Thaxham light railway. A Great Eastern Railway themed terminus, in O gauge.

Cheer's York Paul!
Had another play on Anyrail this evening and using the Marklin 3 way point I have drawn up another plan and printed it off full size so I can plan where point motors will be and where the joint between boards is.
Any way see what you think.


Apart from being 6" narrower than the finished layout it is more or less as I want it.
Just noticed, there's a point where I had planned the joint. Looks like a rethink, maybe make board one 4ft and board two 5ft .
Actually, it could work in my favour as I already have two 4ft boards already made.......

Cheer's, Pete.

 

I've had a little play around today with the printed off plan.
The actual turnouts and 3 way have a different geometry to the ones on the plan but not to different, I just need to tweak the finished track once the boards are done.
Any way here's a couple of photos from this afternoon.





This was just a tryout but it has given me some ideas. As it stands my thought on making the fiddle yard a turntable won't work. Maybe having a sector plate with two roads would be better.
Anyway I'm getting ahead of myself.

Cheer's, Pete.

 

Cheer's Paul, just need to get my finger out and build the boards, I've cleared space in the spare bedroom though the woodwork will have to be done in the shed then taken upstairs or SWMBO will kill me .

Pete.

 

It's funny how my missus can't see the big picture, if I bring home a rusty broken old motor bike its a pile of scrap, after I've stripped, cleaned, repaired and painted it then sold it for a profit, she wants her cut. With model railways shes no interest so see's any time or money spent on it as a waste, and as for finding room indoors for it, well I won't repeat her thoughts on that.

Pete.

 

Now the weather has improved markedly I have made a start on the base boards. As I said previously, I have one (2 really-but I only need 1) 4ft board ready built, I just need to widen it 6inch. And some 4mm ply that I have run through the bandsaw into 75 x 1200 mm lengths (the boards were 600x1200) as I need board one to be 1500x750-5ft x 2ft 6inch I have had to join the side rails to make 5 ft.
They are all now cut, glued and nailed together to make the sides ends and middle supports. (Just love my brad nailer!)





Going to let the glue dry, then fasten them together and see how we look.

Cheer's, Pete.

 

Its been a while since an update so I will share where I'm at now.
I have assembled the framework for the boards, made and attached the legs and this afternoon made and fitted the leg braces, unfortunately I am one bracket short for the last brace. Soon as I have sorted that I will take some photos and post them up.

Question for Rob P, have you any thoughts on ACE products loco kits?
I need 2 J68's and Ace make a kit for them. I have read conflicting reports but I have built 2 Gateneal kits (and they looked and ran well) so I think I may be able to build them.

Pete.

 

A couple of photos of the base boards sans tops now on their legs.





The square of ply in foreground is the base for the fiddle yard/sector plate. The rest of the top boards have sit above this level so the track hights are level.
I have put timber blocks between the cross members and side rails to raise the ply up 9mm . One is just visible to the right in the lower picture.
If I build another layout, I will definitely NOT use this method again. Getting things to align is a proper PITA.
I have cut the short number 1 board top and glued in the blocks so I will take a couple of photos after tea.

Pete.

 

The base board tops are now on, and I have started sorting the track layout.
I'm deviating from the original plan slightly as it didn't quite work. Where the tracks led into the sector plate area I have now curved them for ease of operation which gives the station area a slight curve, I think it will look better.
I haven't pinned any track down yet as I need to sort where the point motors go.
The 3 way point is the datum for all the rest of the trackwork. Unfortunately one of the switch blades came adrift so I had to repair that.
Plus one of the copper clad points I bought needed repair and I've done that too.

This afternoon I have been sorting out how to fit my servo point motors. I couldn't get any aluminium channel as per the Megapoints method so I have come up with my own design using ally angle. See what you think.





Here are a couple of shots of the 3 way. Because it is made from copper clad sleepers I have had to raise it up to the level of the Peco track using 3 layers of card.





This is the other point I repaired.



Thats it for now.

Cheer's, Pete.

 

Spent a few hours this afternoon glueing down track, at the board joints I have soldered the track ends to brass screws. Once the pva has dried I will take some photos of my (glacial) progress.

Pete.

 

Its been an age since an update. I have glued some of the trackwork down but got side tracked as its now steam rally season and I have been getting my engine sorted. Anyway this afternoon I had a few hours to spare so dug out board one and started the wiring.
Its going to be DCC so I have installed the main wiring bus.




The cable is domestic 240 volt standard. Brown is live, blue is negative/return.
I superglued two gapped copper clad pieces one at each end and soldered the cables.
Turning the board, I cleaned the rail sides ready for tinning using my glassfibre pen.

 

I marked the position (roughly) of the bus on the top of the board and cut the dropper wires to length.





I drilled 2mm holes close to the rail side .

 

I next tinned the ends of the droppers ready for fixing to the rails.
Important! DO NOT USE ACID FLUX!
I used a paste flux more suitable for plumbing applications.





Dipping the bared end of the wire into the flux I then tinned it.

 

Next up I tinned the rail sides using the same flux using a small throwaway brush.






I then soldered the wires to the rail sides before threading the wire through the board.

 

Flipping the board again I then soldered the ends of the droppers to the bus.
The black wires to the the blue. Red to the brown.
I stripped the outer back about an inch or so, tinned it and then wrapped it around the bared section of bus. Note the bared sections on the two bus are staggered so as to avoid accidental shorts.






Thats as far as I've got at the moment.
Sorry if it seems I am teaching granny to suck eggs here but there have been one or two posts from members who are uncertain of how to wire their layouts so I thought I would share my method.
I hope it has been of interest and use.

Cheer's, Pete.