Trains4u shop layout

[Graham456]

We accept postal orders  

Ha ! good try, see you have no excuse Trains4U have thought of every contingency!

[chris p bacon]

You're a few miles away but I always pop in when I have to come to Peterborough for Committee meetings (next one in 10 days!)

 

You've got a decent sub structure, but as you're using carcassing ply (looks like 18mm) make sure it's screwed down at something like 150-200mm intervals. It'll take the wear and tear of the shop location but can 'ripple' a bit if not fixed down well enough.

[Keith George]

         

Pity you boarded in the back of the open plan stairs. !

 

You could have provided a great view of any mini skirts going up the stairs.! 

 

Keith

[chris p bacon]

         

Pity you boarded in the back of the open plan stairs. !

 

You could have provided a great view of any mini skirts going up the stairs.! 

 

Keith

Off topic a bit but a few years ago Colin Curtis of Routemaster design fame stayed with me (giving a local talk) and said that great care had to be taken in the 60's with stairs and conductors mirrors on LT's buses due to the advent of the mini skirt. 

 

I'd rather hope that Gareths customers are not regular wearers of said garment....

[Stubby47]

Off topic a bit but a few years ago Colin Curtis of Routemaster design fame stayed with me (giving a local talk) and said that great care had to be taken in the 60's with stairs and conductors mirrors on LT's buses due to the advent of the mini skirt. 

 

I'd rather hope that Gareths customers are not regular wearers of said garment....

 

Well, not the male ones, anyway...

[rockershovel]

Off topic a bit but a few years ago Colin Curtis of Routemaster design fame stayed with me (giving a local talk) and said that great care had to be taken in the 60's with stairs and conductors mirrors on LT's buses due to the advent of the mini skirt. 

 

I'd rather hope that Gareths customers are not regular wearers of said garment....

Topo Gigio's, the pizza house in Cathedral Square, had a spiral iron stair with a well-known local reputation in that respect...

[stevejjjexcov]

I will bare that in mind. Thanks for the info, do you have an online catalogue?

 

Steve

[ess1uk]

Looks good so far.

[Trains4U]

Further progress this evening:

 

The boards for the O gauge and DCC controller space have been cut and positioned

 

 

The last gap waiting to be boarded up

 

 

The top boards are now in the process of being filled and sanded

 

 

The cutting and installation of top boards are now complete.  

 

 

Over the course of the week, the filling and sanding will be completed and the OO boards painted with grey primer.

 

The layout is now really taking shape, and we expect to have operating running lines within the week.

 

(Note the temporary board that is currently being used for testing purposes)

 

 

The Oxford Diecast and the cabinet for sound and weathered models are both a bit bare - We still haven't put the stock back following the East Anglian Model Show at the weekend!

 

 

 

 

We are holding a track laying and wiring demonstration on Saturday between 2pm and 4pm, we intend to install some of the OO gauge circuit as part of that event.

Edited March 13, 2017 by Trains4U

[Adamphillip]

will you be installing a Z21 on the demo layout?

[Trains4U]

Yes, I have provision for up to 10 controllers, including Z21 and ESU ECoS

[Trains4U]

The layout is now at a stage where the majority of the messy timber cutting is finished, so progress can now continue whilst the shop is open.

 

Alan has been busy filling and sanding the surfaces, and the deck for the OO layout has received its first coat of paint.

 

 

Once the painting is complete, the ply cladding will be added to hide the gap between the O gauge deck and OO gauge deck.

 

One thing I haven't yet considered though - and I'm open to suggestion, is the colour of the layout cladding.

 

the frontage will be clad in 6mm MDF.   If anyone has any thoughts... (BR lined green was suggested, but I think that might be a bit much!)

 

 

[KevinWalsh]

Why not do the cladding in light eggshell, to aid with clean photography of locos and other stock?

[Trains4U]

A little more progress.

I was in the shop last night to pick up some locos for sound conversion

 

I took the opportunity to add the first few pieces of ply cladding to the edge of the OO deck

 

 

 

Just to put the size of the layout into perspective, the temporary board resting on top is 6ft x 4ft.

 

 

The first track will be going down this afternoon

 

We are holding a track-laying demo in store from 2pm

Edited March 18, 2017 by Trains4U

[Trains4U]

Today we held our track laying demonstration in store

 

 

 

Attendance was good, given it is our first such event.   We hope to continue these as we cover various aspects of layout building.

 

 

Whilst Alan explained the techniques, he laid down the back half of the outer circuit

This is all PECO Setrack in a combination of 2nd, 3rd and 4th radius.

 

 

Using pre-soldered wired rail joiners, we put in the first of the power supply droppers.

And the connections tested

 

The time flew by, and we just about got the back half complete in the allocated time, along with a demo of flexible track laying (on a separate board)

 

Once the crowd had dispersed, Alan set about installing the front half of the outer circuit.   This is all code 100 PECO streamline.

Points for the crossovers are in place.

 

 

 

We now have the first working circuit in OO (I couldn't resist a little play)

 

Next up - completion of the cladding for the OO deck, and begin laying the inner circuit, before wiring up the droppers.

 

[Grasshopper John]

Can I ask, what have you used to cover the baseboard and lay the track on, I'm thinking of building an 0 gauge test track and using cork.

[Trains4U]

It's laid straight onto the ply, which is painted grey.

[Enterprisingwestern]

In all seriousness, do the fire brigade and your insurance company know you've built a bonfire and connected it to mains electricity around the means of egress from the mezzanine?

Not wishing to be a killjoy, but, where there's blame there's a claim I've heard it said.

 

Mike.

[Trains4U]

All the mains electricity has been installed by a qualified electrician, with enough sockets for all planned services and systems and linked in to its own circuit breaker.

 

There are also a pair of CO2 extinguishers in close proximity.

 

It is also arguably safer than the 4 racks of paint and 3 racks of spray cans that were there before and passed prior fire inspections.

 

So yes, I think we are OK

 

But thanks for your concern.

[Vecchio]

In all seriousness, do the fire brigade and your insurance company know you've built a bonfire and connected it to mains electricity around the means of egress from the mezzanine?

Not wishing to be a killjoy, but, where there's blame there's a claim I've heard it said.

 

Mike.

 

Really? In this case we should all throw out our layouts - as they all will be more or less a fire hazard - they are mainly made of wood and plastic. They all use electricity - and I consider the low voltage part as more dangerous as the mains as you have there much higher currents.

SO do you have a layout made of concrete and steel??

Vecchio

[Enterprisingwestern]

Really? In this case we should all throw out our layouts - as they all will be more or less a fire hazard - they are mainly made of wood and plastic. They all use electricity - and I consider the low voltage part as more dangerous as the mains as you have there much higher currents.

SO do you have a layout made of concrete and steel??

Vecchio

 

Business premises and home premises are two totally different things when it comes to risk assessment.

I only asked the question, as, when I had a showroom, I had to have metal pallet racking with fire resistant chipboard shelves covered in fire retardent carpet, as the main display area was the fire exit from the offices, which only we used, at the rear of the building. The fact that there was an gas fired open flued overhead blower heater in the same room was of no consequence, as long as we had it regularly serviced.

So thanks for your disproportionate reply, I was asking for a valid reason, which it seems the Trains4U owner appreciated.

 

Mike.

[ruggedpeak]

Business premises and home premises are two totally different things when it comes to risk assessment.

I only asked the question, as, when I had a showroom, I had to have metal pallet racking with fire resistant chipboard shelves covered in fire retardent carpet, as the main display area was the fire exit from the offices, which only we used, at the rear of the building. The fact that there was an gas fired open flued overhead blower heater in the same room was of no consequence, as long as we had it regularly serviced.

Your showroom was most likely a protected corridor for office staff to the outside door which is the 'final exit'. This sounds like a very common situation in industrial units, where offices are at the back on the 1st or mezzanine floor and the showroom is right on the main entrance door, and staff have to cross the main industrial unit and through the showroom to get out. The corridor may have been required due to travel distances, limitations in fire detection and warning, risky materials in the unit or various other reasons etc. I am also sympathetic to Vecchio's response as I think it was unfair and potentially libellous to make uninformed comments about a business' safety in such an alarmist manner ("bonfire"). A model railway layout under a stairs is not a significant fire risk in and of itself, and from the photos I would assume (I stress assume as I have not visited the premises or conducted a fire risk assessment at this site) that the fire detection, travel distances etc in the shop mean the stairs is not a protected corridor, so there is no issue in respect of electrical equipment under the stairs.

 

A thorough read of this book will explain why the layout is in not a threat and why the Fire brigade won't be terribly interested https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-risk-assessment-offices-and-shops. Mezzanines are covered in the guidance.

 

I am looking forward to the layout being finished and using it as an excuse to take a train to Peterborough to buy some trains

Edited March 22, 2017 by ruggedpeak

[Trains4U]

I've not done an update for a little while.

 

Apologies if any pics are skew-wiff as I'm uploading from my phone...

 

Anyway, over the last week some more track laying has taken place

By last Sunday, the first OO circuit was complete, and around 60% of the second.

 

 

The second circuit was completed over the week.

 

I've made a start on the DCC controller switchboard

 

 

There are 3 rows of switches, one row for each gauge.

 

I decided I wanted to put in LED indicators (hence the additional rows of holes) however given the way the switches will be daisy chained, I cannot fathom a way of only illuminating the LED for the switch that is on.

Instead I will be compromising. All the LEDs up to the system that is in use will be illuminated

 

So, if system no6 is in use, LEDs 1,2,3,4,5 & 6 will be lit.

It's not ideal, but I didn't fancy using 30 4PDT switches, which cost 10x as much as DPDTs

 

I've already started wiring - I reckon I'm 18 soldered connections into a total of 460 required on this board...

Edited March 26, 2017 by Trains4U

[Trains4U]

A little update...

 

Progress has been a little slow over the last week - life getting in the way.  Children/work and sadly a family funeral.

 

However, I have managed to obtain the MDF for cladding the pillar and the layout itself.

 

 

 

 

So yesterday, despite having a very busy day, I managed to fit the cladding to the pillar, and get 3 of the 4 faces primed - in between helping customers!

 

 

I also had a tidy up of the  materials and tools, as it was getting a bit chaotic.

 

Current appearance as entering the shop:

 

 

 

I also took this picture, which shows the twin track loop of OO.

 

 

The point on the inner loop is to feed a set of storage sidings, for trains that will be run regularly.   The point at the top - on the outer loop, is to connect to a couple more sidings for a programming track other storage.

 

The outer loop comprises 2nd, 3rd and 4th radius curves - The inner loop is 2nd and 3rd radius - so we can properly exercise all types of locomotive.

[Trains4U]

The next stage is to complete the framing.   This will involve adding 2x2 timber around the base and mid-height of the layout.  The cladding can then be screwed in place.

 

There are two angled edges to the layout at the wide end.  I'm intending to fit doors on these faces, so that the space inside can be used for storage of stock (Specifically track and overstocks of peco/Hornby accessories)

 

In the meantime, I can continue wiring the circuit board at home