Derry's Yard - A Set-Track shunting loop Project

[Bufferstop]

When I first descended from the loft my layout went in "the guest bedroom" so had to be capable of being stored out of the way. I took over one of the built in cupboards, and by sticking to a board length of four feet I could fit the whole lot standing on end in there, with a couple of shelves above for stock, tools materials etc. It could be packed away in half an hour. Since that time the number of bedrooms has increased, kids have flown the nest and I've established my own space available full time. Currently I have "the Christmas layout" which sits on a shelf most of the year, and a circular 009 one with a hole in the middle so it can fit round a small artificial tree. A couple of years ago I motorised an Atlas Editions tram, I replaced it's plastic pantograph with a real working sprung bow collector. I found a long lath which I trimmed to fit on the top of the display case, laid some track on a strip of double sided tape and put up a single overhead wire strung from barbecue skewers. I wanted to see if I could make the bow collector flip when it reversed. It did easily, so for a few months it chuntered back and forth controlled by a shuttle module the bow collector flipping over after the first couple of inches each time it reversed. I Haven't started on the garden cabin that used to be our office eight foot wide and twenty four long, insulated and all services laid in. I've got more potential spaces than I'll ever use!

[Dad-1]

Lucky devil Bufferstop.

This is squeezed onto a layout that already sits atop a layout, with end access
difficult as another layout's leaning against the shed's end wall.

Anyway at last I'm happy with the J94's performance now converted to a Zimo
decoder. My minor point tweak also assists running through the dead plastic
common crossing area. Loco wheels just run over the corner of the check rail.
Now these are powered it's just that little extra power push !!

https://youtu.be/9_6v_hXoC0w

Now getting all the yard ballasting down before I make the back-scene buildings.
I have a crazy idea to used a IRdot hidden at the end of one siding to set off a
factory buzzer/hooter when passed over. An unexpected event to break any drivers
concentration !!

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

A complete exercise, with faults.
Now apart from minor micro adjustment to the Kadees I shall have to press on with the
scenic elements.
Considering all the wagons, track, points, stops, platform edging were inherited from Derry
it's been a low cost exercise. The largest single cost has been removing the big old couplers
from the wagons and replacing with NEM pockets and Kadees. In addition all wheel sets have
been changed to Hornby. Mainline & Airfix wagons are O.K even now.

https://youtu.be/yMJP_UFPJ4I

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

My New Year's resolution is to finish long standing layouts.
Derry's Yard being one of them. The delay is all about scenery and electrics. Both these intertwined
as I needed to buy the welding simulators, plus yard lights and duly wire in before I could construct
the low relief buildings that would hold the welding activity.

My components arrived on Saturday so I've been in the shed. Not functional yet as I've had to add another
power socket. While sorting around some of Derry's stuff I came across a GWR brake coach with electric
pickups. Plonked it on the tracks and hey-presto an illuminated coach !!

Note the crooked yard lamp is just resting in it's hole



Here the layout is standing on one end. When I build the enclosing lid it can be safely stored in the absolute
minimum of space.



This and St Oval need time rather than money spending on them. Any delays from now on I shall blame on
winter weather and my hate of being cold.

Geoff T.

[joshv8]

Being on 3 weeks holiday has given me time I usually dont have to naigate threads a bit more thoroughly and I just watched your shunting puzzle on youtube. What a lot of fun! I never thought the Kadee and magnet method of uncoupling would be so effective.
Cheers,
Josh

[Dad-1]

Time to do more on this otherwise it'll never get finished.
Some of the lighting effects now wired in and functional.

https://youtu.be/vTSjb897occ

It's odd for me to be stumped on scenery, but I have to make a lift off building to cover a smoke generator
with a suitable chimney. I can see me making a mess trying to fill a fixed in place smoke oil reservoir so
not only a building, but a pluggable power source and anchoring arrangement for the smoke system.

Why bother with smoke ? Well I have this sawn off generator and what else would I do with it ??

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

February EHhh.

What's wrong with all our layout builders ?
This still not at the bottom of page 1 after over 3 months.
OK, OK, so I've not been exactly setting the world on fire either.

What have I been doing, not a lot. I have however been making up the hinged lid and although not
finished yet it will protect from dust. Mind you some of the dust caused by me revising the location
of the welding simulators. For that I've had to saw a couple of holes that'll be behind my factory
wall. All the result of bad planning there wasn't enough space for them !!







What a battle with that smoke generator - I just can't get the time & volume of smoke I want. I'm
beginning to think I should drop the idea all together.

Geoff T

[Dad-1]

Frequently in use, but no further forward in construction, other than deciding the smoke generator
idea is NOT going to work the way I intended. The smoking period per top-up wasn't long enough,
It was obvious the layout would become oil contaminated due to layout storage being on it's end.
In addition last time I tried the smoke fumes set my wife off into a wheezing attack. Now banned !!

Today 27th December, we were threatened with rain all afternoon, I was feeling better (sore throat)
and was going to be bored. Brought it in doors onto the kitchen table, then as outside light faded I
thought I'd try a few 'Night time' photos.







It seemed much darker to my eyes !! My camera lies. It would have been a video, only my youngest son
had the cheek to ask for his tripod back a few months ago and not returned it.

Geoff T.

[Dublo]

Very nice there Geoff.
I did spot a certain Crane in the background, it's great that these items still find use on others layouts.

[Richard08]

Very nice - atmospheric photos

[Dad-1]

Hi Dublo,

Oh yes a HD breakdown crane sitting on the back siding. Luckymucklebackit, gawd, probably
got that wrong, better just say Jim of this parish, has also now pointed me to someone who
3D prints the 4 side jacks missing from this one. At £7 I shall get a set.

Richard08,

Always fun to see what photo effects you can do - lots fail, but some times it works out.

I really should get on with this, but then the fun of a shunting puzzle is just the driving. Since
i brought this up today I've derailed twice forgetting which points to change !!

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

After a couple of long sessions I've had to come to the conclusion that Frog Juicers
are not a good idea, although they work on many layouts where the running speeds
are more than a crawl they are a disaster on short shunting layouts. The problem is
made worse by the use of small short light locomotives. I had thought that by using
what I call a 'Full Cream' Zimo decoder it may cope, but no.
There are places where you need to change direction on an insulated and switched
join. The switching causes spikes in the AC current which can be read by a loco decoder,
but not being a specific recognisable message frequently results in a stall. After a while
the loco will start moving again, but with a jerk. If it were just a failure of pick-up any
start would be smooth..
I've had to remove Frog Juicers from the club's Green Frog Brewery layout, where since
removing them the running has been exemplary. I shall revert to mechanical switching
on this layout.

I've also given up on trying to have a smoking factory chimney. The smoke unit doesn't
smoke for long enough to be viable. That is being removed while I change the polarity
switching.

Geoff T.

[Bufferstop]

There's a technology which may give you a smoking factory chimney, it uses ultrasonic mist generators developed for enhancing vivariums. Basically you feed them from a wall wart power supply and arrange that they are just below water level. They then chuck out clouds of mist. The clever bit is using a 12volt cooling fan to blow the cloud over an incandescent halogen bulb which causes both mist and air to rise. If you want to have a go I've got all the bits.(several times over) Dimplex used them in a flame effect fire but managed to over complicate the electronics and make it a PIA to keep working. They used a red filter on the bulb to light up the mist so it looked like flame, it was convincing enough to get visitors wondering why the paper they'd just thrown in the fire wasn't burning, and totally gobsmacked when I put my hand in the flames to remove it. Shield the light and it looked just like pale grey smoke.

[Dad-1]

Hi Bufferstop,

As exciting as that may sound I want to keep as simple as possible.

Searching in the shed I've found the 3 microswitches, another 5 ordered last evening.
Now to retro-fit these.

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

Removal of the problematical Frog Juicers now complete.
That's the second DCC layout where I've experimented by using electronic frog juicers that's failed.
Now it's not the frog juicers themselves, but the application where I've used them. On a pure
shunting layout where small light locomotives are used all the time at very low speeds it seems
to introduce spikes in the DCC signal. Then if like me you have to stop with wheels on the track
join interface you have unreliable locomotive functioning. Either causing jerking, or stalls that at
times would then return running after several seconds.

Here are the small plastic mountings where the switches are pinned and glued. One pivoting mounting
screw and a locking screw in the curved adjustment for accurate setup.

The dreaded Frog Juicer.



My micro switches and one fitted.



Then my J94 still gave problems, however the Sentinel ran fine so I knew it wasn't still track problems.
One last shot of the Sentinel.



Perhaps now I'll get on with this.

Geoff T