South Pelaw Junction

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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Wed Sep 09, 2020 7:50 pm

Thanks for that. How easy would you say they are to retro fit as I'm laying my track directly on to the boards?

John

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grovenor-2685
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby grovenor-2685 » Wed Sep 09, 2020 9:18 pm

I fitted my Masokits ones after laying the track, Wasn't particulary hard. I don't think fitting them to loose turnouts would be any easier.
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Keith
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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Thu Sep 10, 2020 8:49 am

grovenor-2685 wrote:I fitted my Masokits ones after laying the track, Wasn't particulary hard. I don't think fitting them to loose turnouts would be any easier.


Thanks Keith.

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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Fri Sep 18, 2020 9:21 am

Well it's not much but it proves that I can build a single slip (tiebars and some chairs still to be added) without stuff falling off, at least in one direction :mrgreen:

Annoyingly, having made good progress with track laying and electrics, it looks like the new lockdown in the North East means that I'll not be able to work on the layout for a couple of weeks at least.


Terry Bendall
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby Terry Bendall » Sun Sep 20, 2020 8:49 am

Serjt-Dave wrote:I use the Masokits Tie bars and found them very good and reliable {so far}


A bit late to this but I have also used the Masokits stretcher rods and the work well. A bit fiddly to make up butthey work. My take on operation is a functional crank through the baseboard.

Terry Bendall

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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Wed Dec 09, 2020 5:03 pm

Easing of lockdown has allowed access to the layout again (we are in Tier 3 in the North East but, as far as the council are concerned, we are a 'leisure' venue so are allowed access under the same rules as gyms) so I was able to go up last night.

The new Accurascale PTAs look good on the layout, Class 60 just used for testing, two Accurascale 37s will be taking it's place once they are released. Also, whilst the colours are correct for the Consett wagons, the rest of the livery details are not so some changes are requried.

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Didn't have too long there but I did manage to start putting some servos and MERG servo mounts together and got the first one working with a MERG servo 4 board and DCC Concepts Cobalt lever.

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So, not much, but at least it is progress in the right direction...

John

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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Fri Apr 30, 2021 8:28 pm

I can now access the layout again with the recent easing of lockdown.

The final turnout on the down main has been built. At the moment, it is fully wired but has no tie bar so blades are chocked for testing:

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Almost completed last night was a diamond on the up main which just leaves one more turnout to be built and the up main will also be complete along the initial 18' scenic section of the layout:

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Check rails on the K crossings yet to be fitted but I prefer to make sure that I can run rolling stock through without them first.

Once that final turnout is built, the next job will be the mechanical connections to get the turnouts working on both mains.

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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Thu May 27, 2021 9:44 pm

The first train to make it all the way through the junction has made it's journey tonight from one temporary fiddle yard to the other...



A huge amount of work still to be done but it is good to be able to run something.

Tony Wilkins
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby Tony Wilkins » Sat May 29, 2021 1:01 pm

Hello John.
It must be very satisfying to be able to run from one end of the layout to the other, especially having been excluded from making progress for so long.
Quite impressive.
Regards
Tony.
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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Sat May 29, 2021 9:36 pm

Thank you Tony, I'm very pleased with how things are going especially as a first go at hand building all my track on a layout that is twice as long as my two previous layouts put together.

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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Tue Sep 21, 2021 9:51 pm

Progress on South Pelaw came to a grinding halt over the summer for a couple of reasons, I completely lost interest in it and it's space in the room I have has been taken over, for now at least, by it's big sister, the EM gauge version of South Pelaw.

Tonight, however, I have erected two of the three scenic boards so I'm hoping that work can begin again in due course. I did quickly connect it all up and was pleased to see it works as it did.

Image

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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Thu Oct 14, 2021 10:20 pm

As previously mentioned motivation has been lacking recently but I'm finally back and working on the layout.

I'm determined that the track is thoroughly tested and any modifications made before it is ballasted. To this end, I've been testing tonight both with some locos and by propelling some wagons, at a much higher speed that they'd ever run on the layout, through the turnouts. Here is a short clip with a couple of wagons running through four turnouts and a baseboard join, The wagons are fitted with Alan Gibson wheels but are otherwise unmodified and are not sprung or compensated.


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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Fri Nov 12, 2021 8:53 am

Progress is slow but steady, at the club tonight, got two more servos wired up, another semaphore signal working from the lever frame and a little track laid. Track is now complete along half the length of the layout and a coupe of hours work should see it complete along two thirds.

A few photos of the current state of the layout:

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and the lever frame, those with numbers are fully operational...

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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Wed Dec 08, 2021 12:01 pm

A look down the layout as it stands, trackwork is now complete along 2/3rd of the boards and around 25% complete on the last board...

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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Sun Mar 20, 2022 10:25 pm

Recent progress has been pretty good and, with the exception of blades for one of the single slips, all the trackwork on the three boards is now complete and testing has started. Despite my colour coding the droppers (red to the front and black to the back), there have been a few shorts and I've found half a dozen or so instances where I managed to get the wires the wrong way round. Tie bars are being added to turnouts one a time and thoroughly tested and tweaks made before moving on to the next one.

The up and down mains are completely tested apart from connections to two servos to be added, here's a short video from tonight's testing session:


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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Thu Mar 24, 2022 11:40 pm

More progress tonight with the up main single slip connected to the lever frame which has allowed more testing. None of the wagons have compensation or springing and all have fixed buffers.


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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Tue Apr 12, 2022 10:37 pm

Almost 3 years since the first board was built, I laid the final length of track tonight. Lots of tie bars and chairs still to fit but the rail is complete which means, for the first time, I've been able to run something across the junction across both single slips and a diamond. The run isn't perfectly smooth so there is some adjustment to do but the loco made it all the way, there and back again without falling off so I'm really rather pleased...


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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby barrowroad » Wed Apr 13, 2022 8:58 am

Your trackwork looks very impressive John, congratulations on the smooth running over it by your Cl.24

Robin

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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Wed Apr 13, 2022 9:19 am

Thanks Robin, I suspect that there will be a number of adjustments to do but I'm determined to ensure that every train can run through every route in any direction before I even think about ballasting.

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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby Tony Wilkins » Wed Apr 13, 2022 4:48 pm

Hi John.
Yes. most impressed, that is a definite milestone achieved.
Regards
Tony.
Inspiration from the past. Dreams for the future.

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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:36 am

Thanks Tony, much appreciated.

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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Tue Apr 19, 2022 9:38 am

Without the fiddle yards in place (these will be temporary for 'phase 1' of the layout) I'm somewhat limited in what I can run for now although I am hoping to get the them up for a few weeks by the middle of next month but testing continues with a small variety of trains:

One or two bumps and bangs still to sort out and a number of the switch blades are chocked open until I get the mechanicals installed.


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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby Dave Holt » Tue Apr 19, 2022 1:38 pm

Looking good, John. I must say, I didn't detect any bumps or knocks from the video. The full extent of the scenic portion of the layout is rather impressive.
Dave.

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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Wed Apr 20, 2022 1:15 pm

Thanks for that Dave, I guess we are always our own worst critics. For a first go at track building, I'm pleased with how it has gone so far but still some work to do as I want to make sure I can run every train through every route, in every direction, regardless of whether they will take that route in reality.

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John Donnelly
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Re: South Pelaw Junction

Postby John Donnelly » Mon Oct 24, 2022 3:53 pm

After a long time away from the layout due to family matters getting in the way, the lever frame now has 35 of it's levers now installed, the two white spares are just in primer and, at least for now, will be used elsewhere in the frame until I decide, given the cost of the levers, whether to model the spares or not.

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Next job is to get the electronic interlocking for the facing point locks worked out.

Having seen Charlie's frame viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8129 at a recent EMGS event, he did his best to persuade me to go for mechanical interlocking but I'm committed to doing it electronically even though it means that it will still be possible to pull locked levers, at least they won't do anything...


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