Homage to the great backstreet engineer

 

We’ve been watching Fred Dibnah’s world of Steam, Steel & Stone on Sky catch-up an interesting man! Anyway I decided to pay homage to the great backstreet engineer; on Pix Valley Railway

Sentinel 0-6-0 Diesel shunter next loco project.

24/01/2024

I thought I would get a small industrial loco and name it after my long suffering wife who can’t understand the fascination I have in model making!

R30083 Port of Bristol Authority Sentinel 0-6-0 shunter 0-6-0 arrived direct from Hornby for the modest sum of £57.65 with Hobby Reward points. Out of the box I looked a fair representation of the real thing.

Running in on DC using a rolling road for 30 minutes in each direction all was well.  I then removed the body to fit a DCC chip. However I noticed that the cab was not seated properly no big issue it had to come off to fit the driver. More of an issue is the missing screws from the base plate resulting in the pick up wipers being out of line also the poor fit of the front radiator grill! Fortunately this fell off when I attempted to slip a blade behind to remove it. I now suspect now this is a customer return and somehow was sent out as NEW! 

Looking inside the body there would be sufficient space to fit a sound chip. For the time being I have fitted a ZimoMX617N which works well some slight modification on the wiring to the 6 pin socket was require to remove the capacitor soldering the motor wire directly to the motor terminals.

Removing the cab involved removing the front of the three screws under the body. The driver was secured with black tack to the console desk.  The cab fitted better the cheat line lined up this time. The name plated was fitted and the loco put back onto my layout

At a later date I will order a YouChoos immersive Drive Zimo MS500N and Micro Cube 5 speaker to give “Linda” sound!

Remote uncoupling Part 4

 

01/01/2024
After a short recess over Christmas I have made the harness’s to carry the signal from the MegaPoints Servo Controller to the servos at each end of the layout for reference 
Servo #1 Blue
Servo #2 White
Servo #3 Yellow
Servo #4 Green/Yellow
Servo #5 Blue/Yellow
Servo #6 Black/Yellow
Servo #7  Red

Remote uncoupling Part 3

 

08/12/2023

Still no sign of the servo mounts on order from fair price models 8 days now 1st class Royal Fail! As I had one mount for evaluation purpose I decided to complete and test the first module as a pattern article, I’m pleased with the result mounting on the layout will only involve drilling one hole between the sleepers in the desired location and fixing the module underneath using 2 screws.





09/12/2023
Servo mounts delivered this morning sent 30th November 1st class Royal Fail!




10/12/2023
Servo mounts assembled and ramp modification completed.


11/12/2023
The 6 brass mounting plates that were previously cut and drilled have now got the 3.2mm square tube guide for the ramp lift rod soldered and 6 lengths of 2.4mm square for the ramp lift rod cut to size. That’s all for today

Remote uncoupling Part 2

02/12/2023

Time to revisit the uncoupling! Part 2

Having proven the electronic components and securely mounted them on a sub board it is time to finalise the mechanics.




I decided the abandon the cam design and just use the servo horns.





04/02/2023
I have 6 laser cut servo mounts on order from fair price models when these arrive I will mount them on 6 Doublers 80x46mm cut from 9mm ply for the 3.2mm square tube guide for the ramp lift rod. This will make the alignment with the ramp on the main baseboard easier. It was a little warmer today so I machined a relive shoulder on the 30x30 standoff blocks of plywood to clear the brass mounting plate for the ramp lift rod.










6 brass mounting plates cut and drilled ready for final sizing and assembling.

Remote uncoupling

22/11/2023

Time to revisit the uncoupling issue! I found a lot of my locos bellied on the Hornby/Peco sprung ramps. I bought a Job lot of micro servos a couple of years ago to drive semaphore signals which proved too fragile for motorise operation.
A start on modifying the ramp by reinforcing the underside with 2mm styrene sheet an drilling a 3mm hole to take a section of Albion Alloys 2.4mm square tube SSB2M this is made to slide into Albion Alloys 3.2mm square tube SSB3M.










25/11/2023
Testing the concept on a dummy base board a 4mm hole is drilled though the baseboard between the sleepers to take the 3.2mm square tube to act as the guide for the ramp lift rod it will be soldered to the 12mm wide brass plate to anchor it to the underside of the baseboard. Attached to the ramp is a length of 2.4mm square tube to make the ramp lift rod which will move up driven by the servo motor.

















A manual test proved the setup works as I predicted. In fact it does not matter where on the ramp the couplings are they uncouple due to the ramp moving parallel to the track base Currently I am waiting for a DCC accessory controller board to arrive from Heathcote Electronics.









27/11/2023
The DCC accessory controller board arrived from Heathcote Electronics this morning testing will have to wait. As I am working on the servo eccentric cam I found that 8 gauge white screw caps would make a suitable basis for the cam I block of plywood is cut to make the standoff to mount the servo.








I have a MegaPoints Servo Controller from the aborted semaphore signals project which I hope to interface with the Heathcote Electronics DCC accessory controller board to drive the uncoupling ramps located in the station termini 3 in each end of the layout. This afternoon testing the concept on the dummy base board using the MegaPoints Servo Controller worked lifting the ramp up by 2-3 mm see the video

28/11/2023
The finishing tape is almost in sight! I spent an hour or so in the loft wiring up the dummy base board to the MegaPoints Servo Controller [only the one servo]; programmed the Heathcote Electronics DCC accessory to address 100 and interfaced the two boards using the opto isolator output yes it worked now I have some fine fettling to do on the servo eccentric cam and lift rod before I make 6 identical units.


29/11/2023 07:45

Continuing refining the design I knew I had some clear plastic rod stashed away in the workshop, eventually I found the elusive ½ inch round Perspex bar; I will use this to replace the 8 gauge white screw caps I’ll part off several 5mm disks for the cams later today.


6 block of plywood cut to make the standoff to mount the servo.

Guess who bought a tractor from Great Eastern Models?

 

18/11/2023

I succumbed to purchasing another locomotive this time a Class 37/0 D6704 from Accurascale sound fitted from the factory like all Accurascale locos I have I can’t fault it. I have only run it in on the rolling road and taken it one length of the layout 24 feet!

https://www.greateasternmodels.co.uk/