How I fitted my own DCC power buffers

The things I enjoy most about my railway are slow running and shunting operations. However, as most of my locos are short wheelbase 0-4-0s I often get very frustrated when they stall or stumble on minute patches of dirt on the rail or when they encounter the plastic frogs of pointwork. As shunting requires a lot of slow running over pointwork, there are occasions when I have to bite my lip, mutter and count rapidly to 10.

About a year ago I fitted a Massoth Power Buffer to one of my locos (see Progress Report 37) and have been very pleased with the results. Although the power buffers are less than £25, having now retired, I felt the outlay to equip the rest of my loco fleet was something I would have to postpone until funds improved. All that changed when I came across an article in a copy of Voie Libre explaining (in French) how someone had added his own power buffer. A quick trawl through the internet unearthed an entry on the Massoth Users' forum by one of their technical staff explaining how a simple DIY buffer could be added to one of their decoders. As Massoth manufacture decoders for LGB, the same process can be carried out on their LGB's 'own brand' decoders.

Once the equipment has been purchased, the process is actually quite straightforward and took me only an hour (though on some locos, it took a little longer to create the space needed to accommodate the additional circuitry).

Before fitting the buffer, the decoder's CV29 has to be reprogrammed to disable analogue control. Without this, the power buffer would confuse the decoder into believing it was under analogue control and hence would ignore DCC commands.

The programming module was inserted LGB (55015) Universal Remote:

This was then wired up - the yellow and green wires into the transformer and the brown and white leads to the decoder via a piece of rail which I reserve for programming purposes.

CV 29 was then programmed by following these steps:

• 1 - The loco was placed on the track and the transformer was powered up
• 2 - The letter C appeared on the LED display on the handset
• 3 - 29 was then entered on the remote's keyboard
• 3 - 0 was then entered into the keyboard (this tells CV29 to accept 14 steps in digital only)
• 4 - The right arrow was pressed on the remote
• 5 - Provided everything is OK, the letter C should appear on the display

For each buffer, I bought three electronic items from my local Maplin store:

• a 150 ohm resistor (product code M150R) - £0.32
• a 35v 2200 uF electrolytic capacitor (product code VH55K) - £1.49
• a 1N5400 diode (product code QL81C) - £0.52
• Total cost =  £2.33

The diode and the resistor were soldered together in parallel.

These were then soldered to the positive lead of the capacitor and a plain (red) wire was soldered to the the other end of the two components. Another (grey) wire was soldered to the negative lead of the capacitor. The whole assembly was then shrouded in insulating tape to help avoid accidental short circuits.

Connectors were soldered to the other ends of the wires and these were then pushed on to the D+ and D- tags on the Massoth L decoder (this is identical to the LGB 55021 decoder).

The decoder and buffer were then inserted back into the loco and the loco re-assembled.

Yes, it really was that simple, but the proof of the pudding ..............

For me the advantages of this system far outweigh the disadvantages. The loco won't run on an analogue powered railway and the the CVs (including the loco channel number) cannot be programmed unless the power buffer is disconnected. However, as it is connected to the decoder's power feed tags it's a fairly easy process to remove the buffer should the decoder need to be reprogrammed. Alternatively, a switch could be wired into the feed to the buffer should I want to more easily disable the buffer.

Progress Report 39

There have been a few developments since the last report - mainly catching up with ongoing or unfinished jobs.

 Railbus

 Further work has been put into completing the railmotor set. The basis for model is a couple of Ashover coach kits from Andel Models (no longer available unfortunately). The coaches were foreshortened and modified to include a cab for the driver and a bonnet for the engine. I decided to have two railbuses coupled back to back to avoid having to build turntables at each terminus.

The models will be battery powered as I want to have something I can run at short notice on days when I don't want to go through a full track-cleaning session. For more information on the construction of the railbuses see How I constructed a railbus set.

I bought a cheap remote controlled LED dimmer unit on eBay with a view to using this to control the speed of the railbus. Uncertain as to whether it would be able to control the speed of the motor, I set up a text-rig and videoed the outcome (see Controlling a low-volt motor with an LED Dimmer).

Track relaid at Beeston Market

The crossover at the end of the run-round loop at Beeston Market was originally laid with Radius 1 (R1) LGB points. It was always intended that these would be replaced with Radius 3 (R3) points as funds permitted. This is not only for cosmetic reasons but also because some locos find the reverse curve of the crossover difficult to negotiate. This work has now been completed and, at the same time, some of the continuity problems I've been having with other pointwork was sorted-out with my trusty 75 watt soldering iron.

Wagon loads
Having constructed a few more open wagons (see Progress Reports 37 and 38), I needed some loads for them. I felt I had sufficient opens loaded with coal and so wanted loads of general merchandise.

In addition to the mixed load of crates shown previously, I created a load of barrels made from a couple of packs of turned wooden barrels bought from Back2Bay6 suitably painted with thinned acrylic paints.

I have also created a load of bricks, sand and cement, constructed from a balsa block clad in miniature bricks from Miniature Brick Bargains. The pile of sand was another balsa block carved, coated in PVA and dusted with sand. The bags of  cement were fashioned in polymer clay, baked in the oven and painted with acrylics.

There is now an anonymous sheeted load, which was created by draping paper towels soaked in watered-down PVA over a wagon loaded with miscellaneous bits and pieces which had been wrapped in cling film to prevent the PVA from adhering.

And a load of farm machinery, made from various secondhand Brittains' plough models purchased through eBay. Although these are not to scale, I decided that by weathering and rusting them, they might look like some redundant horse-drawn ploughing apparatus.

Finally, there is now a tractor load on one of the the stake wagons. A resin moneybox has been heavily modified (ie its slot has been filled with resin!) and fixed to a scribed ply base. Two baulks of timber from the stick of a Guy Fawkes rocket which landed in the garden (waste not!) were trimmed to size and linked with ropes (bookbinders' thread)

Most of the loads are mounted on scribed plywood bases which allow them to be removed from the wagons for running back up the line as empties.

DCC operated points

I finally wired-up all the pointwork which is in hard-to-reach locations to accessory decoders. Two points leading to the hidden sidings in the porch and two at Bickerton Station throat are operated through an LGB switch decoder (channels 1-4). The other Bickerton point, the two reverse loop link points and the two Copper Mine link points are operated by a Massoth switch decoder (channels 5-7). The point controlling the link to the Beeston Market extension is operated by an LGB single switch decoder (channel 9).

The two 4-way switch decoders have been wired into the original section switch-box (see How I made a control panel) which is located in the porch.

When the railway was originally built, all the pointwork was electrically operated from this switch-box with cables run from each point to the switch-box. When I invested in wireless control, I quickly realised it was pointless (sorry) running in and out of the porch every time I needed to change a point and so the wiring was redundant. By re-routing the wiring from the Bulkeley pointwork to the Copper Mine Loop I was able to position the decoders in the porch as they are not weatherproof. Rather than running another cable, the most remote point for the Beeston Market/Copper Mine extension has had a single point decoder installed.

Figures

More figures have been painted (see How I painted some figurines).

I am slowly adding more figures to the railway to create tableaux. The figures for these are being sculpted in polymer clay which is baked in the oven.

My first efforts are a little primitive, but I am slowly developing more skills. This type of modelling is something I can do in the evening while 'watching' television.

Station nameboards
I've had five Coopercraft nameboard kits sitting in a drawer for some time awaiting construction. The kits are provided with white lettering to be fixed on a black background. I wanted cream lettering on a green background. I tried painting the black styrene sheet green and applying the lettering but was concerned that the green paint would peel off over time. I searched high and low without success for green styrene sheet until I happened to come across a single sheet in a bits-box at the Llanfair Garden Railway Show and WLLR Steam gala earlier this month.

The nameboards were constructed for each station as per the instructions, with a hole drilled into the bottom of each post into which a 1.6mm brass rod was inserted.

The rod is inserted into a 5mm rawlplug on concrete platforms or 1.6mm holes on the wooden platform at Beeston Market.

At present the lettering, posts and frame have been left as white plastic, I am considering repainting these cream at some point in the future.

Couplings

I've been experimenting with Binnie Carmarthen couplings as replacements for the unrealistic LGB hooks and bars.

I'd like to retain some sort of auto-coupling as I am keen on shunting and freight operations. However, I also want couplings which combine realism with reliability. All my stock has had LGB hooks added to both ends. Not only does this allow for the reversal of stock on the line (which might happen if I use the reverse loop) I found that stock would occasionally become uncoupled over undulations in the track if only one hook was fitted. My testing of the Carmarthen couplings has revealed that whilst it is possible for couplings with two bars to be coupled together, only one bar actually engages.

 This raises concerns over possible random de-coupling. I need to run a few more tests to see if this potential problem can be overcome (eg by shaping the wire bar differently or by changing the profile of the hook) before I change the couplings wholesale.

Garden Rail articles

In answer to the editor's (Tag Gorton) plea in the editorial of the previous edition of Garden Rail for articles about 45mm gauge railways, I have penned a couple of articles about the railway. One is a general article about the line and the other is an article covering my approach to freight handling on the railway. These summarise some of the information that is included in this blog but present a new perspective, and the photos which will be included are unique to the articles. I have no idea when the articles will appear, but hopefully you will find them interesting. (See Progress Report 40)

ToDo List

The winter months are usually spent in catching-up with various maintenance and construction jobs. I thought I'd list them here so those of you who are considering constructing your own garden railways have some idea as to what's involved.

Maintenance jobs

• Repair Hunslet loco and add more weight (see Progress Report 41)
  
• Fix Fowler diesel fly-cranks which have become loose on layshaft (see Progress Report 41)
  
• (Maybe) instal power-buffers in all locos
• Lightly weather all locos
• Lightly weather coaches
• Re-weather all goods stock
• Clean coach wheels and check bogies through pointwork at Beeston Castle (see Progress Report 41)
  
• Reduce weight of cattle in cattle vans (by drilling holes in their undersides) (see Progress Report 40)
  
• Replace IP Engineering cattle truck metal roofs with plastic to reduce weight  (see Progress Report 41)
  
• Repair hinges on engine shed doors (see Progress Report 41)
  

Construction jobs

• Complete rail-motors/railbuses (see Progress Report 41)
  
• Construct Manning Wardle loco (see How I constructed a Manning Wardle 0-6-2T)
• Complete  5  3x open wagons
• Construct gunpowder van (see Progress Report 41)
  
• Construct crane wagon (maybe mount a yard crane on a Hartland chassis) (see Progress Report 41)
  
• Construct some signals (see Garden Rail 224 - April 2013)
• Finish painting remaining figures (see Progress Report 41)
  
• Construct mine buildings and loading hoppers (see How I constructed a loading hopper and  Garden Rail - in preparation)

Possibly

• Re-site copper mine further back from the main line and ease the R1 main line curves
• Construct a branch to the timber mill between Peckforton and Bulkeley
• Sell L&B vans and either buy W&L vans or bash more LGB balcony vans

Progress Report 38

As a former teacher, September always marks the end of the summer for me and, to a large extent, opportunities for running and working on the railway diminish as I still work part time (and as any teacher will tell you, this job is never really part-time!).

The tag-end of August has been very productive as I managed to work on the railway for just over a week with very few interruptions (not including fitting new worktops in the kitchen - worth a blog in itself!).

Running sessions

The weather cleared long enough for a couple more running sessions. These enabled me to complete a day's worth of timetable (see A typical running session) and test-run the newly weathered rolling stock (see Progress Report 37).

 The pickup goods shunting at Beeston Castle

 The copper ore train arrives at Beeston Market

The down passenger train passes the pickup goods at Peckforton

Rolling road and Sprog

Having made some lineside Point of View (POV) videos of the railway in operation (see Progress Report 37), I realised that I needed some finer control over my locos. I decided to invest in a Sprog DCC Decoder Programmer. I also felt the need for a rolling road on which to program and test run the locos but not having around £80 to spare I looked around for a cheaper alternative. A trip to Back2Bay6 resulted in the purchase of two home made roller units for £20. These comprised two pairs of roller bearings mounted on aluminium angle which in turn was mounted on a sheet of plywood. After re-gauging the units from 32mm to 45mm, I produced a sub-assembly from a piece of ply and a couple of lengths of stripwood. This was wired up and connected to the Sprog.

I have now re-programmed all the locos' acceleration and deceleration settings to something more realistic - on the rolling-road at least.

Closed van

In addition to the open wagon (see Progress Report 37), I've now had time to complete the closed van from the GRS combi-kit. This is presently still in need of weathering but complements the other combi-kit closed van which I purchased on eBay a while back (see Stock List).

Wagon loads

I am slowly constructing oddments for filling the newly completed open wagons (see Progress Report 37 and/or Stock List). So far, I've completed two packing cases from coffee stirrers plus a gear wheel in a cradle.  Some whitemetal milk churns from GRS complete the load for one wagon. This will be mounted on a sheet of scribed plywood so it can be removed for return journeys.

I have also made a large tree trunk for the bolster wagons from a cardboard tube covered in PVA-soaked paper towels scrunched to resemble bark. I will add more restraining chains when I've figured out how to make them easily removable for return trips up the line.

Passengers for the workman's coach

A trip to my local 50p shop resulted in the purchase of a pack of eight hand-carved wooden miners for the princely sum of £1.00.

These were duly dissected and repainted to dull down their colourful garb.

They were then glued in place in my workmen's coach (see Progress Report 37) for journeys to and from the copper mine.

They do not bear close scrutiny but look somewhat craggy and artisanal, peering out through the windows of the coach.

Planning the railway

For some time, I have been preparing a posting on the process I went through in planning the railway (see Planning the railway). I tend to spend quite a while planning my railway layouts having built a few over the years (see Railway Modelling and Me). I'm not sure how useful others will find my account of the planning process but I found reviewing my scribblings and notes quite interesting and somewhat nostalgic.

Microlight flight over the railway

As a present for a rather significant birthday, my wife bought me a trip in a microlight aircraft.

The pilot was persuaded to fly over my house and also around Beeston Castle and for a short distance along the hypothetical route of my railway.

 I must admit that, if I didn't already have a hobby, I could easily become hooked on this mode of travel.

Progress Report 36

Quite a few developments since the last progress report.

Visitors

The railway has had its first ever visit from a fellow garden railway modeller and a visiting loco.

 Keith also happens to be a Rail Track signalman and gave me plenty of advice on signalling the line, bringing with him a series of nicely drawn signalling diagrams for each station. In the case of Bickerton, these ranged from the most basic with 8 levers ..........

........... through the intermediate in complexity (with 10 levers) ..............

.............. to the most comprehensive (with 24 levers)!

As one of my main interests is operation, I am keen to add signalling to the railway, particularly as the ore trains run irregularly between the scheduled services. I'm inclined to go for the least complex as I'm concerned that signals will be vulnerable to accidental damage, particularly when hedge cutting. Signalling is now another job to add to the 'pending' list.

Keith posted a fine set of photos of the railway on the G Scale Central Forum which he took whilst he was here.

Point/switch decoders

As some of my points (switches) are hard to reach (and I am doddering into old age), I decided it was about time I provided a means by which they could be operated remotely. When I first built the railway, all the points were electrically operated from a central control box positioned in the porch (see Making a control panel). When I went wireless with my controller (first Train Engineer and then MTS), running back into the porch every time I wanted to change a set of points became ridiculous - much easier just to switch them by hand on site. However, seven points are beyond comfortable reach (or positioned behind the sheds) so, whilst I replaced all other point motors with hand operated point levers, I kept sufficient motors to operate these remotely positioned points. One of the points (the link to the Beeston Market/Copper Mine extension) is operated with a single switch decoder (LGBL55024).

These are very easy to fit and link up, but relatively expensive. The other eight are operated by 4-way switch decoders - one LGB55025 and a Massoth 8156001. Whilst these are more cost effective than the single way decoders, the wiring becomes a little more complex. Furthermore, the decoders have to be located in dry/damp free conditions. You may have noticed the lush green foliage of the garden - this is largely due to the high levels of rainfall which we get in the North West - and particularly, it seems, in the Cheshire Gap. I decided to use the original wiring which was still in place for the point motors on Phase 1 of the railway. As these still run into the control box in the porch, it was a relatively straightforward rewiring job to fit the switch decoders in the control box (alongside the reverse loop controller).

Some re-routing of the wiring was needed to reach the points at either end of the 'Mine Branch' link.

and one wire needed to be extended to reach one of the crossover points, but now all the hard-to-reach points on the railway can be operated from the Universal Remote (though I have to remember which way they are set).

Track Cleaning Loco

Several years ago, I bought a track cleaning loco. I was a little underwhelmed by its performance and so for a while I wondered whether to recoup the £300 it cost me (now they cost over £500). I've always operated it as an analogue loco, not wanting to waste a decoder on something which is used only once in a while. Having accumulated a few spare decoders through lucky bids on eBay, I decided to install a chip to see how it would operate under MTS.

The chipping process is relatively painless - a lot easier than chipping the Stainz (see How I added a decoder to a Stainz loco. All that was needed was to remove the bonnet at the rear of the loco (two screws) which revealed the circuit board. The LGB decoder simply plugged in, the dip switches were all then turned off and away it went!

Whilst under analogue, I had some control over the speed of the cleaning motor, but now it has been chipped the cleaning motor runs at full pelt all the time. I've learned from experience to make sure the loco keeps moving: if it stops for even a few seconds, the cleaning wheels file two neat depressions in the rail!

Ballasting

I've now caught up on some outstanding ballasting jobs. The sidings at Beeston Market (see How I added sidings to Beeston Market),

the Copper Mine branch line (see Adding a link to the Copper Mine)

and all the recently added buffer stops (See Progress Report 35),

have now been ballasted using my tried and tested grit, sand, cement and PVA method (see How I ballasted the track).

The Engine Shed

I am in the process of constructing an engine shed for Beeston Market station. The model is based (very) loosely on the engine shed at Southwold - however my model is twin track, whereas the original was only single. Glimpses of the engine shed in its final form can be seen in this 1929 video from the Southwold Museum website.

A couple of stills from the video (sorry about the quality):

An exterior grade plywood shell is being clad in clapperboard planks thanks to the ubiquitous coffee-stirrer. I'm not sure how many coffee stirrers it will ultimately take, but I am well down one pack of 1000 and not even half way finished! I had hoped to roof it with scale real slates, but after working out this would cost somewhere in the region of £100, I am having to find a cheaper option.

The engine shed is now completed - see How I constructed the engine shed.

Weathering

I am slowly working my way round the rolling stock which has not so far been weathered. So far, some more of the goods stock has been attacked:

Once all these have been suitably aged, I will turn my attention to the coaching stock, which looks a little too pristine for its supposed age. Lastly will come the locos. I want them to have a well-tended but ageing-gracefully look.

People

I'm very slowly painting all the recently acquired figures. They've all received a base-coat of black (matt or satin (I ran out of matt) and are slowly being detailed in acrylics. They have all had any slab-like bases removed and a hole drilled up one leg for a brass peg to be inserted. This will be uses to position them on the various platforms.

I will finish them off with matt varnish. I've gone for a relatively expensive matt varnish which is used by our war gaming colleagues as my experience with so-called 'matt' varnishes has been somewhat mixed. Hopefully, by paying more I will get what it says in the tin! The figures are taking quite a while to complete, but it is a job I can do while sitting and 'watching' the telly in the evening.

Planting

Finally, a few more plants have been added to the garden. Because my garden faces North and is mostly in the shadow of the house, I mostly have to go for shade-loving plants which prefer moist conditions. I do have one flower bed which, by comparison, enjoys desert-like conditions. Not only does it get the benefit of full sun through the year, it is also adjacent to a hedge which draws moisture from the soil. The only real success I have had in this bed is with campanula, which seems largely tolerant to most growing conditions and, furthermore, flowers for quite along period from spring to summer. I've added another campanula to this bed, and am also trying a phlox and some gypsophila, both of which are supposed to enjoy full sun and a well-drained soil.

 

 Time will tell...........................

Train flap

I've replaced the original train/cat flap into the porch with a slightly more robust one fashioned from exterior ply.

At present, the wooden train flap is merely wedged into place as, incidentally, is the slightly cut-down cat flap which sits inside it. One day I will get around to hinging the wooden train flap at the top - but in the meantime it does the job and there are far more interesting projects awaiting completion.