regme

Yes it is, good point, but I'll be using a straight to line up the flex track so hopefully it will be all good. Well I tried some priming fluid for PVC pipes (MEK) and is holding pretty well, but once I encase the track to make the ground level flush with the top of rail, it should be ok.

The acrylic sheet is the base for a structure that I'm building

ISW - Thanks, I'll check that out

I'm glad you cleared that up, for a minute there I thought I would have to report you to the police :)

Hi Has anyone glued track down to an acrylic sheet? I was going to lightly sand the acrylic sheet before gluing, although I'm not sure what glue to use. Thanks

Thanks

Hi I was explaining to a mate at I was going to use PCB cut into sleeper size pieces and replace the plastic ones over the joint and solder the rail to the sleeper, and he asked why? Why don't you glue the plastics ones and cut through them? There seems to be no difference between the two methods. To be honest I don't see why you should replace the original sleepers with PCB sleepers. Any thoughts on this or am I missing something? Cheers

I'm here all week, try the veal

Good point (sorry)

Thanks, I have a scroll saw so I thought I'd give that a go. The Dremel is on the top, scroll saw on the bottom, compared to the new turnout. The scroll saw seems pretty close, might be the weapon of choice.

Thanks for the comments When looking at this turnout, it looks like the gap between the inner rail and frog is wide enough not to create a short circuit when the wheels cross over it. However, as WIMorrison said there is a caveat that a wheel may touch both, hence cutting the inner rails at the yellow circle is more of any insurance to prevent a short circuit . Also a DCB said cutting the rails may weaken them, other good point to consider. I could test my locos and wagons with the biggest wheel diameter to see if a single wheel will bridge the gap to create a short, then that will dictate whether to cut the rails or not, or cut my losses and buy new turnouts. Upon further searching I found this on the "wiringdordcc" web site I found this, where he also cuts the rails. May be cutting the rails as close and as fine as possible (not using a dremel) is a solution. Thanks

Hi I want to wire up an old peco electrofrog for DCC. This turnout does not have the gaps in the rail as the new turnouts do. Just so I understand, on the back, I would cut the two small wires (red circle) and wire them to a switch to control the polarity of the frog. Join the inner and outer rails to the positive and negative of the bus wire (red lines). No need to do anything on the front especially cutting the rail at the yellow circle. Where the yellow circle is there is a gap on the new turnouts where you would remove the smaller jumpers. I hope that all made sense. Cheers Cheers

Hi It really depends on the level you are at, if your designing your own parts then that would be something you would take into account. If you buying / downloading STL files and hoping just to print them then not all STL files are created equal. I would think even if you download STL then you would still need some sort of software to go over the file and modify it to suit your printer (as files may print differently on different printers). I would think a basic understanding of the process and what is achievable on printer, especially FDM, resin is way easier. As njee20 said post a pic, this could be interesting. Cheers

I have used those dimensions from that pdf, although the x and y are a bit out when scaling up the pdf. The new version look heaps better

Thanks, I'll check that out. Will the servo driver is that using Arduino? The point motor is an M23 point motor, which is one type used on the BHP iron ore railways in the Pilbara.

Thanks for those, my original idea was to change the point like Grovenor has done using the linear actuator rather than a micro servo, however I still need switch to change the frog polarity, although I could do that at the control panel. The only think I would have to careful on, is the ballasting, so the wire would move freely. This is the worst one, I'm afraid that cutting a big hole would encroach into the batter. The is my dummy point motor, it's big enough to hide a small hole for the wire to come through, but not for a micro servo. I really like the idea of a wire moving from the side, so it looks like the dummy point motor is working.

Hi I have kind of stalled in my layout build. I'm not sure how to control the points, my baseboard is 50mm XPS foam glued to 3mm ply. I was going to control the points with servos and arduino, I have modelled a linear actuator, so I could mount the servo off to the side and hide the wire under a 3D print point motor. I have tested this on a 12mm board and it seams to work fine when the piano wire goes through the hole in the point, it kind of works when it the wire goes under the track towards the point motor. The issue I have is how to install the linear actuator to the baseboard, from the underside of the baseboard to the top of the sleepers varies from 60 to 90mm, which maybe way to much for the piano wire to handle without bending. I have thought about using a bass tube with piano wire placed inside and soldered or glued in place to make it more rigid. I was wondering how others may have installed point motors when using XPS foam, unfortunately I have laid the cork roadbed, which adds to the woes. I'm a bit hesitant to cut a big hole in the foam to place the whole point motor, but open to ideas. Yes I have over engineered this.

Hi How do you deal with the joint on the backdrop when joining two modules? The modules will always be place next to each other, but I want to be able to pull them apart if I have to work on an individual module. So I'm not sure how to deal with the joint. My woodwork skills are not that good that I can have a very fine cut line, but I'm happy to give it ago. I have seen a plastic joint strip being used, but was not that keen on it, if I made the strip flush with the backdrop, painted it, then cut along the plastic strip with a thin blade, I would have two cut lines but that maybe better than one big cut line. How would you do it if you where doing exhibitions and separating the modules frequently? Cheers

Hi I've started to build my base boards using pocket hole screws. Kreg provides guidelines as to what material thickness to match the screw length / jig settings. My question is that the material (15mm) falls between 12mm and 16mm, I gather I would use the 12mm setting. I just want to be sure, can't seem to find anything on the subject. Cheers

It's down to 947 now, very hopeful :)

Sounds interesting, but I can't really picture what you mean, is the 3mm ply glue to the foam or a separate structure?

Hey John That was helpful, any chance you can post some pics Cheers

So after a bit of research on migration of plasticisers from PVC Cables into XPS polystyrene there seems to be a solution: you can either use a cable with a migration resistant plasticiser or prevent the cable from contacting the XPS polystyrene Plasticiser migration from PVC cable in contact with EPS can also be effectively minimised. If the cable temperature can be kept relatively low (50–60°C for a 50% usage situation), the rate of migration will be slow and will not cause a problem over 50 years. Not sure how hot the cable gets for model rail layout and how often would you be running locos and etc 24/7 and also in 50 years I won't be around so is it a problem? If I seal the foam (there's another question) on the underside of the XPS foam will I have a problem, only the dropper wires would be in contact but being that small in diameter and only 50mm of foam, is that a concern.

Thanks for the write up @Vistisen and @John there is so much info out there it's hard to know where to start. @John I was going to use the same approach for the point motors, but I going to use servos instead @Vistisen I like the latch you used

The foam board I'm using is XPS Foam. XPS Multi-Use Foam Board is a high performance, water-resistant and lightweight board of extruded polystyrene. I'm not sure if the expanded foam you mentioned is the same thing. My understanding of "expanded foam" was used to seal gaps and come out of can. Also, I have never heard of plastics reacting with each other especially without a heat source. I guess depending on the amps being carried that could heat up the wire but wouldn't that take some serious amps to do? I'm not a sparky so I limited knowledge on the subject.