Bit more scenery at Stowey Green

Now the Christmas holidays are over I have been able to ‘unhide’ Stowey Green from the corner of the dining room..

I have added a bit more hilly/undulating ground on the main Stowey Green board. I think it helps to prevent the flat baseboard look.

First stage was to glue down some good old polystyrene ..

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Then glue down some J Cloth…

Next I use a mix of poster paints and PVA glue to usually a sort of dark green to use as a base colour for later.
.. This is the finished result – not so easy to see – but will be clearer later.

Emergency Track Laying at Stowey Green

.. Just goes to show that you can never test the track enough…
I discovered that the track in the inner sidings had created what is known as a ‘dog leg’ on the flexible track just after the point.. Which caused some of my locomotives to gaily throw themselves off the track..

So I decided the best course of action was to pull this section of track up and try again…
…. with a bit of steam.. and reasonable care I managed to get the track off.

Fortunately this section of track only had one power connection and a single point to contend with.

So here is the inner section with the re-laid track.

.. In order to be sure of a proper curve this time I used a 2nd radius half curve of track..

After reconnecting the power and refitting the point (and LOTS of testing) the the track was ballasted (again)..

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While I was doing the ballasting I also added a bit more ‘scenery’ as can be seen with the glued down J-Cloth over a few pieces of polystyrene.
I have added a few areas of undulating ground to try and stop everything looking flat..

More Scenery Track Ballasting at Stowey Green

I have been busy working on the hillside scenery and ballasting the track. Unfortunately there are no pictures of the rather messy construction of the ‘hillside’. In keeping with the recycled nature of this layout it was built using the rather messy ‘J cloth’, PVA glue method with bits of polystyrene which was using in the original Burton Crumpnold layout.

Next was the track ballasting.
I found the ballasting process much harder in N the ‘OO’.
The ballast is much finer so even with care it was easy to foul up the points.

Everything has been tested and all seems to be OK, just a bit more cleaning to do to improve the ‘look’ of the track bed.

The next stage is to work out the details of roads and ‘the countryside’.

So here is the layout with all the current buildings. The yellow pencil lines is the proposed ‘road’ using a level crossing towards the top left of the layout.

Full Control at Stowey Green

The control panel for Stowey Green is complete..
.. Here it is with its associated GaugeMaster DS controller all connected up.

With everything connected I have been busy testing all of the ‘Cab Control’ switchable track sections and the point operations.
There were a few issues, mostly involving points going the wrong way, which was easy to fix by swapping a wire. There was only one poor connection which was a pleasant surprise, especially considering how many wires there are, both in the box and under the baseboard…

And this is the view at the back with the 2x 25 way connectors (Track Power & Points) and a 9 way going to the DC GaugeMaster controller,

Next job, after a nice period of just running a few trains, is to ballast the track.

Stowey Green Control Panel is taking Shape

I have been busy with a soldering iron wiring up the innards of the new Stowey Green Control Panel.
.. In typical Kevin Fisher style it is probably ‘over engineered’…

I am planning to put coloured ‘caps’ on the point switches to make the panel easier to use.

Here is a view ‘inside’.

The Point control are the Yellow/Orange wires on the top left, and Power control is Blue/Green top centre – both going to 25way DSub plug/sockets.

The input power from the Gaugemaster controller is on the top right next to the Capacitor Discharge Unit (CDU) which gives the point motors an extra ‘Kick’, all going to a 9 way DSub socket.

All the toggle switches (Power control) and centre return switches (Point control) are at the bottom, which is the front of the box.

NOW.. onto Testing it all…
When everything has been tested I will have a go tidying up any overlong wires.
..I like to keep things a bit ‘loose’ initially in case of any mess ups..

Track Down on the Upper Section of Stowey Green

I have arranged and glued the track for the removeable section of Stowey Green, the track has been wired and holes drilled for the 3 points on the board.

Next job is to tidy up the wiring and attach it to the terminal block, and of course attach the point motors.

I have added the station halt and goods shed to show how the section works,

Stowey Green Underboard Wiring Complete

I have now finished wiring up the points connector to the Stowey Green baseboard.. Apart from a couple of poor connections on the terminal strips everything seems to work…. which was more than a a pleasant surprise…
Looking forward to seeing the ‘Top’ of the board again. I have made out a simple plug that powers the whole board so I can test with some trains without needing the control panel..

More Wiring at Stowey Green

Been rather busy at Home and Work so progress on Stowey Green has been slow.
.. But finally managed to get the Soldering Iron and tools out and have commenced wiring in the Power and Point control connectors to the layout.
Power Plug wired in

Power feeds all connected (White Blue & Green) all done – next job the point control (Red & Yellow)…
.. Proper tidying up will happen when all has been checked and everything has been screwed down…

Welcome to the New Burton Crumpnold Website

Welcome to the seriously overdue ‘New Look’ Burton Crumpnold Website.
.. All the existing content has been included in the new website, together with new pages describing the building of Burton Phoenix have been added.

Further features and news will follow soon.

Best Wishes
Kevin Fisher