Balmoral Road - Exporail Show

[brossard]

Well GBTS is over for another 2 years.  The whole thing went swimmingly.  We travelled 1,250km round trip and the car only used $143 of gas, what a champ!

 

The show itself was well attended, with the car park overflowing at one point.

 

 

J39 on a stopping passenger service.

 

 

J50 shunting.

 

 

J50 leaving.  The B4 is standing by as station pilot.

 

 

Occupying the level crossing.

 

Picture credit: R. Ullyott

 

More to come.

 

John

 

 

Edited May 2 by brossard

[davknigh]

I had the pleasure of  meeting John and seeing Balmoral Road first hand at GBTS, a lovely smooth running piece of work.

 

Cheers,

 

David

[brossard]

I ran out of bandwidth so here are more pics:

 

 

Visiting Pannier.

 

 

The stunning Lionheart 45xx.

 

 

Visitor from another era, NBR G5 (now with sound) with goods.  Brake is from Connoiseur.

 

Picture credit: R. Ullyott

 

There were a few glitches, due to the differing environment.  We had rail ends lifting and the fiddle yard expanded.  A couple of my buildings developed bubbles so that will have to be rectified.

 

We plan to move the layout to the clubhouse where there is more room.  Probably in August following Exporail.  The plan is to construct a traverser for the end with the faux viaduct and convert the sector plate to traverser.  We think this will improve operation.

 

John

Edited May 2 by brossard

[brossard]

Shows, certainly those that are put on here, always bring out the tat sellers.  These are not proper retailers but part time vendors who usually try to sell what I would call rubbish.

 

However, while trawling GBTS, I came across one of these vendors who had packs of 0 gauge Peco track roughly taped together.  My eagle eye detected that there were, among the track offcuts, a number of turnouts including double slips.  I bought the lot for a grand total of $65 or about 45 GBP.

 

Now, the turnouts were in sorry shape, rails sprung from their chairs, melted and broken timbers and gobbets of solder in all sorts of places.  I figure that, with my turnout construction experience, I could bring these back from the dead.

 

So it proved, here are the turnouts I have:

 

 

The turnout on the right has managed to retain it's spring, the others have not.  The spring doesn't matter since these should be actuated with a locking point motor anyway.

 

 

The turnout on the right has a completely rebuilt "frog".  I had to refurbish some vees as well.  Some, like the turnout second from right have adjustable check rails.  I never saw that before, must be pretty ancient.

 

 

In all cases, I made the "frog" isolated from the closure rails.  I also made provision for soldering wires between the stock and closure rails.

 

 

Another feature I adopted was to electrically bond the blades to the closure rails.  I have absolutely confidence that the loose rail joiners that Peco use for this will maintain continuity.  This way, the turnout will be reliable and the blades won't flop around.

 

The double slips are a big win:

 

 

These weren't in as dire a condition as some of the turnouts.  They did have dirty great gobbets of solder and the electrics underneath had been hacked about.

 

 

Again, I bonded the blades to the closure rails.  I also reinstated wires at the "frog" and the stock/closure rails.

 

They are not perfect but they have been brought to an as new functionality standard even if cosmetically they are a bit rough here and there.

 

There are 13 turnouts and slips, making my average cost around $5 or 3 GBP each.  That doesn't even count the odds and ends of plain track.

 

John

[GWR57xx]

1 hour ago, brossard said:

Shows, certainly those that are put on here, always bring out the tat sellers.  These are not proper retailers but part time vendors who usually try to sell what I would call rubbish.

 

However, while trawling GBTS, I came across one of these vendors who had packs of 0 gauge Peco track roughly taped together.  My eagle eye detected that there were, among the track offcuts, a number of turnouts including double slips.  I bought the lot for a grand total of $65 or about 45 GBP.

 

Now, the turnouts were in sorry shape, rails sprung from their chairs, melted and broken timbers and gobbets of solder in all sorts of places.  I figure that, with my turnout construction experience, I could bring these back from the dead.

 

So it proved, here are the turnouts I have:

 

 

The turnout on the right has managed to retain it's spring, the others have not.  The spring doesn't matter since these should be actuated with a locking point motor anyway.

 

 

The turnout on the right has a completely rebuilt "frog".  I had to refurbish some vees as well.  Some, like the turnout second from right have adjustable check rails.  I never saw that before, must be pretty ancient.

 

 

In all cases, I made the "frog" isolated from the closure rails.  I also made provision for soldering wires between the stock and closure rails.

 

 

Another feature I adopted was to electrically bond the blades to the closure rails.  I have absolutely confidence that the loose rail joiners that Peco use for this will maintain continuity.  This way, the turnout will be reliable and the blades won't flop around.

 

The double slips are a big win:

 

 

These weren't in as dire a condition as some of the turnouts.  They did have dirty great gobbets of solder and the electrics underneath had been hacked about.

 

 

Again, I bonded the blades to the closure rails.  I also reinstated wires at the "frog" and the stock/closure rails.

 

They are not perfect but they have been brought to an as new functionality standard even if cosmetically they are a bit rough here and there.

 

There are 13 turnouts and slips, making my average cost around $5 or 3 GBP each.  That doesn't even count the odds and ends of plain track.

 

John

Great result!

[brossard]

From the beginning, the layout has had facsia mounted momentary push buttons to initiate turnout operation via Wabbit accessory decoders.  Push buttons are fine but can be pressed by our tummies when reaching over the layout.  Also, punters being what they are, like to press buttons.  The excellent Dapol signal suffered from having to actuated via the handset.

 

So, all of that will change this time around.  I got myself a 6 pack of Cobalt-S levers, and very impressive they are too.  I spent about a week getting my head around how they are wired up.

 

For the signal, which in the end was very easy, this thread shows the progression:

 

This thread shows the testing I did to confirm the lever operation with the accessory decoder:

 

Today, I set about getting the levers mounted and wired.  My carpentry is kind of crude but here we are:

 

 

Next step is to organize connectors to interface with layout boards.

 

John

[brossard]

I had one of those oh crap! moments.  Or maybe a senior moment.  Anyway, I forgot that the plan is to replace the sector plate with a traverser and add a new traverser on the other end of the layout to enable through traffic.  In that configuration the layout won't fit in my basement so the intention is to move it to the clubhouse following Exporail in August.

 

That being so, a second home signal will be required.  Additionally some people (well one person really) have been making noises about having starter signals - I assume we would need two.

 

So, I had a rethink and rebuilt the lever frame today:

 

My lack of carpentry skills is legendary, still, I got it done.  We'll put bolts through the verticals and hang it on the fascia.  There has also been talk of bells, so I made provision for those.

 

You will notice gaps among the levers.  The leftmost gaps for two levers will be for the new Home and Starter.  The rightmost gap is for the other Starter.  I went hunting for levers today but they seem out of stock at most places.  I want another signal as well.

 

Oh, just to illustrate how wiring heavy this all is:

 

 

I got some pre made connectors, these are 12 conductor.  The loose choc blocs will be fastened under the baseboard.

 

John

Edited May 21 by brossard

[Georgeham]

Hi John.

I emailed DCC Concepts about the levers - as I need a couple for my micro-layout - they replied to say ' At present, we don't have an availability prediction for this product. Once stock arrives from our manufacturing plant, we will of course honour all backorders prior to marking the items "in stock" for general sale. All backorders will be processed in the order they were received.

Please bear with us whilst we deal with global component shortages which are slowing manufacturing in our industry - along with many others. We apologise for any inconvenience caused'

 

They are out of stock everywhere atm - fingers crossed it will not be too long before they are available again.......

best

Chris

[brossard]

5 hours ago, Georgeham said:

Hi John.

I emailed DCC Concepts about the levers - as I need a couple for my micro-layout - they replied to say ' At present, we don't have an availability prediction for this product. Once stock arrives from our manufacturing plant, we will of course honour all backorders prior to marking the items "in stock" for general sale. All backorders will be processed in the order they were received.

Please bear with us whilst we deal with global component shortages which are slowing manufacturing in our industry - along with many others. We apologise for any inconvenience caused'

 

They are out of stock everywhere atm - fingers crossed it will not be too long before they are available again.......

best

Chris

 

Thanks for that Chris.  Yes, hoping that they will be back in stock soon.

 

John

[brossard]

A couple of weeks later:

 

 

Lever frame done.

 

 

The back showing all the wires that will eventually be needed.

 

 

This is the main board and the busiest in terms of wiring.  Lever frame will be mounted off the rear fascia.  In the middle in one of the few clear areas is the Train Tech decoder.  I am only using it for signal power, levers will do the switching.

 

 

Board one all wired up.  The black thingy in the right center is the signal servo.  Connectors enable the signal to be removed for transport.

 

Today was something of a milestone in that I got the levers to operate the signal and turnouts - yay!  Of course nothing ever works first time.

 

Next job is the bell network.  One of our number brought in a cheap bell last week and it actually sounds good, working from a momentary push button.  There will be four.

 

John

[brossard]

Here is today's progress:

 

 

Bells and push buttons installed.  A member of our group obtained the bells from Amazon I think he said.

 

The push buttons will ding the bells installed on the traversers at either end.  Similar push buttons on the traversers will ding the bells here.

 

Wires are mostly installed, I just have to join them up on the main board.

 

I will get a phono jack tomorrow so that the power supply (12VDC) can be plugged in the fascia.

 

John

[brossard]

I have installed an additional lever and the new signal.  Wiring was a bit of a faff but I got it sorted out.  Nothing to do with the product but all on me.

 

 

The board is on its' side to facilitate wiring.

 

 

Underside view showing the servo box.  The signal must be demountable for transport, hence the connector.

 

I think I have the wiring for the bells done.  I need to test.

 

John

[brossard]

Just a quick note.  I checked out the bell wiring yesterday.  A bit of a faff, but all my fault.  All works now.  Can't really take a pic.

 

John

[brossard]

Rather a long time since I posted.  Not much to show really as the layout has been a construction site.

 

However, in the last couple of weeks, it has all come together.

 

We now have a 4 road traverser (there should have been two but time got us).  There is a second signal and a bell system.

 

It has been a busy and, at times, stressful, few weeks.  There has been great support from club members who have electrical skills and carpentry skill, both of which I lack.

 

We got the layout set up at Exporail this evening.  Still stressfull as a signal didn't work (broken wire in connector) and a stationary decoder that refused to work until we reset the system (doh!).

 

Here are some pics taken by Dave Waddleton:

 

 

Overall view.

 

 

Here's the new traverser.  Note the bell and button.

 

 

View of the layout with the new screen for the traverser in the foreground.

 

Thanks to the girlfriend of a member for preparing the curtains on the traverser board.

 

 

View from the other end with the sector plate in the foreground.

 

A testament to teamwork and an effort that shows the value of clubs and members with disparate skills.

 

However, most of us are old codgers although we do have a young feller who can still clamber around under the layout.

 

I hope to have more pics later.

 

John

Edited August 17 by brossard

[brossard]

Well, another show behind us.  After the gremlins of Friday evening, the layout operated beautifully, in fact the best I've seen it.  Nary a derailment except for self inflicted ones.  I think everyone enjoyed operating it and the bells and levers offered a novel aspect.

 

We had a mix Northeastern/Northwestern, Western and pre-grouping.

 

 

J39 on a short through train.

 

 

Fictional railway train - North Caledonian Railway.  This is an homage to one of our late members who invented the NCR decades ago in N.  Loco and carriages are Dapol.

 

 

Short NBR train.  G5 and two coaches built from 62C kits.  I have a third kit to finish.

 

 

Terrier shunting.

 

 

Lever frame with bells installed.  The levers performed extremely well although they still need painting.

 

 

Bell installed on the sector plate.

 

 

Bell installed on the traverser.

 

Lots of merry dinging was heard.

 

Not sure where we go from here.  After the show, the layout went to its new digs at our club rooms.  I've been at this for 7 years and I think it's time for a change for me.  There is still lots to do so I hope the club members will continue to work at it.  I'm sure I'll have a hand in from time to time.

 

More pictures were taken so I will continue to post.

 

John

 

 

[brossard]

Here's another picture:

 

 

Courtesy Richard Ullyott.

 

A brilliant video shot and edited by Patrick Finch:

 

 

John

[DLT]

Superb workmanship, and a layout topic that I've only just "discovered".

The mark of a good layout; I can't tell from looking at the photos what scale it is.

All the best,

Dave.