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.