Meeth - back on track...
Evening all,
You May recall last year after a ballasting disaster and frustrating running qualities I ripped up the track and put the project on hold...however I am pleased to update that there has been recent progress.
I took the layout up to the 2mmFS supermeet in Tutbury recently and received some nice feedback on it, which comprises my DJLC 2020 competition entry. More importantly it’s being done in an effort to try and improve on my rural scenic skills...especially if Loch Awe gains traction once this is completed
Thanks are firstly due to Bryn and Matt who kindly hatched a plan at the Supermeet. Knowing my struggles with turnout building and as a repayment (was not necessary!) to some plywood baseboard sheets I produced, Matt bought an Easitrac turnout kit from the shop and Bryn offered to build it. Sure enough, a few days after Tutbury a beautifully made turnout kit arrived in the mail - thanks again guys
Armed with this, easitrac plain track was threaded and a new catch point was fashioned (less for me to get wrong ) onto a piece of 1mm plywood cut to fit on the trackbed. This was done as since the fascias and lighting are in place I wanted to be able to build it offsite on the workbench without obstacles. Next up, after establishing where holes were required, was to solder droppers on to the track so I could spray the track offsite again and protect the backscene. The droppers were cut short to about 20mm to ease threading them all through the holes.
The trackwork was then sprayed using a can of ‘weathered sleepers’ and set aside to dry.
This weekend I glued the track unit down with PVA and connected the droppers to the busbars and wires previously installed from the first version. Power was applied and I am pleased to say it worked - I just need to redo the wire in tube mechanism link to the slide switch now as I would like the two to operate as one - more on that when it happens.
The next task will be to apply the ballast (user the dry in place and soak method this time) and hopefully after some routine work with a screwdriver it will still work and we will be back to where I was last year
In other brief news, I also succumbed to fitting a sound chip to my Farish 101 DMU which will trundle back and forth on this layout. A little operator license I know, but just to make it a tad more interesting than a China clay train coming and going. Once again, Nick Bastable is wholly responsible for my sound purchases especially as it was his DMU on Kyle at the AGM that got me into this sound malarkey
A few pics of progress here:
As always, comments welcome...
Pete
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