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About this blog

Started in 2004, this layout was originally an end to end with a run-round loop and a bay platform. It now forms part of double track layout. I built it in the early days when I hadn't really taken into account moving it about so its 2m long and about 630mm wide. However it has been moved about 5 times from house to house. It started as an analog layout and then was converted to DCC, then lots of wires for everything were added but in 2020 I discovered MERG and CBUS so its be re-wired again which has simplfied the underboard somewhat. The original layout consists of baseboard 1. But following another move I am now adding about 12 new baseboards to it plus a rear upper deck

 

Layout is in an insulated loft ontop of kitchen base units for storage.

 

Its not prototypical but wouldn't look out of place for a somewhere place for somewhere in the GWR / Midland territory. The station on baseboard 1 does have Great Central influences as is scratchbuilt. I like running GWR/ LMS / LNER and BR Standard steam locomotives, plus early diesels so its the early 1960s on the lower deck. The top deck is intended to be 1960s to 1990s but will retain semaphore signalling. It could also be a double track heritage railway......

Entries in this blog

Layout Wiring

Back to the LCB (part 2)

So for the last few days I have been working on the electronics and wiring under baseboard 1 (the one with scenery on it). I have a small setback in that out of three MERG CBUS CANSOLs only one is correctly working. I have identified a problem with the MIC4426YN PICs which keep burning out which has led me to believe that this a bad batch, I think someone else in MERG has been having the same problem. So waiting for a few PICs to turn up in the post which hopefully will sort this out.  
MattB

MattB in Layout Wiring

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Baseboards

Baseboards continued

Not a very imaginative title but anyway. First off I have to do quite a bit of home engineering design to get things to fit through the loft hatch so unusually my longer sides are the width and the shorter sides are the length... so I have to build a fair number of base boards for this layout.    Last time I was working on baseboard 3 and when I tried to get it though the hatch, because of the top deck it would't fit. Luckily I had only (double) screwed the top deck on so it was only a
MattB

MattB in Baseboards

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Baseboards

Next baseboard underway

Started work on the 2nd baseboard using spare wood from older layouts. The construction I am using is the typical 9mm ply top with softwood frames. However at one end I am leaving the frame open as need to get access to the top deck from underneath. I have seen a lot of people build a second deck and then have to thread wires down through two boards but for me that would be an absolute pain so leaving the bottom board out with a gap seems obvious. Underneath the bottom board there is a crosspiec
MattB

MattB in Baseboards

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General

Wired up a light bulb!

So recently I haven't been up much in the loft, household jobsare keeping me downstairs, however last night I had a couple of short sessions. A few days ago my Cbus test rig had completely failed and I did some head scratching to work out what had gone wrong with it. I was using my gizmo test unit and it was flashing orange lights and the penny dropped when I removed it from the system and did a test of the tester and found that it was faulty. Not exactly useful. So I have now added in resistor
MattB

MattB in General

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General

Back to the LCB

After two weeks of recovering from an operation I finally managed to get back on my feet and able to climb loft ladders.   I have spent the last couple of weeks (reading) and cataloging those old railway modelling magazines that I hung on to for the last 15 years.    Work continued on the Cbus canpan which I managed to build successfully, I then built the experimenters board to go with it. Connected it up and did some programming and got it all working first time with no prob
MattB

MattB in General

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Baseboards

A new baseboard

Cleaning of locos and rolling stock has been ongoing, plus using the new mini vacuum to clean up loose dust and grit.    Started work on my CBus Canpan after deciding that this would be better than using the Canace8c as that doesn't have enough inputs. Work has slowed down a bit on the cbus but that is because i now have trains running. Plus i wanted to get the corner boards in before working out where the control panel is to go.   So for a week or so i have been thinking abo
MattB

MattB in Baseboards

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Layout Wiring

Trains running for first time in months

Back in May 2019 I packed the layout away expecting it to be up and running again in about 12 months. Here we are over 2 years later and it's finally installed and working. A big pat on the back for me. It's being a crazy year what with house structural problems and other personal matters to deal with   Here we are then. This board now in its 17th year and 4th home has been rewired with new merg cbus electronics soon to be installed. I've added a narrow board for the new analog upper l
MattB

MattB in Layout Wiring

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Baseboards

Baseboard plank

I had a good session yesterday afternoon. For the last couple of weeks is been a bit hot in the loft - bearable due to the insulation but still a bit hot but yesterday it was back to normal room temperature.    With the re-wiring now substantially complete I decided to get the layout horizontal so I could easily take stock of all the knocks it has taken over the last couple of years after being moved around several times. I didn't want it in place yet as I wanted to build a 'plank' nar
MattB

MattB in Baseboards

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Layout Wiring

Rewiring baseboard 1

With the test rig now finally working and doing what it is supposed to be doing I decided to return to the re-wiring yet again of the Mattington layout. Baseboard 1 originally built in 2004, I think this is the fourth attempt I have had at re-wiring it but this time I hope it will be the last. Am installing a CBUS layout control bus alongside the DCC bus but I am re-wiring both of them and adding several more drop downs for the DCC bus as well as wiring in the polarity switches directly into the
MattB

MattB in Layout Wiring

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Have one narrow gauge system so why not have two.

So what do you do with a 1ft 10' by 5 ft baseboard thats already filled with a curve of double track that has to get across the doorway.   Simple! Build a big 3 storey factory with a chimney, have narrow gauge running into it from an siding and then jazz it up by having a 2nd 009 layout over the top of the 1st one and across the standard gauge - follow that up with a small loop for continuous 009 running. Have a cut out section in the middle of the narrow gauge loop with a small building in it
MattB

MattB

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Its all about the height.

What is proving to be my yearly post on RMWeb. A lot of time spent building my tallest scratchbuild building to date and doing other activities.   On Baseboard 1 some houses blocking the view behind have been removed from the front and replaced with back gardens and a station garage with scrapheap on different levels. Next stop Warley to get a lawnmower and other scenic stuff.     Work progressing on Baseboard 6 which I started last year. The boards in my railway room go round the room in
MattB

MattB

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25 years

Well this year I celebrated 25 years of building model railways.   On the Mattington layout I have finally run out of room for new models, as part of the 25 year celebration I scratchbuilt a small factory to go in the back corner complete with a chimney (Bachmann)   I started working on the lights, however since most of the buildings are industrial, night scene lights are fairly limited. I have a welding unit and oil brazier for daytime lighting and station lights and yard lights for night t
MattB

MattB

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Inspiration

Having a mate with an interest in railways come over the other week proved to be rather useful. At the moment with the several bare baseboards he was brimming with ideas, such as what about a goods yard, with a station at the back - you could put a engine shed and turntable in etc etc. I had to tell him that I wanted to get projects completed first on the original baseboard before moving on to the other boards but almost got to the point of him sketching some ideas while he was in full flow!  
MattB

MattB

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A lot can change over the course of a year

Well - where to start. I have just checked my last blog entry and so much has changed since I published that one.   First off - In June last year I decided that the double track I had laid on a narrow flimsy board round the room was annoying me and I hated having to crawl underneath the board to get into the room so all of that came out.   In its place I started to construct some proper baseboards with separate removable legs out of 9mm plywood, the idea being that I could then build on them
MattB

MattB

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1 job ticked off the list!

Finished my large trackwork project that I have had going since last September. All the double track is down and all the points, point motors, microswitches and wiring is all installed. As usual I heard about other types of point motors & microswitches that I could have used but in the end settled on peco since they were cheaper.   Done most of the ballasting trying a couple of different techniques, found that the mix the cascamite powder in with the ballast worked the best.   Started a
MattB

MattB

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Embankment

Currently working on the embankment. Originally this was at the right hand end of the board but is now about 3ft from the new end. The embankment was there at the beginning of the layout in 2004 forming part of the backscene. When I modified the board end to add an extra 3 tracks I had to partially dismantle it and it looked empty without it there. So therefore I have resurrected it as the embankment to a disused railway that goes at rightangles to the main trackwork and will cross the running l
MattB

MattB

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Planning scenery for new board

Well im pretty well there for what is to be on the new board - (3ft by 1ft extension) Track wise there is a headshunt, double track with right hand radius points and a lengthened siding leading to a proposed cattle dock.   Where the track disappears off the board to the rightI am planning a tunnel mouth. Running along the back I have a retaining wall comprising of arches.   Between the old and new boards at the left end of the new extension I am planning to put a road bridge in (this will c
MattB

MattB

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Painting Block paving sheets

Started painting the block paviors. Did an initial coat of light grey using matt oil paint. Then when dry used a darker watered down acrylic. Done a second coat where I picked a few blocks out here and there and now plan to do a greenish brownish colour and pick a few more blocks out.   Must admit made a bit of a mess of few patches (im not a very good artist) but plan to 'hide' them with barrels and crates and general junk.   3F motor burnt out at the weekend I think it didn't like the dcc
MattB

MattB

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Snow! - well at least I have plenty to be getting on with.

I had to write it all down and pin it on the wall so I wouldn't forget things.   So as follows   1. Insulfrog to Electrofrog conversion - working on 3 points to go! 2. LEDs in control panel 3. DCC Conversions to finish 2 engines left to do 4. Left Bridge to finish - painting 5. Right Bridge to build 6. Sidings - Block paving sheets to paint 7. Right hand siding to lay 8. Retaining Wall to build and do scenery 9. Scenery around tunnel and landscaping 10. Lorry to finsh 11. Station t
MattB

MattB

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Double track done!

So finally there I was about 2 weeks ago, a double track model railway around the room - about time! :)I changed all the pointwork from streamline insulfrog to streamline electrofrog (livefrog) to remove the shortcircuiting problem I have been having with all Hornby engines but tbh I had to change the entire trackwork anyway. All points have point motors and microswitches operating the polarity changes   The station is nearly finished, I still have to do some tweaks to the brick courses at the
MattB

MattB

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Continuing reshaping layout and general model bashing

Currently working on four projects with a possible 5th one in the pipeline.   Project 1 - Station Rebuild   Stairs are complete, Ticket Office and staff only room complete. Currently working on main waiting room and ladies waiting room. Using a combination of brass & plastic windows, plastic brick sheets & plastikard for rigidity. One platform section left to do. Roof needs painting & detail needs adding. Station cat needs adding   Project 2 & 3- Double track & convers
MattB

MattB

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All Change at Mattington...again. Converting to double track

As well as the station rebuild I have decided to add a second running line using the existing trackplan as far as possible. I wanted to keep the running line working as I prefer to watch a train going round while I am working on the railway.   As well as putting a second track in I am installing new electrofrog points to try resolve the shortcircuiting problem I have been having with DCC. The Peco PL15's are very useful for this task.   I also wanted to bring back the point motor operation a
MattB

MattB

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All Change at Mattington - Build a station from scratch

Back in February - March it all started with a platform warping problem. I knew at the time that I wanted to replace it with a plastic one to increase working life and promptly went and bought a couple of Wills platform sections. Then the job went on hold as we had a heat wave and outdoor adventure pursuits took over.   In June-July I decided that I didn't like my station buildings as well as the platform as they took up too much space on the board and looked a little tatty. Not liking any kit
MattB

MattB

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Card or Plastic Kits - Which are best?

Im sure that I am not the only railway modeller who wonders whether their layout would look better with a plastic or a card kit. Im one of those people who would rather spend some time constructing something rather than buying a premade building as I feel that the half the fun of the model railway is about the building of it.   When I first started building Mattington I was aware of many plastic kits produced by a variety of manufacturers but at that time card kits seemed to be just taking of
MattB

MattB

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Brewery Corner - Devizes - Road Construction Scene

16/03/10 - I was asked the other week by my collegues at work if I could produce a road construction scene of Brewery Corner in Devizes for my Team Leader who is retiring at the end of this month. The only problem is that I only have 3 evenings to produce it in as it has to be complete by this Thursday.   So far I have completed the road / pavement work and half the buildings. Still have to do the roadworks, white lines and touching up. It fits into a boxfile (naturally) for easy transportatio
MattB

MattB

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