Edgworth Park

[60006]

So I'm finally starting another thread for what should hopefully become my main layout. As you may know from my other thread I bought a small layout which is pretty good for taking photographs on but it's not amazing in terms of operational interest as it is very small.

With that said, I wanted to make something a bit bigger to really put my modelling skills (and probably patience) to the test.

 

I decided on a scenic section of 96" x 18" which would be split in to 2 boards with an additional 48" x 18" board for the fiddle yard at one end. 

The name

 

I had an idea of what I wanted to include in the track plan but now it was time to actually see what could realistically fit. After a lot of trial and error and re-jigging things I came up with the plan below.

 

 

 

The right-hand board would contain one end of a station emerging from under a road bridge or some kind of raised street level. It will have 2 main platforms and also a single bay platform for local DMU services.

 

The left-hand board will contain a small depot area with a 2 road fuelling point and also a 3 road shed for general loco/carriage maintenance and repair. The very top left of this board will have a scenic break in it to allow for the trains running through to have "somewhere to go". I'm not sure how large this break needs to be yet as I'm unsure what length the longest train will be. It may also offer an opportunity to extend in to a proper fiddle yard if required later on (but not for now).

 

I intend for the fiddle yard to be a relatively simple traverser but as of yet I'm not sure how to do it. Probably something along the lines of drawer runners I guess.

 

Thanks for looking. Will post a little later tonight showing current baseboard progress.

 

Tom.

[60006]

So the progress so far on the actual building side of things hasn't been much but it's enough to document here I think.

 

Started off this afternoon with a pile of materials like this...

 

 

 

 

And a couple of hours later, due to our bodge it methods we had one board made up.

I also didn't account for the fact that B&Q works in metric now so when I went looking for 4ft boards I was sorely disappointed.

This meant I made a few very slight modifications to the dimensions. It should all hopefully work out in the end though.

 

The next couple of photos show the completed first board. It's not the greatest board ever constructed but it should be fit for purpose.

We'll try and make sure to get the joining edge as good as we can to make sure that the tracks crossing board joins don't have any issues.

Has anyone got some good tips for doing the joins? Is it just a case of some alignment dowels and big bolts to hold them together or is there another way.

 

 

 

 

Thanks again for looking.

 

Tom.

 

[60006]

Quick update from me today.

The second board was finished a couple of days after the first and it seems like they'll work out just fine in terms of fitting together. Still have to decide how I'm doing that though.

Also on the look out for some decent adjustable trestles/legs at a good price.

 

 

 

 

 

Also the track plan has been slightly updated. I decided to try doing it in AnyRail too because of the increased customisation available, including the scenery.

The depot area has lost a road as it was just looking like too much in the area available as I wanted to be able to include a car park area for the depot too.

 

 

 

 

Hopefully some physical progress on the layout in the not too distant future. I've got next weekend off work and I'm looking in to any exhibitions I may be able to get to. Leeds is looking like a favourite at the moment.

 

Thanks for looking,

Tom.

[shreives]

Looks like a great start to me. I will be following with great interest as i am also running n gauge dcc . What system will you be using if you don't mind my asking ?

Stuart

[60006]

Looks like a great start to me. I will be following with great interest as i am also running n gauge dcc . What system will you be using if you don't mind my asking ?

Stuart

Thanks Stuart!

 

Right now I don't have a DCC system. I got rid of my Dynamis a while back after realising some of the limitations. I plan on getting the system as near enough the last thing. Right now I've been looking at the NCE Power Cab but no solid decisions for now.

 

Tom.

[shreives]

Hi tom a wise move I think . I did have a dynamis but I had so many problems with it so it went in to a box never to see daylight again. I have got the nce powercab it's great controller and I still haven't even started to use all the functions on it. What time period are you looking at stock wise ?

Stuart

[MattWallace]

MERG DCC Kits all the way for me - you have to be prepared to solder them together, but the ability to use either a hand-held cab (similar to the NCE PowerCab in design) or a PC/Laptop/Raspberry-Pi with android/iOS devices for controllers wins every time.

 

I just ordered a load of DCC-compatible train-on-track dectors for £1.50 each as well as some "point-direction detectors" (£0.83 each) and the circuit required to link them back into the computer control (£12) - this means that I should shortly have a full DCC layout with the following features for under £250:

• Full DCC Control of all locomotives (potentially 9999 locos although I'll never get that far!) including sound decoders
• Full routing and interlocking of all point-work
• Block detection
• "Wireless" controllers of all locos and routes via just about any Android phone/tablet

Note that the £250 *includes* the cost of the raspberry pi!

 

MERG membership is circa. £18/year but for the amount you save on other stuff it's well worth it!

 

Matt

[60006]

Right now most of my stock is pretty modern (Schenker liveried 60,66,67s etc) but I plan on being able to run anything from late 80's onwards even if I don't own anything from that period right now. My oldest locos in terms of time periods are my 60s. I have a few so they have to be catered for. =)

 

Tom.

[60006]

MERG DCC Kits all the way for me - you have to be prepared to solder them together, but the ability to use either a hand-held cab (similar to the NCE PowerCab in design) or a PC/Laptop/Raspberry-Pi with android/iOS devices for controllers wins every time.

 

I just ordered a load of DCC-compatible train-on-track dectors for £1.50 each as well as some "point-direction detectors" (£0.83 each) and the circuit required to link them back into the computer control (£12) - this means that I should shortly have a full DCC layout with the following features for under £250:

• Full DCC Control of all locomotives (potentially 9999 locos although I'll never get that far!) including sound decoders
• Full routing and interlocking of all point-work
• Block detection
• "Wireless" controllers of all locos and routes via just about any Android phone/tablet

Note that the £250 *includes* the cost of the raspberry pi!

 

MERG membership is circa. £18/year but for the amount you save on other stuff it's well worth it!

 

Matt

 

 

Thanks for that Matt, definitely something to consider. Is it easy enough to set up or is there some prior knowledge needed would you say?

 

Like I said though, I won't be making the decision any time soon. Can't afford to throw money at this layout all at once, unfortunately.

 

Tom.

[MattWallace]

Thanks for that Matt, definitely something to consider. Is it easy enough to set up or is there some prior knowledge needed would you say?

 

Like I said though, I won't be making the decision any time soon. Can't afford to throw money at this layout all at once, unfortunately.

 

Tom.

Hi Tom,

 

It's very easy to setup, excellent instructions on how to solder what to where, professionally printed circuit boards to solder on to and a very supportive community of experts.

 

As far as the costs are concerned, at the moment to prices to get started would be as follows:

 

Non-computer control:

 

1 x DCC Command Station with CBus Interface (£26.80)

1 x CANCAB Handset for DCC Command Station with CBUS Interface (£37.80)

 

Computer Controlled:

 

1 x DCC Command Station with CBus Interface (£26.80)

1 x CANUSB USB->CBUS Interface (£30.00)

 

Either of the above would get you driving trains around your layout and provide you with the basis to expand with some of the following kits:

 

4 channel Pulse Motor Driver (£17.50) - control up to four solenoid point motors

4 channel steady-state point motor driver (£15.75) - control up to four servo-style point motors

8 channel layout feedback device (£12.00) - recieve feedback from up to 8 devices including points (which way they are thrown), block detection etc etc etc

DCC Train Dectector (£1.50) - detects train on track through voltage drop and can be used with the above feedback device

DCC Turnout Position Sensor (£0.83) - connects to above and allows for detection of turnout positions even when using the switches on the point motors for frog-switching

 

I started with the CANCMD and CANUSB and built up from there...

 

Matt

[60006]

Very brief update for tonight.

 

Been out to a couple of model shops today. Disappointed slightly as one was shut (I'll go back tomorrow) and the other didn't have any Peco Code 55 track (although I did get a few other nice bits and pieces).

Also bought some cork today so I've started cutting that to shape. Will try and get back to the other shop tomorrow to get some track to start with and carry on with the cork.

 

Couple pictures of one of todays purchases. A nice articulated lorry made by Wiking.

N Gauge modern era vehicles seem hard to come by outside of Japan, or Germany.

 

 

 

 

Obviously it'll need repainting at some point but it's a very nice model. Very happy with it.

Thanks for looking,

Tom.

[60006]

So, today I was starting to do some work on cutting out the cork for underneath the track when I realised I was getting sick of putting the boards on my bed to work on.

I decided I needed to do something about legs. I had been looking around a few weeks ago at trestles from various places but hadn't committed to anything.

During my research I found Wickes do cheap trestles which were still rated as fairly good. Some complaints of poor manufacturing but I decided to go for it.

 

Popped in to my local Wickes and picked up the only 3 they had. On returning home we went from this:

 

To this:

With an absolute minimum of blue language or injuries.

 

They're not the highest quality when you're putting them together (some of the box section is twisted and brackets are bent over). But it's nothing a bit of brute force can't solve.

 

This now means I can now adjust the layout to any position which I feel is comfortable to work with. 

I intend to cut out some more cork tonight and finish printing out the rest of the track plan in 1:1 as the printer ink has also arrived.

 

Over the weekend I should be going to both Leeds Model Railway Exhibition on Saturday and a "Train and Toy Collectors Fair" on Sunday at Haydock Park.

 

Thanks for looking,

Tom.

 

[60006]

One last post for tonight, promise.

 

I realised I hadn't had the layout plan fully laid out on the boards so I decided to do that. Also placed a varied bit of stock out to get a sense of scale.

 

 

 

Must say it's quite exciting seeing it set up like that. Must get cracking now.

 

Tom.

[60006]

Brief update tonight. Over the weekend I put down the cork which I'm using in hopes of providing some form of sound dampening.

 

 

Not sure how effective it will be. As you can see I didn't really keep it very tidy as it'll all be scenic'd over eventually.

I also moved the entire plan up the board slightly to give a bit more room at the "front" to make sure nothing could fall off in a worst case scenario.

 

Visited Leeds Exhibition over the weekend which was very good. Some quality layouts and traders there. It was in a very impressive setting too. Grammar schools are nice!

Made a few too many purchases which I may or may not show in the next few weeks as my wallet is still reeling from the experience.

 

Lastly, we have some track (all the flexi and 3 points) on the way so maybe I'll get to lay some track before I leave for 10 days in France next week.

 

Thanks for reading,

Tom.

[aac]

So, today I was starting to do some work on cutting out the cork for underneath the track when I realised I was getting sick of putting the boards on my bed to work on.

I decided I needed to do something about legs. I had been looking around a few weeks ago at trestles from various places but hadn't committed to anything.

During my research I found Wickes do cheap trestles which were still rated as fairly good. Some complaints of poor manufacturing but I decided to go for it.

 

Popped in to my local Wickes and picked up the only 3 they had. On returning home we went from this:

 

To this:

With an absolute minimum of blue language or injuries.

 

They're not the highest quality when you're putting them together (some of the box section is twisted and brackets are bent over). But it's nothing a bit of brute force can't solve.

 

This now means I can now adjust the layout to any position which I feel is comfortable to work with. 

I intend to cut out some more cork tonight and finish printing out the rest of the track plan in 1:1 as the printer ink has also arrived.

 

Over the weekend I should be going to both Leeds Model Railway Exhibition on Saturday and a "Train and Toy Collectors Fair" on Sunday at Haydock Park.

 

Thanks for looking,

Tom.

I use 5 of the Wickes' telescopic stands and find them great for a working height at 3 notches up, putting track level about a metre above the floor. I reckon that for a final operating height I'll probably go up another 2 notches, but they are strong and do the job (other brands are available, but for adjustability versus price, they are good). I see you are considering DCC controllers. Setting out on DCC in the last year, I've gone for a Prodigy Express and that is great too. A few days ago a non-DCC friend wanted to see how well it controlled more than one loco at a time and we had 4 moving around, following each other, heading towards each other and then backing away, etc. So, both with the stands and my DCC control, I'm happy for the time being. Good luck.  

[60006]

Quick update from me today. Managed to get an hour or so outside to do some work on the boards.

Fitted 2 pairs of alignment dowels and also drilled holes for some bolts to fasten the boards together.

I had originally not wanted to use bolts as it can be slow and awkward to get it all connected but I decided the safety and security won over against the speed.

 

 

I started laying some track down in the depot area and will continue to do so when I get chance.

 

Also on the list of things to do:

-Cut PCB strips for board joins (need to find a way to do that without a dremel)

-Start drilling holes for wiring the layout

 

Along with a few other bits and pieces.

 

Thanks for looking.

Tom.

[60006]

Merry Christmas to all!

 

Hope you all got what you wanted and have had/are having a good time.

 

Santa was good to me and brought me something I didn't even realise I needed until now. A stock box.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom.

[matt-b]

Nice range of models you got there.

I like the Northern theme

 

Matt

[Ralph]

did that box come fully stocked ?? nice storage & a cracking fleet you have, look forward to seeing the plans move to operating status.

[60006]

Thanks chaps. Unfortunately it didn't come fully stocked. Imagine if it had.

 

I can't wait to get to an operational state on the layout either. Hopefully in the new year work will calm down a bit and I can crack on.

 

Tom.

[matt-b]

Do you plan to weather your stock?

 

Matt

[60006]

Do you plan to weather your stock?

 

Matt

 

Eventually, yes. I haven't done any of it myself yet though. I intend to start learning that once I've got the layout in a somewhat reasonable state.

I'd love to be able to modify and weather a lot of my own models. When you see so many brilliant peoples work on a site like this it really gives you big ideas.

I've got a list as long as my arm of stuff I'd like to do (NGF Windhoff MPV, Network Rail 150, PHD improved Class 90, Modern Image Models Plasser 09 Tamper...and more).

Unfortunately though it's all a case of time and money which are both a little bit lacking right now.

The only weathered model I've got is the DB Schenker 60 which was resprayed and weathered by Mercig Studios from a Mainline blue version a few years ago (before Farish announced the RTR version).

 

Tom.