West Ruislip oo gauge dcc

[roadie stu]

Hi All

Spent most of last night fault finding and re wiring part of the layout, Had an issue with one of the peco insulfrog points causing a short circuit, bought them second hand but not onvinced all of them are insulfrog, anyway swapped the point for one that doesn't cause a short, track plan will have o be re jigged until a replacement point is acquired,

During the re wire, I have ditched the choc block connectors if favour ot these
https://flic.kr/p/2qkjAvj
They have a 2 wire feed, but 4 outlets, I have run the bus wires into the connector, centre two outlets take the bus wires, then the 3 other spaces take the droppers ( 1 feed per connector) so it keeps things neat and tidy, but with the added bonus of replacing points easily if they go wrong, just a matter of lifting the latches, removing the wire from the connector and lifting the track to release the point,
It will also make splitting the modules easier when the move happens

Regards

Stuart

[roadie stu]

Edit - double post

[Dad-1]

Double Post !
Stu, that's what you get while driving too fast.
This has grown at an amazing speed, I'd still be 'thinking' about it !!

Geoff T.

[roadie stu]

Good morning,

Spent a couple of hours on the layout last night, fixed a couple of track height issues on the base board joints, and test running a few locos,

This has thrown up an issue with my Bachmann pannier tank, it was running OK through all the points, then out of the blue it decided it would stall on one set and cause a short,
Admittedly I have been using the select controller at the moment, but plan to use e-link,
The pannier has a Hattons 8 pin decoder fitted and has never had a problem in the past having been run for long periods on my nephews layout using a select,

All the other locomotive I ran last night (tender drive scotsman, hornby duchess, hornby castle and bachmann 4575 prairie) all ran without any problems,

I do have 2 other bachmann panniers that are both fitted with the same decoders, so I will give them a go and also try with e link instead of the select and see what happens,

Once I get the main station trackwork running without any issues, I will move on to getting the fiddle yard trackwork completed

Regards

Stuart

[Mountain]

If you do get big problems between baseboard joints (As wood can tend to flex according to the moisture so in winter it may swell and in summer it dries, which can cause seasonal issues where two boards join especially with portable layouts), there is a good solution which avoids the need for regular ajustment, though scenically may not be so great, and that is to use a short piece of removable track and slide the rail joiners in place. (Old Lima joiners tend to be good for this as they are durable).
The "Bridge" track across the baseboard joints is simply removed when the layout is transported and replaced when the layout is set up again, and one does not need to make any adjustments other than sliding the railjoiners in place.

[aleopardstail]

found on Leopard Street when I put the removed board back in it took a while to fine tune the alignment - both side to side and vertically. not helped by the join being on a curve. its working now but what worked initially wasn't quite good enough.

I know there are all sorts of fancy devices to align boards, all end up with a bit of tolerance. what really helps though is to have whatever you use as close to the track as possible - avoids issues where two bits of wood conspire to expand slightly differently. also especially for lofts/shed etc where expansion/contraction is a problem the alignment stuff expands and contracts too!

even for non-sectional layouts this can happen, where possible its good to avoid a track join coinciding with a board join - even if that means a dedicated short section to avoid it

plus metal fishplates cope a lot better with alignment than plastic insulating ones which can cause vertical alignment issues and for some stock its amazing how small the issue has to be to upset them

[Phred]

aleopardstail wrote:
two bits of wood conspire to expand slightly differently

The technical term for this is 'resistentialism', AKA the bloody-mindedness of inanimate objects.

[aleopardstail]

aleopardstail wrote:
two bits of wood conspire to expand slightly differently

The technical term for this is 'resistentialism', AKA the bloody-mindedness of inanimate objects.

I now have a mission objective to get that into a formal report for my employer and see if anyone notices.

I have previously got "looking like a cats arse" into a maintenance instruction (rubber hoses ballooning on the inside, look at the end and well yes)

[roadie stu]

It's been a long time since my last update, due to starting a new job and everyday life taking up alot of time I haven't had chance to post, so here is a quick update

Track laying is complete for the moment, been sorting out some derailing issues with some points on the fiddle yard side of the layout where I have used set track points got a few more dropper wires to put in as I have a few areas on the fiddle yard that some locos seem to struggle with getting power, bot overall the track is pretty reliable,

On the rolling stock front, a few new additions have arrived a Gw liveried 28xx a hornby 14xx and a br black 5,
Currently having trouble hard wiring a dcc chip into the 14xx , railmaster can read the decoder, but it doesn't seem to respond when on the track I will persevere with it , as it has to be something simple causing the issue,
Also been having fun and games with the decoder in my BR black hall, gone through two decoders in this where the wires became loose and rubbed against the driving wheels causing the decoders to fail, fitted a new decoder this evening and managed to get the wires safely secured, all running OK so far and hopefully it's the end of the issue.
Hope to do a few more regular updates going forward with a few pictures and hopefully some videos as well
Regards
Stuart

[Dad-1]

Hi Stuart,

Fiddle yard with set-track points !!
Your 14XX even with a good working decoder will struggle. I always regret taking that
road for compression. Wish I learnt how to make my own live-frog copies earlier.

Funny how 'life' can still get in the way when you're retired.

Geoff T

[Phred]

Dad-1wrote:
Funny how 'life' can still get in the way

As do the pop-up ads which appear right in the middle of forum posts.

Looking forward to your updates, roadie stu.