It’s been quite a long time since my last posting, or at least it feels that way. I have reached a small milestone with the completion of what I will call phase 1 of the layout comprising most of one side of the loft, which is the top part of the track plan as I laid it out. If some of the track looks slightly out of line in the pictures, it is because alignment is only maintained by the droppers on each rail through the holes drilled in the baseboard. Where appropriate the tracks hold their gauge properly although in this case we are talking setrack gauge as I reuse track from the previous layout. Track will be pinned where necessary to keep sections straight.

The track needs to be tested and some may be slightly concerned about how much is laid without much testing. In the distance the 56XX has been running but as the track is not fixed, I havn’t moved the control pins of the point motors (MTB MP1’s ) into their final positions, meaning stock can’t run over them at the moment. Before I get to that I have to connect all the droppers to their busses and wire up the point motors. I had a few problems with my chosen setup, using Digikeijs DR4018’s. I didn’t realise how careful I was going to have to be wiring them, as it seems to be easy to blow individual outputs if only a hair gets across the terminals, so each unit I have bought so far has only 7 functional outputs now instead of 8. Still I have devised a protocol for wiring them and with about 70 to install altogether I will get plenty of practice.

The other side of track testing is not just to ensure power continuity but to see what track elements cause problems for the rolling stock, and in this part of the layout, there are bound to be a few as I have installed a very challenging station throat. I am sure the 56XX will sail through everything towing a few carriages, but my so far only DCC converted loco is a Modified Hall with a very light pony truck. Whether that will go round the switch corners is open to question. I’m going to start testing with the PM’s controlled by DCC through the accessory bus and DC power through the track bus which is entirely separate.

The nearest part of the layout will be a 4-road terminus station. There is parallel access so inprinciple trains will eb able to leave and arrive at the same time. There are two loco storage roads that can only be accessed from two platforms. The track runnign diagonally across the layout in front of the station complex, as seen in the last photo, is a loop line, which will allow locos to reverse out of the station and run round the loop back to the station facing the opposite way, this will be a mainly steam age operation obviously. The station tracks are fairly long and while I havnt done precise calculations yet, should allow 5-6 coach trains depending on stock. That depends where the outgoing loco will finish bearing in mind there is a steam loco up at the buffers. It will get interesting at some point.