control panel – Newport Model Railway Society

Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae Lineside

5 February 2024 / control panel, Lineside, Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae

Andrew N turned up with a couple of items for Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae – a gradient post showing how the line climbs from the valley floor towards Caerphilly and a milepost in true B&MR style denoting 5 3/4 miles from Bassaleg.

Also from Andrew, but not photographed, were some components for the Facing Point Lock.

Elsewhere, out of shot, Rhobat continued with the yard crane and LBH wired up the west fiddle yard.

MrChairman worked on the cabling from the control panel to the Alex Jackson coupling magnets.

The relative simplicity here contrasts with panels 20 plus years ago when one could hear the phrase “knit me a control panel, Nellie” when work was in progress.

A bit more linesidary sprouted up on Tuesday, in the shape of a fixed lamp, that was installed at the halt to show drivers where the halt was in the hours of darkness.

Fred produced a running-in board for the halt, setting it off well.

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New Years Day

1 January 2024 / Ballast, control panel, fence, Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae

Only two were in attendance, Mr Chairman and LBH, both working on Tŷ’n-y-Coedcae. MrC on ballasting and the control panel and LBH on scenics.

In the foreground we can see where MrC is ballasting, but it’s more difficult to pick out where LBH is adding wire (actually elastic filament) to the further fence.

The old Pol Sands control panel has to be moved to a new box. As you can see from the shot of the rear the buttons will unscrew but 15mm holes will be needed in the new box. The largest drill available was 10mm so the crude use of a reamer took that up to 12mm, then the even cruder file work got 15mm – ish holes. The finished result is below, though the lines need to be drawn in properly.