The first feeder tracks

The first section of the feeder track is now in place.














This picture shows boards B5 and F5 with the double-track feeder from the storage sidings (B5l), eventually destined for the station (B1u). The track is not fixed; I only put it down to test the alignment through the curved sections. The final elevation of the feeders in this picture is about 5.5cm above base height, and the maximum gradient (~3%) is about half what you get using Hornby inclined piers at their standard spacing. I want to avoid going any steeper than that if at all possible.

Eventually, all of the track bed shown here will be covered by scenery, and the track will emerge from a tunnel portal into a cutting just to the left of this picture.

I have not paid any attention at all to the front boards since I first built them months ago, and I found that I had to put a lot more front-to-back bracing on board F5 before I could fix any track beds. I will of course have to do the same for the other front boards when I get to them.

The plan of attack is to complete the entire outer mainline loop, right round to the LH station approach, and then work on the inner mainline loop which connects the RH station approach to the LH storage sidings.

The secrets of board B5

The entire of the back section is now constructed. Board B5, the right-hand section, went in most recently. This means that all of the solid-top area of the layout (basically, the station and its approaches) is now ready for final alignment, fixing and track laying.

Here is board B5 with the lid off showing the supports and the storage siding approaches. The small spur in the foreground is the feeder for the branch line, the larger one behind it is for the main line.














Until recently I thought I would have a break from construction once I reached this stage, and lay track in the storage sidings. But I have decided that, instead, I will push to complete the constructional aspects at the front, put in the track beds and scenery supports, and get the frame completely ready, before I lay any track anywhere. This is partly because I don't have all the track I need yet, partly because of the danger of getting sawdust into the mechanisms, and partly because I don't want to run the risk of forgetting how I've built things if I have to come back to it later. Having got the hang of this cutting, glueing and screwing lark, I am in the mood to complete the woodwork and get it all out of the way so that I can turn my full attention to the fun bits. So now I have to start thinking about gradients again to build the storage approaches, and about track courses and the shape of the scenery along the front sections.

I'm enjoying the construction side of things more than I expected, but I still want to get it done so I can turn the frame into a railway.

It's been a while...

Much time has passed with little progress; other commitments have intervened. But the past few days have at last allowed some progress again. The fourth baseboard is now in place (seen below with added train for scale!). When I eventually got time to work on it, it went together pretty well and retains the level of the others without any adjustment being required.















That leaves the right-hand-most of the back boards still to do. In some ways it will be the hardest because this section is a little bit wider than the others, i.e. a few cm wider than a standard 606mm plywood sheet. But now I know what I'm doing, I should be able to complete it smoothly enough, given the time.

Cue arty shot of the train in the above photo...














(It looks better if you don't blow it up to full size.)

Every time I complete a milestone (even a mini one like this), my desire to get trains running comes back. And it's good to know that the next major expense will be track and pointwork, rather than wood and screws.

In the last post I promised an update on the track plan. Well, here goes. Like all good track plans it is still evolving, and there are some problems I haven't found solutions for yet.

Comparing this with the previous track plan (see this previous post) reveals a number of important changes:

1. The trackwork has been upgraded to Peco Streamline, so the pointwork is smoother and more convincing. The plan now calls for two double-slip points
2. I have broken the link between the mainline tracks at the bottom right. Previously there was a way of getting from one to the other, to allow an artificial tail-chase. I liked that less the more I looked at it
3. The branch line now follows a different course and now diverges at (1.8,0.3) just before it disappears off the plan. The RH branch goes into short storage sidings underneath the scenery. The LH branch is supposed to link up with the storage sidings under the main station, but there is a lot of height to lose and I'm not sure how to do it yet. One possibility is a helix - not a particularly realistic construct, and one for which space is not readily available, but a good way of packing lots of gradient into a small space.
4. The plan has fewer sidings. This is not necessarily a good thing as most real railways have lots of sidings around stations, and operationally I will need some. But it's better for avoiding too much layout clutter. I am sure the final siding arrangement will change again before being committed to the model.
   
5. There is also a bit of rudimentary scenery (i.e. a river and a bridge!). I am still learning how to make the most of the scenic features in XTrk.

The plan is almost certainly not final yet, and it will need to be before I start tackling the five front sections. I'm not thinking that far ahead yet.

Method in the madness

For a few weeks now I have been approaching work in the loft with something of a heavy heart. Family events have a lot to do with that, but I have also been disheartened by the apparent lack of progress. Time spent in the loft was leading to no real visible change.

Well, yesterday I think I managed to break out of that cycle, and I can now start to see an endpoint to all the chaos. I had a day off and was able to spend several productive hours working on the railway. I finally got some kind of process going, and results were relatively quick to come. What has appeared for a while to be a disorganised pile of wood has now begun to look something like a model railway.

This picture shows the three baseboards completed thus far with, at the left, the access road from the storage sidings emerging. The boards are not fixed yet as there is still work to do underneath them - not least, laying and wiring the track for the storage sidings. But the top is pleasingly level and should, when fixed, provide a good running surface. The sections are also completely detachable - they will bolt together eventually, but for now they can be taken out; this makes for much easier working.

Those of you paying attention will notice that the right-hand board in the picture, which is actually the central back section and the first one I made (see this previous post), is lower than it used to be. In fact, it is precisely 2cm lower. After some fiddling with the board design, I decided that the present height (8cm above the storage sidings) would be sufficient. It softens the gradients into the storage sidings and improves clearance near the roof purlins along the sides of the layout. It also happens that 8cm is the height of the standard Hornby R657 girder bridge, so we'll be well clear of any loading gauges. I am building all boards to this 8cm clearance and have reduced the height of the middle board to compensate.

Access to the storage sidings will still be an issue. I continue to think that I will have to make a detachable section on the top station, but I am also thinking about some kind of cassette dock on the LH approach road (near where the coach is in the above picture), to allow me to add and remove trains easily. More on that in the future.

Below is the same area with the tops removed, showing how the plywood risers fit around the track bed for the storage sidings. I am adding some horizontal batten to provide more support for the top boards - these are yet to be completed.

(I am very grateful for the power screwdriver I was given for Christmas. This has already saved me a lot of effort.)

Next to do is to complete the other two baseboards along the back wall. I now know what I am doing and should be able to complete these relatively quickly, although both have their unique problems. Once the back baseboards are completed I can finally think about laying some track.

Over the past few weeks the track plan has also changed somewhat. More on this in the next post.

The track dilemma

Well, very little has happened over the past few weeks. This is not for any reason other than the pressure of other commitments. As soon as I can, I will be back in the loft and resuming progress.

But this seems like a good point to discuss the track issue, which I have obliquely hinted at a couple of times in previous posts. At present all my track is Hornby sectional track, mostly rather old and dirty, not especially reliable, and rather cheap-looking. I have always thought that Hornby do track grudgingly (they seem to make it because they have to, not because they want to). And in my experience, their pointwork, especially the curved points, can be unreliable. My Hornby curved points tend to derail all but the heaviest of stock unless manually set with some force. One of them was the cause of my prize GWR Castle class loco derailing at speed and crashing off the tabletop layout onto the floor earlier this year. Repairs were needed, although I have to say that thanks to the excellent repair service at Boswells in Oxford, the cost of this was far less painful than I feared at first.

For these reasons I have decided not to use Hornby track unless necessary, and to opt for Peco instead. From what I can tell, Peco track has a much better reputation, and there is also a wider range of track styles and point designs to choose from. For example, they do a very nice code 100 flexible track with concrete sleepers. I think I will use that for the main running rails: it's appropriate to the era, and the clean rails will be good for reliability. Christmas money is already earmarked to cover the cost of that. Because of the inherent expense of buying points (especially the double-slip point I need for the station throat) the new trackwork will probably have to be bought over an extended period. So in the interests of progress, I may need to use some of my old Hornby track for a while.

Many people recommend code 75 track instead of code 100, and it's easy to see why; the rails are in better proportion and you get a more satisfying appearance. But the gauge compromises of OO scale mean that you won't ever get truly realistic track in OO. Having better proportioned track doesn't ever quite compensate for the reduced gauge when running OO-scale models. And besides, much of my rolling stock is 1970s Hornby and Airfix, whose wheel flanges would, I think, struggle with the smaller track cross-section. So I think code 100 will suffice for now. Maybe I'll use code 75 for the branch line, where the allowed rolling stock will be limited to my more recent acquisitions, mainly short DMUs and some light freight.

Storage sidings

The storage sidings are almost complete...














In this picture, the track beds are fixed but the track itself is not. The design for the storage sidings was finalised at the start of this week after some playing around in XTrkCAD. Five sidings is not that many but I think I will probably have about five trains. There will also be some sidings topside that can be used to park trains if I end up with more.

Concerning the track itself, I have still to decide whether to use my existing Hornby sectional track. The reason why I wouldn't is because it is very grimy and contact is sporadic at best. I tried cleaning all the track a few months ago, but the grime has returned already. For the hidden storage tracks I don't want to be worrying whether the rails are clean enough; trains have to enter and leave the sidings smoothly and under their own power. So I might have to invest in new trackwork. It will probably be flexible track just because the straight lengths and curve radii are not exactly standard according to Hornby geometry.

The next job is to test the running height along the sides of the layout. I want to do that over the weekend if there's time.

First baseboard completed

Quick update: the first baseboard is now finished...

It took a while to do, although the results don't appear to justify the time spent; Karen's reaction was "you spent 2 hours in the loft and it doesn't look any different!"

I am a trifle worried by the height of the board, especially at the sides near where the roof meets the purlins. I'm not sure whether there will be clearance for tracks along the edges of the board at the full layout height. Some tests will follow.