TrentValleyRailway

On 28/09/2020 at 09:39, ISW said:

Matt,

 

Nice single rails for the overhead crane, though not exactly prototypical. Mind you, I suppose you will 'hide' the timber sleepers under the road surface?

 

And that's some very straight track you have there. Impressive.

 

Ian

agreed, the single rail on sleepers will mostly be hidden by 'concrete' plasticard to the top rail level of the track. to note also is the crane itself isnt exactly prototypical at HO scale!

Scenic work on hard standing for container depot begins

A look back at completing the incline for the layout 

Layout Update - August 2020 ~ Trent Valley Railway #45
 

Installing shunt signals on the container depot lines (spun round from final position to observe lighting test)
 

Pictures from latest layout update 

The scenery stage begins after adding in some containers to the back scene, and now starting on the electrification scheme for the mainlines. catenary masts are by Dapol and still deciding if black or copper for the catenary wires

Running Session - Summer 2020 ~ Trent Valley Railway #43

A few pictures of setting up the Heljan container crane for the layout

DCC Wiring - Model Railway Track Bus ~ Trent Valley Railway #41

Layout Cab Ride - Spring 2020 ~ Trent Valley Railway #40

Layout Update May 2020 Part 2 ~ Trent Valley Railway #39

Trains tested and all working across the completed loops. Moving on to completing the end of the container depot 

Next step completed and finally a full running loops , queue major track cleaning session

More progress towards completing the full layout loops

need to space the sleepers and smooth out the rail alignment and can move on to second section to fill in

12 hours ago, ISW said:

Matt,

 

What is the purpose of those 3 white circles under the track and what are they made of?

 

they are the rapido trains uncoupler units which have a set of magnets inside that switch around when on and off. Useful for reliable uncoupling of the kadee couplings and only when I press the button to activate it through DCC

On 04/05/2020 at 18:39, ISW said:

Upper Baseboard - Framework

 

You can clearly see how/where the 'gaps' in the Upper Level baseboard supports provide enough clearance to the Connection 2 Ramp tracks:

 

 

Reading through the rest of the topic i assume you are not running electric trains?

On 03/05/2020 at 16:55, ISW said:

Upper Baseboard - Track Layout

 

... with my layout design such that I was having all kinds of trouble designing the Upper Level baseboards such that they would support the Upper Level trackwork and be clear of the Ramp Tracks underneath.

 

Now this may not look like much progress, but it's like an iceberg. 90% of the work is underneath the Upper Level baseboards! I'll explain later.

 

For reference your first point above is why i kept my scenic section to one side of the garage only to avoid the low hanging clearances from an all round the room upper level.

Totally agree on the matter that 90% if not more of the work is underneath the top baseboards - plus when the top baseboards go down you still have to go underneath to wire up and add everything else that needs to be out of view. 

Keep taking your time in the planning out stage as it will come to fruition eventually - like mine now it has been 2 years after starting from the garage floor upwards.

More pictures of the latest work including a view all the way up the scenic section, nearby there after couple of years of work to create a full continuous running loops from lower level to scenic section.