ColinK

Looks brilliant, I’ll be ordering one.  A single car unit would be nice.

Edited to add one ordered.

Hi Keith, I didn’t realise it was you next to me.  Thanks for the kind words about my little layout.

1 hour ago, dasatcopthorne said:

 

Here is what I would call 'a very lightly wired board'.

 

This is a DCC board with the Bus in red & Grey wires. The motors are DC. Using solder tags gives you 'test points' in various locations to track and faults or prove your wiring before connection.

 

No much on it. However the principal is the same. Locate and decide what wires you will need. Make a list and number and name all your wires in a list. Start from one end/point on a board (a plug socket or terminal strip and run all the wires as you go, keeping to a 'map' of where you have decided they will run. Use cable ties (or if you can find some, lacing twine/waxed cotton thread) to keep the bundles tidy. Keep the bundles loose at first, tightening them up when complete.

 

Good luck.

 

Dave.

I do something similar, but no so neat.  I have a solder tag strip on each board with all the terminals on each connected together with a bit of wire.  The bus feeds into one end of the tag strip while at the other end the bus gous to the next baseboard.  All the droppers are then soldered to the tag strip.  You can now buy blocks with screw terminals that do the same job.

I keep a note of where every wire goes from each tag strip to help fault finding.

Whatever you do, NEVER SOLDER ABOVE YOUR HEAD if working under your baseboards.  Doing that once (never again) a drop of solder missed an eye by milimetres.

I visited Peenemünde a few years ago, fascinating place.  Went on that Russian submarine, how anyone went to sea in one I’ll never know, like being trapped in a tiny metal cigar tube with pipes and equipment all over the place to bang your head, knees, arms etc on. 

I suggest options 2 or 3.  But if you bulild the kit as intended, you’ll have something to run far quicker and have your layout finished too.  Plus the experience from building it will be a great help in deciding what you need to build the loco you really want.

I did manage to thin the solebars, but would have been better to set them further apart.  I’ve now painted the wagon, it can sit at the end of a siding.

Many thanks for your post, it was the Cambrian axle units that got me to try the etched brass routes - the Cambrian ones snapped.  Now the dust has settled I’m glad I tried, I’ll have another go sometime as I gave a second kit.  You are correct, the units reallly need to be fitted as part of the build as there are bumps under the floor (which I did manage to remove) and the solebars have to be placed further apart than designed.  The etched brass parts are amazing.

I’m starting to wonder if my 25W soldering iron needs replacing; I was helping a friend wire his layout and it was struggling to solder the wires together - they were heavier wires than I would use though.

Fascinating thread, many thanks for all the posts.  Has get me a little annoyed though - had I known these locos were still working  while I was in my youth, I could have gone and seen some of them. 

Looks great, well done.

Would HO work?  3.5 mm to the foot with 12mm gauge track.  Track, loco mechanisms, buildings and people readily available.

Surprisingly I did.  Our club chairman set up a challenge for members to build a small diorama to exhibit at our annual exhibition.  There were 10 entries.  A brilliant idea as it got several people building something for the first time.  I cheated a bit as I built a two sided working micro layout in 009.

One of my friends has background sounds on his layout.  The actual sounds are downloaded free off the internet (just search for the sounds you want).  Drop them into Audacity - free sound editing software (I put together my radio shows with Audacity) where you can alter the volume of individual clips, join tracks together etc.  Export the Audacity file as a MP3 file, download it to a old mobile phone - play the sound from the phone.

All the best for 2024.

Reminds me of this song.

When the Heljan 104 arrives I will have everything I need for my layouts.

Many thanks Brian.  Given that the diode board will be very difficult to access once the layout is finished, I would rather go with the higher rated diodes to be on the safe side.

Fascinating stuff about the railways on the little islands, many thanks for posting it.

Did you see any of the narrow gauge ‘user worked’ line to some of the even smaller islands?

Thanks, excellent range of locos and stock.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-india-67843833

2 hours ago, Brian said:

Hi

While I have not had any issues using 1N5401 diodes, there is no reason why a 5Amp (or greater amperage) diode can't be used along with a suitable CDU. 😀

Thanks Brian,  is there a particular diode number I should use that has a 5 amp rating eg 1Nxxx?

I’ve just been researching almost the same problem, but for points that are DC controlled using stud and probe control.

There is info on solving this for DCC on the DCC Concepts website.  Also have a look at Brian Lambert’s website as there are solutions for this on there too (I only looked at the DC solutions).

Brilliant, I never expected to see a working model of it.  For the remounting, perhaps ypu could put a flange on the top of the ramps, a bit like one of those plastic rerailling ramps, with the flange getting narrower and narrower until the pivot lines up exactly.

Many thanks for your replies.

The first suggestion seemed to be easy, just add an accessory switch onto one point motor, so the second one could not be changed if the first set of blades were in the wrong position.

But quite by chance I discovered detailed instructions for the diode method on Brian-Lambert’s website.

I’m tempted to try the diode method first as it doesn’t need any physical switches.  Only concern is that it uses 1N5401 diodes which have a maximum current of 3 amps.  Wonder if diodes with a 5 amp rating would be better?  No idea what those diodes would be though.

Hi,  one of my friends has asked me to help him with the wiring on his layout. While track power is DCC,  points control is by Peco solenids powered by 16v AC using a probe and stud.

I know how to modify and wire up the normal 2 way electrofrog points.  
 

When I come to the symetrical three way points, I think I know how to wire the actual frogs,  but do I need to modify the points by cutting links between the rails and adding jumpers?

To avoid damaging the points in use, ideally the two point motors would be switched in the correct order so that the one furthest from the toe end can only change when the first set of blades are facing the correct direction.  There is a very useful explaination on the DCC Concepts website on how to achieve that on a asymetrical three way point using DCC control, but is there a way of doing this when the points are controlled by 16v AC using a probe and stud?

Thanks

PS the layout is dual 16.5 and 12mm gauge including a short section of dual gauge track, but we’ll come to that in a few months  time.

I’ve got a tube of liquid insulation, apply it just like glue.  Bought at a model railway show.

December has been a bad month, my Dad ill, wife ill, I'm ill.  Gutted to miss performing on stage with the band.

Best wishes for 2024.