Brixington Town 2.0

[dale159]

Hello again - I'm still alive!

 

Not much to report on the layout of late but progress is starting to be made once more.

 

With the help of my friend Simon (occasional visitor to RMweb and mentioned repeatedly on this thread over the years) we have formulated at track plan of sorts and started laying out track.

 

It all hinges on the double junction at the end here, where the 'Western Region' lines (Left hand pair) and 'Southern Region' lines (Right hand pair) diverge, the plan is for the scenery to continue on the Western region side around the corner with the Southern region lines disappearing under a bridge/into a tunnel and giving the impression that they curve away to the right. There will be other crossovers leading into the station throat but exactly what goes where is still a bit fluid until the junction is laid.

 

Track will be laid on Woodland scenics foam underlay with the larger 2'x1' sheets used under pointwork.

 

Hopefully more progress to report more going forwards!

 

Dale

[dale159]

Good Evening

 

A job that has been on my to-do list for a while - building a pair of shelving units to fit under the layout.

 

I spent a whole afternoon measuring up each different type of box used by each manufacture and how many of each type I had so that I could design the units to hold as much as possible.

 

First unit built and put in situ - all 18mm MDF with a 6mm back.

 

Had to cut a hole in the backs of both units to allow access to sockets.

 

Second unit built and in situ, first one partially filled.

 

Both units sit on 8 70mm diameter low friction Teflon feet which means I am able to slide the units out from under the layout relatively easily even when full

 

I've still got a few boxes mainly wagons left over so I may build another smaller unit using some of the offcuts of MDF.

 

Possibility of some track laying early part of next week.

 

Dale

Edited July 11, 2021 by dale159

[ess1uk]

Looks good so far 

[Rich Papper]

20 hours ago, dale159 said:

Second unit built and in situ, first one partially filled.

 

I've still got a few boxes mainly wagons left over so I may build another smaller unit using some of the offcuts of MDF.

 

They look great. I'd build the third one the same size - you never know what new items you might need one day!

Rich

[dale159]

19 hours ago, Rich Papper said:

 

They look great. I'd build the third one the same size - you never know what new items you might need one day!

Rich

 

I could have done that but I would have needed to buy another 1 maybe 2 sheets of 18mm MDF and another 6mm sheet. Cutting 1300m lengths from an 8x4 sheet is quite an inefficient use of the material as it left me with some quite big offcuts that weren't quite big enough to make another unit. 

 

Plus I'd already cut the pieces I needed before I read your post last night, better still I've got enough bits left over I'm thinking of making myself a spary booth.

 

Dale

Edited July 12, 2021 by dale159

[dale159]

Hello again.

 

Had another track laying session on Thursday night - had to cancel previous Tuesday.

 

Just to finish off the shelving units -

3rd miniature unit made from offcuts

 

I also further modified my stock box rack to have the same low friction feet so it too can now be moved around without having to empty it.

Much better!

 

Now, track laying

 

 

 

Here is the current state of play, the double track junction on the foam is now loosely pinned down with all necessary dropper wires in place and holes drilled for point motors. The next phase will be working towards the station on the Western Region side including the facing connection to the Southern Region side, once that point  top left is in place we will be able to fill in the gap back to the double junction.

 

Dale

[dale159]

Hello again,

 

I've been keeping busy recently gluing down trackbed and the underfloor insulation foam I will be using in the fiddle yard.

 

 

Seeing how to get 5 track into 20 on 1 board.

 

As this insulation foam is slightly thinner than the trackbed foam I have decided to lay the fiddle yard with code 100 track, the difference in height between the two types of track bases offsetting the differing heights of the 2 track types almost perfectly.

 

Station area

 

Checking platform clearances as will be crucial to where I glue the next piece of trackbed down.

 

I have finally produced a full track plan on XtrackCAD.

 

That hasn't come out as clear as I'd hoped so I've made a PDF version

Brixington Town Plan.pdf

 

The main fiddle yard will have 12 roads of which -

Roads 1-9 (1 being nearest the front edge) will be for use by the 'Western lines'

Roads 1-3 being for the exclusive use of the inner most Western loop

Roads 4-6 available to both Western loops and Centre road through station

Roads 7-9 for use by outer Western loop and Centre road

Bi-directional centre road through station can access roads 1-9

Roads 10-12 will be for use of the 'Southern lines' although road 9 could be used by either or for transferring stock between the two

All 12 roads in the region of 3m in length.

Plus 2 kickback sidings for light engine holding 

 

And then -

Roads 13-20 a further 8 sidings for the Southern on the diagonal board above the stairwell

Roads 21&22 hidden off scene behind the Southern entry to the layout bottom right of diagram

Roads 23&24 for the Southern top left of diagram.

 

Lots of Code 100 track to source probably second hand for fiddle yard use, looks like I'll be needing 5 3 way points, 10 left hand curves, not so many right curves and numerous short radius straights.

 

Dale

 

Edited August 10, 2021 by dale159
Added PDF track plan

[dale159]

Hello Again,

 

Another long time between posts, I have been plugging away at track laying recently

 

 

 

First 9 tracks round the corner and into the fiddle yard, I stopped each one where a full length would overhang the end. I made the gadget across all the tracks with some offcut pieces of MDF and plasticard to give 12 equally spaced track centres I just slide it along the board with the handle pushed against the side and using a pair of straight tracksettas I could lay 2 tracks at once, it has been really useful.

 

 

Today I have laid the ladder up the right hand side of this board leading into roads 17-20. Fitting point motors to these 5 points is going to be interesting given the frame of the layout is in the way underneath, some sort of cranked arrangement will be required even more so the trailing point at the bottom of the shot as there is a cross-member almost directly beneath the tie-bar and neither can I chisel a piece out of it as there is a screw about 15mm from the top of the timber.

 

Next post likely when I have completed this end or arrived at the other end of the fiddle yard!

 

Dale

[dale159]

Hello again,

 

Here are a few photos of progress since the last post in mid October

 

Fiddle Yard mostly complete

Brain hurts just looking at it never mind thinking about how I'm going to wire it up!

 

 

 

I'm going for a pair of thick Copperclad strips (marketed for O gauge point building) at both ends of the lifting board, I'm thinking about cutting the foam back at the edges and mounting them on some MDF or ply for extra rigidity. 

 

Over to the other side of the layout

Throat for the 3 Southern platforms laid, I wanted the main up and down to be either side of a single island.

 

More foam going down.

 

Hornby platform needs narrowing on this island.

 

 

 

Off scene throat from the station back round to the fiddle yard laid out for a rouge idea where to glue the last bits of foam.

 

Dale

[Rich Papper]

Hi Dale,

Progress looking very good - well done with the fiddle yard. 

I would recommend something firm on the joins. I used a strip of wood the same thickness as the cork I used for underlay, with copper sleepers glued with araldite to that. Once all soldered, painted and ballasted you'd have to be looking closely to tell.

Good luck with the next bit.

Rich

[dale159]

On 27/01/2022 at 13:46, Rich Papper said:

Hi Dale,

Progress looking very good - well done with the fiddle yard. 

I would recommend something firm on the joins. I used a strip of wood the same thickness as the cork I used for underlay, with copper sleepers glued with araldite to that. Once all soldered, painted and ballasted you'd have to be looking closely to tell.

 

Thanks Rich,

 

I tried a thin slither of 6mm MDF but that was a little too thick so I bought a length of fine wood 25x4mm an that seems to have worked out OK.

 

 

Dale

[dale159]

Hello again,

 

I've had a very good weekend with the layout.

 

 

 

First I glued the last bits of foam down and laid all the remaining track through the station and around the curve up to the lighter foam where code 75 track will give way to code 100.

 

 

 

Had Simon visit again last night and he started to lay tracks across onto the liftout piece and the throat of the fiddle yard that will sit upon it, copperclad sleepers are still only placed down for now.

 

I've been thinking about how I'd like to control all these points, the interface I would like on my control panel would be similar to how a real world panel signal box operates i.e. press buttons at entry and exit tracks of the route and let the interlocking take care of all the points in between. I was all set to tackle that with lots of diodes but a problem arises on the liftout piece above for example going from tracks 4, 5 or 6 at the 3-way at the top of the board out to the centre road at the toe of the 3-way at the bottom. the problem being there are technically 3 valid routes, the logical one straight down the middle but also crossing over either left or right and then back again and I struggle to see how I could get this right just with diodes short of having a row of three buttons across the middle of the junction to select which of the 3 tracks the route should go via. I don't really want to go down the road of computer or DCC control.

 

I had a quick look at MegaPoint controllers which we have been using on 2 layouts at the Exeter club they do offer a route setting board but it is only 1 button per route and can only handle 24 routes, a quick tally up of my layout reveals a total of 88 possible routes - 35 by the door and 53 at the other end!

 

Dale

[John ks]

To select which of the 3 routes through the 3 way point you could use a 3 way switch to select that route  & a push button to set the points

 

 

Wiring a diode matrix with a push button at each end could look something like this

to go from 1 to 5 press & hold button 1, then  press button 5 & the points should change for that route

For this circuit to work the point motor (twin coil type) needs the 2 coils to have 4 not 3 connections IE the common to both coils must not be joined

 In this example there places where diodes may not be required EG top connection to point motor "A" should be fine without diodes

 

 

Hope this helps

John

 

[dale159]

12 hours ago, John ks said:

To select which of the 3 routes through the 3 way point you could use a 3 way switch to select that route  & a push button to set the points

 

 

Wiring a diode matrix with a push button at each end could look something like this

to go from 1 to 5 press & hold button 1, then  press button 5 & the points should change for that route

For this circuit to work the point motor (twin coil type) needs the 2 coils to have 4 not 3 connections IE the common to both coils must not be joined

 In this example there places where diodes may not be required EG top connection to point motor "A" should be fine without diodes

 

 

Hope this helps

John

 

 

Thank you John, certainly some food for thought.

 

Dale

[John ks]

If you don't like the idea of a 3 way switch, you could use 3 push button switches 

 

"S" for straight route, "L" for left route & "R" for right route

As for working out the Diode matrix that is a headache I wouldn't wont

 

 

John

 

[dale159]

I've had time this morning to come up with a table of what each individual route will need

 

 

N= Normal/straight ahead and R = reverse with the exception of point 6, the right hand turnout on the 3 way points is in front of the left hand turnout looking from the toe end.

 

At first I thought each N or R in the table above represented 1 diode (195 according to Excel) but I suspect that is actually 1 per point per direction in and out so probably wont be quite so many.

 

I did start doing the same for the other end before I realised the track plan I was working from was missing a crossover so need to start that one again!

 

Dale

[dale159]

I've come up with a logic table for the diode matrix

 

 

Each column represents each point motor in normal and reverse and each row all the entry in the top half and exits in the bottom half. I went across all possible routes using the track plan in the post above and entered a "1" in each cell where a diode would be needed to work the point in that direction to set a route. Numbers along the bottom of the tables are total diodes into each motor and those up the side of each table are total diodes on each wire.

 

Its a bit easier to read from the Excel actual spreadsheet rather than this screenshot of it, so I'll attach that as well. To read the table I found it easiest to highlight a row from entry and exit halves and then work across the columns and where a 1 appears in the column against both rows you've highlighted then that point will throw

 

You will see a few 1s have been highlighted in red, initially I had been concerned that when setting a route from E straight down the middle to either P,Q or R the system would fall apart and certain points would be requested to be worked in both directions a once. As it turns out that concern has proven to be unfounded but what has happened is setting the route from E to P,Q or R will throw the 3 way point at 10 & 11 as well as 21 both off the central route which isn't a problem in itself unless another route is set either side of the central road.

 

I wondered if wiring all the 3 way points into their own mini-matrixes giving left, right and centre outputs, another thought was to fit the diodes to 13/14 the opposite way round to the rest, essentially moving button E inside the centre exit of the point, but I've not sat down to properly work out how that would affect the other routes to roads L,M,N,S,T&U. More head scratching required!

 

Dale

 

Diode Logic Table.xlsx

[dale159]

21 hours ago, dale159 said:

Snip -- another thought was to fit the diodes to 13/14 the opposite way round to the rest, essentially moving button E inside the centre exit of the point.

 

I've had a think about this and I think by just reversing the polarity of the diodes which set these points straight ahead onto a separate button I shall refer to as E2 will do the trick without having any effect on any of the other routes.

 

Dale 

[dale159]

Hello again,

 

Some pics from the last week

 

I realised I couldn't actually start on the diode matrix until all the point work for it had been laid.

 

 

The track plan had a small right point but I changed it for a left curve as it flowed better into roads 11 and 12 bottom left of above photo

 

 

Fiddle Yard (tidied as well!)

 

Over to the station I said previously I was going to use Hornby platforms re-clad with brick plasticard sides and card or plastic top, one island needed the platform sections to be narrowed by about 5mm to fit between the front 2 tracks

 

 

Having tried to cut a platform piece down on my desk with a steel rule, Stanley knife and razor saw I decided a jig was required for a production run of 9 more.

 

 

Completed platform in place, I will use Peco end ramps which are straight rather than the curved Hornby equivalents.

 

 

Not perfect but only there as a basic structure, glued back together underneath and up the join at each end with a hot glue gun.

 

Some track has also been laid round the final corner so I now have 2 complete circuits the next job will be to work these into the other end of the liftout board.

 

Dale