Blue Ridge Mountain Railroad Company

[RonnieS]

My assumption is that they neither checked the connections, nor removed the label, on the basis that they hadn’t removed the label.

The guy that installed the electrics sadly passed during covid. I guess no one has noticed the sign. However all club electrics are checked on a yearly basis by a contractor. Perhaps he is scared of spiders.

 

[RonnieS]

Nice visitor, probably a House Spider (Tegenaria species) which is native to the UK - unlike the Daddy Long Legs Spider (Pholcus phalangioides) which is not.

Way back on another layout I was involved with. A non working Peco point motor was due to a Ginormous Spider jammed in the middle area between the lever thingy and the solenoid.

 

[RonnieS]

Nice visitor, probably a House Spider (Tegenaria species) which is native to the UK - unlike the Daddy Long Legs Spider (Pholcus phalangioides) which is not.

Changing my research from B R 1958 - 62 to spiders I found.


A giant spider capable of running half-a-metre per second is invading homes across Britain.
The arachnid grows on average to have a total leg span of up to 7.5cm or around the size of a kiwi but can be as large as 10cm - the diameter of a grapefruit.
According to the Wildlife Trusts the Giant House Spider, which is the larger cousin of the House spider, is one of the fastest invertebrates on the planet and is capable of running up to half-a-metre per second. That means if the spiders were human-sized, they would be able to move at about 140mph.

Faster than Mallard? Or is the scale speed calculation wrong?

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

All sounds plausable in theory.

However, in reality the cubed (and cubed root) calculations come into play on mass and volume i.e. double the size of an object the volume increases by a 8 (2x2x2), increase by 3 the volume increases by 27 (3x3x3), increase by 4 volume increases by 64 (4x4x4) and so on. Therefore a spider enlarged by 25 times to human scale would collapse and suffocate under it's own weight.

Human scale spiders would be a good idea for science fiction though.

 

[simond]

I think it would suffocate (in the current atmosphere) even if it didn’t collapse. I believe they breathe in the same way as insects, via spiracles along the sides of their bodies. This is way less efficient than lungs, particularly as the volume of the body increases.

You do t need a Harry Potter escape just yet…

That said, a few of the real ones can pack a punch. Mostly in Australia, I believe!

 

[RonnieS]

We did think of putting a plastic spider in hereThat's opposite and actually a lifting hole for a removable scenery bit.

A bit of fun? I recall one of the most serious EM modellers I ever knew liked a "mad half hour" at the end of an exhibition. So he had a RAT WAGON! Imagine the scene. Crowds gathered awaiting the next train out of the tunnel.
will it be an A4? A V2? No a plastic rat! Propelled by an J39.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

We did think of putting a plastic spider in here

I would or even a toy mouse for fun . LUL operate several RATs during leaf fall - alas not of the rodent variey though - but Rail Adhesion Trains.

A bit of fun? I recall one of the most serious EM modellers I ever knew liked a "mad half hour" at the end of an exhibition. So he had a RAT WAGON! Imagine the scene. Crowds gathered awaiting the next train out of the tunnel.
will it be an A4? A V2? No a plastic rat! Propelled by an J39.

When I used to help operate a friend's double tracked ÖBB HO layout two of us would have mad hour towards the end of the day by racing trains or by lengthening the trains to occupy the entire layout loop without a gap. At one stage the layout had a small narrow gauge terminus and while the serious punters were watching we ran a N gauge class 47 out of the tunnel for a laugh.

 

[RonnieS]

Almost finished Panel 4. After tryout I shall shrink the shrink-wrap and tidy it up a bit.

 

[RonnieS]

A bit of a minor problem. Although the controller runs the turntable nice and smooth it's a bit fast.
Ideally it needs lower gearing but I don't really want to go down that road if I can avoid it. Any ideas in using a diode or resistor to regulate the speed would be welcome.

 

[RonnieS]

So in theory a 24 Ohm resistor should reduce speed by 60%? Trial and error is the only way I guess.

 

[simond]

I'd try a couple of back to back diodes before I'd try the resistor - each pair will reduce the voltage by ~ 0.7V

a 24R resistor sounds high to me.

hth
Simon

 

[RonnieS]

Thanks' but don't diodes stop current flowing in one direction? so would not 2 back to back stop current altogether?
I have used diodes on a matrix involving multiple points and have some left over so I could do some trials/tests.

 

[RonnieS]

So using trial and error (and jump leads) I will try
an inverse diode pair versus a resistor and see which is the best.

 

[RonnieS]

Funny how thing go off at an angle sometimes. As the Turntable was a S/H item from the club's store of allsorts I thought I would research and see what the motor was. After a bit of searching it turns out it's most of an Expo kit and that the original contained a battery holder (2 AA batteries) so 3V!. No wonder it was too fast! It was not a satisfactory set up either as the bridge was sloppy on the centre pivot. If I can get club funding it's a rebuild using this Motorizing Kits for Peco 00, 0n30, N Gauge and H0m Turntables - Locomotech if you read the info it is at least a 100% improvement?