The shunting plank

Been a while since I posted, so for anyone who did not make it, here is a photo from Expo at Oxford.
Not mine, but one of Paul Martin's for which I have permission to show.
In order to get said permission I did agree to state:- "This awesome image created by the skill wit and judgement of master-photographer P. Martin Esq."
Thanks Paul!

Bob.

Fence Houses - The Full Monty!

Yesterday was a very momentous day for all concerned.
I agree with Nick, but then there's Gordon and David....... sorry I'll start again.
Late night watching part of the election results, then up early and out to Harrogate this morning for the Model Engineer's Show has taken it's toll!
Seriously, what a day we had yesterday (Thursday). After postponing the previous two days due to what turned out to be incorrect weather forecasts, we set about adding to the four baseboards I'd already set up under cover in the garage in readiness. Then came the drizzly rain, and a few cups of tea.....then lunch....then the first board....then more drizzle and plastic sheets, but finally some dry though dull weather. We decided to go for it.
All 14 baseboards went up as best we could, and we did well, considering the very unlevel area at the front of the house. Aldi's work stands are great, and will be even better when I install the height adjusters (screwed rod with knobs on) to the top rail.
Chris Mills plus wagons, then Mick and Yvonne all arrived to add to us lot (me, Les, Simon and David......'our' David that is, not the other one), and then the time came to turn the power on. Big fat Zero! Nothing but a dull red 'stop' light on the Ecos power unit.
What to do now? Fortunately Les had designed in some terminal block breaks on each board, and with Chris' help they soon isolated the problem area.
This was down to me. One red wire feed in a black position, and vice versa had the whole job stopped. Out with the soldering iron and five minutes later the red light had gone, and we were away!
Mick captured the first complete circuit on his mobile phone....see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqxEbDtc0To and I've added a couple of stills here to record the event for posterity.
Still a very long way to go, but we are all really looking forward to bringing "the big test track" to Expo, so we can start learning how to operate it!

Bob.

Fence Houses layout plan

I'm posting the layout plan here for the first time. It's in three parts, which can be cut out and joined at 'A' and 'B', to give the full plan (38'-6" x 9'). Originally it was 'only' 37'-0"long, but we have extended board 6 by a further 18", and because of that, board 12 also to match. Most of the track layout worked as planned, but the final stretch before reaching the end board 7 just ran out of space.
With a layout this big, what does an extra 18" matter!
At the viaduct end, compare the plan with the photo from my posting of 25th February 2009.
A lot of the latest track used is Easitrac. On the previous post this is much in evidence, coupled to the F.H. etched chairplated pointwork system. There are quite a few 'one off' shaped turnouts on view and it has all worked out quite well.
Note the track at the ends of the boards is all soldered construction.

Bob.

2010 Expo 2mm

Seeing the name Fence Houses in the February 2mm magazine really brings it home. Less than 5 months to go and still so much to do! I've said from the start when asked to bring the layout to Oxford that it will not be finished, far from it, but at least we're on the final few boards now with the track laying and electric's. Finishing the Black 5 project meant I was not able to meet the target for completion of track laying by the end of 2009, but with a layout nearly 40ft long you can imagine how much is involved. Anyway, what we have is looking good, though by Expo time there will still be little scenic treatment started. As for the trackwork, how is it all wired then? Well as we all know, with DCC "it's only two wires". Oh really? Have a look at the underside photos of the main station board and judge for yourself! We have in total some 50 turnouts, diamonds and single slips on the layout, mostly now installed and wired up to my ESU Ecos controller, with it's 'touch screen' technology. Les Waters, one of the original F.H. team from the 'N' gauge version of 30 years ago, has all this is in his very capable hands, thank goodness! We are now using the point motor kits from South West Digital Ltd (usual disclaimer) http://www.southwestdigital.co.uk/ (click on point motor control) in conjunction with the ESU Switch Pilot Servo, and this is proving to be a very worthwhile investment, although for now we are leaving in position the Tortoise motors previously installed on the first couple of boards already wired up. It will be interesting to see the comparison over the coming months and years of operation! As can be seen, some of the SWD point motors are on top of the station board and will be out of sight behind the backscene when this is fitted later. We did this for ease of access for any adjustment in the initial setting up, and for any that may be necessary later. This location aspect also helped due to congestion of pointwork, especially at this northern end of the station area. At the southern end the four servos can be seen fitted underneath, with the decoder that operates them via the Ecos controller.
What you will see at Expo, will in effect be a giant test track, with the operating team very much on a learning curve. We shall be very pleased if it all just works without any serious mishap!
What we intend to attain eventually, will take a lot more time and effort.
'Completion' is planned to be in August 2011, at the 50th anniversary show of The North Eastern Railway Association. This is to be hosted by the Blyth club and will be held at North Shields, Tyneside. It promises to be a very special event indeed, as we have some quite iconic layouts (in various scales and periods from pre-grouping through to BR) in our sights!
Fence Houses then has a second outing at The Newcastle show (Gateshead International Stadium) in the following November. So, you can see that after the 2mm Expo, we have some breathing space to get into place the scenery, signals, buildings and all the other hundreds of things needed to 'complete' the project.
In 2012 the NE area group will be 30 years old, so we might even get an invite to that as well!
Mention of buildings reminds me. I intend to use at least for starters, the Plastikard buildings from the original 'N' gauge layout. Considering their age the condition is very good, and of course the time saved in using them will be most welcome!
We have amassed quite a few 'N' coaches now, some with turned down wheels (thanks Mick!), and even a few main line diesels and a couple of DMU's for conversion. Steam traction will be converted to DCC as time permits after the track laying is finished, and Chris Mills is very busy making what seems like thousand's of 21t hoppers and 16t minerals for us to borrow.
If anyone out there has a DCC loco they would like to see 'stretching it's legs', on what is probably going to be 'the biggest 2mm finescale layout in the world' (!) then make yourself known beforehand, and you may well find your offer accepted. On the day we intend to have a separate test track / loading gauge available to try things out prior to letting anything lose on the layout proper, just to be on the safe side!

Bob.

At last....... the Black 5

After many happy hours (!) here she is folks.
I'm still tweaking the last couple of pages of the instructions, but they've all been read and vetted by knowledgeable people, so they should be correct now! I was going cross eyed, as I read and re-read them so many times myself, I had to call for help!
A c.d. of the instructions (18 x A4 written pages and 110 sequence photographs on a further 14 pages) will be sent off (after Christmas now....... don't want them getting lost) to the relevant authorities, and the sets of artwork will be sent to the etchers within the next week.
The castings should be available by the time the etchings are ready, so it's all about to happen in the New Year.

Talking of which, all the best to modellers everywhere, for Christmas and 2010. See you at Expo in July!

Victoria viaduct - latest picture

Victoria has a new home, courtesy of ABS Cases Company in London.
This is fellow 2mm modeller Alan (Midsomer Norton) Smith's business. See MRJ No 184 for Alan's layout article.

Alan has all manner of sophisticated machinery in his workshop to produce the goods, and excellent products they are too.
He has even produced a layout name board for us. See the photo.

Les of the Fence Houses team, was down south visiting his mother in Norfolk, and went on to Alan's place to collect not only Victoria's case, but some baseboard parts for his own planned layout of Hornsey Shed.

The case should keep Victoria nice and snug for her trip to the Oxford Expo next July. The other thirteen baseboards of the layout will not be getting the same VIP treatment as Victoria, but we hope to get them into a reasonable shape for viewing by the time of the show, Watch this space!

Bob.

As seen at the AGM 3/10/09

The Black 5 was shown running in this latest state, complete with quite a few of the lost wax castings added (some temporarily) to the loco and tender for the event.
Various other alternative lost wax boiler fittings will be supplied with the kit.
The white metal one piece smokebox / boiler / firebox casting (again fitted temporarily until properly 'fettled' and cleaned up) gives the weight missing from my 9F with it's resin cast boiler, and is noticeable in the running, seeing to give the impression of the mass and weight of a larger scale loco (or am I just imagining it!)
If I say so myself, the running on the day matched the look of the kit shown here.
The next build, probably the longer wheel base Ivatt type, will form the basis of the instructions, which I now need to complete to finally finish off this kit for The Association.
The riveted tender shown here has the cruciform type of axlebox covers. There are alternative Timkin type covers available for the kit.

Bob.

Easitrac Test Track

Just bringing the track standards upto date for the latest 9F photos.
My very rough (in terms of appearance) previous test track was doing 2mm no favours!
There's not much track on view here anyway, but it's better than the original (and now at least on a par with the Black 5 photos).

Bob.

Jake the peg........

"With his extra leg........"
Wanting to get the Black 5 test etch away late last year, and needing something to fill up the sheet, I managed to 'adjust' my NER lattice footbridge kit details to suit the specific variant sited at Fence Houses station.
This had an extra leg going down to road level at the adjacent crossing. The other two legs were at platform level.
I managed a 'dodge' on the original 'N' Fence Houses all those years ago by installing a plastic card leg to the George Allen kit then in use. This new etching shown here is as the prototype.
The photos show the unexpected progress managed at last weekends local Birtley exhibition demo stand. Even allowing for all the Q & A's which take place, the two day event allowed me to mark up another notch in the layout's progress.
Further progress is required to fit all the treads, but that will have to wait till the Black 5 is finished.

Bob.

The final baseboard

Baseboard 14 has just been completed. This is the last board to be made for the layout, and can be seen in place behind Victoria viaduct in the photo. The tracks on this board are the up and down colliery lines, which at this point are 35mm below the height of the main lines on the viaduct. The backscene (not in place on the photo) separates the viaduct from the colliery tracks, so these will not be seen in normal viewing mode at exhibitions (assuming we get an invite to one!)
Trackwork is now some 65% complete for the whole layout, with significant progress having been made lately, when compared to the previous 25 years! The regular Wednesday "Fence Houses" days have been a great boost. Thanks Les, David and Simon.
The introduction of Easitrac has not yet had it's full impact on F.H. as we have been re-wiring and fitting DCC components to boards previously started and conventionally wired for DC. However, the 'colliery' board, immediately north of the station board has been Easitrac fitted, and sufficient stocks now mean we anticipate completion of all trackwork by the end of 2009.
We have in fact stopped tracklaying in the southerly direction towards the station area for the time being, and have headed north and back over Victoria and onwards into the fiddle yards, the start of which can be seen in the lower foreground of the photo. The reason for the change in direction being that the plain copper clad and strip rail used here can be laid and completed whilst we are on building the etched chairplated pointwork configurations in and around the station areas.

Bob