Anderson Barracks - O Gauge 1944 UK

i get mine from Hattons, Traintronics TT300 and they are GBP20 each.

Cheers
Brian

 

Paul, thanks for the advice. I have been impressed by your engineering. However I only found your traverser thread yesterday, after I had already built my traverser and ordered the motors. Maybe look at your options if I go to a Mk2. That will depend on how well Mk1 works.

I decided to give a quick load test to see if i have any sagging, loaded up my full collection of O gauge locos. and the heaviest wagons. The board at the moment is unbraced, one of todays jobs. There is no movement.


I think one of the reasons the sag isn't a problem is I have implemented a tongue and groove, borrowed the idea from SMR_Chris. I do have a slight constriction on the left hand end when extending at about the 80-100% point. Will investigate today.


I am using heavy duty drawer runners, they are rated at 45KG each so no problem with the one finger operation. The drawer runners are mounted on hardwood and placed directly over two of the wall brackets.


I do have a twist problem, that is why I am going to implement two NEMA stepper motors, one on each end. I need to investigate how to drive two stepper motors. One of the constraints I have is my board is only 350mm wide and the bridge is 260mm. I am restricted in space and the normal means of putting a flex joint between the stepper motor and the lead screw will not fit in the space. I found the NEMA 17 with a built in lead screw, that model just fits. Your twin lead screws with pulley drive, would also work in the space I have. So I will keep that as an option for Mk2.

I have a sketch for a traverser but it is for two tracks and uses buttons. I am going to implement DCC at first and investigate buttons later. This will be a 3 track traverser that lines up with with 4 tracks on either end.

Should keep me entertained for some time.

Cheers
Brian

 

Yes I added some aluminium angle today and some flat bar at the end of the world. Then gave it a coat of ubiquitous skimmer grey.


Also got to practice that old school skill of chiselling to make room for the screws in the aluminium angle to fit over the frame. Tried some electric tools but none did the job, chisel worked great and done in about 10 minutes.

Thanks for the hint, found the problem didn't remove enough material from the side of the frame where the groove comes through. Sorted with some filing. Now slides nicely using two fingers to offset any yaw.

You are always welcome to come and play trains.

Everything on the traverser is on hold now until we get the joiner PCB. SMR Chris has done a joint order and hopefully they are somewhere this side of the pacific by now. I have 3 left so cant really do anything. I need to lay the first track from board 3 across the lead in part of the board onto the traverser. Need at least 4 joiners for that.

May throw some wires at it tomorrow, so I can then mount the PI-Sprog and some power packs under the board.

Cheers

Brian

 

G'day Paul,

Unfortunately I have to move 240mm within a 350mm baseboard to get to track 4. When you deduct the sidewalls and length of the stepper motor I ended up with only about 230mm of travel. By drilling through the sidewall of the baseboard I am able to move the end bearing to the outside and I think I will have about 240mm of travel.Due to the nature of the shelving I have used there is a 20mm gap between the baseboard and the house wall, enough room for a bearing that side mounts.

I may have to play with my gaps between the tracks to ensure it is achievable, just moving in 1mm should be all thats required. All will come clear when the kit arrives, its on a slow boat from China. Ebay have advised a 27 August delivery date!!!

Brian

 

Ok paint dry and so on with wiring and track laying.

When planning I was working on 20mm between each rail but that may have caused issues with the stepper motors etc. So out with some blocks of wood and look8ng at options.


Found that 18mm spacing works and results in traverser travel of 232mm. This is definitely doable. Also pudgy fingers can fit between the wagons. Thanks Paul for the hint on using wood to set spacing.

Decision made I started laying track. Chris found a few more pcb joiners so I was able to lay the approach road and two tracks on the traverser. Unfortunately the rest of the pcb joiners were only posted today!!! So now we get to watch USPS send them all over USA on the way to OZ.

In the interim will use some brass screws so I can get the rest of the track laid.


I had also not factored in the change from a sector plate to the traverser with 4 track storage on the amount of track required. A quick audit this morning and I was several lengths short of requirement. Chris came to the rescue as he had a box of O gauge flex track.

Cheers

Brian

 

Well I have been a bit slack in updating this thread. However I have done lots in the past 10 days.

The traverser board is finished as a manual traverser. And very happy how it works, there is a little bit of sideways movement but easily aligned.


Oops missed the track on the other board!!!


Actually built board 3 to the plan and then changed the plan when building the traverser. Easy to realign.

Next was the DCC stuff!!! A jumble of wires:


Turned into this, all nicely tucked under the board.


The DCC system is a Raspberry PI running SPROG-PI and a MERG DCC Cutout board. The DCC Cutout protects tracks and the SPROG-PI does the points bus direct.

Some more electrical trickery coming. I want to automate the traverser and have been working with Paul_L to use an Arduino to drive a couple of stepper motors. Received my Arduino starter kit last week and have been learning how to program it. I have plans for some more Arduino projects. More to follow in another post.


Meanwhile having got the DCC working I decided to play some trains. Ran a freight train into the depot and then spent 20minutes struggling with 3 link couplers. I don't have any hooks or magnets on a stick so very frustrating. Gave up and went and started building the Dingham couplers I had bought for this project. First coupler took me an hour to build and I can now knock out a set in about 10 minutes.



I read somewhere to use a permanent marker to colour them. Once you do they almost disappear.


I have 4 electromagnets to install and have ordered a bunch of rare earth magnets. Waiting arrival of the magnets and stepper motors and a bunch of other stuff.

Today I started to get a short on the traverser after using it for a few days. I double checked the wiring, and triple checked the wiring. I determined it was on the traverser bridge, and it would only occur when the bridge was in certain positions. Checked that no rails were touching, all good. Pulled it all apart and still no obvious issue. I was measuring everything with the multimeter and stumbled on the issue. When I put some brass screws in to attach the tracks to, as I had run out of PCB sleepers, two screws were touching screws from the other side of the board holding the aluminium tongue. Would only happen when pressure was on the tongue. Removed two screws in the tongue and all good. Not the best way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Anyway all the activities has kept me entertained for the last 10 days.

Cheers

Brian

 

An update:

Ordered a couple of sound decoders for one of the panniers and the terrier from Youchoos. They arrived in a few days and were easy to install. The sound is fantastic. Will try and upload some videos.

Had another club around for a running night on Friday night. First run for Anderson Barracks and it went well. Need to work on the uncouplers. The magnets are too strong and the electro magnets are too weak.

SMR Chris brought his DJH 9F around for a run and it actually went round the 4ft radius turn!! Looked and sounded fantastic.



I also acquired a DJH A4 at an auction in Australia, it was a steal until I got it home and discovered that it was a static display model with no motor/gearbox or pickups etc. After a bit of work and some modifications I was able to get it to push smoothly with no binding and it also goes through my 4ft curve as well. Ordered a motor/gearbox and pickups from slaters and will put a sound chip in it. Don’t have any suitable carriages for it to tow. Also it’s a bit big for the shelf layout, but looks bloody impressive!


All the bits have now arrived for the automation of the traverser, so that is the next thing on the agenda.

Cheers

Brian

 

Doesn't time fly when you aren't paying attention.

Had a major disruption to train services as there were some major repairs required on the house which required large sections of the O and OO layouts to have a holiday in the garage.


Very sad, the bare train room. The pictures also had to come off the walls.

Regular services recommenced in Mid December.

Whilst in the garage I was able to continue working on the traverser and that work is now complete with the 3 track traverser mounted on drawer sliders and being driven by two NEMA 17 stepper motors. I have built a control box to house the Arduino Nano and the traverser can be controlled manually via a rotary knob or via DCC commands. Thanks to Paul for some of his help along the way.


The layout back in place showing the competed traverser.


Slider and a NEMA Stepper motor


Control Box

In the meantime SMR_Chris has been working his magic on the A4 and she is now fully operational with Sound. Need to work out how to put videos up here.


English visitor to Noonan Flats.

Just so the A4 isn't lonely an A3 has come from Hattons. Very nice model it is too. My self layout is a bit on the small side for the A3 and A4 so an extension to the garden, is being conceptualised.



So now that I have finished having my time consumed by the traverser I can start work on the scenery. Decided to paint a few things and build some buildings.


Pillbox as guard house for the entry into the barracks.


Buffer stops, removed the lamps from the ones on shunting sidings. Engine shed in background being checked for size.


A few fuel drums in Olive drab.

Next up is to build some laser cut buildings but first is to determine the colour to be used. Thanks Gary for the video on how to do the mortar.

Decided to go with the redder brick colour. I will prepaint all the panels before construction.

Hopefully more frequent updates going forward.

Cheers
Brian

 

Thanks Gary for the hints, I visited spotlight yesterday and picked up 4 tubes of various shades of brown for picking out individual bricks.

Already pre-painted all the panels for the L-Cut, so will keep that hint for the other L-Cut jobs I have lined up.

Cheers
Brian

 

One of the ongoing issues I have had is with the Sprog-PI DCC system. As far as controlling the trains it has been fine. The problems have been with short circuits, typically when entering a point the wrong way. I have a power bus for DCC for the locos and a Point bus for DCC for the point motors. I have installed a number of Short Circuit boards or boosters (MERG SC, MERG Booster, PSX SC, NCE Booster) on the power bus. Theory being a short occurs and the SC board/Booster handles the short and the offending point can be changed on the DCC system via the points bus. My OO uses LENZ and PSX boards and works very well, all shorts being handled by the PSX boards.

With the Sprog-PI, its a lottery, some shorts are handled by the SC board and others go through to the DCC system. Sometimes it sounds like a police siren with the PSX catching the short then applying power again and the DCC system then takes the short and around in cycles it goes. If the short is not cleared within a reasonably short time then the JMRI puts up a dialog box saying power has been removed. You then need use a PC to log into the Sprog-PI's own WiFi hosting JMRI and clear the dialog box and turn power back on. Very tedious. I have tried all sorts of things to overcome the problem with no success. The Sprog people don't want to know and the PSX people say its a DCC problem.

Bottom line is I think the Sprog-PI running on the Raspberry PI is too fast in handling a short. Most DCC systems have configuration variables where you adjust the timing. There is no configuration variables at all on the Sprog-PI.

So the Sprog-PI is now being retasked to a dedicated programming interface.

Therefore a new DCC system was required. On train club running nights both O and OO are in action and so I can't use the LENZ to do both. After reviewing the available DCC systems and lots of discussion with the ever helpful SMR_Chris, I decided to go with the new Digikeijs DR-5000 system with a DR-5033 booster. There is an Australian distributor, and the pricing is very reasonable, at A250. I ordered it on Xmas Eve and it was delivered on the next working day, impressed.




The DR-5000 has several interfaces and can simulate several different system (LENZ, ROCO, Digtrax). The local distributor recommended setting it up as a Roco Z21 and using the Roco Z21 app on smart phones as the throttles as you can use it with out any thing else required. You need a PC (or in my case a Mac running Parallels) to do initial configuration and setup. I installed the new system and it worked straight out of the box. I had a couple of small issues getting the Z21 app to work but a quick call to the local distributor had those resolved.



The Z21 app is very good. Very responsive as there are no intermediary devices (ie like JMRI). It has a highly configurable function menu. The points can be put on a track plan or just made buttons if you want. Once setup you can transfer your layout file including the locos to another device over wifi or seven email them so they can be loaded prior to visiting.


I made a draw to place the system under the end of the O gauge layout (recycled some traverser test sliders). However with the system hidden in a drawer there was no way to see or hear if there was a short. I like lights and buzzers when someone shorts the layout. So off to Jaycar to get a bridge rectifier, relay, buzzer and some LEDs. I prototyped on a breadboard and it worked very well, with the buzzer sounding and red LED if the Booster drops power. I also added a Green LED to show when the booster was powering the loco bus, and a third LED to show when power was on the Points Bus, ie the DCC system is powered up.



All is working very well now. So I hereby declare Anderson Barracks operational. Now on with the scenery.

 

First building done for Anderson Barracks, the Engine Shed for the WD Peckett. Its a LCUT Creative single road engine shed, build as a 3 window rather than 4 window as per the instructions.

This is my first laser cut building, and my first attempt at painting a building. The kit went together easily. Thanks to Gary for the painting tips. Needs a bit of black powder and some gutters and downpipes. Any hints on how to do gutters?

The army repainted the woodwork green, you know in the army if it doesn't move: paint it.

Next either the Peco signal box or LCUT goods shed.

Cheers

Brian

 

Thanks Pete,

I found then at S&D models.

Cheers

Brian