Multigauge

Not much progress this week due to domestic circumstances and work taking up most of my time. However, I did finish painting and siting the capping stones which I've given a dark wash and some dry brushing to weather. I've also cut a hole in the brick work for the for the exit steps. Next steps will be adding some drain pipes to the retaining wall sections and weathering the general area. I'd like to start ballasting too, but I'm not sure I have the time to do it in one hit.

Hi everyone. I'm wondering if anyone has any particular preference for a make/model of soldering iron for general soldering of wires for droppers, tracks, fitting modules that sort of thing? There's loads on the market and quite few with accessories but little actual trusted reviews on whether they are any good. Tia. Matt

@sb67 thanks for the vote of confidence. I've been painting the capping stones of late. The first coat is probably too bright, bit I think toning them down with some dry brushing will work a treat. I was wondering how to support the sticks whilst they dried and came across some cardboard packaging that does the job. So far the same Swedish furniture store has supplied the materials for the retaining wall supporting structures, platform base, bridge and bridge base. I found a couple of old buildings to put down too just to aid imagination. The little ones Percy and coaches paid a visit today too.

Your layout has been a real eye-opener in what you can do in such a small space. The linking of the scenes and the way it packs down is just genius. I'm really tempted by the scale scenes kits and box files, but i need to complete Badsworth Rd and an unnamed N guage layout that I have been building for a couple of years.

A small amount of work done so far this week. Rails painted. Lolly sticks harvested, trimmed and scribed ready for capping on the retaining walls. I raided my box of useful bits left over from projects long ago and found a broken airfix foot bridge. I hope to butcher this some more to form an exit from the platform (yet to be fully constructed) to the road level above. I've also been test running a Percy bought s/h for the the little one who's birthday is tomorrow.

A spare hour early this morning gave me time to paint the board an earthy brown. I've also done some more work on the bridge cutting the angles to get the skew right. The lollies have all been eaten, but alas the message about keeping the lolly sticks didn't sink in that well as I only have 3 out a possible 9... Looks like I may have to just buy some more and eat them all myself...

@TechnicArrow I just laid down the first bit of flexi track where I wanted it and secured it temporarily in place with track pins. I marked where I wanted to it be cut by then laying the set track piece on top and marking where the pivot point would be. I used a xuron cutter to cut the rails. I filed the ends down on the first set, but realised it would be easier if I used a fine cutting disc on a dremmel type thing for the next set; having just lightly secured the track in the first place it was easy to raise it slightly to get a decent finish.

TechnicArrow, nice work. I've made a short sector plate in a similar fashion to Luke's. I was looking for examples as I didn't feel I needed anything over engineered and most I had seen seemed that they were above my skillset/time allowance. I used a section of settrack for rigidity and just kept it as the same level as the rest of the track by keeping all the track laid on 6mm MDF. It slides across smooth enough for me. Instead of wooden blocks to check alignment, because it feeds 3 roads I used track pins as stops which sit slightly raised and to the outside of the nearest sleeper end.. The only issue I have is at the pivot end; I'm currently using a track pin that's doing a good job, but it's needs replacing with a thin bolt. I don't have a pic of pivot end, but the other end is shown below.

A little bit more work done this week. The cardboard packaging that I had used for retaining walls also seems to be ideal for a bridge. After some thought I realised it needed some adjustments though to enable access to the sector plate, so I trimmed it down from a two lane width road to a single lane. I've painted the cardboard in an acrylic granite colour I had knocking about, but I think it's come out too dark so I may lighten it somehow. Although the cardboard has a naturally occurring appearance of panelling, I may enhance the finish with some styrene strip. The brick wall above has been made with a strip of metcalfe papers from the same packet that I used for the retaining wall. Like the rest of the walling the tops need capping; the family have a supply of ice lollies to get through to provide me with material to trim and place atop.

A small amount of work done yesterday, but enough to really make a difference. Sector plate and lines leading in to it relaid to new alignment to allow for a single siding behind the back wall that doesn't foul the bracket for the shelf above. I also started to cover the cardboard packaging to form a suitable retaining wall; it's far from finished, but I think makes such a positive difference. I need to design and make some capping stones and also work up a design for girder bridge that will cross the scenic break.

So a bit more info on my offering. It's named after the road I lived on growing up and also where I built my first and last 00 gauge layout. It's 120cm by 48cm on 6mm MDF with a 3cm X 1cm battening to keep it ridged. I've wired it for DC on code 100 peco track utilising 2 X small Y, 1 X small left and 1 X small right (all electro frog). To keep it compact I've made a sector plate using a length of set track. This pivots to allow for running round a short train and was supposed to give access to a siding behind the back scene for storage. However, I have just realised I've made a schoolboy error and failed to take in to account the shelf bracket above which is foul of the sector plate when it swivels to enter that siding...... Now, where's that drawing board?

Last year my 6 year old showed an interest in an n gauge layout I had been building for sometime. I said I'd build her something and went about thinking where I was going to put an oval of track. At Christmas I bought her a 2nd hand Thomas on line and found Annie and Clarabelle in our local model shop. However, after assuming she'd like a roundy roundy affair, I noticed she particular seemed to be in to shunting wagons, so i hatched a cunning plan to give her somewhere to run Thomas and me somewhere to run some small locos and wagons. I want it to be fun for both me and her. Since Christmas, I bought some new furniture, had big sort out, rejigged her room and found a space on top of a chest of drawers to place a smallish board. I'd been getting some bits together for a while and found the track layout I had in my head worked when I put templates down, so about 2 week ago I set about finishing the board. Predicting the current shut down would come sooner or later I made a couple trips to my local model shop to stock on bits and finally completed the wiring and wire in tube point operation today. I have 1 siding at the front and 1 in a fiddle yard behind the back scene to lay, but everything else is down and working! I've put some cardboard packing up to give a sense of where the scenic break will be, but I haven't quite decided how it's going to be finished yet. This is only my second post on here so I hope I've got in the right category.

Morning, I'm a complete newbie to DCC and struggling with a couple of things that I can't find answers for by searching. Hopefully someone can help? I purchased a Roco multimaus the other day which was split from a set and came complete with booster and mains power pack. I have a second hand Dapol n gauge class 73 which I bought in error - thought it was DC - over a year ago which has a hardwired chip in it, but I don't know what it's address was/is. In fairness, I don't even know that the chip is good. How do I work out what it is so I can control it? I can't see in the manual that I have a way that clearly answers this. If the chip is no good, how could I tell? Thanks in advance