Joined-Up Thinking

Recently one of the followers on our Facebook page posted a comment asking if we'd ever considered connecting together our two Festiniog layouts Dduallt and Minffordd.

It's an interesting question, and the answer why we probably won't includes a number of hurdles we would have to overcome, so I thought it might make the basis of a decent blog piece.

I have to say it's a beguiling idea, and one I've often toyed with while daydreaming.

Long before we embarked on the Minffordd project I would often think wouldn't it be nice to have the space to set up Dduallt as a home layout, and instead of operating it end-to-end between fiddle yards - as we do at exhibitions - make it into a continuous run.

My daydream was always that we could have Dduallt on one side and Tan y Bwlch at the other, perhaps with an exit to a storage / fiddle yard as well, perhaps making use of the truncated route to the disused Moelwyn Tunnel behind the signal box.

That plan has never gone any further than a daydream, however.

So, now that we have two layouts, why not try to connect them now?

Here are the things you'd have to overcome.

HEIGHTS

As you would expect for model of Dduallt Spiral the layout is not flat!

Therefore the entry / exit points to the fiddle yards at each end of the run are at different levels.

Having never compared the measurements it’s also entirely possible that the height off the ground of the FR mainline on Minffordd is different yet again.

To connect them would inevitably involve some degree of ‘ski ramp’ at each end and the height that would have to be climbed by ascending trains would dictate how long these ramps have to be - which would have an impact on the viability of the idea.

CONTROL

As it stands the two layouts are using different systems.

Dduallt was built for plain old DC whereas Minffordd is all-singing DCC with sound.

It wouldn’t be impossible  to lash-up a way to make them work together on either control system, but, you couldn’t use both as once, nor would the stock be interchangeable.

And that’s an issue because Dduallt and its steep gradient was built assuming we would always use heavy white metal or brass locomotives with the traction to pull reasonable trains up the hill.

The latest ready to run locos - lovely as they are - really can’t cope with anything other than  flat layout with our stock.

ERAS

The other consideration - albeit the one that’s easiest to overlook - is that the layouts are set around 20 years apart.

Minffordd is depicted in the generic 1960s and Dduallt at the end of the 1980s with stock that’s anything up to the present day.

ORIENTATION 

The logical thing would be to have the layouts positioned back-to-back.

Unfortunately, that would see Up trains leaving Minffordd emerging on the Deviation on Dduallt as if they’d just left Tanygrisiau,  and the same in the opposite direction.

To be prototypical the connections would need a crossover at some point, making them much more complicated to build.

SPACE

Of course, the biggest obstacle is simply where we would ever find the room to put it all together to test and play with it.

Unless anyone wants to donate a large, secure, space somewhere on the west coast of Scotland to us? No, thought not…

Stayin' Alive

We're still learners when it comes to this DCC malarkey, and every day is a school day.

Take my favourite loco in the Minffordd fleet, the Simplex Mary Ann for example.

When it was re-motored and chipped for its new digital life we managed to squeeze in a stay alive capacitor which was so effective the loco would continue to run for around 10 seconds after it was picked up off the track.

When he was giving the stock a once-over ready for the trip to Porthmadog last week Himself noticed the stay alive didn't appear to be functioning.

We hadn't noticed any particular problem with the loco at the show in Glasgow.

As usual it was superbly reliable and most problems seemed to be caused by route-setting errors resulting in short circuits. 

We did notice some of the other operators giving it a prod every now and then, but assumed that was just operator error.

It was after a while of puzzling that Himself discovered there is a CV setting on these chips which controls how long the stay alive supplies juice for, and adjusting that restored the function.

It was then that the penny dropped.

Towards the end of the first day at the Falkirk show last year Mary Ann developed a strange fault where all the DCC sounds played but there was no drive.

The solution was to reset the decoder - but we made a bit of a beginner's error!

We thought we had moved every other DCC loco to safety by taking them all to the upper fiddle yard and disconnecting the power supply.

We punched the buttons on the handset to reset Mary Ann and it sprung back to life!

And shortly after, every other one of our 009 steam engines began hissing in unison. 

They had all been reset, too!!

But how? We had disconnected the power supply to the fiddle yard!

It transpired that the joints between the scenic board and the yard were close enough that the rails in the yard were still getting some power.

So that was a fun 15 minutes resetting the numbers on every loco in turn....

It's only now we think back to this incident that we realise the CV to control the stay alive must have been reset to 0 in this process.

So much to learn...

Waiting Its Turn

Moelwyn spent the weekend in Glasgow as a static exhibit, once again, lurking at the doorway into the goods shed.

This vintage Baldwin 'tractor ' - a veteran of the First World War - is a loco we have yet to adapt for DCC control, but I'm hoping that can change in time for the next time we have the layout running in Porthmadog in May.

The difficulty is there is nowhere immediately obvious to stuff all the gubbins - the chip, stay-alive capacitor, and speaker - with it hidden from view.

At the moment most of the space inside the bonnet is taken up by the Mashima motor.

I am told that it is possible to retro-fit a very small coreless motor which will create just enough space to hide all the kit and I am seeking advice from those in the know.

The other question is what to use for a sound file.  

As well as its vintage Gardner diesel engine Moelwyn has a very distinctive, rhythmic whine from its gearbox at speed.  

Again, I have hopes that one of our friends with all the right kit will be able to assist us with this.

How useful Moelwyn will prove to be is an open question.

It's built from a Meridian etched brass kit, so it's not featherweight like a 3D print would be, but it still doesn't have the heft of a white metal casting.

What we do know is that on Dduallt it is capable of hauling a couple of carriages up the hill, which is similar to what Britomart can do, so hopefully on Minffordd it will be able to drag a couple of wagons at a time up the ramp from the depths of the yard.

Hopefully, before to long, we will be able to find out.

Short Circuits = Short Fuses

Digital Command Control - or DCC as we have all come to call it - is a wonderful thing, but let's not pretend it doesn't have a lot a downsides.

Many might regard the cost of the chips as the biggest drawback, which is especially the case when you're going for sound as well, because it can sometimes double the price of a new locomotive.

Then there's the complexity of the control handsets themselves.  

A couple of times during the Glasgow show I looked across at some of my fellow operators and saw only furious button pressing and furrowed brows, and no trains moving.....

And at exhibitions I would argue that perhaps the biggest issue is the way that everything on the layout comes to a stop as soon as anything creates a short circuit.

Mostly this is because of simple human error - a failure to check the route has been set before moving off and the loco runs towards point which are set against it.

The problem is affects everything on the system, not just the single train involved.

But as the weekend in Glasgow wore on we began noticing an increasing number of mysterious occasions where a train made up of our set of 'Barn' carriages would come to a stop in the middle of plain track for no apparent reason.

The instinctive reaction each time would be to assume a short had occurred somewhere else on the narrow gauge side of the layout.

(Minffordd is divided into two separate circuits for 009 and 00)

The fiddle yard operators, and the person on shunting duty on the remote controller at the front, would face increasingly irritable accusations and interrogation.  "Was that you, again??!"

By the Sunday afternoon it had happened so often - and there had been so many false accusations bandied about - that the finger of blame started to be pointed at the train itself.

But how?

It was Himself who did the detective work and found the culprit.

It was carriage 14 what did it!

Here's the explanation.

The wheelsets we're using on these carriages are insulated on one side only, which means that on a bogie you need to have both orientated the same way if you are not going to risk creating a short circuit,

This is especially the case when the bogie frames are brass, and the axles fit into brass bearings, because the whole bogie becomes live.

We'd taken care to ensure each bogie on the set had the wheelsets matching.   

What we hadn't done was check that every bogie on every carriage matched.

On carriage 14 we had the wheelsets in the bogies the opposite way round to the rest of the rake.

With us also using brass couplings soldered to a brass bogie, the last line of insulation defence is the paint on the couplings.

As that begins to wear and chip after 3 days of intense running at a show, snaking over crossings and into fiddle yard sidings hundreds of times, it opens up the potential for the different polarities of bogies on adjoining carriages to briefly come into contact with each other, creating the short circuit.

It's simple fix to rotate the wheelsets on the bogies on 14 to they all match now, but it shows how careful you have to be.

More Wickham Trolley Testing

 Our little standard gauge curiosity has been undergoing some test running on Minffordd.

It's coming up to two weeks since our sound-fitted Wickham trolley broke cover with a little video I posted on our other social media feeds of it having an initial test run on one of the club layouts.

It's certainly attracted a lot of attention with the clip having been played more than 50 thousand times on one site alone as I type this!

Although the chip and speaker were as effective as we'd hoped it was clear there were some mechanical tweaks needed.

Traction troubles

These ingenious Bachmann models have the drive hidden in the truck behind, but only one axle - the front - is powered.

On this first test we could see it was struggling to cope with anything beyond billiard-table level track, and on rising grade, on a curve, would slow to a halt with the wheel spinning, and indeed lifting itself up off the track.

Something that tiny is never going to be very heavy so the wheels on the geared axle are fitted with traction tyres, but Himself suspected perhaps this had lost some elasticity - and grip - over time.

The excellent Bachmann Spares website doesn't list traction tyres as an item, but you can buy replacements for the complete front axle, which we did, but replacing them is quite a tricky job because the drive train is packed in there like a watch mechanism!

The other thing we've done, taking a tip from discussion on a forum about these models, is use some lead sheet to make a 'tarpaulin cover' for the ballast load which adds a precious few grammes of mass but enough to keep that powered axle in contact with the rail.

The trolley has now run successfully around the layout, coping with the grades on the main line and also the ramp up into the exchange yard.

It's also had a Modelu crew fitted which will hopefully draw the eye and disguise where the speaker, chip and stay-alive have been hidden.

Here's a clip of it having a test run on Minffordd earlier today.

Chuffin' 'Eck

I've quite often found myself in the situation where you end up saying: "If you can't beat them, join them."

Within my family I'm often reminded that I was the person who was quite determined never to get a mobile phone, and now - like most of us - it has to be almost surgically removed from my grasp.

So it is with DCC power and locomotive sound.

The trigger has been the arrival of 4mm RTR narrow gauge locomotives in recent years.

Himself was first to crack, chipping our Bachmann Baldwin, just to see what it's like.

Then, when the Double Fairlies were released last year, he plumped for one of the sound-fitted versions of Earl of Merioneth, and a DCC controller beneath the Christmas Tree.

A few days ago I was unable to resist placing an order for a be-chipped 'Garrarway-era' Linda.

Himself's techno enthusiasm has been encouraged by fellow modellers at the Greenock club who operate many of their 00 layouts with button-pushing handsets and a cacophony of chuffs, whistles, horns and throbbing.

So it was with much excitement at Manchester that we were able to have a play with a remarkable sound-fitted Bachmann Britomart, which had been adapted by an old friend of ours, John Gay from Digitrains.

As you can hear from the video the effect is really quite remarkable - even running on DC-only - especially considering it was something the manufacturer decided not to attempt.

To achieve it John has placed a speaker in the cab, disguised by model crew who've each had to have one of their legs amputated, and a 'stay alive' capacitor has been hidden in the cab roof.

That really is something to put on the wish list.

Listen Up

He’s leaving it a bit late for a mid-life crisis, but it might be a plausible explanation for Himself’s latest purchase.

Some blokes seek out fast cars - or fast women - but Himself has decided to splash  out on a DCC sound chip for our Baldwin.

The fact that this minute piece of wizardry costs nearly as much as the model itself is just one of the aspects I’ve not yet got my head around.

I recall as a kid wondering aloud why we weren’t getting Zero One controllers for our OO trains and being put in my place about the pointlessness of new fangled technology,  so I’m not sure what to make of this latest development.

I shall be keeping a close eye on his behaviour.....

Dee See See

I spent a happy couple of hours at the weekend helping to operate on one of the Greenock club's layouts at a local exhibition in Renfrewshire and renewing my acquaintance with all things standard gauge.

Inverboyndie is a compact terminus / shunting layout based on Banff in Morayshire in the 1960s but has one link with our layouts because it also has a gravity train feature - loose shunting of carriages in order to get the engine on the other end of the train without the aid of a run round loop (or a second locomotive).

This feature (achieved by cheating with a powered carriage bogie) is made immeasurably easier since the invention of DCC - and it was my first experience of using this new fangled technology.

I can't deny I was impressed but I would be lying if I said I enjoyed it more than running an old-fashioned DC wired layout.

Frankly I found it a bit of a faff!

There's something very intuitive about twiddling a knob to control a train but I didn't get any of that with a DCC handset - it felt more like a double maths period with a scientific calculator in your hand.

There's nothing pleasingly tactile about pushing buttons for me.

Ah, said my friend, but with DCC you're really driving the train, not just controlling a motor, and I could see what he was getting at, because the simulated deceleration does mean you have to concentrate and anticipate what you're doing a lot more.

(It also massively increased the opportunities for pile-ups with inexperienced operators....)

But it was all the upshift, downshift, function x, y and z to control the whooshes, hisses and toots that got my eyes glazing over.

There's an old saying, that people in my trade like to hang on to, that the pictures are better on radio, and part of me thinks that this applies to model railways as well.

I quite like daydreaming and hearing the sounds in my head as I operate a layout rather than having a computer chip in control.

Just me?