Orchard Wharf

[BenWeiner]

Oops, missed this Port of London Authority (PLA) thread on RM Web. I'd better follow it now. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/167570-port-of-london-authority-pla-brake-van-liveries/

Naturally enough the content is broader than the thread title suggests. Some very good photographs in there too!

[BenWeiner]

3 minutes ago, BenWeiner said:

Naturally enough the content is broader than the thread title suggests.

Lots of interesting rolling stock info...

[jamespetts]

5 hours ago, BenWeiner said:

Oops, missed this Port of London Authority (PLA) thread on RM Web. I'd better follow it now. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/167570-port-of-london-authority-pla-brake-van-liveries/

Naturally enough the content is broader than the thread title suggests. Some very good photographs in there too!

Interesting. I note in particular the prevalence of former pre-grouping wagons (including from the LSWR) in the PLA fleet. This might perhaps be represented by a repaint of some recently released item or other.

Incidentally, I have left some 24/0.2 and 32/0.2 red wire and some servo extender cables atop the boxes used for the layout in the Centenary Room this evening.

[BenWeiner]

@jamespetts many thanks for the supplies!

Yesterday I tackled the short on board 2 high level DCC. This occupied roughly five hours! It was due to three places where copperclad sleepers were not isolated. In a couple of cases you would never have known there was a connection -- but there was!

After that I connected up all the servocross modules on board 2 high level - about 1.5 hours, which given there are four allows us to estimate how long it will take to do the rest.

Again a day with no visible progress but plenty of effort expended. I'm looking forward to having a larger team in the coming weeks so we can move a bit more quickly towards what I see as our next goal: running trains across the high level.

[jamespetts]

Excellent - good to see progress! Next Saturday, presumably, is the YMRC?

[BenWeiner]

On 1/7/2024 at 1:54 PM, jamespetts said:

Excellent - good to see progress! Next Saturday, presumably, is the YMRC?

In fact, it seems that we can meet on Saturday. Have a look here: https://www.themodelrailwayclub.org/events/

[jamespetts]

20 hours ago, BenWeiner said:

In fact, it seems that we can meet on Saturday. Have a look here: https://www.themodelrailwayclub.org/events/

That is somewhat unfortunate, since I am not available this Saturday owing to a conference, but am available on the 20th. Might meeting on Sunday(s) be sensible in the circumstances?

[BenWeiner]

Today's session was fairly brief. A review showed that the servocross modules elsewhere on the layout had almost all been done, so we looked into providing power to the high level traverser on board 1. This is directly above another traverser serving the low level. There is limited headroom and wires on the underside would be problematic. We came up with a solution. More on this when we have something to show!

As all four main boards are set up I connected together some of the inter-board cables for the very first time.

Left to right: DCC main bus, accessory and control power buses, CBus (the smaller connectors).

[jamespetts]

Splendid! Progress is a happy thing. Hopefully there will be more of that before long.

[BenWeiner]

We couldn't resist a second session this weekend. Today James and I took stock of our CBus progress, as a prelude to answering my question: 'what would it take to allow us to use the control system to move the turnouts when we are fettling the high level track?' We were able to spend about three hours tracking down unfinished connections here and there with both the two centre boards connected and powered. A point of concern is that we have at least two servos that never happily settle in place. These make quite a lot of noise as they fails to settle and seem to cause the controlling CANMIO board's power regulator to get hot. So that will be our starting point next time.

Meanwhile John has been reworking the storage box for the Pepper Warehouse model, a large building that conceals part of the fiddle yard at the London end of the layout. Here is a photo of the partially complete model (in its first iteration) sitting in the box. A new Pepper Warehouse will be made because this one, a pioneer for us in lasercutting, was made from greyboard and, without having the benefit of a box, it's suffered quite a few knocks. It'll be better the second time! Note, this is the back of the model. The real structure stood at the eastern end of the East India Docks close to Bow Creek (the mouth of the River Lea). John added a second floor to the building, so that its roof could hide the high level fiddleyard traverser.

[BenWeiner]

Quick check shows a set of quint-arts do fit on the traverser, including the loco. These ones could do with a bit more above solebar level though. Must get that moving.

[BenWeiner]

We had a good work session on Saturday - the time draws near when trains will run (though whether they'll complete their journeys remains to be discovered).

Things still look a bit disordered; we're working underneath the boards, which we can conveniently stand on their sides, so this is a typical view:

And here's some very advanced and theoretical paperwork. In this case, to work out the frog polarisation of a diamond crossing and turnout that span a board joint and thus represented a bit of a challenge during the session. Looking at it now, I think it makes just as much sense whichever way around it's turned and probably more so with the pad face down:

See us at Ally Pally!

We're on show as a layout under construction at London Festival of Railway Modelling this year, 16-17 March. Come and see us and find out how we're getting along!

No absolute guarantee that there will be running trains, but if you are an MRC member and you want to help us run trains at the show, please contact Ben or John - orchardwharf@themrc.org.uk

[jamespetts]

There's much to be said for a spot of progress of an afternoon.

[John Jesson]

Getting ready for AP 2024.docx

[jamespetts]

Looking impressive so far!

[John Jesson]

Be even better if the text file would open!

Edited February 21 by John Jesson

[John Jesson]

Getting ready for Ally Pally - buildings progress

 

The brewery

The building has three parts - the main block, the annex at the back of the building and the extension between the main building and the railway.

The main building and the annex are joined together and a rudimentary interior has been installed in the main building. All windows and doors have been installed and some pretty basic colouring and weathering has been attempted.

On the street side of the main building is the pub part of the building. This has been modelled using a real pub as a guide and protrudes from the brick frontage. Working out how to make it was the sort of challenge I enjoy and the end result is a success. It's a combination of 0.3mm Laserboard, 0.6mm Laserboard, 0.9mm Laserboard, 1mm MDF and 1mm acrylic, all laser cut/etched, with card trim at the ends and the top. I needed a very dark brown and ended up using Vallejo German black/brown camouflage and satin varnish.

The pub name was the subject of a lot of experimentation. The best result was obtained by laser etching the name almost all the way through 0.6mm Laserboard, then painting it gold. The surface was wiped to remove as much of the gold from the board as possible then, when dry, carefully applying the dark brown.

The roof base has been constructed of card with 3mm mdf formers. It's shown upside down to show its construction. It's also shown in place on the main building. The pitched roof of the annex is separate and is also shown placed in position. Neither roof section has yet been permanently attached.

Also not yet attached is the extension, but this has reached the same stage of construction as the rest of the building. Under the building is an access passageway between the street and the brewery yard. These are protected by wooden doors with massive hinges. This part of the building will have a flat roof with a parapet.

Everything made so far is shown placed together. The lower part of the extension (the unpainted part) butts up to the railway, so a lot of the building will be partially hidden.

The replacement for the original pepper warehouse is also coming along nicely. Although of the same dimensions as the original, the replacement has several additional features, as well as being made of more robust materials; mdf instead of white card and greyboard, which do not stand up well to being handled too much.

Several of the doors are now depicted as open, either fully or partially, with little boxes inside to hide the view through the doors. Some of the original construction has been re-used, including the internal false ceiling (3mm greyboard). However, whereas this false ceiling was removeable on the original, it's fixed on the new version.

The original of the pepper warehouse (and, indeed, many other warehouses) had lifting devices fixed to the walls of the building to raise goods from the dockside into the upper stories. We'll need two of these to service both of the open upper level doorways that are open. Again, the colouring and weathering is very basic, and not all the trim has yet been applied.

On both buildings, the interiors have been painted to kill light. The colour I've used is Farrow & Ball Paean Black. This isn't black but, I thought, a very dark grey. I found out when I washed the brush (the paint is water-based) that it's actually very dark purple/grey. Whatever the colour, it's proved a perfect choice.

The next building to be worked on will be the corner building of the row paralleling the railway. This will have 4 versions, all slightly different to reflect the different periods we want to represent.

Of course, with the emphasis very much on electrics and buildings, rolling stock has taken a back seat, so Ally Pally will see something of a variety as we press into service anything that will run.

Come along and have a look - you might find it something you want to get involved with.

[John Jesson]

Before posting all the pictures and text, I spoke with Ben, looking for a few tips about how to do it. What he told me was helpful, but he told me to play with it so I could find out for myself what was and was not possible.

I did, and found that adding the pictures was easy. But. I transferred them 5 at a time and found that the order corrupted during transfer and this could not be corrected. However, it's easy to delete all the pictures and start again, which I did - and found out why the order was being corrupted. After selecting the batch of pictures, make sure that you click on the first picture when transferring the batch to the forum.

Text. I transferred the file with all the text in it, but found the text didn't appear, only the file. What I had to do was open the file, select all the text, then transfer that to the forum. I don't know why this should be. After all, the pictures are transferred as files, but show as pictures, so why should text be any different?

Anyway, this might help others posting to the forum.

John

[BenWeiner]

On 2/22/2024 at 11:10 AM, John Jesson said:

Text. I transferred the file with all the text in it, but found the text didn't appear, only the file. What I had to do was open the file, select all the text, then transfer that to the forum. I don't know why this should be. After all, the pictures are transferred as files, but show as pictures, so why should text be any different?

That's a very good question! The convention is that to put text into a forum post you type it in directly -- and I suspect because it is technically quite complex to support it well, the very rational alternative option of dragging a text file into the box and having the system take the text out of it for you is done only rarely (for example in Google Docs).

Thanks John!

Ben

[jamespetts]

Some good progress yesterday: trains (locomotives, at least) were running under DCC power for the first time, controlled by the control panel. Some DCC wiring issues and some track issues still need to be rectified, but this is definitely progress.

[BenWeiner]

Definitely a day to celebrate for the Orchard Wharf team. Allowing for many months when we were unable to work as we expected, this has taken a long time. It is now much clearer how long it takes to put together a system on this scale that uses an integrated control system. I hope the experience gained can be put to good use in future projects.

Too early to say this is finished work, but the next few months will give us the opportunity to test everything out and I think we are going to find we've created something that works well and fully meets our original ambitions.

Come and see us at Ally Pally next month where we expect to be up and running!

Ben

[Tim Watson]

I have been working on this little project, in the background, over the last few weeks. I think it’s the first completed building for ‘Orchard Wharf.

It was made from laser cut parts designed and produced by John Jesson. The MDF was primed with a white aerosol can before assembly. 

The structure was assembled, as provided, but it clearly needed a parapet. 

The parapet was made from styrene. It has a thin black styrene top layer which avoids white corners rubbing through when the building is handled. 

The flat roof needed some detailing with side drainage channels and a run of chimneys - the stacks are from Modelu, set into 5min epoxy flaunching. In this image the weathering is awaiting addition of dark green shading to represent wet areas with lichens.

The drainage from the roof uses Modelu components. 

This is the building in situ. 

We will be running a building painting course at Keen House as there will clearly be a demand for it!

Tim

 

[BenWeiner]

We got into Ally Pally this afternoon and have started putting the layout together.

 

[jamespetts]

A somewhat belated update on how this went at the exhibition: we fixed some faults, and managed to run trains fairly successfully all week-end, albeit with some recurring derailments fixing which is top of our priorities list. Some other faults we could not fix at the exhibition and require more work.

Exhibition goers reacted positively to having a work in progress layout on display: many commented that it showed that a completed layout is achievable by showing an intermediate stage in the process from idea to fully formed and scenic layout. The exhibition also proved the concept of the layout, which, subject to derailments and electrical flaws, all fixable with some work, worked well, and there was much interest in the layout's postwar dockside setting.

Here are some pictures from during the exhibition:

 

[BenWeiner]

Along with all the other excitement during our outing to Ally Pally, your photographer did manage to capture some genuine fly shunting (non-coupled stock movement) taking place.