Gt. Jackson St.

Tell us about your layout, where you put it, how you built it, how you operate it.
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RobM
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby RobM » Tue Aug 15, 2017 6:14 am

shipbadger wrote:Rob,

Do you have a diffuser over your LEDs under the cabinets? When I first put up the LEDs under my cabinets I had pools of light as you describe. They disappeared completely once the diffuser was in place. I've been peering behind layout fascias at the last few shows I've been to and noticed that most people are using 'naked' LEDs. Perhaps the height from the baseboard means the pools of light spread out.

Tony Comber

Tony....No diffuser and obviously the cause of the multiple shadows which I consider quite pleasing....well in the kitchen anyway. The cabinet lights I am toying with are complete with diffuser. Still have a load of strip LEDs left over from the kitchen so may experiment with a combination (adding diffuser for strip LEDs).
Rob

Terry Bendall
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby Terry Bendall » Tue Aug 15, 2017 6:34 am

shipbadger wrote:Perhaps the height from the baseboard means the pools of light spread out.


This may be the case. My only experience of using LEDs for lighting is for a model display which consisted of tiered stands eight feet long with the LEDs mounted on a piece of timber fairly high up and about three feet from the stands. No problems with shadows. The use of two strips, one which is a warm white and one which is a bright white can be effective. Mine came from LED Hut who are a bit on the pricy side but convenient to use.

Terry Bendall

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RobM
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby RobM » Tue Aug 15, 2017 4:19 pm

Terry Bendall wrote:
shipbadger wrote:Perhaps the height from the baseboard means the pools of light spread out.


Mine came from LED Hut who are a bit on the pricy side but convenient to use.

Terry Bendall


Yes, but from what I gather no cheap Chinese imports.......I will be trying the 5' 24W LED Connectable light at £45. Sorry Ralph, we seemed to have hi-jacked your thread....... :o
Rob

ralphrobertson
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby ralphrobertson » Wed Aug 16, 2017 6:15 pm

Rob, don't worry about hijacking the thread, this is all interesting reading for many of us. Layout lighting is something that is often overlooked until the end and is often very poor so I hope you are able to share your own views with us once you have done your trials with LEDs. I put the lighting in first before any track boards or wiring as I needed the space to do it right from the beginning as with this form of baseboard it is not easy to get all round access as the sides and back are an integral part of the structure. Because of this it means you need to do some serious thinking about how to order your building process to retain access - more in due course!

Incidentally in our club we have a theatrical person who has amazing ideas about lighting and presentation and it is most interesting to talk to him about his views.

Ralph

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RobM
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby RobM » Thu Aug 17, 2017 6:47 am

ralphrobertson wrote: Because of this it means you need to do some serious thinking about how to order your building process to retain access - more in due course!
Ralph


Manston Brewery was built in a box and it was certainly fun working through the front facia, especially when using Butanone to stick down the individual setts......had to keep coming out for air!!
Will be ordering the 5' LED unit next week so will keep you updated.
Rob

ralphrobertson
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby ralphrobertson » Thu Sep 07, 2017 7:57 pm

Andy has just advised me that he now has B6, B7 and B8 turnout timbers available and that they will be available at Scaleforum on the Stores.

Ralph

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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby ralphrobertson » Fri Sep 08, 2017 4:16 pm

Following up on an earlier post here is the support system I made for holding everything up properly. It allows for the boards to be moved around easily and is fairly easy to make, some metal brackets pop rivetted to the stands and some timber stringers. The stringers have M6 bolts epoxied in. The 2 holes alongside the M6 bolt are not supposed to be there, an accident when drilling something! These stringers actually set the stands at the correct distance apart.

Ralph
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ralphrobertson
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby ralphrobertson » Mon Sep 11, 2017 4:07 pm

Having got the first part of the trackwork laid and working it is time to upload a few photos. The track is all ply and rivet, the turnouts made using the laser cut timbers which are now available from EBMA or from Scalefour Stores (http://www.ebmahobby.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=65_66). The turnouts are operated using the MERG servo mount which is available to members of MERG and which works well when combined with Mike Norris' stretcher bar design. I did try Ambis stretcher brackets but it just didn't work for me so tried out Mike's method which I found worked well so adopted that.

The AJ uncoupling electromagnets have been dispensed with and I am using servos to control the uncoupling. The servo drives an aluminium rod sliding in a tube. The rod has a rare earth magnet glued to the top of it and when it is desired to uncouple the rod is raised by the servo and the magnet works as normal. When the servo moves down then the magnetic field is out of range of the droppers. The advantage of this system is that using the MERG CBUS system it allows the uncoupling to be performed from any control panel, not just one.

The servos for the uncouplers are set in a bracket which I have printed on my 3D printer. A simple design but it does the job.

Because the Tim Horn baseboards are made up in a presentation style it is almost impossible to work on the track without removing the track bed. As a result the track bed is made to be removable so that it can be lifted out which means that the wiring must be detachable requiring a lot of plugs and sockets to be wired in. There are aluminium brackets attached to the uprights and M6 studding set into the track bed so it can be removed as required.

(Got the photos in the wrong order - will do better next time!).
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ralphrobertson
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby ralphrobertson » Mon Oct 30, 2017 5:40 pm

Although nothing has been posted I have been doing some more track laying on GJS. One of the turnouts I want to try out is a 3 way tandem turnout so I decided to use Martin's suggestion about using Templot track centres with tracing paper. A quick hunt revealed I had no tracing paper so I had a look at what else I had. I found some Xerox overhead transparency film which is suitable for use with laser printers which is fortunate as I have a Xerox colour laser. They worked perfectly so next it was the glue I needed. Didn't have any Photomount either so thought I would try Pritt Stick and that also worked fine.

I am working through rivetting the timbers at the moment but by drilling through the film it results in perfectly positioned rivets. Thanks Martin, that will save some time.

Since my last post I have also tried out some of the DCC Concepts stainless steel rail but I have to say I have put it away for now. I found the rail very soft and easy to bend and after I filed up a few crossing vees I decided that personally I prefer steel rail as it is so much stronger. It may work for others but right now I have decided to continue using steel only. I might try some on plain track somewhere on the layout but for turnouts I have decided against it.

Ralph
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ralphrobertson
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby ralphrobertson » Mon Feb 12, 2018 11:00 am

There has been no progress on Gt Jackson St over the last 3 months as my activities have been taken over completely by a new toy. Having invested in a laser cutter I have spent a considerable amount of time sorting out the way ahead using the cutter to make buildings with particular emphasis on getting a production regime started for making buildings for the club layout Slattocks Junction as well as eventually making some for GJS.

One or two people have already benifitted from the machine with me having designed and produced a small 'test' building which is a platelayers hut and made some proper windows. The platelayers hut is based on a design in an old 'Ericplans' book and proved to be an excellent way of getting into using the machine and testing out various ways of making buildings. Work then progressed on to a row of terraced houses of which several are needed for Slattocks and possibly for GJS. Right now I am in the process of making the outline of a huge mill which is a major part of the main baseboard on Slattocks and I will be posting more on this on the Manchester AG thread in due course as things progress.

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So, the 3 way turnout hasn't moved since the post above this but one thing I have positively decided on is to stick to steel rail. I hope to get some time to get back to completing this but in the last couple of weeks I have made 5 CANMIO boards to drive the servos on the layout. Kits are not yet available for them from MERG yet but I eventually managed to work out what was required and with the help of the instructions (which are available on the MERG website) to make them and Mike Bolton's help in getting all the components together i managed to get them sorted. I have to say my knowledge is very poor when it comes to electronics and whilst I can solder them together and follow the excellent instructions I don't profess to knowing much more than that.

Hope to get to update the Manchester AG thread with more very soon,

Ralph
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ralphrobertson
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby ralphrobertson » Thu Feb 15, 2018 12:58 pm

A surprise turned up this morning from Hattons. I ordered an ICI hopper wagon over 2 years ago, I just had to have one as my trainspotting life was brought up on seeing these trains travel the CLC system between Tunstead and Winnington usually hauled by 8Fs. It wasn't the same for me when the locos were replaced by Class 25s but each to his own. The sight of these trains climbing the bank from Altrincham to Hale was great, seem to remember they had 13 on and 16 coming back empty but I am open to clarification on that.

Anyway, the Hattons/Oxford Rail model is superb, excellent detailing. I haven't checked the measurements as I don't have immediate access to the drawings but I have just ordered a few more, Slattocks can handle a 'cripple' train with a few of these being shipped back to Charles Roberts in Wakefield for overhaul.

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Ralph
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ralphrobertson
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby ralphrobertson » Thu Feb 15, 2018 1:01 pm

Forgot to mention that the conversion to 18.83 is easy, the wheels drop out very easily and are simply replaced. The coupling just lifts out of the NEM pocket which is not noticeable behind the leading bogie wheel.

Ralph

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Will L
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby Will L » Thu Feb 15, 2018 4:26 pm

ralphrobertson wrote:A surprise turned up this morning from Hattons. I ordered an ICI hopper wagon over 2 years ago, I just had to have one as my trainspotting life was brought up on seeing these trains travel the CLC system between Tunstead and Winnington usually hauled by 8Fs.


We always thought it would be nice to have a train of these to run on Knutsford East, although a proper length train would have occupied most of the visible main line and would have been a distinct problem in the fiddle yards.

ralphrobertson
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby ralphrobertson » Tue Jan 15, 2019 4:16 pm

Almost a year since the last post and most of you know why I haven't been busy on Gt Jackson St since then - yes Alpha Mill. Anyway, since its public showing at the Manchester exhibition in December it has been stuck in its transporting case and a couple of days ago I thought I should try and do something on the layout for a change.

I changed the CBUS CANSERVO board for a CANMIO board and reset the software that controls the layout. Not finished that job yet, need to try to remember how to associate the turnout switching with the handset so I can change them whilst walking around.

Today I had a visit from Jeremy Suter and he brought along the railmotor he is working on. What a beautiful piece of work, shame I am not interested in GWR but it is clear to see the thought gone into making this model. I thought I would share a couple of photos of it posed on GJS so you can see it in all its glory - very impressive, well done Jeremy.

Ralph

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Dave K
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby Dave K » Wed Jan 16, 2019 11:56 am

ralphrobertson wrote:The servos for the uncouplers are set in a bracket which I have printed on my 3D printer. A simple design but it does the job.

Ralph,
I saw your latest post and when I opened it it went to your post showing the AJ uncouplers and I saw a demonstration of the system at the Christmas show and would like to incorporate something similar on Hallatrow as I've yet to fit them on the layout.

Can you tell me what servo you are using and are the fixing brackets available?

Dave

ralphrobertson
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Re: Gt. Jackson St.

Postby ralphrobertson » Wed Jan 16, 2019 5:47 pm

Hi Dave,

I am using one of the Hobbying servos and the mount is just a simple bracket I designed and made on my 3D printer. You could make any little bracket from a piece of ally angle or or some stripwood or plastic sheet. The rod with the magnet just needs to be able to slide up and down in the tube for this to operate.

Here are a couple of photos that might help you to see how it works and how to make your own brackets.

Ralph

20190116_173448.jpg

20190116_173436.jpg
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