Anthony Ashley

Dear David and Simon, Thanks for the ideas. I am not sure that either method would be stable enough. I have measured the height and the roof allows a height of 1.9 metres to add to the height of the layout at 1.2 metres. 1.9 metres is quite high over a width of 5 feet. The photo below gives the idea of how steep the mountain is. Any other Ideas for really steep hill construction would be appreciated. You can just see the road and rail at the very bottom of the hill A view down the Bangor platforms. I have used cardboard to show the position and length of the platforms. You can see a metre ruler and ubiquitous bus to give a sense of scale. The next 2 photos fit together and show the lines between the platforms I need to continue weathering track and corking the track. I have also completed further track supports for the hidden dog bone loop going around the bottom of Bangor. I need to enamel this area add cork and track. no shortage of jobs to complete. All comments are welcome. Any other ideas for the mountain would be particularly appreciated. Regards, Anthony Ashley

WELSH DRAGON RAIL LAYOUT DEVELOPMENTS Dear All, Some of the track for Bangor is in position with the 3 ml cork having been stuck down. It has been difficult but slowly getting there given the complexity of the points in the area. Photos are below or progress for the Bangor scenic track work and the hidden track running around Bangor. View towards the Holyhead end of the station area. The complexity of the track work is evident in this photo. This is the most complicated point area and will need to be automated to make sense of the points! The bottom of the photo shows some of the lines running to the platforms. These lines will be about 10 feet long along the edge of the platform. There are 9 or 10 of them in parallel. The hidden track loop which sweeps around Bangor under the hills surrounding Bangor. The 3 level dog bone loop will be under the hidden track loop. An overview of the Bangor hidden track area. The cork in this area has been stuck down and painted. Another view of the Bangor section of the hidden track loop. The hidden track runs through the tunnels shown either side of the brown box at the top of the photo. I have quite a lot more cork and track to lay on Bangor, then commence the wiring process which will take a very long time. I shall leave the Bangor goods area for later!! I have a question of all reading this thread. The next section past Bangor is the mountain next to Penmaenmawr.It is at the very bottom section of the layout and will span the 16 feet going across the bottom. The mountain will go nearly to the top of the roof and I think is approx. 2 metres in height. Does anyone have any cheap and light construction technique for such a large and high mountain area. All comments are gratefully accepted as I am looking for some ideas. All comments are also welcome. Regards, Anthony Ashley

WELSH DRAGON RAIL - LAYOUT DEVELOPMENTS Here is the consolidated track plan for Bangor Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear 37038, Thanks for the comment. The scenic area of Bangor is 21 feet by 8 feet. There will be approx. 60 points including 3 triple points and 2 double slips. There are 88 terrace houses, 31 other non station buildings. The 3 largest station buildings (not including the actual station building itself) will be the following lengths; engine shed will be 515 mls Goods shed 463 mls Engineer repair shed 411.5 mls I thinks this area will keep me busy for some time. There is also a cricket pitch. I have purchased a couple of second World War bombers for my aircraft museum including a Lancaster and a Junkers 290 in 144 sacale. The air field is not prototypical and will be between Conwy and Penmaenmawr. I have an area approx. 4.5 by 4.5 feet to fill. I think the air museum will be removable to allow alternate terrain in accordance with the actual area. I have started laying the track in Bangor but need more points. The hidden track around Bangor has had most of the cork cut. I have cut the next track support board nearly finishing Bangor 890 ml by 430 ml. More modelling tomorrow. Regards, Anthony Ashley

WELSH DRAGON RAIL - LAYOUT DEVELOPMENTS Dear All, I have been away again for the fifth time in 2 months so things have been a little slower. Nevertheless I have completed the next base board on the Bangor side. This nearly completes the Bangor base boards. Photos are below.

Dear David, The trip to Wales will probably need to be delayed to pay for the layout. Not sure when we will come but a few years off I fear. I have taken some photos to show the difference in the track after weathering the rails and sleepers. Rusty rack at the back (lower usage rail - station track on the left with a lot of oil and heavily stained, unweathered track on the left. The sleepers have been weathered with a dirty brown on the back and right rails. same configuration as above focus on rusty low use rail and heavily used station rail Back to the weathering on the rails! Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear PJ , Sorry to hear you have not been well. I hope you are on the way to be better health. I have had a look at your layout and it has come along really well. I have down loaded some photos of the hidden track area to the left of the main Bangor station area. This comes off the scenic track in the tunnel area above Bangor. Photos below. Shows the junction area between the two sections of hidden track. The first hidden track area are the 2 lines on the bottom right and come form the top of the layout and connect onto the scenic track. You can see the new hidden track on the left snaking away, to be hidden by the hills surrounding Bangor once constructed. The third photo is taken from the Bangor end of the layout with the track joining into the scenic track just behind the third scenic support. I have another 15 or so points to weather by hand painting prior to laying. A rust colour for the lines where the trains run with minimal stopping and a dirty rust for the station area. I have ordered a further 31 points last night and need them to complete the Bangor platform lines. The far end of the nearest supports is the edge of the hill line surrounding Bangor. I have completed nearly half of the base boards for the layout. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear David and Ben, Thanks for the comments. If my wife has her way we will be visiting the North Welsh coast in the near future. I have prepared the boards to lay the track and have started to weather the track. Another slow process. I shall focus on the platform tracks. If I do them alone there are 32 points including 3 triple points and 2 double slips. To date I have weathered 14 points and 2 pieces of flexi track! Quite a bit more to go before I put it down on the board. I also need to order some more points. I have completed laying the hidden track on the inside of the main Bangor board. Photos to follow once I have done some of the scenic track area. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear David, Did the above explanation clarify things for you? My mother in law has finished the scenic divider between Conwy and Bangor, so expect to get it tomorrow. Photos will follow. I have been away on a weeks holiday, but have the next 3 days for some solid modelling. Will be able to get on with track for the main Bangor station area. It will be challenging but should look spectacular. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear David, Thanks for the comment. To some extent you are right, but the layout should not have rakes running from Bangor to the top of the layout directly to Conwy. To clarify a train in the right bottom side fiddle yard looking up the layout to Conwy will appear on the scenic level in the tunnel area to the north or above Bangor. It will travel out of the tunnel appearing on the main line next to the Landudno goods area on the. side of the river opposite Conwy, heading north or up the board to Conwy. It will proceed to Conwy and then Penmaenmawr, finally arriving at Bangor. Remember Conwy and Penmaenmawr are connected on the Holyhead Chester line. Bangor is some stations down the line, but I shall have scenic dividers and a tunnel between Penmaenmawr and Bangor. As the train leaves Bangor it enters the tunnel above Bangor but diverts off the main line entering the hidden tack going around the top of the layout, conducting 3 dog bone loops on the left side of the board eventually stopping in the left fiddle yard. The loco then uses the run around loop around the yard and re connects to the front of the train. A rake leaving from the left fiddle yard will travel around the top of the layout on the hidden track and enter the tunnel using the hidden track above Bangor. It enters the scenic track going down the layout. It will appear in Bangor as the first station and then proceed to Penmaenmawr and then Conwy. It then proceeds over the river Conwy and enters the tunnel to the north or above Bangor. From there it diverts off the scenic line in the tunnel and enters the hidden track, conducting 3 loops of the right dog bone and finishes in the right fiddle yard. Again the loco will use the traverses and the run around loop or move to the now front of the rake heading out of the fiddle yard. In summary the left fiddle yard is Holyhead and the right fiddle yard is Chester. Just to clarify the two fiddle yards are each 32 tracks wide and should be big enough to allow the storage of all rakes for the return journey. The down side is the cost of placing location detection on these 64 locations. As well as the others for the layout. I have calculated a need for 13-14 16 zone detection modules using DCC4Pc modules. Post 323 provides a copy of the scenic and hidden track plans. A quick look at that post should assist in clarifying the concepts. So there should be no direct connection between Conwy and Bangor. The top end of Bangor is the Holyhead end and the bottom end is the Chester end. At the bottom end of the layout I shall model part of the mountain next to Penmaemawr (not the Conwy end). I hope this explains the layout in it general operation. If any questions please provide any other questions. Regards, Anthony Ashley

WELSH DRAGON RAIL - LAYOUT DEVELOPMENTS Dear David and all, Thanks for the encouragement. I have done a sold 12 hours today and finished the vertical supports for the fist Bangor section. This has permitted me to place the main tack support section for a substantial portion of the goods and platform areas. The photos are below. They were taken on our smaller second camera as the main one is away. Main Bangor station area. The bus is in the left fore ground to show the scale of the board. The rises to the left and right of the station area are the hills surrounding Bangor. The hidden loop and the dog bone hidden track will go underneath the left hand line of hills. You can see the castle off in the distance which is Conwy. View from the left side of the Bangor board. View from the end of the main Bangor board. The bus is on a piece of wood at the far end of the picture Need to add another small track support board on the left side looking up the Bangor board. Need to paint the supports and the base board and will then lay some track. on this board. Regards, Anthony Ashley

WELSH DRAGON RAIL - LAYOUT DEVELOPMENTS Dear Scotty and Anthony, Thanks for the comments. I don't think the Wallabies have played as a strong team for about 10 years. I think we have been in a rebuilding phase for many years! Certainly we have not been good enough to beat the ABs for some time. Anthony I hope you enjoyed the videos this weekend. I have downloaded a video showing the extent of the hidden track development to date, minus the work done on the left side dog bone. I expect to be laying track in the Bangor station by the end of the week end. Regards, Anthony Ashley

WELSH DRAGON RAIL - LAYOUT DEVELOPMENTS- Dear All, Video summarising my developments to date. Regards, Anthony Ashley

WELSH DRAGON RAIL - LAYOUT DEVELOPMENTS Dear All, Finished the Llandudno goods area wiring on the far bank of the river and have connected and tested all of the laid track using the main controller with my first of 6 boosters. So far so good as everything is working. Need to electrify the 3 decoders I have connected to servos. Once I tidy up I shall do a explanatory video of the layout with proposed developments. Will also do a video of the Blue Deltic running off the main controller. Regards, Anthony Ashley

WELSH DRAGON RAIL - LAYOUT DEVELOPMENTS Dear All, To those who added ratings above thanks very much. I have spent the evening connecting up the switches for the hidden track. I finished soldering connected up everything, turned on the power and tried to run a loco on the hidden track and nothing happened. 20 minutes later after checking voltages I realised I had one of the switches off. Once I turned it on the loco ran very well. I now have all of the hidden track functional and all of the scenic track laid to date apart from the Llandudno goods area operating. There is still a little more wiring for this area. Once I have finished the Llandudno goods area and tidied up again I will do a video of the hidden track operating and an explanatory video of how I will develop the existing sections of the layout. Thankyou all for your encouragement. Regards, Anthony Ashley

WELSH DRAGON RAIL - LAYOUT DEVELOPMENTS It has been a productive week end, although not very visually exciting. I will therefore not post any pictures as there is really nothing to show in photos. I have tested the main controller on the Conwy scenic area and it works. I shall do a video of a train operating under the ECoS train controller next week. There is obviously more realistic acceleration and deceleration by using the DCC system. I have also connected and tested the first booster, which powers the 1st level of the hidden track. I have yet to run a loco using this power source but there is power to the track so it should be fine. I have nearly finished connecting all of the hidden track sub bus lines to the main bus running off the 1st booster. I still need to finish installing a switch for each sub district. These will allow me to isolate the sub districts to fault find. There 5 sub districts in the Conwy power and about 9 sub districts in the hidden track 1st booster power district. Each sub district has its own switch. The wiring diagrams previously posted show what I am talking about. The wiring is not spectacular in terms of visible achievement but is the fundamental basis for the running of the layout and so time spent getting it right is well spent. I still have a number of points to either automate or set up for manual switching with wire and tube. I have run out of cradles for the servos so will focus on other jobs for now. I have also prepared the next sub track base support, using 2 sheets of 4 ml ply crossed over each other for additional strength. I have to cut this to size for the first 2/3 of the Bangor station track area. No shortage of jobs, but will get a day off this week so should achieve much this week. Regards, Anthony Ashley

WELSH DRAGON RAIL - LAYOUT DEVELOPMENTS Dear All, I have been overseas with work for a couple of weeks so no progress on the layout recently. Was hoping to get to England to buy some rail match or Phoenix paints but no opportunity. I have a few days off so once recovered form the jet lag will get some modelling completed during my long weekend. Regards. Anthony

WELSH DRAGON RAIL - LAYOUT NDEVELOPMENTS Dear All, I have finished automating the Conwy section of the layout and hence electrofied the frogs for each point. Accordingly I can run rakes at a more realistic speed. I have taken 3 more videos as shown below. Class 55 Deltic, somewhat outside it normal operating region, taking a holiday train along the North Welsh coast back to Chester in 1963. Royal Scot passenger rake, just having passed through Conwy station and on its way to Conwy tubular bridge to Llandudno. Royal Scot with a passenger rake on the way ton Bangor through Conwy. The rake can be seen passing the Llandudno goods area next to the river Conwy. It then passes through the Conwy tubular bridge before moving through the Conwy goods area. In the back ground is the Conwy medieval town wall. All replies are welcome. I think my technique is improving but I shall refine further. Regards, Anthony Ashley

WELSH DRAGON RAIL - LAYOUT DEVELOPMENTS Dear All, A very successful evening with Ross coming around to assist. We managed to wire up and fully install the first double slip on the layout. The train controller now switches it and the frogs are electrified depending on the point setting. I was unsure how difficult it was going to be but we managed reasonably easily. I have a last point in the Conwy area just next to the Tubular bridge to automate using a servo and then electrify the frog with a lever switch. This will be completed tomorrow. Then I move onto the points on the lower side of the tubular bridges. Unfortunately there is little to see by way of photos or videos with this type of work. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Kevin, Thanks for the encouragement. As I said in an earlier post, I have taken on a very large challenge, but I have said for the last 12 months I believe the layout will take up to 15 years. I therefore think that my expectations are realistic. It took about 3 hours to sort out the video embed and the only issue was the incorrect vehicle to post it ie using google instead of chrome. The carpentry is something I have been doing since 16 at school so I have been comfortable in that environment. The wiring and electronics is very new and has taken some assistance and practice but I am getting better at them. Scenery making has been a part of my wargaming for 40 years, although not to the same level or detail apart from the hand painted 15 mm Napoleonic figures. Thank you again for the comments. My next challenge is how to automate the double slip ie matching the movements required of the servos to the plan and where the points actually have to point. Regards, Anthony Ashley

Dear All, In particular Kevin. Thanks for the link. I was advised by Andy that the problem was the outlook browser I was using. I have changed to chrome and the same thing I tried with outlook but failed are now working. Thanks for the help. The above video is a copy of the link, but I have it down now and will practice my video technique in between point automation! Regards, Anthony

Ian, I hope things are going well for you. The post above is another effort to embed a You Tube video, but still no success. I am copying the http address while the video is running on You Tube and then pasting this into the RM post, but all I am getting is the link back to You tube. The other option I tried was to right click on the video running on You Tube and then click embed video after I right clicked. When I paste this into the RM Web post I just get the code but not the video. There is obviously an easy way to do this but I have not found it. Regards, Anthony Ashley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq-MCSlzftQ

Dear Ian, David and Jon, Thanks very much for the comments they are greatly appreciated. Ian I am not sure how you managed to embed the video in RM Web. I have sent a personal message to Andy and put a post above how to do this but no-one has responded except to suggest the link which is what I have done. Embedding the video is a much better way of displaying them. I have just spent another 1/2 hour trying to embed a you tube video but cann't get it to work If you can explain I would appreciate it. I have tried copying the embed from you tube and pasting that into RM web, but all I got was the address. I shall address some of the issues raised. In terms of the speed of the train I still have not completed wiring all of the frogs on the points so if I go too slowly the loco will stall on the frogs which have yet to be wired. I have fully automated and therefore completed the switching and therefore wiring on the first 6 frogs. I have another 10 to complete on the main line for the track which has already been laid. I am getting quicker at automating the points but it is still a little slow. The video was taken at night and I don't think I can add more lighting. I will have to see what it looks like in a day video. Regards, Anthony Ashley