Signal Post

That's a wonderful layout Patrick, I've watched quite a few model railway videos over the years and yours of Brookhall Mill are amongst the best, many others have equally stunning buildings and landscape etc, but your videos take things to a new level largely because of the wonderful music that fits in so well with the video photography. I was a little disappointed when I read your introduction to this video that there would be none of your fine music to accompany it, until I watched and listened to it.....wow, what a masterpiece from the first sounds of the river onwards....This has now gone to the top of my list of favourite model railway videos. Very well done and keep up the good work!

The photos are very useful (well done on your scenic work by the way), firstly they seem to confirm the absence of DCC track spring wires from the points (as suggested by murrayec above). I’m not sure how familiar you are with these springs but they are used to convert Hornby points for DCC, the spring clips are seen quite clearly in the photo below next to the fingers, but I don’t see any sign of these on your points. So hopefully that eliminates one of the possible causes of your problem and leads to the next likely cause, here is what I think is happening: Hornby points use a spring clip attached to the switch rails (also known as switch blades), this spring clip keeps the switch rail tight to it’s adjacent main rain when the points are set for that direction, this is for two purposes, firstly so that the wheels run smoothly over the points without de-railing and secondly, since the switch rail takes the current from the rail that it is in contact with and feeds it to the required rail leading out of the points, in the diagram below the current goes from point C via the blue switch rail in the diagram to point D with the points set as shown for the main line. When the points are set for the siding current flows from point E via the green switch rail to point F. With the points set as shown above for the main line the green rail is away from its adjacent main rail at E and because of this should be disconnected from track power (Broithe above refers to this as the disconnected rail). What appears to be happening on your layout is that the “green” rail is physically moving away from the fixed rail but is remaining electrically connected to it, probably due to the spring clip touching it. I have drawn a diagram of a cross-section of the points between points C and D, Fig 1 shows the points set for the siding with the green rail held in contact with rail B by the spring clip below it. Fig 2 shows the points set for the main line , the green rail has moved away from the black one and it is electrically disconnected from it (this is how it should be). Fig 3 shows what I suspect is happening on your layout where the green rail is physically away from the black rail but it remains connected to it electrically by way of the metal spring clip. Fig 5 (don’t ask me why I didn’t label it as Fig 4!) shows an exploded view of the clip (coloured red), I suspect that it may have been bent very slightly upwards, this could have been caused by ballast hardening immediately underneath the clip and preventing the clip from being pushed down as the switch rail moves above it thereby distorting the clip somewhat. The solution to this would be to remove (most) of the ballast from directly below the clip. Having done this then press very gently on the clip so as to ensure that there is no connection between the switch rail and the clip and then try running a loco on the main line (anywhere on the main line will do, it doesn’t need to cross the points) and see if the loco in the loop moves, you may need to press the clip on both of the points (i.e. at opposite ends of the loop) at the same time (if both points have been similarly affected) whilst simultaneously using the controller, this will probably require a huge amount of dexterity or the aid of a pretty assistant! If that is successful but the problem continues when you are not pressing gently on the clip then the outermost part of the clip (I.e. the free end) will need to be bent back into position, this will require great care as the clip still needs to be tight when the rail is set for the siding, possibly a paper clip or similar placed under the “hump” of the spring (without bending it) whilst gently pressing the free end down a little, it is likely that the amount of movement required will be very small. Hope this is of some help.

Can you confirm that when you have both points set for the outer mainline (i.e. the black track in the diagram) that a train will run around the complete oval without entering the red loop and that this will work in either direction (i.e. if you reverse the direction of travel by using the switch on the controller) without any problem affecting that train/loco? That may sound a bit complicated, what I mean is if you send a train from the "bottom" of the diagram through the points that you have labelled as "L/H Point" along the single black line in the diagram past point X then through the "R/H Point" and on up to the top of the diagram and then change the direction of travel (with the controller) and travel in the reverse direction all the way from top to bottom? Ideally if you could put up photo of both L/H and R/H points points this might be a help. Also do you know if the points are Hornby or a different brand?

A very interesting and enjoyable evening at the museum, many thanks to yourself and your friends there for putting it on. A pity I wasn't able to join ye in Duffy's afterwards unfortunately an early start this morning precluded that (work, the curse of the drinking classes). Your idea about future gatherings sounds like like a good one...