This amazing work was put together by members of the West Midlands Area Group Area Group. You can find out more about them on the West Midlands page. Looking for something closer to you? You can find over 25 other Local Groups to share the hobby with.
Whilst there are members of our group who are happy to drink tea and watch trains go by, there are many members who enjoy creating there own models. This section will highlight the work of some of those members.
Dave Tilling’s Toby
Dave’s Toby is scratch-built and runs on a LGB power unit. It is weighted with lead and is fitted with a DCC decoder, a smoke unit and a sound unit. It also features working lights
Mike Rymill’s Electrical Operating Signal Gantry
My garden layout is compact with little chance of increasing its size
So I looked for something to add interest to the layout.
“An electrical operating Signal Gantry”
It would need to stretch across 4 tracks and be operated from my control panel some 3 metres away.
I looked around for suitable materials and came up with a length of dry wall plastic angle bead at my local Builders Merchant. I bought a 3 metre length for £5. I already had some hardwood of 45mm x 6mm to form a platform and provide supports to the top and bottom of the towers.
The lights were made by using a resin moulded fitting made by a friend in the club, these were mounted onto some 10 x 10mm cable trunking by drilling through the removable front piece and gluing the fitting with its lamps into place. Should I need to access the lamps the front comes off easily.
The led lamps are 5mm 12 volt Red or Green from Maplin. They were then soldered to the cables and the units painted black.
I used 8 core cable plus a single return cable. These go into a Chock-block under the signal cabin. From here the cable is buried under the gravel up to my control box some 3 metres away where it terminates in a splitable chock- block which is secured to my shed.
On my control board I located a plastic food box into which I fitted 7 switches on-off-on although I only use 4 switches the remaining 3 are for future use. It is fitted with a splitable chock-block to plug into the shed.
Should I need to I can unplug the control box and the Gantry and take them into my workshop for attention.
Power 12 volt is taken from my train controller using a home made plug of chock blocks and snap rivets.
I have made a wooden ladder and fitted it to the gantry leg nearest to the signal box
Michael Rymill West Midlands Group