Reflections on 2016

 2016 can I think be best summed up as a year of modification, restoration and innovation.

Innovation comes courtesy of the numerous Arduino-based projects. Starting with the replacement shuttle control system, followed by the signal sequencer and the turntable control. It's been fun learning and revisiting computer programming after years of playing with a ZX Spectrum!

Plenty of restoration this year, 2016 began with a number of restoration projects, including the scrapheap locos and the City of Liverpool restoration (well creation really as it was a London)

Corfe Castle was soon brought to life...

Swiftly followed by Lulworth Castle... 

Hogwarts Castle was a mixture of restoration and innovation as the nameplates and tender graphics had to be home made, this is where the Silhouette Portrait came in handy...

And was then put to use to cut the windows & doors for a number of coach projects, including a second blue & grey EMU set...

I continue to buy up scrap and hopeless looking items... 

I think this 8F gets the award for most playworn locomotive restored!

This was also the first time that I'd stripped a locomotive to this level and managed to rebuild.

This even led to a request to repaint a locomotive for someone.

We did our first marquee events this year, also completing our first four day show, putting the rolling stock under plenty of pressure and with surprisingly few casualties. The extra effort involved in setting up on uneven ground ensured that the layout actually ran better than usual!

Probably the biggest achievements this year are the completion of the motorised turntable project. A project that took many months of research to complete...

Also some ingenious modification of an old signal to house the LED...

But this was nothing compared to the amount of work that was then required to install the turntable into the layout...

Then there was the replacement of the rear section of the upper loop. A project that was finally completed having been put off so many times... 

It's also been a year of making the layout pay its way (or trying to) so a number of locos have departed this year, mainly locos that were seeing little or no use on the layout. Most selling for a profit, with the spare blue EMU making the most profit of all.

This hasn't stopped me purchasing locos of course, and having had the opportunity to run one of Nigel Smith's beautiful prototype Deltics earlier in the year, he was swiftly commissioned to produce one for me...

Finally, at the end of the year, the Berlingo departed to be replaced by a more suitable and convenient method of transportation...

First job of 2017 will be to get this racked and ready for the next year of exhibitions.

We've found ourselves exhibiting further afield this year, and next year we'll be travelling even further with the confirmation of the Warley exhibition next November. There will be plenty of work going on next year to ensure that everything is perfect for the biggest exhibition we've ever done.

We continue to attract positive comments with our "toy trains" mentality to running our layout and our obsession with constantly having things running, This can be challenging, especially with old rolling stock and two-man operation but it keeps us on our toes. The side-operated configuration of our layout also means that we're able to converse with the general public quite easily and the bookings continue to come in.

This site continues to grow in popularity, well over 1000 hits per month is the norm these days.

So as I reflect on 2016, it's been another year of hard graft, mixed with some great fun, 2017 will be more of the same I imagine.

So as 2016 ticks away to its end, it's time once again to say a massive thank you to all the clubs that have allowed us to exhibit this year and the paying public who've come to see us (one gentleman this year travelled from Yorkshire to Dorset to come and see us) and the clubs who have already booked us for 2017 and 2018. Thanks also to the regular viewers of this site and the Youtube page, you clearly have nothing better to do with your time!

We'll do it all again next year...

Winter maintenance - clearing the desk

I had a plan to clear my desk of repairs by year end!

Although there are a number of locomotives sitting on my desk, only two of these are locos that have been taken out of service for repairs, the rest are ongoing projects.

So the final two locomotives requiring repair were Cardiff Castle and Co-Bo D5702.

Cardiff Castle had recently been used as a donor to complete works on Ludlow Castle and after sourcing some new brushes, brush springs and two rail pickup assembly, this one has now finally returned to service. Although Ludlow is the more valuable of the two, Cardiff is one of only two remaining locos from our childhood so it was important to get it back into working order again.

The Co-Bo had been robbed of several vital bits throughout 2016 - when one of the Deltics failed while double-heading during one of the exhibitions, the quickest and most effective method of repair was to do a motor swap, so first job was to clean up and repair the mechanism and fit a replacement armature. It had also been stripped of its third rail pickup when I sold the spare blue EMU set and needed the correct pickup for it. For now I've modified a standard HD pickup, which seems to work and will do until I can save up some more money!

And with the Co-Bo and Castle repaired, every single locomotive is now fixed and back in service.

Look out for some more restorations in the new year...

Six wheeled brake van

A project that got completely missed from this site!

In late November, I gained another box of bits, on the provision that I restored one of the two, six wheeled brake vans that was in the collection. Both had been modified, with one minus its original wheels & couplings and both stripped of their original graphics.

Up until now, I've created my coach sides by taking scans of the originals and then re-drawing them  using the original scan as a base. For this I had to rely on Google images to get some half decent pictures of what it was supposed to look like, with the coach scan only being used for the correct dimensions and placement of the window cuts.

After many hours of fiddling and using only MS Paint, I managed to create graphics, then fed this into the Silhouette software to produce some new overlays.

After two or three attempts. I had my overlays printed & cut correctly:

And after applying the vinyls and lacquer, painting the chassis black and the roof with grey primer, this was the end result:

Okay so not an exact match and probably not quite as valuable, but a perfectly usable wagon no less, which has now been returned to its very happy owner!

Transportation

The biggest downside of having such a large layout is having sufficient means of transportation.

For the last year or so, the layout has been carried around in a Citroen Berlingo Multispace, which has worked reasonably well but it means that the boards have to be stacked on top of each other, which doesn't do them much good and it's also resulted in some damage to the interior of the car.

Increasingly the Berlingo was only being used as a layout transporter and this makes it a rather expensive method. Plus we're restricted on the amount of stock we can carry and there would be no chance of any future expansion - even changing the rear of the top loop recently presented a greater challenge of trying to fit it all in the car!

A cheaper, more efficient solution was required. A van would be cheaper to buy and less prone to damage but in reality would only get used around twelve times a year. 

So a much cheaper solution was needed...

It won't need to be taxed or insured and will require very little maintenance. It just about fits in the garage and has plenty of room. Plus it shouldn't depreciate anywhere near as much as a car or van.

Next job is to rack it properly so that each board can be stored on its own shelf. This means lots of cutting of dexion (thankfully we acquired some recently) to make a rack capable of safely transporting my layout.

More Dexion required to finish the project, then some boards for the shelves.

I wonder if we have room for an extension...

More winter maintenance

The winter repairs continue...

Clan line was next for repairs having narrowly escaped burning out the armature, it's been very slow since. This was caused by a bent brush spring, it must have been caught while refitting the body. A quick and simple repair.

Next job was to tackle the box of tank locos, many of these were hastily brought into use and needed some final tweaks. LMS 2273 was completely dead thanks to a loose wire on the armature, this was re-soldered and tested.

69567 was running slow, the armature sounds like one of the commutator segments has lifted. For the moment I've exchanged the chassis with another 0-6-2 that's awaiting restoration.

69563 was another slow runner but ran fine when the wires were connected straight to the brush holders. This was found to be caused by dirty wheels and a quick clean was all that was required.

Crepello was suffering from a weak magnet and had lost several tyres, these were replaced as a complete set once re-magnetised.

0-6-0 Diesel shunter has been a poor performer for some time. This one was still running with the modified motor end cap that was fitted during the DCC conversion - one of the brush holders was too far away for the brush to make contact, so after swapping the end cap and adjusting the brush springs, this one purred quite happily and with a much more reasonable turn of speed.

Green Bo-Bo had recently had its magnet turned to allow it to run nose-to-nose with the blue Bo-Bo but appeared very hesitant when running. Closer inspection revealed that the motor bogie was actually a two rail version, with no current return on one side. The wheels have now been swapped, the brush springs adjusted and after a light oiling it appears to run much smoother.

Finally the Pacer received some love, it just needed a quick oil of the motor bearings.

That's most of the locos now repaired.

Revisiting the New Year's resolutions

A the start of this year, I made a list of ten items that I wished to accomplish in 2016, so with the year almost at an end, time to check on progress:


1. Reconfigure the upper loop to accommodate four sidings instead of the current two.

Recently completed, new rear section of upper loop with large radius curves installed.

2. Reposition the board connectors so that the boards can be individually isolated for fault-finding.

Connecting patch leads have been constructed but board connectors not yet moved. - Project for 2017.

3. Fix City of Birmingham (it stopped dead recently)

Fixed it, then sold it!

4. Acquire a City of Liverpool at a sensible price (probably means some restoration work)

Completed (see the Tale of two cities posts)

5. Finish the Castles - there are now three sitting on my desk, one remaining from the Srapheap challenge box of delights, one was a gift at a recent exhibition and one I acquired a while ago with no nameplates or numbers.

Corfe Castle, Lulworth Castle & Hogwarts Castle were produced.

6. Reverse the polarity of one of the two remaining Bo-Bo's - After successfully restoring one of the green Bo-Bo's, I tried with the other, which was setup to run in reverse so that both would run nose-to-nose, unfortunately the green bodywork is very poor so the loco ended up being scrapped, it's wheels were donated to the EMU project. I don't need three of them so two will do.

Done.

7. Fix these:

Bubble Car pickup replaced, used extensively on the shuttle in 2016.

VEP finally working on new upper loop.

8. Finish the HST - one of the first ever conversion attempts I hope will make a final appearance later this year once I've sourced some suitable mk3 coaches.

HST re-bodied into original blue / yellow livery, awaiting suitable mk 3 coaches.

9. Sort the turntable, it tends to stick and needs the hand of God to get it moving at times.

Turntable replaced with modified Hornby Dublo turntable using Arduino and stepper motor control.

10. Acquire a Ludlow Castle.

Successfully acquired.

Not bad really!

Winter maintenance

With the layout successfully modified and packed away until the new year, time to start working through the loco boxes and carrying out some maintenance & repairs.

First out of the box was the motor car of the blue EMU. This one ground to halt during the Weymouth exhibition due to a worn gear worm and loose top motor bearing. With the cog replaced and the bearing adjusted correctly and secured, the EMU is ready for service.

Second was the recently acquired blue Deltic.  Nothing major wrong here but one of the directional LEDs didn't work, so this was replaced and tested.

Duchess of Atholl next. This one has a wonky wheel. I've recently acquired a couple of scrap Atholl locos so having restored the chassis of one of them, I've exchanged it for the wonky wheeled one.

The twin 8Fs that have only recently been refurbished were next to be looked at, both quite noticeably down on power since entering service. Both were cured by increasing the tension in the brush spring. They both now run much faster.

Corfe Castle, for some reason escaped being re-magnetised, so after dismantling and a quick zap in the magnetiser, this one's now running at a much more acceptable speed.

Finally for the first loco box, Ludlow Castle. This is a recent acquisition that doesn't run terribly well. Further inspection revealed that the tender electrical connection wasn't secure and also that the chassis is two rail, no current return on one side. Also in need of repairs is Cardiff Castle, having lost a brush spring and its wiring, the chassis has been swapped with Ludlow, with Cardiff being temporarily withdrawn until the spares can be sourced. There's only space for five castles in the box, so with all five spaces filled, this one can have a rest until the new year.

So that's seven locos repaired in one evening session.

Only two more boxes to sort through...

Revamping the upper loop - part four

We found ourselves with a bonus day out with the layout, attending our home club's bi-annual open day, so we decided to use this as a day to continue work on the upper loop, running minimal stock.

Prior to this, I managed to wire up the centre section and the points at the control panel end, I also managed to adapt the control panel. Rather than replace all the graphics, a new piece was cut and stuck into place:

One of the issues with cutting track to size is that the fixings for the centre rail are often lost. Here we've had to glue the centre rail, hence the tape measure being used as a weight!

After some track cleaning, all four sections were slowly tweaked and brought into life. The 0-6-2 tank on the left being the first loco to complete the maiden lap...

The blue EMU followed (the blue & grey one is still awaiting repairs) then Duchess of Montrose and Silver King...

 Duchess of Montrose storms through the second track, no derailments and far smoother than ever before!

 The ballast has been reinstated, it had to be re-done due to the new, larger radius curves.,,

And finally, the best test of all - the most temperamental item of rolling stock in the entire collection - the Hornby VEP. On the previous upper loop it slowed almost to a complete halt on the bends due to the tight radius curves. Now it runs without fault and may actually see more use in future!

The only remaining job is to wire the points at the far end, currently waiting for more components to arrive from China but the top loop can be used by manually operating the points. We now have a fully operational top loop that's easier and quicker to assemble and less likely to warp.

Job done (nearly)

We're going to Warley!

We're going to Warley!

- And not just to visit, the layout will be exhibited as part of the 2017 Warley National Model Railway Exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham.

Excitement levels are high, now that we've had confirmation we're stupidly excited. We now have less than twelve months to get everything perfect ready for what will undoubtedly be two of the hardest working days we've ever experienced when exhibiting.

Only 363 days to go...

Revamping the upper loop - part three

Time to start laying track...

No loose tracks this time, everything will be screwed down and cut to length properly.

We're actually starting to run out of track!

As we fitted the curves during the last session, we didn't need to setup the entire layout, hopefully if we've done our sums right, this lot will still line up!

The centre section is 6ft long, this equates to six full straights and one quarter straight for each siding. 

The tracks on the adjoining boards were cut using a dremel & cutting disc.

Once we were happy with the positioning, all the tracks were screwed into position.

 The dowel pins and catches, along with the new three-sectional rear section (instead of four sections) should improve reliability.

Once completed, the boards were separated and re-connected several times to ensure that everything still lines up.

Next job - wiring...