Points on a Curve

At the time of my last post I still had a problem with the daily weather graphs that weewx was creating. They were a series of dots, rather than a continuous line like the graphs for weekly, monthly and yearly data.

One of the beauties of weewx is its tweakability (technical term) and my first thought was I may have bolloxed up (there's another) a setting in the skin.conf file that sets how graph data is presented. Display type is set to line at a high level and you can change this for each graph if you choose; checking this showed it was set to the default. Eventually, by chance, I saw a post on the weewx User Group that explained the reason for this was too large a gap between the data updates. When I configured the Vantage Vue console I had set the archive interval to 30 minutes and this was too wide a gap to cause a line to be drawn.

Weewx offers a tool to find the current settings on the console (wee_config_vantage --info) and then to change them individually: --set-interval=SECONDS was the one I needed, where 'Seconds' was to be 600, i.e. every 10 minutes. Could I get it to work, could I buggery. Syslog told me that it couldn't talk to the console (between providing updates, proving that it could). Eventually I resorted to plugging the console into the PC, firing up Weatherlink and doing it that way. Success! The graphs starting showing a solid line, rather than individual dots.


Port Is Dead

All was well for a couple of days when I noticed at 6:30 (up early to catch a train) that the website hadn't updated since midnight. Puzzled, I logged onto the Pi that evening expecting to find that a power cut had changed the IP address of the NAS but found the Vantage Vue console had been reallocated port dex/tty/usb1, instead of /usb0. Not finding the console on the port in the weewx.conf file Weewx had sulked. I changed amended weewx.conf to look at usb1 and all was well for a while. Then everything failed again.

When I checked the syslog it seemed that the webcam was causing a problem with the USB hub and it was endlessly trying to register with the OS. Resolution? I've unplugged the bloody thing until I've time to work out why it's decided to fail after working perfectly for months.

As an aside, one of Weewx's tasks is to send data to Weather Underground. Somewhat scarily the day that Weewx had gone down I had an (automated) email from them to say that they hadn't received any data for over two hours. Once I had Weewx back up that evening I had another email to say they had started to see data again.

Weather Station on a Stick

Shortly after I wrote the last post the Davis Weather Vue weather station I had ordered was delivered. Inside the box was the console (a small unit with an LCD display and some buttons) and what Davis calls the Integrated Sensor Suite, or ISS (a single white and black plastic unit housing rain gauge, anemometer, wind vane and thermometer). There was also a plastic bag that contained a mounting kit, battery and a teeny tiny Allen wrench so small I thought it was something you could use to poke into the Reset holes present on some consumer electronic equipment.

Along with the Weather Vue I had ordered a USB Data Logger, which was supplied with Davis' WeatherLink software. This is an extra - the Weather Vue will function happily without it - but I wanted to export the data to my Raspberry Pi and a Data Logger was required to do this. Prodata had thoughtfully attached detailed instructions regarding installation and preparation of the software. Presumably they had had plenty of questions from users about it in the past. Depressing, though, that the software and Data Logger hardware hadn't had the difficulties designed out.

Assembling the ISS was trivial. The instruction booklet was well presented and clearly explained how to insert the rain tipping spoon (their word), attach the wind cups and wind vane. The ISS has to be mounted on a pole, so I bought an aerial mast which, at 3cms was about the recommended diameter. Prior to mounting it I tested that it was communicating with the console and then attached it to the mast and the whole lot to the bracket that had formerly held the WH-1080. A nice touch was the spirit level built into the top of the ISS to help ensure it is level.

Ugly, though, isn't it?

Consolation Surprise

The hard part done I turned to the console. To my chagrin I realised that although it had been supplied with a mains adapter it also required three 'C' size batteries. These weren't available in either of the shops in the village and so I had to trek into the nearby town. Once procured and inserted I switched on the console which was meant to run through a self test and beep four times. I lost count after about the twelfth beep and was becoming somewhat concerned at the random messages on the screen and constant reboots.

Eventually the console settled down and I was able to start the setup process which, apart from finding elevation, latitude and longitude (Google Earth is your friend here), was pretty much a case of accepting the defaults. Once complete the latest data from the ISS is displayed together with astronomical events - I was pretty impressed to see it show that the Taurid meteor shower was due.

All this, and more

By pressing one of the buttons on the console it's possible to obtain more information about, say, the wind as well as displaying the data in the graph in the bottom left of the display. At present I've only scratched the surface of the information it is possible to display.


Web Weaver

The next stage was to link the Vantage Vue to my Raspberry Pi and upload the data to a web site. Firstly I installed the WeatherLink software that had been supplied with the data logger onto my PC which enabled me to test that I was able to download data from the console. This worked without a problem so I installed the latest version of the excellent Cumulus software, again I was able to receive data with no errors.

Being unfamiliar with weewx (and somewhat shaky with Linux) knowing that the hardware worked meant one fewer place to look if it didn't work. The beauty of weewx is that it's pretty easy to set up, offering two ways to install itself (via a package or from a downloaded tar file); both methods are explained in the docs section of the weewx website. I opted for the tar file method as it installs all the files in /home/weewx and it seemed easier to have all the gubbins in the same place.

After weewx was installed I had to edit the weewx.conf file to set the altitude, location and weather station type. This step is well documented in the docs and I used Leafpad on the Pi via an Xming session to make the changes. Yes, yes, real men use the command line, but I don't care. An extract from the weewx.conf file is shown below.

Easy peasy configuration file editing

The part that had me scratching my head was the FTP sections - crucial to get right if I wanted to see the data on the web. For the server name I first used the local URL of my web server (actually a Qnap NAS) and this failed. Eventually I had success by using the IP address of the NAS.

After I had finished fiddling about I started weewx and watched the log with crossed digits. Everything looked good, especially the FTP upload, so I opened up the webpage and was rewarded by data from the weather station and a selection of graphs. As my confidence editing weewx's index.html.tmpl file grew I added a feed from the webcam and satellite information from Meteox. This is the final result or you can peruse the half-hourly feed to Weather Underground and The Met Office Weather Observation Website (WOW).

So everything's sweetness and light. Well, not quite. I have an issue with the daily graphs in that they plot points and not lines; oddly the graphs for monthly data correctly show lines, dunno why the daily graphs don't. Before I ask on the weewx forum I want to eliminate the obvious.

Beeching Axe

I had been finding it increasingly difficult to make compromises with what I wanted to do with the railway layout and the space available. Ideally I wanted to be able to set up a train consist (as our North American friends call it), set it going around the layout and then I could do some interesting shunting stuff in the station yard. This concept had worked on a layout I had built some years ago, but then I'd had much more room.

Raised track at the rear of the layout (see posts passim) was created to provide some scenic interest; the idea was to create an illusion of mainline running tracks separated from the station area by the difference in height. However the inclines were starting to cause difficulties with train running and it was clear that it would cause difficulties scenically too. Ironically it was lack of space that was the reason for the failure of this idea.

Unsatisfactory. That was my view as I tried to fit the quart of ambition into the pint glass of baseboard. In the end I decided to dismantle the whole lot, baseboards included, and have a fundamental rethink. Whatever I decide to do, it will have to be built in the attic as there's no room in the house for what I want to do. Before that happens some kind of flooring and insulation will need to be installed to prevent my frostbitten (or, depending on the season, roasting) foot coming through the ceiling.


Weather Report

Nearly a year ago I wrote about using a Raspberry Pi to upload weather data from a Fine Offset WH-1080 weather station to a website. For the most part the WH-1080 has worked well and has been a worthwhile introduction to weather data collection. At the time of writing the WH-1080 is being sold in the UK by Maplin for a whisker under £60 (product code N96GY).

There have been some hiccups with interruptions in data transmission from the outside unit. Prompted by an outage lasting over a day I bought a replacement transmitter, only for the original unit to start working again. It's still prone to occasional dropouts, seemingly without any correlation to weather conditions or invertebrate infestation. The latter stopped the anemometer until I was able to clear the spider webs.

Weather Station and Spider Habitat

Presently, however, the unit isn't recording wind speed or direction data. The receiver unit shows changing wind direction but not the wind speed, and neither are being uploaded to the website. This isn't just an issue with pywws, the Cumulus weather software isn't receiving the data either. Dismantling the anemometer showed nothing apparently wrong with it; not surprisingly as all that's inside is a reed switch and a tiny magnet. As repair wasn't possible I ordered a new unit from Maplin. And I'm still waiting for it. The buggers have taken my money (£5 with postage!) and it's still 'on order'.

Finally I decided to order a Davis Vantage Vue weather station and data logger from Prodata, who are selling them together at a 'special offer' price. The Vantage Vue consists of a combined sensor unit containing rain bucket, anemometer, wind direction, temperature and humidity sensors. Like the WH-1080 the sensor data is transmitted wirelessly to an internal console with an LCD display. An optional USB data logger is required to store data and send it to a PC. My plan is to use weewx, a linux-based weather software application, installed on the trusty Raspberry Pi in place of pywws (this program won't work with the Davis unit).

Presently I'm waiting for the thing to be delivered (every noise outside sends me to the window to see if the courier has arrived) and when it is, I'll document how I set up both it and weewx more carefully than I did for pywws and the WH-1080. I'll spare you the unboxing, though.

Soldering On

Up until now I've been testing the locos on the layout with a couple of pieces of speaker wire, attached at one end to my venerable H & M controller and held onto the rails at the other with my fingers. Apart from the dexterity required to stop the two pieces of wire touching, I also had to dodge speeding locos. Time to Do It Properly.

Express Models sell DCC kits comprising of wire with a gauge suitable for the power bus; thinner gauge to link from the bus to the rails; crimps and spade connectors. The kits contain more than I needed so I picked the bits I wanted separately and sent an order. A few days ago it arrived and I spent a wet Saturday wiring up the layout.

Goody bags

Accepted practice wiring for DCC train operation is to run a power bus - basically two cables with a reasonably meaty cross section, one for positive, the other negative - underneath the baseboard. To this are attached a number of thinner wires, the other ends of which are soldered to the track. I decided to run my power bus as a loop, the ends joined to a terminal block. It doesn't have to be a loop; a long length of cable running to each end of the baseboard will work too. My power bus wires are held up by threading them through plastic loops originally bought for home cinema wiring (I knew they'd come in handy one day).

I drilled through the baseboard next to the track for the dropper wires in several places, chosen to eliminate dead spots no matter how the points are set. Prior to soldering the dropper wires to the track I used a small rat-tail file to clean the side of the rails at the point they were to be soldered. This cleaned off the crud and helped ensure a better joint. Some solder was then applied to the sides of the rails; the ends of the dropper wires were tinned and then soldered to the rails.

Once I had soldered the dropper wires I realised, from the cramped and awkward space that exists under the baseboard, that the spade connectors wouldn't crimp onto the wires but needed to be soldered too. I'd have to hold the wire with one hand, the connector with the other and manipulate the soldering iron with my third. Bugger. Eventually I figured by tinning the connector and holding it against the wire with a pair of pliers I could heat them both with the soldering iron and obtain a good joint. The crimps were then fastened to the bus wires by squeezing them closed with a pair of pliers and the spade connectors were then attached to the crimps.

Knit one, purl one

All that remained to do was link a couple of wires from the bus to the H & M controller and turn the knob. I was rewarded by the shunter moving smoothly along the track much better than before, solely due to having more power feeds which reduced the power losses through the track joints.

There was only one glitch which was caused by the electrofrog point, or rather how I had installed it. To stop short circuits you need to use insulated rail joints, which I'd done. What I hadn't done was to put them on the correct rails, so as soon as I switched the point to another route it created a short circuit. I moved the errant joiner so that both insulated joiners were adjacent to one another on the rails coming from the frog and the problem was solved.

As cabled the layout works OK if there's only one DC loco on the layout. All tracks are live so if another loco was placed anywhere else on the layout it would also move, and in the same direction. The next step is to purchase a DCC controller and loco, which I plan to do at the forthcoming International N Gauge Show.

Tying Up Loose Ends

The points I ordered from Hattons arrived the other day. They were well packed; smothered in bubble wrap and somewhat lost in a large box. Along with the points I needed I also ordered an electrofrog point as an experiment. I've never used one of these before as the wiring for them is a bit trickier then the insulfrog variety.

Track in a box

The point came nestled in a slinky plastic wrapper and I was impressed by how good it looked. It's much more realistic than the insulfrog points which now look rather ugly. Damn. It seems I will have to replace them. The electrofrog point came with an instruction leaflet that outlined how to wire up a layout to avoid short circuits. This is the added complication with this type of point, but it looks so much better it's going to be worth the head-scratching with the wiring.


Joined Up Thinking

The result of the points arrival is that the main running tracks are now complete, with only a couple of sidings left to do. There's a bit more construction to do for the high-level branch line station that I'm going to defer until I'm happy with the running quality of the main tracks and have wired them up.

I'll digress slightly at this point to explain how the track has been connected. All the plain track is Peco Streamline; this enables smooth curves of varying radii and reduces the number of joints which improves electrical conductivity. Inevitably the track has to be cut to length and I'll explain the way I do this.

Before any piece of track is fixed I place it into position to check the length and mark where it needs to be cut by nipping the rails with wire clippers. The advantage with N gauge track is that the rails are a similar thickness to mains electrical cable which means they can be cut with standard wire clippers. This can be exciting when the length of rail to be cut is quite short as the waste piece can shoot across the room. I've not yet been hit by a ricochet but there must be many pieces of sharp metal in the carpet waiting for unwary bare feet.

Cut here

Once cut to length I turn over the piece of track and trim the sleepers. This will also reveal the disadvantage with the wire clipper method: the small lumps of metal on the underside of the rails caused by the clippers squeezing the track when it's cut. You may just be able to see them on the picture above. These have to be filed flat or the track joiners will not slide onto the rails. At the same time I will use the same flat file to file the ends of the rails. A rat-tail file is used to clean the sides of the rails to improve electrical conductivity between the rails and the track joiners.

File under flat

Once filing is complete I will then use a craft knife to trim away the sleeper chairs from the end sleeper. This makes the fitting of the track joiners much easier. Once the track has been fixed down I occasionally need to slip a sleeper between the two pieces of track if the gap between the sleepers is too wide.


We're Going Round In Circles

Once the main running tracks were finished I was able to test them by running a selection of locomotives round them, rather than pushing a coach. Generally I was pleased with the results but there were a couple of areas of concern. One is a joint on a curve the outer track that seems to cause a problem for a couple of locos; the other is the transition between the flat and the incline that's adjacent to a point.

The latter area didn't surprise me and I will need to insert a shim under the track to ease the transition. Only the Graham Farish Class 47 has real problems here and that's because it has the longest wheelbase. My main concern was that the gradients would prove too much for the locos but that hasn't been the case, although I still need to test them with wagons and carriages. If they don't cope I am resigned to removing the high level trackwork.

Completion of the running tracks has given me the excuse to unpack some of the locos that have been stored in the attic for years. What struck me most was how basic some of the models appear in comparison to those in production now. The exception to this was the Roco class BR144 electric with levels of detail that still stand up to today's models.

Roco Class BR144

I have a weakness for old electric locos, especially those from Germany and Switzerland. It was this fondness that made it a tough choice of whether to model this or British Railways. However, somewhat disappointingly, the Class 144 ran very poorly so will need some maintenance.

Of the other locos I tried the best running was a Minitrix Class 27, but then this model has always held that position.

Minitrix Class 27

Whilst the body is fairly convincing the chassis belongs to a different loco altogether, possibly some German type that Minitrix pressed into service for the Class 27. This class of locos was mainly used in Scotland and was probably as unlikely to have visited the area I'm modelling as the German electric.

At the opposite end of the quality scale is the Lima Class 31. The Lima N gauge range was cheap and cheerful and I bought a couple of coaches to go along with this loco. The Class 31's bodywork gives the impression of being overscale but, unlike the Class 27, the chassis is more convincing.

Lima Class 31

This class of loco is fairly typical of the ones that will have been used in the area I'm modelling so it's likely to be pressed into service. The Graham Farish Class 47 was the least happy with the trackwork and didn't run too smoothly either. Mind you after 25 years of inactivity I'd be a bit stiff too.

Graham Farish Class 47

This is a good looking model and at the time it was in production was one of the best locos in the Graham Farish range. It holds up quite well against the current version of this model and will probably be worth trying to convert it to DCC as this too will fit into the time and area I'm wanting to reproduce.

I will run the layout as DC initially as all my current locos are this type. All future models I buy will be DCC and I will gradually replace all the DC models (converting those that are worth keeping). I intend to visit the International N Gauge Show in September where I hope to pick up a DCC controller and the first of my DCC locos.

First Movement

I still have to buy some more points to complete the main part of the layout, but first I have to corner an catch my credit card. It's still feral after the lens purchase (see last post) and needs a bit longer to calm down.

No Self-control
Whilst waiting for the points I've been trying to find a transformer (it's blue, if you see it) I used last time I ran a model railway so that I can connect a controller and get some trains running. Years ago I built an electronic train controller from spare electronic bits and pieces I had laying about; nothing fancy but it worked well for simple layouts. It would have been useful to test run some locos, but without a twelve volt input from the AWOL transformer it's useless.

iController™

Not the last word in design and only cutting edge in that the edges of the aluminium plate that acts as a heat sink are sharp.

During a recent visit to the ancestral home I took an opportunity to rootle about in the attic (bloody transformer has to be here somewhere) and came across some controllers whose existence I'd nearly forgotten about. Among them was this fine specimen.

Hammant & Morgan controller (With TMS delivery module, top left background)

 It's a Hammant and Morgan Powermaster of 1965 (ish) vintage made from old battleships and almost as heavy. The beauty of this unit is that it has a built in transformer and it provides a 12v DC output from the (removable) pins sticking out of the right-hand side. There's another 16v AC output on the left hand side. The circuit selectors are useful for track sections so that more than one loco can occupy a section of track; the holes in the top once were filled by more switches.

It's Alive
Fitting a plug to the H&M was interesting as the wires were coloured red, black and green. This colouring always seemed more logical than the brown, blue, yellow/green scheme that's currently used. Once the plug was on I paused before plugging it in; this was, after all, a 50 year old electrical item that had been in an attic for the last 20 of those. No sparks flew, no bangs, smoke or burning smells, just a low hum.

I found some wire, attached it to the back of the H&M and connected it to a stretch of track. A Graham Farish class 08 was selected as a possible sacrificial victim and was placed on the track. I turned the Voltage Control knob and, bugger me, the shunter moved, albeit somewhat jerkily.

Have trucks, will shunt

After much elbow work with a track cleaner I tried again and was surprised by how smoothly the loco moved after two decades of being immobile. I'd still like to find that transformer though...

Ultimately I want to use DCC for this layout which will make most of the equipment above all but redundant as it will be relegated to use on the branch line or sidings. After some research I'm close to selecting the NCE Powercab DCC system.

Let's Twist Again
Glancing at the layout the other day I noticed that some of the straight trackwork was out of place. Initially I assumed I'd knocked it when I'd placed something on the baseboard (it's a bit of a dumping ground at the moment) but I found I couldn't straighten it. Attempting to do so made the track twist elsewhere.

You'll be ahead of me here. It took a couple of seconds to register that the hot weather we've had in the UK must have caused the rails to expand and push the the trackwork out of shape. It's slightly cooler as I write this and the track is now straight again. I guess I shouldn't grumble when Network Rail impose speed restrictions in hot weather.

Didn't Have A Leg To Stand On

Quadruped

When I first built the baseboard I was somewhat lazy and used an existing desk as the support for one end. It slowly dawned on me that accessing the underneath of the part of the baseboard that rested on the desk would be challenging. I had originally bought some wood for legs so I dismantled the baseboards (and the desk), measured up, sawed through, screwed on and rebuilt. They say lazy people go to the most trouble.

Wait, There's More!

Not only does the baseboard boast legs it now has some track on it too. The general layout I'd decided upon was shown in a picture in the last post, but at the time nothing was fixed down as I was still tinkering with the positioning of the points. Before the track was fixed I glued some 2mm thick cork sheet onto the baseboard to act as a track bed and to provide some sound deadening. The track was then pinned through this. Actually it was nailed; the track pins I'd used on previous layouts just bent when I tried to push them into the MDF, so I resorted to small nails. The picture below shows the story so far. View to the left...

And to the right...

No, that's not junk, it's essential equipment for tracklaying. And since you may be wondering, the yellow pot is an old TetraMin fish food container.

Point & Shoot

You'll notice the gaps in the trackwork in the picture, this is due to running out of points. In an earlier post I mentioned I had decided to stick with Peco Code 80 track, however the realisation I would need more points made me review this decision. If I had to purchase more points, why not buy Code 55 with Electofrogs to replace the Code 80 ones in the station area and on the main running lines, then reuse the Code 80 points in sidings? The answer was I bought a new lens for my camera instead, leaving only enough loose change amongst the broken shards of the piggy bank for four new Code 80 points.

When these points arrive I will be able to complete the main trackwork just leaving a few sidings to do. The test coaches I have free-wheeled over the trackwork run smoothly so far and weave from track to track without derailing. The coaches have also been used to check the distances between the tracks to ensure they don't foul each other. The the gap between the adjacent trackwork in the station area looks quite realistic; too many layouts have tracks too far apart. When built the railway engineers wanted the smallest land take possible, for both cost and time reasons, but this is rarely considered in model railways.

I've a smidgeon more construction work to do on a high level section that I've tentatively planned to be a branch line station. The connection to this will start approximately where the white glue bottle is standing in the bottom picture and run along the wall to a point just off-camera on the right.

A bit more to do, then I need to see if I can make some locos run on the track.

Points and Crossings Out

Designing the track layout is one of my favourite parts of building a model railway. I usually start with a few pieces of paper on which the outline of the baseboard is drawn, then I doodle track plans. Initially these are pretty ambitious and have many spirals, levels, branch lines and sidings, but eventually a degree of common sense creeps in.

Once I've drawn a feasible-looking plan I'll lay some track out on the baseboard to see how much my plan has in common with reality. The main constraint is the minimum radius of curves. I wanted to keep the minimum radius on the 'main line' to 30 cm, or thereabouts, with 23 cm for sidings; the latter being about the limit for N gauge. A 30 cm curve does not look realistic but I don't have a deep enough baseboard for a larger radius, so I'll have to hide these curves in tunnels (the standard railway modeller cop-out).

Care has to be taken on curves to keep adjacent tracks far enough apart to prevent passing trains from fouling each other. The tighter the curve the more long carriages overhang, that is, their ends and centre overhang the track. Without sufficient space between tracks the overhang from the end of one carriage will hit the centre of another. There are some minimum measurements that will act as guidelines, but I find it easier to check tolerances by running the longest carriages I possess on the track. If they run smoothly and don't hit one another then it's likely the track is OK.

This was a good excuse to head into the attic and bring down the shoe boxes that have contained the track and rolling stock since my model railway was packed away about 20 years ago.

Green Cross Corrode

Oh dear.

Manufacturing techniques have moved on somewhat in the last two decades and several of my locomotives look a bit dated. I'll be taking a more detailed look at these in a later posting. However, more seriously, the points and crossings had been stored with some Peco foam underlay and this had perished. Not a problem in itself, as I wasn't going to use foam underlay, but it had damaged most of the points; giving them a rough green coloured coating.

Luckily I have a Peco rail cleaner and with this I was able to remove the majority of the corrosion. The picture below shows a before and after.

You can see the corrosion on the exit rails of the top point, together with some remaining foam underlay that's suck to the sleepers. The bottom point has been cleaned and most of the muck and ick has been removed. Unfortunately a couple of points were beyond redemption and had to be discarded. One (slight) bonus is the oxidation of the rails during the years of neglect has toned down the shininess of the rails and made them a bit more prototypical.

Side One, Track One

After much chewing of pencils, crossings out, profanity and a smidgen of inspiration I've settled on the layout I will build. Well, pretty much, sort of - it may change a bit, a lot - radically, or stay the same. Um, here's a picture of the rough layout of the track.

This layout provides me with two complete ovals and some sidings for operational interest. A station will be built at the front of the baseboard, with one of the platforms between the line at the edge of the board and one of the main running tracks. To the right is a small goods yard. There will be a raised section furthest from the camera - one of the inclines is visible on the right. The track will go on top of the raised section, it's currently under it until I'm happy with the layout and the wood has been fixed to the baseboard.


Right, so still a bit of work to do before track laying can start. Once the raised section is completed I'm toying with using cork sheet as an underlay for the track. This will give the track a slightly raised profile and should reduce noise.

Room and Board

A recent week's holiday and some good weather gave me an opportunity to build a baseboard for the model railway. This was the fruit of some considerable measuring, planning, scratching of head and stroking of chin. There is a great deal of advice available on the internet, but generally all baseboards are composed of a board (duh!) and a frame to support it (the base, I guess).

Materials that can be used are many and varied, and everyone seems to have their own favourites, but I chose 12mm MDF for the board. According to the forum you look at this is either the best, or worst material and is too thick or too thin. There is some consensus that 22mm x 47mm softwood for the frame 'will do'. This gave me a pretty robust baseboard, albeit somewhat heavy, which isn't a big issue as it's highly unlikely I'll be exhibiting so portability is a low priority. Layouts built for show purposes tend to be made with tops and frames made from plywood for lightness.

My original plan was to cut the top panel from a single 8ft x 4ft sheet of 9mm MDF, however there was no way I could fit that in my car and delivery would cost over £30. The compromise was to create two separate boards: one made from a 4ft x 2ft sheet of 12mm MDF I already had (see the Size Matters post); the other one was built from a 6ft x 2ft sheet and the two were bolted together. This gives me an L-shaped baseboard about 7ft x 2ft 6in (that's 1520 x 750mm for the engineers out there), with a bit extra.

Frame by Frame

The following are a few pictures of the larger baseboard under construction that show the main steps.

These are the main components: the softwood for the frame and the two pieces of MDF for the base. I wanted the base to be 30 inches wide, but I had to buy a board that was only 24 inches wide hence the two pieces.

Essential tools: electric drill, square, countersinker, screwdriver, pencil, bradawl and sandpaper (mug of coffee is out of shot). The workbench is the patio table (don't tell the missus).

Due to some, er, entertainment, that I'd had making the frame for the smaller baseboard I adopted a more sensible approach with the larger. This time, rather than building the outside of the frame then fitting the cross piece, the end and cross pieces were fixed to one of the long frame sides first.

Ensuring the lengths of end and cross pieces are the same is crucial, as is making sure the ends are square. If I had a proper workshop with a bench mounted saw this would have been trivial. Instead I persevered with a tenon saw and the results weren't too shabby; probably would have got a B from my old woodwork teacher. The final side of the frame was added and, shockingly, the corners were square!

The larger of the two MDF boards were then fixed with great care being taken with the edge that would abut to the smaller baseboard. Reasoning the that the machine cut edge of the boards were going to be straighter than I could cut them (I need that workshop), I made sure these were the edges that would be joined. Just prior to fixing the board I drilled some holes through the inner cross pieces so that wires could be run along the underside of the baseboards.

The larger and smaller baseboards were clamped together and two holes drilled through both frames. The baseboards were then joined with a couple of bolts bought from Wilkinson's, using wing nuts so the two could be more easily dismantled, if required. My original plan was to mount the baseboards on legs, and I had bought some 42mm square wood for this purpose. It became apparent that it would be much easier and save considerable profanity to screw a batten on the wall to support the baseboard. The other end is currently resting on an existing desk. This rather slovenly arrangement will need to be addressed eventually, but at present it serves its purpose.

So, the action turns now to planning the layout of the track. I'll leave those thoughts to another post.

10 Years Have Got Behind You...

... or more like 25 since I last did any serious railway modelling. Leafing through the latest copy of Railway Modeller I realised things have moved on considerably in the intervening years. Back then it seemed little changed year on year; new models were introduced, of course, but I recall the biggest change was the introduction of Z gauge back in 1972 (crikey!).

Here are two 'Things I Didn't Know I Needed To Worry About'.

Track Record
No problem here, surely. I've plenty of track to make the most ambitious layout in the space I have available (or will have - see previous post). That was before I watched a careful explanation on YouTube by ngaugeuk why the track I have (99% Peco Code 80) is as prototypically accurate as Brio. The sleeper and rail heights are the main problem. With Code 80 track at 2mm scale the scale height of each is about 30cms which is much too high.

Peco Finescale Code 55 is the answer then? Well, not quite. Apparently, as with Code 80, the sleepers are too close together. I've measured them and it's true, they are, but I can live with that and the towering rail and sleeper heights of Code 80 too.

Zeroes and Ones
Ooh, this is a good one! Back in the 20th century if you wanted to make a model locomotive move, you'd connect a wire from a controller to each rail and turn the knob. To make it go t'other way just turn the knob the other way (or flick a switch). Then came Digital Command Control (DCC).

By fitting decoders into each locomotive you can control them individually, even if they're on the same stretch of track. This makes double-heading practical and means the sectioning and wiring that was mandatory when modelling MPDs is no longer required.

The drawback is that all the locos I possess were produced before DCC became a commercial reality. I doubt that any are even 'DCC ready'; when they were purchased it was the era when VCRs were still considered cutting edge technology. Whilst it may be that I can retrofit a DCC encoder into some I doubt that it will be possible for all of them.

So, decision made - stick with conventional control? Not necessarily. There are two ways round this. Firstly, DCC is able to control a single non-DCC loco using address 0; this is not ideal as you can only run one loco like this. Secondly, the layout can be wired to accommodate both types of control - DCC locos will happily run under analogue control. Actually, in the tradition of Monty Python, there is a third option which is to buy new DCC locos, and I will need new rolling stock.

Only Time Will Tell
At present both trackwork and train control are a little way in the future. The next major challenge is building a baseboard, and there are a myriad different ways of doing that, including paying someone else to do it for you. I, however, shall apply my O-level woodwork skills and build my own.