AyJay

Hello Michael, Mike. I just took a good look at my layout with a tape measure. It's not just point(s) 11 that's rodded, the first points at the end of the fiddleyard just stick out of the end of the bridge mouth, so they are rodded also. Then there will be signals 7 to 9. In all, that's about 14m of Wills rodding back to the South Box, or over £100 on something that is purely cosmetic. I just cannot justify that sort of expense. So my options are: 1. As suggested, use motors. But were they available in the 50's and what about the three signals? I am ignoring the ground signals. 2. Leave the North Box where it is and say that it is the start of the next block that goes beyond the end of the scenic area under the bridge. After all, the scale is compressed. 3. Remove the North Box and have the rodding run under the bridge in the opposite direction because it belongs to the next block northbound. This will mean that I use up the spare rodding that I have and don't need to buy any more rodding kits. Having already placed the North Box, I know what is my favourite option is. I suppose that the South Box could be moved further south to the inside of the curve beyond points 5/6, to make a stronger case for the North Box; but then I am back to adding significant rodding (cost) threading its way through the points. As we all know, our layouts are a compromise and sometimes reality has to be suspended. However, I can take away from this, the recommendations on additional signals.

Thank you for your comment everyone. They were very helpful; I had to read them a couple of times and keep referring back to my diagrams. Yes, certainly compression does play a big part in this layout. That's all the space I have and it was a long journey to get that trackplan. Removing the North Signal Box will be an easy one, although I have got used to seeing it there now. That also means combining the North and South diagrams; which makes the printout twice as long and I don't fancy buying an A3 laminator just for this. I had not thought of having the fiddleyard points on their own diagram. Yes, the fiddleyard is 'off stage' and I have built a pair of bridges across the track at each end to mark the limits of the scene. Regarding running (non-operating) rodding from the south box to points S11 and the signals there, space through the station is tight. Can the rodding run between the up and down lines? Can it run behind the Down platform? Or since I cannot see it from inside the layout, I might just have it disappearing between the south track and the platform? (that would save me a few pounds, the Ratio plastic rodding is quite expensive; will also save depleting the stock at my shop) Points S11 will stay where they are, I need them for when I want to disconnect a loco and run it round. Besides, it's all ballasted now. Not needing a bracket distant (S1/S2) is welcomed. Anything that reduces the number of signals I have yet to build is always welcome. I think I can go ahead and order those levers now. Thank you again. Alan

Thank you for your questions. The location is deliberately non-descript. The locomotives are all steam and BR, but the types represent each of the big four. So Anytown middle England will do. It's a Double-slip because that's what I had and I could not justify the expense. It's 2 signal boxes because I took my trackplan with me to Alexandra Palace a couple of years back and consulted a gentleman demonstrating building signals, a retired railway signalman with The Model Railway Club. I wanted to know how it should be signalled. He told me that two boxes was plausable, given the curve in the track. This also meant that I did not have to lay rodding through the station. The few signals that I have constructed are all upper quadrant. Hope that helps.

And here is a pdf download from AnyRail, for my trackplan... Any assistance gratefully accepted. Thank you. Alan Trackplan_V10point8_a3.pdf

I have some questions concerning the arrangement of point levers, also the positioning of signals. I am going to purchase Cobalt point levers by DCC concepts, up to 24 of them required, also what is needed to make a mimic panel to show point settings. When looking at my trackplan, attached, I will be standing in the middle and facing downwards, looking towards the station, engine yard and goods yard. So my left appears to the right on the diagram. I plan to site the levers on the edge of the board near the station. The levers for the fiddleyard, behind me, will also need to be mounted in front, since that's where the encoder boards will be located. When positioning the point levers, I am thinking of three groups, one for each signal box and one for the engine yard. Also at some point, I hope that there will be working semaphore signals and I'm pondering the MegaPoints Controller system for that, but that will be after I have paid off the second mortgage on this project. Notes: Points Point 5/6 is a double-slip to enable goods DOWN to reverse into goods yard. A number of points are paired up and share one dcc address. These points are marked with one address number. e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 21, 27, 29, 9, 11, 19, 18, 17, 16 Signals S1/2 is a bracket distant. Can I get away with a single distant? S6. Is it necessary, since I have S3/5 to protect point 9? S9/10 is partly hidden behind a bridge, so I will need a high repeater. S11 & S12. Do I need both? The distance between them is less than a 5-carriage train. Ground signals Is one needed at point 7? Do I need a ground signal protecting the exit from goods yard to DOWN MAIN over point 6? Do I need a ground signal protecting the exit from goods yard to UP MAIN over point 9? Is the exit from goods line onto MAIN protected by a normal signal or a ground signal? I have questions concerning the arrangement of point levers, also the positioning of signals. I am going to purchase Cobalt point levers by DCC concepts, up to 24 of them required, also what is needed to make a mimic panel to show point settings. When looking at my trackplan, attached, I will be standing in the middle and facing downwards, looking towards the station, engine yard and goods yard. So my left appears to the right on the diagram. I plan to site the levers on the edge of the board near the station. The levers for the fiddleyard, behind me, will also need to be mounted in front, since that's where the encoder boards will be located. When positioning the point levers, I am thinking of three groups, one for each signal box and one for the engine yard. Also at some point, I hope that there will be working semaphore signals and I'm pondering the MegaPoints Controller system for that, but that will be after I have paid off the second mortgage on this project. Notes: Points Point 5/6 is a double-slip to enable goods DOWN to reverse into goods yard. A number of points are paired up and share one dcc address. These points are marked with one address number. e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 21, 27, 29, 9, 11, 19, 18, 17, 16 Signals S1/2 is a bracket distant. Can I get away with a single distant? S6. Is it necessary, since I have S3/5 to protect point 9? S9/10 is partly hidden behind a bridge, so I will need a high repeater. S11 & S12. Do I need both? The distance between them is less than a 5-carriage train. Ground signals Is one needed at point 7? Do I need a ground signal protecting the exit from goods yard to DOWN MAIN over point 6? Do I need a ground signal protecting the exit from goods yard to UP MAIN over point 9? Is the exit from goods line onto MAIN protected by a normal signal or a ground signal?

Thank you all for your helpful input, I had another think about what I wanted. Wheatley, as I read your reply, I could almost hear you saying "and you can't go far wrong...." Rather than ask this thread be moved, I think it best that I start again with a freshly worded text. Admin, will you please close this thread and point towards Permanent Way, Signalling and Infrastructure, where I will shortly re-post. Thank you.

Thank you for that. Can I please have an answer to my question? ;-)

Hello, I have finally decided to make use of the excellent Cobalt point levers by DCC concepts, up to 24 of them required, I'll also be having a mimic panel to show point settings. This poses a conundrum. When looking at my trackplan, attached, I will be standing in the middle and facing downwards, looking towards the station, engine yard and goods yard. So my left appears to the right on the diagram. I plan to site the levers on the edge of the board near the station. The levers for the fiddleyard, behind me, will also need to be mounted in front, since that's where the encoder boards will be located. Is there a convention for how the levers should be arranged? i.e. should they be positioned left to right in the same order that the points appear? Should the mainline point levers be in a separate group from the engine yard levers, or should they all be in one long line? At some point, I hope that there will be working semaphore signals and I'm pondering the MegaPoints Controller system for that, but that will be after I have paid off the second mortgage on this project. Any thoughts on this much appreciated. Thanks, Alan Trackplan_V10point8_a3.pdf

Hello, I have finally decided to go ahead and purchase the excellent Cobalt-S point levers by DCC Concepts. They should look quite grand on the edge of my layout, next to where I park my NCE controller. I want to keep them all together in one row, I'll need 24 of them and I plan to put them by my engine yard. I also hope to squeeze in a mimic panel somewhere. So looking at my trackplan, they will be sited at the bottom of the diagram, on the inside of the layout, where there is a space on the second board from the left. As I face the engine yard, my left to right goes from right to left as you see the diagram. This raises a question.... Is there a recommended order in which to arrange the levers? Should I have a gap separating the 'Main-line' levers from the 'engine yard and goods yard' levers? I don't have signals yet, but am considering the MegaPoints Controller system and want to find out if I can interface signal operation to the points? Any thoughts much appreciated. Trackplan_V10point8_a3.pdf

Apologies all if I am introducing subject creep into this topic, but something said by The Johnster sent me to do a survey of my rolling stock, the bit about eliminating plastic wheels. In my vast collection of wagons, I have 70 with plastic wheels. Well I don't run them a lot, preferring to run carriages. Of my 50 or so carriages, I have 12 with plastic wheels, mostly Hornby and a few Lima's, probably about £80 to rewheel them. I'm not even going to consider the prohibitive cost of rewheeling my wagons. Oh yes, OO gauge, running 5 to 6 carriage trains. What I'd like to know is...... How significant an improvement would it make to cleanliness and free running, to replace the plastic wheels? If it's 'slight' then I'll probably not bother and save the money. But if it's 'significant' then I'll consider it. Thanks

A few years back at an exhibition (possibly Warley), I spent some time admiring a French layout in O gauge. It was a street scene with cafe's, tabacs, figures on the street with french sticks under their arms, and a couple of those 'corregated' citroen cars. I think you get the picture. No doubt Rene was there somewhere too. The buildings looked absolutely fabulous. Then I peered closer and looked in the windows above one of the cafe's.... The place was a bordello!!! And it was doing a roaring trade too!!! Suffice to say, I just laughed.

Hi Houndog, Is your costing right? For my layout, I went to Travis Perkins and purchased ten sheets of 5mm ply, 2.4 x 1.2m. Current cost £25.62 each. With that, I was able to construct all the baseboards I wanted, all crossbraced, and I still had 2 sheets left over.

Well that experiment was an interesting exercise in what not to do. The result was terrible and showed me that I do not know how to paint. So I have been looking at videos on youtube and experimenting with the various techniques that I have seen, with dubious success. Then it occurred to me that in all these videos, it's about making a painting. What I am trying to do should not be the subject of my attention and it's considerably larger than a painting canvas. So by changing my search criteria from 'painting sky' to 'painting model railway backdrop', I am presented with completely different approaches. For a start, the roller brush did not get a look-in on the first set of videos, but was widespread in the second set. If anyone has any advice, I would be most interested to hear. Not least of all, do I stick with household emulsion, or should I work in acrylic? Thank you.

I have been experimenting with applying various shades of grey onto backing paper with a small roller brush. The effect gives a suitably moody and overcast day. I'll see what the effect is like when I have fixed it to the wall and put some cut-outs in front. Then I'll consider a few sparingly added blue highlights. 10m of backing paper, four tester pots and a roll of double sided tape from Wilco's, about £12.

So I have finally started to think about producing a backdrop for part of my layout, but it is proving to be not a straightforward process. I have bought some sheets from Freestone models and have cut out a terrace of houses that I want to use because it matches the style of buildings. The constraints are: (1) That this is a corner. (2) To the left is a window that I want to leave unobstructed. (3) To the right is the end of the fiddle yard and hence not landscaped. (4) The walls are light brown, softwood cladding. In the first picture, I have positioned my cut-out where I want it, the right end partly hidden by a building at the end of the street. It looks hopeful, but lacks a skyline. In my second picture, I have added a sheet of scrap card that I painted with light blue with some streaks of white. Ouite frankly, I think it looks sick and I hate that it contrasts with the wall and that the two ends are in view. Then someone took a look at it and suggested, 'try a mirror'. So I did! I think it would be the right solution somewhere else, but not here. Besides, glass is heavy and I don't want 'accidents'. Lastly, I remembered that I had a roll of wall backing paper. Of the four, I think that this shows the most 'promise'. The colour is a matt off-white. I have seen layouts use a light grey backscene and thought that it always looks 'passable'. So I want to see if I can find a plain wallpaper in dove-grey. I have also been pondering about what to do at the end of the road going off to the right. On the Freestone sheet, I found a building that looked like it could be at the end of a cul-du-sac, you can just see it's roof sticking up behind the right end of the terrace at the front. I could add a wall and gate in front of it going across the road. Although in the 5th picture, its image looks most odd, fortunately this is not a normal viewing position. On the other side of the room, I have several feet of wall that I can cover with something a bit more industrial. So what do people think? Am I going in the right direction with a neutral colour backing paper? I have also been looking at a large sky scene that Gaugemaster produce, but I am still left with the problem of a discontinuity where it stops at the window?

Thank you cypherman, much appreciated. I am going to wait until I can source the in-line electrical connector before doing anything, so that I can do both jobs together. Can anyone help with the connector?

Hello, I bought the Peco turntable and it looks jolly good, quite like the real one at Didcot. It also takes the longest of my locomotives, a Princess. My only criticism is that I also used the Expo motor kit.... The metal spindle which transmits the drive from the motor to the bridge, is a smooth, round cross section, just press fitting into the lug in the bottom of the bridge. So I suspect that mine might be turning in it's lug. It should have been a splined shaft or square ended. Next, There is a selection of gear options and you can easily set-up a gearing to your taste. The output is to a worm which engages with a large cog on the other end of previously mentioned shaft. But the kit does not provide anything to hold them together, you have to improvise that yourself. Mine keeps disengaging, so the bridge often just stops turning. Lastly, despite liberal quantities of cork sheeting for sound dampening, the noise from the motor is very loud and objectionable. Also, when I cut the power, there is still a bit of over-run, making alignment a bit of a dark-art. Why couldn't Hornby do a turntable that looked like the Peco one? Why couldn't Peco do one that had indexing, like Hornby? I may just seriously consider the ADM turntable.

There is one fundamental issue that everyone seems to have forgotten. It is more important than any technical consideration, indeed its relevance and ability to scupper any plans must not be understated. Before you do anything that involves coming into the home..... Get the approval from 'The Boss' first!

Hello. Some years back I purchased via Ebay, second hand, Hornby locomotive, R1048 Castle Class 7028 ‘Cadbury Castle’. The locomotive runs fine and looks good but..... It was soon apparent that the previous owner had trouble with it because the locomotive chassis was only secured to the top via the front screw under the pony truck; The rear screw under the cab had seized with the threaded ferrule that fixes into the body and the ferrule had pulled away with the screw. There was evidence that attempt had been made to glue it back. This was something that was not much of an issue for me up to the point that I went all DCC. Now the tender is permanently attached to the loco by three wires, making for a very tight access. I have written to Hornby, asking if they can replace the screw fixing and fit an in-line electrical connector, so that I can disconnect the tender from the loco. Hornby has just replied saying that they cannot take this model. I have also looked on the Peters Spares website, nothing doing. So over to you folks, any suggestions please, for a replacement screw fixing and where I can source a small in-line connector, preferably without having to do any 'buchering' of the tender ? Thank you.

My layout is composed of 11 sections that join together, including one that raises (drawbridge fashion). This is the method that I employed: 1. All sections aligned with close fitting brass dowels. 2. Copper-clad sleepers glued and pinned either side of the joins, for soldering the track to. Note, if the sleepers are clad on both sides, strip the copper off the underside before securing. 3. Ensure that the track makes contact with the sleepers without causing it to rise up at that position causing rolling stock to bump over a ridge. 4. Then I laid the track across the join, secured in place, soldered the rails onto the copper-clad sleepers and finally used a razor saw to cut through the rails across the join. 5. With a sharp blade, strip back segment of copper between the rails to maintain electrical isolation. BUT!!! This is absolutely fine when the track crosses the join at right angles. What I discovered to my cost is that when the track crosses at an angle, and doubly so if it is a curve, cutting along the join of the boards means that the cut is not perpendicular across each rail. Meaning that there is an sharp edge which can catch the flange of a wheel and cause a derailment. If you have track crossing at an angle, I would recommend cutting each rail separately, possibly using a powered cutting disk, to ensure that the cut is perpendicular across the rail. If you are concerned that the thickness of the cutting disk will leave an unacceptably wide cut, then you could compensate for this by clamping a very thin spacer between the boards before laying the track. But do it with care because it affects how track aligns afterwards.

Hello all, This thread touches on something that has been on my mind recently. During the construction of my model railway, I have been keeping a photograph diary of its development and this has included a section on several card buildings that I have recently made. I have been thinking of putting these photographs together (just the card buildings, that is), possibly as a slideshow with an audio commentary. Well putting the slides together was the easy bit, I now have to think about a script for a commentary. The 'story' I have is: Look to the real thing (photographs & google street). Tools and materials used. Prepare a mock-up first (check that it fits). Construct the model. Lessons learned & references. I suppose the big question is 'why?' To which I would answer, to showcase what I have done and share a technique with those that don't know where to start. I realise that there is no such thing as a definitive 'right' way to do something, we each develop a technique and others may disagree with mine. So I want to ask, is this something that is likely to be well received, or would I be wasting my time? Also, if I do this, what would be the appropriate platform, Youtube, or this forum (and if so, which section)? I'd like to hear peoples thoughts on this. Thanks.

I once heard someone say, with regards television, "the programs are interrupting the advertising" It seems as though the same process is happening on all forms of social media, including this forum; I appreciate that there has to be some revenue generation BUT, can someone from BRM please explain why when I come onto this forum, I am constantly bombarded with advertising pop-ups? I could understand if they were modelling related, but no! Here's the latest..... But then, of course, we are all on this site to soak up all the advertising, and whatever we post is just a distraction from that. Rant over, I'll now go and place a bulk order of horseshoes for my layout...

Hello Mr Tea, It's not the same as what you are after, but I have been hanging onto the 'Village Shop & Cafe' PO254, unopened, and I'm never going to make it. So it's yours if you want it. Gratis! You will have to come and collect though. I live about half hours drive from Reading.

Thanks for that stubby, but I think that you have misunderstood my question. From Google street I have counted rows of bricks on the property that is in the photograph. The 2nd floor windows are the same height as those on the 1st floor, 5ft. I also have the total height of the building. What I need is photographs of a 3-storey building that would be in the same style as what I have already modelled. The big question is, what does the back look like? So far, my search has returned nothing.