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  • SouthernRegionSteam

    Coastguard Creek - 15 months of planning!

    By SouthernRegionSteam

    Hold on to your socks - this is going to be a lengthy one! (In fact it's so long, I've now split it into 2 separate posts - the next will be up soon...)   I think it's fair to say that you are all long overdue an update on Coastguard Creek. Due to other commitments, no real progress has been made since the last post way back in March 2021; almost 15 months ago! If anything, things went backwards for quite a while, as I kept finding more and more inspiring locations that I really wanted
    • 8 comments
    • 3,303 views
Maxstoke

Turnout operating unit - initial work up.

Standard TOUs are many and various. I doubt that there is anything truly original in this, but it is offered for interest's sake.   The baseboards for Maxstoke are of a low profile, so a reasonably discreet unit is required. Eventually the design will incorporate mountings for frog switching microswitches, but this is a trial unit to test the system. Firstly I wanted the unit to be as simple as possible. the points were originally made with my standard moving sleeper tie bar, which has pivoted
RichardW1

RichardW1

6
The Sumtown Tramway Locomotive Workshops

DB Inspector's Trolley Class KLV 04 - A Profile

The District Inspector's Trolley, as seen in May 2012. This trolley car was purchased as a means of transporting the Mechanical Engineer and other important railway personnel to various sites easier without commandeering a spare locomotive. Bought from DB, this unit is very small but has charm and character quite disproportionate to its size.   The side profile of this unit - obviously, it is an unpowered piece that still manages to convey a sense of motion to it. Made mainly of metal, the p
Trainmaster64

Trainmaster64

0
Maxstoke

Portable test track

A while back I mentioned that I had been busy making a portable test track. Two have been built, one for Peter Clark (who conceived the idea), and this one.   Case closed. . The basis is a cheap aluminium snooker cue case. The innards are ripped out, and replaced with a baulk of timber, on which the track is laid. the overall case dimensions are 34" long, 3" wide 2"mm high. the internal timber is 2 1/2" x 3/4".- length to suit.   Case open for business   I left the timber a bit shor
RichardW1

RichardW1

6
Raspberry Pi tutorials

6. 2-aspect signal control from a single GPIO pin

In the previous tutorial we saw two different ways to control an LED and how the same state can have the opposite effect depending on how the circuit is designed. We can use this to our advantage by driving both LEDs from the same GPIO pin. This requires a little more electronics.   This does two things. - When pin 18 is HIGH (True), it triggers the NPN transistor to power the red LED but prevents powering the green LED because the anode and cathode are both at 3.3V. - When pin 18 is LOW (
DavidB-AU

DavidB-AU

2
Raspberry Pi tutorials

5. Another way to drive an LED (or two)

An earlier tutorial showed one way of driving an LED, connecting the anode side to the 3.3V rail and the cathode side to GPIO. As mentioned, the default state of the GPIO output is HIGH (3.3V) to setting it LOW (0V) allows power to flow through the circuit. Alternatively, the anode of the LED can be connected to GPIO and the cathode to GND. This changes the way to drive it, HIGH (True) to turn on, LOW (False) to turn off. GPIO.output(x, False) to turn on, GPIO.output(x, True) to turn off.  
DavidB-AU

DavidB-AU

0
Snitzl's Main Blog

Snitzl Town Harbour

Harbour Walls and Warehouse.   Here is an illustrated guide through the construction methods used on Snitzl's 12 foot  harbour wall, step ladders, mooring rings, mooring bollards and warehouse. A little time has been spent adding variations to the plain stone walls with bulging / multi-layered stonework.   Inspiration for the warehouse comes from both Dave Shakespeare's canal tunnel on  Barden Road, featured in Model Rail - April 2003 and the front cover of a Langley Models b
snitzl

snitzl in Buildings

0
Blacklade Artamon Square

A Bit of History

I think I may have sketched the background for Blacklade a very long time ago , probably when it started as part of an RMWeb Challenge some yearsago. If so , the original posting was probably on a version of RMWeb which disappeared into a vortex in cyberspace/a hosting company's servers, and it was probably buried in other comments anyway.   So it's probably worth giving an outline of the assumed history as a seperate posting - if only to provide a baseline from which it's obvious which bits o
Ravenser

Ravenser

0
Fen End Pit's Blog

More painting of laser-cut buildings

Today, being a bit milder, I was able to take a bit more time in the garage with an aerosol before having to get back in the house to warm up. The result was that I could get a much better coat of primer on the building and apply it in several thin coats and let it harden off before going any further.   The resulting luminous building showed the joints weren't going to be too bad. I made a bit of a mess when gluing it together last night, I tried to stick the inner walls to the outer walls bef
Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

3
Highclere - 2mm Finescale

CoT Lining - Practice makes perfect (hopefully!)

Hello   Today has been a weird day. Things havent quite gone according to plan really. Trying to get things done on around 3 hours of sleep havent helped but it would have been nice if things went a little smoother though...   Firstly, I purchased an air eraser a short while ago and the plan today was to try it out on the built test etches I made for City of Truro with the aim to practice painting and lining ready for when I get the final version. The air eraser though hasnt been playing ba
-missy-

-missy-

18
The Sumtown Tramway Locomotive Workshops

Miniature CB&Q 'American' Type No.107 - A Profile

The miniature 'American-Type' No.107, as photographed in January 2013. Purchased at a discount from its normal value and pricing, this locomotive was originally old stock before being sold new to the Sumtown's miniature division as a functional replacement for No.119 of the same class. Identical except for powertrain and livery, the locomotives sit well against each other but are vastly different in terms of performance.   The side profile of the small locomotive, showing its diminuitive siz
Trainmaster64

Trainmaster64

0
Raspberry Pi tutorials

4. Simple 2-aspect signal control

We use the same electronic set up as the previous tutorial, but now pretend it is a simple 2-aspect colour light signal. Instead of LEDs on the breadboard, there could be leads out to a real signal on the layout.   We want to be able to control this "signal" remotely by pressing the appropriate keys on the keyboard. Unfortunately this requires importing some more packages and adding more code to detect when a key is pressed. (You don't necessarily need to understand how this bit works.)  
DavidB-AU

DavidB-AU

0
Raspberry Pi tutorials

3. Adding a second LED

Now let's add a green LED adjacent to the red one and connect it to GPIO25 (pin 22).   Now create a new file called ledtest2.py and enter the following: import RPi.GPIO as GPIOimport time# Set up GPIO25 (pin 22) as outputGPIO.setup(22, GPIO.OUT)while 1: # Turn green LED on GPIO.output(22, False) time.sleep(1) # Turn green LED off GPIO.output(22, True) time.sleep(1)   Run the program as root. pi@raspberrypi ~$ sudo python ledtest2.py   If all goes well, the green LED will flas
DavidB-AU

DavidB-AU

0
Raspberry Pi tutorials

2. Driving an LED

Now let's set up a simple circuit with a resistor and a red LED. The resistor is between the 3.3V rail and the anode (long leg) of the LED. The cathode of the LED is connected to GPIO24 (pin 18).   The value of the resistor isn't critical but should be in the range of 300R-1K. I used 470R because I had plenty to hand. This is what it looks like on the breadboard.   Now to control the LED from the RPi. GPIO must be run as root so after the prompt (pi@raspberrypi ~$) type sudo python. pi@
DavidB-AU

DavidB-AU

0
Raspberry Pi tutorials

1. Basic set up

This is the first of hopefully a series of tutorials on using a Raspberry Pi to do what modellers often do with more mundane devices such as switches. These are aimed at the modeller rather than the serious hardcore programmer or electronics hobbyist, but does assume a basic knowledge of electronics and assumes you have already set up your RPi and installed the RPi.GPIO package. I won't go into that here - if you have any trouble see the Raspberry Pi or Adafruit forums.   Note that my RPi is
DavidB-AU

DavidB-AU

4
Adventures in N-gauge

Straight Outta Newton Heath: Northern Rail DMUs in 2006

These notes are a work-in-progress and I'll be more than happy to hear from anyone who can provide amendments or more details. I'm looking at the passenger services in and out of Liverpool Lime Street in 2006. Four TOCs operated into the main line station: I've started with Northern Rail, which operated by far the largest number of trains. Virgin West Coast, Central Trains and Transpennine Express will follow at some point in the future.   Around Liverpool, Northern operated on three main corr
Jim Martin

Jim Martin

4
Tim H's Blog - Where Nations Collide

First photos of work in progress

Some pictures of work in progress. Nothing's wired up yet, but I've got some rolling stock out to test siding length and gove some idea of how things will look. The idea is to keep stock to a single era for a given operating session, not the mix of transition and far more modern stock you see here!     One end of the layout, with the junction for the branch, and a down express. There will be a road bridge here, at the point where the curve gets dramatically sharper on the branch.     F
Tim H

Tim H

0
Fen End Pit's Blog

Laser cutting - Now with 1.5mm MDF

The 1.5mm MDF I ordered arrived today, the 1mm was out of stock. 1.5mm is the same thickness as the width of a header in 4mm so this allows me to interlock the walls on the header joint. I deliberately drew the 'tab' of the header .2mm over length to get around the problem I had previously that the 'tab' was not quite long enough to lie flush with the 'slot' when the wall was put together.     I also cut a piece of the MDF to be a sanding jig. By putting the wall through the jig I could lig
Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

4
Knuckles' RWS, P4 & SCC Blog

(Post 6 (LBSCR 'E2' Gearbox Construction))

Before I do much more on the body I want to start the dreaded chassis. I have already battled to remove the bits that needed to be removed from the flat etch fret and in the process made a bit of a pigs ear out of it, but thankfully after the suggestion of getting a good quality peircing saw I might be able to avoid future problems here. Mike G' graciously sent me some hornguides/springs and a coupling rod chassis jig, I had already brought the Alan Gibson hornblocks so I'll use them here
Knuckles

Knuckles

3
Maxstoke

Whats the point?

Not a negative title- the next task on Maxstoke is to sort out the operation of the turnouts. I had anticipated digging into my stock of Fulgarex mechanisms, but these are really massively oversized for the task and the layout.   Mike Randall has been working up a mechanism to use with the MERG servo units, and having seen the size of the mini servos I have decided to try these out. The first task was to join MERG!   That done, and this morning the first Servo 4 kit arrived. For those who ar
RichardW1

RichardW1

7
The Sumtown Tramway Locomotive Workshops

BR/EWS Class 08 No.08 865 - A Profile

EWS Class 08 No.08 865 as photographed in January 2013, shortly after arrival and trials. The engine was obtained as a need for a strong shunting engine was required; the line primarily and predominantly focuses on small locomotives to be able to operate services and pull trains along the sharply-curved line. After examinations of the Class 08, and after obtaining a relatively cheaper unit, the decision was taken to purchase a stronger, more powerful and detailed unit for primary use. This engin
Trainmaster64

Trainmaster64

2
Redgate's Modelling

Crosti 9F #2 - Ready for paint (almost!)

Quick snap of '023 in an almost state of readiness for the paint shop.     Just got the undercab footstep to fabricate - I've ordered some Evergreen 1.5mm angle which should arrive next week. The fiddly bits have served as a good practice for the other one I am building for a member and '023 will wait in this condition until I have worked the commission one up to a similar point.   The plan is to deliver both to Dave Roome at the Doncaster Show for weathering, so I'd better get my finger
RedgateModels

RedgateModels

7
Layout - Fisherton Sarum

Fisherton Sarum on tour to include its spiritual home, Salisbury, in 2014

I am now able to confirm that I have accepted an invitation to exhibit Fisherton Sarum at the Salisbury and South Wilts Railway Society exhibition in May 2014. As well as meaning Fisherton Sarum will be returning once again to its spiritual home (see my recent external blog "from the archive" post about its appearance on Salisbury Station in 2009) the exhibition will also be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Salisbury and South Wilts Railway Society. The exhibition is being held on Sat 10
Graham_Muz

Graham_Muz

0
On Ravensers Bookcase

Set 1 - Under False Colours - Pt.1 - Overview

Having rashly flung down the gauntlet and declared I'm thinking of running a third , not terribly authentic, period on Blacklade to give an airing to the bits of steam era /green diesel stock I seem to have acquired, I've actually made a start in the form of a pair of Ratio kits: two of the LNWR kits to be precise. The twist is that these will actually constitute the ER's contribution on the coaching side, until I lay my hand on some Kirk kits.   I've rather fancied the Ratio LNWR coac
Ravenser

Ravenser in Constructional

2

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  • Blog Comments

    • Neal Ball
      Autocoach upgrade

      By Neal Ball · Posted

      Maybe with the new bottle, I should have sent it back…
    • MikeOxon
      A Tender for Viper

      By MikeOxon · Posted

      Thank you Annie - I really enjoy re-creating these early engines.  It would have been impossible if the young Edward Lane had not taken a liking to them in the yard at Swindon.  By then, most of them had been superseded by later designs, such as Firefly, but he must have had a sense of 'history'.
    • The Fatadder
      Autocoach upgrade

      By The Fatadder · Posted

      If the IPA is not removing paint, a good trick is to warm it up which makes it more effective.   Though like you say after a number of uses it does loose its potency, I recently had to change mine after it got to the point where it was barely touching the paint 
    • MikeOxon
      A Tender for Viper

      By MikeOxon · Posted

      Thank you Chris - I think it's lovely too!  The Lane drawing was probably made in around 1848, ten years after this engine was delivered and after its time on the South Devon. As my final sentence suggested, I am now looking hard at 'Ajax' which had similar-looking solid wheels.
    • MikeOxon
      A Tender for Viper

      By MikeOxon · Posted

      My impression from the sketch was of a round section and I think the way they are arranged to slide through those supports works best of they were.  Round rods were often used on early engines when flat strip came later - possible driven by the availability of steel.

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