bickybtrains

3 hours ago, Graham T said:

I can see why the wiring is taking some time!  An impressive layout.

 

It's a monster wiring job.   I usually take a break from wiring and do something else on the layout.  I find that doing that you don't get overwhelmed.  

Some more factory buildings.  I guess I have some more track laying to do soon.

I still have to crawl under every so often.  But I have a mechanics crawler that makes that task a little bit more comfortable.  

These retaining walls and yes it is nearly 12 feet long are held into place by magnets.  Behind them is all the wiring for the point motors.  All I need to do yo get to the wiring is to pull them off the magnets.

Some of the control panels dotted around the layout.

Some more updates on the Bickley Central.

I'm still in the midst of wiring.

I have wired up most of the point motors, and I have built some control panels.

I think I'm about a couple of months from running trains.

I took a break from wiring to build a few buildings.

On 10/09/2022 at 04:07, RobinofLoxley said:

Are some of your buildings off a previous layout? I only ask because track laying and general construction is going so fast I wondered where you found the time for the scenery!

I salvaged a significant amount from my old layout.  I even managed to save a ton of track.  I still have boxes of buildings all ready to use.  

The coal mine.  I love coal mines  maybe it is the fact I lived near one in Scotland.  Anyhow I always wanted to model a coal mine and thus an ambitious representation of a coal mine was a must.

I scratch built the winding gear and kit bashed a few Walthers and kiri kits. 

The coal mine also has a MGR flood loader.  Empty MGR trains enter it and disappear on the inner most track of the helix.  They emerge at the lower yard as if they have exited a power station.  Full MGR trains enter the lower yard and appear  from the flood loader as if they have been loaded.

The terminus station was a fun build.  I wanted it to accommodate full sized trains, with carriage sidings and parcel sidings.  I always fancied the Walthers Milwaukee Station building it was going to be an impressive station.   The track layout was intimidating to say the least.  I wanted to able to reach every track.  So a rather complicated station track layout ensued.  

The station building as mentioned earlier is a modified Walthers Milwaukee terminus with a peco overall roof.

Below the station are the arches.

Behind the station is a low relief  city backscene.  

Todays installment on the building of the Bickley Central Railway.

Before I got too carried away I started the build of the helix.  I wanted to keep the gradient at a pleasant 1.7 percent.  I tested it at regular intervals to see that there were no problems.

Once I got the initial level installed the build went smoothly.  I was originally going to use the screw rod method to build the helix.  I searched the internet and one chap showed a very easy method of building a  helix. Hence I followed  his advice.

I tested the helix with my Bachmann class 25 to see what limits I had.  The Bachmann class 25 can handle up to ten coaches without slipping.  The inner loop is for the coal mine so I have no problem with my MGR trains negotiating that.  Especially when my new wagons and loco come in.  

So here is few photos of the build.  this is the basement after the renovation.

I made the basement as comfortable as possible, all the walls are insulated, including the ceiling.  There is sufficient LED dimmable lighting, and sufficient electrical outlets around the whole room.

The baseboards are plywood and were cut at a cabinet shop.  The helix boards were CNC cut by the same cabinet shop.

I painted all the wood so that it wouldn't shrink of warp.  It also make everything look tidy.

More photos of the build to follow.

In a nutshell:

The building of the Bickley Central.  Mk2

I Started building the layout in March 2021.

I'm still building said layout and I'm about 3 months away from actually running trains

The layout us approx 22'  x 15'

Its on two levels.

It has a 5 track wide helix with a 1.7 percent grade.

Outer track is 36" radius 

Inner 28" radius

The layout is set in the mid to late  70's

Aprox 1500' of track all code 75

75 points

All operated by tortoise point motors

All DCC

Photos of the build coming.

7 minutes ago, BR60103 said:

Bill:

I've been following the rebuild.   You're now working in territory that's way beyond me.

 

But, someone has bought a bunch of tickets to be within phone distance of you this summer.

 

So what plays are you going to see.   I have been busy working on the Clubs Layout.   Hope to see you at the Great British Train Show, this weekend.

Welcome to the new and improved Bickley Central Mark 2 story.  Since my last attempt here on RM web has seemed to have been severely compromised, with the images now gone.  I thought that I should abandoned that topic and start a new story, or just not post anything and just spend my time modeling.  It is frustrating that there is little interest in my project, with little input from members.  I would love to tell the story, but unfortunately I feel like I'm talking to myself.  So prove me wrong, ask questions, critique, praise, or just give some guidance.  If my subject is boring then I'll just stop posting.  

It seems all my work to show my project has seem to have disappeared I will most like  have to delete this, and start all over again.

Some other little additions to the ongoing project in my basement.

A folding work bench.

It folds out of the way and it's on wheels, so I can roll it anywhere in the layout room.

Also I bought a drawer set to store my stock.

I bought these at Michael's craft store.

To keep me on track ( pun not intended)  I have resumed wiring on the Bickley Central.   Every so often I just have to do something else than trying to wire up all the track and point motors so this week I have also resumed a bit of modeling and scenery work.  There is a method in my madness and that is to get the boxes of building and supplies reduced so that I don't have to move them as often.  Also with such a big layout it helps break up the monotony of always doing one thing.  

I should have added that I used a program developed by Philip Hawkes called train announcement.  I just imported the wav files to a power point presentation that shows a typical departure board.  As the presentation starts to run the announcements start corresponding to the slide that is showing.  

So COVID did play havoc with my plans.  My Wife came down with it over Christmas, she was quite sick but we managed to stay out of Hospital.  I was OK three shots, and a possible early exposure at the start of this pandemic seems to have made me better equipped to deal with it.  

So I did manage to do a bit more work on the layout.  

Here are the vital Statistics on the layout.

I have nearly 1300 ft of track laid

88 points laid

88 tortoise motors installed.

Most of the wiring done, all labeled with colour coded labels. 

I have wired up most of my BDL's for track detection.

I will start wiring up all the tortoise motors to stationary decoders.

I have drawn up so far 4 minic panels. 

I have started working on my station announcer and power point arrivals and departure board.   I used power point that is timed to a fast clock and as it goes through its motions an announcer announces the trains.  

I will then display this on a LCD screen near the terminus station.

I anticipate to having trains running in about three months.   Right now just test trains over certain sections.

William

Do you still have that Excell file.  I would love to try it out on my layout.

No play makes a boring day. 

Took a rest from wiring and played with the storage yard.  Trying to figure out the capacities of each siding.  Still a bit to go before I can start playing trains.  The longest train I can accommodate looks like 11 coaches.  The goods siding can accommodate up to 17 wagons.  

More work on the coal mine,  I have to, every so often, lift my self up fron the underside of the layout  and have a rest from wiring.  

Quote

 

I wired up everything as I went up the helix.  Each level was wired up and the wires were connected to choc blocks. 

So I have figured out where all the buildings are going.  While I was at it I built a bing.

Overall view of the colliery 

The view you get ss soon as you enter the train room

The bing.