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Playing trains with kids

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  1. Playing trains with kids

    A few more photos

    By Playing trains with kids,


    Baseboards
    A few more photos. I forgot to add this is 4mm scale.
    you can see in the last photo the 1 &2 radius curve board - which was constructed first, and then later the 3 &4 radius board was added on the outside.
    The spur led to a fiddle yard, in which the stock will (eventually) be stored in removeable cassette boxes.
     



  2. Playing trains with kids
    I am collecting rolling stock from two periods - vaguely BR blue and vaguely BR late crest steam/diesel. However, the above photos perhaps need some explanation. The layout operators (11, 9 and 5) use the following rules to determine their train formations:
    1. Which locomotive runs the fastest, and Daddy has cleaned the wheels on - Wrenn models are also liked because they are heavier and harder to derail.
    2. Subsequent stock is selected based on the passengers - mineral wagons hold lego men well and Sylvanian family babies; flatbed wagons or motorail wagons can hold the lego men's cars. The Triang cement wagons are particularly desired because the roof comes off and lego men can hide inside.
    Occasionally passenger coaches are added to make it look a bit realistic !
    Much of the stock is from my childhood, the rest from ebay. I am trying to collect wrenn wagons as the diecast chassis make them more stable and therefore better endure my poor tracklaying. The heavier the better - the layout is flat so there are few traction problems
    :)
  3. Playing trains with kids
    The advantage of this method is that over the years, new pieces could be added as they were constructed. In time, two more tracks were added, allowing four trains to circle at once. Passing loops were constructed in the station, giving a 6-lane station.
    I also added a junction for sidings, and built the sidings approach
    As you will see, I didn't go for any scenery apart from platforms. I also chose not to ballast the tracks (yet) as I was concerned that ballast would come loose when the boards were assembled/dismantled.


  4. Playing trains with kids

    Making the boards

    By Playing trains with kids,


    Baseboards
    In order to make the tracks precise standard spacing at the end of the board, I used two double track level crossings, one at either end of the piece I was constructing. The level crossings, as the track, were mounted on plywood with the softwood supports
    The construction method was as follows:
    1.   Make the softwood support. Drill holes and install furniture nuts on one side
    2.   Bolt the supports to the jigs (the level crossing pieces)
    3.       Cut the plywood for the piece constructed. Drill pilot holes (1mm) in the corners to nail the plywood to the softwood support (don’t nail in yet)
    4.       Place the plywood on top of the supports (which are connected to the crossings), and lay the tracks between the two level crossings  -fix the track in place with rail joiners
    5.        Nail down the track to the plywood.(you need to slide a softwood strip under very close to where you are nailing in the track pin to stop the plywood bouncing, don’t put it directly under otherwise the pin will go into it.
    6.       Nail the plywood down to the softwood strips on which it sits
    7.       Unbolt from the level crossings. Piece is now complete.
    Take care – as the track pins sharply protrude out of the bottom of the plywood. You make wish to glue some thick cardboard over them, otherwise you may scratch your hands when trying to fit the bolt in during assembly
    The above method is for settrack.
    For flexitrack, I also found that the rails needed to be secured more robustly at the board ends. The was the case for curves - in order to keep the curvature (I later built 3rd and 4th radius bends, but used flexitrack for the 4th radius as I didn't have any set track and it was quite expensive to buy. It was also necessary for straights - especially short ones, as somtimes when disconnecting the board pieces, the rail joiner pulled the rail along its length (i.e. perpendicular to the sleepers, slipping through the chairs) .
    Initially I fixed the rails by removing one plastic sleeper, replacing it with a thin pcb sleeper and soldering the rails. However, I discovered sometimes during assembly or dissembly the copper layer came off the (cheap low quality) PCB. So I then soldered to a nail banged in just outside the track. Neither of these were right at the board edge to allow space for the rail joiner to connect between the boards. Sometimes the nail-rail solder joints failed too (actually the metal meant the solder seldom took well to the nails). In future I will use a wider pcb strip to prevent failure, or brass plated screws into the plywood, under the rails and installed before the track is laid) to solder the rail to.
    This method was to ensure that each end is a standard alignment for the bolts and the rails, in theory allowing any piece to connect to any other piece.
    Will try and add some photos later
  5. Playing trains with kids

    Board Construction

    By Playing trains with kids,


    Baseboards
    The boards have the standard track spacing (67 mm) perpendicular to every join, so in theory pieces can be connected in different ways, and most importantly, a roundy-roundy layout could be produced quickly, then more sections added as they were built.
     
    Joining the boards needs to take into account 3 factors:
    1- Physical alignment of the rails - to prevent derailments
    2 -holding the baords together (they are easily knocked by children dancing around
    3 - electrical connectivity between the rails on each section
     
    The segments are made of 6mm ply sat on 30*10mm softwood perpendicular to the tracks at the end. I went through a variety of ways joining them, but the system I ended up with (Mark I) was to use M6 bolts and furniture nuts (see photo). The holes are standard spacing (under the centreline of the track). I use a bolt turner, connected via an angle crank to a battery drill to quickly tighten them (see photo). I decided to keep the rail joiners to connect each section. This can be incredibly fiddley (as you not only need to get the horizontal alignment of the track right, but also the vertical alignment, and both tracks need to be joined at once. The rail joiners alone are not enough to hold the segments together, as they often got knocked apart by overexcited children dancing around, so the bolts are still necessary. You also need to be careful that when you separate the boards - the rail joiners protrude and are share and can easily cut little toes - ask me how I know! However, the rail joiners sovled the rail alignment problem and the electrical connectivity.
    As you can see from the photo, you need to only put the furniture nut on one side, on the other side the bolt just passes through a 6mm hole. I had a convention that on the inner track the bolts protruded in an anticlockwise direction (the direction of travel of the train...)
    The furniture nuts required and 8mm hole and were screwed in with an allan key.
     
    30mm gives enough for the bolts to be attached under the track, and also clearance for a point motor or servo.
    The boards simply sit on the laminate floor (or the lounge carpet when my wife is away :).



  6. Playing trains with kids

    The intial plan

    By Playing trains with kids,


    Baseboards
    I started with a simple double track loop (double track - I have two boys!). It was simply first and second radius Hornby curves, with a set track crossover. The tracks are 67mm apart, (as per the Hornby standard) and the straight section is 2*167.5 = 335mm long - enough to accomodate the crossover. On the plan below, the dotted line is the track centre. Each board is 2*67 = 134 mm wide (actually cut slightly less to allow adjacent boards to be added (see later).
     

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