4mm Podimore: proper pannier

ChrisM

Active Member
Good to see progress back underway in the garden Adam.

I think we are forecast to keep the decent weather for the week, so you might get more done than you expect! Personally I’d say the graded switchbacks to the exchange sidings will be more pleasing on the eye and encourage progress than getting the platform road in?

Big fan of the concrete pot track.

Chris

Ps. A point of pedantry, but should it not be a trap point if protecting the main line from a siding (unless terminology has changed over the years...)?
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Hello Chris - you’re quite right, it’s a trap (though the ‘main’ line of the Ilchester branch may be stretching a point). The switchback requires me to make another point - some sort of asymmetrical Y - and I’ve a lot on at work this week so the quick win might be the ticket. I’ve spent part of this evening fettling the yard point so that will go in tomorrow, with any luck!

Adam
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
A fair amount more work done and almost all the main line track is down. I am waiting on some more metal rail joiners but that’s no bad thing as it gives time to lift and pack a couple of joints and solder up the cross baseboard rails. Incidentally, the lens on the iPhone seems to introduce an element of foreshortening which makes one or two of the joints and kinks look worse than they appear to the naked eye. Wagons roll quite nicely through it all which is pleasing. More seriously I’m almost out of bullhead rail...

B176AD25-0D1F-472F-B9B7-8F32D8A3769A.jpeg

D002F3D6-963C-4CAC-9B6F-01B0AA8DD7D7.jpeg

Almost ready for the next distraction!

Adam
 
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AJC

Western Thunderer
Adam

happy to help. Post (or point me to) a track plan.

Atb
Simon

Very kind, Simon - here you go (N.B. - DC, section between trap point and turnout to lower sidings isolated, lower loop effectively separate from the mainline).

Plan_C.jpg

It should be relatively straightforward, I just haven't done it before!

Adam
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Good to see your progress Adam!

Thanks - it’s getting there, and the enthusiasm for mucking around with track is lasting quite well! It makes the little changes in level much more apparent as well. It’ll be interesting to get something running on it.

Adam
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Adam

couple of questions: it’s DC, good old analog..?

three exits stage left. Stubs, traverser, loop round the garden?

exit stage right. Same question.

how many “cabs”?

how many locos in steam?

I’ll try to sketch something tomorrow if I get time

Atb
Simon
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Hi Simon,

Yes, analog.

Exits: the right hand end is a stub.

Likewise the top and bottom exits at the left hand end. Middle exits will be a traverser.

One cab and one engine in steam - the option of a second cab for the mineral line (the complete on scene loop and bottom left exit) is there but probably excessive for home operations. The split for such a thing would be the gap shown on the left hand board.

There’s no rush, thank you for the offer, it’s most kind.

Adam
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Adam,

I made a start over lunch (beats reading the news :) ) and realise I forgot one crucial question.

You've laid the track, but what I can't see from the photos is how (or, indeed, whether) you have isolated the frogs.

My preferred approach would be for every common crossing to be isolated from the closure rail and from the rails on the diverging tracks, ie 4 plastic fishplates, if you have done this, then it's easy to supply the frogs from a polarity switch associated with the point (and, incidentally, to go to DCC at any future time) but if not, don't panic, I'll have to do some head scratching.

atb
Simon
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Adam,

I made a start over lunch (beats reading the news :) ) and realise I forgot one crucial question.

You've laid the track, but what I can't see from the photos is how (or, indeed, whether) you have isolated the frogs.

My preferred approach would be for every common crossing to be isolated from the closure rail and from the rails on the diverging tracks, ie 4 plastic fishplates, if you have done this, then it's easy to supply the frogs from a polarity switch associated with the point (and, incidentally, to go to DCC at any future time) but if not, don't panic, I'll have to do some head scratching.

atb
Simon

Hi Simon,

Yes, all isolated just as you suggest, either that way or by convenient baseboard joints fulfilling the same function. I had thought that far ahead, at least!

Adam
 

simond

Western Thunderer
Adam,

see how you go with this.

I have used a common return ("Black to the Back" - could be a rock album title) and labelled connections "R" - the locations are approximate, you can work anywhere on that length of rail, of course.

The "main line" is red with feeds labeled F 1- F 5, and the "yard" is orange with feeds labelled Y 1 - Y 4. Similarly, you can move the feed locations to anywhere on the rail to which they refer.

Frogs are green, obviously.

upload_2021-3-4_13-20-44.png

You can obviously connect all the main feeds to a common terminal omn one controller and all the yard feeds to another controller, (and their returns together - provided they are fed from isolated supplies) and then operate one loco in each section, or you could put some switched sections - F2 would be a simple candidate, but a break to the right of the lower point in the right hand yard crossover would enable you "park" a loco on that stub.

Similarly on the stubs that go offstage, you can put a break in the feed rail, and a switch to connect it to the feed, allowing further locos to be stabled.

I haven't shown your traverser but assumed it would only be fed on the tracks that are aligned with the double track stage left

Hope this is clear, do shout if any questions.

atb
Simon
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Thanks Simon, that's really helpful (and the labelling makes everything simple to refer to for future reference, too). All that's a little way away just yet, but that's one less thing to worry about and I'm extremely grateful.

Adam
 

ChrisM

Active Member
Hi Adam, hope all is well.

Just a thought, but it may well be adding a couple of additional sections to your wiring diagram (above those you mentioned above) just to allow flexibility in the future - you’ll almost certainly not need them at home but in an exhibition setting (and I certainly hope you’ll be taking this out to shows for people to appreciate it!) some additional capacity may be useful? in my mind it is easier to build in an extra section at the wiring stage and have some redundancy than try to add it at a later point!

Having just re-read your initial post, I’m assuming that with 2 platforms and a signal box, Podimore would have been a block post, so being able to isolate both sides of the main line ‘loop’ independently is probably worthwhile? Similarly, being able to leave something on the dairy branch out of the way might be beneficial?

I might be over thinking the importance of Podimore in the light railway scenario, so feel free to completely ignore me if multiple trains on the layout would blow the image you have of the station out the water!

cheers
Chris
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Hi Chris,

Thanks for the observation - just to correct your assumptions, Podimore is a single-platform affair with a goods loop (from which the private sidings will be accessed) and a ground frame rather than a 'box. In my imagination the block post would probably be Queen Camel a couple of miles to the east. Yes, locking a mineral or goods train in the loop is something worthwhile and just about plausible. I did initially think of two platforms but changed my mind, based on a number of things - the primacy of freight in my interests, the tininess of the village and the length of the branch - it's just in the wrong place. So isolation for the goods loop is certainly a) a good idea and b) something I should and will do. It's pretty simple to isolate the dairy siding too and I'll be putting a section in there - I like the idea of a dedicated milk train with its loco sat waiting for the branch passenger to pass.

The remaining question is signalling. There needs to be a starter and they'd be an offscene limit of shunt, but whether that justifies a shunt arm on the same post, I don't rightly know. The SR might have used either a proper arm or a disc on the same post, I guess. The GWR would probably have done something more elaborate. Thoughts?

All that said, I finished laying the 'main' line over the weekend and have started work on the 'Y' that forms the industrial run round. All good but I need to order more rail to finish the job!

Adam
 
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simond

Western Thunderer
I think AC/ DC beat her to it with Back in Black way back in 1980. To be fair, she wasn’t born then!

An aside. I ran an Engineering office in India a few years back. We held a “family day” each year, so staff could bring their parents, partners, children, to see where they worked, and some selected examples of what they did, tied in with the interdepartmental cricket final (hyper important!) and followed by a mega buffet for some 200 in the car park. A young engineer came over to say thanks before leaving, and after some chit chat I remarked that he was wearing an AC/DC T-shirt, “oh yes sir, do you like AC/DC sir?”. I replied that if had seen AC/DC in Liverpool Stadium in 1974 (it was actually ‘76) to which he replied “I wasn’t born in 1974, sir”.. no... “my father wasn’t born in 1974, sir...”. Really, well, off you go!
 
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