Tinworthy was Tavistowe-work in progress
In lockdown and in between all the jobs in the house and garden, work is progressing on laying the track work on Tavistowe. It’s amazing how much mess accumulates on the boards while working;
The main line at the Plymouth end is complete up to the single slip which allows access to the goods yard. This end has been wired up and all the point motors added. I have decided to mount the motors on top of the board to allow ease of adjustment if needed. This area will be covered by the local cattle market on a removable piece of scenery. The main track is the 3mm Society 14.2 plastic sleepered track with code 60 bullhead rail. The points are all handmade with a mixture of copper clad strip and 1/32” plywood strip. Cosmetic chairs will be added later using the ones produced by the 3mm Society. All the trackwork is glued to the cork base with a PVA based Tacky glue.
The motors are Hoffmann point motors which work on 15vAC and have built in switches for the frog polarity. The relay to the side of the motor is the interface between the point and the MERG CBUS modules. The relay switches the point motor and in turn is turned on or off by outputs from the CBUS. The actual CBUS module [a CANACC8 for those interested] is mounted under neath the board. One of the points seen here is servo operated as there wasn’t room for another Hoffmann.
I fear that the wiring underneath is a bit of a ‘spaghetti junction ‘. Luckily the baseboards include holes to carry wiring around the layout. I am basically trying to keep the CBUS data wiring to the front of the board and the track power and AC feeds to the rear in order to reduce any interference between the two. Here you can see the twin servo board on the left which drives the point and the intermediate starter signal when it is installed. The relays on the right switch the servos on and off in response to an output from the CBUS. In the middle is the connection of the CBUS and its associated 12vDC power
That’s enough for the moment. The grass needs cutting………
Nicks workshop mutterings 