Return to Model Railways

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!

I went to Wycrail today which is held (oddly enough) in High Wycombe. They’re outgrowing the venue a bit (which is great, as it shows lots of visitors) but it’s a bit of a pain in places because the halls can get a bit busy. But it’s a nice show, with some really nice layouts.

A few really stood out for me. First up was Dairy Lane.

It’s an N-Gauge layout, and it crams SO much in to such a small space. It got me thinking of rejigging mine, but I really want to run long trains, so I need the longer track sections.

Another favourite was Cement Quay.

Some wonderful detail on this layout. There was a lot of texture to things. The grass and general background muck (piles of waste cement presumably) were so well produced.

The above closeup of the sidings shows some of that detail. It’s a OO (or thereabouts, I forget exactly) layout, so it’s relatively easier to produce such detail. I intend getting close in N though. I liked the fact most people viewing this layout just stood silently looking.

By far my favourite layout was Wells Green TMD. For a OO layout it’s remarkably small (just about two metres I’d reckon), and packs in an amazing amount of detail.

The loco stock is all super-detailed, some including drivers hanging out the doors. There was so much to look at, I have to be honest I can’t recall a lot of what I saw! The crime scene down the front was great. The police paddy wagon even having working lights which flashed a very convincing cycle. The disused tracks down the front were also very good. I stood and stared for a while at this one!

I also invested in a Digitrax Zephyr starter kit, and a couple of DCC modules. I’ve already loaded them into my two Dapol 67s, and they work like a charm. I did find I’ve broken a wire on the headlights on one though, so that’ll need fixing. But I’m otherwise pleased. Need to play more first though!

Tomorrow I plan on re-laying the track, and sorting the point motors out properly.

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. 

I’ve been having an issue with the double slip on my layout. I’d wired up the Seep switching motors, and followed the leaflet that came with the point, but I had this strange issue with a short. Every time the loco I had got over the points, it’d short out. I’d hear it spark, and the controller would show an overload protection kick in.

I re-wired bits countless times, and followed along with my multimeter but couldn’t fathom it. Then I suddenly noticed what was up:

Can’t see it? No, neither could I. Took me a whole week to suss it. Basically, the curved point at the bottom is not set to turn out; i.e. the top blade is touching the top rail, making both the rails leading into it the same polarity! Because there’s insulating joiners between it and the double slip it’s all fine until the loco runs over onto the curved point. As soon as two pickup wheels are on it, there’s a short.

So once I spotted this, I flicked the point over and ‘lo and behold, it magically works! Well, the loco will run until the wheels are all on the curved point, at which point it stops dead, as there’s no power that end yet. I’ve been slowly working along, ‘debugging’ and fixing before moving onto the next bit.

I just need to add more power feeds, then wire up the point motors. Then wire in the CDU. And make the point control panel. But then it’ll be operational, and it’s on to gumming up things with glue and ballast.

I’ve been doing a little bit of wiring today. Nothing amazing, just getting some power into the rails. I’ve been around with insulating joiners, and I think I’ve got them all into the right places now. I’ve also been following up with my continuity tester, basically checking places where I think there should or shouldn’t be continuity. I found a couple of places where the opposite rail was carrying the same charge due to the electrofrog on the previous point being switched. I think I’ve got them all now though.

After working it out, I realised I needed 20 power connections! I’ve found the easiest way to accomplish this is to bare the end of a wire, and bend it to 90 degrees. Once tinned, it can be attached directly to the underside of the end of a rail, OR a metal joiner. A carefully drilled hole below it takes the wire away. The theory being that once ballasted, it’ll be unnoticeable. I did attempt to fix one to the side of the rail (a technique I know is perfectly valid) but in N gauge it’s just not do-able. In OO perhaps, but N is far too fiddly.

So far, I’ve got power into a siding. Woo! My carefully drilled hole wasn’t so careful though, and as a result the track doesn’t fit properly. I’m not worried though, as I’ll just re-drill the holes.

I’ve managed to knock quite a few random holes into the board, and I’ve decided I’ll get around those just using some sort of filler. There’s a couple of bigger holes which a piece of card would be able to bridge. I’m intending on adding a little bit of undulation to the whole base, so I’ll probably do that with a mix of filler and other fun things.

But there’s still another 18 power connections to do yet…

So, the weather has changed, and naturally, so have my plans.

I got rather fed up with the scissor crossings. The wiring was ‘fun’, but no impossible, but that wasn’t the deal breaker. The real issue was that I couldn’t get the point motors to align in a sane way. They either clashed with eachother, or with the board framework. So, I decided enough was enough, and they have now been replaced with ordinary points. The motors for those fit in fine, and the wiring issue is gone; now I just need insulating joiners to work with the electrofrogs.

The joiners ended up costing me a lot more than I planned. It seems Dapol have had a class 67 model coming for a while, and whilst looking around on the web for the joiners, I found the pre-orders for these fine new models. So I’ve got a 67 in EWS livery, and, the one I really wanted, a 67 with MK3 coaches and DVT in Wrexham and Shropshire livery! So that’s pleased me no end. Hopefully it’ll fit in the platform.

Progress overall has slowed a little, but now my issue with the scissors is gone, I can plod on far more easily. I need to solder power connectors onto some more point motors, and re-lay some of the track, but I’m not a million miles from wiring up the power. Next it’ll be onto ballast, and we’ll actually be getting somewhere.

Now there’s a slightly more definite track plan, I’ve started work on point motors. I read up on some stuff, including this nice article on the N Gauge Society website. I pondered things a bit, and here’s the decision I came to.

Point motors

Going with Seep, as they can mostly hide under the baseboard, they’re very low profile, and they’re simple. Peco’s motors require hacking great big holes in the board, whilst the Seep motors need a tiny hole for the armature.

Wiring

Colour coded, naturally. I found some stuff in Maplin which looks like it’ll do the job.

Power

I’ve got an old controller in the loft (I think it’s a Gaugemaster, or something) which has an accessory supply, so I’ll bring that down and use that for now. Or at least, until I look into DCC. I’ve also got a Gaugemaster Capacitor Discharge Unit (CDU) which will help fire the motors. For the scissor crossings I’m planning on making up a couple of push-button diode matrices, with relays switching the electrofrogs, but I’ll do that after I’ve got the basic points working.

Connections

I pondered this for a while. The above article mentioned using terminal blocks, which is a nice idea, but I’m not a great fan of them. I pondered some more, then realised I already knew of a perfectly great connector. The Molex Hard Disk connector! They can take the amperage, and the wattage I need, so they’re quite suitable. Plus, pretty easy to fit (crimp on pins), and it all just pushes together. If I want to remove something, I just pull the connector out. For bigger connections I can use the motherboard connectors, or multiples of these.

I’ve made up eight point motors so far with the female Molex connector on (technically, it’s back to front to how it goes in a PC, but I’m not fussy), and they look pretty good.

The screws I bought to fix them on are just the right length – they’re a bit long actually, but with the thickness of the point motor’s PCB, it should almost fit without sticking out the stop. So what if it does though, it’ll all be hidden under scenery!

I might have a bash at screwing one of them in and testing it out. Once I’m happy with all the point motors I’ll move onto the other electrics.

I’ve been laying some track this afternoon. I spent a while fiddling with the curves, and laying things out.

I started at the back, and slowly worked around to the front on the longer sections. Laying the curves wasn’t too bad, but they’ve taken on more of a ‘D’ shape than the original plan.

Not really a big issue, as it means a more sweeping curve, and not only that, it lines things up a bit more nicely for the scissor points.

Notice the slight bodge on the end of the curve though:

I should have started with two lengths from either end, and trimmed them down. Then I would have had a nice join the middle. But no mind. I’ve run some wagons over them, and they go over fine. Due to the fact I’ve pulled the baseboard out and sat it on the bed, it’s a little inclined. I was having great fun sending a little wagon round the full length just by pushing it hard at one end, and letting it make its own way round under its own momentum. I figured if it was binding anywhere, or likely to derail, it’d definitely do it then, and it went round fine each time, even crossing the points when I set them to crazy things, so I’m reasonably happy it’s OK.

There’s a light pencil line which marks a 275mm diameter curve; my curves are a bit more than that, so I’m well within tolerances I think.

Unfortunately I need to wire up the electrofrogs before I can actually get anything running around. I think I also need to look into point motors and their fitment before I go crazy sticking down track. The curve is nailed down, but only because I have no plans in ballasting or doing anything with it (you can’t see it anyway). Long term that might change if it moved to a location where you can see it. The fiddle yard at the back has also been nailed down.

I’m quite pleased with the high difference between the code 80 and code 55 track. I don’t envision it causing a problem as is, but if required I’ll file it to fit. So far, so good though. I might lay a bit more track today. At least my little Woolies Dremel-alike drill is coming in useful for cutting the track.

I had a go at making one of the buildings from Scalescenes today. I got myself some card, PVA glue, a Pritt stick, and a new knife and cutting board and set about making it. The result isn’t too bad.

Yeah OK, it’s not great. It took me about four hours to put it together, but I was speeding up a lot once I got a feel for how the kit worked, and I was stopping now and then to do other things. One thing I learned was I need to pick up some sort of proper glue spreader/spatula. I was just squeezing out a blob of glue on my finger and smearing it about a bit. Ahh the wonders of PVA!

I intend trying to make some of the bridges in future though. I’ll do a MUCH better job on those.