Progress Report 56

Now we are entering the winter season, there are fewer opportunities to run trains, but supposedly more opportunities for finishing off construction projects. So far, it has turned out to be more difficult than expected to find time for construction and so progress has been limited. However, there are several projects now on the agenda which I can report on.

Acquisitions

Christmas has come and gone and left me with a couple of additions to the stocklist.

IP Engineering Simplex kit

I have been considering for a while making the feeder from the copper mine to the crushers and loading hopper into a 32mm (2') narrow gauge line (see Progress Report 45). At present it is 16.5mm gauge supposedly representing a 15" gauge railway (but nearer to 13") (see How I constructed some Gn15 skips) and as such it will only ever be cosmetic.

 My thinking was that by having a short stretch of 32mm track, I would have some stock which I could run when I visit other people's garden railways. I am also considering building a simple shuttle control system using a Picaxe micro controller. In the meantime, I now have an IP Engineering Simplex locomotive kit sitting in my 'pending' project box awaiting its turn on the to do list.

Guards' / baggage van

  I saw this on a well known online auction website and considered that the price was sufficiently attractive for it to become an addition to the line. At present, I do not have a dedicated guards' van which could be included in passenger trains and thought this might add more operational interest.

 The van itself has been constructed fairly crudely from plywood and mounted on an LGB chassis. This makes it quite heavy when compared to similar stock. The mouldings are mot particularly crisp and the paintwork is far from smooth. I think it will need some remedial work after being rubbed down in preparation for a repaint.

Also, it is taller than the existing rolling stock and I may consider lowering it on its chassis somehow. This is not a high priority on the todo list and so may languish on the shelves for a while before I decide to deal with it.

Nameplates

I've recently taken delivery of another two etched nameplates from Narrow Planet - my preferred supplier. The former Southwold Railway Sharp Stewart 2-4-2T (see How I constructed a Sharp Stewart 2-4-2T) will become Tarporley and the most recently completed former Davington Light Railway Manning Wardle 0-6-0 will become Harthill (see How I constructed a Manning wardle 0-6-0T). I am following the tradition set by the Southwold Railway of naming locomotives after villages and towns served by the railway.

Also included in the order were some works plates. Two sets of Manning Wardle plates for the former Southwold and Davington LR locos and a set of Sharp Stewart plates for Tarporley.

Jackson Sharp coach bashes

I am making slow but steady progress with these builds. One Open coach has been more or less completed, apart from interior detailing, while the modifications to the underframes and body shells for the remaining Open and the Brake are largely done. 

Open Coach based loosely on the Leek & Manifold coaches

 I still need to complete the roofs, windows, lights, underframe detailing and balconies for these two coaches but, by comparison with the work needed to modify the bodywork, progress should now be a lot swifter.

Progress so far on the Brake End L&M inspired coach

 After reading through some postings on the 16mm NGM forum, I have decided to experiment with printing the stained glass window detailing for the opening lights on to self adhesive acrylic sheet from Crafty Computer Papers.

Deltang radio control equipment upgrades

Since the last update I have constructed a new Tx21 transmitter from a kit and taken delivery of two Rx65b receiver/controllers from Deltang.

I decided to invest in a Tx21 so that when I have visitors there's another controller so we can run trains independently. This was certainly an asset when my Australian friend visited in October (see Progress Report 55).

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to construct the transmitter. The main circuit board was included as a completed unit and all that was required was to drill holes in the case, mount the switches and potentiometer and then solder a few wires from the transmitter chip to the various switches. A few resistors needed to be included in some of the connections but these were relatively easy to solder into place. I'd say the drilling was the most difficult aspect of the build - ensuring the holes were in the right places and correct size.

Over the past couple of years, I have accumulated a range of Deltang receiver/controllers as and when they became available. Some of the early receiver/ESCs were rated only at 1amp which proved to be quite adequate for the LGB motor blocks I was using - but now that the Rx65 3amp receiver/controller has become available, I have decided to standardise.

My most recent loco, the Manning Wardle 0-6-0 has been equipped with one of these receivers and I have been very impressed with its performance. (see Manning Wardle load test video). It seems to be far more responsive and consistent in its smooth running, Whether the Piko 0-6-0 mechanism is responsible or whether the output from the receiver is the major contributory factor remains to be seen - but I will keep readers posted as to progress once the receivers have been installed.

Sound cards

My Australian friend, Greg, came bearing gifts, among which included a few 20 second sound recording chips.

Previously, I have been accumulating the necessary electronic bits and pieces needed to construct my own sound card using a Picaxe chip and a small amplifier. I am intending to follow the guidance given by my Ozzie visitor on his railway's website - http://www.trainweb.org/SaTR/Picaxe%20tutes.htm.

I have also invested in a small sound recording chip similar to those used in greetings cards.

 I am hoping that this will prove small enough to fit inside the Lollypop railcar (see How I Constructed an IP Engineering Railcar)

I still have four locomotives without sound (two steam and two internal combustion) and so, during the coming Spring I intend to construct my own sound systems using a combination of these components. Watch this space for more details.

Track cleaning

One of the great joys I have now is being able to run trains with the minimum of track cleaning and maintenance, compared with that required for operating track-powered locomotives. Recently, after a few weeks with no trains, I decided to have a short running session and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I could have something up and running compared with the days when I ran only track-powered locos.

Then

Track cleaning preceding a running session used to take a minimum of an hour and on average would take two hours. Once the track had been cleared of debris and encroaching vegetation, I would previously have had to scrub the rail surfaces with an abrasive block and then check for electrical continuity by running a light loco around the track. (see Cleaning the track) If I was lucky, it would manage an entire circuit without stalling. Often, however, there would be a dead spot on the track. This might be caused by the breakdown of the bonding between two lengths of rail (see How I bonded the rails) or could be because the bonding between the rails in the pointwork had deteriorated (see How I improved the electrical continuity of pointwork).

Now

My track cleaning is now a lot more efficient. Clearly, I have to remove debris and overhanging vegetation from the track as before, but that's it. To keep the trackbed reasonably clear, I have taken to sweeping it with a stiff handbrush, which not only removes leaves and branches, it clears away excess moss and encroachment from Mind Your Own Business.

I am hoping for some light snowfall before the end of the winter. Probably because of the hassle associated with using track power, I have, up to now, never taken photos of trains when snow was on the ground. Maybe a light dusting of snow will provide some photo opportunities.

How I created the 'Day in the Life ......' video

Several people have asked me how I created the animated clock which appears on the video 'A Day in the Life of Peckforton Station' and also how I synchronised it with the shots of trains arriving and departing.

Initially, filmed virtually every train movement which occurred at the station during a complete operating session, which actually took me around two days. Normally a full timetabled operating session takes about a day and a half but setting up the camera and occasionally having to repeat a train movement when, for example, the camera was too close to the track and got knocked over, meant that it took a bit longer than normal.

These individual clips were then edited together to make a first cut of the video using Corel VideoStudio X5 - but any video editing package could be used for this.

Once I was happy with the core video I then looked around on YouTube for an animated clock which I could superimpose on the main video. Fortunately, I found a neat little clock with a green screen background with open ended permission for non commercial use - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIcSapc8CTE .

This was downloaded using Any Video Converter which is a freebie program which allows you to download Youtube videos and save them in virtually any format. I saved my download as a .wmv as I knew this would be readily compatible with VideoStudio.

Next, I consulted the timetable which I have created for my railway, which was based on the timetable for the Southwold Railway in 1923.

This enabled me to fix the departure times of all the trains from Peckforton station during a typical day. The approximate times for each of the other train movements (eg goods trains and mine trains) were then plotted and their times noted down. The clock video was then loaded into MediaPlayer and paused at the appropriate times. A screenshot was then taken of the screen (using the PrinScr key) and then pasted into Paint, where it was cropped to show only the clock face with some of its green background.

Once all the 'stills' of frozen clocks had been taken, the clockface images were inserted into an overlay track in VideoStudio and then positioned in the bottom left hand corner of the video screen.

The green background was then made transparent by selecting the Chroma Key properties of the overlay image and using the eyedropper tool to choose the specific shade of green in the background.

This process was repeated for each of the clockface images.

The next stage of the process was to trim the animated clock video into chunks to fill the gaps between the stills with animations of the clock moving from the time shown on the first image to the time shown on the second image. This was a bit fiddly to ensure the trimmed video sections were accurate to the actual minute shown on each of the still images - but became quite repetitive amd hence easier over time.

These trimmed sections were then inserted into the overlay track between the two still images of the clockface. The final and quite time-consuming job was to finely adjust the size and position of each of the overlay images and animations to ensure they were in exactly the same position throughout the entire movie - even one pixel of misalignment showed up on the final movie (you may notice a couple of places where I still haven't got it quite right).

And that's basically all there was to it. The most difficult part conceptually was understanding how to make the green background transparent using the Chroma Key option but there are plenty of tutorials out there on the web showing how to do this in various video editing packages. The most time consuming part of the process in VideoStudio was making sure the clock face images and animations were precisely aligned with each other. Maybe on other editing packages this process is easier, but on VideoStudio it has to be done manually for each and every clip.

Progress Report 55

Quite a lot has happened since the last progress report. I have finished the ex-Davington Light Railway Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST and played host to a fellow modeller from Australia. I have also made a start on bashing a trio of Bachmann Jackson Sharp coaches into something vaguely resembling the balconied stock which ran on the Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway. In addition, I have been experimenting with different forms of battery power, partly because the space inside the Manning Wardle was quite restricted. Finally, I have had a go at re-organising the storage in my workshop as things in there were becoming increasingly cluttered - and also I am starting to batten down the hatches in preparation for the onset of winter.

Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST

After a few trials and tribulations, I have at last completed the scratchbuild of my latest loco - an 0-6-0 saddle tank based (loosely) on those which Manning Wardle produced to run on the Davington Light Railway. 

As this railway closed shortly after the end of World War I, I reasoned that one of the three locos was sold to the Peckforton Light Railway - the other two finding their way to Brazil (see How I constructed a Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST locomotive).

Although I have previously scratchbuilt three locomotives, made two from kits and kit-bashed a railbus, I found this particular build to be more demanding than any of the previous builds. This was partly because the extra work involved in making the saddle tank proved trickier than I expected, and also because I ran into a couple of unexpected snags along the way: the Revell filler which I used initially refused to adhere to the plasticard and was susceptible to cracking, and I discovered to my dismay that Evostik is an extremely powerful solvent of plasticard (see How I constructed a Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST locomotive).

Despite these trials and tribulations, I am very pleased with the end-result. Not only does she look quite appealing, I have discovered that the six-coupled wheelbase is extremely powerful when it comes to hauling excessive loads up my 1:40 gradients on the railway.

Here's a video of the loco's first run on the railway (before I had finished all the detailing).

An this video shows her phenomenal hauling capabilities. I certainly did not expect her to be quite so powerful.

I have been really impressed with this loco's slow-running abilities and her responsiveness to the Deltang receiver/controller. Given this and her hauling capability, I anticipate she will become the preferred loco for freight duties on the railway.

Running sessions

 With the mild weather in September and the early part of October, there has been plenty of opportunity for me to run trains out in the garden. A few shots taken during one of the operating sessions to show how the railway and its stock are developing.......

Wynford sets off with a train of full ore wagons from the copper mine sidings

She traverses the recently relaid track on the approach to Beeston Castle.

At Beeston Castle, Loco No. 4 Bulkeley (former Southwold No. 4 Wenhaston) passes with the mid morning Down passenger train

The mid-morning Down passenger approaches Bulkeley as the Down pick-up goods approaches Beeston Market

The Down pickup goods coasting beside the River Gowy on the approach to Peckforton with Loco No.5 Tarporley

The Down pick-up goods leaving Peckforton and approaching the mill siding where she will exchange wagons

The Down pickup goods pulls into Bulkeley as the noontime Up passenger waits to depart.

The noontime Up passenger arrives as Beeston Market

The mid afternoon passenger about to depart Beeston Market as the Up pickup goods arrives

Meanwhile, skips are shunted at the Copper Mine.

Australian visitor

For some time, I've been corresponding with a fellow modeller in Australia, mostly picking his brains on radio control and how to wire up and program Picaxe microchips for the operation of signals and pointwork (see Progress Reports 52 and 53). The website for Greg's own garden railway, The Sandstone and Termite, is packed with useful information and ideas and well worth a visit. When he expressed a desire to revisit the UK to travel on the Welsh narrow gauge railways, I offered my services as a local guide. Earlier this month, Greg and Pauline came over for a couple of weeks and spent around a week exploring the locality of Cheshire and another week in Wales. He risked x-ray machines and border controls to bring one of his locos with him, Nick, a freelance railbus. Over the course of his visit we found time for three running sessions as the weather was particularly kind to us.

Sandstone & Termite Railway railcar Nick shunting at Beeston Market

Nick makes an inaugural run down the line, past the Copper Mine

Old and new railbuses are compared at Peckforton

Nick braves the undergrowth between Bulkeley and Peckforton

On light freight duties beside the River Gowy

Beside the Gowy on passenger duties

The two railcars on night duties at Bulkeley station

 Greg was pleasantly surprised to find that the weather in the UK in October can actually sometimes be clement. Here we see our esteemed visitor, sporting his Sandstone & Termite Railway tee-shirt, assuming responsibilities as Chief Controller at Beeston Market.

 Despite a few early teething troubles, everything on the railway performed well. I'm sure there is a Law of Garden Railway Modelling which says that the moment a visitor arrives, anything that can go wrong will go wrong - and for a while this seemed to be the case. Thankfully, this did not persist for the entire two weeks!

Bachmann Jackson Sharp to Leek & Manifold(ish) coach bash

The passenger coaches which the line presently possesses (see How I constructed coaches from Maddison kits) perform their function very well and although there are only three, this mirrors the level of coaching stock for many narrow gauge railways in the UK (see How much stock did UK narrow gauge railways have?). However, to enhance the railway's operational potential, I have for a while considered acquiring at least another three coaches to allow two passenger trains to operate at times of additional demand (eg market days, special excursion trains). Before constructing the Maddision coaches, I used to run a couple of Bachmann Jackson Sharp balconied coaches which, despite their smaller scale, represented for me something vaguely resembling the stock used by the Leek & Manifold and the Southwold Railways (see Progress Report 11)

A passenger train on the railway in 2008

 For at least five years these coaches have languished in a drawer in my workshop until I came across some drawings of the L&M coaches and did a few quick calculations. I realised that I could produce a foreshortened representation of these coaches if I narrowed the windows slightly and lengthened the balconies a little.

Source: http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/read.php?1,259098,259223

 The bodies needed to be increased slightly in height but as the clerestories were going to be removed this would not actually increase their overall height. I already know that these coaches have no problem tackling the tight curves on my railway and so have pressed ahead with the 'modification' of the first coach.

I am presently about halfway through bashing this coach and am using this as a learning-curve for bashing the other two. Two coaches will be opens and the other will be a brake end.

Battery power

Although I am relatively new to the world of battery power and radio control I have already accumulated a fair amount of experience in constructing battery powered locomotives and experimenting with various combinations of radio control devices (see An Introduction to battery power and radio control). Given their power-to-weight ratio, I am now convinced that li-ion batteries are the most cost effective and efficient way of powering garden railway locomotives. There are some risks associated with this form of technology (as witnessed by recent fires aboard aircraft and the occasional horror story about mobile phones bursting into flames), but given that most portable technology is now powered by li-ion batteries (including the laptop computer on which I am writing this blog), it would seem that the vast majority of li-ion batteries are sufficiently reliable to be considered for this application. However, I still have a couple of locos which are powered by NiMh batteries but have recognised that there are better options than normal off-the-shelf rechargeable batteries.

18650 Li-ion

As mentioned above, one of the difficulties I encountered with modelling the Manning Wardle saddle tank loco (see How I constructed a Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST loco) was finding room inside for the batteries. My usual source of power; the 12v blue lithium-ion batteries intended for CCTV applications (see An Introduction to Battery Power and radio control) were too large to fit into the confined space ......

........ and there was no way I would have been able to squeeze ten NiHh 1.2v AA (or even AAA) batteries in. After discussing various options with fellow modellers on the G Scale Central forum, I invested in some 18650 style 3.7v li-ion batteries. These cylindrical batteries are what many laptop computers use inside their battery packs and so there is a ready supply and a wide variety of types available. However, even in my limited experience, I have learned that you do tend to get what you pay for. Some of the cheaper, so-called high capacity 18650 batteries do not live up to expectations. The first set of these batteries I bought for a modest sum claimed to be 5000mAh (ie they would power a motor running at 1amp (ie 1000mA) for five hours.

When I did a discharge test on them, they averaged-out at 1.5Ah (ie 1500mAh) - considerably lower than that claimed. I then opted for some more expensive, branded (Samsung), batteries from a reputable supplier. These were labelled as 3100mAh and when tested were not far short of that capacity.

Another aspect which I have appreciated needs to be taken into account is whether the batteries are 'protected'. Li-ion batteries can be damaged, or worse still can catch fire, if they are under- or over-charged. To ensure this doesn't happen, protected batteries include a small circuit board which cuts off the charge or stops the battery from discharging if the voltages fall outside the accepted safe levels. The 18650 batteries I am using in my latest loco are unprotected and so I make sure that I charge them carefully using a balance charger and regularly check their discharge with a small battery checker.

This plugs into the balance charge socket and the LEDs show green if the batteries are OK and turn to red (and the buzzer sounds) if they drop below 3.3v. When running, I leave it attached to my loco but remove it when I store the loco.

NiMh low self-discharge

One of the most irritating aspects of normal NiMh rechargeable batteries is the speed with which they lose their charge when not being used. Many's the time I've wanted to have a quick impromptu operating session and been unable to use the locos powered by NiMh batteries because they've needed charging. My Australian friend alerted me to low self discharge NiMh AA batteries which can be obtained from Hobbyking for quite reasonable prices.

These batteries seem to be holding their charge very well. I've detected very little drop in power even after a loco has been in storage for a couple of weeks.

Workshop revamp

Partly inspired by the arrival of my house guest from the colonies, I felt it was time to re-organise the storage in my workshop. Some of the odds and ends which I had accumulated had outgrown the space allotted to them and there were times when I struggled to lay hands on a material or component needed during construction. I had previously organised some of my tools by fashioning a rack .......

...... and so now invested in some storage containers from our local pound shop ..........

...... and constructed a storage unit for larger and longer materials.

Previously, trying to use the conservatory for its intended purpose of sitting, chatting and admiring the garden had not been a pleasant experience. Now it is at least possible.

Preparing for winter

The station buildings have now been brought inside. Previously I had left these out throughout the year but at the start of this year I had realised how dilapidated they had become.

After spending some time re-gluing and repainting them (see Progress Report 52), I decided this was one job which could be avoided, or at least postponed, by storing the buildings inside during the worst weather. If I do need to have some buildings in place during the winter, to take pictures or video, then it takes only a few minutes to re-install them.

To Do List

There is always something which needs to be done on a garden railway - which is really what makes the hobby so interesting. My present and ongoing list comprises:

• Finish viaduct (Now done - see How I constructed the viaduct)
• Make a timber works for Peckforton Station (Now done - see How I constructed the sawmill)
• Construct mill buildings for the Mill Siding (Now done - see How I constructed the water mill)
• Finish the Leek & Manifold coaches (Now done - see How I converted Bachmann Jackson Sharp coaches into Leek & Manifold(ish) coaches)
• Sell of DCC equipment to raise funds (Now done - see Getting started in battery power and radio control)
• Add sound cards to locos Bulkeley and Harthill (Now done - see https://youtu.be/bSZm8Wd2UjY)
• Extend the station at Beeston Market (Now done - see Progress Report 59)
• Revise stock storage arrangements (Now done - see How I created storage sidings in the garage)