Great Chesterford Junction Part One ( Pre P1MRC )

G`day Folks,

I have been doing some research on the net and taking advice from camera experts locally regarding my flickering video images.

In a nutshell......the experts on the net and the camera experts generally try and solve the problem with camera shutter speeds and fancy software. I was told the other day that I would need a camera with variable shutter speeds and then I would have to match the flicker rate etc....about 1200 bucks worth of camera....may?????...fix the problem.

When you walk away and think about it.....the root cause is the lights. I started researching about fluoros and alternatives and also special lighting for photography. If I can reduce or eliminate the effect the lights have I`ll be better off.

The one item that showed potential was LED replacement tubes for fluoros. They are expensive, but the flicker, when viewed by the naked eye, is non existent compared to a standard fluoro. The start up is instant and power usage very low.

So I bit the bullet and ordered four.

There is still flicker in my videos, but it is greatly reduced. I will soon have a new Sony camcorder and I think this will further improve the quality of my movies. The light output from the LED`s is better and improves my still photos tremendously. I have Daylight tubes. When you compare the standard fluoro in the adjoining room, it looks rather dull. I tried a Sony camcorder, in a local camera shop, under similar lighting conditions the other day, and it worked beautifully.

So that`s the next step, but in the meantime, here are some still photos and a video to show how the new lights shape up.

Really, you can`t see any difference here, but these lights are now LED.



Fairly good light for still photos





It will be hard for you guys to tell the difference, but these shots are quite a lot lighter and brighter and clearer than they would be under fluoros.



This background is a tester just held up with Blue Tac.



And here is the video







Gormo


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

G`day Folks,

The branch extension so far is working a treat. I`ve laid about 7 feet (2100mm) of straight track. The gradient rises at 1 in 73 at the moment and my stock has no trouble so far negotiating the incline. I am at the point where I will have to curve the track into a 90 degree turn. It would be preferable to use some standard 18 inch radius set track that I have, however common sense says to open it out to about 24inches. The larger radius should create less drag and be less prone to derailments bearing in mind that the curve will also be on the rise.
I have a sliding door for the room and the door actually butts up to the timber support for the track. To give adequate clearance for the passing trains and avoid serious bumps I have fitted a tap washer as a buffer for the door. Clearances are tight but adequate.

This a pic of my DMU three coach set coming through the hole in the wall. The black half round item on the right is the tap washer door buffer




And here is the DMU returning from the workshop to the railway room




I have also done a short video that shows the lot in action







Gormo


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

G`day Toto,
The mouse hole area scenery will start approx 600mm from the hole in the wall. That corner area is on a small fixed baseboard. It has to be fixed to support the drop down flap.
There will be a tunnel for the track to run through in that area because the area around the track will be built up to about 75mm or more and a small section of the village will be sat on top of it. The part of this raised area that runs beside the Main lines will have a bridge leaving it and running across and above the Main lines to terrain built up on the other side of the Main lines.
I want a good deal of my railway set down into the landscape ,so most of my scenery will rise up from the baseboards. This will allow for a couple more bridges as well. I like bridges.....they sort of divide up the scenic area visually.
Gormo


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

G`day Folks,
Press Release

Gormovision will shortly be moving into High Definition video. Gormo has made this decision ,to bring the company into line with industry standards and to put the company on equal footing with some of the major studios.
Obviously there will be a steep learning curve for the crew at Gormovision, but the board of directors, Messrs Spielberg, Scorsese, Tarantino and Cameron, were assured by Gormo personally, that the content and quality of Gormovision short films will not be compromised in any way. The board seemed to show a mixed reaction, however Gormo is committed to bringing Gormovision to a new level of excellance and will not be swayed in any way.
The anticipated date for the change over, at this early stage, would be approximately two weeks away, possibly the 4th of October.
More information will be published as it comes to hand
Gormovision Media Dept. Administrator

Cyril Ferris



____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

Here we go.

I stitched two photos together here. The track at the moment is the little black right angled piece on top of the bench at the extreme right. It will travel to the left behind the drill press to the end of the bench where it will make a left hand 90 degree turn and connect to the wall where the white strip is behind the lathe. You see I have two doorways there.




This is the track route behind the drill press....no problems there.




This is the track route along the other wall and behind the lathe. It will replace the white metal tray currently on the wall. No problems there.




A bigger picture of the area to be bridged. The door on the right is a sliding door and the one on the left opens inwards.





Same area with doors open. My son suggested that I remove the door on the left and re-hinge it so that it opens outwards. Damn good idea!!! and I will do that. That`s one issue sorted.



So once the main door is re-hinged, the track will have a clear run through the bridging curve.

What remains to be sorted is how to go about the curved bridge.

Any input is welcome and it may trigger something that I`ve overlooked or is just bleedin` obvious and I hadn`t thought of.

Gormo

PS....Sorry about the mess!!


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

G`day Folks,

I`ve taken Gary`s idea and modified it ever so slightly to simplify cutting and also to beef it up a bit along the hinged area.

This allows both hinged sections to drop down out of the way. The larger piece with the curve will be more solid with a full length hinge ( or three door hinges ) along the wall. The larger piece will be less frequently needed to drop down as there is alternative access to that room.

Well folks...this is a winner....but won`t be built for a while. My daughter and Grandson are flying in this afternoon from Brisvegas ( Brisbane for the Poms ) and so my attention will be turned to entertaining them for about 10 days. My Grandson will be Junior Fat Controller for the duration because we will probably run a few trains.




Thanks Gary for your clever design.......it`s easy when someone shows you how.!!

Gormo


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

G`day Folks,
Well I`ve finally got my Camcorder. I finished up with the Sony HDR PJ240E which is the one with the projector built in. The projector is a really neat feature. I have found in the past ,when on holidays, and staying in hotels etc., you can`t always plug a lead into the TV`s in the rooms. They are either not compatible or there is no spare terminal available. So you had to watch your filming on the camera screen, which didn`t necessarily give a good indication of how you were travelling quality wise.
With the Sony camcorder all you need is a bit of spare wall, turn the room lights right down and bingo!!!...it`s movie night. It` s surprisingly good.
I do have compatibility issues to work through though. The Sony software does not support XP anymore ( thanks very much Sony ) so I have had to find ways around that. It`s not that difficult but I am trialling video editors at the moment to see which gives the best results. The camera records in dual formats. The HD format and MP4 for sharing via YouTube etc......so my offerings to you for the moment will be in MP4.
Max.....I tried the low light filming with lights off in the train room. The result was grainy as expected, so I can`t recommend this camera for your night shots. I think you would need to spend about $1200 to get the results you want.
Anyway my visitors have returned to Queensland this morning so I will be back on the rails again very soon and posting results.
In the meantime I have prepared a video with the new camera. This one was just slapped together so there is room for improvement.........enjoy.






Gormo


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

G`day Folks,

I`ve managed to lay a bit more track today on an addition to the incline I`m building. The one that circles my workshop.

The next stage is flap or bridge building but that will come after I re-hang the entrance door so that it will open outwards instead of inwards.

Today I built the straight section that continues on from the curved area




I still have to solder the connection wires and I will wait till the bridge is done before I lay track to the end of the bench. The track has now risen 70mm overall.....still a little bit to go!!




A long shot of the area





And here`s a couple for interest sake, and by the way, all the stills are taken with the new camcorder.

Normal Aspect Ratio 4:3




Widescreen Aspect Ratio 16:9




Gormo


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

G`day Folks,

Well today I re-hung the workshop door. It now opens outwards which gives a clear path for the bridge across the doorways. This is the simple ,elegant solution suggested by my son Adrian.....I guess the engineering mind runs in the family.....a chip off the old block.

I had to adapt a couple of strap hinges by converting them to reverse angle hinges. This was necessary to get the door to open completely and lay back against the garage wall.

The doorway was not designed to allow the door to do this so it had to be persuaded and manipulated with some Gormo engineering.

This is the result with some extra security added.......paint touch ups still to be done.



All locked up and ready to go



The adapted hinges



Fully open and secured with a cabin stay



A clear path now for the railway and an unexpected bonus.......much better air flow



All go now.......bridge building here we come.

Gormo


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

G`day Folks,

Well.....back out in the shed today with the nail bag hitched onto my waist and ready for action. I have sorted out the supporting timber for the connecting bridge / flap. This will receive the hinges that will secure the bridge / flap to the wall.

It doesn't look like much but it chewed up a bit of time.

A couple of pieces had to be removed from the local trim to allow the new piece to fit in






Test fitting





Timber pre-drilled and painted




And finally secured to the wall





I now have to sort out some wall brackets to support the track along the wall behind the lathe


More to follow

Gormo





____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

Well folks the track bed is ready for the wall. I just need to pop into Bunnings Hardware to get a couple of brackets to support the center section.

I`ve just propped it up for a test fit and a check on the measurements for the gradient. This is just a balancing act below....take no notice of the fit. The board is 110mm wide to allow for a slight "S" bend in the track. The track will enter the board near the doorway, close to the wall, and then move away from it to line up with the tunnel ( mouse hole )



The final end support will be quite a bit more substantial than that shown below



The pathway for the track is starting to become more obvious here




The gradient is still consistent with previous work done ( 1in 80 ) and there is room to improve on this section if necessary. The critical area is where the track re-enters the railway room. With current settings, the board carrying track over the top of the fiddleyard will clear the yard baseboard by 80mm...plenty!!!!

So now finally, I know that my setting out was correct and that my trains can climb an easy gradient to rise to the next level. All good to press on further.

Gormo


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

G`day Folks,

Another productive day in the shed. Toto you will be happy to know I got them brackets and fitted them .


Results below

First of all a solid support on the edge of the doorway. A piece of timber secured to the wall with two coach bolts.




Supporting brackets fitted and screwed to wall studs



Also secured at the tunnel end and finally completed awaiting track.



I have done a slight height adjustment at the tunnel end which has reduced the incline
to 1 in 90.


After lunch I pulled out a sheet of Marine Ply that I have been keeping for a special project. I marked out the bridge section as one whole piece and cut it out. It will have to be cut in two soon because the system requires two sections that will fold separately.

I tried a trial fit and what you can see below is supported purely by a snug fit. The bridge has to be hinged and trimmed slightly to give free movement, however all looks to be on track at this stage.

The narrow section of the bridge across the open doorway will be cut flush with the right hand side of the doorway thus giving two sections.






Gormo



____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

G`day Folks,

The saga continues.

The bridge has been made into two and the main section fitted to the wall with three door hinges. It`s a drop down of course.




The narrow bridge is hinged to the strong support section on the other wall





This is the support for the larger section. The section is raised up and then you fold the hinged block under it to support it. Simple but it works. I still have to work out the wiring connections but that should not be too hard.











Now I just have to sort out a method for attaching the other bridge and I`m done. This smaller bridge has only one hinge holding it so it will need possibly two sliding bolts here on the join to stop any lateral movement. The bolts can also serve as the electrical connection.....one for each rail.





Knock off time now.....the Leagues Club beckons.

Gormo


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

G`day Folks,

Well Bunnings came up with the goods. I looked at their sliding bolts and they were as I remembered, not good....perfectly OK for household use but not my railway.....too much play I`m afraid??. I looked at the alternatives and decided on a pair of brass double ball catches. They are adjustable, they have minimal play and they would hold back the Queen Mary. Being brass, I should be able to solder wiring connections to them and kill two birds with one stone.

 

And here they are fitted.

I had to add a small strip of ply to carry the double ball parts but it was not too hard. The critical thing is to fit the parts accurately.



A closer view. For those who are not familiar with this system, it is used on cabinet doors for a positive locking set up. There are spring loaded balls either side of the T piece and they hold the T piece under pressure whilst in the position shown above. They are called Double Ball catches. You can also adjust the tension / pressure with the screws at the outer edges of the barrels.



A view of the T piece location



An absolutely flush fit with no movement due to the precise fit of the Double Ball catches.



Here we are....ready to Rock n Roll.



This system also allows a quick exit in the event of an emergency or urgent nature calls.

Here is a short video to show how the system works.





Now I`m back to track laying and electrical set up. I want to add micro switches to each bridge to cut the power when either one or both are down just to save the trains from the leap of death.

Oh well onwards and literally upwards!!!

Gormo


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

Still pressing on now and just tonight I`ve prepared the way for track laying. Today I`ve fitted the micro switches to each bridge and it it is covered below here in a short video.








Tonight I have cut copper clad circuit board to fit to the ends of the bridges to secure the rails. They are cut to approx 3 sleepers wide....no need to worry about looks in the workshop as long as it works.











So there you go folks....that`s the latest update from the news desk

Gormo


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

G`day Folks,

Track laying was the order of the day today or part of it at least. Both the bridges are covered and now there is about 1500mm ( 5 feet ) to go to the upper mouse hole.

Not pretty soldering, but it works. The entrance to the first bridge on the climb



And crossing over to the second bridge







The way to Little Bardfield




Video Link







Wiring the lot has still to be done but it`s something that can be done at night because there is little or no noise to be made. Don`t want to upset the neighbours.

More to follow as it happens.

Gormo


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

G`day Folks,

Finished!!!

The track laying in the workshop is complete and also the wiring with it.

This is the final section. The yellow wires carry the power across the bridge.



The double ball catches were simple to wire. Just loosen the screws, flatten the bare wire and place it behind the catch and tighten the screws.




And the connections flow through to the copper clad pads up top.





The headphone plug has worked out well also





Now another video showing some track testing.







Well that`s done.....now I`m back into the train room and little Bardfield. That could get a bit interesting ???

Gormo


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

Meanwhile.....back at the ranch Gormo has been building again. I`ve knocked up an odd shaped box frame to attach to the side of the Main fiddleyard to support Little Bardfield branch. The materials are recycled again, courtesy of an old computer desk someone had put out on the street for rubbish collection. I`m known locally as Steptoe...I wonder why????

Anyway once you start building odd shaped baseboards it has a domino effect and you can`t get away from that. But I`m prepared to put in the effort to make it look like I want it to look.

So here is the box frame fitted in place and sited so that it is taller than the trains




Eventually the trains will be hidden by removable scenery




Here is part of Murrays railway, now to be known as Little Bardfield, sitting on top for a test fit. There are two separate sections here and quite a deal of modification has been happening but I am confident it will scrub up OK and be a delight to run




A closer view of the station area and a bit of restoration to be done.




And another.




I want this whole section of the railway to be removable and easily removable, to allow access for maintenance or derailments etc.

So that`s something to be worked out plus there is a lot more framing / supports to go in to support the connection track from the mouse hole as well.

There you go folks....that`s the latest

Gormo

PS...I`ve also got to build another fiddleyard along the black wall. This one will have removable cassettes approx. 900mm long and will hold most of the branch trains. This fiddleyard will be known as Duxford....so still heaps to do???



____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"

 

Well folks in my last post I stressed that the parts that make up Little Bardfield must be removable to allow access for maintenance, derailments etc.

Murphys Law kicked in last night. I decided to run some trains and watch them disappear behind Little Bardfield. One of the trains derailed on a point in the least accessible part of the layout, in the V where the Black wall meets the fiddleyard. The reason for the derailment was that the plastic sliding bar in the mechanism fitted to my point motor had failed. Snapped in half.

No worries says Gormo, I have spares. Now here`s the problem. With the box frame in place I can reach the point motor and even work on it to a certain degree, but it`s a bit of a stretch and really a bit of a pain in the ****. Fortunately, I had secured it to the fiddleyard with only four screws and they are easy to access. Four are only required because the frame is supported by a steel arm at one end and a baseboard at the other. The screws just stop it from moving.

So this morning the box frame was removed ( 2 mins. ) and the point motor was repaired. This incident brought home the importance of being able to access any part of the railway to either maintain it or repair it.

Have a nice day !!

Gormo


____________________
"Anyone who claims to have never made a mistake, never made anything!!"