Hello from South Devon

[ovener]

Returning to modelling after many years in the wilderness. Egged on by a good friend, lockdown led me to building an N gauge Metcalfe goods shed and then of course it needed a piece of track and a PMV.... Eventually I realised I could fit a u -shaped layout round the walls of my home office with small corner triangles leading onto a bookcase sidings setup. I've also enjoyed making a sort of steampunk inspired wood/brass control panel to indulge my electronics/bodger background. Still a work in progress but plenty to keep me busy. I'm also collecting a few bits (O2, A1X, 4/6 wheel coaches), to make a small IOW inspired OO bookshelf diorama as I spent some time there, partly on the IOW Railway.

 

[Nick Rogers]

Nice to see you over here, old fruit.

Keep up the good work.

All the best,

Nick.

 

[ovener]

Thanks Nick,
here are some photos of my finally completed control panel. My background is in electronics and IT so that part was straightforward enough including making the power distributions PCB's for the base, but working with brass and plywood was quite a steep learning curve. I wanted it to be fairly compact with an Edwardian/steampunk feel, hence the various gauges which are partly there to keep a sort of symmetry. I tried quite a few different nuts and fittings before I was happy with it. The Chestnut red mahogany wood dye was perfect. The block instruments are just photo inserts at the moment but I may try converting to servo operation. There's an Adafruit sound chip Adafruit Audio FX Sound Board + 2x2W Amp - WAV/OGG Trigger -16MB which can play 11 railway sounds (bells, signal arms, whistles etc) driven manually at the moment by an Arduino nano every via the keypad and the silver bell buttons, but could be triggered automatically in future.The controller is a standard Kato winkled out of it's case. I'm not completely sold on the Peco levers (which control Megapoints controllers for points and isolators) but there's a limit to how much I want to spend (I've already bought a Proxxon mini mill to cut holes!) . There are 3 variable, 1 stepped and 2 USB power supplies for lighting etc. The labels are from a Brother labeller but I'm not completely sure that they work, but not clear on what else I could use - maybe some min-etched/engraved brass labels?

 

[paratom]

Wow that's a work of art. Your not related to W Heath Robinson are you?

 

[ovener]

Thank you. Don't know about Heath Robinson, maybe Wallace and Grommet...
It did start off quite simple but then like Topsy sort of grew and grew.
Now I need to get back to finishing the actual model!

 

[Mikemill]

The phrase ’it’s not rocket science’ comes to mind, you could certainly launch a rocket with that bit of kit!!!



Mike

 

[ovener]

Now there's an idea.....
I must admit I was partly inspired by this chap Simon Reynolds who makes beautiful model railway panels, example below
but his are beautifully elegant,

Simon Reynolds Cabinet Maker - Bespoke Handcrafted Wooden Furniture - Banham - Norfolk - Bespoke Model Railway Control Panels and Cabinets - Reynolds Halt

 

[paratom]

Thank you. Don't know about Heath Robinson, maybe Wallace and Grommet...
It did start off quite simple but then like Topsy sort of grew and grew.
Now I need to get back to finishing the actual model!

 

[ovener]

Hmmm, not sure I want to model that in N scale!
I suspect it would work about as well as Brunel's original atmospheric system....
I am currently making an N Wickham trolley etch kit which is quite fiddly enough as a static model, let alone a working one.

One advantage of the mini corner boards on my U layout is that they are removable for working on as I can't comfortably get to them otherwise.
The straights of the U sections are carried by "viaduct" using electrical mini trunking to contain the track and stop things falling off, and then covered with stone/brick card. This is my first effort and let's just say I've learnt a lot. You can see the "viaduct" line behind the monitors which links the corner pieces, and D1075 "Western Womble" at the end of the line.

Richard