Virago496

I haven't kept up with my blog, sorry, I haven't had much time. The whole layout had to move and is now suspended from the ceiling in the garage. A winch enables me to raise it out of the way. I have tried to make signals all electronically controlled and changing with the points. I've built many features which I hope to emphasize later on. check out the attached images for now

First of all, thanks for the reactions. I should have been clearer in my question, so here goes : The GF is super Liveway coming out of an existing layout it looks like this : The ones in situ have been tested and the trains run across them fine, the fact that the jumpers are cut doesn't bother me as the track is wired to the controller in several places. The thing that has me experimenting for weeks with these points is motorising them. I have been trying to control them with servo motors, but the wire I'm using (B&Q piano wire 0.7mm) just bends. Today I actually bought some piano wire off Ebay from a modelling shop, hoping it is more fit for purpose. I will keep trying to get them to work with my servo motors and thanks for all the advice guys. It is much appreciated.

At a recent visit to a local heritage railway I found some Graham farish track. Thinking I could save a bundle I bought all the points. Weeks later I see somewhere on the ever truthful internet Graham Farish points are not compatible with Hornby OO gauge. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Let me just quickly update every one on this. I've put everything on hold, the layout has been removed from the room it was in and is awaiting a hoist so it can be hung in the garage. I made some schoolboy errors in the design of it all, the worst of which is a too steep decent on a bend which made the passenger carriages derail. After I have fixed my new storage system I will redesign the whole thing taking all your helpful advice into account. And Right away, thanks for your input, have already "wasted" two bits of old track in try-outs, like this: Not planning on using this because its too course and the glue dries too wide, but it's a start. Keep you posted.

First of all, thank you all for the replies, Now I have an idea of the size of bottle and what it will cover. I'm going by what Dcc concepts advised in their instructional video about the underlay. Which is to put a thin layer of ballast on the shoulders of the underlay first and then ballast in between the sleepers. David and Jeff, This is my first idea for a layout and one of the ideas was to have the back of the layout raised (saw that in a youtube video and liked the look of it) I hope this shows that idea, then the inner loop is meant to be a little shunter running clockwise against a counter clockwise outer two loops. I didn't want these two to meet as the dc layout would not allow me to run two engines in opposite directions. Hope my description clarifies it a bit. The whole layout is probably full of errors but this being my first go I hope to build and learn. Your comments are definitely appreciated and will not fall on deaf ears. Don't be shy to add more comments, I'd welcome the input. Thanks so far!

Hi everyone, I'm well into my first ever proper layout and getting to the point where i'm thinking about ballasting, scattering etc. I have no idea of how much ballast I would need to do my whole layout and I wonder if anyone could help. When I look online questions about the cheaper way of ballasting always end up with folk telling you what the BEST ballast is. I'm trying to save money by buying the right amount so can anyone help me here? These are pictures of the layout: Scarm says the total length of the track is 18 &1/2 meters the track is sitting on a 3mm foam underlay There is more images and information on my blog: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/2322-viragos-railway/ Thanks!

I went to visit the Aln Valley Railway yesterday knowing there is a model railway display. It was a very interesting and informative experience and i can only hope my layout will look half as good as this: So this morning I wentto work with renewed vigour. I painted the road in the centre of the board, acrylic paint directly onto the plyboard, it actually gives it a nice texture. The plaster that hadn't been has now been painted and the tunnel entrance, I had to use a double track version, the single wouldn't fit in but a double on an angle did. Let's just hope the trains will run past because I haven't tested that yet. then I reinstalled the missing bit of track in the corner and completed the bridge. After this I turned my attention to what I have planned for that corner, Months ago I had planned a big mountain there, even built it and stuck some trees on, but I changed my mind. You see I didn't have a station yet, what if i built it on top in that corner. I experimented cutting platforms from cardboard and so on but yesterday I managed to pick up some cheap curved platform. I'd already cut a piece of board to fit the corner and fabricated electric connections to it. Then yesterday I picked up some curved platform on the cheap and started to fabricate this: The board is 3mm ply and underneath have fabricated contact points with copper tape and solder, I've done the same at the back of the baseboard and this way I can remove this part to clear derailments underneath. Then I laid 2 copper tracks on the underside of the board to which all the lights are wired. The superquick country station i cut of a standard platform that i'd bought second hand and again I painted the ply with acrylic paint. I spent the rest of the day trying to improve the look of the station and eventhough it's not done yet I'm very happy with the progress. Tomorrow I will plant some lamp posts, both at the station and in the main road and since my controller is finished I will test that. I feel a video coming on..... Quick update: made the video, but the shunter kept derailing on the inner loop, changed the points for ones I bought second hand at a steel but not remade the video yet. Did some other track work but spent most of the day sorting out the little station board. Painted the pavement and installed some lampposts. Then I realised all the loose wires underneath could get entangled in trains running underneath so I taped them to the ply. still having trouble with the contact patches, I need to weigh the board down a bit to get a good contact. Then just this last bit, the lamp posts in the village, here they are: 7 inches apart, just stuck that in my calculater and its 13.5 meters in scale. recon it should be 30 meters in scale but hey what the hell.

This entry is about the coolest thing on my layout so far, my Father in law and I are building the dual track controller ourselves. When I say we I mean he builds, solders and does the whole thing whilst I practice soldering wires to bus terminals and rails etc. The circuits circulates around the web but with the help of a fellow RMwebber who sends you a pdf with loads of extra info if you send him a nice email we managed to put it together. At the moment we are halfway, one side is done and working, the other is a work in progress. Once the whole thing is made up and some niggles worked out this entry will be updated. So far i'm glad to have one half working. Andtoday it is finished! My father in law, who is brilliant at doing these projects, has included pictures and a description in DOC format. Here are the photos: The accompanying doc file: The Controller.doc

Today I have fiddled with lots of different things. I found some DC to DC voltage reducers which would feed my LED lights nicely, so I decided to have a little play. I stuck two copper tracks down where three houses are going to be placed and soldered some LED's to those tracks. The extra wires are for a yellow led that light up the hallway. The red and black wires go under the baseboard and power the lamp posts also with copper tracks. And this is the magic little DC to Dc board : Attached to a USB lead thats connected to a usb power hub this reduces the 5V to 3V and will power something like 50 LEDs. Rather than using resisters or putting LEDs in series this seemed an elegant solution. I had the reducers anyway and I can use them for anything really, I think Max input is 30v and the output is what you set it to. I like the result anyways. Next I decided to work on the tunnel exit. My spouse found some railway bits at a car boot sale this weekend and it had some tunnel entrances included. Supported by crumpled newspaper I laid some plaster bandage down and fabricated this: The idea is that the station is going to sit on top of this in the corner. Sitting on a piece of plywood that will be removable so derailments can be easily sorted. I've started glueing some bits of cardboard together to turn into a station platform. Rather than using ready made or shop bought stuff I want to try and make it myself so it would fit round the 2nd radius bend in that corner. Lastly I painted the Hornby R657 girder bridge grey and used the leftover paint from that try try and make something of the plaster underneath the track.

]This morning I finished glueing the last bits of track underlay in place bends are all pinned on place and all it needs is fitting, cutting and laying the straights made from flexi track. Some pins are needed to keep the underlay in shape as it wants to straighten out and the various sections don't always connect seamlessly but I'm hoping to cure that with ballast. For now lets see how it dries. I've also been trying to get the points motorised this morning and found that the old points are impossible to power from underneath. Earlier I experimented with a surface mounted servo But I don't like having random little buildings around the track to hide the motors. The actuator wire would have to be fitted into the sliding control lever and the only way that it can overcome the resistance of the old points is if the action is sideways not straight underneath. The only way I think I can control the points is like the image above, but that would leave me with exposed wire and servo arm. Maybe I should look for some better points. Next is going to be the powerbus round the track. [attachment=1000397:WP_20180501_20_21_58_Pro.jpg In the back of the photo you can see some 5 amp cable. I'm using this for the power bus for the outer track, It goes round the whole of the baseboard with the earth wire being used as a common ground for everything except the track. the track connects to the red and black in this cable. With the controller having a 12v 2.5 amp transformer to feed it, I thought it best to send it round the layout in some hefty cable.

When last going through my wardrobe I found the old box of railway bits and the Hornby R1046-SD Christmas special. I put the set together on the dining room table and ran the little steam engine, the Classes 37, 29 and a B12 round and found that they all needed cleaning and servicing. On to Youtube to help guide me through this process and pretty soon I was knee deep into model railways again. A visit to Amazon and e bay made me want some brilliant little things that were just too cheap to resist. Then came the voice of that little devil on the shoulder saying: "You could build a nice little layout in the garage you know". And that what it, the idea was born. Like a newborn baby constantly asking for my attention. I am a lorry driver and sitting behind the wheel for 10 hours a day gives you so much time to work out ideas and expand on them. First off, I'm not an experienced modeller, and my handiwork usually looks a bit dishevelled. But I'm filled with good intentions and vowed to not rush this project. I have bought lots of stuff but want to try and make more things myself. I've already tried creating a stone wall from polystyrene and am not too displeased with that (photos will follow). I plan to research things before attempting them and will make plenty mistakes. Inspiration came from watching other peoples layout videos on Youtube and I decided that my railway would need an elevated section at the back and two trains running in opposite directions, I thought that that would make it all look bigger/ more active. The space in a separate bit of the garage is almost large enough for an 8x4 board, I put that in cutting about 20cm of the length and using that cut off as a ramp to get 8cm up at the back. Now most of you will say: "That is too wide, you can't get to the back this way". I researched the height of the baseboard and found on forums that this should be at the 90cm mark. Too high. But it's in place and I'm going to have to deal with it. Part of this blog is I hope to get tip and ideas from fellow, more experienced, modellers. So don't be afraid to comment, I'd love to hear On Scarm I came up with this: The blue loop is elevated 8cm at the back and crosses over the inner part of it. There's going to be a hill/mountain in the top left corner that needs to be able to be removed in case of derailments. Trains will run counter clockwise only and a place still needs to be found for a station. The green loop is completely separate and will have a little shunter running clockwise. The single siding has been moved above the engine shed because the shed would not fit the original design. The two tracks going into the engine shed will be switched so they can be connected to the main line alternatively. Hope this all makes a bit of sense. Let me know your thoughts. I will be away for the next two days but will read comments on my phone.

Welcome to my layout update page. My name is Dirk Farquhar I live in the scottish borders and I have started building a Layout in Hornby OO gauge. I've kept bit and pieces of HO/OO gauge stuff for years (have loads of Fleischmann track, an old jouef controller and a "Duette"from H&M) and decided to make some room in the garage and have a bash. More to follow.....