Gort Station

[Noel]

Calming down now. This pair of droppers are at an awkward point where the layouts main kadee under track uncoupling magnet is placed. The wires hopefully will disappear into the ballast. This single magnet between the goods yard and headhunt will suffice for the entire yard due delayed automatic uncoupling capability of kadee couplings. Its been fully tested prior to ballasting.

Dropper confetti. The next bit will be easier when the short baseboards are rotated on their sides for working on. These pairs will all be connected to DCC dropper boards (WMRC DMcC design) which in turn will be daisy chained to form the main DCC bus.

[Galteemore]

Nice neat wiring. Will be worth it in trouble free running 

[Noel]

Slowly getting there. Hard landscaping and structures done, so ready now for soft landscaping

Looking north in Athenry direction. Afternoon 14:30 Limerick to Claremorris left standing on the platform while the loco is used to shunt the yard.

Looking south towards Ennis/Limerick, the loco shunts cattle wagons ready for the soon to arrive 15:30 Tuam to Limerick goods train to collect the cattle wagons. Then the loco will recouple with the branch passenger train and work to Athenry, Tuam, Claremorris.

[Noel]

Some more pics

 

 

Drone shot

[popeye]

Looks great with the ballast down. 

[Noel]

8 minutes ago, popeye said:

Looks great with the ballast down. 

Cheers, it has to be weathered in a bit yet. It was quite time consuming doing the points while avoiding gluing the mechanism. But figured out a technique eventually.

[Noel]

Doing the ballasting was time consuming and tedious. Used one of these gizmos for the first time, it seems better designed for code 100 track with deeper sleepers than code 75 as it dispenses a little too fast.

After dispensing ballast on straight sections the usual spoon tapping on rails to bounce ballast off the tops of sleepers into the gaps, but not entirely successful so . . .

. . . this vacuum cleaner was useful to remove excess ballast and it was surprising how precise it could be. Ladies attire from a bygone era used to trap the ballast in the slieve of the vacuum cleaner so it could be salvaged and reused and not wasted

Held at the right angle and distance it could remove just the right amount of surplus. Balsa strips wrapped in grease proof paper was used where platform edges would be to limit spread of ballast.

As its a station area ballast shoulders would not exist so material was added between the rails using the usual 50/50% water/PVA mix with a few drops of fairy liquid to eliminate surface tension. Eye dropper seemed the easiest tool to dispense the PVA mix on the pre-wetted ballast.

Ballasting steps

1. Dispense and spread ballast, use paint brush to tweak and adjust
2. Use spoon to tap rails which caused surplus ballast on sleepers to bounce off into gaps between sleepers
3. Use vacuum cleaner and ladies stocking to trim and remove excess ballast mattress so sleeper tops and edges not covered
4. Pre-Spray ballasted track with mist water spray to wet the ballast material (plus few drops of fairy liquid). This helps the PVA solution to quickly seep into ballast and spread evenly through the ballast and to surface track bed foam using capillary action. Be careful to use a gentle fine mist spray and avoid blowing the ballast material is it could be moved by too much pressure.
5. Leave to fully dry for 72hrs
6. Tidy up the few sleepers with ballast glued on top by removing
7. Remove track pins as Ballast has effectively glued the track to the track bed (ie in my case 3mm closed cell dense foam).
8. Weather the ballast using airbrush and rail match sleeper grime acyricly paint (or rail match spray rattle can).
9. Airbrush sleeper grime onto the edges of the rails (ie to simulate weathering and rust). Weathered rust does not look bright red/orange, in reality it looks dull brown.
10. Wipe paint off top of rails while still wet, will make cleaning later much easier (ie using a rubber later).

The PVA mix spreads really easily and well once the ballast has been made wet by fine most spray bottle (ie water plus a few drops of fairly liquid, or IPA). It looks a mess now, but leave it along and to not be tempted to touch it, when dry the PVA will have vanished with no shine nor milky colour.

 

Doing sleepers was really time consuming because one wanted to ensure the point could still move freely without ballast material clogging the blades or accidentally gluing the mechanism. Most of the point can be ballasted quickly but as one gets near the tie bar one needs to be very careful with the eye dropper positioning so no glue get near the point blades nor tie bar.

The next day gaps between the rails were ballasted using a spoon to dispense and 1/2" brush to spread out evenly.

Now leave for 72hrs before removing track pins.

 

 

Edited April 20, 2021 by Noel
Duplicated content removed. Something went wrong when first posted

[Noel]

Some more happenings.  Split the two main baseboards for the first time in nearly a year. Disc cut the tracks and sawed the sleepers and ballast, scalpel had already cut the two layers of 3mm closed cell dense foam, so it was a matter of pulling the two boards carefully part and then reconnecting to ensure 100% alignment. The brass baseboard alignment dowels help.

Light between the two 5ft boards

The join will be disguised with a tiny amount of sacrificial ballast material and perhaps walkway planks. Relived to see that the glued track and ballast is firm enough for good alignment. No need for copper strips for brass screws at rail ends, etc.

Some more scenes 

Provincial wagons Bulleid general open wagon being loaded by dock crane

Goods yard on mart day. Neighbouring builders merchants will be expecting a delivery of a few wagons on the afternoon pick up goods train from Limerick so the cattle wagons will have to be gone before that on the passing Limerick-Galways mixed goods train.

[Edo]

Looking great Noel

[Patrick Davey]

Simply superb 

 

[David Holman]

Atmosphere!

Ballasting going well though you can get away without sawing through it. Rails yes, but gently break the boards apart and the ballast breaks along the grains so when put together again, you get an almost invisible join.

[Noel]

Layout stripped of structures for more wiring. 

 

On its side now for ease of access under the baseboards. Backscene acts as stabiliser while board are on their side.

 

Lots to be done under here. Baseboard sits happily on its side using back scene for added stability.

Made a test harness for fitting the Cobalt Analog point motors which run off a portable 9v battery during fitting and alignment testing. Removed the entering springs from the points.

[David Holman]

Always interesting to see how folk tackle this type of work. Far from my favourite exercise but somewhat essential...

 The battery tester is a really neat idea.

[Noel]

Fitted Cobalt Analog point motors today and wired up the integrated frog polarity switch. Made a portable test harness using a 9v battery and DPDT switch which was useful for testing alignment and throw of the point blades. Really impressed with the Cobalts ease of installation, a little noisy perhaps but at least no 'gun shot' solenoid switch noise. Nice to see blades move more slowly and prototypically. The pressure contacts on the Cobalt PCB makes wiring really easy and swapping frog polarity is really quick and easy to do.

 

 

While these are Analog motors they will be switched digitally using an ADfx8 decoder module, so that cab controls can be used to switch points, but there will also be an AEU encoder wired to a lever frame set of switches plugged in to the Cab bus for physical switching of points. The lever frame will only need two wires connected to it so I will be able to move the lever frame around the layout rather than run a bundle of wiring to each switch. I hope to make a plug in signal box modules and use the same digital interface to control signals.

• Only two wires to each point motor for both power and switching
• Local frog polarity switch on point motor for electrofrog point
• All point motors powered by the ADfx8 decoder
• Only two wires to power and control the ADfx8 decoder from the DCC track bus
• Points can be switch by physical lever frame switches or digitally from DCC cab
• Virtual signal box containing the lever frame switches is portable as it only needs a single cable to connect it into  the CAB bus of the DCC system, so it can be moved between the front and back of layout using just an RJ12/45 plug like a cab. The AEU encoder gets its power from the CAB bus.
• Lever switches short pair of wires to the local AEU board.

 

 

Once the wiring has been 100% tested ready to start the scenic landscaping above the boards

Edited April 27, 2021 by Noel

[Noel]

Ennis/Limerck board wiring is now complete and tested. Had one minor short to sort on one of the Cobalt connector blocks. Test ran loco on DC to check frogs polarity switching ok. Smooth as a button. While I was at it tested the under tack uncoupling magnet as now is the time to rectify any problems. Just in case. So far all good, now finishing the Athernry board wiring. The boards will be connected with 25pin D type computer connectors (ie the type used on RS232 serial printer cables 35 years ago). I'm bored now, what's happening next?  With hindsight it was well worth painting the underside of the base boards even though it seem unnecessary at the time they were constructed, handy for self adhesive cable keeps and tempoary alignment of Cobalt point motors.

[Patrick Davey]

Impressive Noel - particularly as the subject of wiring points is one which I steer well away from.......

Really enjoying your updates on this superb project.

[Georgeconna]

Smashing Noel,

 

Where did you purchase these from?   "self adhesive cable keeps"

[Noel]

7 hours ago, Georgeconna said:

Smashing Noel,

 

Where did you purchase these from?   "self adhesive cable keeps"

Ebay. The actual ones I got are not currently listed but they seem identical to these. They are designed for larger cables but by angling them so that the low voltage wires stay in the opposing jaws they work well.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/20-40-60pcs-wire-storage-clips-buckle-securing-cable-clamp-data-line-finishing-/133527190403?var=&hash=item1f16d73b83

Wiring phase continues: Finished installing the last point motor last night but upon testing discovered there was a mystery short circuit somewhere. Mystery solved today without ripping up ballasted track. Obviously six months ago when I was modifying the peco electro frog points in the usual manner I forgot to remove the two short bridging wires on the point blades of this one point. I managed to sort it without lifting the already ballasted point by micro drilling at 45º angle through sleeper to cut the wires under the point. All good now. Was dreading lifting it. I had correctly bridged the stock rails to the outer ends of the blades. I had spent an hour examining a new point comparing using ammeter with the ballasted one. All I need to do now is solder up the connectors for the two base boards.

Was not dreading the potential need to lift this one. It was the only point I forgot to snip the bridge wires. Rectified without removal via micro drill which cut the bridging wires under the point. 

Will fill and paint over the holes later.

These are the link bridging wires I forgot to snip off this one point last year when preparing them for track laying.

Now to hook up and NCE power cab and switch on. Tested track work using DC yesterday.

[Noel]

Its alive  First DCC test run, a brief shunt

 

Edited May 1, 2021 by Noel

[jhb171achill]

Superb! The picture comes alive!

[Noel]

More running tests today to test wiring of power and point motors. Discovered one minor problem, a 2 inch dead section I'd forgotten a dropper for, easily added and connected to the nearest DCC dropper board. Test below of DCC switch encoder from DCC concepts. Their AEU allows any type of switch to remotely control any DCC accessory decoder on the layout. I chose this method so that my lever switch frame could be portable, and plug into the cab bus anywhere on the layout. Saves wiring looms running all over the place. Saves time. Only eating the pudding will tell how well this will stand the test of time, but so far impressed with the massive amount of wiring work this Cobalt eco system saves and how easy it is to get it all connected together.

Today was spent testing the wiring. First a comprehensive test with an Ammeter revealed one small snag which was easily rectified. Then test with DCC track bus enabled and DCC cab bus enabled. The Cobalt eco system can connect directly to the NCE cab bus. Impressed how easy the DCC concepts Cobalt eco system is to set up and especially impressed how much it simplified and reduced the amount of wiring needed. Saved me literally days of work. The less wiring there is the less there is to go wrong. The Cobalt ADfx8 accessory decoder and Cobalt AEU are the back bone of the system. Can work with ant switch type or any pain motor type, but I opted for Cobalt IP Analog point motors (stall type). Now I can switch points either from the NCE cab control using the accessory mode, or by physically operating switches which I prefer.

Edited May 2, 2021 by Noel

[Georgeconna]

Cracking stuff Noel, you must be well chuffed!

 

[Noel]

1 hour ago, Georgeconna said:

Cracking stuff Noel, you must be well chuffed!

 

Thanks George. Pleasantly surprised that it is coming along, two years ago I doubted I might be able to manage something like this. Also relieved to get over milestone hurdles. Getting the wiring done and debugged was a major relief, cause nothing else can happen until that was fully proven. Relieved and pleased also that the experimental elements worked out (eg double foam layers under track, WMRC quick build lightweight baseboard design, Cobalt Alpha system, etc.). Happy to be able to proceed to the next elements which includes signalling and landscaping. But I may be tempted by some play time shunting goods wagons, delaying next progress steps.

Edited May 3, 2021 by Noel

[Noel]

PLay time! Took a break from construction today to play and try some shunting and test track, point motors and uncoupling magnets. Now that wiring is proven ok, after sufficient play time can proceed to next phase of scenics.

 

[Noel]

Snag markers placed where touching up needed after track and ballast got some gentle weathering.

Using an airbrush away from the work bench was challenging. Some touch ups tomorrow, but rail heads cleaned (ie paint removed) and retested again ok with a 141 on speed step 1 over the points.

[David Holman]

Coming on nicely, Noel. Like the lack of uniformity which is what you get in a station, where brake dust and oil accumulate. The baseboard join is disappearing too.

[Noel]

Nothing significant going on, just snagging out minor tweaks to ballasting and painting. I placed snag markers anywhere I was unhappy with ballasting so today was correction day.

Think I've finally figured out how to ballast point without gluing them seized.

As all the platforms and all major scenic items will be removable and held in place by magnets today I ballasted right up to the edge of the platforms which have been masked with grease proof paper or masking tape for release in 3 or 4 days time when the PVA mix has 100% dried hard. It just didn't look right without ballast running right up to the platform edges. When this is bone dry have some point rodding to run along the track work up to the signal box. Hey ho it never ends.  

[Noel]

Signal box diagram for the virtual signal box lever frame set. Points are in red, signals in purple. Will add a few manual ground signals on for fun too (ie track side levers).

[Noel]

The messy bit has started

[Noel]

Razor saw and hot wire cutter makes working with this stuff easier

[Noel]

The greening of Gort has started. Step one pasture and dry stone walls typical of Co Galway. Lots more to do, but enjoying the landscaping bit. 

Dry stone walls made from strips of foam sanded to simulate stone.

Plaster cloth and some scultamold painted acrylic brown (from art shop).

Its just the beginning, lots of foliage, hedgerows and trees to follow and a bit of flooding in the bottom field.

[Noel]

Made a dogs dinner of fitting the self adhesive back scene from ID. The adhesive just would not stick to the sky blue I had painted onto the 1/4" back scene board. Will have to waste this one and put another non-selfadhesive one on using wallpaper paste.

Colours a bit stark due flash. Hopefully it'll blend in when I add some foliage, hedgerows and some trees. But I'm glad it has a hint of Connemara about it. Looking forward to the next stage of landscaping.

[David Holman]

While the liquid sunshine means Ireland's pastures can be very green in places, I like the subtlety thus far and the method of dry stone walling is very neat too. Indeed 'care and attention to detail' sums up the approach and it's working really well.

[Noel]

Looking forward to the landscaping phase

[Galteemore]

Looking good Noel. Are the cows small or far away ? 

Edited July 8, 2021 by Galteemore