AndrewF

Last weekend we showed High Offley at the Andover MRC's exhibition and got lots of interest. Even though it's just bare boards many people were asking questions about how they are constructed and how the trackwork was made. This is only the second time we have had all 4 boards together. As I mentioned before, the next step is to get some initial wiring done and power to all the track sections. We want to use the MERG CBUS system to control the layout and here you can see some of the section control relays being wired up. This was the state when we started the exhibition on the Saturday morning. Between talking to the many people who showed an interest in the layout I managed to link up power to some of the other section droppers. Not as neet as this, more a sort of black and red spaghetti However, by the end of Sunday we did have something running. The first engine to do a full length run of High Offley. Andrew

Last week was a milestone in our build process, we now have all the track laid across all four scenic boards. It's taken quite a while to get here but we can now see some definate progress towards a running layout. The next stage is to get an inital electrical supply to all the track parts and motorise the turnouts. Then we can actually have some engines running! (Can't wait). Andrew

It's been quite a while since the last update but we haven't been idle. I've been working on the track panels for board 2 and last week we started to fix them in position. Here you can see the panels being fitted and lined up so that they match the track layout on the next board. Because we do not have our own club rooms but meet in the village hall these layout boards have to come apart at the end of each club night. This makes it a bit awkward to build the track, especially over the board joints, so what I do is make the track to cross the joint using copper clad strips for the 2 sleepers either side of the joint. Then, when the panel is finally fitted and stuck down, the track is cut in line with the joint. In the above picture you can see the track finishes short of the board joint. I will make the panels on the next board to cross the joint and meet the track we have just fixed down. Below is the view through the double slip and on to the last board. The end of the near board, where the cross-over is, is where Nick's bridge is going. You may be able to see in the top picture that the front of the layout (left hand side in this view) is much lower than the track level. That is the road level for the under bridge so from the front you will be able to see through the bridge and look at all the detailed work Nick has done to make it look so realistic. (See Nick's earlier post, http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/77373-high-offley-formerly-exchange-sidings/page-2&do=findComment&comment=1638369). We now just have the track on the last board to do and a bit at the other end of the layout where the exchange sidings are. Our plan is for me to make a start on the last board this week and Nick will start on the exchange sidings. We hope to have some regular updates as things move along. Andrew.

Nick and I have been quite busy with more work on High Offley over the last few weeks. Now the summer's over I have been concentrating on the most complex bit of track work, the double outside slip at the southern end of the platform. It took me some time to create the template for this in Templot and has taken even longer to pluck up the courage to start to build it! I've built it by soldering the rail directly to copper-clad as there were, to my mind, too many small pieces of rail in order to use plastic chairs and ply sleepers like the rest of the layout. Using this method certainly made it easy for me to make little tweaks to the track as I was working on it and trying out each section with some rolling stock. Once complete I'll add some cosmetic chairs and Nick assures me that he will be able to disguise it to blend in with the rest of the layout. So, here's a look at the progress so far. I've attached the slip to a large board to make it easier to test it. It has been wired and split into electrical sections so that I can try running an engine through. Here's a close up view of the centre section. The middle 2 rails are the running rails for the outside slips and are isolated from the rest of the track. The wiring is as simple as possible at the moment so that it is easy to test. At our club meeting last night I was trying to get this all working but kept getting a fault when following one particular route but not when using another which involved the same section of track but with the polarity reversed. There wasn't a short and all the individual wire sections checked out OK for continuity. But checking the voltage at the section showed a very low value. Our colleague Mike spotted that it must be the switch and so it was. A brand new switch worked fine when thrown one way but had a fault when thrown the other. Jamming a screw driver blade between the terminals fixed it! So, we finished the night with an engine running back and forth on all routes. Here's a short video of it going through one of them. Still quite a bit to do on getting it running smoothly and cleaning it up but I'm really quite pleased, not to say relived, that it is actually working. Andrew.

Yes, all right, it was me. I was a bit eager to get some track down and forgot to gap the PCB sleepers at the board joint.

Yes, PVA for most of the track. The 2 sleepers closest to the board joints are pcb board with the rail soldered to them. Those sleepers are stuck with contact adhesive. Let's hope it never has to moved!

On Wednesday night at the club I managed to get the first of the track down on the base boards. Not much there as yet and there was no time to rig up some power connections to try it out but at least we have something to show for the past few months work. I have the track panel for the turnout exit made ready to go down so next week I hope to get that down and some more of the cork underlay. And maybe try it out with an engine. Andrew.

Thanks Rich, Wouldn't dream telling you where to go - this is a polite and civilised forum. I agree about keeping the check and wing rails as a rusty colour. Once the track is down and working I'll go over it and touch up those bits. Andrew

Over the last few weeks I've been working on some more of the track panels and have some ready to put down on the baseboards. I've given them a coat of grimey rail colour before they go down and I think the ply wood sleepers look particularly effective. Looking at this close-up it appears there might be a right and wrong way up for these (the second sleeper from the right)! Oh well, it wont be seen once the ballast is down, Just don't go telling anyone. I then gave the track a coat of a rusty colour. I started off with a 'Rusty Rail' colour but thought that was too orange. So I toned it down with about a 3rd of mid-grey (actually LNER Frieght Grey), which has produced a sort of mucky rust colour. Having shown one of the panels to Nick after appling the sleeper colour he did say that it is better to wipe the paint off the top of the rail while it is still wet. He was right, it took me ages to rub the dried paint off! Hopefully we can make a start on getting some of these track sections down this week, or maybe next week - things always seem to take longer than you expect.

I've made a start on the track laying now. I'm building the turnouts on the printed card templates and will then lift them (very carefully!) and transfer them to the baseboards. The track is being constructed to 00-SF standards from C & L components, plastic chairs on wooden sleepers, and a set of 00-SF gauges also from C & L. I think the finer check rail and flangeway gap used in 00-SF makes for better looking track. It certainly runs very smoothly, though I've only tried these with a wagon at present. The more prototypical sleeper spacing also makes a big difference, I think it stops it looking too 'narrow gauge' in the way standard commercial 00 track can do. The posts on this forum and Templot Club from Brian Tully and Martin Wynne, and many other 00-SF modellers, show how effective 00-SF can look and perform, and are what persuaded me to choose 00-SF rather than 00-BF. I also constructed a turnout to 00-BF standards first to try it out and compare against an 00-SF one. Needless to say, the 00-SF one won. 2 more of the turnouts back to back. So far I have 3 of the 4 turnouts required for boards 3 & 4 made. After I have finished the fourth one I’ll make up the board joint-crossing plane track panels and then we can get some track down on those 2 boards. Really looking forward to getting the first track down on the boards.

It has been some time since Nick’s original post and much planning, head scratching and testing of ideas has gone on since then, some at the club and some at The Old Bell and Crown – I’m sure many of you have a similar unofficial meeting place. Anyway, I thought I would update you on what has been going on. During the autumn I produced a track plan of the exchange sidings (using Templot), which evolved over a few months leading up to Christmas time. I printed this out full size from Templot and stuck the pieces of paper to a roll of lining paper. We tried out different combinations of trains and worked out the traffic flow (wish I had taken some shots of Nick on his hands and knees pushing cardboard trains around the layout!), and were almost settled on this; almost, but not quite. Neither Nick nor I were completely happy with it. My own view was that there was too much track which didn’t leave enough space for the scenery. I like to see a railway within it’s setting, whether that be urban or the wilds of the country or the seaside or wherever. As this layout will not be very wide (about 2 feet max) I thought the sidings were taking up too much space. So, back to the drawing board and Nick came up with a simpler plan of a junction on a single track line, with the added interest of an island platform and still a couple of sidings for exchanging wagons from one route to the other. I immediately felt that this was better so it was back to Templot to try out this new plan and see how it would fit within our limits. Below is the revised layout. It is not an uncommon junction layout, Broom Junction for example, but it now allows space at the front and back for setting the scene and giving a feel to the environs of this small junction station. So, again, I printed out the layout full size and stuck it down on lining paper. And we again played with the cardboard trains to get the feel of it and see if all the traffic moves we had thought of were actually possible. Below is the layout on the lining paper and the cardboard trains used to test it. The layout stuck to lining paper. The rule is 1 meter. Cardboard trains to test the layout. In the station is a 6 coupled tender engine and 3 carriages. After 'playing trains' with this layout all evening we are happy with it; the timber requirements have been worked out and are on order, and I am currently working on the track parts list. More news soon. Andrew.