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Barrow Hill - The Yard


PaternosterRow

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Just a quick update on progress so far.

 

The track is down and wiring nearing completion. There's been a lot happening here of late with family matters of one thing and another so modeling time has been severely compromised.

 

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My wiring method ain't neat, but it works! All points are motored and the frogs wired to Peco switches - a lot of work but worth the effort for a yard type layout. So hopefully loco stutter will be non existent and slow running should be superb when all things have been tested. I like to attach the motor directly to point then cut out a hole in the board to take it - note the piece of mounting card between point a motor that fills the gap in the hole. This is going to save a load of work patching up the holes at a later stage when it comes to ballasting.

 

When wiring, I tend to draw a crude track plan on the side of the layout support boards then put a load of screws in that represent the point switches and isolated sections etc - these have the appropriate wires under the board soldered to them. I then use stud probes to test the under board wiring by placing them on the screw heads. Later on these screw heads will have wires soldered to them that, in turn, will connect to surface switches on a control panel. It seems a good way of testing first and also limiting the amount of wires under the board itself. I've already identified a point that was giving a short - forgot to remove the tiny wires under the electrofrog that connect the blades and frog! If you look carefully at the picture you'll see these screws.

 

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This is a pic of the layout on its side on my workbench. I've tried to nail that fan shape that's typical of Barrow Hill. Hope I've succeeded - only time will tell!

 

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Another pic of the track plan.

 

That's all for now - testing during the week!!

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4 Comments


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  • RMweb Gold

Great work refreshing to see gentle curvature on trackwrk, far too much out of the box straight flexitrack on too many layouts for my liking seen elsewhere. Keep up the good work.

By the way are we talking the steam era or early diesel era as I see the coal stage is built?

 

Kevin

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  • RMweb Premium

Great work refreshing to see gentle curvature on trackwrk, far too much out of the box straight flexitrack on too many layouts for my liking seen elsewhere. Keep up the good work.

By the way are we talking the steam era or early diesel era as I see the coal stage is built?

 

Kevin

 

Hi Kevin,

 

Thanks for the comments.  It won't be an exact copy of the Barrow Hill yard as I haven't got the room for it.  Also, I don't like slavishly copying a prototype because it is just too difficult to do.  Maybe one day that attitude will change when I get more skilful at layout building. The coaling stage at Barrow Hill will eventually be built, but I think they'll construct it more like the Metcalfe version (which is how it more or less looked before demolition).  My Didcot take is the current Scalescenes model which I think is brilliant - their kits being a favorite of mine.  

 

I have a very diverse collection of steam and diesel so I'm just going to stick to a current day theme so I can put them all on at the same time.  So it's more of a model of a railway museum like my Roundhouse version.

 

Thanks again,

 

Mike

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  • RMweb Gold

Hi Mike, nice to hear from you and see some progress.

 

I noticed you have been active in the mags also, congratulations!

 

I hope the family matters are good things.

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  • RMweb Premium

Hi Mikkel,

 

great to hear from you.  Thank you for the kind words of encouragement - progress is slow but getting there!

 

As far as the article is concerned - I'm only doing it so I can get a little cash.  The deal this end is that as long as I can fund my hobby then SWMBO is more than happy with the time I spend up in the loft!! 

 

I've PM'd you about family matters.

 

Cheers,

 

Mike

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