HO Exhibition Layout Build

Hi Everyone!

It looks like I'm just about ready to start construction. I've spent the last few days refining the trackplan and working out the best way to build the baseboard and lighting pelmet frames. The original plan had backscenes on only 2 sides so it could be viewed from the lefthand corner as well as the front. It was proving way too hard to get the facia to curve as tightly as needed so there will now be backscenes on 3 sides. The front face will still be concave helping to draw you into the scene. There will be openings in the backscenes at the ends of both headshunts to allow extensions to be added if required - the left hand one will be hidden by a building and probably a tree while the righthand will be hidden by an overpass (thanks to SMR Chris for the idea).


The current plan (the black line along the front shows how far in front of the basboard the lighting pelmet facia will sit)


The transparent yellow lines show the baseboard frame (the actual surface will be 30mm high density foam so I won't need heaps of extra framing)


The transparent lines in this pic show the framing for the top of the lighting pelmet (this will be above a layer of white coreflute that will have flexible led strip lighting fitted to it)

If all goes to plan I should be able to start work on this over the next week or so.

Ian

 

I've been off work for the last few days with a bad cold so I have had time to sort out the pics of my progress up until last Thursday.


The frame with backscene boards fitted.


High density foam baseboard fitted. I was going to use 3mm mdf for the facia but white corflute seems to be just as good but I can always change it later if need be.

I've checked and I have all the track, rail joiners and point motors needed so I hope to make a start on tracklaying this week.

Ian

 

Gary wrote:

Hi Gary.

The facia is currently corflute but may well change to 3mm mdf at a later date.

Ian

 

paul_l wrote:

Hi Paul.

The frame is 41x19mm pine but the foam of the baseboard is 35mm so all up I have about 75mm clearance. I plan to fit the solenoids directly to the turnouts so they won't even poke down below the foam.

Ian

 

Update time again!

Today I managed to get the holes cut in the ends of the backscene to connect with the 'rest of the world' and assemble the track. The absolute longest item of rolling stock can be no longer than 53' - I found this out when SMR Chris and his lovely wife Shelley gave me a 53' gondola for my birthday the other week (it leaves about 1mm clearance when in the loop). I have also found out that if I use some second radius curves and some flex track connected to the front left and right openings, I can have an oval formation in about 8' x 4' to watch the trains go by (maybe a future project.) At the moment, each opening will have a short length of track that canterlever's off the main layout.

Hope you like the pics and I hope to have more done soon.

Ian

 

Thanks Gary, Toto, Paul and Chris.

Chris, I always expected you would wind up the 'track test dummy'.

Ian

 

Hi everyone.

No pics to share for this post but I got some basic wiring done and ran my first train today! YAY! I modified all the insulfrog points so that every rail is always powered and, so far, I haven't had any issues with shorts on the frogs. I have permanently connected each switch rail to it's corresponding stock rail by removing some of the sleeper web and soldering ordinary stationery staples across the gaps. Once the ballast is down and the track painted, the staples won't be seen as they run along the edge of a sleeper. For testing purposes, I just connected two wires to the end of a siding and the whole layout works fine. I will, of course, install more droppers over the weeks to come, but it is nice to see it all work. Now that I know that track wiring works, I can start on hooking up the point motors.

Ian