andyrids

Ballasting still not finished but I have started on the points... there is no ideal way to do this though I have found it easier to do the ends of the sleepers first and allow that dry before doing the middle, being heavy handed or not seems to make little difference unless you have nowhere to push the excess ballast to that is... humidity in the room does make things more difficult also. Edit: just discovered on the last two points I needed to do that after you have brushed away the excess keep throwing the point motor and lightly brushing it if it gets stuck the switch blades will "kick out" the stray bits themselves eventually.. then you glue ballast... I was sort of doing this to start with but only a couple of times but doing to constantly seems to be the technique, well for me at least.

Ok after aforementioned messing about... I found that the "throw pins" need to be positioned parallel to the arm that sticks out opposite the "claw" rather than being set straight as they are when you first get them... also the varying hight problem with the throw pins fouling points etc you can use long nose pliers to push the pin higher up in the coupler and it does require a fair amount of force on some of them. So now I can uncouple using the electromagnet which is great however ! the electromagnet only opens the "claw" and does not actually move the coupling to the side in order for the "easi shunt" arm to engage... I am going order a pair of the standard easi shunt magnets to see if the whole system works correctly with the intended set up rather than the electromagnets, if so then ok great but I have noticed the locos have no side to side movement on the couplings only wagons... if not then hand of God it has to be since the ramp things are unsightly I suppose you could hide the rod in a bush but what so close to the track ? nope very unrealistic even more so than the hand of God... I started ballasting today, what a difficult task ! even taking my time and fiddling about I am still not happy with the results, I have now cut two slots in a piece of wood that will fit on the rails so I can drag that along in the initial laying process which should help and it's secondary use is dragging it over the already set ballast to clean the bits of the ends of the sleepers, I thought my ballasting was terrible until I watched a few YouTube clips concerning uncoupling and noticed how bad most of the others are haha... I will post a picture once I have filled in the bald patches...

I shall have a look for that then thanks... This also something I have noticed about the lifting... now what little rolling stock I have is all GF and so are me two Locos so far an 03 and a 20 the actual heights of the couplings are different the 03 for example is higher than the coupling on the box wagons I have... but yet it is the same height as the one coach I have, I gather that is due to some models being newer versions than others ? but either way why ? my idea was to buy all the same brand of stock so it would all be compatible with each other but this not exactly the case... I am going to mess about with it for another day or so off and on and if no significant progress is made (such as if I get at least two couplings to work correctly) then it's back to the standard GF ones and order up some unsightly ramps... unless that tool you mentioned works then yeah....

That is interesting becasue what I am finding is the couplings with the bar that is higher seems to work as it should but if the bar is lower then it just pulls down rather than left / right (please note I am not talking about the actual heigh of the coupling itself just the metal bar that the magnet attracts). I already have an idea for my own N gauge coupling system !!!! "BLU TACK" no magnets required just cut off the existing coupler with a pair of wire cutters or chew the damn thing off whatever takes your fancy, attach a small blob of Blu Tack to either end of a matchstick cut down to 1/8th of it's length (for close coupling) mount one end to underside of your rolling stock (preferably slightly protruding the buffers) in order to couple your rolling stock reverse the loco at high speed into said rolling stock coupling is accomplished easily (with unweighed rolling stock placing your hand behind the wagons during this procedure may be required) uncoupling is also very simple this time simply run your loco at high speed in the forward direction eventually the rolling stock will uncouple this new technique will greatly increase the entertainment value and open up new challenges whist carrying out shunting manoeuvres !

Hmm after close inspection and actually getting one to work there is no up and down its the little claw thing with the spring that go's left to right respectively... none the less there is only one that works correctly so far I noticed the little metal arm that hangs down is not in the same position or set at the same height and these are the ones straight out of the packaging ! so they saying in the instructions be careful not to move the "optimal" position of the arm is bs and if one of those tiny springs jumps out you have no chance of finding it again so there re 3 spare ones that come with a pack of 5 pairs of couplings, great... problem being they are almost impossible to try and fit back in... so this easi shunt system is far from easy to even get working, what I did notice was though if you activate the electromagnet when the train passes over it going 3x a realistic shunting speed without stopping it will uncouple no problem ! ... like something from an old wild west movie... Not happy to say the least granted I expected to have to mess on a bit to fit them and such like but spending 3 hours to just get one to work occasionally is taking the mickey... So I dunno what to do now as far as coupling / uncoupling go's... do I go back to using the standard GF ones and an unsightly uncoupling ramp or do it by hand ? The temptation is to throw the whole lot in the swamp out back and find a different hobby that is less frustrating such as picking away the side of a mountain with a needle maybe haha.

Yeah thanks I went with the last option for now... Progress very slow the ballast and other bits have only just arrived yesterday... I bought some Dapol easy shunt couplings and a couple of electro magnets but the couplings will move upwards but not downwards like they are supposed to do ? I know with some rolling stock you need to use some box adapter thing and it's quite obvious which rolling stock needs those as the couplings simply don't fit on those ones, anyone have any experience with these Dapol couplings and might know what the solution is ?

Point motors all done now and working very nicely packing them out has actually reduced the noise significantly and aligned them better than I initially had them... two of my isolators are working intermittently but I found the offending connections one is on a rail the other a joint in the wiring easy enough to fix. What do you guys use to clean the track with ? the options I found are a rubber for 4 quid, fluid for 7, oxide block for 11, a thing that looks like a tile grout rake for 9 and some bizarre electronic gizmo for 42 quid ! Tempted to just order the cheap Chinese rubber the same sort of thing used to do the job with my 00 without problems.

I was having an afternoon nap and the rod solution came to me... drop the motors further down... so after visiting 5 hardware stores to find suitable longer screws and cutting up strips of thin ply to 10x30mm rectangles to use as packing the end of the rod sits flush now with the top of the tie rod, it is very fiddly to do without the end of the rod keep popping out but it's solved the problem perfectly only another five more to go. Yes I seen that advertised simple but effective by the looks, again my problem is delivery assuming they do ship to where I am that same spreader will cost over 20 quid all assuming customs does not slap a random import fee on top of that which is highly likely... so tea spoon it is then haha... good tip on the mixing in with different colours though I didn't think of doing that at that stage. Gaugemaster got back to me as I was typing and they said the ballast tub they have is 1.5 kilo and would do a large portion of 6mts a conservative answer of course so I am thinking of buying two then just in case ? the rest could be used as cat litter maybe haha.

Electrics all done now (apart from the electromagnets since I don't have them yet but figure they could still be fitted at a later stage) and it looks like a telephone exchange even after tidying it up anyway at least they work... Finding something to cut down the Peco point control rods is proving to be quite difficult especially in this country, going to have another go with the wire cutters and have the girlfriend support the tie bar, failing that I guess I will have to order some Dremel cutting disks and a shaft to put in my little Bosch drill... it's amazing how the simplest of tasks seem to pose problems when it comes to railway modelling. Thank's for the advice regarding the ballast that Deluxe Materials kit and the pin point syringes look to be exactly what I need especially since I don't have any "tools" as such for actually laying ballast.. I will probably be ordering the actual ballast from Gauagemaster so will have to ask them approximately how much I need for 6 meters of track as I have no idea, one tub looks to be enough but then again I would rather have more than less especially due to additional shipping costs or reordering more if I am short.

Thanks Ian... Yes I have been referring to that guys site quite a few times very informative... I tried drawing pins but they were too big to fit between the rails if they were even slightly off centre and the few map pins that were laying about self destructed whilst trying to push them in (poor quality pins). My thoughts were to do exactly that with the ballast only set back was I don't have any ballast as yet ! and waiting the two weeks for it to arrive would have held up progress ... Two guys at Gaugemaster have been very helpful in answering my questions and offering up answers and solutions.... they do a special ballast glue that you apply over the top of the ballast so I plan to have a go with that stuff I did wonder though if it's just not the same as watering down the PVA I already have a little bit ? One thing I can't seem to find any real answers to is how do I ballast around and in between the moving rail and sleeper of the points without it getting glued in place ? Gaugemaster also told me that their electro magnet works with the Dapol easy shunt couplings so that is what I am going to use when the time comes as the stock ones are terrible mainly due to the rolling stock not being heavy enough they suggested using "liquid gravity" either inside the stock or carefully stuck to the bottom.

Well once I connected the feeds up I discovered the need to use insulated joiners... damn short circuits everywhere without haha after un pinning all the track and just joining it back up point by point I figured out exactly where they were needed quickly enough and as a result I had to add one additional feed at the end of the run round loop that I have wired through a push to make contact switch so that tiny section is isolated and only gets powered whilst holding the switch in which is fine becasue I was going to isolate that section anyway. I was going to just pin the track but after trying to push the pins home using various types of pliers and even a nail punch the pins just bend or go in at an angle (very frustrating to say the least)... however I have found some PVA that I was going to use just for the ballast and after experimenting with a short off cut of track I found that I can just run a line of glue along the ends of the sleepers and that holds the track firmly in place thankfully so once its all dry I can remove the pins that are holding the track in position (that were going to get pushed home). I also discovered as somebody mentioned N gauge and failing eyesight makes simple tasks quite difficult attaching fish plates being the most difficult so far requiring me to use the "binoculars" frequently... drinking more wine also actually helps rather than hinders as it does in most cases.

Got all of the main components here now... started loosely pinning the track and the feeds in place not connected up yet, might get all the track in place today then do a test run...

Found one that will work apparently... and my friend in the UK picked up a couple of loco's, rolling stock and bit's and pieces today to send on to me... reason for doing it that way is so they could be tested to make sure they work beforehand since postage back and for is so damn expensive and takes weeks and having to return defective goods would be a nightmare not to mention having to probably pay import duty twice... So once I receive those I can cobble together some track loosely in order to figure out where I am going to need feeds and isolators etc since despite all of what I have read it is still a little bit unclear... best way is trial and error.

Thanks Ian... no response from Kato... after much searching some people say the accessory output is 17v AC others say 12v AC after sticking my little tester in there it tells me its 12v AC so that's useless since the Peco point motors require 16v Gaugemaster said to buy their GMC WM1 but the mains input specified is 240v and all I have here is 220v max so I have emailed them asking if they think there is any chance it might work here or not (some things do)... What would be ideal is a transformer that would accept mains 110v AC - 240v AC and output 16v AC I have been searching and the odd one's I have found don't specify the mains input range other than just saying 240v... Any ideas or suggestions guys please ? other than throwing the motors in the bin and just using bits of string. EDIT: I wonder if placing some sort of capacitor inline from the Kato 12v accessory output would do the trick ?

Some progress the base board has been made and the top is removable from the shelf brackets... the track and point motors etc have arrived also. Another question the Kato controller I have has two female connectors on the side for point switches and such like but it is designed for Kato switches obviously however I am assuming it would be ok to just use two bullet connectors plugged into there instead ? and if so does anyone have any idea of what size ?

Thanks for the replies guys... I emailed the Gaugemaster site and they actually recommended a Kato controller and transformer since they have a 110v and 240v switch apparently and are less sensitive to inconsistent voltages or words to that effect...

Another question concerning controllers that I had not thought about before now is where I am the supply is roughly 10v less than it is in the UK so will say a Gaugemaster one actually work here ? I know for a fact UK hair clippers do not but laptop power packs do, also a UK model Toshiba TV works...

Yeah I was experimenting with something along those lines but wasn't quite happy with the result.

I might be jumping the gun a bit here or maybe not... The plan with the two fiddle yards is to build / use a traverser (spelling?) I have read many articles about them and the construction techniques all seem to be along the the same lines (no pun intended) I am thinking that is all a bit over the top for my requirements since the layout will never be at any show and the only audience I may have would be the cats or he odd curious local person thinking I have lost my marbles... add to the fact I live in a quite remote part of a 3rd world country so the availability of anything other than very basic materials is almost none existent, as for a brass bolt I don't recall ever seeing one in the whole 8 years I have lived here... so improvisation is the order of the day. Anyway traverser construction my requirements would be only 2 tracks on it so allow me to try and describe my idea and see what you guys think: Layout baseboard 3/4 ply (as it's the easiest to obtain here). Make a rectangular cut out in the baseboard for where the traverser is going to be and keep the cut out piece. Attach say 1/4 ply to the underside of the cut out. Cut down the 3/4 ply piece to the width required for two tracks, that piece should in theory then be able to slide back and forth on top of the 1/4 ply inside the hole it was cut from. Line up and fix the two tracks to the 3/4 ply traverser. Alignment method for the traverser tracks to the incoming track won't be by using the "brass bolt" method instead I was thinking just drill a hole in the traverser through to the 1/4 ply and drop a dowel in ? since I have two tracks that would mean two holes into the 1/4 at the correct positions for each track... pull the dowel out to move the traverser and drop it into the next hole to align the other track. Wiring: a permanent feed to both tracks but with an isolating switch on each (basically just a break in the live) so when a loco is about to enter the traverser throw the switch to power the relevant track, stop the loco throw the switch again to power the track off. For my needs I don't see why that would not work ? sliding the traverser is going to be a bit clunky I expect that and I may need to attach some thin plastic to the ends of the traverser in order to close the gap up a bit made by the saw cuts... You're thoughts and input are appreciated guys, thanks.

Yes I wasn't planning on using a back scene anyway in those areas just one along... erm the back :-) That's a good idea a solid lid would keep my furry demolition experts out.

Here we go guys what do you think of this then ? I have taken on board most of the suggestions, the section that was a siding where the new run around loop is still serves it's intended purpose but adds a lot more to the operating potential (yeah yeah I know you told me so) the right FY will be made to look like a tunnel entrance the left hand FY there will be a road bridge in front of it that should do the trick... I dismissed my previous thought of a detachable FY in order to increase the length due to the fact the only place I would have to store it is under the bed and my 4 crazy cats would end up using it as a spare bed or something in fact I am now wondering how I am going to keep them off the actual layout they are going to have great fun destroying this no doubt...

The Sheffield Park one I like that I have been to the Bluebell railway a couple of times when I was kid a fascinating place... yes the Brain Lamberts site covers a lot of future questions I would have had. Dairy Box is interesting and so are the Piano Line track plans having the fiddle yard in that sort of location would make more sense in my situation the only downside being it would have to be at the front since the layout is going to be fixed to the wall like a shelf at the bottom of the bed to be exact, my house is very small both bedrooms are only 10x10 I did consider suspending a slightly larger layout from the ceiling on pulleys but the ceiling itself is suspended one so I doubt it would take the weight over a long period of time without having to add in some timber supports... So I am kind of stuck with the small space I have though making the right hand FY detachable is an option ! that way I can utilise that area scenically and for extended track and only attach the FY when it's in operation... I am going to fire up AnyRail and experiment a bit... Thanks for all the help and suggestions so far guys.

Thanks ianLMS a very useful resource that ! I looked up Box Street an interesting layout I might have a mess about with the plan I have and see what it's like "flipped over" and adjust the curves slightly so the branch line is at the back... hmm The main reason for the fiddle yards at either end is I like the idea of there being a through line rather than just a terminus if that's the correct terminology, I know it takes up precious space but I am not interested in running longish trains. I suppose I could always evict my daughter from her bedroom and use that room, she can go and sleep on the couch haha I thought about a run round but the only place to put one would be on the through line then you would have a loco vanishing partly into the fiddle yard,I wouldn't like that aspect... The idea of having the sidings go into the fiddle yard I thought about that one also initially but nope for the same sort of reason I just mentioned. The red area DavidCBroad marked up I worked out I can get 2x wagons and a class 20 in there or 3x wagons and an 08 to me that is adequate since it's a shunting layout, if I find that is a bit tight then I could move the whole plan down to the right so I can make that head shunt a bit longer if need be... The operational idea is as follows: 1. A train into that siding from the left hand FY. 2. The shunter will then come to the rear and pick up a couple of wagons and distribute them to areas 3, after that the original loco from area 1 can go back to the fiddle yard to either wait or bring a couple more wagons along... eventually the new train can be resembled back in area 1 waiting to be picked up. Probably not exactly realistic operational tactics as far as having one loco stuck at the end of a siding whilst a shunter does its job I know, that does not concern me, however I am pretty sure I have seen it happen before come to think.

Wow guys ! thank you so much for all the responses and advice I was not expecting so much input in such a short space of time, I am not complaining haha ianLMS: I shall attach a diagram of the track plan that is based on the Peco 55 the grey areas at either end represent fiddle yards there is not enough room in them for any points so I might build a traverse plate if that is the correct word / terminology.... lights would be nice but not essential, sound is not important to me either so DCC might well be overkill as far as I am concerned maybe... especially since I my main job is a programmer and I also get plenty of tablets, laptops and cell phones to repair as a sideline so maybe going DCC would make this seem more like work than a hobby haha. 34theletterbetweenB&D: It does not have to be British prototype but I like the class 20 and 08's I always wanted to have a class 20 when I was kid but never got my mits on one so the choice is a bit of a childhood dream for want of a better way to put it... I shall look into your suggestions though.... as for point length yes I was comparing it to the Hornby 00 track (since that is what I was used to) as I can still visualise it's size but yeah you are correct upon reflection the radius on set track is unrealistic. Chris M: Yes shunting is going to be the focus and I have been reading about the magnetic uncoupling systems which brings another question with Graham Farish rolling stock and loco's would I have to change the couplers in order to use that method ? ... live frog points I think it shall be then though I am not sure if the Peco Y points or "Wye" as I have seen therm called are actually live frog or not ? Karhedron: Thanks for the pictures a very nice little layout ! it's made me curious to see a track plan if I may ?... frog polarity switching might well have to be incorporated then judging by what I have read... I don't actually have any loco's or rolling stock so it would all be new.... the Copydex and ballast idea seems to be a good option then in my case especially since you mentioned foam has the tendency to break down and in that case it certainly will in no time in this atmosphere then (I am a white British guy who lives in the Philippines, near the sea) daftbovine: Thanks I shall try and obtain a copy of that book then, unfortunately I have never seen a model shop in this country before and if I asked where one is I am sure the results would vary from escorts to Chinese made kids toys haha. Kris: Thanks yeah code 55 seems to be the definite agreed way forward then ! Sorry if I have missed anything out in my responses or got my replies mixed up in any way I am sure if you have read this far you will know what relates to who etc... So ok I am now thinking then: Peco code 55 track, Y points with live frog if they are available if not then I am confident enough to be able to do the solder work on them myself failing that just hold one of the local kids hostage until he does it haha No cork or foam stuff use copydex or the local equivalent and ballast. DCC is probably over the top for what I need so I think I will be going with DC then it's going to need a lot of extra pole switches etc for isolation areas but I don't mind that. Again thank you so much for all your advice and help so far guys it is appreciated !

Hi, I have not built a model railway since I was a teen and after much reading there seems to be a myriad of choices now... I would greatly appreciate some advice please. My available space is very limited a maximum of 160cm x 30com hence why I am looking at N gauge I have found a track plan I like from another guys layout (00 Gauge Plankwell Yard) my initial questions are as follows: What track to use ? I was looking at the Peco code 55 becasue it has the required "Y" points (strange thing is the N gauge points are almost as long as the 00 gauge so it seems). What control system ? be it DC or DCC they both look as if a lot of soldering is required especially concerning the points, in addition the smaller N gauge locos such as 03 & 08 do not have a slot for a chip to be installed and I don't think my eyesight to good enough to be able manually solder one up (there are no model shops where I am either to do this on my behalf). For the track bed do I use cork then ballast it or is the foam underlay realistic enough to use ? You could basically say I am a novice concerning all of this so no doubt I am going to have many more questions, thanks in advance guys.