As I now have two layouts in development (both HOe) and one in "Stock Collection" stage (N gauge) I thought I should separate my Linksuberdorf entries from the big HOe layout (Gerlos).

LUD started back in March when I came across my pile of Peco points (10 of them) that I bought about 6 years ago when I started to think about building a proper layout for my then very small collection oh HOe rolling stock. I also had a piece of 12mm 3 foot square MDF, so I laid out the points on the board and figured I had a viable plan....

At the same time I needed to build a ramp, to check if my little steam loco's could go up the slope that was being planned for Gerlos.

So a week before the Ally Pally show I said to a friend that I'd be bringing over my new test track. I had planned to finish only a single track loop, but in the end after a good number of hours every evening during the week, I had finished everything except for the ramp. Ok the point motors weren't there yet, but all the track was there. So we spent an amusing Sunday running a few trains and generally getting in each other's way. As the layout is DCC no complicated switching banks are required and wiring as you lay the track is the best way to go.

Since then the point motors have been put in and these have also been wired to the DCC bus. I've used some Train Tech decoders for that as they have a CDU built in. If the SEEPS are aligned correctly, you can drive two motors from a single output, this has allowed me to wire crossovers together and so saving me the cost of a third decoder.

I have posted pictures of the layout on my Gerlos blog, and not much has changed over the last few weeks except that the board now has handles to make it a bit easier to carry and the points have been fitted with dummy levers, today I've painted the areas around the tracks a light grey to conceal any cases of missing ballast. Next will be ballasting!

So there it is, a very crowded little test track with three stations: Linksuberdorf, Nichteinsteigen (a lot of trains seem to go there from everywhere in Germany ;-) ) and Bergspitz....