Tinworthy was Tavistowe- progress
In between all the jobs around the house and garden that are being found for me I have been able to make a start on Tavistowe at this horrible time of forced isolation at home.
I have laid the cork underlay on the boards and glued point templates in position. I first printed them out on tracing paper and then stuck them in place using a copy of the whole layout printed from the Templot plan as a guide. I intend to construct the points off site ,so to speak ,on templates printed on thin card and then install them in the relevant position on the layout.
Even though I haven’t laid any track yet I have built the control panel!
I have repurposed the locking lever frame I had on Eggesford to suit Tavistowe much as most heritage railways have done. I also worked out all the sections, point motors and signals I would need. I then wired up the panel to the MERG CBUS module which will control the output from the panel. This interface is done through a diode matrix as can be seen in the picture below.
This all means that there is only a 4 way cable carrying the CBUS signals on two wires(blue and yellow) and a 12vDC power supply on the red and grey. This compares with 2 x 25way cables that would be needed if wired in the conventional way. Once the trackwork is done and all the point motors, signal servos, and section feeds have been installed then I will program the module to get it all working. Well that’s s the theory!!!
To be continued………
Nicks workshop mutterings 