total.

Something like that, it might offer a small insight into traffic flow and management.

Tony

 

[76043]

Been working on my milk tank train, three Wrenn (Dublo really) and one Modern Hornby (Lima really!) with Dublo couplings added. I resprayed the tanks silver, so awaiting transfers and respray of the Hornby chassis.

One of the Wrenn chassis's has Romford wheels which is lowering the chassis, so will probably replace.