My Home Layout Trackwork Plan

Tom asked for a plan of my home layout, and I thought I knew exactly where it was... well almost! After a great deal of frustration and a little bit of cursing my poor memory (that's why you'll always see me with a pen/notebook in hand!) I found it. Now it's a little hard to see so one thing to note is that between the two yards there is a single line linking them. Also as with all things the reality of the layout has meant that the silo complex on the island has been relocated slightly. I plan to build a grain shed first, along with the other buildings associated with that yard before moving on to the other yard against the wall. The Silos will be located in the area where the base board has been cut into leaving an oddly shaped oval to show just where I mean. As you can see from the photos the yard has been extended round the curve with the last point actually at the end of the curve on the rhs of the layout. Also the whole layout is located against the wall now, however this is only temporary whilst I work on my show layout. I really needed the floor space, so for those of you who thought the backscene didn't quite work with the station platform in front of it, you are completely correct. The painted backscene actually goes where the yard finishes, exactly where the blank board is in the other photo.

The pointwork I'm still working on, the next two points are completed, just need some time to lay them.

Here's the scan and a couple of photos to show you what I mean, Geoff.

Black Mountain, NSW.

Last year I went on a tour with a great mate Darren, through country NSW. We had a week to cover as much of the territory as we could. We started at Brisbane and headed south towards Tenterfield. We had a list of spots to visit, for me Black mountain was one of the highlights. Here's a couple of photos to give you a look see of what's there. The whole of the location is cut into the hill and the yard curves around the cutting following the shape of the land. It's off the main highway but worth a look!

Later on I'll give you a bit of a rundown of where we went, and especially what was there to have a look at. Enjoy!

NSWGR Handlaid Trackwork- pt3 construction

I think that I should expand on just how I activate my points. It's really cheap and simple, and easy. It all revolves around a DPDT switch. I only use three contacts on the switch, the others I leave 'just in case' I need to use some switching down the track.

I put a hole in a piece of timber that is big enough for the switch to go through, then I put a hole in a second piece of timber large enough so that it doesn't bind on the nut of the switch. The two pieces of timber need to fit flush against each other. This is one side of the box, the other three should be made to go around a single piece of timber that will activate the switch. I built all of this with some scrap 3mm ply and some pine about 25x7mm, using three pieces of the pine and three pieces of the ply. The pine is solid enough to drill a hole into the short side , so that the end of the switch fits snuggly into it. The switch itself performs two roles, to change the polarity of the frog, and to mechanically move the point blades. The piece of timber that fits in the centre of the box i sand a bit on the corners so that it doesn't bind, before putting it together. As you can see from the photo I install the box on its side so that its easy to solder on the wires (easier still to do it before you put it in place). Talking about the wiring I make the centre pole for the power to the frog, the LHS pole goes to the right hand track, and the RHS pole goes to the left hand track. Really what I'm saying is that the polarity is reversed so that everything works when you 'switch' the point. If this doesn't make sense let me know and I'll try to explain it more

A layout tale- Splitters Swamp Creek

Yesterday I began telling you about SSC and how it came about. For me it's been a steep learning curve, with some new ideas for module design and construction. For those who've noticed the ends of the modules overlap. This doesn't really cause any problem until you add a backdrop and a pelmet. It basically means that one end of each module is needing to be attached to the next for support. A bit of extra thought for how they go together has seen me employ t-nuts for holding the modules together at the base and the top.

I've put in another sketch to show a bit more of what I imagine it will look like. I'm no artist but here goes!

It Started at Toowoomba-a tale

For the last four or five years I've been lucky enough to attend the Toowoomba Model Railway Show. The show has been a source of great inspiration and friendship. I tend to use some of my time re-assessing what my modelling goals are. At most times of the year 'life' gets in the way of modelling plans, so I find it a positive to take the time and get some plans in writing.

In 2006 I used some of my time doodling an idea of my own show layout. Of course there were plenty of others to bounce ideas off, so it made the job all the more enjoyable. The plan about here is the first version, the main idea being a layout with simple trackplan, and small size. I love the look of many of the On30 layouts, for me it's the landscaping that is the strongest focus of these layouts. So with this in mind I made the plan with a focus on landscape and trackwork. Lots of trees and cuttings and green stuff.

I have mentioned elsewhere that I hand lay my trackwork, and so this layout would be the same. This plan does have it's drawbacks as I need to build the trackwork to be as reliable as possible and of course robust to enable it to be transported around. The track will also be DCC, so that the simple trackwork benifits by moving more than one loco in an area at a time, without alot of blocks and switches.

The rollingstock will be steam era, witha bit of pre 1950 stuff about. I think that the time period is probably still broad at this stage say 1940-1970, this may change as I move forward, we'll see. This means that early diesels may also make an appearance.

I went over the layout plan, more formally this time and realised that the track plan would not work in the space I've allowed. The decision then changed the size of the modules, and adjust the plan. It is now more definitely designed to be operated from two sides, enabling variation for the operators as well as being something a bit different. The actual trackwork is very close to this design, and the wheat sheds are gone, replaced bya larger livestock loading area. Each module is now 600mm deep not 400, it works better giving larger radius curves.

This'll be enough for today, unfortunately my typing is still rubbish!