Restoring an old exhibition Thomas layout

I was offered an abandoned Thomas & friends layout, previously used as a self-drive entertainment for kids at exhibitions, fund raiser BBQs and school fetes. Here it is working in 2010 at a school event. The layout and equipment has been stored for several years in a farm shed and was about to be scrapped. So with 4 grandkids under 5, it looked like a great opportunity to keep them occupied.

So what have I acquired? A 2.4m x 1.2m (~8’ x 4’) table top on folding legs that keep it about 500mm above the floor. So far, I have established that it is a two person lift job as it is very heavy.

The layout is a bit like a Hornby track mat, with 2 oval tracks, a passing loop and set of sidings in the center from each long edge. There is a small scenic mound at one end, a central road, some farm fencing and hedges and the whole top is covered with those sheets of model grass. All up, the scenery is in bad condition.

All points look like peco insulfrog and are switched manually with a wire omega loop attached to a sliding switch. Included was a twin track train controller & power supply and an oversize (steam punk style?) speed control for the kids to use.

Stock supplied were Thomas & friends locomotives: Thomas, Percy, Toby, Ben & Bill and several rolling stock items, Annie & Clarabelle, Trucks, Toad etc., plus some non-Thomas style items. I have not fully checked the inventory yet.

The surprise was all the other Thomas non-railway models in the box, the bulldozer, trucks, crane etc with a Thomas face plus many other matchbox cars. Also included was 2 boxes of assembled Metcalf/superquick style buildings for the village in the center of the board.

So the next steps are to check out the condition of all these bits and work out what to do with it. Hopefully I can get something running to entertain the critters for about 3 minutes when we are baby sitting.

 

Yes, the "fat controller" (steam punk controllers) are very impressive work, I will definitely try to keep them. After some more detailed evaluation i have found there is a lot of work. The frame is dressed pine 42 x 19mm covered with 10 mm thick MDF. The facia all round is 120 x 20mm dressed pine. The table has wheels on one edge so it can be held vertically and maneuvered around a hall by one person, but it is unstable on the narrow wheel base and will easily tip over while moving it. Surprising how big this table top can be and how little space there is inside the house to set it up. The layout is heavy, and despite the wheels, only one end is steering and at 2.4 meters long it is almost impossible to move inside the confines of a house. I was able to lay it on its legs on our decking.

All the points/switches work for power routing and the track is in OK condition, except that the outer oval has a 20 to 30 cm length of rail detached from the sleeper/ties in two places. Surprisingly the Ben loco ran over this with a bit of a wobble, despite only going backwards.


Power is supplied by the 15v AC terminal of the twin train controller. The AC 15V is fed directly into 2 different power converter/controller boards hidden by a wooden panel under the table top. The DC output is then fed to the oversize steam punk controllers for the kids (just a speed control variable rheostat) then back into the tracks. Looks overly complicated: there is a tangled spaghetti mess of wires underneath that has many disconnected wires, several unconnected plugs and some switches of unknown purpose.


The locos are a mix of Bachman and Hornby Thomas style and a Hornby 0-4-0 Polly/Nellie type loco. None of the locomotive stock operates satisfactorily, well Ben goes very well backwards but the others are very jerky or don’t move at all. They all need a good clean and service so I can evaluate them. The Hornby 0-4-0 looks worn out with the driving axle loosing contact with the worm gear. Most of the Thomas style rolling stock is in good as new condition, especially Annie and Clarabelle and Emily’s coaches. Also included are several old triang/hornby wagons, some of these have an odd mix of replacement wheels (maybe HO brass wheels) where the axel looks a little short. All the stock have lead weights glued underneath too. There are some missing coupling hooks and buffers.

The buildings and other scenery are tired and will need repair, surprisingly protruding card chimneys do not last long when crammed into a storage box.
this shows the condition of some of the buildings and the close up of the points.

OK, there is a lot to do and progress will be slow, but being a resident of the city in quarantine lock-down for the longest duration in the world, and with yet more days to go, time is something I have.

 

Thanks Tony, good advice. I believe the controllers were made for the same reasons you describe, and apparently they were used full on top speed all the time. They don't even have reverse!
Ben & Bill are Hornby, and almost built to a much larger scale. I have a Bachmann and a Hornby Percy (6), so will be able to compare. So far I have got the Ben loco running, but the pickups are worn very thin and on one side only on one wheel. The bachmann Toby is comparatively heavy, and like the other Backmans, does not run at all. More work for me to investigate.

As for mazac rot, yes, I understand it has returned, I have a hornby Std 4 MT class ‘75071’ issued that I purchased new on sale but had never used. When I finally set up a track, it worked for about 2 minutes before coming to a grinding halt. On dismantling the locomotive I discovered that the gear box cover was broken and jammed the gears and the hole gear box was crazy cracked. Anyway, I wrote to Hornby and they posted me a replacement part free. Excellent service. refer to this chat https://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/index.php?threads/hornby-locomotive-die-casting.2060/

 

With multimeter in hand I worked out how to connect the layout to power and get power to the tracks. So as suspected, the 15V AC is fed into the power supply boxes and about 11 volts DC is fed back to the controllers. The controllers are simple variable resistors. The designed 'electricery' (love that term first heard on this forum) uses the variable resister output to switch relays to reverse the polarity. So the center of the fat controller is off and full right or left is full speed forward or reverse.

In reality, the inner control seems to work OK, with center off providing about 1 volt, and increasing variable voltage as the controller is moved. The outer control does switch forward or reverse, however provides full 10 volts at any position.

The wires under the base board just looks too complicated to try to fix as it uses loads of cobbled together wires (changing colour and size as they go) and seemingly redundant components. The power converter boards are different designs, have loose components and many disconnected wires as well as switches I do not understand. There is no buss as such, it looks like power goes to either side of the layout. The power routing switches on the points have no connection to the power supply, they independently take power from the track and switch it to the selected diversion.

So, for peace of mind I ordered 2 DC motor controllers for $13 each, and discovered my old wifi router has a 12 volt 3 amp power supply. I will keep it simple, and plug the 12 volts into the steam punk control box and replace the pentameters with the new units. A much simpler set up but reverse will be via a switch.
Next critical step is to fix the broken rails.

If I can get it so two trains can do circuits, the grand kids will be happy, (I hope for more than 2 minutes).

 

Thanks Dr Tony, that is a good idea, I can put them on the side.

The original wiring set up has two DPDT on-off-on switches at the opposite end (supervisor end) but they are only wired on two terminals on one pole, so used as on/off only. Testing shows they do nothing to the power on the track. Again, more evidence to suspect the model was put together with components to hand and also that it has been rewired in the past, thus so many redundant/obsolete components.

I suspect this layout will not be going on outings, as it is so big, heavy and cumbersome. It needs two people to lift and a trailer to transport. Certainly needs the efforts of a team. It was OK as a former club mobile exhibition layout but not so practical as a private one. The old proverbial 8' x 4' board takes up a lot of space and is not that practical unless there is a dedicated empty room available.