New Railway Modellers Forums

Thanks for the pics and suggestions!! I think I understand what the changes will make, but cant really see a huge difference?? !! Never mind though...its a bit of fun and I think overall it should be a fairly usable layout.

I have been contemplating now including a headshunt and a small fiddle yard off the bottom siding which would run horizontal across the board....more points....more expense!!

Something like this... Its so easy to keep changing things!! GRRR!!

With your new plan, I suggest you move the point leading to the three new siding up the headshunt towards the point from the main line, the reason being that your current headshunt is not very long, and unless you use a small tank engine you'll struggle to fit more than one (if that) wagon in it. Even something like a Jinty will struggle to fit with more than 2 after accounting for the buffers, so the extra space will make operating much smoother, plus you'll have the option to use bigger engines in the future. You may have to change the new sidings around to fit the space, but they'll be more accessible this way.

I'd suggest swapping it with the adjacent crossover, or taking said crossover out completely (or returning it to how it was before), since that's probably the best place to put the other point to minimise the changes to the sidings.

The new yard is a good idea though. It's probably way too small, and is in the wrong place, for a proper fiddle yard, but as a storage space for spare stock it would work well. You could also use it to shunt whilst having two trains running, although that would mean another controller (but you wouldn't need to get it straight away)

Have started to pin down track today and have all my parts needed apart from 1 LH point and 3 RH points!!

Need some advice on wiring, insulating and were to place IRJ as I think I am going to need some.

The lower sidings will be powered by their respective mainline track when the point is switched and this will be controlled by a relay and will also have the option of manual switching.

Again, the siding at the top will be simply powered by its respective inner loop.

My two concerns and questions are around the following
- Where shall I put both inner and outer main line feeds???

- At both the crossovers where a train can change from the inner to the outer and vica-versa, do I need IRJ's here?? I did want to TRY and achieve the possibility then when a train from the inner loop changes onto the outer loop to complete its journey say, that the same controller would be used?? Any suggestions for this and is it at all possible??

Thanks
Matt

Pictures as promised!! I will keep them coming as it all developes!!

Project moving along nicely!! Both halves of the bottom loops are wired up via soldered joints underneath the rails and all work fine. Points all work fine to!!

Outer loop on top half completed and wired up to!! Order the remaining points I need to complete the inner loop on the top board and can complete them this week!!

Have spoken to my electrical friend who is going to help me with the Mimic board using relays and bi-coloured LED's!!
Also worked out how to power up the lower siding/fiddle yard so that either controller from the inner, outer or an auxillary controller can power it up!!

This is SO much easier and more enjoyable that the N gauge project!! viewtopic.php?f=22&t=26275

CHECK OUT MY ITEMS FOR SALE!!

Lots of work going on here!! Track finally laid, wired, tested and working and had all my stock out!

Hi Matt1471
I'm like yourself in the process of building layout and
it's just great when it all comes together and you
have your stock running.
Well done.