Oakingham

[Simon G]

Retirement early this year has finally given me the time to build my own layout.  My father built one 45 years ago for me and my 3 brothers, and I have all the stock that ran on that, plus a lot more.  The layout will be in OO gauge, and use Code 100 track so that the old locos will run on it.  Board size will be 8 foot by 4 foot, but I do plan to have a removable 3 foot by 1 foot fiddle yard as well.  Control will be switchable between DC and DCC, as I have locos of both kinds.  I want to be able to have continual running, but also a shunting capability.  To allow for small locos to shunt slowly, the points will be electrofrog as far as possible.  Track and points will both be Peco, as I already have the Peco point motors and Peco switches for the electrofrog points.

 

The layout needs to be portable, so the main 8 by 4 board will be split into three sections, at suitable points.  I have purchased the 8 by 4 board in 6mm ply, and plenty of 2 by 1 to make three solid sections to the baseboard.  I plan to join the sections with dowels for accurate location, then coach bolts to secure them together.  I am currently  in the process of assembling the proposed layout on the board, using track and Peco point templates, to determine the best positions to cut the board into the 3 sections.

The layout will be called Oakingham (an early name for Wokingham, where I was brought up), but will not be limited to any specific region or period, as I have a wide variety of locos to run on it!  Wokingham used to be a double track through line and short sidings for shunting, although the sidings have long since been removed.

I have used Anyrail to create a draft layout plan, and have used a Hornby prototype plan, but modified it to eliminate 1st radius curves, replace a diamond crossing with a double slip to improve flexibility, and also to replace a number of the Set-track curved turnouts, as they are only available in insulfrog.

My draft track plan is shown below:

 

 

The sidings will all be fitted with isolating sections, to allow a train to run in, uncouple, and then another loco be able to take it back out again.  Uncoupling will be manual.  The road going off the board on top left will be to the additional fiddle yard.

 

Due to my space restrictions, one Set-track turnout remains (to the extreme left), but I wont be shunting at dead slow speeds just there, so running should be OK.  I am debating with myself to replace the first set of points in the main yard area (next to the double slip) with a three-way set of points, which would give longer sidings.  Any views on the workability of a three-way point there are welcome!

 

[emt_911]

Hi Simon. I'm looking forward to seeing this develop

[Simon G]

Well, for various reasons the layout has not progressed very quickly over the past 4+ years!  The track was laid some time ago, and the electric points and all the board wiring completed.  It has now taken me some time to construct the control panel, but it is now well underway.

 

The layout plan is now slightly different to that above, so I will upload the as-built version.  Rightly or wrongly, I have tried to maximise space in the goods yard by using a three way point.  As I was building it, I also became conscious that the access road into the yard is one set of points after another.  I did try to see if I could alter this, but in the end decided not to.  The points are all electrofrog, so slow speed running to and from the yard will hopefully not be an issue.  

 

All the sidings have isolation switches, with some having two.  The outer loop avoiding line has two separate isolating sections, so two short trains can be held in it.  There are also isolating sections on both inner and outer loops in the station area.  This is to help with trains entering and leaving the sidings on the top of the layout, and also the outer avoiding line.

 

The control panel is very "busy", with a lot of point and isolation switches in a small space.  This has made the wiring and soldering of the switches a bit of a challenge.  How successful I have been has yet to be seen.  The switching of the system between DC and DCC is being done in a small separate panel.  The same panel also houses switches to allow the yard to operate either using its own dedicated controller, or to allow either the inner or outer loop controllers to operate the yard, so that trains entering and leaving dont have to switch controllers.  

 

I have a homemade CDU, using Brian Lambert's simple circuit.  It seems to work well, but I havent tested how quickly the capacitor recharges to allow another point to be thrown.

 

Hopefully more to follow soon!

 

 

[jamie92208]

Reference the tailplane cracks on VC10's. They were the first aircraft that my brother flew for BOAC. He always liked the aircraft and told me a story about thectail replacement programme. There was a programme to strengthen the taiplanes and it was a slow process. Someone suggested that they needed a spare tailplane so that one could becworked on whilst another was replace but none existed. Then an engineer remembered the one that was hijacked to Dawson's field in Jordan.  The tailplane looked intact. A scheme was hatched and eventually  a C130 flew, I think from Egypt, with a load of engineers on board. Theclanded in the desert, removed the tailplane and took it back to London. The replacement  programme then speeded up and planes weren't out of service for long as swapping a tailplane was a fairly quick progress.

 

Jamie

[PeterBB]

Simon, enjoy reading about your walks and trust that they keep you free from Civid while giving you enjoyment.  Hope your track laying modification goes well as warm water will normally sort out PVA very quickly.  My main layout, Rothleigh, is about to be dismantled as space has made it impossible to complete.  Appoklogies too for missing your 70th on the basis that you retired at 65.

 

Cheers, Peter BB

 

PS Interesting comment from Jamie re VC10s - few to Cnada and back in one - very pleasant flights.

[Simon G]

The control panel and a separate panels of switches is now all complete, and everything works as it should, which is nice.  By using diodes, I can set the three way point correctly when setting the points for any of the 4 yard roads on the right on the layout.  Likewise the track feed to the double slip is controlled by the points on the outer track leading into the yard, ie the double slip is powered by the inner controller most of the time, except when the road is set for a train to enter or leave the yard to/from the outer loop.  I am pleased with how it works.

 

I am less pleased with some of my track work.  Most of my locos can go round both loops OK, but some have problems.  In particular, I have 2 Bachmann class 37s, and both struggle to get round the curves.  My Bachmann 44 and 57 have no such problems!  On careful checking, the curve radius isn’t consistent all way round on one quadrant which is where the main problem is.  I think I will have to try and lift the track and make the curve radius consistent.  As the track is held in place with PVA, a little warm water will allow me to lift as much or as little as I need, as Peter suggests.

 

Peter, I was lucky to retire at 60 and 6 months, so have just reached state pension age, not the big 70!

[PeterBB]

Simon, sorry about that, retirement seems to be a moveable feast.  SWMBO had to wait longer because of the changes but, as she says I have retired three times.  The first from the NHS as a result of cuts, the second at 67 from teaching (they cut out the courses when external funding was removed) and finally as a staff member at 74 as the Red Cross needed to focus on refugees and supportive service although still a volunteer.

 

Hope your track work 'repair' proves not too onerous.