David Hopkins updates us about Southbrook Station
A couple of years ago I wrote an article about the layout I was constructing (Southbrook).
My layout is basically a large oval in a shed 14ft by 24ft, with one end of the curve sections going out into the garden.
The first problem was back in the winter 2021/2022, I started to ballast the track using woodland scenic crushed nut shell ballast (as we used on Edington) with a watered down PVA mix plus a few drops of washing up liquid. At first it seemed to be setting but it was taking a few days, then after doing a bit more I noticed that the PVA mix was still looking white. I then realised that it was not drying but freezing. When working in my shed I have a fan heater to keep me warm, but turned this off when I locked up. Outside temperatures were below -1C, so the ballast mix was not setting. I purchased a greenhouse tubular heater with a thermostat, problem solved.
The next problem was that when I built and wired in my fiddle / storage yard, to operate the 11 points and take the track power feeds, I purchased and used 8 core multi coloured alarm cable., I needed 4 x 15-foot lengths of this, wired from the control box to a 25 pin D connector and 6 pin Din plug. I thought at the time how hard it was to solder, especially the red covered wire, and didn’t know why. After about a year (now 2022) the wires started coming apart from their terminals causing me much stress as I tried to operate the railway to visiting guests.
I talked this over with fellow member Barry. He asked if the alarm cable was made of aluminium? I later found out yes
it was, and this was my problem. I searched the internet and found some 12 core multi coloured cable that was used on aircraft cockpit instrument panels, I thought yes, I will have some of that. So, a couple of days soldering (and wire was so easy to solder), everything is up and running again.
