Vonzack

Hi, Here's a pic of one of the converted Code 55 turnouts for our layout. I've removed the spring (which keeps the point blades in position) as we are using slow action motors, isolated the turnout blades from the frog (using a jeweller's saw) and tied the blades to the stock rails electrically. Finally I've added pickups to the frog and stock rails. We've also been discussing how we can better protect the rail ends when the boards are being put up or taken down, basically we want to reduce the risk of the rail ends getting ripped off the board or out of the sleepers. I've included a pic of one of our ideas, but would be interested if anybody has any other ideas along similar lines. We are currently looking to replace the last 3 or 4 sleepers at the rail ends with copper clad sleepers. The sleepers will be bonded to the trackbed and the rails will be soldered to the sleepers. My test piece just uses some copper clad board cut to the size of a sleeper and some code 80 rail scraps, this leaves a little gap between the rail and the sleeper, which I've had to fill with solder for the test pieces, but for the layout, everything will be measured and shimmed correctly so that we can get some nice solder joints. Cheers.

Thanks for your comments Nick, much appreciated. Yeah, there seem to be various ways to isolate the frogs, but in N most really affect the point visually with the resulting gaps looking too big. I found the advice to use a jewellers saw on this forum and was very happy with the result.

Hi, Just a quick post about turnouts for our layout. We intend to drive all turnouts on the Scenic Boards with slow action motors and have chosen to use TT300s from Traintronics. These are DCC ready motors in that they have an inbuilt accessory decoder and frog switching capability. As far as wiring is concerned, they need to be attached to the Track bus or in our case the dedicated Accessory bus and then just need the usual connections to and from the turnout to perform the frog switching. As the TT300s don't require an accessory decoder to drive them, they can be placed anywhere and our hope is that this will greatly simplify the wiring required. Has anybody got any real world experience of these motors in action, any pros or cons of their operation would be appreciated, before we go too far Here's a quick video using an old code 80 insulfrog turnout just to show the action TT300 Operation.wmv We are also looking to modify our Peco Code 55 turnouts so that the blades are electrically isolated from the frog rails. This stops any micro shorts caused when the turnout blades are moved and the frog polarity hasn't switched. Something that might not be a problem for us, but something that definately won't happen with the mod applied. The turnout blades will be 'tied' electrically to the turnouts stock rails. After much searching around looking for the best way to make the required cut through the turnout rails, I decided to use a Jewellers Saw. As you can see from the pic, the cut is very neat and didn't need much of a tidy up. Again, this is an old code 80 turnout that has been used as a test piece. Hopefully, I'll get brave enough to take the saw to a brand new code 55 turnout and post the results. Cheers.

Signalling We had a friend of the group come to the YAG DCC Meeting who is an ex signal man and worked some of the major boxes in the York area. He had a look at the track plan and helped us go through the signalling that we would need for a close to prototypical look and we spoke for around 2 hours, walking through potential movements across the layout to get the signalling correct. We looked at what type of signalling would be used, where it would be positioned and more importantly why it would be there. One of the major items that we discussed was how to access the industry sidings from the Up line and he had a solution for us, suggesting that we place an additional cross over from the Up Line across the Down Line and into the Down Passing Loop. By introducing this cross over, trains can now run directly into the sidings from the Up Line, rather than having to shunt across the main line. This leaves us with the revised track plan shown below. Track While we had the scenic boards assembled, we started laying out the Up Line to see what the plan looked like in reality. We actually found that we had enough track to lay the down line as well and once finished I took some photos of the layout. The shots are taken board to board from left to right then back again. Fiddle Yards / End Loops We also discussed the construction of the fiddle yards and end loops and pooled our ideas. We are talking about a 9mm ply track bed with a 2” by 1” ‘ladder frame’. Ends would be 4” by 1”, constructed out of 2 lengths of 2” by 1” glued and screwed together (the curved scenic boards use this method). Then ply sides. We discussed options for the legs, the decision was that the centre board of the fiddle yard would have 4 legs and then the attached boards would each have two (this is how the scenic boards are done). We discussed having the legs permanently attached to the fiddle yards, in such a way as they would swing and lock into position for use, but would essentially fold up for transport. As these would be 2” by 2” lengths, when stowed for transport they would provide additional protection from knocks.

Hi, These are some mock ups of our proposed end loops. We just used a piece of flat board to mark out the proposed board design and lay some curves to check gauge and clearances for stock. The end loops will be made in four sections and will use 9" width boards to provide the trackbed. The radius for the inside track is 36". Each board will have 2 cuts made at 22.5 degrees so that when put together they will form a 90 degree section. Pictures will describe this better than I ever could. Cheers.

Hi, We have decided to fully seal our modular boards, by fully priming and painting them. The underside will be glossed white and a matt brown will be applied to the topside. Here are a few pictures of three of the scenic boards (the ones that are not curved), they have been fully primed and curently a single coat of white gloss has been applied to the underside. There was also a small scenic cutting on the far right hand board, as our track plan didn't call for this then it has been patched up with my very best woodworking skills. Mr Mallinson would be proud! Just needs some filling and sanding now, the boring bit. Cheers.

Hi, Here are a few images of the Scenic Modules setup during one of our club meetings, there's a 1:1 print out of an earlier track plan laid on top, but it isn't a million miles away from the one we decided to go with. Yes I had lots of fun with sticky tape Cheers.

Hi everybody and welcome to this Blog covering the construction of 'Heworth Sidings', a modular exhibition layout being built by several members of the Yorkshire Area Group of the N Gauge Society. The initial concept for this layout was put together towards the end of September 2011 as our group had 3 modular 4' by 21" boards available. We started putting some initial thoughts together and it was decided that we would put together a British Outline scene having a main line (up/down) with passing loops and some industry sidings which would be used to receive and despatch wagon rakes for an assumed off-scene industry. With the main line passing through the scenic boards and the Industry being off-scene our thoughts were that the layout could cover anything from the 80s to the current day and also support a number of industries. An intial track plan was put together, but based on prototypical train sizes, it was quickly decided that a larger layout was required and a decision was made to extend the layout using a further two 4' modules. As our discussions continued the track plan was refined until finally, we had a plan that lived up to our expectations for the layout and this can be seen below. The layout will be DCC controlled and we are currently looking towards automatic signalling, block detection and possible automation. Hopefully as the Blog continues we'll be able to share some of our findings of these subjects and hopefully get some of your feedback about them. Cheers.