WEST ORTON

[sandy]

Well if you drink that stuff no wonder you cant relax. Perhapse you need a bit total remote country life. And I meen remote not few miles from someahere. In the lowlands the pace of life is slow and relaxing. You dont worry about anything.No neibours for miles wonderful. But if you need a helping hand nobody leaves you wanting they will be there for you from miles around.

[Steve M]

Not an addict Sandy, probably have one can every few months. Not like one of my customers at work - at least eighteen cans a day. I am not exaggerating - we’ve counted them.

[sandy]

Was not sugesting you were a drinker. I can take it or leave it. Sometimes dont have a drink for months only just now and then when I fancy one. Hope I was not sounding like an alky.

[Steve M]

Was not sugesting you were a drinker. I can take it or leave it. Sometimes dont have a drink for months only just now and then when I fancy one. Hope I was not sounding like an alky.

I was referring to Red Bull Sandy.
Not a regular alcohol drinker either. I like a nice pint, but rarely get the chance. My last drink was at the Bessemer Arms on Platform 2 at the Bluebell Railway and I suspect my next one will be at the ‘Cod and Lobster’ in Staithes in September.
Although my signal servos may drive me to drink a little sooner than that.

[sandy]

Well to be honest Steve I am going to be having some signals on my layout but (you will probably not agree with the idea) they will be working but are going to be Dapol ready made ones. I dont think I could handle the agrow of all the work you are putting in. Trouble is they cost a bit but what the hell its only money. Will pay for them with all money I saved on petrol when lockdown was on. My car hardly moved.

[Steve M]

I don't disagree at all Sandy. The Dapol working signals are good and I certainly considered them. The only issue was the lack of variety to suit my trackplan.

Building my signals has admittedly been a learning experience - I naively expected the Ratio kits to 'work' but found that their choice of materials made them far too fragile. But doing the research and coming up with practical workarounds and alternative parts is all part of the fun. I actually get more pleasure from building and problem solving than I do running the layout.

That first bracket took nearly two weeks (and may yet be rebuilt) but with the knowledge gained from my mistakes subsequent builds are much faster. Earlier this week I put together two starters, a distant and another bracket in a single morning.

My ongoing challenge is the motorisation - electronics are a total mystery to me. It's fine when it works but when it's plugged in and does nothing I am completely lost and don't have the skills to work out why. That's a pretty good summary of where I am with the servos at the moment.

[Steve M]

These MERG kits really are good and very straightforward to build.

The result of my efforts is that I now have a green light that I can turn on and off - nothing else.
I must conclude that somewhere down the line I have made a fundamental error even though all the multimeter test results are exactly as they should be.

2022-06-16_12-15-50 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

Never mind, it looks pretty on the bench.

[sandy]

Your right Steve about the lack of choice of diferent types of signals. As my layout is an any where layout . A signal is a signal to me. You know I dont count rivets.
But I reguard you as the master of modeling. Where as I am Mr Average.

[Walkingthedog]

Steve is that blue thing centre picture a servo to operate the signal?

[Steve M]

Steve is that blue thing centre picture a servo to operate the signal?

Should be. At the moment it is a small paperweight.