4mm Polsarrett: BR(S) N Cornwall Clay, The Final Countdown
Peter Cross
Western Thunderer
Wish I was over 50, well, I suppose I am, but thirteen years over.
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
You can stop that right now SheepBloke.
NHY 581
Western Thunderer
Okay............it's 45..
Finishing the electrics, layout works!
Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
I had a day off work yesterday so spent it in the train room working on Polsarrett. The aim for the day was to end up with the layout being functional again.
First on the hit list was getting power back to the track. First off was removing the red wire link to the switch panel, it should be a black feed. The short that would have originally occurred didn't as the red wire wasn't actually attached! Then adding in the missing black wire from the controller output to the switch panel. Sounds easy but I was working under the board and really needed 3 hands.
Power was restored and all the section switches worked ok. An early success!
But... Powering up the layout revealed another issue. Somehow over the last 12 months the servos had all unadjusted themselves. It was almost like a gremlin had been along and moved all the mounts so they were in the wrong place. Blades were not closing and the actuator wires in some cases we're sticking quite proud of the tiebar. Weird.
Rather than address that straight away I decided to add the power feed to the fiddle yard. Took a while to work out where I had intended this to come from but got there in the end. Once done I decided to do some testing (why wouldn't you?)
Various items of motive power were tried up and down the line, some having not run for a while. Amazingly most ran well straight from the display cabinet. The worst was a new Adams Radial which seems to bounce and clunk over everything. I don't think I've time to sort it out for the first show.
The Beatty Well Tanks all ran nicely, which is a relief as they are core motive power for the layout. The Heljan 1366 also seemed happy but the droopy coupling snags on turnouts. Bless. one of my Dapol 22s had a run and ran beautifully, could end up being a fallback. Anyway, 2 hours later I had a good idea of the locos that would and wouldn't be going to the first show.
Task avoidance was completed, so attention turned to the servos. First off I released the mounts from the board to free up the blades. This enabled me to see if the problem was glue, ballast lumps or the servo settings. A mixture of all was the answer.
Once freed up the next job was to find better positions for the servo mounts, minor adjustments in most cases. I also remade a couple of the actuator wires as incomprehensibly they were too short. Reassembly is a job that ideally needs 2 sets of eyes and 17 hands, quite frustrating as you need to be above and below board.
Two hours in and two points sorted and reset on the Megapoints controller thingy. Two others quickly followed with minimal work but a fifth, well, suffice to say I have it to do this morning. The air was blue at one point.
The work session did end with me getting some 'help' from No1 daughter. She had a drive of the brake an special but did helpfully point out the carriages were all different colours and had no people in...
First on the hit list was getting power back to the track. First off was removing the red wire link to the switch panel, it should be a black feed. The short that would have originally occurred didn't as the red wire wasn't actually attached! Then adding in the missing black wire from the controller output to the switch panel. Sounds easy but I was working under the board and really needed 3 hands.
Power was restored and all the section switches worked ok. An early success!
But... Powering up the layout revealed another issue. Somehow over the last 12 months the servos had all unadjusted themselves. It was almost like a gremlin had been along and moved all the mounts so they were in the wrong place. Blades were not closing and the actuator wires in some cases we're sticking quite proud of the tiebar. Weird.
Rather than address that straight away I decided to add the power feed to the fiddle yard. Took a while to work out where I had intended this to come from but got there in the end. Once done I decided to do some testing (why wouldn't you?)
Various items of motive power were tried up and down the line, some having not run for a while. Amazingly most ran well straight from the display cabinet. The worst was a new Adams Radial which seems to bounce and clunk over everything. I don't think I've time to sort it out for the first show.
The Beatty Well Tanks all ran nicely, which is a relief as they are core motive power for the layout. The Heljan 1366 also seemed happy but the droopy coupling snags on turnouts. Bless. one of my Dapol 22s had a run and ran beautifully, could end up being a fallback. Anyway, 2 hours later I had a good idea of the locos that would and wouldn't be going to the first show.
Task avoidance was completed, so attention turned to the servos. First off I released the mounts from the board to free up the blades. This enabled me to see if the problem was glue, ballast lumps or the servo settings. A mixture of all was the answer.
Once freed up the next job was to find better positions for the servo mounts, minor adjustments in most cases. I also remade a couple of the actuator wires as incomprehensibly they were too short. Reassembly is a job that ideally needs 2 sets of eyes and 17 hands, quite frustrating as you need to be above and below board.
Two hours in and two points sorted and reset on the Megapoints controller thingy. Two others quickly followed with minimal work but a fifth, well, suffice to say I have it to do this morning. The air was blue at one point.
The work session did end with me getting some 'help' from No1 daughter. She had a drive of the brake an special but did helpfully point out the carriages were all different colours and had no people in...
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Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
During shakedown testing this morning I started getting intermittent failures on the goods yard servo. But a process of elimination I traced it to a faulty switch. Thankfully I had a spare, so that was swapped out.
Slightly concerned that the switches I bought might have not been best quality. I can see them being replaced later in the year, after all the first switch to fail wasn't actually in use that long.
Slightly concerned that the switches I bought might have not been best quality. I can see them being replaced later in the year, after all the first switch to fail wasn't actually in use that long.
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Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
They all do, they are just one-off switches, just 2 tags.
Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
Ah, yes, I see what you mean now. Not a good sign is it?
Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
Had a good start to the day, the servos eventually got sorted. Found what was causing the problem. The switch for the frog polarity change was too close to one end point of the servo arm. The servo couldn't always go far enough across physically and I'd set the Megapoints controller to go a tad further to try and close the point blade gap. This seemed to have the effect of twisting the arm on the end of the servo effectively moving the end points.
So out with the drill and lengthening the slot which the fixing bolts for the switch fit into. This gave the arm enough room to travel. Sorted. Took a while though. And the air was frequently blue.
So out with the drill and lengthening the slot which the fixing bolts for the switch fit into. This gave the arm enough room to travel. Sorted. Took a while though. And the air was frequently blue.
Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
That was the good bit. The other 'quick' job for today was sorting out the other fiddle. So aligning it vertically against the main board, drill some holes for the alignment dowels, fix the run in track for the cassettes, sorted...
Nope.
If I said there are 6 holes in the end board where there should be two, that might give a clue as to today's frustrations.
Suffice to say, I managed to hit two buried screws in the end of the main board and a knot in the fiddle. The best bit though was that I used the wrong thickness of ply (too thin) to form the run-in sections. That explained the puzzle of why I had to use more packing than the other end when setting the fiddle yard height.
Doh!
Thankfully I hadn't glued down the ply under the running in lines, so it was easy to remove. It did however mean two more holes in the board ends when I set the height correctly. Anyway, all sorted now.
I really must put all the wrong thickness ply somewhere else in the garage.
Nope.
If I said there are 6 holes in the end board where there should be two, that might give a clue as to today's frustrations.
Suffice to say, I managed to hit two buried screws in the end of the main board and a knot in the fiddle. The best bit though was that I used the wrong thickness of ply (too thin) to form the run-in sections. That explained the puzzle of why I had to use more packing than the other end when setting the fiddle yard height.
Doh!
Thankfully I hadn't glued down the ply under the running in lines, so it was easy to remove. It did however mean two more holes in the board ends when I set the height correctly. Anyway, all sorted now.
I really must put all the wrong thickness ply somewhere else in the garage.
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Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
So, after much consideration I've chopped the folding support beams to extend just past the main board. The cantilever idea sort of worked but wasn't really up to balancing heavy leaning (or large pies) on the fiddle yards. Would have been ok if the main board was much heavier.
And in other news, layout track, points and electricals are now fully working. It involved a laser, and why not...
Fiddle 2 works and shakedown testing had trains running in and out of all lines.
Next task is to knock up some legs for the fiddle yards.
And in other news, layout track, points and electricals are now fully working. It involved a laser, and why not...
Fiddle 2 works and shakedown testing had trains running in and out of all lines.
Next task is to knock up some legs for the fiddle yards.
Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
There's a temporary end at the other end but not at the new fiddle yet. Definitely needs something though!
Extra legs for the fiddle yards
Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
All the bits I've built for the layout have been based around putting it up on my own. So the method is:
Here's the layout up with the extra legs knocked up today:
The new legs just sandwich one of the fiddle cross members, friction fit, no bolts. Better still no bounce when heavy pasties are added.
The best bit is that everything fits together with no bolts. Should save time at shows, setting up and braking down.
Oh, and there's drapes in kit form...
I do have a fallback thanks to Mark, some borrowed drapes should I run out of time...
- Set up main trestle legs
- Add the horizontal beams
- Place layout on the beams
- Place fiddle on the new legs, offer up to main board, clamp in place
- Repeat for the other fiddle
- Plug in electrics
- Add drapes (velcro)
- Place stock on cassettes
- Drive
Here's the layout up with the extra legs knocked up today:
The new legs just sandwich one of the fiddle cross members, friction fit, no bolts. Better still no bounce when heavy pasties are added.
The best bit is that everything fits together with no bolts. Should save time at shows, setting up and braking down.
Oh, and there's drapes in kit form...
I do have a fallback thanks to Mark, some borrowed drapes should I run out of time...
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