Glen Ogle

[clayliner]

Hi, Brian -

Thanks for your Christmas and New Year greetings (- do you always play in bare feet?  :D)

David.

[gtmspyder]

Hello David. ;D

No, I don't normally play In bare feet, but on the morning I decided to record a Christmas greeting to you all, my wife had gone out with a friend, and I had forgotten to ask her to put my right sock on, as I still cannot reach down to pull it on with my recovering hip joint, so I suffered a cold foot  ::) in the pursuit of art, well I've been pursuing it since the age of nine, and it still evades me. ::)

It's my all time favourite Carol, I hope you enjoyed it.

Regards,

BrianT.

[Elmgate]

Mine too - my wife and I are in a choir, and learned this for our Christmas performances - best wishes for 2014.

Tim

[gtmspyder]

Tonight, I felt a tadaaah moment coming on, until I viewed the following pictures, I really should stick to the two foot rule, but in the words of the quizmaster I am currently viewing, "I've started, so I will finnish".

Both loco's have been stripped down to the bare plastic, primed and painted, fitted with brass handrails, whistles, safety valves,  name, number and makers plates, and white-metal vacuum hoses, with a driver and fireman, as appropriate.

They have been re-varnished, and had new glazed spectacles fitted.

They have yet to have there Kato chassis fitted and wired for the radio controls, but to all intents and purposes, they are finished.

I can't say I'm proud of the finished results, but the following pictures show them, warts and all.















Well there we have it, two Chris Ward loco's just about ready for the layout.

Regards,

BrianT.

[clayliner]

My apologies for not making the connection between your bare foot and your hip!

As for 'O Holy Night', I once heard it described as 'that old Christmas warhorse' which has tended to put me off it, though probably unfairly - it is a good tune and very singable. Also surprised to discover it was written by Adolphe Adam who I did know composed the music for the ballet 'Giselle' which for a rather obscure reason (an association with industrial archaeology, believe it or not) has always been significant for me...

As for the locos - to get back on topic - I think they're rather fine, and you should feel more proud of your handiwork!

David.

[gtmspyder]

A little more progress for the Glen Ogle layout.

The Chris Ward Kattie loco, (Travis), and the double Fairlie loco, (Nigel) on a test track together, both under my radio control, and moving at the same time.

The video is crap due to the lens hunting, I presume due to insufficient light, but it does demonstrate the potential of the Radio control of two or in my case up to three loco's at the same time on the same track.

I have not yet added the third loco to the fleet, but after this test, I have no reason to believe that it will not operate in tandem with these first two under test.

Looking good I think.

Now that I have two operable loco's, I look forward to getting back to the layout construction. ;D

Regards,

BrianT

Click on the picture to start the video.

[clayliner]

I'm convinced! - if not yet converted. I'm not sure my brain could safely control more than one loco at a time... (I have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time  :D)

Will there be good enough radio reception all the way along the Glen?

David.

[gtmspyder]

The Glen is only eight foot long, even with the proposed extension to the village of Killin, it will be no more than twelve foot long, so I don't anticipate any difficulties with the range of the transmitter.

The only problem is, you really do have to concentrate, there's no section breaks or wrongly set points to bring the loco's to a standstill, you may have noticed an N gauge re-railer adjacent one end of the track in the video I posted, the loco's will happily climb this and drop off the end if I look away at an inappropriate moment. ::) ::) ::)

regards,

BrianT.

[Frank]

Looks to be going very well Brian.  You must be pleased with the results.

Just as Brian says David, it is like driving a real loco, you have to keep your eyes on the road ahead!    There are no isolating sections to stop the loco in front of points set against it, so the loco will happily try to run across the points and derail.

However, if you had a continuous run, you could set one loco running round whilst shunting with another, for example.

The main benefit of the system as Brian has it is that you can move one loco then another without having to switch anything on the controller, you just use a different knob for each loco.   Simple!

I don't know what the range of this system is, it will clearly depend to some extent on the conditions, but in at least one demo it has worked over 30 feet I think.   Since 30 feet is effectively out of sight, that is probably as far as you would want!  The aircraft modellers use it over longer distances but the conditions are a bit different, being out in the open.  If it loses signal, the loco will just stop.

Frank

[DeadHorse]

Ahhh. Sweet memories from my youth.
We were testing some new fangled gear designed to locate and interrupt radio signals used by some very naughty people in Northern Ireland.
The test proved very satisfactory as complaints from the local model aero club will testify.
Their expensive models duly plummeted to earth.
As several of the aero club members were known naughty people who were using the club to gain knowledge for their bomb making enterprises, we were not too displeased.
So beware of using radio control in 'sensitive' areas :-)

[clayliner]

Do the SNP operate in the Glen?  ;)

David.

[gtmspyder]

I've never read anything about them being a prescribed organisation in the "Killin News", so I assume I will not have to model a sabotage scene on the railway :police:  And luckily, none of the directors are English, so if the referendum goes against the SNP, hopefully, they will not vent there ire in Glen Ogle. ::) ;D ;D ;D

Regards,

BrianT.

[gtmspyder]

A small update to Glen Ogle, indirectly I know, but I thought I would keep any progress that has any link To the Glen Ogle layout in the one thread rather than spread them around under different headings, does anyone disagree?

I have bought some of the sea grass to make some more trees, and I know this will require a spray finish at some stage in the process, so I decided to make a new spray booth to replace the shoe box I have used in the past to catch the overspray that is inevitable during the process.

We had a very nice box of chocolate biscuits given us for Christmas, these have now been consumed, mainly by me of course, so I decided that the square tin would make a spray booth with little work being involved.



I fitted the base of the tin, at 90deg. to the lid of the tin, and fastened the two together with M4 nuts bolts and washers.

I drilled several holes in the top edge of the assembly in what is to be the spray booth used position, these will be used to hang wires down into the spray booth, this will allow items to be suspended if required, and can be spun round to offer another face to the spray gun.



The wire hangers are made from short lengths of thin wire, spun round a pair of round nosed pliers to form a swivel stop.



Under the base of the assembly, I have glued, using impact adhesive, a piece of old cutting mat, so that the tin cannot scratch any surface it is resting on with the bolt heads, used to hold lid and base of the biscuit tin together, the bolt heads being countersunk into the thickness of the cutting mat.



And a final view of the 3D loco and attendant Lilliput battery carrying coach, to give a feel of the scale and usefulness of the assembly.



Well, it's not brought forward by much the Glen Ogle finish, but every little helps.

Regards,

BrianT.

[clayliner]

Looks useful, Brian - I especially like the 'suspenders' which allow easy rotation of the item under treatment.

Just need to find a box of chocolate biccies now...

David.

[tat2drod]

Just need to find a box of chocolate biccies now...

Sounds like a sales opportunity for the Society's sales people  :)