Model Railway - What's your latest acquisition?

The Caledonian is just a bit of fun really.  Cheap enough for a presentaion Set. It rattles and clatters......makes me laugh.  The 2 coaches are in a usable condition, but not perfect at all.  Unlike the condition of the Loco.(A1)

Cock o' The North....just love them. 

The rest I like the look of.  Just need to get some coaches/wagons to match the Loco's.

Qty 5 of these junction boards to replace the plug in choc blocks I was going to use for my track bus.

Pos and Neg in at one end and out the other to loop to the next board, with pos rail connections at the top and neg rail connections at the bottom.

I will probably get some more to hook up my point decoders to the accessory bus.

Excellent service from Brimal.co.uk

Ordered them yesterday and they turned up in this mornings post.

I also got some of their TCRT5000 IR sensors for loco detection.

Very nice Rob, for traceability - controls to ... where.

I can imagine how they can become very helpful as a track expands.

Al..

Brought last week.

R3588 BR17 Liverpool Railroad.

R3775 Network rail Diesel shunter 0-4-0 Club model.

And finally a new Hornby book of trains (Pat Hammond) - Worth a reading.

I'm missing not having a Class 37 - sold my green Bachmann one several months ago and am waiting for another manufacturer's one ... but that's not until Christmas.

As I have several 'heavy freight' EWS locomotives, thought I'd get a lighter freight EWS one and found a Bachmann EWS from a Sheffield-based vendor for a surprisingly good price.

I tried to resist, then ended up putting in an offer, which was eventually accepted ... can't wait, it's an excellent model and locomotive.

I like my diesels to be all-wheel-drive or at least if twin bogies, then both are driven (in the case of Heljan, not all wheels are driven, but their chassis are very powerful and smooth).

Al.

Very nice Rob, for traceability - controls to ... where.

I can imagine how they can become very helpful as a track expands.

 Al..

Not sure I understand the question Al.

I am using them essentially as you would tag boards to connect droppers to a power bus. The A & B from the DCC controller come in to the twin connector at left hand end, which exits at the right hand end to the next connection station along the bus. The 18 connectors top and bottom are bussed respectively to the end A & B connectors.

Same applies if used for an accessory bus, except the 18 paired connectors are lashed to the A & B of the accessory decoders, not that I have or need 18.

If you are talking about the IR sensors then they will be part of an ongoing project a forum member has developed  for a group of us, whereby the output from the track sensors are collected by a multiplexer board which sends them to be processed by a PIC chip which then sends the appropriate instructions to either a RasPi, Arduino or PC for whatever automation or signalling, etc is in mind, but we haven’t quite got that far yet, only functional prototype collector and pic boards. 

Hi Rob, not really a question, just confirming that with the numbering you can note which wire goes where / comes from where - for future reference.

The block makes organising the wiring easier, that's all.

Al.

Understood Al.

Yes I have designated mine DCC (voltage) and (Block) A, B, C, D, etc. Others will be ACC 1, 2, 3, 4, etc, Signals, A, B, C, D, etc. Sensors 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Looks like I seriously under ordered in quantity.

One point I will make about them is that you need to support the connection blocks whilst tightening the wire screws as the PCB mount is not that strong and they can twist, possibly shearing off if over-tweaked.

Looks like the Heljan 58 won't be seen until tomorrow then ...

Al.

Still waiting ....

Only posted on Thursday evening!!

Al.