Lumsdonia Railway

A web page for my indulgence and sharing ideas and irregular updates on my Model railway

2016

Points

I have now decided that solenoid points are out and stall motors too! Servo’s are the solution!

The problem is they need a driver, having investigated MERG and Arduino as solutions, I have decided to get  Megapoints

 http://megapointscontrollers.com/

As I needed changeover control for the live frogs and servo’s inherently don't give contacts, a suitable bracket and micro-switches needs to be developed {current project}

Lumsdonia Railway News

2015

Controller

I originally decided I would use MRC Prodigy control for the DCC, but after considerable research, I have now decided to go for NCE PowerCab initially and upgrade to the SB5 booster at a later stage. I will not go to Power Pro, as I dont need computer control and feedback.

Points

I have always liked SEEP motors, but having researched points, decided I wanted to have “Live” frog PECO Electrofrog turnouts, this means I need an extra changeover switch. I am currently contemplating using DCC Concept’s COBALT motors, as they have two changeover switches built in.

However, as I need about 40, the cost is highly pertinent, so have been considering servo motors and maybe MERG circuits to drive them, but have just discovered PECO do a 4 way servo controller!

Needs further investigation! Watch this space!

Peco PLS-125 Single Servo Motor

Ref: PLS-125

Peco PLS-100 SmartSwitch

Ref: PLS-100

Mid 2017

Website

I have now added several more pages to the Tips section and will be adding more sections as I get time to write and upload

The two 6 foot long base boards have been made for over a year and are now fully populated with track, servo point motors (with Megapoints card driving them) , ballasted and beginning to complete the station and static grass.

End 2017

Website links

I have decided to expand the Links page to have a list of all the useful sites I have found. Doing a web search is OK if you know exactly what to put in, but if you are looking for a list of suppliers that is related to a particular subject, it may not find all of them, so I will catalogue by product, so there is a list of definite sites that further research will get you to what you want.