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Gauge 1, 2 rail electric garden railway, by Pat Honey.
CHAPTER 9:- OPERATION and CONCLUSIONS.
As I am building this railway from scratch it seemed too good an opportunity not to investigate the availability of modern control power systems and compare them with the traditional ones I had been acquainted with.
I made extensive enquiries about DCC from different suppliers, contemplated radio control but decided that conventional sectioning of track, manual operation of controller and signals was nearer to the prototype, giving the opportunity to have a signalman and a separate person driving the trains and the layout was designed thus.
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ELECTRICS:
It is crucial in Gauge 1 that the power for the layout is adequate for the job and therefore all transformers and ancillary electric power sources have been supplied, after consultation, by All Components.
For loco power:- MT 10 Digitrax transformer,15volt DC @ 2.5 amps.
For lighting:- (yard lamps and buildings etc) MT5 Digitrax transformer, 12 volts AC @ 4 amps.
For point motor operation:- MT5 Digitrax transformer, 24 volt AC @ 5 amps and with a heavy duty built in capacitor discharge unit.
For signal power:- Victor transformer, 12 volt DC @ 2.5 amps.
NOTE:- To make the electric side of the layout foolproof and eliminate the risk of any fire problems I strongly recommend that ALL TRANSFORMERS are FED from a 4 or 6 outlet plug bar and that a master ON/OFF switch (illuminated if possible) is at the feed end of the plug bar - this becomes, in effect, a layout MASTER SWITCH which eliminates any chance of leaving something on when closing it down
I had already decided to operate all points and signals from a central console (as in real practice) and for one person operation the controller is here as well.
ELECTRICS: wiring:
From the outset I decided to use new wire where possible and to stick to a rigid colour coding of all wiring on the layout as follows:-
All 240v mains feed wires to plug outlets are white outer cover, the 240v wires from plugs to transformers etc are black
As all track is wired for feed and return (except for point frogs) I have made all the DC track feed wires - including end rail bonding wires - brown. All return wiring, via the panel section switch is blue.
The 16v AC wires between the micro switches and point frogs are green.
The 24v AC wiring to all Point motors from the switch bank is bright yellow outer cover mains wire giving each point motor run 3 wires internally, the earth being used as the common feed to motor and the live and neutral being used as left or right switching.
The 12v AC Lighting loom of positive and negative is two lengths of uncovered tinned copper wire stretching the whole length of the layout and the connections from the street / building / signal lights etc to the loom are all fine white bellwire (not to be confused with 240v mains white heavy duty cable).
All wires for standard signals solenoids power are red outer covering giving two internal wires from switch to solenoids, the feed being the brown and the return via the panel switch is the blue one.
The feeds to the signal lights are via a separate 12v DC circuit of white wire with a black line on it to differentiate from the other building and street lamp circuits.
All the wires for ground signals are twin core black outer covering, utilising the brown as the feed and the blue as the return via the panel switch.
For track circuit on sidings I have used pink and purple.
I have incorporated a tidy wiring practice right from the start, numbering wires where applicable, as over the years this will make circuit tracing so easy.
No wires are allowed to sag down from the baseboard but are collected and tied up in a neat manner.
One of the operating panels consists of a bank of ex GPO switches , with coloured handles to operate points only, this is very easily removable in one piece with wires attached and can be turned over to make wiring etc easy.
These are multi contacted and extremely robust in construction, very neat in banks, colour tops are YELLOW / main line points. BLUE / yard points. RED / signals. BLACK / spare. They will never wear out, plus they have the added ability to be adjusted to give a rebound effect either way back to neutral.
They are still available from ex Govt sources or the Telephone historic Groups - I sourced enough by using the web.
They are usually in banks of ten and have interchangeable coloured screw on caps which can be used to denote purpose of switch
The other main panel I built using switches bought from All Components, 40 in all of which one (black) is for the lighting circuit, 8 (6 red and 2 green) for signal operation and the rest for the sectioning of the layout (30) leaving 1 spare.
This unit is a box on a long piano hinge and can be tilted up to allow easy access to switch tags etc, makes life easy.
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POINTS.
I have 3 x 3 way and 1 x single slip and as with the others supplied by Markway, they are built up of plywood sleepers capped with copper clad sheet and nickel silver rail soldered on - they are supplied as ready for 2 rail application. NOTE:- never solder bonding wires to the copper clad sleeper / always solder direct to rail end etc !
NOTE:- However with their plywood sleeper bases I would not contemplate Markway points for outdoor use, I would consider the alternative plastic sleepered ones available from Tenmille, which I have seen on other layouts, in perfect condition even after having been down in the elements for 10 years.
On all of them I have totally isolated each frog unit and these are switched to the correct polarity by the use of 2 inch arm Micro switches from Maplins, these are manually moved by the point tie bar.
With the out of sight points, I have incorporated a switched indicator unit by Heathfield Electronics which has lights set into the panel to show if these points have changed properly.
For the point operation I have stuck with the old Hammant and Morgan unit - on my old '0' gauge garden line I found that these, when properly installed and set up gave faultless performance under all conditions.
However for use on Gauge 1 points I had to extend the length of the operating arm to get enough throw on the tie bar - they are wired up and operated in the traditional manner from a separate power source and via a bank of switches in one location - as they would be in the prototype.
This set up will include the use of a capacitor discharge unit to increase the effectiveness of the power output.
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SIGNALLING.
These are prototype working GWR lower quadrant style and were built for me by Derek Mundy, correct lighting is used and they are all separately switched via the bank of RED signal switches on the panel.
The lights are on a separate power supply from the operating solenoids - the lights being permanently ON.
The ground signals (Derek Ascott) are made up from kits and are properly lit and manually operated from the point tie bar.
Misc systems incorporated:-
At the moment 2 locomotives are fitted with 6v ZEUTH smoke systems and it is hoped to eventually have all steam locos so fitted.
All the locomotives, will be fitted with the correct sound system.
All passenger rolling stock will have interior lighting and working tail lamps.
All relevant buildings are internally lit and over the whole layout, either yard gas lamps or street lighting is incorporated - this will eventually lead to the railway being operated at night using appropriate scale lighting only, as I did so successfully with my large outdoor 7mm line at Black Park.
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OPERATION.
As and when everything is working correctly, a timetable for passenger working will be worked out and implemented using the flip over card index system - slots in this will be made for incoming and departing goods traffic - an interesting concept.
I have the feed fiddle yard in the garage linked by 2 cameras to screens in the operation area, and is track circuit indicated on panel as well, thus most of the action can be done from the station area - ideal when operating single handed
The final intention was to run on to the garage and in Aug 2009, this has now been achieved and I now have 4 through sidings and the track then continues via a "Y" to either return to the main station OR veer right and complete a full outdoor circuit and the existing 3 track fiddle yard has now become 1 passing siding and a feed back in from garage to form the complete circuit.
In August 2009 I bit the bullet and double tracked the garden circuit with 3 through sidings in the Garage to form the DOWN line. (See new Galleries: "Garden layout" and "Sidings")
So starting in late August the Bridge was dismantled and rebuilt to accommodate the extra 4 inches needed and 4 inches was added to the internal side of the baseboard run around the garden - suitably felted etc and all of the track on the outside part of the layout was laid, all necessary line side fencing etc was completed and the 3 through extra DOWN sidings in the garage were laid, leaving just the electrics and point operations to complete hopefully to be ready for the spring 0f 2010.
I have in effect now created 3 layouts:
Using controller "A". and the main panel: (with 5 x small CCTV screens as part of the control set up giving coverage of all the outside layout and the through sidings in the garage).
1): From the station, trains can be dispatched to 2 outside sidings - thus creating an end to end layout, this is mainly to run the station with shunting operations. (All this area is covered from the rain).
2): From the station, trains can be despatched and sent all the way around the garden and through the "42 through siding complex on the UP line" continue on via the diamond junction to return back into the station again.
When using this system a station pilot engine is required to take trains out again and release the incoming engine - which in its turn becomes the station pilot !
3): The outside UP and DOWN circuits - using the "4 UP / 3 DOWN through sidings, can be operated independently of the station and give continuous running for steam or electric traction.
When electric is in use, on both Up and DOWN circuits 2.5 amp All Components transformers and small panel, in the Garage, is used to give the power source and extended 30ft lead hand held controllers allows control to be given from anywhere in the garden, as all the electric engines are fitted with modern can motors (Mostly Crailcrest) most of the trains running outside are double headed.
Sound system:
The outside double track layout was fitted with the "RAS" Model railway sound system in October 2009, this has been done using the system built by Robert Smith and all the details can be seen on his website: www.rosewarnejunction.me.uk.
Reed switches are placed in the track outside of the Garage and as all locos carry a magnet underneath - all approaching trains from either direction WHISTLE as they are about to enter the siding area.
Thus full electronic sound of steam loco's running has been added - this varies with each train. 2 large speakers are installed in the garage with volume control OR I can use headphones and silence the speakers, if annoyance to neighbours is possible.
The addition of the variable steam loco sound system adds a new dimension to running the layout, exhaust beats variable with speed / coasting / wheel slip / blow off / whistles etc, you have to see and hear it to get the full impression.
NOW YOU CAN !
DENBURY on U Tube. (My garden railway by Pat Honey).
There are nearly 7 minutes on this DVD compilation - so best let it load first time and watch it on replay for best effect.
I only finished the double track by September and these were filmed on the last running before the winter and sound had only just been installed as well, so I now have to get used to it.
The 2 Midland Railway steam loco's are not mine - visitor Peter Johnston - I expect many more visiting live steam engines to run here in the future !
More filming etc next year and with practice I will have the sound spot on !.
Link to "U Tube" video below:- copy and paste:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqxXWmKy_fY
OR: open up "U" Tube and put in:
GWR Gauge 1 electric Garden Railway - this will find it..
Pat Honey.
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Gallery: 9 Operations
These photographs - taken at different times - are to give you some idea of what was involved in building DENBURY. I can supply hundreds more on disc to any interested party subject to the condition that they are not used for any commercial purpose whatsoever without my written consent. Most basic information is on each photograph but for any queries or further information then contact me. Pat Honey.
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