Work has started on converting my loft to take the planned model of the line from Cowes to Newport on the Isle of Wight in 4mm scale (OO gauge). This is scheduled to take about 3 weeks......
I am starting work on the hidden loops which will lie behind Cowes and the line along the Medina. To do this I had to get a sighting shot on how Cowes would fit, which is what the photo shows. The track templates are generated by the Trax3 software. Behind are some Peco turnouts (the hidden section will be laid using Peco Streamline. Important things here were to see where the turnouts would be in relation to the baseboard frames (I'm using underslung Peco turnout motors on the hidden section) a
I'm busy wiring the hidden loops and staging sidings. This board has the most wiring of any because I am using electric turnout motors in the hidden sections, as well as infra-red detectors for automation, and a separate control panel for the hidden section which will hang off the Newport viaduct board. 10 turnouts, 8 infra-red detectors, spread over 7 separate boards, though most of them will have less wiring than in this picture. I'm keeping an index of connections and colours as I go, which f
Steady progress on Newport at the moment. I have finished wiring the Station throat board which has a scissors crossover and one other turnout. All fitted with Fulgurex Motors, and Sprat & Winkle electro magnets installed in strategic places. Most activity has been directed towards developing the method of installing the Fulgarex motors. I have read a number of criticisms of them, and I do now appreciate they are difficult to install - beginning with the need to completely ignore the "offici
Here is the trackplan for the planned layout, designed using the Trax software developed by Geoff Geary. This produces the templates for constructing the turnouts too.......
(Go straight to the bottom of this post for a video)
Finally I have completed the major tasks I set myself back in October/November. These were the re-alignment of the hidden section (not a major issue in tracklaying terms but the rewiring was a different matter), and the complete rebuilding of Newport, to be controlled by a Modratec interlocked lever frame. I took the opportunity to add LED displays to the panel controlling the hidden sidings, and whilst these tracks are not yet "hidden" I
At last some progress worth reporting. There were several steps forward and then backward over the Christmas break but at last the Medina is bridged, I've laid track over the baseboard joint into Newport and am now building and laying the track in Newport Station. The picture shows the non IOW loco I am using for testing. It is simply the most reliable small loco I could find in the local shop - it runs beautifully! The first turnout should be a three-way but I had already (by mistake) designed
Despite my silence, there has been a lot of progress on the layout. As usual, each step forward has been accompanied by a step or steps backward. Tracklaying is well progressed at Cowes - I have switched from PCB construction to fully chaired construction. Firstly I tried C&L pointwork with plastic sleepers. Whilst these looked good, I experience a strange gauge reducing effect once they were completed. In the course of constructing a number of plastic-sleepered turnouts I learned a lot abou
Last weekend I got Newport back to "bare baseboard" state. The job took less than 12 hours and I was ready to start again with tracklaying. Having read as much as I could find on the subject I resolved on a process which involves positioning (lightly pinning) the track to a printed template (I used "Trax" but realise it would have been better if I had bothered to learn Templot and drawn it with that). My local printer printed the pdf onto three sheets of A0 paper. During this process every track
Here's the trackplan of the empire. Newport is on the left (majorly compressed trackplan), Medina Wharf at the top (freelance track plan, this exists to replicate the function of Medina Wharf rather than to look like it), and Cowes bottom right, the only part of the layout which has the full prototype trackplan. With work going on on Medina, almost none of the layout is actually operational at the moment and once the Medina trackwork is done I have some serious "fettling" to do over a baseboard
I have finally started work on Medina Wharf, the last section of track for the small empire in the loft. The pictures show the trackplan and the boards covered with cork, with some trackwork laid out to finalise the positioning. The wharf uses a section of the layout originally earmarked for scenic treatment of the Medina River, and it is much too small to permit a faithful representation of the real location. I've used my well-worn modeller's licence to arrive at a trackplan which will allow th
... but lots of progress. I finished wiring up all the hidden tracks - tested them and established that everything was basically working. However, as a long-time lapsed modeller it has taken some time for old skills to re-emerge, and even to remember how things "should be done". As a result, there was a long list of things that I generally wanted to improve and effectively raise everything to a consistent standard of tracklaying and wiring. So now starts a period of re-work, and the installation
All sorts of complications in the last few weeks arising from the (right) decision to lengthen the platform roads. The worst moment was realising that I would need an 18" radius curve on the mainline and it would still only be an inch or so from the edge of the baseboard - which would make plausible scenic treatment impossible. To cut a long story short, I juggled the radii and eventually arrived at a compromise I can live with, albeit a small modification to the track plan. The photo here show
I finished the work on the hidden section of the layout yesterday and started testing it last night. Here is the first non-stop run around the reversing loop, and under ZTC power too. I know DCC is old hat now for many people but for me it is a new experience.....
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152047918969766&l=4173367519135467514
From the testing so far there are eight faults I have found. The most tricky to track down was an intermittently shorting jack lead (I use
Here's a short clip of the first wired-up board under test. This is the entry to the hidden tracks behind Cowes. Sorry the E1 is running so badly - it's been in a box for more than 10 years and hasn't even had its wheels cleaned!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151976898439766&l=4917899407502608761
Chris
Been a bit quiet of late. The loft is ready. I have been assembling small shelving units to go under the baseboards and have moved all the railway "stuff" up from the garage into the loft. Still need to get a workbench and something to sit on up there. Baseboards are on order from Elite Baseboards whom I met at the Bristol show a few weeks ago. Installation is scheduled for late June/early July.
I made reasonable progress on the model of Newport Engine shed but got to the point where the ac
I've been quiet for a while because although I've been very busy and productive on the layout, there's not much of photographic interest to show. I'm still wiring the hidden tracks, board by board, and testing them individually prior to reassembly. The loft is a complete mess, the floor strewn with layout wire offcuts.
A number of things had to be done for a second time. I'd made a hash of the control panel so built a new one, and also had problems with the wiring index which led me to come
Steady progress at the moment on wiring the hidden sections. The track is laid for the hidden return loops and the boards now dismantled with wiring starting in the farthest corner of the layout and gradually moving outwards, with a comprehensive wiring index being built as I go. In theory as the boards are completed they can be rejoined and when the final connection is made, the transformers plugged in and the trains working. We shall see - getting my head around the wiring of the IRDOTs was qu
Photo showing progress as of tonight on the hidden loops (using Peco Streamline for expedience's sake). The tracks leading off to the right are the return loops representing the Sandown and Ryde lines. Each will hold two trains of the maximum length I have planned for (the equivalent of loco, four full length carriages and a 4 wheeled van). All trains will travel clockwise around the loops, with entry being controlled by a pair of crossovers allowing entry and access from either line out of Newp
Plenty of activity in the last few months at Newport, though little of interest to post since it has been repetitive work - trackbuilding, tracklaying, fitting point motors and uncoupling magnets, wiring, testing individual boards. I am now on the last of the Newport Station boards and the attached picture of the underside shows the method I have eventually adopted for fitting Fulgurex turnout motors. This is simple and effective, though obviously I cannot vouch for its longevity. The turnouts a
Despite my silence, work is progressing. The last couple of weeks have been building trackwork. The layout has been designed using "Trax" which I bought some time ago when I found the intricacies of Templot beyond me and more than I needed for the level of realism to which I was aspiring. That's not knocking Templot at all, because it is clearly the Rolls Royce of track designing software. Trax I found quicker to use and it generates turnout templates. My aim has been to get far ahead with track
Here is a link to a photo of Newport shed. Can anyone confirm the construction. It looks like timber walls and corrugated iron roof to me. But I am uncertain how to replicate the look of the timber - specifically which Slater's, Evergreen or Southeastern Finecast sheet in 4mm scale will give the best reproduction?
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/n/newport(iwc)/index27.shtml
Any help gratefully received!
Chris
View of the carriage sidings at the North of Newport Station. Just a few more turnouts and lines to lay at Newport and then it is on to Cowes......
Chris
The last few weeks have been spent testing the ZTC DCC kit - as yet unconclusive though working better with current chips rather than obsolete ones. Now I'm trackbuilding for Newport, with another attempt at the scissors crossover.
Here are a couple of pictures of the printed trackplan in situ. The main downside is that with the highly curved compression I have to use it doesn't look very much like Newport! But it will have the main operational characteristics and with buildings and rolling
