Dublingham Goods Station

[Yorkshire Dave]

Ok, so the track has been Gripfill'd to the blue foam today, at last proper progress.

Weighted down with drill bit tins I see . My grandfather used to use these tobacco tins and were always full of dill bits, screws, nails, nuts and bolts, etc.

 

[oldravendale]

My grandfather used to use these tobacco tins and were always full of dill bits, screws, nails, nuts and bolts, etc.

....mine still are.....

Brian

 

[76043]

Those tins were my Grandfather's and they're full of exactly that!

 

[JimG]

Even older tins were better since they were hinged. My father's bits and pieces were in hinged Golden Virginia tins. By the time I was smoking, the Golden Virginia tins had changed to the non-hinged lids and by the 80s and 90s, the 2oz tins had been replaced with plastic wallets. I've still got one or two tins around.

Jim.

 

[NHY 581]

This is all coming on very nicely.

As an aside, I still use some of my Dad's St Bruno tins for storage.


Rob

 

[76043]

First section wired up and working, no shorts over those points either. Very happy!

 

[76043]

Wiring underneath showing the PECO accessory switch that switches turnout blade polarity. The frog is live to the outside rail permanently so does not need to be switched.

 

[Heather Kay]

First section wired up and working, no shorts over those points either. Very happy!

Hornby had the sound issue sorted out years ago! No electronics in sight!

 

[76043]

Yes, I was thinking that too!

 

[76043]

The Raspberry Pi is now setup and connected to a 24" HDMI monitor. My original setup didn't like PDFs but all seems good with a reinstall of NOOBS. The wireless presenter gizmo shown below from eBay was £7, so with the Pi costing £5 and the monitor free makes this part of the project a bargain. It takes the form of a nifty pen, which can be clipped onto a friendly neighbourhood operator and importantly not lost. The original install was extremely slugglish with PDFs but this new install runs very quickly.

So to operate, power up the PI and bluetooth mouse, open PDF, run in full screen presentation mode and click away!

Again I am very happy!

 

[Simpas]

Tony,

Excellent work.

When the opportunity presents itself I'd like to see this working first hand.

Mick S.

 

[76043]

Mick, I'd be glad to. The monitor will be built into the fiddle yard cabinet and will serve the dual purpose of telling the operator what to do and letting the viewer know what's going on. It's big enough to be nicely visible. I'm pretty adept at AppleScripting so I hope in due course to be able to script the Pi to boot up straight into the PDF and full screen, but for now a mouse will do.

 

[76043]

A bit of an admin post this one, but I was planning using a Gaugemaster ML227 cased transformer from my youth. It dawned on me slowly that many years back I blew the internal fuse and tried to fix it myself, drilling out the rivets. So the lifetime warranty is gone and so is the transformer; sent back to Gaugemaster for repair.

I also had a quote for PAT testing for £40, something I must do for the HRCA exhibition.

 

[76043]

A big push happened today, all the track wiring was completed, with just the baseboard joint to be tackled, more of which later...



I realised my point motor trays need fixing points of some sort to hold the motor and switch in. So...



Two pieces as shown above have been glued into the tray, the hole will enable small cable ties to hold everything securely and allow quick removal if necessary.

So onto that baseboard joint...





A wooden block let into the foam was screwed to the cabinet and the PCB screwed to it. It will need some packing underneath to bring it up to height.

Now am just finishing off the wiring to the PCB and point motors.

 

[Simpas]

Tony,

Looking good.

Are you packing up beneath the rail or packing up underneath the wooden block?

Mick S.

 

[76043]

Hi Mick,
Thank you, not long to go before the whole thing is wired up. Pleased with the trackwork as the 08 runs through all the points really smoothly and slowly even on plain DC.

Here's the finished article, the PCB sits ontop of the waxed cardboard (Primark sock packaging!) spacer which is screwed to the wooden block.
Tony

 

[76043]

Got my transformer back from Gaugemaster today. They didn't charge a penny despite me drilling out the rivets and potentially voiding the lifetime guarantee, so very happy!

The whole job was done within seven days, that's great service in my opinion!

I've even got a nice new cardboard box for it now!!

 

[Simpas]

Tony,

That's good to know - it's refreshing to read about this since it suggests 'the customer is always right' philosophy is not dead yet. Not that you would have made any unreasonable demands but I've heard tales of woe recently relating to other suppliers with whom there were no shades of grey...

I've always found Gaugemaster ok; deliver quickly, don't rip you off with postage charges etc.etc. even in their previous incarnation...

Mick S.

 

[76043]

Mick, Yes, it was a very refreshing experience, other controllers are available, obviously!
Tony

 

[simond]

I also had a quote for PAT testing for £40, something I must do for the HRCA exhibition.

Tony,

40 quid? I should shop around a bit.

PAT testing requires a relatively expensive bit of kit, but takes mere minutes to do. I have recently seen “drop in” services advertised at a couple of quid per item, sadly I have no idea where I saw this, as I have no need, we have PAT testers at work.

Definitely worth a while on Google (other search engines exist )

Best
Simon