MattWallace

Amazing news Phil, well done Makes me want to put a Helix in somewhere...

Thanks Chris, I'll keep an eye out for that last one

Hi Dave, Are you happy for me to take that code and publish it on Github (or could you publish it yourself?)? I'm starting to add various train-related "stuffs" to my github account to share and have people improve (JMR-Pi is just the start of it!). I'd hate to see you move away from skydrive and have to repeat the "please can we have the code? yes, it's now on google drive" all over again! Cheers, Matt

Fair enough. Once thing I will recommend though is to avoid the Bachmann Ez Command as a "cheap" DCC controller - It's really not very good unless you want to start/stop trains and it can be limiting when it comes to DCC sound. I did notice that the Hornby eLink stuff seems to be relatively cheap, but I've not used it so I can't comment on the quality. Matt

Looking great Sam. People here will be fed up with my raving about JMRI+MERG CBUS by now, as I praise it at every opportunity, however it is a fantastic way to run a DCC railway at relatively low cost and gives you wireless control via your mobile phone (assuming you've got Apple/Android). MERG costs £18 to join and there's a list of appropriate costs on a comment I made over at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/76851-edgworth-park/&do=findComment&comment=1198255 I'm not in anyway responsible for any of the kits, just a happy customer.

so if I can lower the top of the gradient (it's a flyover so I might be able to shave some of that height) and reduce the length of the platform it will be a lot easier for me? Thanks Mick, that's a great help!

Hi Mick, Complete numpty question, but how did you decide on the measurements for your slopes? I need to climb 100mm in approx 4000mm with a level break in the middle for a "high-level" platform of around 1500mm but I can't for the life of me work out how to convert this into riser heights/slope gradients etc. Can you (or your woodworking expert!) help? Thanks, Matt

any chance of more details on what the bridge is made from? looks great!

Better (and cheaper!) to cut the cork to the trackbed following the track bed, it gives you a shoulder for the ballast... :-)

lol, yeah, that'd be a lot cheaper...

lol, completely mis-read that as "HS2", not "H2" - my first thought was "that's a lot of rods and washers, where's he going to keep them?" Let's hope your project comes in on time and under budget...

Great news, all the best with the training

I'm using cork for Marshfield, My plan is to do the entire layout with cork underlay and then fill in the gaps in the yard with polyfilla or similar once I know what it needs to look like. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/69236-marshfield-junction/?p=1111630 has the details of how I'm doing it. Matt

Great Track plan,(although I may be slightly biased!) Looking forward to watching it develop. :-)

words fail me, there aren't enough superlatives to describe this build! Can't wait to see the track go down...

Well, your baseboard has a cover on it, what are you waiting for? Start laying Track! I've had to start laying track becuase I can't afford the £64 for the next box of flexi at the moment...

looks great

Hi Dale, Yeah, the requirement to run DC pretty much rules out computer control I think. I don't believe that the MERG kit that I use has the ability to do DC, just DCC. It's a shame, because the last time I look the ECoS was between £500 and £700 where as my MERG setup cost me less than £200 and JRMI will allow you to configure the throttles/consists/etc. however you want! I wonder if there's a case to be made to MERG about adding DC control (no idea how you'd do it myself!) ? Baseboards are looking great, can't wait to see you getting some track down and playing trains starting to model a railway... Cheers, Matt

Great looking plan, can't wait to see the rest of it for the scenics... XTrkcad is an excellent bit of software, but it took me a while to get used to it. If you're going to be running the layout using JMRI, then there is a converter that takes XTrkcad track plans and converts them to JMRI panels (that's my plan!). Cheers, Matt

Thank Paul.

Thanks all, that's a great help. Matt

Do they still exist, and if so, how big do they tend to be and what would the protoypical workings look like? My wife got me thinking this morning about building a number of smaller layouts over the next couple of years and although she started me thinking about it for different reasons it means I'd spend less time in the loft, and therefore less time creeping around above the baby's head (when she arrives next month!). This got me thinking about "portable layouts" and combined with a late evening trip to IKEA yesterday, I'm starting to wonder what the options are for a modern image layout on a LACK shelf. This gives me 1900x260mm to play with in 00 and although I've seen a lot of shelf layouts and shunting puzzles, they all seem to be for Big Four/Pre-Tops and not Modern Image (my personal interest). I'm now wondering if I could get a small wagon works into that kind of space with an 08 to shunt the wagons around, however I don't know if this would be prototypical. Can anyone "shed" (groan....) some light on the workings of carriage/wagon repair depots? Thanks in advance, Matt

it's a bit shiny....

Spoken like a true Welshman.... Matt (An Englishman living the Welsh side of the border...)

"Not me" has also paid a number of visits to our house over the past month whlst the girls are on School Holidays, I didn't realise that he actually existed and lived at your place - I'll know where to come next time he breaks stuff now...