Now you see it...
Now you don't...
It is sad to be scrapping these old boards, I haven't yet decided the fate of the entire old layout but I do need to reclaim most of the track and this particular board, being oversized and wont even fit through the loft hatch, has no real future purpose. The timber from the sides of the old boards will be recycled to use as supporting legs for the new layout - no more resting on tables and hopefully no more back ache!
The scrap, non-working, spares-or-repairs Duette controller arrived. After checking it over with the multi meter to ensure it was safe to run, I connected it to the mains and found that everything works - A bargain, fully functioning Duette ready for stripping!
As for the switch panel, work is progressing well.
The final design was printed onto self-adhesive, glossy photo paper. I chose photo quality paper as this will take the lacquer coat better than normal paper - my experience with the coach overlay kits was that applying lacquer over the transfers created blotchy marks. The only unfortunate problem is that whilst the yellow background dried perfectly, the blue linings and lettering have embossed over the top of the yellow ink, meaning that they haven't been saturated by the photo paper and tended to smudge, this has led to some air bubbles being trapped under the paper as I couldn't apply much pressure when attaching the stickers.
This is basically two pieces of A4 paper, cut into the two sections and joined in the centre, which is then carefully stuck to the aluminium panel...
I've stripped out the potentiometers from one of the Duettes, marked, drilled and reamed the new panel to fit and replaced the old H & M switches with toggle switches - these are easier to mount and have a better feel than the old switches.
I'm really pleased with the final appearance, just need to remove everything and lacquer the panel...
The switch panel casing has been built for me - my carpentry skills weren't up to this. This is constructed from spare 6mm MDF left over from the construction of the new boards. I chose a home-made panel after many hours of research concluded that a factory built panel of this size was far too expensive. This one so far has been built for around £25.00 including the aluminium sheets.
I couldn't resist test-fitting the new panels, it fits like a glove!
The top panel will feature some switches and two digital ammeters on the left side and a map of the front three boards on the right, with all the points switches drilled into the panel. I also intend to fit LEDs to indicate the position of the points. Using the learnings from making the bottom panel, I will make a low-resolution black and white stick-on template, drill and file all the holes then remove the sticker, clean, file and de-grease the aluminium panel and then apply the final stickers. This reduces the risk of damaging the stickers when drilling and I want this to look perfect. I may also apply one coat of lacquer to the stickers before I apply them to the aluminium, hopefully this will reduce the risk of smudging the ink and will allow me to use more pressure to remove any air bubbles.
When finally finished, the box will be painted blue. I found a good resolution picture of a Dublo loco box and was able to get a good colour match from it, I'll print a high-resolution sample and get the paint mixed at a DIY store. A little anal maybe but it's all in the detail!!!
I have now received all of the capacitors, relays and breakout PCBs that I need to construct the layout. Next stages are to commence making the PCBs and fit the dowel pins and catches to the boards, before priming, painting and then commencing track laying. Then there's scenery and the raised loop...
Lots of work done and many hours spent so far but way, way more to do...
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