It is a bit of a case of spot the difference with todays picture of the control panel compared to yesterday. However, observant viewers may note that three more switches have appeared up top and the complexity of wiring underneath has increased compared to a few days ago!
This is probably one of the most tedious projects that I have undertaken but the end results will or should be worth it if it all works!
Ploughing along with the control panel to my Last Great Project layout and this is the fourth wiring loom of the seven I need to make to be completed.
As each one gets finished a few more point operating switches appear on the panel.
As they do appear they are also tested. Now I could say that nothing has gone wrong but this is WMD where I tell it like it is warts and all! So, there have been two switches that went into the wrong holes but that was fairly easily rectified. Apart from that, the rest of the creation of this panel has been uneventful but slow! Lets hope that continues although a bit more speed would be useful!
Well, silent as far as model making goes although there has been horticultural activity including potting up these Marigolds. They may be late in the growing season but I am catching up!
The control panel slowly fills up with wires! It may look complex now but by the end it will look even more complex! I just keep in my mind that I am dealing with one wire at a time!
I am also trying to keep things looking as though they are organised and tidy unlike my mind where the plan for all of this exists!
At the present rate of progress I think another two weeks will see it finished and hopefully wotking and working as I envisaged!
On my way to the Rocks By rail Museum today I got a phone call from the Strimmer Hospital to inform me that Sammy Strimmer was now fully recovered and ready to be picked up and so I diverted my journey to do just that.
Back at the Museum, Sammy was pleased to be reunited with his chum Morris Mower and both were soon put to good use! I ventured into the Boneyard where days upon days over the Winter had been spent clearing the vegetation. Unfortunately much has grown back!
However, it is young growth and what took me about four days to clear was cleared with Sammy in about forty minutes!
There is still a lot more to do but with a good head of steam a couple of hours later this month should see what I cleared over the Winter cleared again.
Did I mention steam? Well, steam loco Uppingham was hauled out of the Exhibition Centre looking somewhat bare as the cab has been removed and now sits at the back of the Restoration shed.
This gives easier access to the firebox and for work on the saddle tank,
Back in the Restoration Shed John is continuing work on the Southern brake van aided by Dave.
The metal floor is close to being ready to plank in wood and just needs painting.
Further up the Restoration Shed, steam loco Barrington is slowly coming together with pipework and sandboxes receiving a black top coat of paint.
So, another good day at the Museum and one where I go home with a sense of satisfaction!
Work continues on the control panel with the jig saw of wiring growing but not to the extent of needing a picture to illustrate - yet! Hopefully as the wires are connected and soldered something magical will appear! Not sure what it will be but I am sure it will be magical!
In the meantime, back in mid May in a post (click here) I noted that on a bike ride I saw the local canal at a much lower water level than normal and commented that I would keep an eye on it. Well, two weeks on and 250 more miles on the bike since then this is what the canal looks like.
Magically the water has again disappeared! There is certainly now more mud than water!
Even this duck looks to be concerned about the lack of water! I will endeavour to keep a continued eye on the situation and hopefully get some more cycling miles under my legs! That would be magic!
Work on the control panel continues. Having got the main track power feeds wired in and proven to work the next stage is to get the four sectionalised hidden loops wired in. I could just have powered the loops conventionally but being hidden from my view and with DCC locos having an element of inertia which means even when you turn the throttle off they will still coast for a distance just like the real trains do, being able to turn the power off to the track is useful. First thing to do was add to the already existing looms of wiring.
The yellow wire denotes a feed to a sectionalised section of track.
Within the control panel the wiring for the sectionalised track is added to the main track power feed and then to the central pin on the switch. The other pin will be wired to the relevant output.
Here are the four section switches from up top!
I had to put the control panel in place to test the track power feeds which gave me a first look at how it looks with the track diagram attached and it looks good to me anyway!
Whilst my work so far may look like a birds nest of wires, I have witnessed the pigeons that I blogged about earlier being busy in the hedge that runs behind the Man Cave. Having a bit of a nosey I was taken aback to see a proper nest with nesting pigeon!
Well at least I have an excuse not to cut the hedge which is on Mrs. Woody's list of jobs for me!
I have made many a jigsaw over the years and usually enjoyed them. However, the current jigsaw is not quite as enjoyable as it is the control panel to My Last Great Project 00 gauge layout.
Like a jigsaw it is a case of getting the right part or in this case wire, to the fit the right place. With most jigsaws you get a picture to work to but in this case the picture is in my head which probably is not the best of places for it to be! However, I have wired up the main track power feeds and tested them and amazingly it all works first time! I hope that is a good omen for the rest of the wiring!
One of the few jobs that I completely leave to Mrs. Woody is ironing. Anything else I will do but ironing just is not my thing. Mrs. W on the other hand finds it somewhat therapeutic and usually irons whilst watching another murder mystery TV series - I should really be worried with the amount of these murder programmes she watches! Anyway, yesterday saw the demise of the iron that decided after about 10 years of use it was no longer going to heat up. Whilst with most such items I would have opened it up to have a look and repair if possible I am somewhat dubious about repairing an iron that is held in the hand and has electricity and water! At this point I should point out that I do not watch murder mysteries! So, Mrs. W ordered a new one of her choice from Argos for pick up today.
She did get a bargain as the iron should have been £82 (cough, cough!) but it was on sale at half price and then she got a discount code that brought the final price down to a much more reasonable £31!
Whilst she was collecting said iron, I perused the display shelf which had those items that Argos believe that no one can live without and this was there!
Now as a kid I was aware of various play sets such as a carpenters, or kitchen but never a dentists! Those things in the picture look very realistic too! I think I will just stick to playing trains with my oversized trainset!
Talking of which. unfortunately not a lot of time to do anything to it as not only have I been shopping with Mrs. W but also putting banners out for the Rocks By rail Museum's next events.
Next is a Driver 4 a Fiver that should have been on Fathers Day which this year is on the 21st June. Due to a slight misunderstanding it got advertised on the Museum leaflet as the 14th June. rather than confuse everyone more by moving the already advertised date the event remains on the 14th but I have amended the banner with a "PRE" to the Fathers Day. Not sure what people will make of that but it may make them, look more closely at what the event is!
Those banners are now four years old and I amend them each year with a bit of work and a few cheap materials which saves about £2,000 for each year they get reused. Not sure how much longer they can go on but they have paid for themselves!
In the exciting World Of Woody, I have not only been wiring and soldering switches but also making wiring looms!
This is the first and simplest. Always best to start simple! The loom will take the wiring from the baseboard terminal connector to the control panel terminal connector. In essence it means that I can disconnect individual baseboards from the control panel or indeed the the control panel from the baseboards all without too much fuss! In the interests of my sanity I have been labelling up the point motor wiring so that as I connect into the control panel switches there should not be a need for too much head scratching! I could just do with some time to get on with this but there is a severe lack of that at the moment for me. Just too much excitement too!
