Braeintra - Highlands 1960s (formerly Rectory Lane)

[Rick_Skateboard]

Braeintra

 

Welcome to my layout thread, this will hopefully be a serialization of my attempts to bring an old layout back to life.  If that sounds familiar take a look at this thread by the layout’s previous owner:

After several aborted attempts at building layouts over the past 20 years I though this looked too good to miss when I saw it on eBay.  I bought this layout in January as a “quick” way to get some trains running, and after nearly a year of not quite getting round to it I’m now making a start.  I don’t know the full history of the layout, but it must have been built to be mobile, and it has some nice plaques from the 1990 and 1991 Newcastle model exhibitions.  I also don’t know exactly when it was built, but a date of 1990 is on one of the bits of newspaper paper Papier-mâché under the scenery. 

Evidence of previous exhibition appearances.

 

A brief description; the layout is about 6’ square with an operating well in the middle.  The double track mainline runs around in a circle and a branch line comes off that and climbs up and over the mainlines to a terminus higher up.  The mainlines disappear into a tunnel under the branch line terminus and there must have been hidden loops for stock storage, although at some point it has been plain lined through the tunnel.  There is a shed area and turntable on the inside of the mainline and this has a raised siding for coal wagons.  The track is hand built with rail soldered to copper clad sleepers and is nicely ballasted and weathered.  Point operation is wire in tube and mostly still working, although a couple of the points are damaged one way or another and do not operate.  There were no buildings included in the sale, but the scenery is all intact, although suffering in some places from being over 30 years old!    

An overview of the layout when first installed in its new home.

 

The previous owner had partially rewired the layout for DCC operation, but retained the wire in tube point operation with switches for the frogs.  It is my intention to rewire and fit MP1 point motors all round, with the frogs switched by the motors and a YaMoRC accessory decoder controlling them.  I will initially use my now quite elderly NCE Power Cab controller, but I plan to upgrade this at some point.  The layout will also be connected to my laptop and I am looking at options for automation in the future.  I will re-lay the hidden loops and add a siding in the tunnel so a shuttle can be run up and down from the branch.  

 

It looks like it was designed as a steam era North Eastern layout given that there is a turntable in the shed area and coal drops at the branch line terminus.  The previous owner had modernised the layout and set it in the BR blue era.  It is my intention to put the layout back to steam days, but in the Scottish Highlands rather than the North East.  It will be based on former Highland Railway lines mainly taking inspiration from the Kyle Line and Far North Lines.  I will try to leave the date deliberately vague so I can run various stock from my collection, but it will be mainly 1960s steam/diesel transition era. 

 

I have had a play with some track and points, and a template for the footprint of a shed building to redesign the shed area.  This will be loosely based on the shed at Kyle of Lochalsh, although it won’t be possible to faithfully replicate the track layout due to space constraints.  I also plan to make some changes to the branchline terminus, but the initial focus is getting the hidden sidings sorted and wiring up the mainline to a point where I can run a train around.

Hornby Black 5 44668 trying the turntable out for size.

 

Seeing how many coaches will fit in the platform.

 

Checking the same train will fit in the run round loop.

 

Heljan ScR Park Royal Railbus in the bay platorm.

 

Shed area mocked up as an approximation of Kyle of Lochalsh.

 

That's the plan, so hopefully I'll be able to find time to keep chipping away at it and finally have somewhere for my models to stretch their legs rather than just living in their boxes!

 

Cheers

 

Rick

Edited December 25, 2023 by Rick_Skateboard

[Rick_Skateboard]

So far, I have done some work on the baseboards to repair age related damage, replaced all the fixing bolts and fitted a new leg where one corner wasn’t very well supported.  I have also fitted adjustable feet to the legs and spent some time levelling it up.  It feels a lot sturdier now.  Helpfully the boards under the tunnel are removeable, so I was able to work on them away from the railway room, and in a place where I could make more mess, I was able to remove all the old cork and glue and clean up all the edges.  I have now widened the boards enough to (hopefully) add another siding, and put down a new layer of cork.  These boards are now ready for track laying.  Underneath I have ripped out all the unnecessary wiring and only kept droppers from the rails, which were all continuity tested and can now be attached to a new DCC ring main.

New leg made up with threaded foot (yet to be cut to length!)

 

The lack of width for 5 lines in the hidden sidings is obvious here.  Clockwork Thomas is not impressed.

 

Widened fiddle yard board fitted in place.

 

Fiddle yard boards now covered in cork and ready for track.

 

An alternative future where Braeintra has a Fort William style Sleeper service?

 

Cheers

 

Rick

 

[andytrains]

Looking forward to the development of Braeintra.

Andy.

Edited December 18, 2023 by andytrains

[Rick_Skateboard]

As threatened I have now laid 5 lines in one half of the fiddle yard.  This was always going to be tight, but I think I've just about got away with it.  There are some nasty curves (kinks) that I wouldn't want on the visible part of the layout, but as long as everything runs through them ok I'll live with it.  Some testing will be required, but I need to wire it up and fit the point motors before I can do that.  Once I'm happy it runs ok and all my stock will go round the curves and past things on other lines without making contact I will lay the other half.  Then the all important join between the two halves will have to be tackled so that they line up nicely and everything stays on the rails when crossing the gap.

 

To achieve the transition onto the existing track I cut a piece of copper clad board and glued and screwed it in place at the edge of the fiddle yard board to give something really solid to solder the rails to.  I then took a tip from a friend and used fishplates slid over the heads of the rails to hold them in alignment while soldering them to the copper clad.  This seems to have worked because the board has been in and out a few times now and the rails line up each time.  The track was then pinned down to the fiddle yard board in the normal way, and I drilled the holes for the point motor operating rods before pinning the points down.  I also did what I believe are the standard DCC mods to a Peco electrofrog point.  

 

Copper clad paxolin sleeper checked for size and drilled for countersunk fixings.

 

Copper clad sleeper fixed in place.

 

Rails held in place with fishplates and soldered to the copper clad.

 

Laying the points on the fiddle yard board.  Slightly unfortunate kink to line the inside track up.

 

Five lines in the fiddle yard.  

 

A line-up of more appropriate locos to start testing clearances.

 

That's it for now.  Merry Christmas and thanks for showing an interest.

 

Cheers, Rick.

 

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

Good progress. Will it be ready for an operating session on 31st? 😉

[Rick_Skateboard]

Overdue update.

 

I have now successfully wired up a few sections of track for DCC operation, and motorised one of the points.  To achieve this I had to remove the wire in tube arrangement, and drill a hole up through the baseboard for an operating wire from the point motor.  This is the point from the mainline to the branch, and it was broken anyway, so I decided to repair it and make it the first conversion.  I was planning to save the original tie bar, but I realised I'd probably destroy it while drilling the board, so I made a new one from another piece of copper clad.  I will do that for the rest of the points as I work round them.  

 

Point with wire in tube arrangement and detached switch rail.

Point with new tie bar, drilled for motor operating rod, and both switch rails reattached.

 

Fitting the MTB MP1 motor was very straightforward, and the design of it allows a certain amount of adjustment side to side and front to back, which was very helpful when trying to fit it to an existing layout.  Wiring it up and controlling it with the Yamorc YD8116 was also very easy, and my NCE controller had no issues connecting to the YD8116.  For the wiring I have used Wago connectors and the screw terminals on the MP1, YD8116 and NCE controller, which means it has been totally solderless so far.

 

Wago connector under the board with the bus wire coming in and out, and two rail droppers into the third connection.

I have now run a loco up from the outer mainline and up to the branch via the point, which was quite satisfying.  I'm pleased the first point I have motorised worked well, and I'm fairly confident that I'll be able fit motors to the rest of them now without too much trouble.  My plan is to wire up/motorise the fiddle yard board I have been working on and get the mainlines wired and motorised so that I can do a bit of testing before laying the track in the other half of the fiddle yard to complete the loop.

 

Cheers

 

Rick