Secret Panels

Himself was thinking ahead and anticipating worst-case scenarios when he designed Minffordd, and he was careful to allow access in the event of a major failure or track relaying being required.

That's why there is a six-inch-long section of the narrow gauge lines at the Porthmadog end which can be lifted out to get at the Cambrian fiddle yard points hidden underneath.

At the moment he's investigating a curious fault with the route-setting function.

At each end of the Cambrian yard control panel is a rotary switch where the operator selects which road they require, press a single button, and a matrix of diodes and relays set the points accordingly.

During the Glasgow show we noticed when you had Road 1 selected, and wanted to change to Road 4 the 'king point'  - where roads 1-2 and 3-4 d split - would not move.

However, if you select Road 3 instead, the point will switch as it should, and you can then make a follow-up request for Road 4.

This explains a number of strange head-on collisions in the fiddle yard during the show which baffled the operators who were quite sure they had changed the points, and the LED indictor on the panel backed them up!

So one of the items on the snagging list to be tackled before the next appearance in Porthmadog is to find out what is causing this.

Removing this 'secret panel' makes it much easier to see what's going on under there and whether the point is being switched when it should be.

We Have Control

Most of yesterday was spent installing this beauty.

Yes, you're right, it is probably overkill for a 'test track' but I did say we were doing this properly!

Himself spent the last week building one of his by now standard control panels which we also have on Dduallt and Bron Hebog.

This one features a colour-coded track layout (in Dymo tape) which shows isolating sections, and includes triple-pole section switches for 'cab control' on the main lines, simple switches for isolating sections in sidings, centre-spring switches for point control and push button route selection for the three-way points in the depots.

Two panel mount Gaugemaster controllers will be placed in the white space on either side in due course.

Wiring this lot up, however, could take some time, especially because it's being designed to be removable, which is complicating things a lot.

The narrow gauge circuit, when it's built, will be controlled from a smaller separate panel.

What’s The Point?

Some running repairs have been required to the fiddle yards following our exhibition outing.

A couple of the points became a bit iffy over the weekend, needing repeated presses of the push buttons - and a burst from the CPU - to throw.

Another one had a freak failure of the shaft connecting the motor and the point.

All those dodgy units have now been replaced.

It’s remarkable that we should have so many fail in one weekend given how those installed on Dduallt have done nearly 30 years.

One of the rotary switches to select the roads has been changed - a big job with so many connections to be unsoldered and replaced - and there were a number of failed LEDS to be renewed.

Components are not what they used to be, it seems..

Fairy Lights

.Himself has been busy wiring up the fiddle yard control panels which are festooned with LEDs

I must confess I'm not entirely sure I understand how they work myself so the show at Dinas next month is going to be a steep learning curve for the entire operating team.

From what I can gather the red LEDs indicate the isolated sections for loco holding as stabling.

(What I don't know yet is whether light on means the section is live or dead - I can see collisions!)

And the green ones show which road / route has been selected.

I'm presuming that the rotary switch relates to the maze of point work at the yard throats and the ones at the run round end are linked to the vertical switches controlling the direction of the points connected to the head shunts.

What's truly remarkable about all this, if you ask me, is that it's entirely analogue and there's not a DCC chip anywhere to be seen.

Which is just how it should be.