New; well, first layout..

[Zoso]

Hi mountain!

Thanks for the advice, some good ideas there!

I have got a bit of a mixture of track to be honest.. it’s all peco code 100 and I have about 8 or 9 new 3’ piece and a dozen or so shorter little off-cut bits. To use in conjunction with it though, I do have quite a few short pieces of set track. I won’t be doing anything sharper than 2nd radius, but would use set track for any curves that sharply for sure! What I have is basically a load of the tiny little straights (1-2”) and very short quite gentle curves, (2-3”).. I’ve found that these are a lot easier to link up around the points etc, I am a bit happier trimming the sleepers on these because they are about £1.30 a pop. The long sections of flex track will be used for the gradual curve along the platforms etc..

[Mountain]

I don't know why Hornby and Peco don't model a check rail on their sectional track curves as it would make them look convincing.
I would say that to model a checkrail, one really needs slightly lower railheight rail as the checkrail compared to the normal rail because it needs to sit on top of the railchairs. One can't cut off the railchairs as there would be nothing holding ones rail.

I have added checkrails on my unfinished layout, but it is easier for me as I have PCB sleepers so it is soldered on. Not sure if they will be a success yet as I have not run trains on it properly yet other than to push waggons round etc.

[Bufferstop]

The tightest curve I regularly travel over is where the North Warks line joins the GW main line at Tyseley. It has check rails and flange oilers but still squeals like heck, it was even worse when they tested out the LEV four wheel rail buses. When I was modelling 3ft gauge using TT spiked track I put in a number of check rails but the old Triang steamroller wheels needed quite a wide gap and they never looked truly convincing. I used to put two spikes back to back in the inside hole then drill an additional hole inside of the checkrail. If I'd had the tools I do today I might have been tempted to grind down the thickness of the flanges on the Triang wheels.

[Zoso]

Hi, it’s been a while!

Well, this project certainly kept me occupied whilst recovering from a broken neck!

The layout is by no means finished, but it has moved on a lot since my last post. At various times I have had it running fully with locos travelling nicely in all directions.

I decided to go for a dc setup, and although haven’t wired the servo motors up for the points yet, I know how I’m going to do it! Now my neck isn’t broken however, I don’t have quite as much time to tinker!

So, in the end, I went for a shelf based station, which is as close a replica to my hometown station as I could produce (which is long since gone), and I have two loops running around the outside of the room on shallow shelves. The main station area is on a shelf which is roughly the same as the footprint of my motorbike, and the shelf acts as protection for that, and means that the layout takes no more space than simply having the bike there! It’s basically like a shelter for my bike and I’ve put the layout on the roof.

I knew that if I had the layout with exclusive use of the area, it would end up being completely removed or at least damaged.

Then, from each end of that, the two lines go around the outside of the room to meet up. There are removable sections at each end of the room across the doors. One end of the room, the door is hardly used (unless I take the bike out) so this ‘bridge’ stays in place, the other end is more frequently used and although it can be ‘ducked under’ it’s generally left out. The shelf around the rest of the room only sticks out a few inches, and by dropping one track and raising the other by a slight gradient, by the time the lines are on the opposite wall, they are one above the other, so the back is all hardly uses any room, literally just enough to store a loco box. Obviously the corners take up a little more space, but it works well and I have been able to utilise the room fully as a gym with no limitations created by the space taken up by the layout!

[Zoso]

Shelf over motorbike:

[Dad-1]

Broken Neck ? You don't do things by half do you !!
I've always used an external hosting link.
I use imgbb.com, easy enough and been very good for me over several years.

Geoff T.

[Zoso]

Obviously a fair bit of work still to do, the buildings/platforms etc are all just roughly plonked in place.. no ballast in this area at all yet..

[Zoso]

Broken Neck ? You don't do things by half do you !!
I've always used an external hosting link.
I use imgbb.com, easy enough and been very good for me over several years.

Geoff T.

Thanks for the tip Geoff! I ended up using the instructions in an earlier post from Chris on how to include images directly; finally figured out a workaround to resize the images

Yeah, the neck break, not ideal really!

[Zoso]

Left from the station behind the tv, across the bridge with one line grading up, the other down.

[Zoso]

Right from the station:

[Zoso]

The back wall:

[Zoso]

So that’s where it stands at the moment. It will probably be a while before I get back to it, but wanted to post an update. A lot of the buildings are modified kits to look as close as possible to the original station, as well as some built from scratch; a lot of household objects refashioned. Of course the loops around the room are simply made up. There is a siding/small yard in one corner, and the other has a tunnel with a removable side. Of course the long tunnel with both lines is accessible via the door to the storage shelves. Basically it was a means to create a loop.

As far as the wiring is concerned, I have used a number of different switches and dials. There are several sections which can be turned on and off such as the sidings and yard, and by using rotary switches, different sections can be allocated to be controlled by any of the three controllers. It works as if anticipated thankfully!

I’m quite happy with the design of the layout though, it’s really simple, you can set trains running on the independent loops, and there are a few sidings to play around with at the station whilst they continue to run.

In terms of the station, fortunately a couple of the buildings still exist (although not many) so I’ve been able to have some good frames of reference and scale in terms of spacing, also there are many photographs as well so there was a lot to work from.

My next stage will be to tidy things up a bit, get everything running again smoothly and completing the ballast around the outer loops befor I begin to consider the station area. My plan was to practice on the areas that are more out of sight before committing to anything that will be ‘front and centre’ so to speak.. But as I mentioned before, it may be a while before I’m back with more updates, but they will come eventually!

[Dad-1]

Hi Zoso,

Couldn't help but see quite a few bike racing bits about.
Too much for a casual rider.
Did a bit if that sort of thing back in the 1960's
Had a few cuts, but never broke anything.

Geoff T.

[Zoso]

Hi Zoso,

Couldn't help but see quite a few bike racing bits about.
Too much for a casual rider.
Did a bit if that sort of thing back in the 1960's
Had a few cuts, but never broke anything.

Geoff T.

Ha, yeah! I’ve done a lot of racing over the years, nothing for the last 6 or 7 though.. Still get out just haven’t raced for ages. You are correct though! There are quite a few bikes in there hanging above the layout, and wheels in bags underneath!

To be fair, something fell off the roof and landed on me which broke my neck rather than a biking injury, but hopefully once I’m back in better shape I can do a few more races!

[Dad-1]

Zoso,

I love it - The unexpected incidents of life !!
I did my back 'in' by falling off a roof (aged 14)
Nothing broke, but an operation was needed when I was 70.

I don't know how I didn't do damage racing, but then my luck
held good in several odd moments. Track was safe, time trialing
depended, road scary at times !!

Geoff T.