As for the layout, for those of you that didn't see the planning thread, my choice of location was a shed, more specifically, a potting shed. Chosen for its vague similarity to a signal box, I do now wish I'd put it up on a few courses of bricks, but a bit late now.
My carpentry skills are severely limited, so I kept the baseboard construction as simple as possible, copying the design of the shelf that was supplied with the shed. This was simply rectangular frames screwed to the wall and floor of the shed, with planks screwed on top of them, and then plywood on top of that, as pictured below. Note the use of the old kitchen drawer cabinet that my wife wanted rid of because it was too big, and replaced with a remarkably similar sized sideboard...
Next came some track laying, all laid loosely on the boards so I could move things around as I wanted, also put in a couple of bridges I'd bought. This is when I discovered that what I liked the look of on the plan on the computer, wasn't actually what I like in real life. So it didn't stay like this for long:
I changed things a few times, swapped the bridges around, changed the angle of them, swapped one for a brick arch bridge, and eventually bought 2 new ones, one of which is now in place, and still waiting delivery of the other. Once I'd decided on the bridges I made some blocks to support the ends of the bridge, and the track leading to it. For this I used some blocks of expanded polystyrene, glued together with wood glue, and some cocktail stick pushed through as well. I found a hacksaw blade to cut through the polystyrene blocks, fairly clean cut, but messy.
What I ended up with was this:
When laying all this I soldered wires to each piece of track, and this is all linked to the bus running around under the boards. Outside loop from 1 control, and the inner loop and all sidings powered from the other control. The outside loop is also wired up for running the live steam Mallard. All tested on DC and live steam and all was working fine.
Then a couple of days later my son wanted to have a go while I was out there, so I let him have the control, and after 2 laps of the shed, the loco stopped, then started again and did half a lap, then stopped again and wouldn't move, just a loud humming from the control. Guessing that this meant a short somewhere, I was convinced that being 5 he'd toughed something and something was shorting across the rails. It took nearly an hour, checking all the track, pulling the bus apart, I finally tracked it down to a set of points in the shunting yard. It seemed to make a difference as to which way they were set. So I removed them, and reinstalled the wiring for the rest, but the problem remained. After about another 30 minutes I finally figured out the issue, the new Bachmann points from rails, removed and replaced with an old set of peco points and all was fine. On closer inspection the pack for the Bachmann set had the part number 36-870, but on the back of the points it was stamped 36-872, which is the non insulating sets, so that explained it. A quick email to the supplier and they've provided me with a label to return them and they'll replace them.
Having used the shunting yard a bit I've decided I need a headshunt, so I've had a quick redesign of that, and have now ordered some more Peco streamline points, as well as a double slip. So once they arrive I can redo the yard. (While typing this I now realise I needed to order another LH point for the station area).
You can see in the 6th photo, the temporary solution for the section across the doorway. For the moment it's fixed, so I have to crawl in, but once I've figured out how I'm going to do it, it will be hinged.
