Dartmouth

[PaulT]

I have mentioned elsewhere that I have started building this exhibition layout.

It is based on the little known true history of early South Devon Railways.

 

This summer there was a thread here seeking advice for an overbridge conundrum which generated lots of helpful ideas

.

Some of you may have seen parts of it ( Olton Bridge) at Scalefour North a couple of years ago and with some added MG track at Scaleforum (Aylesbury) in 2015.  This year at Scaleforum you could have seen a few station baseboards with contractor's track laid in and trains running for the first time ever over the Olton Bridge model.

 

Progress was slowed by a house move but a new extension is nearing completion and will house the layout soon. In just a few weeks time it will be erected in its normal home location so work will accelerate greatly.

 

Here is a piccy of the room last weekend with plaster drying out. The layout will run the full length of the room along the back wall illustrated = 8.25M or around 25 ft if you insist.

 

 

3 of the 5 station baseboards are built together with Olton Bridge with some of the MPD approach trackwork (transverse sleepered MG).

 

The first MG baulk road turnout is complete on its laser cut baulks and was the only bit of permanent way shewn in Aylesbury this year.

The contractor's track will now be relaid as permanent way and the station throat extended onto the two country baseboards to meet Olton Bridge and ultimately the rotating/traverser fiddle yard which is built to the proof of concept stage. This will be fully automated to minimise the need for a fiddle yard operator.

 

This is expected to be the first BG layout exhibited that uses Merg electronics ( CBus) and DCC by Roco.

 

I plan to report on progress here from time to time and, once the boards are erected, will post a few more piccies.

[CarriageShed]

Crikey. That's an impressive space for a layout. Good luck with the construction of it.

[emt_911]

I'm going to be interested to see how the MERG electronics work with a big layout as I'm contemplating going down this route

[Siberian Snooper]

Has there been any progress?

[PaulT]

Has there been any progress?

The room is now fully in use and the existing parts of Dartmouth erected temporarily on their Workzone trestles which will probably be the exhibition supports. The station boards are to the left and Olton bridge is just visible at back right.  The fiddle yard is also there on the floor to the right of Olton Bridge, but hidden by clutter in this piccy.  The 2M gap between station boards and Olton Bridge will be occupied by 2 baseboards with rural scenery and 1:80 gradients to link the shown sections of the layout

 

 

I am off to Ikea today to buy some of their Ivar shelving units which will be used as the permanent home based support and enable clutter seen here to be stored properly. They will be set to the rear so access to underside of baseboards at the front where track, servos etc are located will be OK.

When Highbridge moved home and needed new supports some of these were used successfully.

The tracks height will be around 1350mm  or 53" in old money.  I like high baseboards for adult viewing and easier access beneath. This will also be my preferred exhibiting height although the Workzone trestles allow lower settings if Exhibition Managers prefer that for smaller viewers.

[PaulT]

I'm going to be interested to see how the MERG electronics work with a big layout as I'm contemplating going down this route

Merg CBus has been proven on several larger layouts than this one.

[Siberian Snooper]

Thanks for the update, I like high layouts as they give you more of a train spotters view, rather than looking at rooves.

 

I look forward to some modelling updates.

[drduncan]

Paul,

Any updates on progress?

Regards

Duncan

[PaulT]

Paul,

Any updates on progress?

Regards

Duncan

I delayed responding until I could make the two pix attached.

 

The baseboards are shown plonked onto their normal high domestic underpinnings but not joined together. They are taken from a high position to give an idea of how it will be seen at Scaleforum in Aylesbury in two weeks time as part of the Scalefour Society Bristol Area Groups demos. 

 

The state of the layout is most track laid and wired and currently under test and debug for simple dc operation to suit the rolling stock being lent for the exhibition. A test load yesterday has proved that they will all fit into my Skoda Octavia Estate.  ( Phew! ). The current task over next few days is to rerig it onto the lower trestle and girder underpinnings which will be used at Aylesbury.  For this first outing the layout will be a bit over 1Metre above floor...this "low" display height will make debugging easier at the show.  Because all is very new, I expect some faults will develop in transit and re-rigging.

 

There is no scenery, buildings, lighting or backscene yet. These are planned to be on separate narrow boards behind those shown here. They will eventually travel in another car.

 

Inevitably I have not progressed as much as I hoped.....every job still takes longer than expected!

 

This winter my tasks will be to complete my first two Broad Gauge locos which will enable the conversion to dcc and continue developing the MERG electrics towards the goal of partial automation which will allow operation by one bod. Some scenery and backscenes will also start asap. 

[Edwardian]

I delayed responding until I could make the two pix attached.

 

The baseboards are shown plonked onto their normal high domestic underpinnings but not joined together. They are taken from a high position to give an idea of how it will be seen at Scaleforum in Aylesbury in two weeks time as part of the Scalefour Society Bristol Area Groups demos. 

 

The state of the layout is most track laid and wired and currently under test and debug for simple dc operation to suit the rolling stock being lent for the exhibition. A test load yesterday has proved that they will all fit into my Skoda Octavia Estate.  ( Phew! ). The current task over next few days is to rerig it onto the lower trestle and girder underpinnings which will be used at Aylesbury.  For this first outing the layout will be a bit over 1Metre above floor...this "low" display height will make debugging easier at the show.  Because all is very new, I expect some faults will develop in transit and re-rigging.

 

There is no scenery, buildings, lighting or backscene yet. These are planned to be on separate narrow boards behind those shown here. They will eventually travel in another car.

 

Inevitably I have not progressed as much as I hoped.....every job still takes longer than expected!

 

This winter my tasks will be to complete my first two Broad Gauge locos which will enable the conversion to dcc and continue developing the MERG electrics towards the goal of partial automation which will allow operation by one bod. Some scenery and backscenes will also start asap. 

 

Exciting to see this strong concept developing into an attractive scene.

[CarriageShed]

Inevitably I have not progressed as much as I hoped.....every job still takes longer than expected!

 

Doesn't it just! If I had a pound for every time I'd expected to finish a job in less than half the time it actually took I'd be... fairly well off.

[drduncan]

Paul,

 

I too have found everything tajes longer than expected! I’m cheating a bit with my BG loco as a mate rashly said they’d enjoy the challenge so I accepted his offer to convert a SG Buffalo kit to BG...

 

If I make it to Aylesbury I’ll definately enjoy seeing your layout and hopefully having a chat.

 

Regards,

 

Duncan