Clay Mills Junction Posted May 5 Author Share Posted May 5 A bit more experimentation tonight. On 4/26/2022 at 9:08 PM, mick said: In my experience I'm not sure that would work with my sprung points. It would just add resistance to the operation of the tie bar making it difficult (almost impossible) for the less heavy wagons to push the blades over and run through them. I think they would just ride up over the rails unless heavily weighted. You were correct there, it does seem to be adding too much resistance to the tie bar. So another solution will need to be sought. On 4/26/2022 at 9:08 PM, mick said: I find it is only the point blade away from the spinging wire that edges forwards because the spring wire that is soldered to the side of the rail connects into the tie bar itself and holds that side in place. It does also seem that this is partially the case for this point too. The initial shift in the tie bar seems to be at an angle. On 4/26/2022 at 9:08 PM, mick said: I have yet to try any modifications to prevent the blades moving forward. I haven't found it such a big issue to make it a priority but agree that over time the blades do move forward - I just slide them back into place until the next time. Mine must be worse than yours then. Mine seems to move down and the tie bar crashes into the next sleeper very quickly; although I am simulating the movement manually it does seem that it might not be much more than one reasonable length train before it needs adjusting. Once the tie bar does crash it introduces a little resistance but more problematically the blade doesn't fully return for trains going the other way. Other than that, even my lightest brake van goes through with only a slight wobble, the VBA and unloaded OBA have no problem. I'm thinking the only things that might need added weight will be the old Hornby "toy" stock from my original Midnight Freight set (to be honest, I'm not bothered about running that) and a few random bits of stock like the brake van which isn't the hardest thing to add weight to. It might be a back to the drawing board moment. I'll have a think, I have a number of small springs I bought to try. Maybe I can hang one off the free end of the tie bar to keep tension on it without impeding the movement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick Posted May 5 Share Posted May 5 Yes I'd like to get back to it and have another attempt, though at the moment I'm pretty pleased with how mine are working. Do you think it would be possible to secure the end of the rail in that slot permanently? Would the rail still flex sufficiently if it were secured? It's something I was looking to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay Mills Junction Posted May 6 Author Share Posted May 6 It doesn't look like it will take much spring force to keep the free end in the correct alignment. I'm going to call the spring wire that keeps the point straight the "Main spring" and the one to keep the free end of the tie bar in place the "Alignment spring" from now on. The issue I think I will have is the alignment spring is too short and therefore impedes the tie bar movement. I think the alignment spring will have to be a combination of spring and something else attached further up so that the pivot arc is much bigger and therefore doesn't impede the tie-bar movement. However, until I finish the blocks for the inner line of the passing loop I don't actually need the point to work, so I'm going to defer solving this problem until I have to. Mainly because I think I need more materials to solve it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay Mills Junction Posted May 7 Author Share Posted May 7 I shouldn't have, but I was picking up my Dad's class 91, Durham Cathedral in Intercity Swallow and bought myself a VEA in speedlink livery to go along with my now numerous other Speedlink wagons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay Mills Junction Posted May 11 Author Share Posted May 11 The longest ever extension to the railway happened today, 4.5metres more than yesterday! That is, however, not properly laid and using my indoor test track for 3.5m of straight track. So the track was too lumpy for anything but the Class 20 and some short wagons to run successfully. More of that in the main thread when I can get the Mobius2 camera to work again. The point of this post, I was joined by a Mr Blackbird in the garden who seemed quite intrigued by the class 20 running along on it own. Not sure if he wanted me or the railway out of "his" garden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loco Hauled Posted May 11 Share Posted May 11 Probably hoping that somewhere along the line the vibration was going to bring out a nice juicy worm! LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay Mills Junction Posted May 12 Author Share Posted May 12 I was hoping to get some video today using my camera wagon. Unfortunately, after trying to charge up the Mobius camera I found it wasn't accepting a charge. Fortunately, replacement cells are not expensive and a bigger one can be fitted 820mAh instead of 520mAh (more than half as big again) costing only £7. In the mean-time I have my other action camera (a Drift2) which is bigger and isn't quite as suited to sitting in the wagon. Why do I have two? One for the front of my bike and one for the back. Yes, it has caught some bad driving and some quite close passes. Neither has been much use since I don't commute since Covid came along, other than on the model railway. I have got some footage so I'll try editing and get a video update for the weekend. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay Mills Junction Posted May 16 Author Share Posted May 16 On 5/11/2022 at 10:53 PM, Loco Hauled said: Probably hoping that somewhere along the line the vibration was going to bring out a nice juicy worm! LOL Hi, Your question on Youtube, that video is unlisted but can be found on near the top of page one of this journal. I'm going to re-make it with all of the wagons and locos stored at Dad's but in my garden. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loco Hauled Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 (edited) 8 hours ago, Clay Mills Junction said: Hi, Your question on Youtube, that video is unlisted but can be found on near the top of page one of this journal. I'm going to re-make it with all of the wagons and locos stored at Dad's but in my garden. Great stuff! Need some Lima engines so they make a nice growl 😁 Edited May 17 by Loco Hauled Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay Mills Junction Posted May 17 Author Share Posted May 17 4 hours ago, Loco Hauled said: Great stuff! Need some Lima engines so they make a nice growl 😁 Lol, I do have some Lima in my "secondary" Fleet (old stuff not for YT). The Class 37 has had a CD motor replacement and runs quite well to be honest, still not quietly though. The Lima 156s have yet to have their CD motor conversions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loco Hauled Posted May 17 Share Posted May 17 I have bought a couple of cheap Lima engines that had had the CD motor conversion. I threw the CD motors away and put a good old Lima pancake back in. I've never really seen the attraction of the CD motor. I find Lima engines will run really nicely if you give them a little care and attention, even in the crawl, although I'm not a crawl fetishist... LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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