Building A Modular Branch Line - 00 Gauge

[That Model Railway Guy]

Hi everyone, I'll be doing a Live running session tonight over on my YouTube channel as "testing" continues on the modular layout. You don't need a YouTube account to watch along so feel free to tune in at 7:30pm if you fancy it. It's a very informal affair where we just watch some trains run and have a chat in the comments (and I try not to get too distracted!). Hope to see some of you there 

 

 

[That Model Railway Guy]

I have to admit there's not been much progress lately as I've just been enjoying having a proper layout for the first time in my life. It's taken a few months to get to this stage and it's really nice to finally be able to run trains - all the name of testing of course.

 

On that note, running is very consistent except for the Bachmann J72 and the Hornby Terrier, which do not like the double slip and the points either side of it. I suspect the points aren't completely flat which is causing the 0-6-0s to rock on the centre axle slightly while the Peckett and Ruston will happily crawl through the same points. I've tried manipulating the track in various different ways as well as propping areas up with card but it's been a bit inconsistent so far as I'll think I've solved it then later I'll run the loco through and it'll stop dead again.

 

Anyway to finish off on a bright note here are some pictures from a running session this morning...

 

 

The Schools Class passes under the bridge...

 

 

...round the bend...

 

 

...and joins onto the new section as it goes past the shed.

 

 

Meanwhile the J72 waits with some of Hornby's new 6 wheelers. (This was during a brief period where it was behaving!)

 

 

In a far more prototypical scene for a heritage railway, an austerity waits in the station loop with a rake of Mk1coaches.

 

 

While the bufferstop module is pressed into service here as the headshunt for the run round loop.

 

 

edit - Looks like I forgot to add a caption to this photo! Anyway, this was just after the Peckett had shunted these wagons into the siding.

Edited February 20, 2021 by That Model Railway Guy
Missed caption.

[That Model Railway Guy]

Before I forget, I've also made two videos of the layout. The first showing the trains in action...

 

 

 

...and the second just outlining the process of building the two new modules.

 

 

They've gone down rather well on YouTube (with a combined 8,000 views between them already!) so though I'd post them here too in case anyone is interested. Enjoy  

[That Model Railway Guy]

Ran a bit of an interesting experiment just now. As mentioned previously, a few of my 0-6-0s do not like some of the points on the layout - specifically the double slip and the points either side. Initially I put this down to uneven track and I do still think this is a large part of the issue.

 

However, I've just been running the J72 which is by far the worse offender and was getting nowhere with it. I decided to take the decoder out and run it on DC instead and it's now a lot better! It does stall occasionally but a lot less frequently now, where previously it refused to run over the points without stalling at least once.

 

I'm still quite new to DCC so I'm not sure why the loco is more sensitive when fitted with a decoder. Perhaps it's just that the minimum voltage the decoder responds to needs adjusting. Still at least I'm getting somewhere now!

[That Model Railway Guy]

Testing has continued today with the J72 but during the process I snapped this quick picture on my phone. I'm not sure why but there's something about this photo that I really like. I think the angle of the loco and the height of the camera it makes it look quite realistic, despite the obvious lack of any scenery!  

 

[jimsmodeltrains]

On 07/03/2021 at 01:19, That Model Railway Guy said:

I'm still quite new to DCC so I'm not sure why the loco is more sensitive when fitted with a decoder. Perhaps it's just that the minimum voltage the decoder responds to needs adjusting. Still at least I'm getting somewhere now!

 

I have found that some DCC locos are more sensitive to dirt on the tracks or track geometry that has sections where there is no electric pickup (eg, frogs on slips and turnouts). Some of my US outline Bachmann DCC onboard can be a somewhat tempremental on those pieces of track even though they are all wheel pickup. By contrast my DC only Hornby 48DS (without the extra wagon for better electrical pickup) will go through most points without a problem inspite of it's being extremely short.

 

I think part of the problem might be the loss of DCC signal that is caused by the temporary drop in voltage that causes the loco to stop.

 

Regards, James

Edited March 13, 2021 by jimsmodeltrains

[Jeff Smith]

Strictly speaking, DCC is no more reliable than DC except perhaps with stay-alive decoders.  There is an argument that 16vac might penetrate dirt better than 4vdc but for both systems live frogs and good track continuity (not relying on point-blade contact) helps greatly.

[That Model Railway Guy]

Thanks for the info guys, it's very much appreciated. I've also found that after they stall some DCC locos have trouble getting going again because of the acceleration curve. They have no issues when running at speed but sometimes they just stall repeatedly when trying to set off again. Anyway that's beside the point.

 

Thankfully I've mostly sorted this issue now. I adjusted some CVs on the J72 which helped a little bit but I also spent a lot of time running it over the points trying to identify which bits were most uneven. The worse bits have been stuck down in a more secure way so that they're no longer pushing up and for the most part this seems to have solved the problem. There's just one small section between two points that's still causing an issue so I'll just need to look at that in more detail but the reliability has certainly increased in the meantime.  

[Jeff Smith]

Although not generally thought of as necessary for OO and EM, compensation does keep all wheels on the track and therefore improves electrical pick-up.  Many RTR locos have 'slop' built in in an effort to improve running however rigid chassis built from kits really are rigid with maybe only one wheel on each side actually contacting the rails hard enough to form a circuit!  O-16.5 chassis kits, which use OO wheels, generally are compensated.

[Jeff Smith]

.

Edited March 14, 2021 by Jeff Smith
Duplicated post

[That Model Railway Guy]

Yes I noticed as well that a lot of my locos tend to have a bit of slop in the wheels. In comparison the J72, which formerly was "the problem loco", has a little bit of give on it's centre axle but is still quite rigid in comparison to the others so I think you're right and that was also exacerbating the problem.

 

Still it's brought my dodgy track laying to light sooner rather than later. Just glad I discovered these issues now rather than after I'd put down all the ballast and scenery! 

[Off Tackle]

My J72 also gave me considerable problems over not just my Peco Code 75 electrofrog double slip, but also on some curves that are marginally greater than 2nd radius. I went through an almost identical process to you, noticing that one of the vees on the slip wasn't firmly glued and therefore not level - so like yourself found it useful. But after quite a bit of work levelling out both frogs, it persists in being the only loco to have issues on my trackwork. I can crawl a Bachy Coaltank at walking speed over it, and my trusty Peckett W4 will consistently run through at a scale jog (so pretty damn slow) but the J72 now stalls at slow speeds after the vee when slipping either left or right.

 

I'm very inexperienced, but to me it seems that its a combination of the axles not being sprung (as detailed by Jeff above) and a fair degree of gauge slop within the slip itself. So at some stage as the front axle exits the slip another axle (probably the centre) loses contact before the frog due to the rigid chassis and lack of compensation. Have you found this at slow speeds? I never understood the principle of 00SF with its tighter gauge through pointwork, but now it all makes sense to me! As mentioned previously, it also stalls on the merest whiff of a tight-ish curve at shunt speeds. 

 

A stay-alive would cure this mind you, but the pads are so tiny on the circuit board, and my soldering skills so non-existent! Its a bummer because the J72 is a beautiful loco, but I have come across quite a bit of owner feedback regarding iffy slow running characteristics. You report that messing with the CVs has helped, so I might get the blighter out of the sin bin (well, it's box) and experiment. 

Edited March 17, 2021 by Off Tackle

[That Model Railway Guy]

Thanks for this @Off Tackle, good to know it's not just mine that's playing up although I do feel your pain. It's a real shame when they're such good looking locos but even now I find myself reaching for other 0-6-0s to run because I just trust them more.

 

I thought about adding a stay alive too although my soldering skills are on par with yours and I'd be worried about messing the model up even further. Maybe I'll just take the decoder out altogether since it seems to run ok on DC, though it seems a shame considering it's one of my favourite locos - or at least was until all this started 

 

[Jeff Smith]

My Bachmann GWR 57xx has a spring above the centre axle.  I dropped in a set of Ultrascale P4 wheels and it seems to run well on my P4 layout.  Have you removed the wheel keeper plate to see if there is a spring on the centre axle?

[That Model Railway Guy]

Hi @Jeff Smith - apologies for the delayed response, I somehow managed to miss this. Yes I had the same thought but when I took the keeper plate off a while back I couldn't see any springs on the centre axle so that would explain why it seems so rigid.

 

In comparison, my other 0-6-0s that do have slightly sprung centre axles have no trouble on the point work. I'll continuing working away to see if I can find a more consistent solution but as a result I haven't made much progress on the layout lately so at some point I may just have to call it a day and live with the J72 as it is.

[That Model Railway Guy]

Hi all, progress on the layout has been slow lately but to celebrate my youtube channel hitting 3,000 subscribers recently I did host a little live stream earlier this week where I ran some locos on the layout in it's current state.

 

Naturally I completely forgot to post about it here at the time but if anyone's interested you can always watch the replay below. Feel free to skip to when trains start running (around the 6 minute mark I think) and I won't be offended at all if you mute it since I imagine most people don't want to listen to me talking for over an hour! 

 

 

[That Model Railway Guy]

A little update: the final bit of trackwork has now been completed on the yard module with the installation of the inspection pit as seen below. 

 

 

I've added some coal dust to the floor of the pit to represent discarded ash as I deliberately wanted it to look dirty/grimy and well used. I got this idea when I was at Spa Valley Railway last week doing a PTS course and while there I had a quick look at the pits for some first hand research.

 

 

Eventually my plan is to have quite a stark contrast between the nice pretty station areas for the public and the yard so as a result a lot of this area will be finished in the same way.

 

Anyway here's the Peckett sitting on the pit.

 

 

 

I used the Peco Inspection Pit Kit which is made up of sections that you can join together to get the pit to the length you want. As I had a couple of these sections left over I added a second pit inside the shed for a bit of interest. It's quite short but it's only visible when you get down to look inside and when there's a loco sat on it you can't tell that it doesn't stretch all the way to the back.

 

 

The frame of the shed is still just held together with blutack at the moment from when I was marking out the position. Hopefully that won't be the case for much longer though!  

[Alister_G]

The pit looks really good. Nice job.

 

Al.

[TrainMan2001]

I've just finished reading through your thread, and honestly, if you hadn't mentioned it so much, I never would have guessed you were a beginner! Your scenery and buildings look amazing!

[That Model Railway Guy]

Thanks guys, I have to say I'm really happy with how it looks. The techniques I've used on the layout so far are mostly things I've pinched from much better modellers on here who kindly share their own processes.

 

In this instance though I completely winged it with the inspection pit. Despite having no kind of plan though, it's not come out bad at all!

[Legend]

I am following your videos . Very well presented . I do like your Pickwick Yard scenery and as a result have got some structures from Scale Model Scenery . 

[That Model Railway Guy]

Thanks @Legend, glad to hear you've been enjoying the videos! Yes, the Scale Model Scenery buildings are very good and have served me well on Pickwick Yard. I may well try to find space for a few more on this layout if I can.  

[That Model Railway Guy]

On the subject of videos, I didn't take many photos of the inspection pit's installation but I did video the entire process. If you're somebody who likes seeing things come together from start to finish this may be of interest:

 

 

[That Model Railway Guy]

There's been a big update to the layout recently and a bit of a change of plans too.

 

Originally I had been intending to complete the scenery on the two station modules, the idea being that I would run it as an end to end layout for the moment. Then once that was done I would move on to building the final two corner modules that would complete the circuit to give me a continuous run.

 

However, as my model railway YouTube channel has continued to grow it's become apparent that having a continuous run is quite important. Certainly for filming it's much easier to let locos run round the circuit and do their thing while I setup shots rather than having to to start/stop/reset the loco for every take.

 

Additionally I've been doing livestreams from the layout each month and (much like at exhibitions) it's better if I can have trains running constantly on the layout while I answer questions or get the next train ready. It makes the broadcasts much more enjoyable for those watching as anyone who tunes in is more likely to see a train actually running rather than me faffing about! 

 

Storage is also something I need to consider too. At the moment when the layout is dismantled it doesn't have a permanent home. I've started building a set of racks for the modules to be packed away in but I can't easily complete these when a big part of the core layout is still yet to be built.

 

So with all that in mind a few weeks ago I decided to build to the two final corner modules that will allow me to complete the circuit and have a continuous run. Instead of these new corner modules being square like their predecessors, I decided to make the baseboards follow the curve of the track this time. You'll see what I mean in the video below but it's made these modules a lot easier to move around in comparison to the others which are much more bulky. It also means I'll be able to have a nice long continuous backscene down this who side of the layout.

 

So another big step for the layout as this marks the end of track laying for the core part of the layout... al least until I decide to add more modules in the future!  I'll post some pictures soon but in the meantime here's the video I made while building these two new modules. Feel free to start at around the 2:50 mark to skip the intro which is basically everything I just said above.

 

 

[That Model Railway Guy]

Just realised I never posted a picture of the new curved modules like I promised, so here you go. (Do excuse the messy room behind!)

 

 

And here's a new arrival on it's first outing round the new loop!

 

 

A little bit of an indulgent purchase from me since I already have one of the B2 Pecketts, but I couldn't resist the livery on this one and it does look good pulling the Mk1s so I can definitely see it in a heritage setting.