Luib Bridge

No,

technically I could connect up but the cobalts ain't fitted yet so I'll wait until everything is 100% ready to go ....... not long now though.

cheers

toto

 

Well,

long weekend this weekend.

Monday holiday and took today as a days annual leave to give me the extended weekend. Yipppppeeeeee. I'll hit the shed at some point. got some itty bitty things to get out the way first. So I'll tackle them first and then maybe get a head of steam built up towards being in a position to get powered up. Then I can play trains.

first ..... a quick lunch.

cheers for now

toto

 

Finally made the shed.

struggling but once I get going ...... i'll be back in the deriving seat. Starting off by swapping out the screws as mentioned a few posts back to solder the track joins in place at the baseboard joins. I have also cleared one of the holes in the baseboard for the turnout actuator pin as it was out of alignment. once I get the brass screws sorted out, its on to fitting out cobalts. how exciting.

cheers

toto

 

odds and sods out of the way ....... now for the cobalts. whey hey.

 

and ...... this afternoons victims ......

I had to go out and get myself a couple of 9v batteries for testing them once fitted under the baseboards. Much easier than messing about with a transformer supply when you just need a quick burst of power.

now to crack on and get them installed and set up.

cheers

toto

 

and here we are ..... the first board wired for 4 cobalts.........

and the cobalt itself .........

now ..... one more to go on baseboard 2 and we can switch on and program them into the switch 8

cheers

toto

 

Good morning chaps.

Another day. Back to the shed today to finish the turnouts. A tip trip first then I can start. One left to go then I'll look at powering up. I need to cut in some isolation joints as well. May even get my trusty J94 out for a test run.

I'l post up later.

Cheers

Toto

 

Bacon and tattie scone Ian.

 

Power to the people ............. We are connected and running. I just need to programme in the turnouts. I'm on to it now.

maybe a picture or two later ..... no video unfortunately ........ before the requests start pouring in.

 

Thanks Pete. working on the points at the moment although slow going as I'm chatting to his nibs on skype as well. Waiting for SWMBO to call me in for my dinner then I'll get the points programmed through the switch 8. ....... Its all happening here you know ......

cheers

toto

 

I don't know ......... too easy. Switch 8 all programmed up and working perfect. All turnouts behaving as they should. One thing I'd like to do and will have to play around to achieve it is to get route macros set up. This will hopefully take away the necessity to have to think about how to set the double slip as its quite tricky. Anyway, no derailments, everything running quite smooth over all joints and turnouts. A bit track cleaning in general would probably not go a miss though.

Must go ....... I have some trains to pla ...... erm test

cheers

toto

 

So ..... What next?

I would like to attack some sections of ballasting next but history and experience tells me to hold off until I've had the chance to do a bit more testing with different loco types and some wagons. Everything maybe fine for the J94 but let's try my class 25 and maybe one or two others before hailing the track work as compliant.

So, on that note, I'll use the next week or two doing just that. More testing. I could have done with a traverser attached to the far right hand side where the points are in order to let me run a small loco with say three or four wagons over the points but that's not possible quite yet ( not a dig Paul ) what I could do is simply add a single track extension onto the end of the layout to facilitate this for the time being.
I will need to look at getting one traverser sorted out soon though. I have the MK 1 version in the shed at the moment but in order to take the heavier loco's, a bit strengthening is required.

A couple of things I can do is build the goods shed and also get some more of my bigger O gauge loco's chipped. My 4-6-2 springs to mind and I have a zen Buddah awaiting the task. I have a couple of these chips so my Deltic and my Hymek could also be done. Of course the main event is fitting my class 37 with its sound chip and the brute of a speaker that goes with it.

Scratch built wagon works, ground signals and various lighting projects. I'll be fitting yard lights which will need to be collapsible for transporting and storage but I have an idea or three for that. So ...... Plenty to go at. It's just a matter of figuring out the best order to tackle some of it. Some thinking required.

Cheers

Toto

 

It's looking like the construction of the goods shed is on the cards next. Once I have that under my belt, I need to think about the wagon works. That'll give me most of the main basic structures. It will also provide the time to do a bit further testing on and off.

A couple of loco chippings could fill in the gaps for a bit of variation as well.

Let's see what today brings.

Cheers

Toto

 

And ...... the testing continues ......

The class 25 loco being the biggest I have chipped at the moment, handles the tighter bends on the goods shed road no problem. Not that it should really ever run on it but none the less, a good testament to the ability of the track and turnouts.

I might man up and chip one of my other green diesels later today. They'll all be quivering in their boxes....

cheers

toto.