Not The Hill in Wales

SimonT

SimonT

Western Thunderer
Chaps,
I realise that is probably about time to start a thread about Aberbeeg; so here we go. I will post pictures on the new stock and the changes to come on the layout as I turn it into 1963, as the first diesels appear to start to replace the steam. The photograph below was taken this weekend at the Leeds show when we had enough and decided to play. A video will follow in due course.

IMG_0661-001.JPG

All the wotsit

Simon
 
Dikitriki

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Hi Simon

Great to see a thread on Aberbeeg. I'm particularly delighted and interested to see it backdated to 1963, and a separate thread on the appropriate stock would be great too.

Richard
 
adrian

adrian

Flying Squad
SteveO said:
This looks huge! Surely not 7mm?
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Scale7 - and it is big. I saw it at York and like usual the photo's don't show the incline from the lower fiddle yard to the upper one, hopefully Simon will be able to quote the height differential. It is very impressive.
 
SimonT

SimonT

Western Thunderer
Thank you for your comments boys. The layout is indeed Sshh7 and at exhibitions it occupies 16.5m by 6m (that's 51ft 2.173228in by 19ft 8.220472in in S7 carpentry units, my carpentry is a lot more relaxed). As Adrian says, the layout was in the Warley edition of RM last year. I don't have a blog, not my sort of thing, but I have a large folder of photographs and I will post a history on here if there is appetite for the construction of Aberbeeg.

Noooooooooooo.............. :eek: :(

:D you know where this is heading... :rolleyes: ;)
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YESSSSSSSSS! But look at the photograph more closely. There are two of Dr John's Cargobarges in the yard. So there will be an element of coming forward in history. Anyway, 1963 will have 9Fs and Pannier Tanks banking with permissive block working to get the bankers back down the hill.

All the wotsit

Simon
 
SimonT

SimonT

Western Thunderer
Rob - tacit! Your Brightwell Challenge is accepted as I now have a design and a model of a model (but no name). Best that I do some building

Jon, thank you. The signals are the work of Peter Kibble and all work, even the triple stacker doll. The four gantrys are underway at Kibble Works. The operation of the signals suffers from the curse of the Chinese. I use the same operation method as Peter used on Seven Magna - a specified Maplin relay with a brass arm that engages into an upside stirrup on the operating wire of the signal arm. These worked perfectly on Magna. We have constant problems with the relay rocking arm jumping out of relay frame or sticking. None of the 40 relays in stock are assembled the same. Maplin may give a low price but the quality is appalling. I am looking at servos as Post Office relays seem to be like dragon teeth.

All the Wotsit

Simon
 
JimG

JimG

Western Thunderer
SimonT said:
I am looking at servos as Post Office relays seem to be like dragon teeth.
Click to expand...

Simon,

Do you want some? :) I have a box in my workshop of PO3000 relays salvaged from BBC studio upgrades in Glasgow in the 1970s - platinum contacts too. :) The coils are of various resistances so you might have to arrange appropriate voltages to get them to work properly. I have used 24V and 48V supplies for these relays to get them to work well - especially with a stack of contacts on them. I can go and have a dig in the box to see what resistances I have.

Jim.
 
Compton castle

Compton castle

Western Thunderer
I would love to see more pics of this layout I only live over in the next valley and I drove up through the through there on Wednesday. Great to hear it's being back dated lots of lovely 9fs and 42 tanks slogging there way up the valley.
 
SimonT

SimonT

Western Thunderer
Jim
Do you want some? :) I have a box in my workshop of PO3000 relays salvaged from BBC studio upgrades in Glasgow in the 1970s - platinum contacts too. :) The coils are of various resistances so you might have to arrange appropriate voltages to get them to work properly. I have used 24V and 48V supplies for these relays to get them to work well - especially with a stack of contacts on them. I can go and have a dig in the box to see what resistances I have.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your offer. Can I be cheeky and keep you as first reserve as I am still exploring the servo option?

Plot for the back date is to try to build a 37 body or two to swop with the blue body so that I can run those first diesels with the steam fleet. I am also looking at doing the same with the Class 117. That way I can run blue as now and also run the 1960 period. Of course at home I will run what I want and this afternoon the Cargobarge went up the hill behind the 56XX. I rather liked the look.
 
JimG

JimG

Western Thunderer
SimonT said:
Thank you for your offer. Can I be cheeky and keep you as first reserve as I am still exploring the servo option?
Click to expand...

Simon,

They're not going anywhere fast =- they've been maturing in the workshop for about forty years. :) Funnily enough I was just having an exchange of emails with Jas Millham about his new S scale layout the other day and noted that he was using PO3000 relays to operate his pointwork. I had intended to use servos on my layout but started having thoughts about using relays again. :)

Jim.
 
Jon Fitness

Jon Fitness

Western Thunderer
SimonT said:
Rob - tacit! Your Brightwell Challenge is accepted as I now have a design and a model of a model (but no name). Best that I do some building

Jon, thank you. The signals are the work of Peter Kibble and all work, even the triple stacker doll. The four gantrys are underway at Kibble Works. The operation of the signals suffers from the curse of the Chinese. I use the same operation method as Peter used on Seven Magna - a specified Maplin relay with a brass arm that engages into an upside stirrup on the operating wire of the signal arm. These worked perfectly on Magna. We have constant problems with the relay rocking arm jumping out of relay frame or sticking. None of the 40 relays in stock are assembled the same. Maplin may give a low price but the quality is appalling. I am looking at servos as Post Office relays seem to be like dragon teeth.

All the Wotsit

Simon
Click to expand...
I've been using servos on my signals for about 5 years now and they seem fine mechanically. As the ones I use (SG90s) are quite small they are easy to stack under the signals. I tend to fix them directly to the signal base so the whole signal/servo assembly can be removed for maintenance/repair. I use the MERG servo4 boards as they are quite good value (build them from kits) and appear to be reliable although (and this is the only major drawback of servos) they will quickly let you know which of your locos has poor pickups! The wires can pick up stray messages from them and make the servos twitch a bit:confused:
Jon F.
 
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