April 2015

A general thank you once again for all the help with Abbotstone at Alexandra Palace. The general feeling was that many enjoyed the layout and our ability to keep several locomotives moving at once was appreciated.
Whether we accept future outings will very much depend on the support from members of the club as you will now appreciate it is a beast to move, erect and takes many to operate.

OO Gauge Matters

Track work - Sleeper Works

Final track arrangements for the works track are almost completed and were assisted by the visit of another man who had worked on the site. The issue, as always, has been the compromise between the buildings that are considered "essential" to represent the prototype activity and the space available!

More card/wood "mock ups" have proven invaluable and the final arrangement is almost ready for presentation

Further track laying on the "works board" has recommenced and the painting of the section beyond the Romsey junction has been started.

Wiring & Electrical Sections

The "Junction Box" has been built and the tag-strips etc. installed. This has allowed continuity checks on the wiring connections to and across the baseboards.

The lack of suitable "of the shelf" inter-board cabling systems has led to the adoption of SCART connectors wired by the team.

Point work Control

Almost all point work (scenic section and the fiddle yard) has been completed with final tie bars. The point control servos are almost all installed and have been tested using an Arduino and a simple Servo exerciser. Final micro switches are being linked to tie bars to switch the point polarity.

Future Work - Buildings

Following the completion of the track laying and "electrical" work described above activity will focused on producing the "essential buildings and features" mentioned above and programming constriction work on the many buildings!

Essential buildings include: the Creosote Plant, Foundry, Sawmill, Test estuary side buildings and Timbers Merchants.

Signalling

Further work is required to determine the signalling system (signal and control) allowing for semaphore and colour light alternatives.

EM gauge Matters 

David Deere-Jones has kindly offered to host the Summer Party at his home once again. His delayed move to Australia has worked in our favour.

 More details nearer the time, but please put the date in your diaries. It will be a chance to wish him a fond farewell.