CHMRG BLOG
2007 Jul-Dec
7th August 07 - Three members met. Refitted (several times) the
leg-retaining catch on end-board five - OK, but is easily dislodged if
board 'jogged', so next session intend trying replacing with a small
bolt. On board eight all the track dropper-wires connected to a small
tagstrip - may need two further droppers at end; all track on this
board now glued down. On board ten the bulk of the trackwork is now
laid, and all glued down; need final aligning with boards nine and one
still.
14th August 07 - Offline, Bill checked all switches on control panel,
and replace two that failed. Then fitted the electronics 'chassis' to
the back of the panel, sorted the 'common' wires and arranged in
'runs'. Then soldered all the common wires to switches controlling
accessory decoder groups 0002, 0004, 0006 & 0022.
15th August 07 - Three members in session. End-board 10 tracks aligned
with scenic board 9 and yard-board 1. A support-strip added on board 10
to support board 9 (which has no legs) during erection. Support-strip
added under cantilever arm polted to board 10 which supports board 1,
and an upstand at outer-end now allows a second M10 bolt fixing (into
an embedded pronged-nut) to locate and support board 1. Then board 10
track wired to choc-bloc, and successfully tested.
Replaced the spring-catch leg-retainer on board 5 with a small bolt -
now legs totally secure in transit/storage but still quickly deployed
or stowed. But while further point-fettling was being done on board 5,
pine-tree clips holding the leg-struts popped-out, and board nearly
collapsed (with new loco on top!). Think problem is that repeated
pushing in and out wears the clips and abrades the hole in the
baseboard wood - therefore decided to abandon this part of QUAD, and
think about alternatives.
A Hornby "DCC-ready" M7 was fitted with a TCS M4P-UK 'N' gauge chip;
should have taken 30mins max., took two and a half hours! Involved
shortening the wires on the TCS chip and those on the plug fitted on
loco. So how "ready" is "ready", bearing in mind the TCS chip is
physically smaller than the Hornby one. Works fine with MERG kit,
though, once default direction corrected.
23rd August 07 - 'Offline' Bill wired more of the control panel - all
Row one and a couple of Row two diode matrix connections done.
24th August 07 - Three members met, and were visited later for a short
time by Ian, a prospective new adult member; he hopes to make the next
session. Fraser and Rob continued working on the point-work on
end-board 5 [B5]. Mark built the points originally as cross-overs for
end-board 10 [B10], which only has up and down main lines, but on B5
the curvature of the up and down slow lines, outside the main lines,
differ by a couple of inches, so we had to distort them somewhat to
fit. It is that distortion that is causing the current trouble,
although progess is being made - at least one more session will be
needed before the point-work meets our current standards. Because of
this our inaugural running session is now scheduled for mid-October.
Bill removed all the pine-tree-clip stuff from B5 and B10, after their
dramatic failure last week. Then he fitted captive 6mm machine screws
to B10 to hold the four leg-stays in the 'up' position using wing-nuts
- this seems to work well. Bill then clamped a D25 connector to a short
length of ribbon-cable, and fitted the assembly to B10.
29th August 07 - Five members met for a six-hour session. Fraser &
Rob continued rebuilding the outer pointwork on end-board 5, then
testing it with loco and short goods train, running successfully both
ways though to points and crossover. Only one point, on the up-slow,
remains to be re-built.
During our coffee-break we agreed in light of their work, supported by
some back-to-back [B2B] measurements of locos done by Bill, that the
Group would aim at a B2B measurement of 14.4 mm +/- 0.1 mm.
Our new member-elect, Ian, track-wired B9 to tag-strip; he then had to
leave, so Brian completed glueing down the track on this board & he
and Bill fitted the D25 connector, wired to the tag-strip - so B9 is
now 'Phase One' complete.
The control panel wiring done by Bill 'off-line' was tested by Fraser,
and it all worked except for 3 duff switches; unfortunately, though,
because of a misunderstanding Bill had wired the 'point-normal' wires
to the wrong side of each SPDT switch - redface time! But Bill will
move these wired a.s.a.p., so we can test the panel with the storage
sidings.
4th September 07 - Four members met for a five-hour session.Fraser and
Rob had to completely re-build the down-slow point on B5, as well as
some of the track around it.All now tested with locos and coach, so
this board finally finished for Phase One running.
Brian unpinned the track on B9 that he glued last week, then fitted a
D25 connector to B8, wired to the tag-strip. He and Fraser then fully
tested the board with a DCC loco, controlled through the D25.
Bill puttered about as usual, but also fitted pronged-tees to B10 for
the cantilever arm supporting B1. Then he did the QUAD leg retainer and
captive M6 bolt for leg-brace (the other leg-brace on this board goes
to B2 for extra stability). Finally he clipped the protruding long
actuating wires on BI point motors.
Rob and Bill then sweated a bit fitting pronged-tees to B1 to speed the
connection to B10, cutting away more of the B10 track-shielding to
allow better access to the M10 bolt.
14th September 07 - Five members gathered for an eight-hour session (1
pm to 9 pm) so much was done. Pre-prepared leg-retainer bolts were
screwed to B2 & B3, pronged-T-nuts fitted to B5/6 join and short
leg-brace bolts put on B10. A platform to hold the MERG Programming
Unit was built on B10. Leg retainers fitted to the middle storage
siding boards B2 and B3. The alignment of B4 & B5 was checked and
adjusted. B7 was wired, with extra droppers installed, and the D25
connector fitted. And some test-running was achieved.
18th September 07 - Red Letter Day - All ten baseboards were erected
for the first time at the Mission. T-nuts added to scenic boards, and
various adjustments and minor modifications made to several board-joins
to assist with future assembling. Considerable progress was made with
fitting the leg-retainers on the scenic boards, and with fitting
captive bolts to secure leg-braces on all boards. Some work done
fettling pointwork and track on the scenic sections. The ribbon-cable
bus was begun, joining all the scenic boards, and some more trial
running done over joints etc.
28th September 07 - Mainly a short (one and a bit hours) housekeeping
session - in preparation for a major re-organisation of the Group's
storeroom. However, a few minutes were spent finding, fixing and
testing an electrical short on Board 7.
5th October 07 - Five members met, plus a visit from the ex-Chairman of
late Brookside MRC, Mark, to see how we were getting on. Whole layout
was erected again, with further work on QUAD (Quick Up And Down)
project - apart from fitting / modifying the pronged T-nuts on the
storage siding boards, this work is now complete. We estimate (after
time-trials) that QUAD will have cut at least 30 minutes off the time
to erect the full layout, and a similar time-saving on dismantling it.
We are still experimenting with the exact order of
erection/dismantling, but are fairly sure eventually it will take us no
longer than 40 minutes to do either operation, ie. 1hr 20mins in total
time-overhead for a running session. AND we are still looking at
further ways to shave even more time off!
Other work done this session included re-hot-gluing two accessory
decoder modules that had become detached from board 4 - if more
hot-glued modules shake loose with handling, we will have to look to an
alternative fixing method. The ribbon-cable bus carrying all the DCC
commands and the traction power has been completed and tested - Adam
managed to run an engine and six coaches right round the layout several
times, although several minor electrical and track "faults" were found
and noted for correction. Attention will soon be shifting to the scenic
side of the layout.
12th October 07 - Four members present, plus a flying visit from the
Chairman [pun intended!]. Adam beavered away on the Test-track, and has
finished laying and glueing the outer, code 75, circuit, including
soldering the rail-ends to solid brass screws at the baseboard joints.
Rob and Brian tackled the uneven join between boards 4 and 5, and
cracked the problem by letting in the copper-clad sleepers on board 4,
thus bringing the rails to the same height as the rails on board 5 - a
fiddly job which took over two hours, but the running across the join
is now perfect. They then replaced one of the un-reliable leg-retaining
ball-clips on one of the scenic boards with a bolt - working out the
geometry of this exercised all our minds for a time, but we finally
found a solution. Bill pottered about as secretaries do, sorting odd
jobs and generally getting in the way, although he did make the tea.
19th October 07 - Four members present, although the Chairman only
managed an hour because he was expecting an important equipment
delivery at home. However, he and Ian started an intensive hunt for the
short on B1 - which hunt Ian continued for the rest of the afternoon,
aided as required by Bill and Adam. We ended with all the track-feeds
and one frog-feed from the point motor switches disconnected, and the
fault not showing. Next time we begin re-connecting the feeds until we
find which one is causing the problem.
What this has shown is the difficulty in locating a fault in the wiring
on a complex DCC board (a storage-siding fan in this case) when all the
track feeds are effectively interconnected.
Adam and Bill continued with the test-track, and have started wiring
the feeds, including plug & socket connections across the baseboard
joints.
26th October 07 - Four members present. Fraser and Ian sorted out the
short on B4 - and also replaced a point in the storage siding fan - Ian
driving to SMTF shop at Brookside to get the replacement. Then tested
board, and corrected three 'dead spots' on the track. Meanwhile Brian
successfully fettled the cross-board track joints on the test-track,
and Bill wired-up the D25 connectors for carrying the currents round
the boards - the same pin-outs as on Attam Bank being used, which
allows for the future incorporation of DCC controlled point-work and
signals etc.
27th October 07 - Four members went to the Hazel Grove MR show this
afternoon. We paid particular attention to the fascia / presentation of
the layouts, and the nature and finish of the scenery on display -
because we are just at the stage of starting our scenery. During the
tea-break we had a good discussion, and decided we needed to have a
re-think on the amount of "static interest" the layout would have - ie.
something to hold the viewer's attention when no train is visible. It
was noticeable that layouts such as Ecclesford Junction, which had
plenty of interesting scenic set-pieces, held viewers attention much
longer than some of the layouts depending on train movements to provide
the interest. Of course all our wallets left the show considerably
lighter than when they arrived!
2nd November 07 - All the ten boards were erected by two people (Fraser
and Ian) in one hour - which was pretty good going! Three other people
attended, but for various reasons weren't available till 2.0pm. One
storage siding board (B4) was then taken down, and a frustrating three
hours spent tracking down an elusive electrical fault - finally nailed
by Rob and Ian about 5pm - it was a whisker of copper across a gapped
copper-clad sleeper on the short entrance track from the down main. As
the Chairman said, it's a learning curve!
In the meantime the Chairman had been correcting the silly wiring
mistakes made on the control panel by Bill (still red-faced), and this
was then 'hooked' into circuit on Attam Bank, where Adam, Ian and Rob
were enjoying running trains round and round on both the up and down
lines simultaneously. As the control panel was connected we all jumped
when a number of points changed simultaneously - under DCC of course,
when the panel 'fires up' it checks all the point positions and by
default moves them all to the 'normal' position - the clicking was all
those points we had reversed by hand being restored to normal.
Preliminary testing indicates the control panel is behaving as designed.
Bill kept his head down, doing some wiring on the Test Track and also
stencilling letters on the board sides to help get them in the right
order when clipping them together. Both Ian and he took detail photos
of the scenic section, and everyone discussed the scenic development of
the layout. Overall a 'bitty' session, but at least we have finally got
some trains running!
9th November 07 - Four members present - testing continued on the
layout, and two points found to be faulty in storage sidings. One was
replaced with spare, the other awaits purchase of replacement. On the
test-track the inner, code 100, circuit was laid on Board A, plus the
programming road and start of siding..
14th November 07 - Long bench in alcove removed with aid of our friends
from Cheshire Fencing, whose yard is just behind the Institute. This
means that on Friday we will be able to move the filing and steel
cabinets into the alcove, making more room for us to erect the layout
in the main hall.
16th November 07 - Four members met at 10.30 am, with Rob joining us
from the airport at 1.00 pm - Adam unfortunately was trapped in the
South, ironically by a cancelled train! The storeroom was cleared, and
the racking moved to its new position on a sidewall - this all took a
couple of hours, as the rack had to be partly dismantled to get it out
of the restricted end of the room. At the same time the steel cabinet
and two filing cabinets were emptied, and moved to new positions in the
alcove. The library was returned to the 4-drawer file-cabinet, but time
did not permit a full index today. However the contents of the steel
cabinet were "inventoried" as they were returned. The 2-drawer
file-cabinet now houses the shop stock, for sale at open-days etc.
We stopped at 2.0pm and had lunch, during which we held a short AGM.
Then work began again, and we found that putting the layout boards back
into the rack was now a "doddle" - we are kicking ourselves for not
re-organising sooner! Some inventorying of the storeroom was done as we
re-packed it - the sense of space is great. Still some detail work to
complete, mainly getting things hung on wall to free floor space, but a
great improvement already. Overall a very successful day.
23rd November 07 - Four members met, joined for a short time by former
member Derek, who dropped in to see how we were getting on. Erected
whole layout in just over an hour, but time spent sorting small jobs as
we went - for example flattening the sharp track-pin ends that had
penetrated the ply roadbed on board 4, on which one member snagged a
finger. We also realised we had failed to cut isolator rail breaks in
the cross-over on board 6 - this was done, and necessary additional
'invisible' track-feeds made by Fraser.
Further running tests using a train of bogie container wagons
identified a track fault at the junction of boards 4 and 5; the
baseboard surfaces are not vertically aligned which exacerbated the
problem of moving from copper-clad sleepers to Peco code 75 track. This
misalignment caused certain vehicles to de-rail on the three-way point
where the up main enters the storage sidings - further examination
revealed a slight but significant dog-leg where the soldered track met
the toe of the point. Re-aligning these tracks is top priority for our
next session.
Also decided next time to bring and run long passenger and goods
trains, as just circling a loco with a couple of wagons could well not
find all the track problems - perfect running is our goal, and we are
prepared to spend quite a lot of time achieving it.
30th November 07 - All members attending Warley Show - Fraser will be
demonstrating his DCC point actuator on the Bournemouth Model Railway
Centre, Rob will be helping on the Castle Hill layout and the rest of
us will be gadding about spending money and absorbing ideas that might
transfer to Attam Bank.
7th December 07 - Bill and Fraser arrived at 13.30hrs, with the others
trickling in over the next couple of hours. Nick, Adam's friend, came
along this week, he gave Brian a hand with correcting the out-of-level
joint between boards 4 & 5. Fraser mainly concentrated on the
pointwork on board 7, in preparation for installing his new point
actuators (which he demonstrated at Warley). Bill and Adam finished the
inventory, after Bill had cured the "dropping leg-stay" problem on
board 5. Ian dropped in for tea (Yorkshire Tea now, at his request -
actually the year-old Tesco "economy" bags had seen better days!) . We
had a discussion on the scenery plans, and agreed that while
rolling-stock would mostly remain the property of individuals, some
"scene-setting" trains (eg. one carrying tanks for the 1944
presentation) would be Group property. We agreed that all other scenic
items, including removable ones, would be also be Group property. So,
some progress, but much remains to do.
14th December 07 - Five members came, although Ian had to leave after
45 minutes - but before he went we discussed his proposal to add a
high-level scenic baseboard above the tracks on end-board 5, with the
scenery on board 6 modified to merge with the new board. The idea is to
give more to hold a viewer's attention during the (hopefully brief)
times no trains are moving on the scenic track section - agreed in
principle, pending Ian's more detailed plans. We also discussed Bill's
proposal that cross-overs would be needed between the up and down
siding-fans in the storage sidings to facilitate "out-and-back"
workings. It was decided to wait until we could run multiple trains in
sequence to see how necessary this was.
Rob continued Brian's work on correcting the vertical misalignment at
the junction of boards 4 & 5; this successfully completed this
week, and trains consisting of various wheel-base plus bogie vehicles
ran smoothly through; a variety of commercial wheelsets were included,
all of which where OK.
Fraser continued his work on preparing the pointwork on board 7 ready
for fitting his DCC-operated point actuators, and Adam built a test
linkage to connect the main/slow points with the catch-point on the
slow lines, so they could be operated by one actuator; this was proved
to work. Adam & Bill also designed a mechanism/tool to adjust the
back-to-back on commercial wheelsets.
Bill did some more re-organisation and sorting in the store-room, and
replaced the old hand-written point labels on board 4 with more
professional looking printed ones, sealing them to help keep them
clean. He also labelled the filing cabinet drawers and converted some
of the 10mm bolts used to connect the baseboards to allow a power
screwdriver to be used to wind them into the pronged T-nuts.
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