Modules depths reduced to 100mm
Using a jig that I constructed last night from bits of wood in the shed, we have this afternoon reduced the depth of all the Tim Horn board kits in stock to 4″ from 6″, or 100mm from 150mm in modern money.
Autumn Modelling Day 2015
At the 7mm NGA‘s Surrey Area Group Autumn Modelling Day, I took my four module boards to set up in the hall with Brian’s, partly to show other people the concept but also to try out other operating methods.
Painting the module boards
Another hiatus, another school holiday! Having put my Dear Lady Wife and Son / Heir on a plane to Slovakia for half-term, I was able to take the module boards out of the loft and treat them to a coat of paint.
Transit board modifications
To transport the module boards safely, I made some transit boards out of off-cuts of 12mm MDF. These were always going to be a Mark 1 version, consisting simply of a square with a line of holes drilled to match those on the interface plate on opposite faces and a hand hole in the middle.
First test run
Have I mentioned that it’s only two weeks until the first showing of our modular layout at the Seaboard Southern Annual Exhibition at Horsham? Having progressed to the point of electrical continuity, it was felt that a full test was long overdue.
Testing for continuity
Have made up all the jumper cables the other evening, the last remaining electrical job was to solder the dropper cables on the corner boards. These hadn’t been done because I wasn’t happy with the track alignment. However, with the first exhibition looming …
Making the Jumpers
After another long hiatus, and with the Seaboard Southern Show now only a few weeks away, I sat down this evening with a film on Amazon Prime, two rolls of cable, a bunch of banana plugs and sockets plus some chocolate blocks and proceeded to make up the jumper cables for connecting power to adjacent boards.
Track and wiring
Progress on the modules has been slow, for which read non-existent. With the looming date of the Seaboard Southern show in September, at which these are expected to not only appear but be operational, it’s high time to extract the digit!
Corner Boards Assembled
Flushed with the success of the straight boards, it was time to tackle the corner boards. As a precaution, which proved to be unnecessary, the sides were thoroughly wetted and bent, in the hope that they wouldn’t crack or split during assembly.
Straight Boards Assembled
Well, today was one of those dry days and, between two of us, the four board kits were assembled. Tim Horn‘s instructions were not specific to the boards ordered but only because they’d been modified to include the Frem0n30 endplates. However, such is the quality of his kits that instructions really aren’t necessary.