Tuesday, 31 July 2012

Power to the people

Today I started work on the rewiring/wiring of St Ruth and the big hill. I decided where and how to mount the controller and the control panel. The first picture shows the controller on it's new shelf and the sheet of styrene taped in place, it will be slightly smaller than the whole sheet. It needs to have space for 10 point switches, about the same sections and seven or eight signal controls and a diagram. Dapol need to get on and produce the bracket signal. Previously I've put switches into a diagram but it makes the wiring more confused on the back and once you learn your way round the controls it's no quicker.


The existing wiring all comes down the fifty way multi-core cable that used to connect to the old control panel. Hopefully I can find the notebook where I wrote down what is connected to what... if not I'm not sure how to approach it. I drilled holes in the baseboard cross members to get the big cable to where the new panel will be and it comes to the right place. Next job is to fit switches and brace the panel, a bit more of my marvellous carpentry... oh dear.


I can't wait to get this done and all working so that I can get on with the scenery and playing trains. The Gaugemaster double controller will control the lighthouse branch and the mainline into the loop, right hand running a la FR, when I build the rest of the line I will use another controller for the balance of the mainline and the works. This will be the handheld unit I use for Underhill so that I can follow the trains round the garage without having eyes in the back of my head.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous4 August 2012 at 15:06

    I don't envy you with this job, I hate electronics because just when I think I've sussed it something shorts or is wired up wrongly! Hope you manage to get it all plumbed in successfully :)

    T

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  2. Lord Stoner5 August 2012 at 01:27

    Hi

    I'm not too bad with the old soldering iron and if I was starting from scratch it wouldn't be too bad, dull but OK. Its the joining the old and new together that worries me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Huw Einion Jones7 August 2012 at 14:35

    Hello,
    I've just found this blog, looks very good, looking foreward to see the layout progress. I had a look through your previous post and in one of the photographs, i noticed you have just the thing i'm looking for, a small narrow gauge sized signal! Where did you get it from?
    Was it a kit or a 'Ready to Run' signal?
    Many Thanks
    Huw Jones

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  4. Festshopman8 August 2012 at 01:19

    Hi, glad you like it.

    I've got 2 signals so far. One is the Chris Veitch FR disk signal which is an etched nickel silver kit. The other is a modified Dapol n gauge GWR signal. The Dapol one is great and fully working with even a light. If you rummage back to about May there are some pics of the mods. They are also going to do a bracket version with two arms which will be perfect for the home signal for St Ruth.

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