Luib Bridge

I better make it an early rise tomorrow. Track BUS first on the agenda then onto baseboard one ( coal drop ) to lay the track to that board and get the electrics done.
Not too much to do there as there is only one set of turnouts going in there. A bit of copper clad to be fitted etc t then that will be the bulk of the track work complete. Paul is working on the traverse design so we are okay there.
I am looking into hiring a church hall to assemble the whole lot, maybe minus the traverses for the first dry run. I will be able to do the four boards at home but I'd like to try the whole thing with a practice run ( timed ) from start to running just as an exercise. It will give a good indication of how well it travels as well.
I'll soon be running out of " phase one tasks " the initial board construction and moving on to unchartered territory for me. So far my track record on that is minimal. This is where we separate the men from the boys.
Cheers for now
Toto

 

Regular attendee me. Usually for the lead.

 

Guid eftie.
I've been busy this morning cracking on with my track feed wiring. here is where I left off last night......


added the track BUS


secured at either end by folding the BUS wire around a screw and tie wrapping securely.


the inter board connectors will be via these suckers ........


They give a very tight fit.


and here is one crimped in place.....


All the feeds stripped and wrapped around the track BUS cable .......


Then soldered into place .......


a little slack left in the event that they need reconnecting .......


holes bored through the end plate of the baseboard to take cables etc.
Still got the Cobalts to fit and the accessory BUS to go yet. I'll get onto that later today after I have taken SWMBO out for a bit of holiday shopping.
Catch up later .........

Toto

 

Hi Ian,
Tattie scone and fried egg roll with broon sos and salt and pepper. mmmmmmm heaven.
Hi Gary, like the diagram. could be adopted.
I went back into the shed and started the track on baseboard one. Two turnouts and two lengths of track. here is what we started with .......


and again,


a clean slate as it were.
First of all I had to do the usual mods to the peco points.


I started by taking out the two links that the small file is pointing at.


i also had to solder on the polarity wire to the small plate abpve that connects all the V elements. Apologies for the blurry photo.


there is another of the same, you can see the short length of wire that Peco provide attached but I find that they nearly always snap of with minimal movement so I replace them with something a little more substantial.


the picture above shows where I have cut away a little of the track webbing in order to solder the feeds to the underside of the tracks.
then .........
I took away the cover the covers the spring for the tie bar and removed the spring as it gives less resistance to the Cobalt actuator pin when operated and does away with any " snap " sound.

the track goes down using OO scale rail joiners for a nice tight fit. No insulation gaps have been cut yet but will be done later.

and from the other end.

track feeds soldered in position on the track.

and again.

and here we are with the track feeders hanging below the track bed level awaiting installation of the Track BUS. that maybe tonights job, we'll see.
cheers for now.
Toto

 

Yes that'll keep you out of mischief.
I need to get the final electrical tie I n's done. The remainder of the copper clad joints, cobalts and track isolation joints then get somewhere to link all four baseboards together and test out all the polarities to ensure there are no conflicts.
If you manage the traversers, I'll throw together another 4 foot 6 inch baseboard with a single track or a simple inglenook and we can use it as a test track for the traversers. Once it's done it's job, it can be used as a baseboard for one of your o gauge modules.
As you suggested, we could offer the inglenook with the duel traversers up as a layout in its own right for one of the earlier exhibitions whilst I get Luis Bridge nearer where it has to be for Elgin in November. Let's see how it goes. I have a couple of Y points going spare and maybe a right hand point. That would do a shunting puzzle. Question is, could we cram that into 4 foot 6 ?
Cheers
Toto

 

whats the news on your flight Gormo ......... is it a goer ???????

 

just read your PM.
great news.

 

Paul,
I will try and fit an inglenook type layout onto a 4ft 6" Anyrail plan. Ideally we want the incoming line centred on the layout but if it needs to be off centre ...... no great shakes. If necessary the baseboard length could increase but only to the limits that it strictly has to in order to take the track footprint.
Anyrail should give an indication of that and add an allowance of say a couple of inches to play with.
the width I think should stick to the 21 inches that the original modular footprint dictated.
cheers
toto

 

Well, tonight saw me sorting the alarm at my mother in laws. Went like a dream and all is fine again. Done a retest on the system whilst at it. Not bad considering its between 15 and 20 years ago since I first installed it.

I should get into the shed tomorrow night but in all likelihood, it will just be to give it a good tidy prior to the Gormo Eng Dept doing their compliance audit on Saturday.

Things will pick up again though. No worries.

Cheers for now

Toto

 

Hi,
Yesterday marked a very important moment for the Luib Bridge and my Shed in general as it officially received a clean bill of health from the " Gormo Engineering Department ". it really does not get any better than that. ...... to provide authenticity of the above, please find below ..........

how do you top that.
it shall of course be suitably framed and displayed in said shed.
many thanks to the GED. ....... the little brown envelope is on its way.

toto