What next
Entry posted by Vistisen
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As I wrote at the end of my last post, I’m feeling the itch to move on to phase 2. This is a much more ambitious plan to model the end of the branch line at Chard junction where the line meets the mail line from London to Exeter. It is a very strange junction as you can see from this plan.
My idea is to retain the Model of hatch station and to build the new station on the other side of the room. One of the things that I have learnt that I miss is the ability to sit and watch the trains go round and round, which cannot be done on an end to end. The station is upside down compared to the drawing. The basic idea is that the main line will go downhill each side of the new station area so that there are storage lines under the current hatch baseboards. I have spent a long time fiddling with inclines and minimum radiuses to try and create a realistic model of Chard junction station and here it is:
The green boards are what will be reused from phase 1. The gray baseboards are the new ‘flat’ baseboards, and the rest will be open frame. As you can see this is a much more ambitious project. Too be perfectly honest It might be too much for my limited time and money. (this blog is turning into a confessional).
So what lessons have I learned from building the first bit that I hope will help me on the next?
Baseboards:
- My current baseboards are too heavy. As you can see from my design Chards Junction station has so many points (about 20) that it is very difficult to find somewhere where you can have a baseboard join without a point crossing it. So the baseboards are going to be on the large size. To keep the weight down, I am going to experiment with using extruded foam with a plywood surround to see whether I can get the size I need without baseboards becoming too heavy.
- Portability. Realistically speaking, we might move house before the layout is finished. We live in a 6-bedroom house that is has an area of 2800 square feet. Our kids will probably (hopefully) have left home within the next 10 years, and it is not certain that we carry on living here. So this time I MUST build baseboards that are transportable (not portable)
- The open frame baseboards must this time also be moveable; the currents ones are mounted on walls.
- These foam baseboards will be 5Cm. thick, so how do I mount point motors dropper wires, etc? I think that I will start with the low level storage boards as a proof of concept.
Track
- I am still intending to use Tillig track, although Joseph Prestell’s thread on OO gauge ‘scale’ track intrigues me, and a good friend keeps sending me videos of points that he has built that look wonderful. But I do need to find some way of keeping sleeper placement more even that last time. I think that I will get my son to make a 3D print of a ‘comb’ that will help me keep sleeper placement both even and perpendicular to the rails.
- I must find a quicker way of ballasting, Hatch was done manually and took me an hour per meter. It is too uneven and time consuming
Electrics
- I want to retain my current DCC/Switch system but need to find some way of reducing the number of wires. DCC concepts have a new bus system that might help. It promises just two wires between the control panel and the layout. Hmm….
- There MUST be connections between each baseboard. So that they can be moved
- Wiring must be tidier, I read somewhere about someone who had a piece of track mounted on the underside of each baseboard and all dropper wires where soldered on to this track. Interesting idea.
Scenery
- Scenery must also be separated at baseboard joins, but apart from that, I am very satisfied with the basic techniques from Hatch
- There will be a lot of scratch building requirements… must learn to do thing quicker
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