squeaky

Well Sullivan scrap had its first public outing to the Freemo event last weekend and what a great event. One of things I have taken away from the weekend is the 3 sidings needed to be slightly longer to accommodate 3 freight cars comfortably, with this in mind I have extended them! This is siding 1, only a small extension. This is siding 2, this is the one that 3 freight cars just didn't fit, this one has had the most added, the siding ended on the right hand board before! This is siding 1, only a small extension, but every little helps. I've also been getting on with ballasting the new track that had to be laid at the last minute due to a little clearence issue Might need a bit of weathering!

Ian, that backscene looks really good, I must find the time to get on with my Czech layout, your work is inspiring.

Here are the items I will be bringing to the sale table on the weekend Let me know if any interest

I've just finished testing with the new section of track. I'm not sure if I'll get it ballasted before Friday but it works much better now! I think the clearence is much better

Right after ripping up the track this is the proposed new section, what do you think?

What should the gap between the tracks be?

Help! I have a bit of a clearence problem and the trains actually hit The problem is here As you can see this is going to be a bit of an issue, now it can be rectified but I need to rip the track up and re-lay

The only progress to report is the track has now been painted "dirty", next job is onto the ballasting!

Well 99% of the wiring is finished! These are the push buttons for the switches. This is when the wiring was finished, just some more hot glue to hold things in place and some cable tidying to be done. Looks a bit of a mess, however it all works. I have just assembled the layout and spotted a few freights cars OK, the only wiring left is i'm waiting on a couple of servo extension wires for one of the switches.

I'm going to tidy all the wires once I've fitted all the push button switches. I've decided not to use the Tam Valley push buttons with LEDs and opt for the simpler approach of a push to make switch. I wasn't comfortable with drilling 35mm holes for the switch plates in 5mm ply, in fear of it weakening the baseboard too much.

I have now wired the left hand board, that was the easy one as it has no switches. Then I started on the middle board.......... I have mounted and wired all 7 servos for the switches and soldered all the drop wires for the DCC bus. I now have to cut 7 x 35mm holes in each side of the board to accomodate the Tam Valley remote buttons. Here is the Octopus III mounted, I have removed the DCC module for now as I will be using the remote push buttons for now.

I have been busy on the layout, getting it ready for the Freemo event. I have finished all of the track cutting, soldering of pcb end sleepers and glued all the track down. I have now started the wiring on the right hand board, this board is the second easiest to wire as it only has one switch to wire and setup the motor. I'm using a Tam Valley Octopus III to control all the servo switch motors. There will be one push button each side of the layout when finished. The next board is the middle board, this board has 7 switches on it so it's going to be a challenge to keep the wiring neat!

It seems to run very well if a little "buzzy" at higher speeds, however it's not going to be doing those higher speeds anyway!

Latest update is more soldering of drop wires! The other update is a new switcher, which was purchased from Ebay for a reasonable £42.80

I have made a start on the drop wires and all the holes for the servo point actuators are drilled. I have also been looking at the cross board joints that need some delicate cutting! Much more work to do before September.....

Some recent progress on the layout. I have used 3mm cork under the main double track. I have used a small amout of 1.5mm cork to provide the gradient down to the rest of the track which will have no under lay at all! There is quite a slope from the main line to the yard tracks but it doesn't affect the running of the wagons. The next job is to drill the holes for the servo point actuators and start soldering the drop wires.

My wagons from the shop in Canada have finally arrived! They are all Athearn, I have 4 of the black cars, 3 x blue ones and the one pink one.

Also a new switcher arrived

I have now finished cutting and joining all the track, I still have all my fingers!

I have now printed out the final plan and put it on the layout. Now starts the process of cutting, joining and cutting my fingers

Jack Well spotted I have amended

I have now received the M8 bolts for the end leg attachment, the bolts make the end panel completely flush for attaching to the next module. On the inside I have used a 30mm washer and wing nut to secure it. It really could do with a 40mm washer as the hole in the leg is 25mm, although it seems pretty secure. I have also filled in the gap between the corner ends to stop the leg being squashed when clamped to the next module. I have also been playing around with the layout design and Dutch_Master you are correct and ideally I wouldn't have the switches so close to the board end, however the design calls for 4 switches end to end to fit in a 900mm board, so I don't have much choice. I have made a couple of changes and this the 9th version of the plan! I have made the 3 freight car spurs at least 23 inches long which should allow 3 freight cars in each if needed. I have decided to hold off on a 45 tonner for now and I will use my trusty MP15 as the site switcher. Hope you are all not getting too board with changes.

I have setup the boards in the dining room and i'm now using the peco templates to play around with track layout. The problem with the current plan is that the switches on the middle board are overlapping the joins between boards as the boards are 900mm long. So I have changed a couple of switches and compressed the middle section so that 7 out of the 8 switches are all on the middle board, the 8th switch is on the right hand board. I have also reversed the right hand most switch so that there are now 3 unloding spurs for scrap cars.

Well the boards are now fully built, just waiting on a few longer M6 bolts and the M8 bolts for the end legs, but I have enough bolts to put it all together for a test run. Please ignore the mess on the patio..

Thanks Martyn, I have that very same Kibri also waiting to be built! What about this one? http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/326-6483 Jack, there is also a pair of parallel jaw pliers on my shopping list, the misses will go mad when she finds we haven't got any foil for the sunday roast