Modular DCC Inglenook

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Some progress has been made on this little project recently. Thanks to a gift of a rotary cutting tool, I've managed to finish installing my point motors. They're all wired up, and the polarity switch for the frogs works like a charm. Well, sort of. The fly in the ointment is that the point motors seem rather underpowered at the moment. I went cheap on materials, and I don't think they're getting enough current - they don't "snap" into place like they should. It usually takes two or sometimes three flicks of the switch for the blades to make it all the way across. I'm going to try replacing the wires with a heavier gauge to see if that helps. If not, I'll be upgrading the CDU to something with a bit more grunt.

I've also upgraded the controller. There was nothing wrong with the old controller, to be honest, it was a cheap PWM unit designed for controlling LED strips really, but it worked surprisingly well as a model railway controller. But I've swapped in my Arduino based controller, seeing as it wasn't being used on my other layout at the moment. It's essentially an Arduino Nano, connected to an L298N motor driver and a Bluetooth module, so that I can control the track power using an app I've made on my phone. Not exactly DCC, but it does the job!

Now I'm on to the scenery, having finally worked out roughly what I'm doing with it. It's going to be a little industrial unit at the sidings end, with a loading dock built into a warehouse type building that will be low-relief on the back wall. At the other end I'm going to hide the end of the track under a tunnel entrance, to give the impression that the track continues on to somewhere else. That's the bit I've been working on the last few days, using bits of cardboard to build up the shape I want.

With the overall hill shape sorted out, I used loo roll soaked in watered down PVA to create the ground surface. This method gives a nice rough surface, which seems ideal to me. It's not exactly sturdy, you wouldn't want to be throwing it around, but it's super light.

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(Continued...)

Once the ground surface was dry I printed out some suitable brick texture onto card, and fashioned a tunnel mouth by hand, to no particular design. I've even put interior walls in, as they'd be visible too. I was pleasantly surprised that the PVA didn't make the printer ink bleed on this card, I've had disasters in the past.

The ground also got a coat of brown acrylic paint. It's all starting to come together now!

The next step will be to create a rock face to go along the back wall, where that bit of cardboard is sticking out at the moment. I want to create the impression of a cutting, with rough rock and a fair bit of greenery clinging to it. I'll also be covering the hill with bushes and a little static grass. It'll need to look overgrown and "unkempt", which will be a new challenge for me! And then of course the board itself will need a covering of some sort. The hill won't actually be fixed down at any point, I'm intending it to be removable so that it can be stored in a box or something, so I'll need to be clever with my scenery to ensure you can't easily see the join.