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Leasingham Poacher


shaung75
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Sadly no trains run this weekend but work has progressed slightly. I've now finally got round to soldering up all of the rail bonds that I've been putting off, and added in a few droppers while I was at it. This now (in theory) should bring the inner line back into use, sorts out the few dead spots and makes the layout DCC ready. Once tested we'll know for certain....20180513_145908.thumb.jpg.e4af9d17fd86a48e83dc30d05646ba6f.jpg

20180513_143035.jpg

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Hi Shaun, that is a good size 13 meters, 12 feet off my layout length,  yeah with bigger layouts you should have bus wires to save that issue with power drop outs, doing a good job of the wiring nice and neat, I need to  buy more wire running out, would like to buy a 100 meter roll, ouch $95 each two different colours, I like to pair my wires off easier to search if any issues.

Winter is here to cold at the moment to head out side a month or so was too hot, 25 degrees today sun is in under the pergola now.

Tony from cool down under.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 6 months later...

Merry Christmas Shaun, always nice to get get a new arrival , got got a new Ryobi Drill skin  for Christmas very nice one indeed lights up like a Christmas tree with the blue lights on the chuck, I am waiting on the big birthday in June before buying new locos.

Have finely broken the gridlock  in  starting construction on the last stage of my  layout.

It is very hot here in down under in the mid 30's this week.

 

Tony from down under happy new year, last day of the year for us tomorrow .

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 30/12/2018 at 11:50, aussietmrail said:

Merry Christmas Shaun, always nice to get get a new arrival , got got a new Ryobi Drill skin  for Christmas very nice one indeed lights up like a Christmas tree with the blue lights on the chuck, I am waiting on the big birthday in June before buying new locos.

Have finely broken the gridlock  in  starting construction on the last stage of my  layout.

It is very hot here in down under in the mid 30's this week.

 

Tony from down under happy new year, last day of the year for us tomorrow .

Great to see you're still at it Tony. Happy New year to you too!

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10 hours ago, mick said:

Good to see things are still operational Shaun and by the smile on the smokebox door it looks like all is well. Nice rake of teak coaches behind too!

Thanks Mick.

Things are still operational once in a while as and when the boy pesters me. Thankfully he has Percy (the little green engine) that he wore out the worm screw on (which I removed) and he's happy to play with him for hours just freewheeling him around. I'm still having issues with locos shorting out over the peco points which really dampens the spirits in carrying on sometimes to be honest - especially when you have to spend ages cleaning the track and setting up the electrics only to have everything short out after 20 minutes.

Construction hasn't moved on really in any way shape or form in 2018 at all other than adding in the droppers back in May. This has been for a few reasons really; #2 child is a demon and much more demanding than #1 when he was her age, so being able to work on the layout whilst she was in the garden during summer was almost impossible. I also want to get the shed sorted before taking the track down there - it's a bit rotten in places with a leaky roof and don't want to spend time building the layout if it's just going to get ruined. I haven't had chance to sort the shed out this year, because #2 child is a demon... :D

I'm really hoping 2019 is going to be a good year for the layout. I have a lot more time at home now as I gave up my job being the Web Developer for the Wildlife Trusts to be a stay-at-home dad and a freelance Web Developer in the evenings. Frankie (#2 child) looks like she's getting more independent and not so grabby of EVERYTHING now, so come Spring/Summer time I should be able to get out in the garden with her more.

I'm going to have a read through other posts on here to have a catch up on old and new threads to get me motivated again :)

Shaun

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  • 3 months later...

When I saw the release of Hornby's latest range of Class 66 locos, I knew I was going to be £70 lighter. This particular number, 66731, is a regular runner on the REAL Leasingham Poacher line (well, the Lincoln - Sleaford line anyway)

20190501_164039.jpg

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As some may have noticed, my enthusiasm for this project really hit a low point last year. Not because I had gone off the idea of having a railway in the garden, more so that I spent more time cleaning the track than we did actually using it before something went wrong. Well, now that we're up and running with DCC (see my other thread on DCC++) my enthusiasm has returned. The boy and I actually had a bit of a running session together today - he was using Gordon controlled using my phone, and I was using the Class 66 with my laptop.

Don't get me wrong the running session didn't go smoothly, but I didn't really expect it to when nothing has really been done on the layout in over a year. Things could have been worse though - all that was really wrong was a few rail bonds had come lose creating a few dead sections and that was it.

Happy days, getting back on the wagon!

 

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We've all experienced the lack of motivation at some point Shaun - in fact I think it comes with the hobby. The important thing to remember is that normally we all return to it a little further down the line so it's nothing to be too concerned about. I've always felt that once you've been bitten by the model railway bug it's something that never leaves you completely - at least that's my experience of it over the past 30 years or more - and I still don't have a layout that I can call complete!

Anyway I'm pleased to hear you and your son have been operating together. The class 66 looks great and is ideal for the garden layout and it's good to hear I'm not the only one giving in to temptation. At £70 it's a great deal too considering the prices of many other models.

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As in my last post I mentioned there was a number of dead sections, so last night after the boy was in bed the soldering iron began heating up... All fixed plus a couple of extra droppers put in on the run down towards the shed.

Out came the laptop, the Arduino, the Class 66 and just for fun, Gordon.

All track now tested and working, which resulted in a happy Shaun :)

One thing that did come out of the running session though is that rather than spending money on new locos and rolling stock once the layout is complete, I need to get saving my pennies on sorting out point motors - climbing over the line every time to change over tracks will become tedious quick over time.

 

 

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21 hours ago, mick said:

We've all experienced the lack of motivation at some point Shaun - in fact I think it comes with the hobby. The important thing to remember is that normally we all return to it a little further down the line so it's nothing to be too concerned about. I've always felt that once you've been bitten by the model railway bug it's something that never leaves you completely - at least that's my experience of it over the past 30 years or more - and I still don't have a layout that I can call complete!

Anyway I'm pleased to hear you and your son have been operating together. The class 66 looks great and is ideal for the garden layout and it's good to hear I'm not the only one giving in to temptation. At £70 it's a great deal too considering the prices of many other models.

Thanks Mick. The main thing that's spurred me on I guess is my wife saying "when are you getting that thing in the garden sorted" - happy wife, happy life and all that :D

The Class 66 is brilliant for the price. It's well made, weighs a tonne and has no problem pulling all of my rolling stock at the same time. My only complaint would be the lack of lighting, but that'll be easy enough to sort out and for the price I can't complain at all. Gordon on the other hand is a real disappointment - slow running is poor performing and considering it's an "Express" locomotive, the slightest bit of dew on the track and it grinds to a halt pulling 6 coaches and really struggles with 5. It's tender driven and is really light, my 1980's Thomas has more pulling power...

One thing I've noticed since running DCC is it's sorted out the shorting problems on the crossovers. I don't know if it's just my DC controller being over sensitive or what, but other than Gordon slowing late at night and the flatbeds derailing because of stray grass, I've had no problems so far.

The next stage is clearing out the garden to complete the trackbed down to the shed. Now that I'm self-employed and work from home I can go out whenever the weather permits. Once it's reached the shed the weather will no longer be an issue so that stage shouldn't take long at all hopefully.

Another thing that's getting me excited, is that as I'm using an Arduino to control my layout I've started researching into all sorts of bits and bobs that can be done with it, ie block detection, automation, lighting etc. I know I'm getting a step ahead of myself, but this is the bit I've been looking forward too the most [/geek]

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Hi Shaun , good to see you back and getting on with running trains, look forward to seeing the last stage of your layout to the shed progress.

Those class 66's are a good loco, Dean bought one as well, I just bought a new loco to NR class Indian Pacific loco, it has all the front cab lights, not bad for a DC loco.

It is a pity I can't change to DCC now, we are looking at down sizing to a unit, hope we have   some space before the next one comes up and I can complete my layout. A big test this afternoon, I am joining up my double deck bridge a Cantilever  de 8 degrees this morning sign now, over one didn't work, has a 14 foot span when joined up, towers each end of the arch.

Keep the goodwork up , Tony from cool down under. 8 degrees this morning.

Edited by aussietmrail
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On 10/05/2019 at 14:00, shaung75 said:

Now that I'm self-employed and work from home I can go out whenever the weather permits

Yeah that's great. 

But can be very frustrating if you've time and the weather didn't permit you to work on your layout. 

I know what I'm talking about. 

I also work from home. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 11/05/2019 at 13:15, ThomasI said:

Yeah that's great. 

But can be very frustrating if you've time and the weather didn't permit you to work on your layout. 

I know what I'm talking about. 

I also work from home. 

I get that, I guess I'm lucky in the fact that my job is also my hobby so if I'm not with my family and the weather doesn't allow construction on the railway, I'll be working.

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Well since my last post the layout has had a lot of use from both me and the boy, and it's safe to say the DCC bug has well and truly bitten :D

The DCC++ was having trouble reading from my Zimo MX600R chip and as Digitrains is only a 20 minute drive away from me, I packed up the Arduino and laptop and took a trip over to see if there was an issue with the chip itself or my setup. Long and the short of it, they'd never seen the Arduino setup before and were impressed you could build a controller yourself on the cheap, and the chip was fine and just DCC++ can't read from it. Jeremy and John from Digitrains were brilliant and stayed open well past closing time chatting to us (Ben came too) and I ended up walking away from with a couple of Hornby sound chips and a couple of Gaugemaster chips (as I can read from all of those). As it was Ben's birthday the next day and he was getting a new Percy (he'd wrecked his old one from when he was younger), the evening was spent soldering in the Zimo into Percy, Gaugemaster chips soldered into Thomas and plugged into Gordon, and then fitting the sound chips into the Class 47 and 66. The next evening we had a good session with all of the locos that were DCC fitted and he was able to control them all with an old Samsung phone we had lying around. Happy Days!

Now that the days are becoming longer, the weather better, and more importantly, I've renewed my garden waste collection subscription, work can finally recommence on the railway!!! Next week if all goes to plan (and my garden waste bin gets emptied) I'll begin clearing the way from where the track ends to the shed. I still have a few bags of postcrete left over so hopefully I'll also be able to get the trackbed laid as well - the postcrete does feel very solid though so I'm not 100% optimistic that I'll be able to use them.

Getting to this stage has then got me thinking about what's going to happen inside the shed. Sadly I can't make this into an 'indoor' layout as it still needs to function as a garden shed (tools etc), so I'm just going with the fiddle yard idea. Given the space I have to play with (12' x around 4') I have two designs:

fiddle.thumb.png.209c71a378c633c4c8c1da1bfc81dcef.png

The first has the advantage that it holds more trains and looks neater, but isn't going to be cheap. The second has the advantage that it won't cost as much but can hold longer trains. Given the Thomas range won't be hauling long trains (meaning I can fit more per bay), that I want to run longer diesel trains, and the fact that I'm skint, I'll probably opt for the second version. At a later stage there's plenty of room to add sidings into the loop as well. Thoughts to play with anyway...

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