TomEM1

A bit more progress on ballast and colouring the yard and crossing. Plus a bit of green between the tracks. Alot more weathering needs doing to tone everything down. The green looks odd in photos it doesn't look like that in reality.

So quick update, some more ballast down and ground cover in front of the shed. I've started ballasting the second line. I had been putting this off as I planned to make a hard standing in the wider gap ether concrete or cobbles. But I cant decided and wanted to make progress so we will see what happens I might make a dirt track instead. I've also started a crossing using cut up lollie sticks to make timber planks. This allowed me to start ground cover in the yard ahead of the shed. I've used dried tea for this, I'm going for a dirty ash and oil and mud look so will mix up some filler and black paint to wash over hopefully to give the effect.

Thanks for the feed back, I have a wye point in a box and seem to remember it was part of the original plan. However it brought the siding to close to the line coming in from the left, I want space for a dirt road down there. When viewed from ground level it doesn't look too bad and will mostly have something static, derelict old loco or tank wagon with diesel if a later time. Also it is now blasted in and drying!

Thanks for the feed back, I have a wye point in a box and seem to remember it was part of the original plan. However it brought the siding to close to the line coming in from the left, I want space for a dirt road down there. When viewed from ground level it doesn't look too bad and will mostly have something static, derelict old loco or tank wagon with diesel if a later time. Also it is now blasted in and drying!

Ok so it has been some time since I even looked at this project, since moving to Asia it has sat in a spare room un touched. I have recently been hit with inspiration to move it along as I cant do alot else at the moment. My first task was to finish the scale scenes engine shed I started over a year ago. It's a bit faded and hasn't traveled to well but it will do for now and can be upgraded at some point if necessary. On returning to the layout itself some of the underlay and track had lifted so I have glued this down. I then set up some rough buildings for inspiration before realising that the point operation isnt working in some areas. Again I think travelling and living in a spare room here where temperatures often exceed 40c has taken its toll. I may re think the wires and do something simpler.

I have made a bit more progress. I wanted to have a reliable uncoupling system working using magnates and paperclips but couldn't get this to work reliably, I have left the magnets in place but don't think they are strong enough. The track is all painted and I have a short test run of ballast down. What do you think? I have also fitted the scalescenes inspection pit for the engine shed and put down some plasterboard filler as a hard standing, this needs sanding and​ finishing.

Ok so some more progress has been made. I now have the WIT point operation working. As i have said i am using bike gear cable as I have some used to hand plus the correct cutters which make it alot easier to work with. I first used two part epoxy resin to glue some small bolts upright near the tiebar to create an anchor for the outer cable, i then ran this around to the holes i drilled at the end of the base board and epoxyed it in place. Next i superglued the slide switches in place (having first drilled through the lever and soldered some lengths of wire on) part way through this i realised it helped to use a thin piece of plastic to raise the switch up, you will see why in a minute. I then fed the inner cable through to the switch end. After that i made some large paper clips in to staple type things to connect the tie bar and slide switch (the extra clearance the plastic strips give makes it easier to make this work), these were then connected to the cables with the insides of electrical strip connectors. I did try to make the two points facing each other work of one lever but found the play in the cable and tight corners meant it didn't work. I'm sure it could be made to work with more time and may revisit this in future.i am also planning to use the heads of notice board push pins as handles. I'm currently working on some magnetic un coupling using tension locks. I may look to change for a neater system in future but want to get up and running for now. I'm hoping to get the track painted and ballasted soon.

I then got some laminate floor underlay as a base. It is a very dense foam type 2mm thick. I covered the whole board with this, if I was modelling main lines I would use strips as underlay to raise the track. Track placed down and some scale scenes things placed on as an idea off how it could look. Track wired and all the access holes underneath. (I'm starting to think I should have cut big sections from underneath) Track glued down. I am currently working on WIT point operation using bike gear cable. If anyone has any experience with this please let me know, I have searched for it a little but not found much info.

I apologize for the mobile phone camera pics. I will try my tablet in future and hopefully at some point an actual camera. Photos of the shelves and my basic dowel and latch system for connecting them. Rough track plan I have a lot of code 100 track from my old setup but wanted to try electofrog and code 75 for the scenic section.

Hello, I am new to the forum but have been looking at layout threads on here for a while. I have recently got back in to the hobby having had a standard 8x4 Hornby track mat layout as a boy and a spell in the secondary school model railway club (really just running locos up and down the first bit of track that we laid). Being from just north of Manchester I have an interest in the woodhead route though I am too young to remember it in operation. However I have started a shelf layout to practice techniques. I acquired two shelves from the big Scandinavia furniture shop, called LACK hence the name though this could change. They are each 1100mm x 260mm and are the 'floating' type so have a card honeycombe structure similar to a 'ply flush door' in the UK. My idea is to have one scenic and one fiddle yard. I have already started construction so will show some photos of progress so far. As I have said the idea is to learn and practice tequniques, so some aspects may be unprototypical but please feel free to point things out as I'm not very experienced and want to try for some degree of accuracy. I'll hopefully get some photos up soon. Tom