Kyle MPD

[nigelcliffe]

For those into modifying Tortoise motors, I recommend viewing the most recent YouTube video (number 71) from the McKinley Railway. David Townend explains their solution to the failing switch contacts inside Tortoise motors. As the McKinley has 440 Tortoise motors, they have an incentive to not have them fail.

The only thing I have against the standard Tortoise installation of wire-through-baseboard is the wire rises and falls a little, leading to it poking through in the middle of movement. Using a secondary below-baseboard tie bar solves this. All the other things seem unnecessarily complicated unless there wasn't room to fit the motor below the turnout.


- Nigel

[davebradwell]

An interesting point, I thought, so went out to the layout to have a look. Yes, it does happen but blink and you miss it. I placed my finger over the tiebar and could feel the wire rising slightly. Eventually turned power off and moved motor manually so I could stop the motion mid-way - I suspect the rise is significantly less than a mm. Decided against getting a dial gauge to measure it.

Actually, most of my points have a functional tiebar beneath. It's just a block of Delrin sliding on a flat plate with wires up to the blades, a slide is unnecessary as the blades do the guiding. The Tortoise wire sticks into an oversize hole in the centre so is completely invisible from above, even as it rises for an instant.

I did, however, look sadly at my feeble efforts at keeping this area tidy and lack of filling of various holes. Realised that it was just a matter of viewpoint - my layout is low to make space under a sloping roof and I was looking vertically down. Moved to a viewpoint nearer track and all looked fine. Suppose I could have just looked the other way!

Didn't look at your vid but I had a particularly bad batch. Just dismantled them as they failed and screwed contacts back onto arms with 10BA screws. You need a hefty screw to get a good thread in the plastic.

DaveB

[Julian Roberts]

Good to see your arrangements Terry. No one has shown any pictures above baseboard! Nigel, I researched extensively the issue of whether the contacts are reliable before embarking with Tortoises. At least they are easily removed if there is any trouble. Will come back to you Dave to understand your mods if there is a failure, but Martin Wynne often suggested ignoring the built in contacts and using relays instead.

Putting this here in advance rather than after the event - my intention is to lay two track panels worth of Exactoscale plastic sleepered and chaired track as one unit, fixed at one end by making the first two sleepers copperclad with Masokits chairs. The rail will be free to expand in the chairs. At the other end the similarly fixed next panel will start, with a suitable gap in the rails. At the first end the rails just slot into EMGS fishplates soldered to the existing track. At the other (floating) end fishplates are soldered for the next panel to slot into (and slide within). At the cosmetic rail joint in the middle EMGS fishplates are soldered on with droppers, baseboard hole big enough to accommodate movement.

Here is the short bit of track already laid. There are insulating fishplates at the fixed end. The first sleeper is part of the single slip so has plastic chairs for insulation. Then two soldered sleepers. The rest is free to expand but obviously won't much being so short. Fishplates at the far end have the droppers.

I feel some nervousness whether plastic track is sufficiently robust but the same type track laid for the yard in the spring is doing fine.

One issue I hadn't mentioned is that painting the rail narrows the gauge! This rail I primed before laying. The 3-point gauge fits on reluctantly and scrapes away the paint. Furthermore, another layer of the correct colour will be needed. Then I think of sanding, with the rail head, just the gauge corner. But any track gauge measures the full depth of the rail head. So it will register the track undergauge. Obviously the thing to do is full testing and checking before painting.

[davebradwell]

Think I'd like to see a reliable measurement of the gauge after finding that the track gauge is a tight fit and becoming suspicious - I probably condemned your vernier in the past, though. Still wary of just tacking droppers to the bottom of the rail or a fishplate - can you not bury them in the bottom of a Masokits chair? Better still, drill rail and put wire through, crimping it round the foot.

My Exacto track has given no trouble at all, nor would I expect it to.

DaveB

[Julian Roberts]

Don't trust my digital calipers to add anything objective to the feel of the gauge - obviously a gauge should fit between the rails without any force. Surprising I haven't read more here about the act of painting the rail changing things. Suppose depends how much paint. On the rails it'll be two layers: spray of primer, then brush paint thinned enamel. I won't do any more rail painting till everything's well proven. Worth saying that the Masokits pointwork has been painted and I've found it necessary to fine sand the relevant vertical surface of the checkrails. On the diamond crossing of the slip quite some work was needed on the check rails; wagons were hopping if only slightly under the BB spec.

I'm doing more than tacking a dropper to the fishplates - there is a strong mechanical connection - the fishplates pair wrap around the bottom of the rail in a small loop and trap the dropper, pointwork rails are tinned underneath.

My Exacto track has given no trouble at all, nor would I expect it to.

DaveB

Yes, that's the Fasttrack isn't it Dave? I'm using the laboriously constructed separate chairs on plastic sleepers Exacto track.

[Hardwicke]

I'm doing more than tacking a dropper to the fishplates - there is a strong mechanical connection - the fishplates pair wrap around the bottom of the rail in a small loop and trap the dropper, pointwork rails are tinned underneath.

My Exacto track has given no trouble at all, nor would I expect it to.

DaveB

Yes, that's the Fasttrack isn't it Dave? I'm using the laboriously constructed separate chairs on plastic sleepers Exacto track.

I hadn't thought of using the fishplate as the electrical dropper. Years ago I was offered and bought some tweezers from Clive Walton-Evans that effectively clamp squarely around things. They are perfect for squeezing fishplates onto rails.

[davebradwell]

To be more helpful, a measure of the difference between painted and unpainted track gauge would be instructive and your vernier would be fine for this. Try using it like a gauge, locking the slide at a size and feeling for a just fit. If tight then reduce a little and try again - you get the idea.

Perhaps you just need thinner paint! Surely, as long as the top inner corner is bare, all should be well as the flange can't touch lower down (I'm straying into dangerous ground here).

Yes, I would expect the loop on the fishplate to give a better soldered joint but despite an overwhelming shout that just sticking wires on the bottom of rails, tinned or otherwise, is fine, I've had too many fall off after several years to be swayed. Another went a couple of months ago - ok, it probably took well over 20 years but it's still a nuisance and gets entered in the snag list for attention.

I've had no trouble with my bits of track assembled from separate components but these will be just short lengths. Not so some old C&L which was correct gauge when laid but short lengths of which shrank a huge amount. Coud it be some sort of solvent attack? Fixed with warm soldering iron and pressure.

DaveB

[Chris Pendlenton]

I have used these wrap round fishplates before and found the soldered joint to the rail web not entirely reliable, perhaps due to the dissimilarity of metal thickness, the heat sink characteristic of the rail section, and difficulty of getting a soldering iron tip right on to the edge of the join, resulting in an occasionally uncertain sweated joint. Especially fraught when plastic chairs are adjacent.
So long ago, I re-thought fishplates and droppers and for the latter routinely drill a 0.8mm hole through the web at a few random points on every rail length and thread the dropper wire through and crimp over tightly before soldering. If you knew exactly where your droppers were going to relate the baseboard substructure then one hole would do! I now have a big railway and no problems from this quarter. The old part of the railway with droppers soldered to the rail bottom has not been quite as reliable (but then it is forty years old!)
At the same time I jig drill similar holes in every rail end and use staples bent to an elongated "U" shape in a jig to form a functional fishplate that is clamped round the rail web. This automatically lines up the rail ends accurately and can even be made to afford a tiny bit of longtidudinal give to soak up incremental expansion (only effective of course on rail free to move in plastic chairs). 120 feet (approx) of Fastrack main line with rails cut every 48 sleepers has endured a large temperature range in my loft for several years without any problems. There is no issue with flanges fouling the staples.
Thin etched fishplate sides can be glued or soldered onto the side of the staple.
Obviously this arrangement can't be used on insulated joints but the stapled track panels can be far more reliably lined up when gluing down to the solum without risk of drifting under weights where you can't see what is happening.
Chris Pendlenton

[CDGFife]

Are you absolutely sure the tight gauge is down to the painting? If you're using the triangular gauges to lay track then there can be tightening as the rail cants inwards after the gauge is removed. Even with roller gauges I've had this occasionally. I use acrylic (Vallejo Model Air) to paint my rails, applied with an airbrush. Have not noticed any tightening as a result.

I also don't like droppers soldered to the base of the rail. I don't drill through my rail but bend the feed wire through 90 degrees about 4 mm from the end after stripping it, and solder it ALONG the pre-tinned flange. Once ballasted, painted and weathered they are all but invisible. I've used this on my own and commercial layouts for years with zero problems, but I stopped using fishplates for electrical connection (often advocated in N gauge) ages ago as I found it unreliable, and have had several soldered fishplates come adrift over the years!

CDG

[davebradwell]

I'm with your dropper fixing, Chris and know of others doing the same with no problems - it seemed the easiest fix after they'd fallen off the bottom. I have had joints fail on etched fishplates but I've never used them for electrical connections. I put the failure down to expansion stresses so perhaps Julian will be luckier, only time will tell.

DaveB

[Julian Roberts]

Very many thanks for your suggestions, both Chris's and Dave. Points taken re droppers etc. 40 years is unfortunately going to be beyond my time period Chris P! CDG, yes that's something I've read many times about the gauge narrowing. I've used the roller type gauge for checking everything prior to painting. I think the problem is that (I was forgetting) I've used not two but three layers of paint as I first spray primed all the track, then sprayed the dark brown sleeper colour, then hand painted the rails etc with a brush. I will measure the track gauge where painted when I've got a battery for the vernier.

[Terry Bendall]

I still don't see what's wrong with the very simple scheme in the instructions

My reasons for modifications to the Tortoise were to do with reliability and appearance. One method of moving the blades, and the opriginal Society method, is to solder a piece of wire to each blade, pass the wire through an oversize hole in the baseboard and then some sort of sliding mechanism below to baseboard. Having used this method, and had it fail at an exhibition, I moved to Masokits stretcher bars. I have had an occasional failure but usually just the soldered joint failing on one blade which is easy to repair. Trying to retrive the wire and re-fix it to the blade at an exhibition is very difficult. There is also the problem of trying to cover the holes and apply ballast. All I am interested in is something that sorks reliably - others of course may use different medthiods which work just as well.

Failing switch contacts on Tortise motiors are well known. Whilst they work for a good length of time, I have found they fail eventually and I now fix microswitches as standard to the outside of the case which are operated by the moving block that retains the wire. The mkicro switches are fixed to the case using 10BA screws and provied you are careful drilling a tapping size hole, and use screws of an appropriate length there is no damage to the inside.

Good to see your arrangements Terry. No one has shown any pictures above baseboard!

I will try and get some pictures taken. Ravenscroft Sidings is due to appear at Warley so anyone who wants to look can do so.

I feel some nervousness whether plastic track is sufficiently

Ravenscroft Sidings was built in 2008 with Exactoscale track used throughout and it is still going.

Try using it like a gauge, locking the slide at a size and feeling for a just fit.

If you are going to do that, why not use the track guage? That is what it is for.

Don't trust my digital calipers to add anything objective to the feel of the gauge

Using a manual caliper will allow you to develop a "feel" for using it as is the case with a manual micrometer. A duff battery may well give an inaccuate reading. Of course you then have to learn to read a manual vernier or micrometer but that is not difficult. I used to teach 15 year olds how to do that before digital things were available.

Terry Bendall

[Julian Roberts]

Thanks Terry - I'll reply later. This is just a quick question pair - the video shows the amount of room I've left for two 60 foot rails to expand towards each other. The one on the right is fixed at its RH end, the one on the left will be fixed at its LH end. The temperature is about 17C and I've had 36C here. How much will the rails expand towards each other with 20C temperature rise? - so, have I left too much or too little room, or about right? The other question is, how long is a real fishplate? I keep finding there isn’t quite enough room when laying sleepers on the Templot plan - here I've shifted the RH sleeper a tad

https://youtu.be/duPXfwyI92k?si=Yoz0uI7NFEUXSMVc

(Upload from mobile phone. Sorry, still need to study the minimum radius replies)

[Philip Hall]

Like Dave B and Chris P, my main running lines around the room are FastTrack and I'm very glad I chose it. There have been no problems at all as the material used for sleepers and chairs is very stable and solid, gauge just as it was laid, widened or standard. My curves are approx 4'6" minimum on the main lines although liberties have been taken in sidings and 'off stage.' Rail lengths are maximum 18"/0.5m and expansion in the garden room has been interesting in summer but with no problems.

I am also very wary of 'invisible' electrical joints. All my wiring and controls are on the surface wherever possible as access below the (very) permanent boards is all but impossible without major furniture removal. Which was the intention, I should add. So I have taken the view, like CDG, that simply soldering feeder wires into the web of the rail direct is best and more easily maintained. You have a soldered joint at the rail, at the other end of the wire, and the multi strand wires are unlikely to fail (!) I also only have feeders at various points, no droppers or connections to each rail length. Peco bullhead fishplates are used for alignment and electrical connections are with tinned wires soldered into the web again linking across the joint and allowing for movement. All should be buried in the ballast when testing is complete.

Burying wires does have its disadvantages of course if things go wrong, as I think those who have been restoring the late Iain Rice's layouts have been finding out! But so long as you have the joints at each end of a wire accessible and brief notes of where wires go, all should be traceable if the need arises. I hope so.

Philip

[Martin Wynne]

The other question is, how long is a real fishplate? I keep finding there isn’t quite enough room when laying sleepers on the Templot plan - here I've shifted the RH sleeper a tad

Hi Julian,

A real fishplate is 18" long = 6mm.

The end sleepers at the joint should be at 24" centres (plus typically 1/4" to allow for expansion) = 8mm centres.

The chair jaws are 4" wide, so there is 20" between the jaws = 6.7mm.

So the 18" fishplate should fit between them with a small 1" space at each end = 0.35mm.

The keys at a rail joint are always driven towards the fishplate, so should not be projecting more than 1" on that side.

The usual model problem is that the rail ends are not dead central between the sleepers.

cheers,

Martin.

[davebradwell]

It's easy Julian, just multiply the expansion co-efficient by the temperature rise and length of rail, being careful with the units. I get around 0.1mm for n/s and .04mm for steel which doesn't seem ridiculous. Apologies if I've messed up - someone's bound to check - as it was done in a hurry. It's a reminder that a metre length of rail is trying to expand about 0.4mm for 20 deg rise.

Terry, Julian had expressed lack of confidence in his measuring ability so I suggested the locking technique as an aid. I was trying to find out how much the gauge had narrowed and you can't do that with a track gauge. In any case, after using any kind of gauge or jig it's a good idea to check measurement to see that all has gone as intended.

DaveB

[grovenor-2685]

What's not so easy is to work out how the corresponding changes to the baseboard will affect it. Timber may be affected more by humidity changes than by temperature and it could be in the opposite direction.

[Julian Roberts]

I'm a bit short of time to respond in the detail your responses deserve, gentlemen - could I just say I'm extremely grateful for your help and will write properly as soon as possible.

[Julian Roberts]

The main lines are now laid up to the crossing section of the long point which is in two sections. Laying the switch section awaits delivery of the first of the signals being made for me - the issue being the exact orientation and size of the servos underneath and thus where/how I fit the Tortoise motor.

20231105_153921.jpg

20231105_154322.jpg

Now to go back to all the useful tips I've been given by such eminent modellers. First, I still haven't measured the gauge where the track has been painted - still not got a new battery for my cheapo vernier. Terry, my issue as Dave rightly said is that I don't trust myself a whole lot when it comes to measurements to 100th of a mm with this tool - it depends on the feel and how hard I push the jaws. I'm wondering about getting a posh mechanical vernier and whether it's worth the cost against a posh digital one. For most measuring I use an ordinary one with a scale for reading the tenth of a mm. Re the amount of paint I've used, Chris G, you're right, I've probably laid on too much; airbrushing is something I've fought shy of so far. I'm fairly sure I haven't got the gauge narrowing thing from the rail inclination as I haven't used the triangular gauge exclusively. I'll come back to all this. But worth mentioning that I have a wheelset that I use to feel the amount of sideplay - this is acting on the relevant part of the rail, the gauge corner - what matters is that the gauge corner is completely clear of paint as well as the top surface, surely?

Re the fishplates

Just to be clear, I'm not using these for continuity between one rail and the next. They are totally unreliable for that purpose. Despite such strong warnings from you guys who I totally respect ( and I won't say I wasn't warned!), I am going with the fishplates' suitability for having dropper wire securely attached to them - I don't think any of you said you'd used either the EMGS or Masokits fishplates for the purpose. The EMGS ones don't have or need any instructions, but here is the relevant bit of the Masokits instructions.

20231104_124115.jpg

Here are a few photos of the dropper fixed to the fishplate.

20231030_151717 (1).jpg

In the next it can be seen that the chair won't have room to lie correctly until this excess solder has been cleaned up. Even this won't be sufficient and material must be removed from the bottom of either the chair or fishplate.

20231030_150610.jpg

In one instance (as in the last photo) the f/p is fixed for cosmetic purpose in the middle of two track panels made of one rail. What is much harder is setting up the Masokits type to be fixed to one rail end and accept the end of another separate rail, free to slide into it fully. Harder still is to fix the dropper to that f/p. The slightest amount of stray solder makes the snug fitting f/p not able to accept another rail end.

20231028_131220.jpg

The rail is laid maximum two panels worth to expand within fixed small sections which are attached either to pointwork or the board ends.

The usual model problem is that the rail ends are not dead central between the sleepers.

touche! - the issue being that the free to expand bit of rail is laid short of the midway point so it will only look right at maximum temperature! Regarding the amount of gap, I've ended up with more gap than necessary but it's incredibly hard to get this exactly right (particularly as it's all on a curve), and I've erred on the side of hopefully never having any trouble with expansion in the heat.

Ironically where I've had to fix the dropper to the rail web along the flange that's been a lot easier to do. I've done it on the side facing away from the viewer.

Getting the f/p to fit within the chairs on the correct sleeper spacing has been a challenge and this whole business has taken up a lot of time. The other time consuming aspect has been (1) the board break, where on the last line I've used screws to be able to adjust the height to the rail and (2) getting the board crossing even for height as there was a slight mismatch from making the boards in summer last year.

20231028_115535.jpg

The above shot shows I hammered long pins into the board edge to nail down the sleeper. This made the sleeper a bit low and metal shims were needed below the chairs - this does mean the chairs are well fixed to the nail not just the sleeper. The shot also shows that I didn't cut away the web of the sleepers, so I wasn't truly aligning the rail with the template, but just the web stubs of the other rail which was cut to allow the curvature.

20231101_120849.jpg

This last shot shows the screws long enough to fix well to the wood below the cork. They were then tinned and adjusted to trial rail height with feeler gauge to allow for chair height. It also shows loose sleepers insulated with slightly rounded file making a shallow cut, no more than needed, and less wide than the fixed ones where the gap was made with a flat file, in danger of removing too wide an area.

20231101_132753.jpg

The screws were filed to take the space of a sleeper width. Also visible is the layers of card needed between the rails so that I could still see the alignment of rails and sleeper ends.

20231102_181624.jpg

Another time consuming aspect is that the copperclad and Masokits combination doesn't seem to precisely match the plastic sleepers and chairs combination - only a sliver of paper difference but discovered after the sleepers were stuck down! This didn't matter in the yard because speeds are low, but this mainline part will see trains run through at around a scale 25mph - an altogether higher standard of track laying has been called for.

I'll have to make a separate post later to illustrate some of the other things.

[Julian Roberts]

The previous post was expanded with both photos and words.

Regarding the formula 0.4mm per metre for 20C rise (thanks again Dave), my maximum 480mm lengths just need 0.2 which I think equates to 8 thou on the set of feeler gauges I possess since the days of a moped and spark plug gap problems. With my best endeavours the smallest gap I've got is about 10 thou, but 25 thou is more typical. This is one of the better panel ends regarding all the issues.

20231106_193736.jpg

Below, completed board join

20231106_193713.jpg

[Julian Roberts]

Mainline track is now wired as far as the baseboard joint. The junction for the yard took some headscratching. The object being that changing the points changes the controller as appropriate, through the spare changeover switches on each Tortoise (the catch point has two changeovers to spare). There is a yard controller (Pentroller) and mainline controller (at present an EMGS one bought many years ago). Some time ago I decided that moves in and out of the yard to/from the station will be controlled by the Yard. The mainline man will drive only on the mainline, though that will include shunting moves on the mainline.

Anyway the video shows it's all working. Both mainlines work at once for now but when the single line point is installed that'll cease to be the case. Next task is to break up lots of the connections to route them to the signal levers which when pulled will reconnect the power.
https://youtu.be/E2sNFC03pw4?si=97aufH6Lxtkhki7Q

[Julian Roberts]

In fact it wasn't quite so easy, but after another week of headscratching all the potential moves are separated, and connections broken where they will be re-connected by pulling off a signal. The basic stage is to simulate this connection by attaching leads to terminal strip, when paired up makes the connection.

Signal plan highlighted.PNG

Here is the Kyle signal plan; the yellow highlights the layout area. For the layout's 12 signals (9 actual, 3 virtual offstage, which simply connect power from fiddleyards to layout) I've simplified loads of things - 3 and 31 (both virtual) are the only Up Starting signals and take me into the yard as well as the mainlines; there are no locks; there are no distants, but the virtual Down Starter at Stromeferry controls moves from the Inverness direction onto the layout. That was the next signalbox, nowadays the running time is 25 minutes.

Each signal lever will actuate a relay which will connect the appropriate section(s) of track, and operate the appropriate actual signal. Until there is interlocking (mechanical or electronic) it will be possible to pull off all the signals and operate one engine in steam: as the previous video showed, the turnouts already do the actual isolating, polarity changes, and control changeovers.

For what it's worth, I've concluded that there would never have been more than one train on the converging lines between the bridge and turnout 43, so I've wired them as a single unit, polarity to be according to that turnout 43. I had toyed with the idea that there is room for a light engine to be waiting on the Down at 48 or 50 with another passing on the Up, but very unlikely to have been allowed on the prototype. Some time ago I thought similarly that a train wouldn't ever wait on the Up at 25 or 22 while a move occurred to/from the Yard, but of course this can happen on the Down.






* 48 50 25 22, 45 46, 51 26 36

[Julian Roberts]

The above now is controlled through the lever frame. The video shows all the moves except the first one where 3 is cleared to permit the move from the Up station onto the mainline. It's not exactly a great production, mostly seems out of proper focus, sorry. I must acknowledge at this point the help of many people in getting this far but especially John Stocks recommending how I get the hardware involved, electronic stuff I know nothing about; and continuing advice from Dave B and Nigel Cliffe. Thanks so much, guys.

https://youtu.be/_ntpFSaZ2Fk?si=F0GRj_tmnezM4li8

[Julian Roberts]

On my thread about the signalling at Kyle there was some debate whether a Down loco or train could be held at the Mid Homes or whether these signals were simply to indicate the direction. The locking will decide this, meanwhile I assembled trains to see what would fit in the space between them and the Outer Homes.

On the Down line the signals are adjacent to the centre of the single slip and a train would not foul anything moving from the Yard, neither to the Down nor the Up lines. There is room between these signals and the Outer Homes for my longest proposed train of 4 coaches or 11 wagons including 3 long ones plus loco and tender.

20240103_101251.jpg

On the Up however any move between the Yard and station is fouled unless the stopping point is quite a distance towards the Outer Homes. There's room for 3 coaches at the fouling point.

20240103_103334.jpg

But there's no obvious mark of this location; an obvious mark is where the Yard shunt signals stand, which would give a still useful 2 coaches plus loco length space.

20240103_104852.jpg

I've no particular knowledge of this kind of thing but I'd guess it's unlikely that while any moves to/from the Yard took place a train could stand on the Up, but I hope one might have been allowed to do so on the Down.

No very obvious progress has happened since my previous post, but the lever frame now includes the single line points 43 (the point motor and temporary wiring has been set up remotely by the signal frame), the diverging main lines being wired accordingly. While signals are still able to move incorrectly until there is an enhanced degree of locking, a train mostly cannot now move unless correctly signalled. Mostly - but for example there's nothing to stop it moving in the wrong direction!

[Julian Roberts]

Progress has been slowed by various events but it continues. Turnout 43 now has to be correct for any movement to occur outside the yard.

I underestimated the number of relays I'd need and have had to make room for another few by moving those already installed, meaning quite a bit of rewiring work. I established that the road surface will be high enough that there should be room for a row of relays under it. The Tortoise diodes had to be relocated underneath the baseboard.

Wiring is slow work partly because I label everything as I go (after establishing the latest addition actually works as intended) - and record it. It looks pretty awful but will of course be hidden under the removable scenic edge.

20240202_113603.jpg

I'm including here a picture of the two boards in their vertical and upside-down modes to demonstrate the function of the naff wooden legs bolted to the sides that keep appearing in the photos. Work on the underside is thereby done kneeling or sitting on the floor. Not very comfortable but I tell myself it's good for me. These 'legs' are also handles that enable me to lift the boards.

20240206_143025.jpg

The long E15 turnout is now installed and operational. I had thought I needed to install the signals first but realised there was room for both motors the station or Down side of the tips. I had earlier decided that I'd operate the long E switch with two motors (to drive each end of the blades), rather than with just one motor plus some mechanism to operate the full length of the blade - which might not work very well. One motor just fits in the space between tips and stockgauge, so the other sits beyond the stockgauge

20240208_225826.jpg

Here is the turnout operating.



Here is the underneath. The strengthening rib along the edge of the board didn't leave a very easy place to mount the motors and I had to add a similar thickness block of wood. This made the operating length of the wire rather long and it had to be commensurately thicker to do the job - 1.2mm piano wire.

20240206_153200.jpg

Just a couple of panels of plain track left to install now.

Finally here is a taster of the signals that Karl Crowther is making - these are ready to send. The gantry of four are on the production line.

IMG_0011.JPG