wasdavetheroad

I have checked out the large flange wheels I have from Dapol, Lima including brass loco wheels and what appears to be the largest flange on a Siphon G, Airfix GMR coaches and Mainline coaches. Apart from normal track I also tested on the 3 turnouts 490mm, 550mm and 867mm radius. Happy to report no flange riding on the chairs and the wheels were OK through the turnout flange guides as well.

Yes, according to Deltang it should work with DC, AC and DCC power. It occurs to me that if you are using the Rx off layout and supplying the track via a Tx acting as a remote throttle the regulated power supply would mean no need the rectification circuitry? This is the latest plan for the layout, Kato HO Unitrack, Green are the quarry lines/ Exchange sidings. Building works are almost compete so maybe track laying can start in early December. No station names yet.

Has anyone any experience of building one of these diagrams from the Deltang site? I have just ordered myself an early xmas present which is an OO scale Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 saddle tank loco. Because of aging hand problems I have great difficulty with complex construction and anyway the loco has room for a decoder or Deltang Rx but fitting batteries is going to be extremely difficult. The loco will run on its own section of the layout ( exchange sidings and quarry sidings) with no access allowed to the main lines. BR locomotives will have access to the exchange sidings and will continue to run on batteries. To start with I hope to have say 12V DC from a regulated power supply feeding a Deltang Rx which supplies the track and is controlled by a spare Deltang Tx I have. The loco will retain its power collectors and requires no modification out of the box. If this works OK I will proceed to stage 2. Stage 2 involves fitting the Rx to the loco with the rectification circuit etc and this should allow for more than one loco to be controlled from the Tx with the advantage of the full 12V being supplied from the rails.

Can you give some examples of the stock you are worried about, I am about to start a Kato HO Unitrack layout and never really thought about the problem as my stock is overwhelmingly newer profile.

Already got a head shunt for that and I might use it for some sort of business, small wood yard maybe An advantage of Kato Unitrack is I can easily modify the layout.

Thanks a lot that has saved me a lot of trouble. I have also looked at the long topic on Lampeter here and have the detailed plan detail with a bonus that a signalling plan is similar to mine

Because plan A is a simple schematic and the actual plan is above (ignore the mineral line run around loop). The 3 RH points would need to be replaced with LH ones in a remodelled plan. Happily I don't need to do this.

Single line passing loop and entrance to goods yard. Was there ever an example of the layout at A? If so I will be happy with the 'there is a prototype for everything' If no and it has to be the layout B I will be faced with difficult choices. 1 - buy new turnouts, expensive at £60 each and I will need 3 of them, leaving me with 3 that I have no use for, and maybe have to wait several months before they are available anyway. 2 - Invoke the ' its my train set' rule and start track laying

Excellent inspiring post. Just shows what can be done but unfortunately my precision fitting days are over due to increasingly ancient hands so all my locos need battery removal for charging. Do you have a continuous circuit of any size? I test my battery capacity by fully charging it and timing how long it pulls a typical load before the LVC cuts the power to save the battery. The Rx-41 still has LVC?

Another vote for Kato HO Unitrack. I have been collecting track for several months as the supply can be intermittent. Many will think the prices eye wateringly expensive with a 867 radius turnout being about £60. For the you get several pieces of ballasted track including a 10 angle return curve to make a siding etc and, for me, the point motor is contained in the ballast base and looks a precision job with gold contacts. There are 8 curve radii from 370mm to 790mm, with 4 pieces in the pack for a 90 degree curve. There are also 490mm and 550mm turnouts with a manual version for the 490mm and for the 867mm as well. The 550mm has just been announced and is a re engineered product so not many details so far. Track centres are 60mm for the 550mm and 867mm turnouts but 75mm for the 490mm. You can take an exacto saw to them as long as you don't touch the motor area. You can also mod the straights and curves and I have just made two length with a 2.5 degree curve at about 2000mm radius. BTW I hate wiring so will only wire the points and have radio controlled battery powered locos Might start a topic about how the 16 foot train set construction is going with how to mod the track etc.

Apparently Tacky Glue = thick PVA

Anyrail has an extensive library of track geometry. For example the Peco code 100 streamline etc has the slips and curved points. I am using Anyrail to design my new layout which uses Kato H0 Unitrack, a sectional track system but no flexitrack . It is possible to modify straights and curve radii so I copied a length of Peco flextirack onto the layout plan and use that to design customised track

The National Library of Scotland site is brilliant, covers England too and you can get OS large scale maps back to the 1850's. It is also free. Zoom in, make a screen copy and print it. I use Irfanview for all that basic image stuff such as chopping the unwanted bits out of the screen copy, also an excellent program.

That's interesting, the point rodding can emerge from any side of the box and maybe even all of them!

Thanks for the designs, the second one looks better. I have redrawn it with the clearances I need, 112mm for the box and 180mm for the cattle/loading dock. This would mean buying an additional turnout and discarding one with the problem of maybe waiting months for delivery. I can delay the decision as the advantage of sectional track is I can easily lift it as I experiment with operating the layout

I will try experimenting with AnyRail for that idea. There is the restriction of very limited turnout geometry. Currently only 867mm radius with a 10 degree diverge or 490mm radius with a 25 degree diverge, new 550 rad are in production soon. It could be expensive as well, those 867mm points include built in motor and other track sections but come in at £60 a pop! Maybe one day they will introduce a 'Y' point like they have in their N-scale range. I calculate I would need 112mm between track centres to fit the signal box. Also the large space in the yard near the red box is where the cattle pens and loading dock are located. BTW the mineral run around loop has 2 x 490 rad points at one end and I cut down the curve to about 21 degrees to narrow the track separation.

Yes there are lots of compromises due to available space and my choice of KATO HO Unitrack for this my 3rd layout. Age related hand and eye issues have led to me choosing the simplest approach which gives the project its working name of the '16 foot train set'. I don't like wiring anyway and the baseboards are 3 layers of 50mm blue foam screwed together. I changed to wireless control and battery power with the last layout and it has worked well for me. I took delivery of the final 3 points last week so hopefully will start track laying in a couple of weeks once some building work is completed. Back to the signal box. This morning I modified the yard layout and the plan shows in red where I wanted the box to be and in green where I will try it first. Some of you might recognise the layout from my signalling forum question and note I took the good advice to put a run around loop in for the mineral exchange sidings. This will allow for the little 0-4-0 to run around 6 wagons which is fine for me and even an excuse to make 2 trips to fill the sidings.

I could do that but there is no site width restriction in the real world site which is a country area. The maximum baseboard width is 36'' which is just about reachable as I am less than 5' 5''. Overall design constraints on the layout mean I can't find an extra few inches here without causing even worse problems elsewhere. The Metcalfe box is being recycled from a previous layout as well.

Thanks for the info. Due to the inevitable depth constraints with baseboard depth it looks like there is not enough room. My alternative is to move the yard track closer to the running line and locate the box behind it whilst maintaining the line of sight to the various signals if possible. I suppose it is OK to have the point rodding etc running under what is the access road to the yard. When I get round to the rodding in a year or so.

I am trying to squeeze an old style signal box between a main running line and a goods yard track. Is there a specified minimum clearance between the box wall and the centre of the running line allowing for the point rodding emerging from the box etc. The model is a 00 scale Metcalf kit with a width of approx 13 feet plus a 18 inch walkway for cleaning the windows

large or medium radius point and what makes of wagon? Medium radius points can have issues with some wheel flanges 'picking' facing point blades. There are measures you can take to lessen the problem. Have a read of this https://ntrak.org/resources/Documents/tNt/T-TRAK TipsNTechniques/TNT Unitrack Turnouts.pdf

Not absolutely as the C,K&PR did have some signals replaced with upper quadrants. I have 4 lower quadrant and need 2 more of LNWR or LMS type.

Thanks Mike for the comprehensive reply. I think I understand it all. The only problem is the DOWN signal at B. Dapol do a bracket home signal but with both arms full size although the left hand version has the arm set lower. I do want to operate the main signals but ground signals etc are beyond my old hands capabilities. edit, just found some images, it looks like I will have to add a non working miniature arm to a normal signal

This is the current track plan developed in AnyRail, just under 5 metres wide and using Kato HO Unitrack Feel free to add signals to it

Good points, unfortunately as we all are I am constrained by the available space and the point geometry which has a 10 degree diverge angle. If I had another metre that double track curve at the DOWN end would not be there. and the idea of two stop signal less than 100 yards apart worries me. I like your idea of a run around loop somewhere on the quarry line as DOWN wagons could go in the right hand siding and UP wagons in the left. I will get the topic moved but may start again with a plain track diagram ask for advice on signalling given the constraints of the model.