Weymouth Town

[rail_blue]

Well after a year of planning I have finally taken the plunge and started building my layout. There are so many things to explain in terms of background I couldn't possibly explain it all in detail now, but in brief... It is set in Weymouth in 1968 to 1980 ish. I know this is a big time frame, but there are so many different locos I want to run I didn't want to limit myself. The main idea behind the layout is that the government investment in road building never happened and the railways remained much more popular and as such the 1955 modernisation plan was substantially different and the Beeching Report was never needed. So that means that Weymouth has many more railways than it does today. The line to Portland is still open, catering mostly for freight (HMS Osprey has been handily shrunk allowing for a busy container port). The line to Abbotsbury is still open and indeed has been extended to Bridport and beyond.

 

 

This represents Weymouth Town. It is not intended to be totally accurate, it's more a case of I got to play god and re-arrange the town to suit my needs! Platforms 1 & 2 are going to be through platforms, but due to a lack of space in the real world this is something that I cannot do for now. The whole station is now roughly where B&Q/Currys/Matalan are, roughly in the same place as the old Melcome Regis station. Any how, background is not crucial, the main aim of this exercise is to give me somewhere to play trains!

 

There are two baseboards, both 4' x 2', but the corner has been cut off the northern board to allow access to a wardrobe! Pretty standard construction, 2" x 1" frame with 9mm ply on top and covered in a 3mm layer of cork tile. The track is raised on an additional layer of 3mm cork tile. Track is Peco code 100 with mostly electrofrog points, but the double slips and crossing are insulfrog. Points will be motorised with Cobalt slow action motors - I may regret this decision as they cost a fortune!

 

 

To date I have finished laying the cork under the track bed and cut most of the track. The layout is going to be powered by DCC and every piece of track will be connected to the two main bus wires under the base board. I have also started altering the points as per the instructions in the Cobalt manual. I have removed the point springs and taken away all of the chunky sleepers under the tie bar. These will be replaced with normal thickness sleepers which I think look much better. Below is a bit of a before and after shot. I have taken away all of the sleepers from one point and started replacing them with normal thickness ones but I have not touched the other point.

 

Hopefully this all makes sense. I am having to rush as I have two children who need a bath!

 

Matt

[rail_blue]

I know this is not the right forum, but does anyone know of the best way to stick track down? I need to fix the track in place before weathering and ballasting. I have thought about using PVA or cork tile adhesive but having never done this before both of those suggestions could be totally wrong.

 

Thanks,

 

Matt

[sulzer27jd]

I know this is not the right forum, but does anyone know of the best way to stick track down? I need to fix the track in place before weathering and ballasting. I have thought about using PVA or cork tile adhesive but having never done this before both of those suggestions could be totally wrong.

 

Thanks,

 

Matt

 

I use PVA with the track positioned using drawing pins, then weight applied until the glue sets. No need to put holes into the sleepers for trackpins etc.

 

j

[Kris]

PVA will work, others swear by Copydex, I have also successfully used Bostick for track laying. Other ways include using double sided sticky tape as this will hold the track in place until ballasting finally holds it.

[Wherry Lines]

I temporarily lay my track using good quality double sided tape, although I do model in n gauge. This means you can test that everything is in order before you commence ballasting. As everyone else has said, once you begin ballasting, the glue will hold everything in place nicely.

[rail_blue]

Thanks for your advice. I hope to get the track fixed in place on my next lot of days off, after that it is on to installing point motors - if I can afford to buy them all!

 

If anyone has any previous experience with installing Cobalt point motors, are there any tips not in the manual?

 

Thanks,

 

Matt