Holiday Snaps

The last post rather gave the impression that I spent 6 weeks wiring up the layout! Actually it probably took around 10 evenings of work, between 1-3 hours at a time. Still a fair ammount of time I guess, but at least the layout is small enough to be up-ended on a small table in the lounge and worked on sociably / in front of telly.


There have been other distractions in the meantime, not least a weeks holiday in Wales back in June. We took rides on the Ffestiniog (of which I am a member and used to volunteer many years back), and the Padarn at Dinorwic, we also took a trip up the Great Orme by cable tram, though as you can see from the photos I managed to snap a few other lines in passing.

Wiring Complete

Well, finally the wiring was completed last week. There were a few teething problems, the main one being that I had forgotten to cut the copperclad on the sleepers at the baseboard edge! Other than that a point motor going the wrong direction, and a couple of forgotten wires, were easily fixed!

At the baseboard joint I didn't want to have to have a plug and socket - apart from the extra hassle there simply isn't space, the way the main board slides snugly into the alcove. So I soldered to the ends of the final extra-wide sleeper a couple of brass squares, the ends folded down and the inner corners folded up to a Vee. On the fiddle yard I soldered brass wires to the copperclad sleepers to make contact with the brass plates when the boards come together, the way the board slots into place makes this work surprisingly well.

Also on the fiddle-yard I soldered brass sheet strips to the cassette-end of the lead track, this makes contact with the copperclad strips accross the ends of the cassettes.

So all works well? No, not quite. Test running has shown that while the Microtrains couplings flick over as they pass over the burried magnets, they don't actually uncouple when coupled up! I've used these magnets under the track fine on Pen-Y-Bryn Quarry, but not here. I'm not sure why, perhaps the granite ballast is too dense? I've chipped some away but little improvement. Maybe the Homebase magnets are weaker than the B&Q ones? I don't know how to address this problem yet ...

A Day Out at the Amberley Gala

Last Saturday we had a family day out at the Amberley Museum. It was the Gala Weekend, so there was loads going on - two engines in steam plus loads of I/C engines, inluding 10 working Listers. My 19 month old boy loved it, especially the buses (I'm still educating him!)

I didn't get many pictures of the trains - as I was too busy holding on to an excited little boy - but I did get some pictures of the model railway show, they are on my photopic site:

http://campbell-modelrailway.fotopic.net/c1544943.htmlmodelrailway.fotopic.net/c1544943.html

If you are intersted, the Amberley website is http://www.amberleymuseum.co.uk/ - and my friend Steve got a good set of pictures which you can find here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fairlightworks/sets/72157606139230217/

Progress on the layout is being made - I have just about finished the wiring and had a loco move under it's own steam (electricity) the other day. Update soon.

Starting the 'lectrix

The first photo shows the fitting of the point motors and uncoupling magnets for the micro-trains couplers I use. For these the magnetic field has to be accross the track, and I have found that a pair of cupboard-catch magnets works well. They are available in bulk from B&Q or Homebase etc., and are easily dismantled to get the magnets out. These are stuck together and glued into an oblong hole I cut into the baseboard before laying the track (the holes were covered in paper and the track layed over the top).


The point motors are SEEP - with a built-in accessory switch I will use for the point frog polarity. I simply glue these to the underside of the board using Bostik, ensuring the operating rod is through the tie bar, the travel of the point motor is parallel to the tie bar and that the range of travel is cental to the point motor (important for the switch to operate). Here I have stuck the point motors to pieces of thin corrugated card stuck to the board, partly as the plywood was uneven where it had been drilled, and partly hoping to reduce noise - we shall see!


The second picture is the control panel I have just made. For such a small layout it is suprising how complex the wiring is! There are 7 point motor switches (silver), 4 main track feeds and 3 further isolating sections (with coloured caps to match the diagram). I was concerned that I would not fit them all in the space I had cut out of the front of the baseboard - but fortunately they just fit. The panel is an offcut of metal sheet from the scrap bin at work, drilled on a pillar drill in a lunchtime! The diagram is drawn on a computer (Word, nothing fancy) and printed out, stuck to the metal with Bostik. Finally a layer of clear plastic (the bubble pack from a Wills kit) is laid over the top, and the switch holes cut out with a scalpel.


I wanted the panel to be recessed into the cut-out in the baseboard, and it will be held there with a couple of M4 bolts, however access behind the cut-out is very difficult because of the board bracing! Still, it will look good.


Now I have started the actual wiring, so the next update should be when that is finished. I won't have much time in the next couple of weeks though, so progress may be slow!

Track laid!

Finally I have laid the rest of the track! So what, you might think, nearly 9 months after starting this layout I have laid some track. Well for various reasons it seemed better to have the major buildings defined first, and anyway finding the time to do noisy jobs like cutting track without waking the baby isn't easy!

The first picture shows the fiddle-yard entry track. This was laid from the station entry point, accross the board joint and the "cassette terminal" in one piece. Strategic placement of copper-clad strip between the sleepers stuck down with Bostick (some track pins may follow) should keep things solid. Once everything is stuck and soldered in place I cut the rails at the board and cassette joins with a slitting disc in a mini drill. I'll explain the cassette fiddle yard another time but it is the same design I used on Pen-Y-Bryn Quarry.

The rest of the track was stuck down onto a layer of PVA glue, with track pins to hold it where required (later removed). "N"-gauge granite ballast was sprinkled on to give an initial covering, later further ballast was added to the sleeper tops and diluted PVA dripped on with a pipette in the usual way. Actually it's the first time I've ballasted this way, most of my layouts have featured the track buried in ash/mud etc. rather than ballast!

After vacuuming off the excess and picking any ballast away from the rails, points, sleeper tops etc, the result is below. One point had stopped working - to my horror - but it turned out the spring had popped out of the slot in the tie-bar, with a bit of work I got it back together.

The ballast and rails will need painting, not sure how to tackle that yet, but first I need to install point motors and start wiring. I'd best make sure it all works before going any further!

This last picture shows the wrinkles in the backscene around the corners, fortunately I think I will be able to hide them behind buildings.

Backscene and Buildings progress

I haven't managed to publish any updates about progress on the layout for a couple of months, and with family and other comittments, and keeping the wife happy by sorting out the garden, there hasn't been a lot of time for model making. However there has been some progress ...

Last weekend I had a second go at sorting out the backscene. I had cut fillets of foamcore board and fitted them into the corners as shown, then fixed two layers of lining paper to form the continuous curved backscene. I stuck it in place using a spray-on impact adhesive from Bostik, which worked fine until I gave it a coat of white emulsion, as an undercoat to painting the sky. Then the paper shrank and wrinkled, and the glue came unstuck!

So I got a roll of sky-paper from Townscene (advert in RM). I ripped off the lining paper and cut and stuck a new piece in place, this time using wallpaper paste. Then I stuck the sky-paper to that, also using wallpaper paste.

Once the glue has dried and the bubles and wrinkles straightened out, it doesn't look too bad. However the sky-paper is very thin, and despite my best efforts some creases crept in whilst fitting it in place around the ends. I'm hoping I can hide the worst when I fit the cut-outs of buildings for the skyline.

The pictures also show the buildings progressing. The station and goods-shed is now painted, and pretty well complete. I have recently been putting together some Metcalf card kits for warehouses and house-backs, these are the first card-kits I have used in 15 years or so, and I was sceptical. However they are not at all bad, I've taken care to paint the visible edges of the card to match the brickwork. They may not stand too close a scrutiny but they will look fine from normal viewing distances, and most importantly will allow me to complete the layout in reasonable time!

The buildings need some finishing, and when I get chance I will finish laying the tracks, then we should really see some progress!

Narrow Gauge in a Farmyard

Just got back from a weekend visiting my folks in Cheshire, while there we took the kids to Tatton Park farm to see the animals. It didn't take me long to notice rails inset into the cobbles around the farmyard! It seems as though there was hand-operated tramway for moving animal feed around the yard, though it is no longer in use there was a wagon in one of the sheds. The gauge was about 2 foot or slightly over, and the track plan was basically a "Y" leading from a shed, down a hill and to both sides of the yard. There was also a line accross the "Y" forming a triangle, which came out of another shed and crossed at a wagon turn-table without rails - essentially a metal disc.

Now this may not have that much modelling potential as it is, but combine the idea with the Lincolnshire Potato Railways, or some of the estate lines, and you could imagine the farmyard line being part of a larger line serving a large estate or farm. As well as flat or open wagons for animal feed, there could be skips for mucking out, coal wagons for the boilers and traction engines, plus general goods, timber, fertiliser and produce! Motive power would probably be open-cab lightweight petrol or diesels, such as a Lister, O&K, Hudson-hunslet or one of those Fordson tractor conversions. Of course a Ruston or Simplex would do too.
I think this could make an interesting micro-layout - probably in a larger scale to allow for the small locos and wagons, perhaps O-14? The farm buildings could frame the scene, with sheds for the wagons to go into, and the line continuing through the gate-house arch to the "rest of the estate". The trackplan would probably need a loop and a couple of extra sidings to make it interesting!