Leyland MRC 00 Main Line/Quarry - Up and Running!

[Jack374]

This is the thread for a new - as yet unnamed - 00 gauge DCC twin track main line layout, constructed by members of Leyland MRC. The layout is of size 17' x 9', and is based in the North West, featuring a station with a bay platform and loop, as well as a quarry area with run round sidings. The quarry is accessed via an incline and a short tunnel underneath the main lines.

 

The time period is variable due to a conflict of interests in the members' stock. Therefore we decided to allow for running from circa-1960 to roughly present day, and depict the layout as a mainline which has seen little infrastructure investment and so not much has changed in the last 50 or so years. Below is a roughly sketched track plan:

The twin track main line has a station with the aforementioned extra lines, as well as a crossover to serve the bay platform, and a quarry line that descends an incline before travelling under the main tracks and branching into two loops, then two short sidings (roughly one loco each). There is a disused line to be installed which once served the quarry from the opposite direction but was mothballed and disconnected, and also a disused and disconnected siding in the station; once a former carriage siding.

Construction of the layout is with 12/9mm ply decks and softwood bracing, as well as softwood legs. The front 'scenic' boards are lowered by around 75mm and foam has been added on top, to raise the tracks and allow for the quarry line to tunnel underneath. Track is Peco code 100 'Streamline', with copperclad and brass screws to add strength to the baseboard joints. DCC Concepts Cobalt point motors have been used on the front boards, with standard solenoid motors to be used in the fiddle yard.

I have been tasked with making a control panel, which is to be made by using LED strip lighting along with a clear plastic control panel front, which is painted green then white once the masking is removed. Here is a test board I constructed:

And the current 'panel, which has been cut and had masking tape added to make a schematic diagram of the layout (currently back to front due to being stuck on the reverse side):

More details of this will follow as I construct it.

 

Many thanks for dropping in and viewing our work. I will make semi-regular updates on progress both at the club and on projects for the layout at home. If you have any questions then please don't hesitate to ask...I imagine I've forgotten a few things!

 

Thanks,

Jack & the LMRC team.

Edited October 9, 2017 by Jack374

[Jack374]

Just a small update this evening to show the painted control panel. The masking tape for the tracks has been removed but the tape around the edge has been left on ready for the white top coat:

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[380John]

That looks a cracker of a panel and an interesting layout plan.

 

Look forward to seeing this develop.

 

All the best with it,

 

John

[Powerhaul 70 Pey]

Looks good Jack and I will be following the progress of this.  The theme sounds great, somewhere in the north west with a station and a quarry.  I am very interested to see how the quarry develops.  Get some Caterpillar 1/87 or 1/76 scale models as they look quite good.  I have a decent collection of these.

[Jack374]

Cheers Peter, we’re quite a way off populating the quarry area with vehicles, but we'll use CAT machinery as you’ve suggested when the time comes.

 

Today I’ve finished painting the control panel, however the first coat of white reacted badly with the green and caused some crazing and blistering, but as this isn’t visible when installed it’s fine. The only noticeable part is a couple of the masked lines have been distorted, but nothing major:

 

Next I’ll drill holes for and mount the switches, then wiring can begin. A piece of ply has been cut to sit behind the plastic front by around 5mm so I’ve got a platform to put the LED strip on. If I can make it work, I’ll mount the switches on this instead, and make it so that the top of the switch 'barrel' is flush with the plastic.

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[Jack374]

Well, this evening a major milestone was reached in that the first train ran all the way around the layout. This honour fell to the "resident" Eurostar, which is owned by both me and a fellow member (as it is a botched set comprising of two end trailer packs), yet has lived at the club for over 3 years.

Things didn’t go smoothly however, as at first there was a short. After checking the usual suspect areas such as copper clad cuts, insulating fishplates on frogs and wiring, it was found that the fiddleyard boards are wired with black as the inner rail colour, which contradicts the rest of the layout! A simple swap of two pairs of wires on the chocolate block, and no short persisted. A dead section with no dropper was rectified, and then the Eurostar tentatively traversed the circuit, without stopping:

 

Some board joints are to be fixed, but shortly scenic work should begin.

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[Jack374]

Tonight has seen a good few laps made of the layout by some of my EWS stock and a rake of ballast wagons. This has brought to our attention a couple of joints and areas which need to be improved before we commence scenic work. Apart from said areas, the layout ran very well, with no major issues with power shortages or 'dead sections' etc..

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[Powerhaul 70 Pey]

Hello Jack. Will you be using any form of underlay or ballasting with the track pinned directly to the board when that time comes?

[Jack374]

Hello Jack. Will you be using any form of underlay or ballasting with the track pinned directly to the board when that time comes?

Hi Peter, we found that the foam took away quite lot of the noise, so we just left the one board that didn’t have foam on without underlay. The track is actually glued to the foam with PVA, as we found track pins had no grip at all. Track will be weathered as the first board has been, then ballasted and weathered again to bed the ballast in.

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[Jack374]

On Monday night we had another successful running session, during which we had both main lines running simultaneously for the first time. I brought along a couple of Virgin multiple units which hadn’t been run for a while; a 'dead' Pendolino and a remotored Voyager. Both ran well but flagged up a couple of poor joints, which were either sorted or earmarked for more major work to be undertaken (one joint needs redoing completely):

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[Wigan Wallgate OO Gauge]

brilliant 

[muddy water]

Looks great!

Any pictures of the 'dead' pendolino front end coupling?

How did you modify the nose?

Have you removed the motor, or is it secretly assisting the 57?

[Jack374]

Thank you both, in answer to muddy water's question, I’ve cut a hole in the front and added a Kadee. The coach was one of a motley collection of 3 dummy end coaches, which were in very poor condition. 2 coaches were salvaged, one of which is these, and another will have a scale depiction of the Dellner coupling added in the recess. More details can be found here on my workbench thread:

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/81813-jacks-modern-image-workbench/?view=findpost&p=2277951

 

Hope this helps,

Jack.

[Jack374]

Last night saw another night of running to iron out any track work issues, but also a start on scenics. The disused line from the quarry sidings to the main line has been added, formed of a few scraps of track. This will be covered in shrubs and bushes eventually, so it doesn’t have to be perfect. We glued it in place last week, and due to the temperature of the room, it still hasn’t set properly!

 

Also a start has been made on the rocks in the quarry. These are clay moulds, which we’ve made over a few months...

Our attention is also turning to a possible water feature on the first painted board (furthest from station), but we’re undecided as to what this will be yet.

 

In other news, I’ve started adding LED strip to the control panel, using double sided sticky tape. I’ll post pictures when I’ve made good progress, but so far about half of the strip has been stuck on, and wires have been soldered to the strips.

 

Thanks for visiting,

Jack.

[Powerhaul 70 Pey]

Looks promising Jack. Can't wait to see some more scenic action.

[Jack374]

Good evening,

 

Another progress update from tonight. The rock and plaster faces along the front of the layout are coming along nicely, and a platform has been created at the station end, on which we can put scenery or buildings. Around the back, a couple of hinged shelves have been added to support the control panel and controller, with Velcro to keep the controller in place. Also a 20-odd pin plug has been installed to provide a connection to the control panel for the points. At the country end, we’ve decided to add a reservoir from clear plastic, which will be installed shortly. Pictures below should explain the recent progress...

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[Powerhaul 70 Pey]

Looks good Jack. I was wondering how you were getting on with this. I had an experiment with a canal test piece using clear plastic and looked quite good so I will keep my eye out for your reservoir progressing. We moved house and the canal idea went out the window.

[Jack374]

Some more progress to report this evening, mostly on the scenics and wiring. The control panel has been finished for the last time, after I decided to make a new front from Perspex as the last one just wasn’t right. The second version has straighter edges and is now crimson as this is Halfords paint, which is the same as the black and white used on the underside, so won’t react due to the paints being from different brands...

The next task with wiring will be to make all the connectors between the boards. The first one has been made and installed (but needs stapling for extra strength), and comprises 8 cores in 2 cables soldered to a computer plug, to allow for a track bus and accessory bus as well as the point wiring:

 

On the scenic front, clay rock moundings and plaster bandages have been used to create the landscape. This has been painted brown for the time being in preparation for grass coverage later on.

 

We’re also remodelling the fiddleyard to make it more efficient and incorporate cassettes onto the quarry line to negate the handling of stock. I’ll post more details on the cassettes and fiddleyard when we’ve made some progress. For now we’ll be plodding on with the connectors and preparatory scenic work...it’s not all glamour this railway modelling lark!

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[Jack374]

Evening...

 

Work still continues on the layout, but nothing much can be shown as it’s all really 'preparatory' work for later. On the front of the layout, one of our members has been adding rock walls made of clay and plaster...I’ll take photos of this next week. A couple of us are still slaving away on the connectors between the boards, and the fiddleyard has been partly relaid. I didn’t like the existing one as it wasted lots of valuable space, so both ends have been completely redone. Whilst we were at it, I soldered up some simple cassettes made from copperclad with spare rails and softwood sides. I’ll make a simple dowel system for alignment and power soon. Below are pics of where we’re up to...

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[Powerhaul 70 Pey]

Good stuff Jack. Looking forward to the scenics.

[Jack374]

Cheers Pete...the end of trackwork and wiring is in sight!

 

Work progresses on the wiring, with a few more connectors being made as and when, and currently one of the gang, Dave, is adding the droppers to the fiddleyard after I decided to rejig it a little...needless to say I’m not in his good books!

This is the right hand end pointwork, which has been relaid to allow 5 lines for each running loop and two for the quarry line, instead of 4 for each line as we had originally.

Here is a promised pic of the quarry area, showing the clay rock faces and groundwork undertaken...

And a preview of the station. This will feature road and foot bridges, as well as a booking office on a raised platform supported by columns, which will be in the bottom left corner of the photo...more on this as we develop it...

And a few views of the layout overall from high vantage points (stood on the workbench and a stool respectively!), which give a good idea of the track plan. Paul got caught in action during the photo shoot...

 

More when we get some work done!

Jack.

[7APT7]

Hi Jack

 

Nice start to a new layout and making good progress... you have some good loco's I like the Pendolino being pulled by the class 57 in DRS, looks smart.

 

Jamie

[Jack374]

Apologies for the lack of updates...my attendance has been sporadic during exams at the club, but tonight we had a running session now all the scenic boards are up and wired in properly. The fiddleyard boards are all dismantled and being wired currently.

Firstly a shot of the station area, showing the main structure:

And the control panel, now able to operate all the points:

(It’s not actually purple, it’s maroon...)

Finally a general set of shots to give a flavour of shots possible once the layout is done, with one of Paul's class 40s (he had two, one with sound, but the finescale layout behind ran that one for a bit), and my DRS 57/0...

 

Thanks,

Jack.

[Powerhaul 70 Pey]

Looking good Jack! You could do with some lengthy rakes of wagons behind those locos on them nice curves. What freight trains do you intend to run? Obviously some aggregate trains but any coal, containers, flasks, tanks or anything else in mind go for the mainline?

[Jack374]

...any coal, containers, flasks, tanks or anything else in mind go for the mainline?

Cheers Pete...basically anything we have we’ll run! I’ve got some flasks, containers, China clays and wagons for an enterprise train amongst others, and when we run it in a previous era we can use wagons from other members (early diesels or steam).

 

Thanks,

Jack.