CRAG Meeting 9/2/17 Bradford North Western

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Ian Everett
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CRAG Meeting 9/2/17 Bradford North Western

Postby Ian Everett » Sun Feb 12, 2017 10:34 pm

It had been more than two years since we had had an operating session on the Bradford North Western branch, delayed by a house move and the conversion of the layout to fit its new, smaller room. But it's been worth all the pain!

Thursday's operating session went pretty well. There were five of us, two signalmen (myself and Phil Tuer), two drivers (Stu de Boer and Ron Tyler) and one observer, Chris King. The overall scheme (based on Peter Denny's writings and our experience of operating Mike Norris' Preston, John Holton's Lime Street and many sessions on earlier versions of Bradford North Western) worked well. and we had fun. Here is the evidence:


Chris and Ian.

BNW Chris and Ian.jpg


Ron and Stu

BNW Ron and Stu.jpg


Ron at the controls

BNW Ron at the controls.jpg


(Apologies to photographer Phil for the challenging lighting. Eventually all three scenes (Scargill sidings, Clecklewyke, BNW) will have integrated lighting.)

There were a few glitches -

the K3 disliked one of the turnouts;
there were a couple of mistakes in the timetable which led to two trains competing for the same platform and locos in the wrong place;
the division of labour between the two operators was poor - we need job cards;
the new cassette connectors fouled some locos - I should have stuck to Chris Pendlenton's original design;
and we found some less than perfect trackwork.

All these will be remedied but the biggest problem was with the Z21 control system. Generally it worked very well, with beautiful slow control, but we could not work out how to export the loco database from one smart phone to another. In the end this did not matter - we just used my phone for the main line trains and set up another to control the diesel shunter and do all the shunting. This issue has been discussed in RMweb - see but we were still flummoxed. Has anyone experience in this? It's fundamental to the philosophy of the layout to have several drivers.

My thanks to all who came - we really gave the ;ayout a good testing!

Oh, did I mention that BNW and Clecklewyke is mow an OO gauge layout. Glaucoma is badly affecting my eye sight to the extent that modelling is becoming very difficult so I am aiming at a broad-brush approach, ignoring detail I cannot see, relying more on RTR stock and attempting to get the character of the place rather than getting every detail right.

I wonder whether I should continue to make such postings as this on Scalefour Forum?

Ian
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Paul Willis
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Re: CRAG Meeting 9/1/17 Bradford North Wesrtern

Postby Paul Willis » Mon Feb 13, 2017 1:13 pm

Ian Everett wrote:Oh, did I mention that BNW and Clecklewyke is mow an OO gauge layout. Glaucoma is badly affecting my eye sight to the extent that modelling is becoming very difficult so I am aiming at a broad-brush approach, ignoring detail I cannot see, relying more on RTR stock and attempting to get the character of the place rather than getting every detail right.

I wonder whether I should continue to make such postings as this on Scalefour Forum?

Ian


Ian,

You're still a Scalefour member, you've been a long user and advocate of P4 standards over the years. And comments such as those on controllers are scale and gauge irrelevant.

So I fail to see any reason why you should stop...

Cheers
Flymo
Beware of Trains - occasional modelling in progress!
www.5522models.co.uk

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PeteT
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Re: CRAG Meeting 9/1/17 Bradford North Wesrtern

Postby PeteT » Mon Feb 13, 2017 6:17 pm

What he said...

Plus we all have to make compromises whatever we do, to get round a variety of challenges (be it space, time, ailments, etc). Therefore your thought process and change in direction to continue to enjoy the hobby is of interest.

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Tim V
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Re: CRAG Meeting 9/1/17 Bradford North Wesrtern

Postby Tim V » Mon Feb 13, 2017 6:29 pm

I have on pre-order the new cordless ROCO controller that interacts with the Z21 - due out shortly!
Tim V
(Not all railways in Somerset went to Dorset)

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Ian Everett
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Re: CRAG Meeting 9/1/17 Bradford North Wesrtern

Postby Ian Everett » Wed Feb 15, 2017 4:43 pm

Tim V wrote:I have on pre-order the new cordless ROCO controller that interacts with the Z21 - due out shortly!


So I guess you already have a Z21? I wonder what advantage buying a Roco controller gives? I had thought that one the Z21's main selling points is that the cost of additional controllers is effectively zero because the app for smart phones is free and many of us already have smart phones.

I look forward to seeing how you get on with it. I love mine!

Ian

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Tim V
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Re: CRAG Meeting 9/2/17 Bradford North Western

Postby Tim V » Wed Feb 15, 2017 5:00 pm

I found resistance among my fellow modellers to using a smart phone to control trains - and I don't particularly like it myself.
Tim V
(Not all railways in Somerset went to Dorset)

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Ian Everett
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Re: CRAG Meeting 9/2/17 Bradford North Western

Postby Ian Everett » Wed Feb 15, 2017 9:24 pm

Tim V wrote:I found resistance among my fellow modellers to using a smart phone to control trains - and I don't particularly like it myself.
'
Luckily several of our group are happy with smart phones but it must be said that a couple don't like them and at least one does not even have one. There are lots of places in the Dales with no signal, including Askrigg, so although I have "inherited" my wife's Samsung I hardly ever use it apart from driving trains!

So it might be worth considering buying one Roco wifi controller. Can you point me to one, please? I cannot find it on the web.

Cheers,

Ian

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Tim V
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Re: CRAG Meeting 9/2/17 Bradford North Western

Postby Tim V » Wed Feb 15, 2017 9:33 pm

Tim V
(Not all railways in Somerset went to Dorset)

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Ian Everett
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Re: CRAG Meeting 9/2/17 Bradford North Western

Postby Ian Everett » Thu Feb 16, 2017 9:21 am

Thanks fot that link, Tim, however £91 is a lot to pay for what I would consider to be a poorer system. Maybe I should get the phonophobes to have a whip-round? However, I suspect that it will be like getting used to the Compspeed Rambler. "What, buttons on a controller but no knob? Whatever next?"

Ian

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Tim V
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Re: CRAG Meeting 9/2/17 Bradford North Western

Postby Tim V » Fri Feb 17, 2017 10:15 am

Do you not have any standard ROCO Multimaus?

They plug into the z21.
Tim V
(Not all railways in Somerset went to Dorset)

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Ian Everett
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Re: CRAG Meeting 9/2/17 Bradford North Western

Postby Ian Everett » Fri Feb 17, 2017 3:53 pm

No I don't but on reflection it might be a good idea to have one such as back up. When I first started to use the Z21 there were a few worrying moments when nothing moved. The lights on both boxes were correctly lit, the controllers looked o.k. and the track was energised - but still there was no response to the controllers.

I found this was due to the controllers having become connected to the wrong (i.e. the house wifi) network. This happens automatically every time the Z21 is switched off, which happens whenever I leave the railway room and switch off the master power switch.

I'm now prepared for this but initially it was difficult to diagnose as there are so many components to the system. Was it the loco, the layout wiring, the Z21 unit, the router or the controller? Maybe a hardwired controller would simplify fault diagnosis by removing a couple of variables but we'll see how we get on.

Cheers

Ian


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