The Weekend Railway

[WeekenderSteve]

Andrew, thanks for the kind words. I hope you realise this plummet to ground level is at least partly a manifestation of Dorkingian earth bank envy!

As the videos revealed, as well as the two ceramic cottages we've now got a station too. This is getting dangerously like scenery.

The station is partly a justification for making that reversing shunt longer than it needs to be, and partly because I realised that a draft design for the avalanche shelter looked like a station canopy. It needs a couple of chimneys sooner or later, and the pitch of the roof isn't really steep enough, but that's a function of the way it was made, and the height the canopy had to be.

Construction is summed up in the following few photos. As you'll see, although the walls are cut from thin ply, for strength they're glued onto a solid core cut from an old piece of timber too rotten to be any use for anything else - that's what limited the roof ridge height. You can also now see why the track isn't straight along the trackbed there: it has to clear tree 13 before it doglegs away from the station platform.

[aussietmrail]

Hi Steve, like the way you constructed the station building, using a solid block of wood to glue the building sides and roof too, probably wrap in the hot sun ,

I found out some more info on the goPro , bloody expensive,$499 for a small cam camera I guess you are paying for the technology and there is a goPro five coming out next year

http://gopro.com/news/gopro-introduces-hero4-the-most-powerful-gopro-lineup-ever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFjJF9AZlJU

The days on my side of the world have been quite pleasant, should be making the most of working on the layout, tomorrow on wards is going to be dam hot, Thursday peaking 9 degrees and storms rolling in also on Thursday, busy weekend with Christmas party Friday night and family get together on Sunday if I go.

Depends on how my wife is, she did her shoulder in a few days back, is starting to get some movement in her arm, still sore, she said.

Have a Merry Christmas and happy new year, asked for any trains stuff for Christmas , enjoy the Christmas you tube video clip, the president from my train club sent to all of us members.

[roddy]

I have a Mobius Action Cam in my car. It is so tiny that it hides behind the rear view mirror. It would easily sit on a flat wagon or possibly inside a coach or van. All for about £70. HD recording too. Battery life is about 3 hours, but I have hardwired it into the car's circuits. Works on a mini SD card. Brilliant in the car as it is inconspicuous.

[DVIR]

Hello Weekenders,

I also use a Mobius Action Cam in the car and the "DVIR Film Unit" uses it on model railway filming.

Techmoan is an excellent web site where lots of action cams are reviewed by Mat. Very interesting site - worth spending some time having a good rumage around:

http://www.techmoan.com/

The Mobius can be removed from its case, the camera module can be replaced with ones with different lenses and a longer lead and all of that could be mounted very neatly in a wagon or even a locomotive - all well within the loading gauge specification:

http://www.techmoan.com/blog/?currentPage=7

There is also a software interface available for updating the camera's settings and updating the camera's software (provided by the radio-control aircraft community who make a lot of use of them):

http://www.mytempfiles.info/mobius/index.html

It could be good-bye Kellog-Cam.

I think the Weekenders' approach to permanent way civil engineering is superb and very much look forward to the updates - keep up the good work.

Cheers

David

[aussietmrail]

Hi David, great to hear from you. Looks like the SJ4000 is the way to go, had a look on the internet for the prices which is in my price range from $90 to $120 Aussie dollar, much cheaper also, great links , going back to look at the video links on reviews.

Have to agree about Steve's engineering skills very awesome.

Tony.

[WeekenderSteve]

David, Roddy, thanks for the information and links; I'll make sure I draw it to the attention of ChrisC, as he's the WR's expert in these matters. The prices are certainly less frightening than others I've seen, though I fear they might still stretch a Weekenderish budget. Even the £10 minicam wasn't bought for the WR: like most things here, it's a leftover from another project entirely.

I've realised that although post 182 made mention of two ceramic cottages, I don't ever seem to have illustrated the second one properly, although it's distantly visible in the wide overall view of the layout back in post 179. Another contribution from my 'wife', it's a bit too far from the track to ever show up in a video, so here's a photo. It has the advantage of a small track-level private boarding platform at which autotrains might make a request stop (they have steps to the passenger doors for that eventuality), but the residents need a good head for heights. And perhaps a machete, now that the approach steps have become rather overgrown.

[ChrisC]

Roddy and David, thanks, never seen that site before. Clearly a nutter who would fit in well here, given the review of reel to reel tape players!

I do like the look of that Mobius. "Minicam" is effectively a reboxed number 16 808 camera and the Mobius seems to be it's successor. I'll look into what we can build over the wet weekends.

[roddy]

The Mobius is very popular on two motoring forums that I use. This is because of it's small size. Nobody wants a camera blocking forward vision. Using the programming site, I have been able to make my Mobius give me a correctly orientated wide angle video despite the camera being mounted upside down.

[WeekenderSteve]

Has your Mobius managed to film any good meteors yet Roddy?

[roddy]

WeekenderSteve said:

Has your Mobius managed to film any good meteors yet Roddy?

Haha, no, but you will be the first to know if it happens.

[WeekenderSteve]

After all the excitement of stations and cameras, it must be time to get back to the mundane world of track-laying. The last update on that was way back in post 179, in which the railhead had advanced southward again after the tree tunnels to a temporary end below the lifting bridge hinges. That's where the track and trains stopped when the videos in that post were made, but as one of the photos there shows, the trackbed itself already extended a bit further, passing in front of trees 6 and 5 before turning towards the Fence to go behind tree 4 - the gap there was too enticing to ignore.

Here's a picture showing how the trackbed comes to the fore again to pass tree 3; we're now well below the level at which that one forks.

It was about this stage where I realised I needed a way to refer to all these different levels. Way back when we drew layout plans the top four levels were coded A, B, C and D going downwards (A and B forming the upper circuit and C and D the lower one), so by extension, the first part of the branch which squeezes through the rear of Grumpy then passes over her nose on the birdcage bridge must be E. That means the short section over the lifting bridge is F, the line from there to the avalanche-sheltered station is G, the one I'm currently fiddling with is H, and the one beneath that I'm presently making space for will be I. I hereby promise not to zigzag all the way to the end of the alphabet.

Anyway, back with the woodwork, I could now make a ply base for level H where I've just cut the timbers away:

While that was going on, the penny had dropped regarding a better way of mounting the minicam low enough to pass through the tree tunnels. The torch mounting shewn in post 179 (and used for those videos) was all very well, but it didn't permit the camera to face the train it was coupled to. Whereas this does:

[aussietmrail]

Hi Steve, just pure awesome like the starting point of your layout and your High set house in the back ground with the station platforms, must of taken some time to upload to you tube 11 minutes, our upload speeds just 2MB's, very slow and that is broad band download speed are 100mb's a second.

Waiting for the new NBN to be connected to the area all the cables are in place, the next step is to connected to the houses upload speeds will jump to 50mb's a second, all fibber optic cable the NBN is, we have the old aging copper HFC cable .

Should of looked a the post under the video clip before I started watching the clip, will watch it again, didn't notice the jump in the time on the video clip, keep the good work up, you must be over the moon to have the train run around the whole layout, mine will be a long way off.

Next Saturday I will be working in the tool room making new shelving, want to get the shelves off the walls and try out the new Ryobi impact driver 18volt I got for Christmas.

Merry Christmas from down under, Tony.

[WeekenderSteve]

As mentioned at the end of post 192, the next matter for attention was remote operation of inaccessible reversing points. Regular readers will know that all four switches in the crossover, and two of the points on the triangle, are already worked remotely by systems of rods and levers. The levers usually had a previous existence supporting some sort of frozen confection (Magnums are the favourite - or should that be Magna?), and the rods are lengths of copper wire, longer runs being guided through lengths of old brake pipe.

Almost eighteen months on from construction, the scissor junction system still works perfectly; but even by the time of the first railway operations of 2014, the operation of the two triangle points had become very hit-and-miss: sometimes one point moved, sometimes both, sometimes the brake pipe came adrift and moved with the copper wire, and every now and then something failed completely and had to be rebuilt.

The only significant difference between the two installations is that there's a much greater length of wire in the brake-pipe guides on the triangle point system. But at least three of the points on the zigzag branch (the reversing points by Grumpy's door handle and the tree tunnels, and the junction with the level D 'main line') would need to be even further from their operating levers than those two triangle points, so something better was needed.

In essence, the copper wires in brake pipes are home-made Bowden cables; so why not use real Bowden cables? I'd visited distant bicycle-shop-owning friend Dave over the Summer, and discovered that he (like most bicycle shops) stocked all the components needed to make a Bowden cable of almost any chosen length. So I acquired enough inner cable, outer sheath and sheath-end ferrules to make up a test installation.

The other components would follow previous practice - lolly-sticks, woodscrews &c - though I couldn't find the remains of the old numberplate from which the relay levers were made before, so had to cut the new ones from an old plastic bracket instead. A random length of red plastic L-section strip provided clamps for securing the ends of the outer cable, and attachment of inner cable to levers was achieved simply by doubling it over and soldering it to itself.

So here's an overview of that installation:

The lever's where it is so that it can't be snagged when walking past while the lifting bridge is open, and it projects downwards to keep it clear of rolling stock overhangs. I squirted some WD40 down the sheath before inserting the inner cable, because it has water-repellant properties; though I hope the cable ought to last reasonably well anyway, since bicycles are designed for an outdoor life.

The cable's free enough that the point spring can be felt going over centre; I put in a small nail to stop the relay lever going too far, though, as it's otherwise easy to pull too far in the 'straight' (or downhill) direction. The point blades can be seen moving when the lever's operated, so it doesn't need labelling.

This trial installation seemed to work well enough, but it was worth waiting a few days to make sure it stayed that way. The hiatus provided an opportunity to run some trains, so here's the 14XX with a couple of autocoaches.

And here's the equivalent installation rather closer to ground level, on the reversing point near the tree tunnels:

B for Branch, M for Main line on the junction point, while the arrows show whether the reversing point is set for the rising or falling road; neither point can be seen when operating its lever.

You'll notice that unlike the test installation, the inner cable connexions here are made with short lengths of copper wire: whilst Dave's inner cable was quite happy to be soldered to itself, the inners from the local bike shop were much less friendly, and I had to resort to binding the inner to the stiff copper wire with a thin copper strand, and then flooding the joint with solder. It makes disconnexion from the levers easier, I suppose. The copper links for the lower point are longer than ideal because the maximum inner cable length available was only 3 metres. Apparently bicycles are rarely longer than that!

With those working, the triangle point linkages could also be replaced; I'll post pictures of those next time.

Perhaps I should also mention at this stage that Dave-the-bike-shop-owner visited a few weeks later, for a train-driving session. He remarked that I should use a rail-mounted powered crane to pick rusty fragments off Old Mrs Grumpy to load into open wagons for recycling; the track would then need to be realigned on a regular basis to keep the Grumpy-quarrying operations in reach of the railway. Very disrespectful to the old girl, I thought. But rather appealing...

 

 

 

[WeekenderSteve]

As mentioned in the last post, the original linkages from the operating lever to the two triangle points had become very unreliable, so the new Bowden cable design was used to replace those too. The operating strategy remains the same: a single lever controls both points, ensuring that either they're both set for the upper (levels A & B) circuit, or for the triangle, ie towards the shed spur; there's no need to ever have one point set for the circuit and the other for the triangle.

Here's the direct cable link to the upper point, partly sheltered inside Grumpy:

The point is at the top left of the picture; you're looking at the end of the relay lever, with the stiff copper wire looped through it. The dogleg in the copper wire allows fine adjustment of link length, to ensure the two points work in perfect synchronisation. You can also see clearly the depth of packing necessary to restore a reasonable gradient here after the OSB warped; less than a foot to the left of this photo, the track's right back on the OSB again. It'll have to go...

To complete the set, here's the lever which operates them both. (Just to confuse matters, the point in this picture is the apex of the trangle, which is still operated separately by the lever attached to the electrical switch mounted up on the wall of the Shed - see posts 82 and 83.)

In one edit in the video, right near the end: the autocoach steps fouled on a curled piece of ply under one of the small shed drawbridge hinges, so I had to quickly trim it and complete the journey.

Having got the video in the bag, the autotrain returned to the main layout and the two trains circulated together while I tried to catch them both in the same photo. I know, could've just posed them, but snapping 'em in action's much more fun.

[doublecee]

I have an idea that may help improve your videos without the need to buy a new camera. Have you considered lying the camera flat (as if to shoot the sky), and using BluTak to position a small 2cm peice of mirror tile at 45 deg by the lens so its now shooting out along the track. It will improve your centre of gravity, and I think this approach is quite fitting for the weekend railways aesthetic.

[WeekenderSteve]

Doublecee, until the camera battery gave up, we were wondering about that, for exactly those reasons. Mirror tile's a good suggestion. I'd got as far as realising a simple glass mirror might give a double image, so we'd either need a reflector with the silvering on the front surface, or perhaps a 45 degree prism, with the 'spare' sides obscured by black paper; but I hadn't actual thought of a piece of mirror tile. As you say, it has a good Weekenderish vibe to it.

C of g hasn't actually been a problem with any of the installations - the camera wagon has never derailed, which perhaps is a surprise given how light the Kellogg's van is. The old diecast Wrenn frame I've used recently is very heavy. But I certainly preferred the lower-level viewpoint of the old inverted Kelloggcam mount, though the recent arrangement gives more of a 'driver's eye view' of the line.

But that's all by the by unless the camera can be fixed. This is ChrisC's area of expertise; we had the camera apart the other day, and if I understood right the battery's a reasonably standard part so direct replacement, or even a couple of wires through the side of the case to an external one, might be possible.

On the other hand, any replacement camera ought to offer a slightly wider field of view, a higher-definition image, and better response in poor light conditions. It just has the drawback of needing to be purchased, with real live actual money...

[aussietmrail]

Hi Steve, awesome the way you have worked how to operate the manual, the main thing is it works, like the green train, is it British railways.

A member at the train club was using one of the sports cameras, didn't pay a lot for it comes with a remote , he said full HD also, a way too go, he had the cover case and bracket, don't need that for mounting on a flat wagon.

Jar-car in Australia are online too.

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=QC8021

Mirror is a good idea too, not sure how it will go while on the move.

Happy new year Tony.

[WeekenderSteve]

Onwards and downwards then. With lollysticks and Bowden cables installed, and a multi-train video in the can, it's time to turn attention back to level H, which at the moment just stops at a random place somewhere round the back of Tree 4 - that's why the video in post 195 started where it did.

As mentioned in post 192, the next thing will be another reverse, as close as it can be to the Southern end of the layout. I've already made a bit of space for the returning 'level I', as illustrated in that post, so now it must be time to plug the gap. One more piece of straightforward trackbed can join Tree 3 to Tree 2 before we get into the realms of the next reversing point. This bridges one of the (even) less attractive parts of the garden; the trackbed can have a narrow top (because the line's straight), but needs to be quite deep so that the returning lower level can be attached to it. A piece of 3x1 is ideal:

That mounts to Trees 2 and 1 and aligns with the preceding section like so:

With one more timber added to the descending trackbed (now 'level I'), track and point could be laid:

just to close to an angled holly branch - coach cantrails could catch - and secondly, the lower road would have to curve in towards the point, because if it didn't the distance between point and reversing spur buffers would be too short. So, it might not look good, but the alternative would look - and be - even worse.

The two tracks in that last picture are too close together laterally for trains to be able to run on both simultaneously, but that'll never happen, since the two tracks meet at the reversing point. Therefore, it's merely necessary to ensure that the sleeper-ends of the upper track don't scrape the rolling stock bodies on the lower one. So the upper track can be centred on its piece of 3x1.

Next step was to install a couple of temporary lengths of trackbed at the right gradient, and see where 'level I' would be when it arrived back at tree 5. The tape shows it's about half an inch higher than the short dummy trackbed section I installed when level H above was converted to plywood in post 192, but still low enough to pass safely beneath:

and the clearance under level H at tree 5:

The questions for the next post, then, are how far till we reach the ground again, and what happens when we do?

 

[WeekenderSteve]

Minicam update: The bad news is that although replacement batteries are available, the minimum order is 3,000. Which is an awful lot of garden railways. The good news is, the original ten-pound camera is now available for £3 less than that, so we've ordered one. It might not be the last word in quality, but I don't think the likely lifetime of the railway justifies more significant expenditure. Do anyone else's buffers suffer from fungus encroachment?

[WeekenderSteve]

At the end of post 199, the latest trackbed (Level I) was progressing Northwards, and getting very close to the ground again, so another zigzag must be about due, the only question being how far up the garden could I push the buffers on the reversing spur? As before, it would be vulnerable if it was the garden side of the next trees, and I wasn't keen to tunnel through them again this close to the ground - but perhaps I could fit a line behind them? It seems too long since the track went behind a tree, but of course trees generally get thicker near ground level, so most are now hard up against the Fence. But Trees 9 and 10 (the two with the tunnels) aren't, because both fork very low down. Tree 10 actually has really quite a gap under it on the Fence side, and I reckoned, from the following view, it looked like a single track might be able to squeeze past Tree 9 to get there too:

It's not very clear in the photo, but despite its upgrade, the far end of that trackbed where the buffers will be is several inches below the natural ground level, so it'll need enclosing on the non-Fence side too to try to keep soil off the track. That's something that'll be sorted out later, probably after the track's laid: there'll be no access for that otherwise. For now, it's in the right place at the right gradient, so attention can be turned to the trackbed for the return road, thus:

...it crashed straight into the nice new prop under the lifting bridge hinges. So that prop needs to be revised, yet again. The piece of timber used this time was part of the level C trackbed in a previous life, as the bleaching of its surface clearly shows:

And that's about the only part of the revised route that can be seen clearly enough to photograph - as the next picture demonstrates! The original Level I trackbed crosses the middle of the image, on light-coloured timbers. Right in the middle of the picture, a much darker piece can be seen emerging from the gloom alongside the tree trunk. That's one of the new bits.

The new track is the lowest level in the picture; you can see the built-but-never-used original Level I trackbed in the foreground. You can also see that I've had to add a piece of timber towards the right, to get the right approach to the new bit.

Only once track is in place can rolling stock clearances be finalised of course; I had to relieve the fence and the tree trunk to allow the guinea-pig autocoach through behind Tree 6:

It's all a bit tight round there, but curvature's no worse than some other parts of the zigzag branch, so it can stay, and the original Level I trackbed across the front of that tree can be removed to make room for the onward continuation of Level J. But before then - in the next post - it'll be time to install the reversing point by the Fence, under Tree 9, and adjacent track.