brossard

I sort of figured out the second point. I'm watching... John

As read the blurb, that is my understanding. (I went off solenoid motors decades ago.) However, the relay only does one turnout so that seems expensive to me. How many motors are we talking about? Seems to me if you got new SEEPs with the integral contacts, the cost would be a wash and you wouldn't need to find fresh real estate. John

OK, I'll ask. Where is this layout Nick, and how many HAA's do you really need? John

I've tried to add decoders to split chassis locos with mixed results usually dire, maybe my workmanship, although I've done a lot of regular locos successfully. Before you do anything, check the plastic insulating axles, these are prone to cracking whereupon you lose quartering. There are 3D printed replacements around IIRC. I recall that the motion is difficult to disassemble. John

Not that I would go the insulfrog route myself, but in my mind I can see making the non metal nose from plastic strip and epoxy then filing after curing. I always make the crossing on a separate jig: After making the vee, add another cc strip so that it is well supported then saw off the vee end, replacing it with plastic. I've never done this so just a suggestion. John

The GMC-PM2 is the basic SEEP. There is a version with two sets of contacts. There is a polarity switching relay: https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/gaugemaster-gm500.html but, to me, that is pretty expensive if you have a lot of motors. If you do plan to do some under board wiring, I hope for your sake that you can tip the layout on it's side. As I said in another thread, trying to wire a layout while lying on your back is a level of Hell that Dante didn't mention in his Inferno. John

Agree, basically electrofrog with a cut between the closure rail and crossing for insulation. Solder a common wire to the crossing and wires to the stock rails that are jumped to the closure rail. Make sure the electrical connection between closure rail and blade is reliable, something like an omega loop. These are 0 gauge but the idea is the same as 00. The turnout in the middle is Peco and I have modified it to mitigate the nasty blade spacing of the original. Note the gaps between the closure rail and crossing on all three, this isolates the crossing. Peco points have a jumper under the gap which must be broken. The two crossings on the outside were built on the Peco template, which I left in place. Timbers are wood. I'm a big fan of slo mo point motors. Mine are Tortoise but only because they are two decades old and still going. They have two sets of contacts. There are other options. The club layout has SEEP with contacts but we have found these tend to go out of calibration. There is a program to replace SEEP with Tortoise and Cobalt. John

My go to decoder is Zimo, followed by ESU Loksound. Digitrains and YouChoos are good suppliers. John

One weakness of using a copper clad tiebar is that the solder joint of the blade fatigues over time. Norman Solomon (the guru of trackwork) used bent brass pins as hinges for tiebars. A bit tricky because you have to drill the tiebar exactly to get the right blade spacing. Speaking of which, Peco's blade spacing is horrendous, designed to suit all manner of wheels standards I assume. If you build your own turnouts you can adjust the blade to something more reasonable. There are pictures of Set Track points on Peco website with dimensions. https://peco-uk.com/collections/100/products/turnout-2nd-radius-right-hand?variant=7435698044962 John

I have used Peco templates for the build of my 0 gauge turnouts (I made my own because the price of Peco 0 Gauge is pretty high). They work well and set track turnouts are probably a good starting point for building your own track. My first efforts were the rebuilding of clapped out 00 Peco code 100 turnouts on copper clad. Soldering rail to copper clad is also good to start with as it's straightforward. Get yourself some roller gauges. There are also vee and blade jigs but these aren't essential IMO. John

Hey Andy, looking forward to seeing you and Mark at the show. I will be travelling from Montreal with my 0 gauge layout. Hope you amaze and announce something for 0 gauge. John

A tip I got from a very talented member is to use enamel black wash as a starting point for weathering. Slosh it all over the wagon, leave it overnight then remove about 90% of the wash with Q tips and white spirit. This will highlight the crevices. John

Hi Ken, buying one item to use as a template for future models is a good plan. Again buying in Lcut components is a good idea. If you buy windows you should also get the wall panel(s) that goes with them as I did. You will need the arch. I only bought one wall panel because I scanned it and then printed off what I needed. I have made gutters from Evergreen half round, topped with some strip to make a soffit. I usually use brass rod bent as required for downspouts (brass tube will collapse at the bend). My method is to solder U shaped wire to the rod to represent brackets. John

I have a few Skytrex items on my layout, kits mostly. They are dear and I look at some at some of the buildings and say to myself, I could build those myself. The buildings you showed would be easy to scratchbuild I think. Use Lcut doors and windows for example, and Slaters embossed brick plastic sheets. A good exercise. For Scalescenes buildings, I use foamboard for the structure. Scaling the "Heavy" card to 7mm means 3.5mm. I have tried to cut this and it is exhausting. Foamcore is so much better despite being 5mm thick (although you may find 3.5mm foamcore in art stores). My printer is an essential tool for my modelling (and other things), I would recommend you look at getting one. They are usually multi function with, print, photocopy and scan. Plastikard can be useful. I haven't used it for any 7mm buildings but when I did 00, I made a number of buildings from plastic. They do need painting though. Nice thing about Scalescenes is the painting is done for you. John

The factory shown in the shot above is Scalescenes T026/T026a. It is quite tall but could be shortened to two stories. I don't have T027 but it looks good. I cut card to shape to brace the backs of my buildings and painted it black. Scalescenes provide shadowy interiors in their T026a kit. I haven't done lighting either. I started off with 2' wide boards (all homemade) but found I needed more width. I solved that by gluing strips of insulation foam to the sides giving me a max width of 2'6". Foam is fine as long as you only use it for scenery. If you cut back Scalescenes T024b and/or T024c you can get reasonable low relief buildings. John