As 2013 Draws to a Close.............

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..Well it's nearly the years end and I still find myself unconvinced of the layout I have created so far.  The past few days I have come to the realisation that what I would like to have in relation to a layout is not what can realistically be be achieved with the space I have.  There is too much compression which to me looks unrealistic.  I think for the new year I will concentrate on seeing what I can realistically achieve with the space I have.

Any of the VR major towns such as Dimboola and Horsham, which I tried to model, involves to much compression for my liking.
Photo's below show the problem I see as of too much "compression":

One thing I learnt is that I like to see trains running, like being a railfan track-side, so the idea of depicting one of the smaller towns, such as Gordon, Jung, Dooen, or Buangor, having three or four roads max, with enough space to add some atmosphere, may be a better alternate.  Being on the Western Main line, I can realistically run quite a number of freights, and have the off Roadside pull up, and I really enjoy seeing trains cross in loops.  What I would like and what I can realistically achieve is on either side of the spectrum.

Here are some photos of the locations mentioned from Mark Bau's wonderful site, all small and lovely looking places:

http://www.victorianrailways.net/photogallery/westsou/gordon/gordon.html
http://www.victorianrailways.net/photogallery/westsou/jung/jung.html
http://www.victorianrailways.net/photogallery/westsou/dooen/dooen.html
http://www.victorianrailways.net/photogallery/westsou/buangor/buangor.html

Some others:
http://www.victorianrailways.net/photogallery/westsou/trawalla/trawalla.html
http://www.victorianrailways.net/photogallery/westsou/avoca/avoca.html
http://www.victorianrailways.net/photogallery/westsou/wal_wal/walwal.html

Lets see how the new year pans out....

Love to hear your thoughts...reply below....

Visit to Border District - Sat 26 Oct 2013

Craig and myself had the pleasure to operate on the Border District on Saturday.  Unfortunately there were a number of operators who were invited but didn't turn up for one reason or another, so that left us with four of us.  Craig was delegated the toughest job there was - the SM and shunter at Tatiara Downs, and boy there were some interesting mishaps - from locos into the turntable pit, runaway engines and the odd "running through points not set" derailments.

I had an enjoyable time running a few trains, observing the signals and waiting patiently for the stick.
Overall a very enjoyable time again at the Border District.

Some photos below from the session.

Some photos of movements

Lately I have been running the schedule and also thinking about getting a more balanced operational theme, as currently I have it very much skewed to shunting.  There is a possibility that I may even have a loop of track so I an enjoy more mainline running.  Here are some photos.

Power Routing Frogs continues

I have completed five points now, all having live frogs and activation via coat-hanger wire through choc-block cable connectors, activating a micro switch.  Seems to work a charm.  From beginning to end, it takes me approximately 1.5 hours per point, which includes drilling the holes through the baseboard.
Also been busy building the signal and detection circuit for the home signal located on the west-end of road number 2.  Both the main line and road 2 also have a small low speed indicator.  The low-speed will be used for all traffic to the engine road, the wheat silo road and to Siding "C".  Road two, which also leads to the branch, will have a red over green aspect which indicates maximum speed of 40km/h, regardless of the route taken.  VR colour-light three aspect signals did not indicate the route to be taken, rather they were speed signals.  So I am quite happy with having a Red over Green from Road 2 to Road 1 and Road 2 to the branch.

I still need to build another two signal circuits for the eastern end for road 2.  This will also have a low speed signal (indicating maximum speed of 15km/h and the track may be occupied).  This takes along time to implement from start to finish, including all the wiring and testing.  About a days work.

Looking towards Melbourne (East)

Road 2, low speed.  Notice how the "active multi-aspect" heads are brighter than the non-multi aspect head, just like the prototype.

Signal circuit in development (thanks JB!)

I leave you with a very good article:

Designing your layout for the human factor

Have fun!

At last "Live" frogs

The frustration of my shunt loco pausing all the time on a set of peco code 75 electrofrog points compelled me to take up the challenge of modifying the point to make the frogs live.

I consulted the Peco leaflet that comes in the box when you buy a point to look at how to wire the turnout.  Seemed quite straight-forward although later I would realise that one thing that was missing was the connection/feeders from the point to the track bus.

For the activation mechanism, I used two crappy and cheap looking steel hangers from the wife's wardrobe.  To automatically activate the frog, I used micro-switches.

Here is a video that demonstrates what happens when the frogs aren't live...

Here is a drawing of how I wired my point to make the frogs live:

Here is a photo of the rats nest under the base-board:

Hope this helps someone out there.

Border District Visit

Last Saturday, Darren, Craig and myself made our way to Anthony's for a running session.  After an overview of the layout the decision was made to begin the session.  However, there was an issue with the NCE Powercab that Anthony had.  The chip version was 1.65, but we could not get cab address 5 to register.  We had to resort to three controllers.  After about 30 or so minutes of this delay I was tasked to get the first train out which happened to be The Overland with the lovely S Classes back-to-back for motive power.  In my haste to get things moving, I had forgotten to ask for authority and was summarily given a earful by the host.

Once authority was granted, it wasn't long before the Overland came to a stop, hitting a kangaroo en-route! However, the delay was small and both locos made it safely to Tatiara Downs, where a crew-change was pending.

The rest of the afternoon I was tasked to shunt Tatiara Downs.  Things became very busy very soon and I found myself running little behind as Goods trains came in to pick up loading that I had not got ready!  The Y Class shunt loco sounded wonderful going along its merry way picking up and dropping off wagons at designated locations.

Maybe next time my roster will be better and get to do some main-line running.  At least I will be careful not to have any SPAD (Signal Passed At Danger) incidents!

Below are a few photos of the session, taken at Tatiara Downs.

A very enjoyable afternoon made even better with some fantastic company in the form of Anthony, Darren, and Craig.

 

Signalling and Control

I have been working on implementing some sort of signalling system on the layout.  Since this layout is basically a shunting layout, I needed something to act as a checking mechanism before moving the loco from one location to another, as I seem to forget to change the appropriate points.  This mechanism is in the form of a small LED signal on a control panel.  I wired up a few LEDs and some switches and made a mock control board.  Now, before a loco moves, I need to give the signal.  This extra step will ensure I have moved the points first.

The control board in the photo is for entry into the yard coming from the Serviceton area.  I still have to do a similar sort of set up for the Melbourne end, which will be alot easier because there is only the main line.  This control board will replace real model signals on the layout at this section and it kind of works because the signals cannot be clearly seen from the main operating area.  Hence, I will be able to get away using a signal gantry with static signals on them as illustrated in the photo showing the mock semaphore gantry.

The main yard will have Searchlight signals for the main line and Road 2, but not sure how I am going to control the yard tracks, maybe with a Dawf signal for main line exists only.  Still need to think about that....

Control panel for signals 

Gantry

Signal Board and shematic

Waiting for the stick