Jump to content
 

MikeH_83

Members
  • Posts

    244
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Profile Information

  • Location
    Sileby, Loughborough

Recent Profile Visitors

332 profile views

MikeH_83's Achievements

68

Reputation

  1. Well it's been awhile since an update so here goes. I decided on the second plan on my last post as fitting in a junction would have been too awkward. The outer line (the "Up line") is now complete and where it disappears into the fiddleyard it trturns to 00 peco track. However I am considering 1 slight change. Where the track enters/leaves the station into the fiddleyard it goes from a very gentle curve to quite a a 30" radius curve which can look quite abrupt and therefor would need to try and hide some of the corner. However after playing with transiitions in templot some more I have come up with an alternative. This has a slightly tighter radius on part of teh station (so more gaps between coaches and platform) however the curve into the fiddleyard is alot more gentle and so more could remain on scene which would increase scenic space. Thoughts? Also my next thing to build is a single slip so if anyone has any tips for building one with functional chairs and info on what bits need to be soldered together etc that would be a big help!
  2. I have been playing the junction idea, I decided to try removing the straight section on the left side and replace that with a sweeping curve. What do you think? From the junction and into coming out of the bay platform would be a single slip which I am guessing would be ok for connecting to a mainline as its not facing?
  3. So I have made some progress so far, I have started the handbuilt trackwork into the station and the entrance to the fiddleyard. (I'll get some photos posted at a later date) Right now having almost finalised the track plan I am torn between a couple of ideas. My issue is with the bottom part of the layout, On my original plan I have the branch following the mainline albeit rising on a slight gradient, However I feel like it follows the mainline abit too much and makes it look abit more "trainsetty" Anyway I have been looking at a couple of alternatives. The first is to retain a long branch line and have the mainline enter a tunnel and run behind the backscene on that bottom length. I am however slightly concerned about any derailments and unexpected uncoupling because the roof slopes down quite harsly that side and there is not much room to get in if something happens. The other plan is to do away with a long branch so I would lose that nice single line through the countryside however I do gain abit of a junction where it meets the branch (the side of this could be swapped) and I could make more of an industry where the branch left the station if I wanted.
  4. Thanks all. Good to know both types of glue work really well!
  5. Hi all, Quick question really, I am using plywood sleepers for my new layout. Previously I used PVA to glue them down (the weatherproof stuff so that nothing loosened when ballasting) however this time I am wondering about using copydex to help reduce noise a tad. Is there any adverse effects from using this type of glue for that? It won't discolour ballast or anything? (just checking before I go mad with it) Thanks
  6. Well I have spent some time ripping out all my old trackwork and altering baseboards for this new trackwork (except I have ran out of 9mm birch ply and the cost of it is astrominical at the mo) So after laying out the trackwork on the new baseboards I have came to abit of a dilemma, The Lye-By for the slow goods as shown between the blue and orange circle is currently 6ft in length which visually looks quite small and was hoping for it to be a tad longer, however I don't want to extend it further south because I would like to leave some space there. So a few options for me.. 1) Leave as is, Only stopping any goods trains that are 6ft or less in length (as most will be anyway bar 1) 2) Remove the blue set of points and have trains reverse in.. This means they would pass the signal at the end of the station and be half on that curve heading into the fiddleyard before reversing for that 1 long goods train. (Not sure how that works with signalling) 3)Move the orange set of points back 1ft and remove the blue points to increase it to 7ft in length and have the length from orange points to end of the platforms be 7ft Given the fact that my fiddleyard space is limited im slightly inclined to go with option 1 or 2 and just run more smaller goods trains but sometimes its nice to get the opinions of those more experienced with railways in the real or model form. This will be set in GWR (with probably some lms or lner or southern mixed in at times for shared running veriety) Cheers
  7. Well I have made the decision to change the layout so I can get more enjoyment out of it long term. So I have been ripping up the old 00-SF trackwork... (let's hope I don't regret that decision lol)
  8. Having been playing with the track plan some more and nudging some timbers I can say I am almost done. Here it is in pretty much final form apart from the entrance to the fiddleyard as I am trying to work out how tight I can get away with those curves to maximise on storage space. I'm just not sure on the lye-by or the little industry placement atm so any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated. Cheers
  9. Thanks very much both. I'm deffo gonna pick up a set of the dinghams and have a little experiment with them at least
  10. I'm looking at the Dinghams at the moment too, However I do plan to use computer control and I have yet to find a solution to control a electromagnet via that which is putting a downer on the idea. They do look really nice though on your stock!
  11. Well I had made pretty good progress albeit very slowly. I managed to complete the loop with everything on the scenic part using fully chaired trackwork to 00-SF standards. I have ran a veriety of trains over it and everything has ran fine, Infact I am very impressed with it especially over the curved points. However after a long think I have found myself loosing interest over teh current track plan, it's quite basic and I think I want something abit more interesting to operate and watch. So I am considering starting again! (eek) So I have attached a track plan I have been working on which is making me abit more excited compared to the current one. So the idea is a double track mainline with a station and a slow goods passing loop on the clockwise track. Then there is a branch line which goes into a 3rd platform which also helps with a nice bit of off main goods shunting. I have added a very small industry on the L/H side but that is starting to look abit cluttered around there so I might make that on the branch line on the button section. I have keps the main running lines at a scale 8ft distance (because of my curves which go down to 3ft radius) made it 9ft between the main and the slow goods passing loop and then 10ft between the main and the line which forms the goods yard/3rd platform section. Anyway I would appreciate any comments and suggestions on the plans, I am aiming for quite realstic but maybe with a bit of modellers licence to have abit more fun with watching/playing. The bit going into the fiddleyard I will open up to 00 so I can get some tighter curves to try and eek out as much fiddleyard space as I can (5-6 lines for each direction on the main) Thanks
  12. Yes, usually just a normal monitor that you can interact with your fingers. On windows I believe it should just plug in and work
  13. Thanks all, Seems like 24" monitors/screens would be better. I shall have to look at the space I have and see what I can do The multiple windows tablets and jmri thing sounds interesting though
  14. Out of interest, Does anyone run computer control combined with multiple touchscreen monitors? I have been thinking about it as a setup recently so that I can also use the monitors as a switchboard etc when I want to take control. Just wanted to see if anyone has tried it and if there are any suggestions for equipment etc. Cheers
×
×
  • Create New...