Wykeham - Somewhere in the south!

[Mountain Goat]

Those coaches look nice. Are they older models? (I have not kept up with SR coaches). They do look nice. Always liked SR livery.

They were built between 1906 and 1910 by the London South Western Railway (LSWR) and lasted until 1956/7 when the last one's were withdrawn.

I meant the models.

[bulleidboy]

Flying Scotsman has acquired a "service" coach.

IMG_1888 by Barry Clayton, on Flickr

[bulleidboy]

After spending too long working out how I was going to do this, I have now started work on getting all the points working via push-buttons on the mimic panel.
I have hinged the top of the work/control desk, and lengthened some of the wires to enable the top to be lifted (hopefully not to often). I am still not one hundred per cent sure of the layout of the PCB's under/inside the mimic panel unit.

IMG_1899 by Barry Clayton, on Flickr

IMG_1785 by Barry Clayton, on Flickr

IMG_1900 by Barry Clayton, on Flickr

As I have mentioned before, all the items just plug together along with some wiring which is all very straightforward. However, the Youtube video tutorial ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x83OdB_ENE ) uses DCC Concepts Ribbon wire - 3-wires black, green and red, which I have, but I do find it a bit rigid when making turns/bends - also trying to get three wires into three terminals is not as easy as it looks in the video. I have invested in a crimping set which may make this a little easier. I have fifty one push-buttons to plumb into the system - so this may take some time

[Hound Dog]

Hi Barry,

As somebody who many years ago used to sell several hundred thousand feet of ribbon cable every week to customers producing assemblies for IBM / Compaq…….. you should be able to split out the three conductors into individual wires close to the termination point to make it much easier to terminate……we used to cut down high conductor cable widths by carefully running a sharp knife down between the conductors.

Ribbon cable is mainly used in IDC ( insulation displacement connections) where the pvc covering in penetrated and the copper conductor is wedged in a pair of contacts ( ie like a fork)…… to use in a terminal block arrangement, you will have to separate out the conductors - this approach could also be used over short lengths to help with tight turns, ie you effectively turn it back into three individual wires.

Hope this helps - cheers Richard

[bulleidboy]

Thanks Richard - I will try that. I am also playing around with the location of the various PCB's. The "Switch D" which has the white sockets, has pre-plugged lengths of wire, which go from the Switch D to the push-button, however, they are all of the same length - so I have to make sure the Switch D's are in the correct position to enable the wire to reach the plug on the push-button. I will almost certainly double stack the various PCB's - I have spacers. Barry