benjy14

Hi Keith, Trust me, it's a total fluke! I just saw the kit and decided to go for it; very glad it fits as well as it does! I think there's relatively little other infrastructure, so it will be quite a lonely place... In terms of your building, I do see what you mean. I think this issue is that the train is much to close to the building, especially one of that size. If you removed that Y point, you could move all of the tracks to the right as we're looking at, giving you more room. Cheers, Ben

This morning, I took delivery of Sherman Depot, which has been beautifully built and painted for me by Glenn Williams (of Boston Lodge fame - the man who paints and lines the locomotives and rolling stock by hand) from an American Model Builders laser-cut wood cut. As the photos below show, he has done a stunning job of it: As mentioned in a previous post, the reason for modelling Sherman is that I have found that eastbound trains will quite often be stopped by iTrain to wait for a westbound train to climb the helix on the outer track and then cross to the inner (right-hand) track. I therefore needed a reason for the trains to stop and providing a station was the obvious solution. The kit itself was a chance find on eBay and I'm very lucky that I had a person of Glenn's skill to build it for me.

So a little while since my last post but work has been going on with Dale Junction. It is also two days short of a year since the first wood was cut for the baseboards for the layout, so a lot of happened in that time and the layout has developed much quicker than I ever could have expected...! Yesterday morning, my lovely local carpenter dropped off a load of 4mm plywood cut into strips of various widths using his table saw; far more accurate that I could ever accomplish by hand. This wood will be used for the backscenes on the middle level, the light valance and fascias. I have made a start on fitting them. Below shows an overview of the railway room with the lighting valance for the upper level fitted: I have also started on the fascia for the upper and lower levels, below: I have been trying to figure out what to do where Track 3 emerges from Helix B. My intention is to model the cutting immediately before the sweeping curve into Dale Junction (I think it is called Archer's Cutting). I have therefore extended the 4"x2" upright up to the level with the upper level, which will give me an anchor for a larger fascia. I have also made a start on the very long job of ballasting and so far, I've managed about two-thirds of the middle level, including all of Dale Junction. It needs a bit of tidying up and weathering before I'll be happy with it. Finally, on the buildings front, I have put together a kit to represent the water tower that stood for a short period of time on Track 3. It's painted and ready to be weathered. Unfortunately, a couple of the sections that make up the tank moved whilst the glue was setting, so it's not quite as good as I had hoped. However, I intend to disguise this using some UP "Shield" transfers, wihch will also liven it up a little. Also in progress is a lazer-cut wood kit of Sherman depot for the upper level, which is being constructed by a good friend of mine. He's making a stunning job of it (far better than I ever could have) and I hope to collect it in the coming week once the lockdown here in Wales is lifted. Stay safe!

Assuming that it would run off the expansion pack, I guess it's going to depend on whether or not you can physically get all six wires into the connector. The only way to find out is to try... If not, you might be able to make your own using terminal blocks. In terms of my layout, I got it all working nicely too: The platform lamps are powered from the 9V supply that the Dapol signal uses and using the middle resistor on the board supplied by Gaugemaster. The station lights and the LED in the signal box are powered by the Just Plug lighting system. Obviously lots of detailing to be added to the platform but very pleased with how it's come out

It's been a little while since my last update but lots has been going on... On the layout, I have completed two major jobs. The first is that I have sprayed the track dull grey to weather it in preparation for ballasting; it is amazing the visual difference this has made. The second is that I have completed installing the backscene on the upper level. As part of this, I decided that I wanted to use the space inside the top of Helix B to make a scenic feature. I have therefore curved the backscene from one side of the helix to the other to create an area between the backscene and track; in this area, I'm going to create a scene depicting a down-at-heel homestead, complete with windmill and outbuilding. This will create a really nice focal point on the layout when you first enter the room, with the dual track mainline stretching into the distance where the main area of the layout is. Below is an overview of the railway room showing most of the installed backscene on the upper level. Below is an overview of the new scenic area for the homestead scene, which is mocked-up to give a flavour of how it will look: Below is a side-on view of the homestead scene. On the locomotive front, the big news is that I have purchased two new Broadway Limited Big Boys direct from the States and they arrived on Friday. I have run them in and speed calibrated them in iTrain, and they are now pulling trains. The first is #4020, which is seen below passing the homestead: The other new engine is #4023, which duplicates my existing Precision Craft Models Big Boy. I have decided to keep the old #4023 but have it renumbered to #4012 to match the picture hanging on the wall above the layout. Whilst it does not have as many lights, the detail on this loco belies the fact that its 15 years old now and it runs superbly, so it would be a shame to sell it! Speaking of changed identities, I recently took delivery of my renumbered 4-8-2 Mountain which is now #7028 (the very last operational Mountain class locomotive on the Union Pacific). The work was done by S H Modelmaking and Simon has done a superb job, including changing the tiny numbers either side of the front headlight. #7028 is seen above at the site of what I have decided will become Sherman station. Now that the layout is fully operational, I have found that during automated running, the computer will quite often stop trains here to allow another train to exit Helix A (there is the crossover at the top of A to allow trains to ascend on the outer track and then cross to the inner track). I therefore needed a reason for trains to stop, so having a station here provided the perfect excuse! By pure chance, I found on eBay a laser cut kit for a UP depot; I have never seen something like that before, so snapped it up! Of course, Sherman should have a more complex track layout in the period my layout is set but it's too late to change it now, so I am going to suppose that the track simplification has taken place now that helpers are no used (Sherman was where they were cut off their trains). I may model a representation of the turning wye. #7028 is hauling a short mixed train, which they were frequently used on at the end of their service lives having been displaced from more high-profile trains. As far as I can find, no such trains ran over Sherman Hill but plenty did ran on other routes, such as south from Cheyenne to Denver. I am therefore going to use a bit of modeller's licence to run this train as an extra service stopping all stations across the Hill. Finally, other chance find on eBay has allowd me to complete my breakdown train. Shown above is Light Mikado 2-8-2 #2499 pulling the completed consist, which comprises an old heavyweight coach for the crew, two silver maintenance-of-war box cars, the brakedown crane itself, and a silver caboose bringing up the rear. I have not found any photographic evidence of the consist of these trains, so this is a "best guess" as to how they would have appeared and I'm really pleased with it; it's not just about the big locomotives and the big trains! So next jobs are to paint the backscene and start the long, tedious job of ballasting. It has dawned on me just what a big job this is going to be and I imagine is going to take weeks, so I think it will be essential to break it up with other jobs (such as completing the last wiring job on the layout, which is to wire in the detection for the points on the top of Helix A). But the layout is really starting to look how I'd imagined it would and I'm really pleased with the progress; the backscenes and weathering have started the transition from trainset to model railway.

Just in case anybody finds this, the answer is "no"; the "Just Plug" Lighting Hub will not power Gaugemaster platform lamps. I tried using the Linker Plugs to connect the hub to the lamps but nothing. I know the linkers work because they illuminate an LED supplied with the lamp pack (which I am using to illuminate the signal box), and I know the lamps work because they work fine off a 9V power supply. Therefore, as far as I can see, the issue is the power output of the hub is not sufficient; using my multimeter, the output was around 3V, which seems very low...(!) That is the only explanation that I can see.

Thank you both so much for your posts; that is extremely useful information, much appreciated! Ben

Thank you! I will make some enquiries and see what I can find. I have the dimensions, so will see if I can find something that matches. I have now at least three avenues to explore, so I'm sure that one of them will come off!

Thank you for all of your replies. Yes, definitely an option to explore. Would you be able to recommend a manufacturer to look at? Yes, trying to repair the driveshaft is definitely something I am going to try. The shaft is 15.7mm long, the ball diameter is 2.6mm and the prong thickness is 1.1mm. I am not entirely certain what the prong length should be as I don't know how badly worn they are but I would estimate at least 2mm. I have had a look at the NWSL website but I am not entirely certain what they offer, so I will try contacting them on Monday. Paul Martin of EDM Models (a friend through the Ffestiniog) has very kindly offered to make me two new driveshafts from brass and he warned, as you do, that this might cause other parts to wear. I am not sure though how much of a choice I have; if I can't repair the shaft and can't source a replacement plastic part, using brass ones is going to be the only option. Thanks again for your help and any further advice would be most welcome!

Thank you to everybody who has replied! I made contact with the shop in NJ but no luck; MTH stopped selling the driveshafts years ago and they do not have any left in stock. I have tried a number of others, including tranz.com, without any luck. Trying to repair the driveshaft is definitely an option and I appreciate your suggestions. In addition, Paul Martin of EDM Models (who is a friend from the Ffestiniog) has kindly offered to make me two new ones from metal. I appreciate the comments about the damage this may cause to the female components, so in addition to his kind offer, I am going to try to affect a repair once he's made the replacements; this then gives me options. I am not 100% certain but I think the female parts may also be made of metal but I would need to check to be certain. Thanks again for your input!

A bit of unwelcome news this evening... My MTH Big Boy has stripped one of its driveshafts and having contacted MTH in the US, I am not able to order a replacement I am therefore looking for a way to fix this and have started a topic: If anybody reading this topic could help, I'd really appreciate some help! Ben

Hi there, I am really hoping that somebody out there will be able to help me. I own a MTH HO Big Boy and have discovered that one of the driveshafts is kaput: As you can see, three of the pins that engage with the motor and gearbox have totally worn away. I have made contact with MTH but they no longer supply this part. I have also contacted the sole retailer that they suggested may carry stock but alas, they don't. I am therefore need to find an alternative way to replace (or repair?) this driveshaft and I am wondering if anybody on RMweb could suggest a way that I could do this? I don't know if 3D printing would be an asnwer but it is a very small component (just 15.6mm long), so I don't know if this would be an option. Any advice, help or suggestions would be really appreciated. Many thanks, Ben

I've realised that it's been pretty much a month since my last post... Things have been a little quiet on the modelling front as I've been doing quite a bit on the 2', including a once-in-a-lifetime turn driving Welsh Pony to Beddgelert, the first time it has made it to that station in more than 80 years! However, some work has been going on slowly and today, I reached a milestone having completed the wiring of the track on the upper level by connecting up all of the pre-installed dropper wires. A bit of a tedious job but absolutely essential to ensure good running. With that done, I decided to have a go at fitting the first of the backscenes on the upper level: These are made from 4mm plywood, which has curved nicely with the egde of the layout (the photo does not show it very clearly). However, installing them is a difficult job to do single-handed and I had a rather scary moment where I thought I had damaged some of the track (fortunately, the rail just snaped back into place in the chairs, so no harm done). I think I will probably wait for reinforcements before attempting to do any more curved sections. You can also see that I have fitted the brackets that will eventually hold the supports for the lighting rig and fascia for the upper level. Finally, I had rather a nice surprise a couple of weeks ago. I am a subcriber to Model Railroader magazine and I had submitted my YouTube cab ride video to the "User Videos" section of their website. Not very much happened and I forgot about it, but then my weekly newsletter dropped into my Inbox and look what was featured: I was thrilled and not unsurprisingly, I have received a huge spike in views (nearly 2,500!). Next job will probably be to tackle the very last wiring job on the layout and that is to put in the detection of the points at the top of Helix A. It shouldn't take long and once done, I want to go around the whole layout and tidy wires; whilst I am not too worried about perfect neatness as some people can achieve, I do want to ensure that all wires are secure e.g. ensuring all wires on the underside of the baseboard are not dangling.

Wonderful news! I have two on order for my model of Cardigan and the 16xx will complete it

Last weekend was a bit of a milestone in the life of the layout because we welcomed our first visitors of the year (as part of our "extended household") to stay; my wife's cousin and her husband, who is almost (although not quite) as mad about trains as I am. It was therefore a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the layout operating to an interested third party for the very first time. I spent the few days in the run-up to their arrival working very hard to get everything running as smoothly as possible. I have been able to resolve the issue with the 85' baggage cars as previously discussed. In addition to that, I made a number of tweaks to a lot of the freight cars, performing jobs such as replacing couplers with Kadees, using over- and under-set shanks to get them at the correct height where appropriate, and fitting the excellent car stablizers that @Andy Reichert was so kind to supply me (i can confirm they are very effective!). I have now reached the stage that I am resaonably happy that nothing is derailing or uncoupling, and I can relax a little more when iTrain is running the layout in fully automated mode. And so it was that we found ourselves spending several hours operating Dale Junction and overall, it was extremely successful. Watching iTrain automatically driving the layout was really quite something and every train ran except for one (4014 and 3999 are currently away for repair). On top of that, it was also the first time that I have mixed manual and automatic operation; I gave my cousin-in-law a controller and he drove one of the trains, whilst I set the route for him and dispatched other trains (under the control of iTrain) around him. It was absolutely brilliant Since their visit, work as slowed somewhat. It is actually nice to take a rest from the layout (I am already months, if not years, ahead of where I thought I would be in the build), so there is no rush and I do not want to risk "burn out" doing too much, too soon. In addition, there was the unexpected and welcome news that the Welsh Highland is operating again and I was very lucky to get a turn driving NGG 87 last week on the "Back to Beddgelert" service. It was a splendid day out, although we had to terminate at Rhyd Ddu due to the ballast shoulder being washed away by Storm Francis the previous day. Today, I found myself back in the railway room as I have list of jobs that need doing before the track laying and wiring will be finally finished. The first job was to sort out a nasty hump in Track 2 on the upper level. So up came a length of track and after some work with the sander, the hump is gone. The replaced track is held down with drawing pins for testing and all seems well, so I will glue it down, together with another panel, in the near future to complete the track laying. As a picture of a plain piece of track would be rather boring and I needed to test some trains, here is a shot of #844 heading east with a reefer train on the relaid track passing #4023 on a westbound manifest freight. I also took the opportunity to capture a head-on view of #4023: #4023 is about to turn into helix B to decend to the middle level, so it is possible to stand and see this view in person. It was very important to me to have one place on the layout where trains can be seen "head-on", as the effect is quite stunning, a layout design principle that I learnt from Michael Watts. At the other end, here is #844 passing the caboose of #4023's train: Once the track panels are down, the final two wiring jobs are to connect the MP1 point motors at the top of helx A to the DR4088 (for detection of which way they are thrown) and then connect all of the droppers on the upper level, which will be a time-consuming and boring task, although absolutely essential to ensure reliable running in the long run. With the Bank Holiday tomorrow, I may get some more work done but it's a marathon, not a sprint...

If it helps, this is the mini-camcorder that I purchased to record the footage: https://shop.runcam.com/runcam2/ I'm in no way affilated to the manufacturers! As you can see, the video quality is pretty good. The only thing that has been disappointing is that none of my PCs recognise it when it is plugged in by USB, which means that I have to take the SD card (which is not supplied) out and plug it in to the PC directly; I am fortunate that I have a card reader slot on one of my computers... I am going to try contacting them to see if there is a solution.

Thank you very much Keith! I still have to pinch myself sometimes that I have a room in which to build this layout... As for the H&M Clipper, I was exceptionally lucky to be gifted a Norfolk & Western Y-3 by a very good friend of mine. It's current DC and in ATSF livery, but is now with a professional modelmaker who is DCC-fitting it and changing it to Union Pacifc guise (a number of western railroads in the US purchased second-hand Y-3s from the N&W and C&O in 1945). As it had never run, it was running-in on my rolling road under DC power, hence the clipper. When the model comes back, I'll put a fuller post up about it. The helix climbs do take up some time; I was thinking that I may speed them up in the next video, although I must get on with construction rather than playing soon! Thank you very much! Would love to see you do something similar on your spectacular layout

Something I have wanted to do for a while is capture a "cab ride" video on the layout, so I have purchased a suitable mini-camcorder from a well-known online retailer and I have now published my first video of footage taken using it: I am really pleased with the result for a first go I have added some captions at various points to explain what's going on and ran some trains to pass the "camera train". Enjoy!

Sorry for not replying sooner, have been very busy with work. Thank you for your reply and,as it turns out, not irrelevant at all! I managed to get the problem resolved and it is exactly as you write above. I closely watched the coaches travelling through the sharper radius curves and I could see where the wheels were jumping off. So rather than pull the coaches through with a locomotive, I thought I would push them by hand; it was then that I noticed that it as the radius tightened, the coach started binding in the curve. I turned the coach over and soon realised that because of the longer wheelbase of the bogies, they could not rotate enough to properly negiotiate the curve; no wonder they would always jump off! To cure this problem, I have performed a bit of surgery on the bogies, which rather conveniently are screwed together, that has allowed me to install a washer between the bogie and chassis. This little bit of extra height has provided just enough swing for the coaches to navigate the two sharp curves. I also followed the adviced given by @Andy Reichert and I checked that the bogies could tilt, which they can, to overcome the twist they experience as they traverse those bits of track. I am very relieved to have this problem fixed. I had tried configuring iTrain such that the Streamliner trains avoided the track with the sharp curves but I found that very quickly, the layout became jammed because the Streamliner came into conflict with another train in the Helix. I really must now crack on and finish the wiring but I am having too much fun running trains!

Thank you both very much for your replies! That is very interesting to know, thank you! Thank you for the advice; I have a set of NMRA gauges, so will check the wheels and trackwork. The cars in question run fine through all of the other pointwork and track on the layout, so I think it most likely that it's specific to the two locations causing problems. Thank you for advice Andy; I will chek there is some freedom for the truck to tilt as you suggest, as that could well be an explanation. If I wanted to purchase some of your stabilizers, can you ship to the UK? I have now reached a point whereby both streamliner trains are running very well everywhere except the two "flash points" in the helix, both of which can be avoided by using just the inner track. I would like to solve this if I can but one place is buried half-way down the helix, so altering the track here would be almost impossible and it look a lot of time to get it working as well as it currently does... I will, however, try all of the tips given above to see if there is anything that I can do.

Thanks! Indeed it is quite a big helix(!) and, in fact, there are two exactlty the same height at 7.5 turns each with 100mm climb per turn. It is a challenge for my locomotives to haul the trains up them but it is quite a sight when the computer is automatically driving four trains around the layout Work has been slow but steady over the past week. The point motors are now installed on the cross-overs at the top of Helix A but as I found out this afternoon, I have rather stupidly mouned two of them slightly too close to track, so they will need to be moved outwards slightly. With the track now all laid, I have been concentrating on testing that it works properly and starting to figure out the best way of operating it... I do not want to get to far with scenic work to find out there is a problem that will require things to be redone. Unfortunately, I am finding that my 85' streamliner carriages are having some issues in the helixes, especially the baggage cars, which for some reason have 6-wheel bogies (all other carriages, including those for passengers, only have 4-wheel bogies). I think the issue a combination of their length, the radius of the curves and the 3 axles. The first thing I have done is to fit Kadee couplers with extended shanks on to one end of each carriage and this has massively improved the running charastics and aside from the baggage cars, the trains now run without issue. To solve the baggage car problem, I can see one of two solutions: 1) Avoid the double-junction in the middle of Helix A and the cross-over the top of Helix A, both of which have unavoidable short lengths of 24" radius curves. This is easy to accomplish in iTrain by specifying that the streamliner trains are not permitted to use those sections of track; the automatic routing will then send the trains on the other track of the helix. Whilst this works, I am a bit concerned that this will cause a bottleneck in the lower part of Helix A that the crossovers were designed to eliminate! Still, time will tell if that's the case. 2) Remove the centre wheels from the bogies. I think this would resolve the issues on the 24" curves and would hardly be noticable, especially as they are the only vehicles in the consist with 6-wheeled bogies. I am going to pursue option (1) for the time being and see how it pans out. Aside from that, I have a couple of track issues to resolve (not causing derailments but need fixing) and the droppers on the upper level track require connecting to the bus wires. And then, of course, more playing testing.

Just in case anybody comes across this thread, I have managed to confirm that the screw is an M2 with a fine pitch thread. The wagon is now repaired Ben

Hi David, Thanks for checking for me. I will get in contact with Gaigemaster to see if they can help but failing that, I will try to measure them (I have a micrometer so should be able to get an accurate measurement). Thanks, Ben

I would be so grateful if you could check what size the screws are David, thank you! Ben

Yes, you can indeed get a free 24 hour trial, which I think would be well worth doing when I can devote some time to take a serious look at it! Likewise with their Video+ service... Please do drop by the Bala Lake one day, I don't think you'll be disappointed. The Heritage Centre won a very prestiguous award at the HRA ceremory earlier this year and there are advanced plans to extend the railway into Bala itself, which is a project spearheaded by the Trust. Exciting times