Drummond 700 “Black motor”

The latest arrival on Pix Valley is a Drummond 700 “Black motor” 30698. A superb model but with a couple of quirks, both the couplings fall off the chassis the triangular moulding on the NEM housing is to narrow and the other issue is fitting a DCC chip into the tender there is not enough room with the three weights . Anybody had the same issues? I opted for the recommended small 8pin chip from Hattons.

Major engineering works

It has been a little quite of lately on Pix Valley. But with the arrival of Gresley A4 pacific "Gadwall" for the summer excursions it became apparent that the passing loop was to short. In consultation with the permanent way department a plan was formulated. This consists of a 6 inch extension to the loop. In order to facilitate this 16 feet of track had to be removed and a 6 inch plug inserted. Before the whole section could be reunited. 

6 inch plug

Locomotives move to the other shed

Disassembly of boards

Around 16 feet of boards moved

All for this  6 inch plug

The Chiltern Model Railway Exhibition

A quick visit to The Chiltern Model Railway Exhibition in Stevenage on the 14/01/2017 as I was on a mission and the halls were rammed full I made for Megapoints controllers and purchased the servo controller. A short while later I bumped into a fellow club member who told me that TTCdiecast had some not to be missed show bargains. I could not resist so I purchased Hornby 6947 Helmingham Hall a good sized locomotive for Pix Valley. Back home on to Ebay and ordered 10 micro servos for £13.50 more to follow on the signalling.

Lima Mk 1 coach lighting a more elegant solution

A small circuit that will work equally as well on DC or DCC

Components required:-

BR1 1 amp bridge rectifier

R1 2k ½ Watt resistor

C1  4.7 uF Radial Electrolytic Capacitor 

Cheap Lima Mk 1 coach lighting

Pix valley is a DCC heritage layout, with that in mind 5M White 300 SMD 12V LED flexible strip Purchased from Ebay at around £ 6.00. This is easily cut to length with sharp scissors. A strip of brass shim 3 cm by .6 cm needs to be cut as shown in the photograph and fixed to the bogie with short 2mm screws.

A length of the LED flexible strip is cut to the required length and taped to a piece of wood covering the solder pads the whole length is sprayed with white undercoat and finally a top coat of yellow. The wiring is fed though the bogie soldered to the LED strip with a 1K ohm resistor in series. Carefully sticking the LED strip to the roof of the coach; the result is a rather pleasing warm light.

There is a small bleed of light from the top of the body and roof that will need addressing. 

Arlesworth 30 foot platform extension.

Something I have been planning for a while now is the platform extension at Arlesworth. In a major feat of engineering the whole of the platform was lifted and moved 30 ft to allow a new section to be inserted. Now I can eventually install some signalling but more of that later I have some research on type and positioning of the signals. 

GWR AEC railcar Ultrascale wheels revised pickups

All the chassis is finished and tested and proves to run smoothly at all speeds and over my entire track work, which is not the best laid in the world! I am now going on the re-spray the body shell after the festive season.