Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

G`day Folks,
Well....... managed to get the job done in good time.
So now GCJ has a yard light in the goods yard right next to our fearless leader`s coal office.
All went well with the smaller light cover.....they do paint up rather well.



I guess the whole point of this exercise is to see it with the room lights out.



A view from operator eye level




And some close up detail during the daylight hours.





Full details on how to build these lights at Gormo`s Shed Episode 126 19 Yard Lights.

https://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/index.php?threads/episode-126-19-yard-lights.4127/

Gormo

 

Next job is to weather that light and bed in the Coal Office.
Also need to run a bus wire under the layout for lighting.........
Gormo

 

Thanks Gary,
Julie saw it in position this afternoon and was worried that the littlest Grandson ( 5yrs ) might damage it whilst playing with the cars in that area. He likes to get all the cars from the layout and turn the Goods Shed area into a carpark, whilst his older brother takes over running trains.
So I just showed her how it will bend and flex and then she realised that it will be fine...
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
We seem to be on a lighting blitz at the moment here in GCJ, so today I`ve installed a lighting bus.
Nothing fancy, just two wires running along under the main board at GCJ.
The two straight wires, blue and green




And where a light connection is required, I just use the wire strippers to part the insulation and attach the light wires at those points shown with the red arrows.





The bus wires terminate at the ends of the board and are connected into a terminal ( choc ) block. This allows me to daisy chain the system onto the next neighboring board.





The lights are switched via a small SPDT toggle switch on the fascia.



And now we also have a signal box with an internal light. This building was glued down a long time ago so I had to use the method described in Gormo`s Shed "Episode 117 18 Building Lighting ". https://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/index.php?threads/episode-117-18-building-lighting.3672/
There is a black straw containing an amber LED and resistor shoved up through a hole drilled up through the baseboard and the floor of the signal box. The light wires are then connected to the light bus. The straw was bent under the baseboard surface and stapled to a cross member. It can be removed or replaced very simply at any time.




So plenty more to do..........but the bus makes the job a lot easier.
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Corbetts Coal now has it`s own lighting and is firmly planted in the landscape.





The chimney pot has also finally been fitted and weathering was done after these pics were taken



I have had a couple of PECO coal staithes for a good while now, so one of them will be painted and fitted down past Tom`s coal office.



Unfortunately I am unavailable for a while, and send you this update a good distance from home, however work will resume once I return.
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Well we arrived back home yesterday afternoon after a short break up in Queensland. Therefore that`s why no progress on the railway for a couple of weeks.
While we were away Aldi had a sale on showcasing LED lighting. So I bought myself a 5 metre set of multi coloured strip lights.
The idea being to create controlled lighting in the room to simulate a moonlit night, but what is more important is to have enough lighting to avoid poking about in the dark and just relying on yard lamps etc. on the railway to light the room.
The strip lights have an adhesive backing which is simple to fit. I decided to run the strip down the middle of the room on the ceiling. The original plan was to fit it up under the baseboards, however that was going to be very fiddly and it would have an uneven run.....so the ceiling won after some testing.



The strip does not really intrude in the room, as the railway is the main focus anyway.




The strip is mains powered and has a remote sensor for a small remote control supplied with the kit.




The sensor




The remote.
There are a variety of colours available plus white and you can also set it to flashing or colour changing, in other words a disco in the railway room.
The LED`s are also dimmable.





The strip also compliments the room lights and gives more light over the branch stations........so that`s a bonus.





However for night time scenes I prefer the Blue colour





And when the room lights are off, it looks like this. Unfortunately the camera does not like this light so we have fuzzy vision.





But you get the picture basically of how it looks.




Can`t wait to show the little Grandsons......they will want the disco version I reckon.......I `ll have to dig out my Best of the BeeGees album.....

Gormo

 

Yes it`s difficult for the camera to translate what the eye sees, but the overall effect is quite pleasing.
Trouble is though......now I need coach lighting and heaps more building lights. Oh well ......eventually things will get done.
The left over strip light is coming in handy, small sections of it can be cut off and used where required.
It just requires a bit of delicate soldering and connection to the light power supply and we`re away.
The section between the copper strips is about 100mm




And can be cut with a pair of scissors on the line marked.



If you remove the adhesive strip from behind the copper strips, you will expose the reverse side of the copper which can be soldered. The +DC12V strip is the common wire and then it`s just a matter of the selecting the colour........I chose white in this case.
I fitted the short strip up underneath the top of my lever boxes and then covered them with some yellow electrical tape to soften the sharp clear white light.




And it turns out like this. The picture actually has flaring in it which is not the case in real life.






My main control panel benefits from light transmitted from the hidden sliding fiddle yard under Bamford, however the lever boxes were difficult to read in the subdued light in the room.
I think if I fitted strip lights over the main control panel it would be over kill, so we`ll leave it as is and just focus on the railway.





This is also light transmitted from the sides now thanks to the lever box set up.




So there we are folks, I`ll see what other little jobs I can find for this left over strip light......there will be some I`m sure.

Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Another couple of lights have hit the layout since my last update.
I`ve found a reasonable way to do swan necked lights, so I`ve made a couple and whacked them into place.
I am using thin plastic tube reclaimed from water bombs my Grandsons had at Christmas. The tube is thinner in diameter than a cocktail straw although it has thicker walls, making it stronger yet still flexible.
I have tried heating these, and also straws, to try and achieve a nice bend in them however my efforts using that method have been to no avail.
Instead I now use some 0.8 mm galv. wire. The wire is straightened first and takes on the role of being a conductor wire, which of course is soldered to one leg of the LED. The other leg receives a thin, insulated wire.
The benefit of the galv. wire method is that once electrical connections are made and tested, and the lights parts are assembled in the straight length orientation, the top of the light post can be bent and encouraged into that familiar swan neck shape. Because the galv. wire is inherently stronger that the plastic tube, the bend stays in place.
To produce a consistent bend, I use a large bolt as a former. Once you`ve arrived at the final shape, the light can be painted and eventually installed.

Here is my first attempt which has been suitably weathered to reflect it`s condition due to it`s location.




And here is number two, a shorter more elegant version for the end of a platform.




They both work and have had their voltages reduced via some resistors fitted in series.










I have also been re-assessing the actual running of my railway and in particular the coupling situation. I was going to go gang busters with three link couplings but I don`t really think they suit this layout, particularly with the little Grandsons in mind. The main problem being my sliding fiddle yard and access to same. With the three links, it`s a right pain to uncouple and re-couple. The yard was not designed with this method in mind and I can`t find an easy way to adapt it.
With all that in mind, I`ve gone back to the original plan and I`m fitting small Bachmaan tension locks to all my stock. I`ve also re-installed some uncouplers for same in my sliding yard and it`s really changed the whole ball game.
The uncouplers are made from Streets Blue Ribbon ice cream containers ( re-use / re-purpose ) and work very well.








A train can now be pulled into the yard, the loco uncouples, draws away into the release road waiting area, the sliding yard`s release road is moved into position and the loco moves forward onto it. From there, it can either be parked in the sliding yard parking area, or it can run around out of the yard and back to the loco yard at GCJ.
This adds another possible six trains to the mix when running trains on GCJ and therefore keeps the operators on their toes.



So that`s it for the moment. I am slowly converting my rolling stock to the small couplings and I`m doing the hardest conversions first. The old Mainline stock is just a straight swap over and will be a doddle to accomplish, however the Lima stock needs some cutting and persuasion. Some of the old Hornby needs to be grinded and so it goes.
The end result will be consistent coupling so I`m looking forward to that.
Gormo

 

Thanks Gary,
No Gary.......the loco will foul on the uncoupler.
Those roads though, are one direction only.........once the loco uncouples, it will not return on that road. There is a dedicated release road on the sliding board for running around.
If a loco were to use the storage roads to push a train backwards out of the yard, the train would most likely derail on the tight curve entry to the yard, so the yard functions by having trains pulled into it and pulled out of it.
I understand your logic, and if one gets the uncoupling wrong by overshooting the sweet spot, then it`s difficult to back up.
So point taken in effect and a subtle change to the design may be in order.
Gormo

 

Yes Gary,
I`ve seen those.......I`ll give it some more time and see what I can come up with....let`s face it, there`s nearly always a better way to do things.
Double Swan Necks...????????........is this a challenge..????
Gormo

 

Thanks Toto,
Yes they`re not too bad.........I`ve knocked the voltages back with some resistors in series. These White LED`s are very bright so you just have to suck it and see and adjust accordingly.
I`ve been using Amber in the buildings and they don`t seem to need cutting back at all.?
They`re all running off a bus so each individual light can be tailored to suit it`s location.
Gormo