Sector Plates

These pics show the cantilevered (I think that is the correct word!) kick-back sector plate arrangements used at each end of the layout. They are obviously of foam-core construction too and are fully removeable for transport purposes. The are fixed and pivoted by a brass screw into a captive top-hat style threaded bearing glued into the baseboard. A removeable brass drive pin locates into the actuating arm underneath through the visible quadrant slot.

Power is transmitted via jack plug leads direct from the main DCC bus. The ends stops are 13mm ali angle with brass screw & nut adjusters. To provide a softer and quieter 'stop' at the end of travel I have used soft silicone rubber cupboard door buffer pads. These are obtainable from DIY stores in self-adhesive sheets.

These sector plates are long enough for two coaches and a 4-6-0 tender loco, the longest train the layout will see. The direct drive from the Tortoise works okay but is probably at the limit of its strength. If I were to do it again I would probably use a mechanism that gives more mechanical advantage to the Tortoise output, and reduce the friction of the sector plate to baseboard interface. The foam-core board has a smooth shiny surface and takes spray dry silcone lubricant okay, so I have got away with it (just)! Balance is also an issue with the design - any longer and some support for the other end of the plate would be required.

The DCC 2 Wire Myth !

This pic shows rather more of the wiring on Niddbeck Bridge, including both copper tape busses. One of the sideways mounted Tortoises which drive the kick-back sector plates can also be seen. These are mounted on 50x50mm aluminium angle, glued to the baseboard. The spring steel drive wire is replaced in this instance by an extended rectangular section Plastruct strip pivoting off a replacment plasticard and brass bolt sliding fulcrum.

The circuit boards seen sticking through the baseboard sides are the LA152 ExpressNet facia panels, shown prior to hooking-up. I think this shot safely dispels the "only two wires needed' DCC myth! DCC certainly simplifies wiring a lot and reduces the amount of wiring required a bit, but there is still plenty of work needed to wire even a small layout such as this.

The underside of the layout now contains in the region of £350 worth of gadgetry - not cheap, and probably not strictly necessary given the size of the layout, but it's purpose in life is that of a DCC test-bed. It will all get re-used on the big layout in due course, so is not money wasted.

Picture of the Installation..

This pic shows 3 of the SEEP magnets that cover the scenic section of the layout and the LS150 accessory decoder unit that controls them. Also visible is a Tortoise point actuator with 'Hare' decoder card attached. The copper strip is self adhesive tape and forms one (black) pole of the DCC main control bus. The other (red) one is out of sight at the top. The small square copper tape pads are terminals for the track feeds which use fine tinned copper wire droppers. Each length of rail has at least 2 feeds, and each feed is fed directly back to the main bus, not daisy-chained. The pad with the blue wire is a point vee feed and is wired into the Hare decoder where polarity is switched digitally. The Tortoises are screwed to plywood bases which are glued to the foam-core board with PU adhesive.

More Uncouplers & More DCC

Further tests on Saturday showed that the ex H&M solenoid coils provided by Mick work okay via the Lenz LS150 and have plenty of 'grunt'.

Due to the ease of mounting the Gaugemaster/SEEP electro-magnets (nice flat PCB baseplate that can be secured in place using double sided tape on the already fixed in place foam-core mounting pads) I have decided to use these to complete the layout. Thanks to Mick for giving me an alternative to play with though!

2mm Webmaster and Hon. Sec. Nigel Cliffe has been in touch following the last posting and reminded me about Mark Fielder's experiments with rare earth magnets for uncoupling purposes. These he sets up on a lever system that brings the magnet up under the track when required and lowers it down when not. These could be DCC controlled if the levers are motorised using a slow-mo point actuator or relay arm. This is certainly something I will try on the big layout in due course.

For the first time this weekend I have been able to 'drive' Niddbeck Bridge under full DCC control. It's really good to be able to sit a few feet away from the layout and control it all from the handheld throttle. Not having to reach for toggles and push buttons on a panel is really liberating! I will of course need a track mimic diagram with all the points and magnets numbered up for the benefit of guest operators.

Other work done this w/e has centred around installing the'Express Net' which allows handheld throttles to be plugged in at various points around the layout. This is a seperate circuit from the main control bus and requires 4 wires from from the LMAB output terminals to be daisy-chained around the layout from socket to socket. For this I am using Lenz LA152 facia mounting outlets. You can use 5-pin DIN plugs for this but the proper facia panels are easier to mount and have several sockets each. I have put one on the front of the layout and two on the back, at each end. This will allow a 2nd operator to join me at exhibitions when an intensive service might be appreciated by the paying public. Like many layouts 'Niddbeck Bridge' has rather more movements going on behind the scenes than out front, and the kick-back nature of the fiddleyard design will also slow things down a little. DCC makes it much easier to add a 2nd operator and get trains marshalled onto the sector plates, ready to go 'scenic'.

This week's project is to construct a ply and aluminium angle floor standing rack unit on which will be mounted the two Lenz transformer power packs and the LZV100 Command Station.

At present I am awaiting a completion date for a house move and most of my workshop and modelling gear is now packed away. Other than these wiring tasks there is not a lot more I can do until I move and get re-established in our new abode. I should be able to add the curved foam-core backscene, as this is a simple Stanley knife, straight edge and glue job but the next modelling task of airbrushing the track and ballasting will have to wait.

Uncoupling Electro-Magnets Under DCC Control

Hi All. Mick has invited me to join the Blog so here I am!

As most of you will know I have been building a large 2mil exhibition Layout 'Pool in Wharfedale' for quite some years now. During 2004/5 it became obvious to me that the DCC revolution was reaching critical mass within the hobby and more importantly that the decoders were becoming small and advanced enough to have useful 2mmFS applications. I reaserched the DCC market during the summer of 2005 and in September that year purchased a Lenz 100 system. I then spent 4 months converting my 2mm loco fleet of 7 engines to DCC using Lenz Gold Mini decoders. Thoughts then turned to the wiring on the layout. A start had already been made based on traditional DC control but it soon became obvious that to get the maximum benefit from DCC it would need wiring differently.

I pondered the problem for a few weeks and during the East Midlands Show last March, where I was assisting Tony Simms on 'Masham' I determined that I would take a break from ''Pool' and construct a small DCC test-bed layout, so I could have a good play with DCC, hopefully learn a few lessons and avoid making errors on the big layout. The lightness of Tony's layout, having a single section Foam-Core baseboard, had always impressed me, plus it's speed and ease of set-up/break-down, so I copied him. The result has been 'Niddbeck Bridge' which most of you will have seen at the Group meeting on DCC last year and at the Shildon AGM. It's a small NER through station inspired by stations the Pateley Bridge branch, with fiddle yard to the rear, accessed by kick-back sector plates at each end.

The past month or so has seen the completion of the track, the installation of track feeds and connection to the DCC 'bus', installation of Tortoise and Hare point actuators and the installation of electro-magnetic uncouplers. The E-M's were to bring the first real problem of the project so far! 'Niddbeck Bridge' has no control panel as I want to try total DCC control of points, sector plates and uncouplers from the DCC throttle keypad.

I have a collection of PK/DG uncoupler E-M's left over from a previous layout and 6 of these were installed around the layout. I then ordered a Lenz LS150 6-way accessory decoder, a device designed to fire-off upto 6 double coil E-M devices such as point solenoids on around 16vAC. It provides a peak current of 3A for one second and 1A thereafter. The first PK/DG E-M connected up promptly tripped the overload protection circuit of the LS150 - not encouraging! I then tried all 9 of my PK/DG's and only one of them would work without tripping out. I should add that the LS150 allows current to flow whilst the button on the throttle is depressed and then has an turn-off delay of between 0.1 and 10 seconds, set by CV programming. It is therefore suitable for uncoupling purposes where power might need to be applied for 5 or 10 seconds or so.

Inspection showed that the one that worked had coil windings with wire around 0.3mm dia and the others had windings of about 0.4mm dia. A chat with Andrew Hartshorne at MSE (new owners of the DG range) confirmed that Nick Dearnaley has altered the spec to thicker wire when he took over from Phil Kerr, and that he was continuing with the same spec. I was either going to have to rewind my PK/DG's or find an alternative product! I had a PECO uncoupler E-M in my collection, so this was tried. Whilst it worked without tripping-out the LS150, I found that it's magnetic field was weak, and would only attract the coupler dropper wire if just proud of the sleeper tops, not a compromise I was prepared to accept, as PK/DG can be buried beneath the ballast, at sleeper bottom height and still work well.

At the BRM Harrogate Show last weekend I sniffed out a Gaugemaster/SEEP uncoupler E-M and purchased one. At the same time a conversation with Mick brought about a suggestion that I try some E-M coils stripped out of old H&M point solenoids, and he has since sent me some to try. The SEEP uncoupler works okay on DCC and seems to have plenty of 'oomph'. I now need to cut some nails as cores to suit Mick's coils and try these out. Hopefully I will then have the solution - watch this space ! The SEEP uncoupler has benefit of having the same footprint at the PK/DG and will suit the already installed mounting pads, saving time.

If anyone wants to buy some 2nd hand PK/DG's then give me a shout!

This picture shows how 08 817 brings Wansbeck Road into the 1980's.

I recently sent Tim Shackleton an article based on the construction of the 08 kit. Although it's fair to say the instructions formed a large part of this article there was still quite a bit of work involved to make it suitable to the wider audience it will have when read in MRJ. Thanks to Chris Higgs for his considerable contribution not only for the design but also his write up which forms part of the article. This present picture is a re-take at Tims request (I'm only doing what the editor asked....!) because there was something about the other colour shot I sent him that wasn't to his liking. I think I know what it was and he's probably right to request another.

Another source of prototype pictures is http://www.martinbray-ukloco.com/class08.htm so paste it into your address bar and pick your locomotive.

Mick S.

The North East Area Group - 2mm Scale Association

This group exists as part of the 2mm Scale Association and as such encourages all aspects of modelling in a scale of 2mm = 1 foot. Mostly although not exclusively we model UK prototypes and the periods modelled can (and do) vary widely.

We are not a model railway club and have no desire to become one. We are simply a group of like minded individuals who all happen to belong to the same modelling association. We meet bi-monthly from February onwards on the 1st or second Saturday in the month at Saint Barnabus Church Hall, Bournmoor, Near Fencehouses, Houghton le Spring in the heart of North East England.

We welcome all to our meetings which generally take the form of an instructional session during which one or more group members discuss/demonstrate how they tackled a particular modelling project. This is always timed to be concluded around 4pm when our ladies, who also attend, provide us with a bit of light refreshment (well it's probably a bit more than that) and a small charge is made which covers the cost of providing the food and paying for the hire of the Church Hall.

Membership of the 2mm Scale Association is not a pre requisite of attendance but beware you may well enjoy your afternoon so much that application for membership follows none too soon afterwards.....!

An 'e' mail request to Mick Simpson at dentoncottages@orange.net will ensure you receive detail of the meetings and their proposed content.

North East Area Group moves into the 21st century

For some time now consideration has been given to the creation of some form of website for the North East Area Group (NEAG). We have been in existence for 25 years now so it's time we had a web link of some sort.

Our official 25th Anniversary birthday celebrations will take place on Saturday 12th May 2007,

There will be plenty to interest the 2mm finescale modeller with 7 layouts including four that have never been seen before together with a spattering of specialist traders, the 2mm Scale Association Shop and a small band of willing demonstrators eager to show different techniques relative to 2mm scale modelling.

Keep visiting this location for more information and watch out for more photographs.

Mick S