Idle hands...

For the first time in over a year, I have very little to do.

It's not uncommon after a two day session to come home with a loco or two in need of TLC but once again this time there were no casualties.

I'll need to investigate a small issue with the LED signals which should just involve swapping the polarity and I need to modify two more electric points for spares but that's roughly an evening's work to complete both tasks.

I need another project! - I don't have sufficient spare track (or the funds) to rebuild in the loft and now that the new layout is finished and being shown multiple times during the year, I have ample opportunity to play trains, so a loft layout might not actually be needed, aside from a small test track maybe. Plus the extremes of temperature and the lightweight construction of my loft means that time spent up there would be limited and not terribly kind to the rolling stock.

So I've started searching for locos again and then reminded myself of the HD 0-6-0 tank that I bought ages ago and stripped. I managed to locate most of the parts from when I dismantled it, sorting the motor was easy with just a quick lube and a new magnet but now I have the challenge of three-railing it.

  

This particular loco was produced towards the end of Hornby Dublo construction and was only manufactured as a two rail model. The half inch motor was used on other locos, such as the 8F but the challenge here is that there are only three axles and the motor drive is taken from the centre axle - not a problem for two rail but for three rail, that's where the pick-up skate would go, there's a bloomin' big worm cog in the way. Then there's the space between the chassis and the motor assembly - there is little or no room to bolt through the pick-up assembly. A Marklin skate also wont fit.

If possible, and for the best running, I want proper HD pick-ups under here. I could use brass fasteners but these tend to require constant adjustment and as I intend to use this on the shuttle, the frequent travelling over the points will mean lots of adjustment - I've already had bitter experience of a Bachmann 2EPB pole-vaulting itself off the layout when the brass fastener dug itself into a gap in the third rail and that's not something that I'm keen to repeat.

I'm going to attempt to use the individual pick-up assemblies found under the Deltic, one either side of the main drive cog. I now probably need to ream the underside to accommodate and then work out a way to secure the pick-ups into position.

The reaming tool was last used for the Brighton Belle project and although initially I was unhappy with the way it ran, it has settled in quite nicely and now runs without issue.

This one I think will keep me busy for a while...

Train Cam returns!

After finishing all the modifications, I filmed the layout again.

This time I remembered to capture the upper loop and turntable sidings and filmed in blocks so that there was some traffic flowing.

As the camera is fixed directly to the chassis (no body) of a 0-6-2 shunter (which needs some mechanical TLC) there is a fair amount of clatter.

So turn the volume down, and enjoy...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOcjM5b2ywc

Weekend run completed

 Another weekend of hard work.

What would normally be two days of playing trains was in reality one day of solid work and one day of playing trains!

After making some minor repairs to parts of the layout, it was time to link the three recently modified boards together for the first time and begin aligning the tracks. Some warpage has occurred and there were difficulties getting the front and rear sections to align. Some minor issues with two of the newly added points, which considering there are now 17 more pairs of electric points, some issues were expected.

Finally completed the electrical work to the turntable sidings - the isolators to allow parking two locos on each track were added when the layout was built but this part was never wired. After building a new relay control circuit, all of these isolators operate from one switch. And it works rather well!

The rear straight section of the upper loop warped badly over the winter so has been replaced with a new, dual layered plywood section. This was also replaced again after I measured the old one wrong!

We've also removed most of the old wooden supports and replaced with adjustable kitchen legs, which will allow better flexibility and height adjustment in future. The combination of these two modifications resulted in much smoother running.

The main lines now run through the centre of the fiddle yard and now complete trains, even the long goods train, can be driven into and out of the sidings and stored without issue and there's still enough space to store all the locos.

The E3002 electric loco, now completely modified and sporting a proper HD pick-up assembly, can be seen. Although it's a very smooth runner, the loco is only driven via one axle and struggled with the tight radius inner curves, the side frames also protrude so far that they were hitting the signals so I've removed them and stored them safely. As the outer loop is predominantly diesel and electric, it fits in really well.

On the inner (steam) loop, access to and from the turntable is now much smoother and easier to operate and whole trains can again be parked up.

The long goods train just about fits and even Brighton Belle, which of course isn't genuine HD or three rail, manages to negotiate the pointwork at either end.

Upper rear section now looking much straighter than before...

The new design incorporates some handy siding space for the diesel locos...

Viewed from the running rails, the new fiddle yard fans out from the centre via the standard HD points, into the modified ones...

And after all that work on the signal aspect controllers, I fitted one as a tester, to the far signal in this picture at the end of the main station. It worked exactly as expected and almost exactly as my Ipad simulator predicted. Next project will be to install them to the remaining signals. 

A successful weekend with no loco casualties. We're now ready for some 2015 exhibitions!

I managed to bring the video camera this time. With over 50 video files and nearly 5GB of footage, it will take a while to edit and upload.

Keep an eye on YouTube...

Spoons

I've had occasional problems with some locos stalling over points.

Having researched further, it appears that the problem may be down to excessive wear on the pick-up shoes, or spoons as they're sometimes referred to.

The problem seems to be more so with the 0-6-2 tank engines, even though the pick-up skate is the same length as the standard locos, although it does tend to overhang slightly at one end which appears to be a design problem.

Having double-checked the pick-up spoons, a number were grooved quite badly so I've sourced some reproduction ones and replaced the worst looking ones, however I've also read that others have attempted to re-profile the old ones using solder, so I decided to test this for myself.

Of the three pairs of spoons below, the top left are the new, reproduction ones sourced recently. Top right is a pair that I previously experimented with, and the bottom pair are the two that were in the worst condition, the groove is clearly visible:

First job was to clean up the spoons, removing all dirt & grime ready for soldering:

Once cleaned, I applied heat from the soldering iron, then applied the solder:

Waiting for the solder to cool:

Once cooled, this is the result:

Now for some grinding:

And a final polish:

The solder will probably be much softer so these may require work again in future. I'll test them shortly.

Fiddle yard finished

This weekend sees the layout in action for a private two day session. This will be a chance to assemble the fiddle yard and align the tracks properly, while undertaking some other minor repairs & modifications.

All of the electric points and their control circuits are now in position, this presented a fair bit of additional wiring as can be seen below:

With the two end boards done, I then modified the tracks on the centre board. As expected this was reasonably easy as seven of the tracks were left in-situ from the previous design. The points that link the front and rear centre sections have been relocated to the end board, so the trackwork here has been changed to a simple straight and half curve, I drew around the old points before removing them so hopefully this will still line up. 

It's impossible to link the boards together at home but hopefully if I've done my planning properly, most of the tracks will line up and it shouldn't be too big a job to sort the rest.

While I'm working on the front boards, I intend to fit my signal aspect controls, which are now finished. The one here is designed to work two signals which protect one pair of points (one is red, one is green and the aspects swap as the points change)

The circuit is the same as the one designed in the previous post, with a trigger relay operated by the train movement charging the capacitor. The only addition is the 2K ohm variable resistor wired in series with the original resistor, this allows me to adjust the timing. With a 2200uF capacitor the times are between 15 and 30 seconds, with the larger 4700uF capacitor on one of the other boards, the timing can be adjusted between approx 20 and 60 seconds. This one will be fitted on the outer loop where I tend to run the goods train, which takes a while to fully clear the signal.

More pictures and videos to follow.