Land grab

[idlemarvel]

Video of a full tour of the Circle Line.

 

[dunnyrail]

Video of a full tour of the Circle Line.

Excellent so now you need to do Timetable Working.

Measure the time for a circuit. Compare that in scale (a 5th?) to real time and run an out and back on the Talyllyn or your favourite Welsh Railway stopping at each (imaginary) Station after the relevant number of circuits in 5th or whatever time. When you have reached the end of the line, run round the circuit one way and work your way back the same way. Probably best not to do Blaenau F to Caernarfon like this!

Try not to get giddy!

 

[idlemarvel]

Thanks for the tip Jon. It is vaguely modelled on the Welshpool & Llanfair 2'6" so it is 1:6 scale except where it needs to be 1:1 to allow for real human passengers (platform, tunnels, etc). I think I will be running an on demand service for now until I have more of the infrastructure sorted out.

 

[idlemarvel]

To follow up Jon's ( dunnyrail ) idea, the length of a circuit of the Circle Line is about 66 feet or one chain in UK railway parlance. So one circuit is 6 scale chains at 1:6 scale. There are 80 chains to a mile so that's about 13 circuits to a scale mile. That's enough to make me dizzy! In terms of speed, at notch 3 (slow shunting speed) it takes about a minute to complete the circuit, at notch 5 (cruise speed) about 25 seconds. That would mean a scale mile in over 4 minutes or about 15 mph. Although that is less than 3 real mph (walking speed) believe me that is fast enough when your feet are an inch off the ground. At notch 6 you have to lean into the bends. Beyond notch 6 derailment is inevitable, but try telling your grandchildren that!

 

[dunnyrail]

To follow up Jon's ( dunnyrail ) idea, the length of a circuit of the Circle Line is about 66 feet or one chain in UK railway parlance. So one circuit is 6 scale chains at 1:6 scale. There are 80 chains to a mile so that's about 13 circuits to a scale mile. That's enough to make me dizzy! In terms of speed, at notch 3 (slow shunting speed) it takes about a minute to complete the circuit, at notch 5 (cruise speed) about 25 seconds. That would mean a scale mile in over 4 minutes or about 15 mph. Although that is less than 3 real mph (walking speed) believe me that is fast enough when your feet are an inch off the ground. At notch 6 you have to lean into the bends. Beyond notch 6 derailment is inevitable, but try telling your grandchildren that!

Yesterday I did a run on my line representing a trip from Gernrode to Alexisbad in real time. I selected a Timetable dated 2003 where there was a Steam departure from Gernrode at 0829 arriving Alexisbad at 0918 thus a time of 49 Minutes. Much similar to the times that existed in 1981 where many of the Trains could do Shunting en route.

I have a continuous run that is 2.53 scale KM, the run from Gernrode to the Junction where the Continuous Run is joined being 0.45 Scale Km. The distance to Alexisbad is 14.5 km. thus 5 circuits plus around a half gives pretty much the correct distance in scale.

I have a means of measuring the scale speed of my Loco and set off at between 21-26 Scale Kph, the normal prototype Max being 20 Kph.

To actually do the full time of the run I needed to do a couple of additional circuits adding some 5 scale kph to the distance. However I never stopped at any of the imaginary locations on my run. To keep track of where I was I used a Stopwatch and noted the time that I joined and then passed the junction. I suspect that had I set out the actual distance that each of the booked Stations were due to be called at. Stopped for a minute or two at each the run would have been somewhat close to that of the real thing. In my distance settings I have put Scale K 1/10 posts at every 4.5 Metres. My trusty calculator shows that they should be placed at 4.44444 recurring. So already a small error incorporated thus affecting the run and possibly adding another unpobdsrable in the length of run (too much math to far with).

Fun to do, but I did not want to come back from Alexisbad to Gernrode in real time!

 

[Rhinochugger]

I can see someone buying a farm soon

 

[phils2um]

A bad choice of words Rhino- a least for those of us in North America. "Bought the farm" being another idiom having died. Better for Dave to just declare eminent domain over the rest of his neighbor's real estate. He can give him a permanent railway pass in exchange.

 

[Rhinochugger]

A bad choice of words Rhino- a least for those of us in North America. "Bought the farm" being another idiom having died. Better for Dave to just declare eminent domain over the rest of his neighbor's real estate. He can give him a permanent railway pass in exchange.

Ah - two nations divided by a common language

 

[idlemarvel]

A while since I posted on this thread. Several time a year I open my 5" ride-on "Circle Line" to invited members of the public. I did one today for a fundraiser on behalf of my grandson, with a festive theme. He was driver or guard while I supervised proceedings. The loco is very easy to drive, I can set the speed and all the kids have to do is press a button to start and let it go to stop. Our youngest driver to date is two years old! Here's a picture of the festive train:



and here is a train running with my grandson as guard handing out the tickets. Bossy granddaughter has the conductor's whistle...



The fundraising was on behalf of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

Logans Festive Fundraiser

Help Isabel Archer raise money to support The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity

www.justgiving.com

I hasten to add the grandad referred to in the link is not me!

 

[viaEstrecha]

A while since I posted on this thread. Several time a year I open my 5" ride-on "Circle Line" to invited members of the public. I did one today for a fundraiser on behalf of my grandson, with a festive theme. He was driver or guard while I supervised proceedings. The loco is very easy to drive, I can set the speed and all the kids have to do is press a button to start and let it go to stop. Our youngest driver to date is two years old! Here's a picture of the festive train:

View attachment 293379

and here is a train running with my grandson as guard handing out the tickets. Bossy granddaughter has the conductor's whistle...

View attachment 293381

The fundraising was on behalf of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

Logans Festive Fundraiser

Help Isabel Archer raise money to support The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity

www.justgiving.com

I hasten to add the grandad referred to in the link is not me!

Wow - that's raised the bar far too high! I'll not let my grandson see those pics!

 

[LGeoB]

Is that a hommage to Pogles Wood - the door in the bottom of the tree on the right in the first picture?

Geoff

 

[idlemarvel]

Is that a hommage to Pogles Wood - the door in the bottom of the tree on the right in the first picture?

Geoff

Not Pogles Wood but there are quite a few "fairy doors" around the layout. One of them opens and sometimes contains chocolate coins!

 

[3 minutes of fame]

That's fantastic!
A mate of mine has his 5" gauge Western Atlantic hitched up to a radio control system, so he can "drive" it from anywhere in the garden. That way his son who has Downs can sit directly behind the loco and operate the secondary controls while Dad retains the ability to take over at any time.

Might be worth a chat about your shed earthing arrangements at some point, as it may be operating outside of your household equipotential zone and could be quite dangerous.

 

[dunnyrail]

Might be worth a chat about your shed earthing arrangements at some point, as it may be operating outside of your household equipotential zone and could be quite dangerous.

Hm can you explain a little more about that please? My shed is 80 feet from the house and the actual exit of the armored cable is another 40 feet further from that but round 2 sides of the house. Looked up equipotential but did not in mind clarify the meaning in terms of electricity.

 

[Paul M]

Hm can you explain a little more about that please? My shed is 80 feet from the house and the actual exit of the armored cable is another 40 feet further from that but round 2 sides of the house. Looked up equipotential but did not in mind clarify the meaning in terms of electricity.

An electrical equipotential zone is an area that is all bonded to the same point. If your shed is earthed through the SWA to the supply company's PME earth at your fuse box, you MAY find that there is a potential difference (volts) between your SWA earth and any other metal in your shed, or strangely enough the ground. Under normal usage there isn't usually a problem as most sheds are wood.if it were a metal shed, things would obviously be different. In animal farms etc, all livestock buildings are separated from the main supply company's PME earth and are set up as a TT system, where the customer supplies his own earth via a rod and a RCD. It's highly recommended that ALL supplies that are used outside are RCD protected.
But having said all that, you probably wondered to worry too much, as long as your shed is earthed to the main earth in the house, and any pipework is also bonded you should be fine.

 

[dunnyrail]

An electrical equipotential zone is an area that is all bonded to the same point. If your shed is earthed through the SWA to the supply company's PME earth at your fuse box, you MAY find that there is a potential difference (volts) between your SWA earth and any other metal in your shed, or strangely enough the ground. Under normal usage there isn't usually a problem as most sheds are wood.if it were a metal shed, things would obviously be different. In animal farms etc, all livestock buildings are separated from the main supply company's PME earth and are set up as a TT system, where the customer supplies his own earth via a rod and a RCD. It's highly recommended that ALL supplies that are used outside are RCD protected.
But having said all that, you probably wondered to worry too much, as long as your shed is earthed to the main earth in the house, and any pipework is also bonded you should be fine.

Thanks Paul, yes wooden shed, supply earthed via fuse box in house that trips at the slightest of causes. Separate fuse for the shed power supply so all sounds good. Thanks, can sleep tonight now,

 

[3 minutes of fame]

An electrical equipotential zone is an area that is all bonded to the same point. If your shed is earthed through the SWA to the supply company's PME earth at your fuse box, you MAY find that there is a potential difference (volts) between your SWA earth and any other metal in your shed, or strangely enough the ground. Under normal usage there isn't usually a problem as most sheds are wood.if it were a metal shed, things would obviously be different. In animal farms etc, all livestock buildings are separated from the main supply company's PME earth and are set up as a TT system, where the customer supplies his own earth via a rod and a RCD. It's highly recommended that ALL supplies that are used outside are RCD protected.
But having said all that, you probably wondered to worry too much, as long as your shed is earthed to the main earth in the house, and any pipework is also bonded you should be fine.

It depends upon the supply type to your home - and the fitting of more external sockets for both car charging and leisure use has started to bring this to the fore. PME is the most used form of supply provision and earthing in the UK and all new homes will have it. Many older homes where an externally armoured or sheathed cable originally supplied the earth have also been converted to PME and a sticker should have been applied to the fuse board to indicate this. You can also tell, as the earth wire will come directly out of the neutral termination point rather than from the sheath take off, but it can be tricky to tell.

If you have PME - where your incoming neutral cable (Known as a PEN) is also your protective earth, then there exists a scenario where the incoming neutral cable could fail and your whole house - including the earth cable will be floating at line voltage level - 230-240V. Because you have no other earthing path or earth reference, this is not dangerous. Equipment will stop working and it will be as if you have a power cut. Earthing of extraneous pipe work and gas fittings etc. will probably not provide a good earth, as they are not designed as such. Don't forget that most new supply pipe work is plastic and even where older metal pipework exists, it will not be maintained to provide a good connection to the mass of earth.

However... If you are outside - and thus, outside of the equipotential zone, you could be standing on the mass of earth and touch a metal surface - such as the metal body of a car being charged. Caravans pose a particular risk and there have been a number of deaths due to the frame becoming live and persons climbing in and out (Or in 1 sad case, a young gypsy girl who was weeing on the tow bar) have been electrocuted.

With a wooden shed, you will still be quite well insulated, but if your outdoor layout is electrified and fed from the shed feed, the track could easily become live and you could receive a lethal belt from it.

RCDs will not protect you when you have this type of failure. The current flow could be equal through the live and neutral terminals and without any difference, there's no voltage potential to operate the trip mechanism. Remember, RCDs and RCBOs do not have any connection to earth, they just read the difference in current flow between neutral and live and trigger if the difference is more than the stated trip value.

In my garden, the external sockets are not connected to the household earth, but to an earth rod. My house is therefore within the Equipotential zone, but external sockets are referenced to the mass of earth, so in the event of a Neutral (PEN) failure, I am still protected. It's important that you disconnect the earth from the household earth if you fit an earth rod to a circuit, as if not, you might just have created the neutral return for not only your house, but any others affected by the same fault, so your wiring might then try to carry the full current for your street! Cherry red earth rods are a sight to behold - as I can testify when a supply fault at theatre I was working at caused a temporary generator earth to take the whole load...

 

[dunnyrail]

It depends upon the supply type to your home - and the fitting of more external sockets for both car charging and leisure use has started to bring this to the fore. PME is the most used form of supply provision and earthing in the UK and all new homes will have it. Many older homes where an externally armoured or sheathed cable originally supplied the earth have also been converted to PME and a sticker should have been applied to the fuse board to indicate this. You can also tell, as the earth wire will come directly out of the neutral termination point rather than from the sheath take off, but it can be tricky to tell.

If you have PME - where your incoming neutral cable (Known as a PEN) is also your protective earth, then there exists a scenario where the incoming neutral cable could fail and your whole house - including the earth cable will be floating at line voltage level - 230-240V. Because you have no other earthing path or earth reference, this is not dangerous. Equipment will stop working and it will be as if you have a power cut. Earthing of extraneous pipe work and gas fittings etc. will probably not provide a good earth, as they are not designed as such. Don't forget that most new supply pipe work is plastic and even where older metal pipework exists, it will not be maintained to provide a good connection to the mass of earth.

However... If you are outside - and thus, outside of the equipotential zone, you could be standing on the mass of earth and touch a metal surface - such as the metal body of a car being charged. Caravans pose a particular risk and there have been a number of deaths due to the frame becoming live and persons climbing in and out (Or in 1 sad case, a young gypsy girl who was weeing on the tow bar) have been electrocuted.

With a wooden shed, you will still be quite well insulated, but if your outdoor layout is electrified and fed from the shed feed, the track could easily become live and you could receive a lethal belt from it.

RCDs will not protect you when you have this type of failure. The current flow could be equal through the live and neutral terminals and without any difference, there's no voltage potential to operate the trip mechanism. Remember, RCDs and RCBOs do not have any connection to earth, they just read the difference in current flow between neutral and live and trigger if the difference is more than the stated trip value.

In my garden, the external sockets are not connected to the household earth, but to an earth rod. My house is therefore within the Equipotential zone, but external sockets are referenced to the mass of earth, so in the event of a Neutral (PEN) failure, I am still protected. It's important that you disconnect the earth from the household earth if you fit an earth rod to a circuit, as if not, you might just have created the neutral return for not only your house, but any others affected by the same fault, so your wiring might then try to carry the full current for your street! Cherry red earth rods are a sight to behold - as I can testify when a supply fault at theatre I was working at caused a temporary generator earth to take the whole load...

Good job I binned track power a few years back.

 

[idlemarvel]

That's fantastic!
A mate of mine has his 5" gauge Western Atlantic hitched up to a radio control system, so he can "drive" it from anywhere in the garden. That way his son who has Downs can sit directly behind the loco and operate the secondary controls while Dad retains the ability to take over at any time.

Might be worth a chat about your shed earthing arrangements at some point, as it may be operating outside of your household equipotential zone and could be quite dangerous.

Thanks for you comments.

Not sure the earthing stuff applies to my 5" railway. It is not live track, power is from batteries (2 x 12v car batteries). My shed has mains power but it is locked when the kids are around.

 

[Paul M]

In my garden, the external sockets are not connected to the household earth, but to an earth rod. My house is therefore within the Equipotential zone, but external sockets are referenced to the mass of earth, so in the event of a Neutral (PEN) failure, I am still protected. It's important that you disconnect the earth from the household earth if you fit an earth rod to a circuit, as if not, you might just have created the neutral return for not only your house, but any others affected by the same fault, so your wiring might then try to carry the full current for your street! Cherry red earth rods are a sight to behold - as I can testify when a supply fault at theatre I was working at caused a temporary generator earth to take the whole load...

If you go down this route, it's very important to check your earth is actually earthed, using the right equipment, otherwise you'll be worse off. Just sticking a copper or bronze rod in the ground doesnt guarantee this by any means. Any electrical work should be carried out by an accredited electrician.