Horsehay Railway Modeller

The perspectives all off but it shows my ideas. A simple station with a lane running down to the signal box / watermill. The opposite side of the stream will be a field / woodland over the tunnel.

I'm certainly no artist, but I've traced the main features of the layout from a photograph and I'm now starting to sketch on the scenery. It should give me an idea of what the scene might look like.

I was pondering scenery this afternoon and I was flicking through some websites looking at different building kits. The wills watermill caught my eye. I've had a quick measure up and I don't think it would be too imposing at the back behind the signal box. Perhaps with a nice dirt tracked road leading down from the station. Here's the catalogue photo for reference. And a quick phone sketch. Any thoughts?

To add to the above. No real progress on the layout this week other than fixing and then breaking a controller, mostly due to university deadlines. I did however have a play with the new lenz handset. I ended up getting all of my locos out to make sure they were running well. And I also dusted them all with a soft brush as they are stored on an open display shelf.

Well spotted. I bought a second lenz system to test the feedback bus . I got it working so I listed my current system with a note saying the feedback bus is broken so I can make my money back on the replacement. Then a few days ago I plugged the second feedback board in and it blew the feedback circuit again in the new lenz system! I now know which feedback board is dodgy so in the summer or towards Christmas I can either fix my current lenz controller or buy another second hand unit again. And I know to get rid of that feedback board. Don't worry I still have a lenz controller and I've kept the same handset. Also I've just bought an lh90 handset with a control knob and I must admit its nice to swap between the two handsets.

Some major milestones this morning. I finished wiring the storage tracks. I then set all of the mudules up together for the first time since track laying and wiring. I also ran the first test trains to complete full runs in and out of storage and tested both runaround loops.

I finished laying all of the storage stacks over the past few days. All of the peco point Motors are mounted directly to the points. Nothing is wired yet but hopefully I'll get that done soon. All of the branchline stock I have at the moment fits in the storage sidings. If I fill up the main arrival track and run around loop I can fit even more.

Just editing some footage for a youtube video and I thought I'd put a quick unlisted clip on here. Every track is tested and fully working. you might notice I had to get the pliers out on a slipped rail in one of the points which was touching the frog and causing a short - but all is fine now. full track laying video up today and wiring video up later in the week for anyone who also uses youtube.

I had a break this afternoon but I've just gotten all of the track wires wired in to the block detection board. When I work out why its not connecting properly hopefully I'll be able to have a play with some automation. Here's an in progress shot. And here it is all cable managed. I've kept the detected wires seperate from the normal dropper wires. I've also labelled each block both at the point it goes through the board into the track and at its terminal block on the rs8.

Well 2 hours later and all the point motors are in, wired and programmed as well as all of the Electrofrog points. Just have to wire all of the track blocks this afternoon. Each point has its own power feed, I've crimped them together with the power to the point Motor for ease, and each terminal is labeled respectively.

Yesterday I got the smaller scenic board all wired up for track power and point control. I really like the cobalt point Motors, they are relatively easy to install and very intuitive to wire. I also added a track diagram with all of the point Motors and blocks labelled. These correspond with labels on the wires allowing me to follow the wiring and fault find easily. Hopefully today I'll get the larger station board done

The glue is currently drying on the last bit of track on the scenic side of the layout. Nothing wired in yet but holes have been pre drilled for point Motors. Also here's a photo of the 2nd rad curve. I laid it with 1mm of super elevation or camber.

Yesterday evening and this morning I worked on gluing in the three way point in. I soldered on flexi and pcb sleepers across the join and then cut across the gap in the boards. I drilled the holes for the point Motors and wires but have omitted them for now. This afternoon I located and glued a set track curve across the join at the other end of the board. I am currently working on the flexi track curve that joins the three way point and this bit of set track. I used set track on the join to keep the curve secure and of constant radius. You can also see I've used the card from the point packaging to super elevate the curve. The cobalt motors also arrived this afternoon. I shall install them once all of the scenic points are in.

It is a little, I had nearly a full year of normal uni last year so I didn't miss freshers or anything like that, but it's a shame to be missing almost the entirety of second year life.

Apologies for not updating this thread. I am currently back at university for the rest of term. Although I'm not actually studying on campus I thought I might as well be living in my student house as I have been paying for it the whole time I've been at home. To that end MrWolf is quite right I am currently working on a new portable layout called cherrybrook which you can find on here.

Thanks, I've become rather fond of p clips as it only takes a few seconds with the screwdriver to undo my mistakes and reroute cables, rather than snipping dozens of cable ties. I also find the adhesive cable bases either won't stick or won't come off, always one extreme or the other and never the one you want.

........ I thought I'd also show you the new track arrivals I've had the flexi track for a while but a few days ago I picked up some 2nd rad curves on ebay to help keep a constant radius. The scenic section will still be flexi but the offscene curve will be set track. As I said above, today the points arrived including several short radius Electrofrog points, one double slip and two three way points. Here they are roughly laid out.

Sorry for the silence, I've been slowly wiring all of the main bus wires and trying to set up the feedback boards, however I haven't had too much time Inbetween uni work. So far I have all of the main wiring in, however no luck on the feedback boards yet. I've just purchased an upgrade chip for the feedback circuit in my Controller so hopefully that solves my issue. Here is just some of the main bus wiring I've done. The boards are joined by 9 pole connectors. There is a bundle of wires with a plug on one board, and a socket on the next. You can see one example of a wire stowed in a storage clip, as well as one looped between two boards. Today I also received the much awaited points and will slowly start track laying in my down time. I've also purchased all of the cobalt dcc point Motors I need.

I've been speaking to Chris at a and h and we might have a solution. I'll update you guys hopefully by the end of next week.

Just received a reply from a and h and apparently some early versions of the LZV100 need to receive some sort of upgrade specific to the rs bus (not just the 3.6 upgrade) I might send it off next week to be tested and / or upgraded.

V 3.5 I bought it second hand and haven't had the need to upgrade so far.

That was my worry. a and h will be my next port of call if I cant get anything sorted. so far no luck with two rs8 boards and one rs16 so it appears the lzv 100 may be at fault.

No luck. I've just swapped the green terminal block for another one and checked the continuity of the wire. Ive also attatched a bit of track to the rs8 and dropped on my class122 with all its lights on. nothing showing up on the handset still.

okay, thanks for that . is there any way to check if the rs bus is live? or even turn it on or off?

yeah definately lzv 100. I think I've tried swapping the J and k but i can try again. at the moment they are definatley J to J and K to K.