Model Railway Forum

I am becoming increasingly impressed with MERG.
Delivery of ordered goods is very quick indeed. I had to order an extra servo mount (monday) but got an email yesterday from them to say the package had been returned by the post office as someone had trodden on it.
Paul at MERG 3D printed a new one which arrived today!

I've also completed two more twinkler modules for the station lamps then realised I should have ordered an extra one for the wall lights on the station building. Doh!

Additionally I made a start on the many servo driver boards needed. A little sceptical after the rookie error on board 1 but board 2 worked first time.

Still waiting for a few bits and bobs through the post before I venture back under the baseboards and I still have to decide where to fix the switches on the control panel. I should really put them on the track plan alongside the point switches and LEDs but that may be little crowded so they may end up in a bank below the plan.

And then I can start on the signals alongside the MPD.

The panel below was built by my club members for a new OO layout and the isolating section switches are on the tracks, but the point switches are as per real BR signal box panels in a bank and each numbered to reflect the point(s) it operates.



Where as my own has push buttons and they are near to the points position.



I think its a personal choice thing!

Personal choice? I’d better check with the memsahib first.

I have a distinct feeling that a redesign and rebuild of my main panel won’t be far away. The one for the MPD lends itself to a row of switches above the trackplan.

MERG are toying with me.
I bought a multipack and a couple of individual kits for the servo drivers. My struggles with the first one are well documented and thankfully behind me, but now I find that the multipacks contain a jumble of loose components and they are built to an older, different design with different components.

But I still got it to work.

That’s the last of the servo drivers built and tested. First one took four days, the last one was thirty minutes.
Now the fun and fettling starts under the boards, or at least it will when my servos arrive from China.

2022-06-26_12-24-06 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

Ahead of a possible future rebuild of the control panel, I added the on/off switches for the signal servers on this side of the layout.

20220629_192756 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

I’ve also worked out the designs for the bracket signals on the MPD board and built the basic post work. The starter/shunt to sidings bracket has been done - the first to have the control rods through the baseboard ready for the servos which are definitely still on a slow boat from China.

20220629_192554 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

Is it just me that is feeling inadequate after reading your posts and the seeing the work you are putting in ?…….I think simple colour lights signals will suffice for me, if I ever get around to it - LOL

Hound Dog wrote: ↑Wed Jun 29, 2022 9:25 pm Is it just me that is feeling inadequate after reading your posts and the seeing the work you are putting in ?…….I think simple colour lights signals will suffice for me, if I ever get around to it - LOL

“Simple colour lights”. Wish I’d thought of that.

I considered adding a small LED to each lamp in anticipation of lighting them up but it would have meant replacing the arms with etched brass versions and I couldn’t easily find ones to match. The lenses on the Ratio arms are solid mouldings and way too fragile to drill out the centres. Eventually decided it was a step too far for me.

And if I had fitted lights Brian would suggest I made them twinkle as well!!

Why did you order your servos from China Steve? All but the strong ones designed for model aircraft are cheap as chips in UK.

teedoubleudee wrote: ↑Thu Jun 30, 2022 8:11 am Why did you order your servos from China Steve? All but the strong ones designed for model aircraft are cheap as chips in UK.

Lack of knowledge and experience,TWD. I played it safe and ordered from HobbyKing as recommended by MERG. Have learned a lot since I started this journey though.
TBH the final part of this, i.e. actually fitting the things under the boards, is a little daunting so the delay puts off the inevitable extra challenges a little longer.