Overley - A Summer Spent Building a Plank

Back Story

Well, that was not planned!

In the words of Jethro "What happened was.."

My son and grandson joined the local model railway club and attended the Saturday novice group where each member builds a one metre long diorama, at the club and/or at home. The dioramas are joined together to form a large operational model railway. Each scene is unique.

My grandson's  idea was to have a station and a working level crossing. They were given the baseboard, some parts and guidance by the club and got as far as preparing the trackwork and knocking up a couple of platforms before reality kicked in. The problem is my grandson is on the autistic spectrum, which limits his comprehension and abilities, and my son's busy home and work life does not allow sufficient time to create this thing within a reasonable time frame. He asked if I would help.

I agreed on one condition; that the lad must get involved too. The lad reluctantly agreed. During each week over the summer I created some complex part of the scene leaving a simpler task for him to finish under guidance during his visit to me one day each week. Things like ballasting, static grass laying etc.

The most pleasing result was his attitude towards the project. What started as a chore to him developed into an expectation and commitment to it as he learned new practical skills.

It Posed a Challenge for Me too

My grandson already has a fully scenic 'table top' roundy roundy model railway and has asked for years if he can have a working level crossing. It is a complex thing to make, and one that I had avoided but now, for this plank, it must be done.

My concern is how to do the automation. Early research led me to the Viessmann automated two barrier crossing (its expensive, H0 and we need a four barrier crossing for this 00 layout) and the PECO Smartswitch electronics that needs a crossing and additional parts (also expensive). An influencing factor for me is that I have a 3D printer and can design and make the crossing parts easily and cheaply myself. I just needed help with the automation.

The only difficulty with the barrier design was how to make a moving skirt? Some experimentation lead me to using staples from an office stapler machine.

And so to the automation. I doubt I could have achieved this without the generosity of a Youtuber who has explained how he did it and has made available free for all his programming code.

At the core is an Arduino Nano microcontroller and his tutorial is here:

https://youtu.be/gApek9WjnSo?si=ErEPQYEbSuLfM5_b

I needed to modify his code to operate a four barrier crossing instead of two, adjust timings and introduce an initialisation sequence that checks the position of the operating switch on power up and sets the barrier position accordingly. In addition the platform starter signal displays red when barriers are up and green when down. Some knowledge of the programming code used is necessary for all this.

Why Overley?

The level crossing is based on BramLEY and platform furniture is based on OVERton, both in Hampshire.

Project 26 - Hewish Gates #8

To Part 1.

Project 26 - Hewish Gates #7

The display case was made from 1200 x 600 x 2mm Wickes Acrylic Sheet, cut with a Dremel and the panels glued together with Superglue. It is not fully dust proof as there is no rear acrylic panel or seals between it and the diorama.  At least it protects the model from finger poking damage.

I have in mind to make two improvements to the model, if I ever get around to doing so. 

The backscene should be professionally printed as one piece instead of the three I printed on A4 sheets. This will eliminate the joins and colour imbalance of the three sheets.

One of the level crossing gates takes on an angle when closed to the road. These gates were fabricated from two Airfix/Dapol level crossing sets (nothing wrong with that) long before I acquired a 3D resin printer. The resin printer now gives opportunity for a redesign to improve detail of the gates and their posts to represent the prototype more accurately and I'll take greater care in setting the gates uniformly.

To Part 8.

To Part 1.