Meet Tamiya and Kyosho

Well, in a minute anyway. First we visited the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre on Sunday, where there was a model railway exhibition. The below 009 layout called Tan y Banc was the only narrow gauge interest and was a lovely little affair. The centre is standard gauge and so doesn't get a review, although the train trip was surprisingly long and pleasant.

There was also a miniature railway that we had a very enjoyable ride on.

Anyway, I am pleased to report that all wiring (bar lighting and signals) is now complete, including point motors and board joins. DCC power is now available to the whole layout, including hidden sidings. The only wiring that needs now completing is that on the hidden sidings. Given I have yet to lay the track here that is probably unsurprising to regular Rhyd Ddu blog visitors!

So who or what are Tamiya and Kyosho - take a look here - http://listings.maplin.co.uk/Free_UK_Delivery/Tamiya_Race_Pack_Connector_11455_v2.htm

Below is an example of the pair (also used as hard disc cable connectors) I have used to carry the three connections for the point motors back to the DCC accessory decoder.

These are super little connectors, easy to use (I soldered the wires to the crimp just to be sure) and are pretty cheap too - certainly much easier to use than serial connectors!

Below is the Ffridd Isaf board...

Below is the first board after Ffridd Isaf with the loop point on....

Next is the main station board...



Then the board with all the action - the yard points and DCC accessory decoder...


Then board 1 - the square board

and finally the hidden sidings showing the choc blocks installed...

I also had time to think about the track plan for the top level of Nant Gwernol and to temporarily fix down 2 extra points...

Colin

By popular request

An image of a Ruston at Steeple Grange...

Tonight the wiring was taken to the next level and all is now done apart from the lighting (station lamps and signals) and I have yet to complete the cross-board connections (including the far loop point back to the DCC points decoder).

That means all feeds are in and attached to the bus bars [stapled onto the boards], isolators reconnected (not now needed for DCC!), point motors wired up (including frog connections) and connections to the points decoder.




and this is the final wiring plan:


Colin

Weekend report

A couple of railways were visited this weekend. First up is the extraordinary Steeple Grange Light Railway...


which features some odd points!

The staff were very friendly, and it's a nice little railway which goes a fair length for a cheap fare (£1.50 return) and up some serious gradients. They have a nice running shed, a little shop and even a small branch line that they take waiting passengers on whilst they wait for the 'main line' train. No steam though, publicity is poor (except for media coverage of a dispute with e.on electricity) and parking is a side of road job. There is also an odd squeeze through a gatepost to get in which would be hard for a pregnant lady or anyone of a larger than average waist size. The rolling stock is basic (miners' manriders) and the trip is mainly through woods to the middle of nowhere. Thus it doesn't score very well, which is a shame as we had a lovely hour or so there. 23%

Today we went on the Rudyard Lake Railway. Rudyard sports a tidy little station with its own footbridge and seasonal planting.

There were 3 steam engines in steam, all very similar and built for the Exmoor Steam Railway.

The trip along the lake was lovely, with nice views and a decent length. There was a festival on at the Dam, where we had a nice cup of tea. Overall 47%, just short of Kirklees, which feels about right as the facilities (shop, cafe etc) are better at Kirklees.

Oh and I did some wiring underneath the board with all the action (4 point motors)... Note the DCC points decoder (gaugemaster) installed and the DCC bus (two household copper wires [red and black] stripped in a few places). All wires have been soldered to their 'home' be it a feed, point motor etc) and a series of chop blocks have been glued on ready. All wires have had their ends stripped, so when the chop blocks are solid, wiring can be completed quite quickly.

I expect to staple the main bus wires to the board. That is if I can repair the netto nail gun!

and also gave the KMX tamper container a second coat of primer, added a polyfilla bank near the steps from the car park, painted rocks where they had been missed from the other side, added foliage to the walls to cover gaps and tone the stones down and a few other minor jobs.

Colin

Born again layout

Now that I've made the switch to DCC, I really need a decent programming track...and also I could do with a 'round and round' layout for loco running in. Solution? Alter my first layout, which is sitting forlornly in the garage. The layout has been featured on this blog before (search for Nant Gwernol). So, what have I done to it?

The first problem was that the loop point just outside the tunnel was very unreliable as it was an altered N gauge curved point. This has been removed and plain line laid in its place. On the top level a point and two sidings have been added (see below)

This gives me a test track, a round and round running in track and a reliable (now the curved point has gone) shunting layout too. It's all good.


In other news, another attempt has been made at modelling the Larch - this time faller trees - shown below with a Spruce for comparison.

and some very well priced smaller trees were picked up from Bachmann...

The 'plug-in' chop blocks that I'm planning to use for some board join connections have been found again (I've been looking for these for a week!)

The KMX tamper container was sprayed with plastic grey primer (which happens to be the correct colour anyway).

4 holes were drilled in the platform and a test lamp column installed.

and the garage was rejigged again to allow access to the other side of the second Ffridd Isaf board - quite a few bits of rocks have been missed (because I couldn't see them!) and the point needs painting on this side. Note the traffic jam!

and now we come to the kerfuffle of the week... On studying the wiring diagram on a cross country train mid week, I discovered that if the yard point was set for the yard, you couldn't run round the train in the loop. This is a minor operational issue, but would likely be annoying the few times you wanted to use it. Thus I needed to remove some normal joiners and replace them with isolated ones and then add a new feed. So I dug up the point in question and promptly broke the frog in lifting it! So a new point had to be purchased and added (now done), but this now needs ballasting and rails painting....one step forward, one back...

But at least the Pitt's Head road walls have been added too (baked to 160 degrees C in the oven and then bent to shape). Further scenic work will hide the joins!

Colin

Ready for wiring

Some views of the state of play tonight. Ballasting has continued apace, the new headshunt has had its rails painted, some better attempts at gorse bushes have been added, the permanent way gang have been attending to ballast on UB113A and a survey of the electrics doen so far has been completed prior to electrical work starting up soon (I've placed an order for one of these - http://www.ehattons.com/StockDetail.aspx?SID=17201 so I can start wiring the point motors to it).

One of the 'cool' things about this setup, is that my DCC controller (when I buy it) will have route setting capability - ie it can change all the points to set the layout for a certain route in one button press, niot only that but you can set a delay between the points actually changing, allowing for a kind of cascade effect - nice!).

Colin

Cover your tracks

Some more images of recent progress.

The first section of wall has been detailed around the lower edges so that it blends in with the landscape better (see 2 shots below of both sides), also note the new siding (head shunt).

But the main progress has been with ballasting, which is largely now complete except for the points (thought required to avoid ballast gumming up them).

Indeed my permanent way crew have been busy!


At Ffridd Isaf, the two large bushes that partially hide the wall have been placed.

We visited Crich tramway museum on Sunday and this exhibit was rather relevant I thought!


This is where the carriage is at - ends now satin black and all masking tape off. A few areas have leaked, but should be easy to touch up. Now it needs a roof, glazing and internal detail...


Colin

Seeing red

Some interesting progress has been made on carriages too recently... Dad is helping me learn about this as I have quite a number of carriages to get through if I want a few rakes of FR and WHR stock, not to mention heritage and WHR(P) stuff.

The three carriages in primer are No. 1000 (the first carriage I ever soldered together [it shows]), 103 (the buffet car that once was) and 116 (which has just emerged from Boston Lodge with totally different windows). Why prime these three - easy practice and it doesn't matter if I get it wrong! Look out for 103 and 116 on ebay soon!

Anyway, the carriage behind the primed ones is the subject of this post. It was primed by Dad and then I selected a halfords car paint (Ford Ivory) for the cream windows etc. This was sprayed all over. Then we masked off the parts that were to stay ivory and sprayed the carriage with BR crimson from a railmatch enamel can. Except that the crimson came out buffer beam red! Disaster! Also, being enamel we couldn't then spray some Nissan red (closest colour later found at halfords) on top. On a trip to the model shop, we found a railmatch pot of the same colour, and found it to be fine. So this was purchased and two coats were painted on by Dad. Tomorrow I shall remove the masking tape (tamiya) and fingers crossed, we should be close to a painted carriage (well the ends need to be black yet, but that should be easy).

Once I've got one done, I then hope to open up a kind of batch working - getting 5 or 6 into primer, then ivory etc... watch this space.

Colin

What's that coming over the hill...is it a monster update?

Sorry about the gap in blogging, but this post should make up for it. The reasons for the gap are that I have been busy modelling! [taking advantage of some rather good weather!]

Below are some images, which will help describe what I've done. The flash once again lightens a lot of the colours - the ballast is grey, not white as you might believe in some of these shots, sorry about that...

The second half of Ffridd Isaf has had its coat of LNER Doncaster Green (thinned to about 1:16 and some matt yellow added). Also the ballast has been extended around to the loop point. It needs tidying up at the edges, which I shall do when I add the weathering - a thin wash of dark grey in the 2 foot for one) - it's too 'clean' at the moment.

The main station area has also been greened, the platform has had its initial coat of paint and is now fixed down, to allow ballasting up to the platform edge to commence on the side nearest the camera.

There is much discussion in dispatches that the head shunt in the yard will be extended (towards Pitt's Head), now that the container for the little blue diesel 'Dolgarrog' has gone. Indeed the sub base already exists, so I have taken a flyer on this one and extended it now, at the risk that it might not happen! This also had the benefit that I could remove the (now unnecessary as I'm going for DCC) gaps added for isolation on this siding, which had caused me some concern about the reliability of running as they were mighty close to the point. One new feed will need to be added (using the holes already drilled), and the rails painted, but otherwise this is now done (cork underlay extended, track cut and attached with insulated joiners and track plus ballast glued down.

I am now pretty happy with the Pitt's Head road after about the 5th (!) attempt to get it right - mid grey emulsion paint plus talcum powder is about right for an old tarmac surface (better to underplay the colours I reckon!)

The first wall section had some fine scatter randomnly added and was then glued in place next to the foreground grass, that is now also green!

Ballasting continued in the yard area, weathering to come.

On Ffridd Isaf, the considerable work has involved extra detailing of the grass with different shades of static grass etc, painting of the stream bridge (wall) by Dad (top artist and good at mixing colours etc http://www.fclea.co.uk/) and further coats of realistic water for the stream plus more slate bits added to the path.

I have also been experimenting with (in the rear) some dead (coconut fibre) and live bracken (from busch)... and (in the foreground) some heki trees that Dad got cheap, which I have added static flock to (they are not permanently planted by the way!). This has generally been successful, and the bracken will work well I think. The trees on their own are too 'blobby', but in a copse or small wood, they should be fine.

another overview of the Ffridd Isaf board. It's getting there!

Colin