Twinwoods & Bedford

[RudyB]

Twinwoods & Bedford - 11 - Laying Flex Track

We use Peco HO 75 track, which consists solely of flex tracks. To lay the flex track we use a couple of helpers like:
- A carton, cut in a circle of the desired radius, to lay circles
- A wire connected to a center pin, to lay circles
- A flexible plastic strip, to mark non circular curves
- A 15mm aluminum U strip, to lay straight track
- Different lengths of hardwood, to lay shorter pieces of straight track
- Track spacing jigs, to lay multi track stretches with high accuracy constant spacing

This is the link to video Twinwoods & Bedford - 11 - Laying Flex Track

[RudyB]

While Transport Fever 2 in fact is a logistics management game with the focus on setting up road- and rail transport between industries and towns, earning money and seeing the population and the economy grow and prosper, it can also very well be used to simulate a (model) railroad.

That’s thanks to the graphics, which are very nice. The user interface is OK too, creating a layout with automatic train and road traffic is not very hard to do.

The bonus is that it’s not just fun to do and results in something nice to watch, but to see in advance how a model railway layout is going to look once built can save hours of work and maybe material waste if changes are to be made. Once the building has started changes probably have far more impact.

This is the link to video Twinwoods & Bedford - 12 - Simulation in Transport Fever 2

[RudyB]

Track laying, DCC wiring and sensor wiring are all finished. It’s time to test drive the layout with 11 trains.

The layout is computer controlled with Traincontroller 10. A separate series of videos on TC is available here.

The DCC Command Station is a Digikeijs DR5000, combined with a DR5033 booster.

The turnouts are switched with SG90 servo motors, connected to DCCNEXT decoders, that can be acquired at about €10,- via arcomora.. The software, called MARDEC, is free.

Train detection is performed with reed switches on the track and a small Neodymium magnet under the train. The reeds are connected to Arduino Loconet shields that can be acquired at about €6,- via arcomora.. The software, called ARLOCO, is free.

This is the link to video Twinwoods & Bedford - 13 - Test Driving 11 Trains

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[Dad-1]

Oh My, RudiB,

That is one complex set-up - I think the new reality is escaping me.
Brio trains next for me.

Geoff T.

[kebang]

Absolutely Incredible! I have no idea how it works (despite the explanations), but it is truly awesome!

[Richard08]

Nice, and nice use of the space in the middle.

[Phred]

Fascinating to watch.