Brixington Town 2.0

[MattWallace]

Matt,

 

I don't intend on using a computer based DCC control system as I want the layout to work on analogue too so I would say it needs to have a conventional control panel, I currently have a Dynamis but I am looking into something a bit bigger, I like the look of the ESU ECoS controller but I've not seen one in the flesh or had a chance to play with one. Whilst about half of my stock is DCC my fellow modelers, who's stock may put in an appearance, do not run DCC at all.

 

I have a fair few DMUs which I like to be able to run in multiple so I am slowly converting modifying them to have independently controlled tail lights so I can switch off lights on coupled cabs, so far the Dynamis is the only controller I've used with which its easy or even possible to set up a consist and the lights. The local club has a Prodigy Advance II on which it doesn't seem to be possible to adjust the functions between trigger and latching so to use F2 which is set to trigger I have to continuously press the button letting go turns the lights off.

 

Hi Dale,

 

Yeah, the requirement to run DC pretty much rules out computer control I think.  I don't believe that the MERG kit that I use has the ability to do DC, just DCC.  It's a shame, because the last time I look the ECoS was between £500 and £700 where as my MERG setup cost me less than £200 and JRMI will allow you to configure the throttles/consists/etc. however you want!  I wonder if there's a case to be made to MERG about adding DC control (no idea how you'd do it myself!) ?

 

Baseboards are looking great, can't wait to see you getting some track down and playing trains starting to model a railway...

 

Cheers,

 

Matt

[dale159]

More odd jobs from this week

 

But things are starting to progress at last.

 

On Wednesday I visited the local B&Q store and spend the £60 worth of vouchers I got for my birthday and some cash. 9 sheets of 9mm MDF, 1 6x2 sheet and the remaining 8 are 4x2s and a couple of bags of panel pins.

 

On Thursday I popped into town to the local hardware store and bought almost there entire stock of M8 wing nuts and some large washers, all they had, to fit to just under half those on the layout with and order at said store for the rest which will be collected on Friday.

 

Each board joint requires 8 washers for the 4 bolts, so being as I had 4 left over when I'd equipped 3 board joints I used them on the bolts which will retain the lifting section, removing the front timber in order to fit the bolts in from the back.

 

I have used the 6x2 sheet to make the top surfaces for the 2 rear corner boards, given their shape they were placed as pictured while I roughly marked a line through the unused area between them.

 

Out came the jigsaw and the sheet was cut broadly in two.

 

Then I measured the shape of the frame on the MDF a bit more accurately.

 

Surfaces nailed and PVA'd to the frames, I then squared off the narrow ends so they could be bolted back together

 

And photographed

 

At this point the light started fading so I pulled the garage door down and decided to just concentrate on one board

 

And so here it is, the first completed board with top surface, the butchery of the MDF taking out that 45 degree angle is not pretty in places but it does the job.

 

Next job on Friday will be make a similar job of the opposing corner board. And finally be rid of the bikes having mended the shed windows at last, if the materials to do the job have been delivered by then.

 

Dale 

[MattWallace]

looks great

[dale159]

Plodding Steadily Along

 

Another hour or so spent in the garage this afternoon

 

This morning I went back down to the local hardware store to collect the remaining washers I'd ordered and fitted them in the required places.

 

While I was out there I finished what I started at the weekend which was removing the excess MDF from the left hand corner board.

 

Overview of the two finished boards, the toolbox does not support the joint it just happens to fit there snugly with about a millimeter to spare.

 

Close up of the joint between the two.

 

As you can see the two bikes are still in situ, I am awaiting on a delivery of some polycarbonate sheets to repair the windows in our shed as mentioned previously, annoyingly until this is done the bikes will stay where they are which in turn prevents me from fitting surfaces to the remaining boards.

 

Dale.

[dale159]

Why didn't I think of that last time?

 

Popped out to the garage this afternoon, when it occurred to me that there was nothing preventing me surfacing the two front corner boards

 

First of the 4x2 sheets put to use.

 

Excess bits removed, the excess from this and the other front corner will be used to surface the two halves of the lifting section and the two exhibition width expansion pieces.

 

One slight problem which raised its head was this screw, I knew it was close to the edge but when I cut off the excess i also removed a bit more wood from the 45 degree piece which exposed the side of the screw thread, I tried to use a larger screw but in the end I decided that because the board was fairly sturdy to just leave it without one.

 

Right hand corner and half the lifting section test fitted

 

Two extra expansion boards surfaced

 

Completed front section viewed from either side

 

Joint gaps left, centre and right viewed from the outside.

 

For some reason the board joint on the right is quite large, although I believe that one or more of the main boards is twisted. This should rectify itself when they are surfaced, if not and i'm still left with a larger gap than the others then some head-scratching will be required, at the moment the nut and bolt just seems to bow the framework rather than pulling the two closer together

 

Completed lifted section hanging on the wall.

 

Dale.

[Steve O.]

From that last photo :

 

...and a lot of Lima, Hornby and Bachmann ready to go!

[class"66"]

Looks very nice build!! wil watch this  

[dale159]

Thanks for your replies folks. Its time to -

 

Curse my dodgy carpentry!

 

Been out to the garage again this morning to do some head-scratching with the fitting of the lifting section.

 

Firstly I measured the lifting section, it should be 1m wide. All was good at the outer edge but at the inner edge it was about 99cm.

 

I decided to remove the two front corners and lay them on the floor and bolt the lifting section between them.

 

Then measured the total length along the inside edge, as stated in post number 1 the layout should be 2320mm wide, so somewhere I have lost nearly 2cm.

 

I fitted the inside bolt with two washers between the corner board and lifting piece at both ends.

 

This leaves me with a gap of about 5mm at the inner edge although its nearer 3mm where the inside track will cross this joint.

 

I also discovered that the inner ends of the lifting piece's two halves are not square, but this just means that the joint between them is on a slight diagonal. The outside edge is the left hand side of both the above pictures.

 

I also fitted an extra washer on each bolt between the two halves of the lifting piece.

 

I have managed to get within half a centimetre of where I should be with the overall width, after fitting it all back together where it should go I decided that the extra washers on the inner bolts at the ends were unnecessary so they were removed.

 

Dale

[MattWallace]

Well, your baseboard has a cover on it, what are you waiting for? Start laying Track!

 

I've had to start laying track becuase I can't afford the £64 for the next box of flexi at the moment...

[dale159]

Well, your baseboard has a cover on it, what are you waiting for? Start laying Track!

 

I admire your enthusiasm but have you read the bottom paragraph of post 29 Matt? I need to shift the bikes first but at the moment there is nowhere else for them to go, the handlebars are just fouling the framework so putting the top surfaces on the main boards is not an option until they have gone.  Also when I do start track laying it will be from the middle of the middle board outwards rather than the corners in order to keep the fiddle yard as symmetrical as possible.

 

One other thing, I was planing to use code 75 track all the way around but I've since discovered that Peco only do a symmetrical 3 way point (of which my fiddle yard plan as posted a few weeks ago requires eight) in code 100, so I will also have to convert between code 100 and 75 in various places as well.

 

Dale

[dale159]

Good news,

 

Shed finally fixed, I've got 2 shifts that finish at midday tomorrow and Friday, the folks are off to Spain for a fortnight leaving me behind with a week of annual leave next week so I am hoping for some good Layout progress.

 

Watch this space.

 

Dale

[dale159]

Jobs starting to stack up

 

Having finally fixed the shed, I am now able to direct more attention towards layout building.

 

Keeping the thought of exhibiting the layout in mind I am currently working on a method of transporting it.

 

My plan is to make several of these, which will be fitted at the ends of each board, I also intend to cut some sort of hand shaped carrying hole.

 

To avoid damaging any of the rail ends the carrying boards will not actually touch the layout boards, they will be spaced using these bed headboard washers, I ordered 60 and the nice company in Banbury sent 62!

 

On the corner boards one of the carriers just bolts into the holes which join it to the next board, on the straight boards this will work at both ends but on the corners I have had to drill some extra holes on the outer ends.

 

The completed job apart from the hand holes.

 

I've also surfaced the first of the main boards, excess still to cut off once the glue has dried, job for tomorrow afternoon I suspect.

 

Dale

Edited September 19, 2013 by dale159

[dale159]

Having teased you all at the end of the last post promising lots of progress with a week off work.

 

The task in hand for my week of is to finish surfacing all the boards, with the six mains boards being all that is outstanding.

 

First board surfaced, I have also changed the order, this being the board with 4 legs it was in the middle of the three it will has now moved up to the end as this makes positioning much simpler.

 

Right hand side complete

 

With the right hand side complete I turned my attention to the left hand side with the glue drying on the next board as I type. I only have space down the middle of the garage to do one board at a time on the rug and ideally they need to be left overnight to dry out completely so I by the end of Thursday I should have finished the other 2.

 

As for a track plan, I have been playing on XtrkCAD and have concluded that it is only realistically possible to have two tracks entering and leaving these scene at each end, which will of course have to be dead centre in order for the scenic board rotation to work correctly.

 

I don't want to overcrowd my track plan but in the same token I don't want it to be too sparse, so far I have a 4 platform half relief station with 2 through roads and 2 bays with 2 carriage/DMU sidings long enough for 3 vehicles and a few crossovers, but that is by no means finalized. Platforms in the station are just over 5 feet which is just over half an HST.

 

XtrkCAD diagram of what is explained above. I feel it could have a little more added without overcrowding it but I'm not sure where.

 

If anyone has any other ideas for a track plan I'm open to ideas, the only specifics are the space of 3600mm x 600mm and that the tracks must be spaced the same at both ends for the board rotation to work.

 

Dale

[dale159]

More Stacking

 

I have surfaced another board meaning only one left to do, and whilst waiting for glue to dry on the board frames I have been working on a few more of the stacking pieces.

 

Working on the theory that I have an even number of boards which are all of a uniform size boards will stack with those from the opposite side of the layout

 

The two back corners stacked

 

Next I tackled the lifting section and the two expansion boards, all 4 of these are 50cm in length so I figured that if I bolted the two expansion pieces together I would then have a 1 metre long piece to bolt to the lifting section, itself made up of 2 50cm boards.

 

As such, I was working outside but I had to quickly chuck it all back in the garage due to some British weather!

 

More tomorrow.

 

Dale

[dale159]

Framework Complete

 

You may have noticed that the thread title has changed again, and here's why.

 

 

The completed framework pictured this morning.

 

While I was out there I did a bit of measuring for the fiddle yard.

 

Now that the framework is complete I am going to paint each of the board frames jet black, just been and bought a suitable tin.

 

I have also ordered an enormous 12 metre by 1 metre roll of 1/16 cork which will arrive next week and I will try and fit next weekend once all the frames are painted.

 

Dale

Edited September 27, 2013 by dale159

[Danemouth]

Dale,

 

I have a garage layout and wish I had that sort of space available!

 

I assume the garage door will be sealed at the bottom before the autumn really sets in

 

Regards,

 

Dave

[dale159]

I assume the garage door will be sealed at the bottom before the autumn really sets in

 

Hi Dave,

 

I assume you are talking about potential weather ingress under the door? There isn't a huge gap at the bottom of the door, only 4-5mm, there is also a small drain just outside the door. 

 

As for insulation, The wall on the right (of the top photo of my previous post) adjoins the house and behind the plywood wall is some thick foam insulation boards. The wall on the left adjoins next doors garage through a solid breeze block wall so therefor track expansion and contraction shouldn't be too much of a problem.

 

Dale.

[Danemouth]

Dale,

 

I was thinking more of the draft cutting across your feet. I've lined the door with thick silver foil insulation and as I don't need it as an exit sealed it up with thick polythene. You can see part of the door in the background here

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/66420-danemouth-mk-2/?p=900816

 

We've just changed the long curtains in our living room so I've grabbed the old curtains and will hang them across the door.

 

 

Regards,

 

Dave

[dale159]

Hi Dave,

 

Unfortunately for me the up and over door is the only access I have to the garage as on the other side of the wall to the house is the staircase.

 

Dale

[Danemouth]

Hi Dale,

 

The insulation is stuck with gaffer tape to the door so it can be used - the polythene is what stops it opening as its attached to the door posts. It's just I found the metal door cold in winter.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

[dale159]

Well, not much in the way of progress to report since the last update 3 weeks ago.

 

Most of the cork pieces have been cut to size from the big roll I ordered, However while discussing with a friend he suggested I should paint the top surfaces before I glue the cork down as the MDF will soak up most of the glue before I can put the cork down, especially as I'm doing each board with a single piece of cork.

 

Given that I had the afternoon off work today I thought I ought to do something to the layout so I nipped up to B&Q for a tub of grey emulsion.

 

The second corner board has yet to be painted as I tried to glue a piece of cork straight to the MDF, I wasn't happy with the result so I had to peel it off but the MDF will need sanding down before it can be painted. Hopefully a job for tomorrow afternoon, after another early turn!

 

Dale

[dale159]

Had nothing else to do this evening, so I've been out and given a second coat to everything I painted earlier and a first coat to the other remaining pieces that weren't treated earlier, second coat for those tomorrow afternoon.

 

Dale 

[dale159]

More Painting and Decorating

 

As I said yesterday today's job was more painting

 

First I gave a second coat of grey to the few pieces that only got one yesterday

 

Then I turned my attention to the side of the boards, a nice shade of jet black.

 

I've only painted the bits I can see, tomorrow I will dismantle everything and do in between the boards and around the back.

 

The pieces I painted a few weeks back will also get another coat, I had done them with an old based paint but on everything else I have used emulsion which is much nicer to work with. A coat of the emulsion should bring them into line with everything else.

 

Dale

[sml1983]

Had a thought whilst reading your posts.  Would a simpler way to make the layout be to make 1 1/2 layouts at the same time. Basically make the scenic and fiddle yards as two separate concerns then have two different versions of each end pieces, one for at home and another for exhibition.

Done this way would mean that you'd have better viewing at home, easier wiring and possibly more reliable running?

 

[dale159]

Had a thought whilst reading your posts.  Would a simpler way to make the layout be to make 1 1/2 layouts at the same time. Basically make the scenic and fiddle yards as two separate concerns then have two different versions of each end pieces, one for at home and another for exhibition.

Idea 1.jpg

Idea 2.jpg

Done this way would mean that you'd have better viewing at home, easier wiring and possibly more reliable running?

I think I understand what you're saying and I like the idea, will try and get my head around what I would actually need to do to achieve it tomorrow.

 

Dale