Return to Model Railways

I was staring at the base-board the other day, and suddenly something hit me – it’s too big! When I bought the original sheet of ply it fit in the back of the car with the seats down. Since then, it’s been extended twice, so it would no longer fit. Planning? What planning?!

The obvious option was to basically cut the board in half. However, the half-way point had a batten along it, so any cut would have to be offset from there. Not only that, but there’s a load of pointwork right above. I eventually found an area between two points about two thirds of the way along the board in a simpler area of the board. The track sections are straight, and the points are back to back.

The baseboard was already built so it was a bit of a retrofit. The underside battens were screwed to the top on both sides at almost exactly the point I needed to cut through, so the screws at that point were removed. I cut the whole thing in half, and then made up two new end battens to go on the ends. Whilst I was doing this I also drilled the holes for the bolts to hold it all back together. Everything was screwed back together and the end result is actually a bit sturdier I feel, my dodgy wood-working skills aside.

After a little bit of trimming, the two halves went back together fairly well. I installed the copper circuit board joiner and soldered it down. The track on the right of the joiner is glued down too, with suitable holes cut for the point motors to be fitted later. I need to pick up some more wing nuts and washers for the joint to make it secure.

The points were placed with a gap the width of the saw I used. When I cut through everything else, it all lined up flush, when pushed together. I run a wagon back and forth across it and it seemed smooth, so I’m happy. Some more soldering will need to be done to provide power feeds. Now I’m gluing track down I’m making sure to check the track butts up nicely by filing down the ends. Previously, everything was just rough-cut to fit. Some bits will need replacing and cutting down further as they don’t quite fit the gaps properly.

I did notice the track needs a darn good clean though, as it’s getting very dusty and mucky. Most of the rest has been dry-laid, so it’s just a case of pulling up bits and checking it, then gluing everything down again.

I’m now starting to think I need to build some sort of legs for the board as the shelving unit it’s standing on right now just doesn’t support it in all the right places, so it’s a bit up and down. Once that’s rectified, and track is laid, it’ll be onto the point motors and final wiring. Then I’ll have an actual working layout.

I managed to actually accomplish quite a bit today!

Over the last week I’d added some bolts and wingnuts to the end of the board where the return extension bit goes. The solution works – sort of. The extension bit tends to hang down a bit. Not a bit surprise I suppose. I need to figure out how to make it sit level with the main board.

That didn’t put me off starting to lay the track down properly. In the process of layout out the track again, I decided to forgo a few bits of track. Firstly, the double-slip crossover is out. As this is Code 55 track, it has a lower profile. I’d read that in some cases re-wheeling rolling stock would be required to avoid derailments. Having run various locos around and other stock, I’d not encountered any such problems – except on the double slip. It added additional headaches with wiring, in terms of getting it to switch polarities about. This all seemed like too much effort, so it had to go.

Additionally, the storage sidings at the back have turned around. This is mainly so all the points are situated at the more accessible end of the board. Not only that, the sidings will go into what is otherwise dead space at the back. As it was, the end of the rear, hidden storage was almost right next to the end of the ‘live’ sidings where I intend to put a depot. Again, I didn’t like this as it reduced the amount of space for scenery. Now I have plenty of room.

Having decided on that, I started track laying. I’d bought some pins from Wilko (the notice board type – long with a little bobble on the end) which I used to contain the flex-track on curves. Basically, I’d flex it round, using the pins to retain it. Then I’d draw an outline with a Sharpie so I knew where it belonged. I also used my Peco 6ft-way gauge to make sure the spacing was good. Radii are the same as, or less than some Code 80 Settrack I have, so that’s good. I think the Class 66s bind a little on tight curves, being CO-CO chassis, but it should be OK.

Once I’d got the track down, I added in the copper-clad PCB. I’d picked it up in Maplin. I cut a rectangle to fit over the join, which covered both tracks. I screwed it down to the board with two screws either site. Next, I pulled the webbing off the flexitrack so the rail bottoms sat flush on the PCB. Next out came the soldering iron and I put down a few tacks first to hold it in place, then ran a bead along the outside edges, plus a bit on the inside edges to retain it. It’s not exactly pretty, BUT the wheels all seem to roll over it. Finally, I used one of those funny hacksaws with the extended blade for hard to reach areas to slice along the PCB, track and all. I’d made sure to insert a spacer between to two baseboards the same thickness as the hacksaw blade, so that when the cuts were done, everything would be flush. The spacer in this case was my steel rule!

In my zeal to cut through, I twisted the saw, and snapped the blade. I replaced it with a better quality one, which whilst being longer, and thus at a higher risk of breaking, it sliced through with ease. I repeated all this for the second one, removed the spacer, and it all went together beautifully!

At this point I hadn’t glued down the tracks on the extension board yet, so I simply lifted them a bit, and used some Evostick wood glue to stick it down. I sat some weight on it for a while, and it all stuck very firmly. That Evostick is some good glue! I’ve also got some bog-standard PVA I got in Hobbycraft, but this stuff is pure awesome in a bottle!

With that done I laid out the other track, and glued down the curves at the other end. One nice thing I found using the pins to hold the track is that the track can be lifted in position; it’ll slide upwards, but retain it’s shape, and leave enough space underneath to squirt a bead of glue along, then use a spatula to spread it. Then it’s a case of lowering the track back down, and applying a weight to make it stay put. No fiddling around re-aligning it, as the pins keep it aligned. A real time-saver, and it means I could fiddle about using the pins without getting glue all over the place, or making silly mistakes. A good reason for using the cork!

Having done all that, I decided to wire up the original droppers I’d put in some time ago just to sanity-check the layout. It works as much as it can; the return curves and back section need power, but the front bit still works, save for a small dead section on one of the point frogs. Nothing I can’t fix though.

The new revised layout mean only a few of the original holes I’d drilled for point motors will now fit. Not a bit issue, as I’ll do new ones, and the old ones were mostly badly aligned. I’m still looking for a fool-proof method to align the Seep motors though. I’ve still got some track laying to do before that’s a worry though.

Quite a lot of progress!

Having laid all my track down, and run trains a few times, I found they were a tad noisy. Not only that but the surface wasn’t looking too great. Some of the track was a bit higgledy-piggledy, so I decided I’d attack it in two ways. Firstly, I’d rip it all up, and secondly whilst I was doing that, I’d lay down cork tiles.

I’d looked previously to try and find tiles, but drawn a blank. I was in Wickes a few weeks back and happened to stumble down an aisle where at the end was a pile of cork tiles – they were in a totally random place, next to shelving as I recall. I went back again this weekend to buy some and found they’d moved again onto some other random shelf, albeit closer to flooring than the last lot. I purchased a couple of packs – each covers 0.84m2 and I had just over that, so I knew I’d need a couple. They’re not bad at £7 a pack.

Today I pulled up all the track, and started gluing them down. Thing is, I’d gone through all the pain and heartache of putting in my point motors – the arms on some of them will still reach (they were too long) but a couple will be too short. I think I’m going to have to make some sort of extension for them, which could prove fun. I have a feeling in re-laying the track nothing will line up anymore. That’s sort of a mixed blessing, as some of the alignments on the motors was pretty rubbish anyway.

I glued down the tiles with plain old PVA. They were pre-varnished, so I glued them varnish side down. They’re sticking fairly well that way. I was worried if they were varnish side up I’d have a lot of trouble getting scenic elements to stick down properly. I’ve applied a bit of weight using various nice big books. I might not have finished my CCNA, but the study guides have come in handy!

When I start putting the track down I’ve got a few baseboard joins to do, which I’ll do the old-school way with copper-coated PCB. Should work well. Once I’m happy with the track, I’ll finally stop procrastinating and wire up the point motors!

I visited the International N Gauge show last week. There were some nice layouts there, and one major thing struck me – they nearly all formed a continuous loop. I think this makes for more operational interest, and allows for more interesting trains. Freight trains can rumble straight through the station, as can non-stopping express passenger trains. I’d otherwise not really be able to do those in the space I have. So now the track plan looks like this:

Which I’ve done by using a small extension on one end thus:

Admittedly, since I’ve done it, I’ve re-laid that section of track, as it wasn’t great. It’s now done in two continuous pieces rather than the four I first did it in.

So now I have a nice continuous loop, and the trains run around it full tilt quite happily.

I think I could do with a couple more power droppers elsewhere, just to give a good supply, but even then there’s no dropouts, and I ran the Dapol 67 round on a fairly low speed with no problems.

The extension won’t be scenic – it’s designed to be removed when not in use, so I’ll hide the edge with a bridge or something. But it’s all good progress. 

Due to space constraints, the size of the baseboard had pretty much been decided. I had a look in Wickes and they had some 9mm 3-ply board which looked good. Not quite the proper Sundeala hobbyboard everybody recommends, but good enough all the same. The sheet I bought is 1220×606mm (4”x2” approximately) – why the odd size, I’ll never know!

I also bought a couple of battens to fix to the underside. After a bit of cutting about, I’d managed to make a few lap joints, which I glued and screwed, then the whole thing was screwed to the top. I’m definitely no expert at woodworking, so it was a case of working slowly and carefully. The end result is below.

It’s sitting on top of a small shelving unit I bought in Wickes some time ago. The centre battens are oriented such that they sit across the top of the shelving unit, and hold it up. It leaves me (hopefully) enough room underneath for point motors, and cabling.

On the whole, it’s pretty sound, so I’m happy with it.

But this probably raises the point, why bother building it before any concrete plans? Well, it’s pretty simple – as I said earlier, there’s only a finite space, and I’m happy to work with a nice, flat base. As far as I was concerned, it made little difference, and it gives me the ability to lay things out and play about more.

It’s a good start, anyway!