Dual Gauge Roundy Roundy

[jmg123]

A new year, a new layout!

 

Currently (and a least for the next few years) I am bit limited for space, so I need a layout that can pack into the under stairs cupboard whilst not in use. I also wanted to be able to run my Bemo H0m stuff and my 00, and have trains running continually round in the background whilst I am doing other things. With all these things in mind, I have drawn up a plan for a dual gauge railway. As you can see it is not actually based on anything real (though there are standard/narrow dual gauge stations in Switzerland). I intend to use it mainly as test bed for trying things out and learning techniques, It has a lower dual gauge station, and an upper narrow gauge station accessed via a 1in50 incline, hidden storage loops for both the H0 and H0m, and a section of british dual gauge track round the back for taking photographs of locos on.

 

Hopefully baseboard construction should start as soon as I have finished the kitchen tiling! I plan to use open baseboards to try and save weight. I will be using tillig track for the scenic areas and peco for everything else (including the british bit). The points arrived in the post this morning, I was impressed by the tillig pointwork ,as it is flexible (within reason).

 

 

 

I want to use dcc control, via rocrail and embedded loconet, this will be able to control the layout automatically, or manually. I have already simulated the plan in rocail to check how it operates.

 

 

 

I designed and built some block occupancy detector's for another project (cost me ~ ??3.50 per block with relay or ??2.50 without). I shall make some more for my new layout as they were designed to work with dc and dcc. I released the design/schematics eagle/gerber files, documentation etc under a creative commons open source license, so if anyone is interested in using or modifying them for their own personal use, pm me and I'll point you in the direction of a zip file with all the designs , files and other information on constructing your own. I intend to use some spare rc servos to operate the points, as they were cheap, and interfacing them with loconet via an arduino shouldn't be too hard.

 

[jmg123]

A view people have been asking about the block controllers. Last weekend I wired the first 3 up to dads New Barnet layout. We managed to get Barnet North, Barnet South and Greenwood North wired up in the afternoon. Now we just need to do the "Kings cross loop" and the Greenwood south blocks.

 

We used a black ABS box to hold all the wiring, and to mount the switches to disable the block controllers.

 

 

The wiring was a mess ,but after this it was labeled and and tidied up before being put in the box.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B205ysMA_gk

 

Finally this was the wiring diagram for a single block, I haven't shown the QPDT switches to switch out the block controller, but they basically just wire all the blocks straight either into the block controller or the dc controller.