AllScales

Hi Lisa, How many tracks/platforms did it have? I'm planning a 4 platform/6 track terminus station and wonder if that's about the right size of building. Not being a scratch builder (I lack the precise coordination) I might end up using the Metcalfe card kit for their mainline station: PN130. That looks roughly the same size as this (possibly a bit bigger). Thanks, Friso

Yes, deliberately badly translated into German!

As I now have two layouts in development (both HOe) and one in "Stock Collection" stage (N gauge) I thought I should separate my Linksuberdorf entries from the big HOe layout (Gerlos). LUD started back in March when I came across my pile of Peco points (10 of them) that I bought about 6 years ago when I started to think about building a proper layout for my then very small collection oh HOe rolling stock. I also had a piece of 12mm 3 foot square MDF, so I laid out the points on the board and figured I had a viable plan.... At the same time I needed to build a ramp, to check if my little steam loco's could go up the slope that was being planned for Gerlos. So a week before the Ally Pally show I said to a friend that I'd be bringing over my new test track. I had planned to finish only a single track loop, but in the end after a good number of hours every evening during the week, I had finished everything except for the ramp. Ok the point motors weren't there yet, but all the track was there. So we spent an amusing Sunday running a few trains and generally getting in each other's way. As the layout is DCC no complicated switching banks are required and wiring as you lay the track is the best way to go. Since then the point motors have been put in and these have also been wired to the DCC bus. I've used some Train Tech decoders for that as they have a CDU built in. If the SEEPS are aligned correctly, you can drive two motors from a single output, this has allowed me to wire crossovers together and so saving me the cost of a third decoder. I have posted pictures of the layout on my Gerlos blog, and not much has changed over the last few weeks except that the board now has handles to make it a bit easier to carry and the points have been fitted with dummy levers, today I've painted the areas around the tracks a light grey to conceal any cases of missing ballast. Next will be ballasting! So there it is, a very crowded little test track with three stations: Linksuberdorf, Nichteinsteigen (a lot of trains seem to go there from everywhere in Germany ;-) ) and Bergspitz....

Hi Peter, That sounds really dreadful! Point motors shouldn't blow up like that... Having said that, maybe it's actually something the switches are causing, so have you tried Peco ones instead maybe they don't cause the same problem? What kind of DCC controller is that? It must be a very basic model! I can see that there could be a problem if you wire one DCC controller to the main track and a second one to the programming track. My current setup is a Roco multi-Maus (with wires), which works well. As it does Programming on the Main, it also almost completely removes the need for a separate programming track. The one restriction is when you add a new loco to the fleet. But it's simple enough to lift all the others off so you can program it. I can reccomend this, if you later decide to get something even more fancy (e.g. the Z21), the maus will work with it... A friend of mine has his layout wired such that power can go to the programming track only or the whole layout, which in hindsight I probably should have done. Maybe I'll change one of the tracks in engine shed to be insulated... Hmmm, if it rains this weekend, a nice job to do.... I think you trick will work, but then the levers will stick out quite a way, so this may cause other problems, e.g. clothing snagging on them as you walk past? Good luck! Friso

Hi all, It's been more than a month now since my last post on the HOe front but life has not been all idleness. Two points were damaged during the point wiring so they've been replaced after attempts at repair proved fruitless. In the process a short curved piece of track was damaged. This was glued down (never again) so needed to be removed carefully! Needless to say the new point was installed, a new piece of track laid and the end result is actually better than before! The points was slightly re-aligned to give a better curve and trains no longer seem to hop around the corner... Some more stock was acquired at the end of May, this is for the big HOe layout, in Faversham as part of the visit to the show there, at the Shepherd Neame brewery. Worth a visit! A visit to the international N gauge society group meeting and Railex in Amersham have followed and last weekend: Chatham. Great show as always! Now if they send me the English text of what they say on the welcome sign, then I'll send them back a translation in Dutch that actually makes sense. My native language is Dutch but even then I can't male head or tails of it! Goodnight! Friso

Hi Peter, From reading some of your earlier posts, you blew a couple when you had a wiring problem. But I can't for the life of me work out how a point motor can blow if all you're doing is changing the wrong one! What kind of point motors are you using? You'll find that with DCC that you have more crashes because it's that you're more likely to have two things running at once. In my case I have reprogrammed most of the locos to have a more realisitic stopping distance as well and regularly end up crashing them into each other, the rolling stock or the buffers! It is much more fun though! I've wired my points upto the DCC bus, using decoders from Lenz (for my main layout) and Train Tech for my little layout, the latter have a CDU built in which seems to work quite well. Good enough to throw two SEEPs in one go. Maybe consider a slow but steady switchover at some point? Cheers, Friso

Ah that brings back memories! Although the trains and trams were a whole lot cheaper back in '88! Artizen - If you're going to Auckland, check out the Glenbrook Vintage Railway just south of town. It's great...

Welcome back to my slow moving 'N' Project! As the blogs suggests, this is to be a layout set on the Kent Racetrack between Redhill and Folkestone namely at Headcorn and showing an upgraded dual track branch to Tenderden. The concept is that after World War 1 Tenterden was selected as a prototype new town or Garden Suburb (take your pick). To support this, the K&ESR was taken over by the newly formed Southern Railway and the town was developed. As the original station is down a very narrow lane, a new station was built, head on, on the road towards Ashford near St. Andrews Catholic Church. As this was shortly after partitioning, it couldn't be named after the Catholic church so was called Tenterden St. Michaels instead. This new station had two finger platforms for four platform faces. It also had a goods yard on the North East side and a small locomotive depot with turntable towards the West. A chord was built from the new station to connect with remainder of the K&ESR and their passenger trains now terminated at the new Tenterden station. A link track was also provided along the original line to allow goods trains to run through.... Fast forward to 2013.... The line was electrified and commuter trains now run up to Charing Cross (although you have to change at Headcorn off peak as the new town wasn't really that successful), so passenger numbers are not high enough to support dedicated services. The station still has two platforms, the layout remains the same, they have been lengthened to cope with 12 car trains, but otherwise the passenger part has pretty much remained the same. The goods yard has been converted into a couple of rolling stock sidings and a little spur for the resident shunter (more about this later). The two tracks between the two finger platforms have retained a crossover to allow engineering train loco's to run round. The remaining track, on the far left as you're looking away from the station, is used by the K&ESR. It has a run-around loop on it's outside.... There is a link to the K&ESR from the mainline. This is accessed from the second (leftmost) of the two tracks between the two platform fingers. So in 2013 trains of the K&ESR arrive and depart from platform 1, platform 2 is used rarely used, mostly for light engine workings to the K&ESR turntable and shed, or to hold the carriages for a departing excursion. Platform 3 is used for incoming heritage excursions and as a spare for normal mainline workings. Platform 4 is the normal shuttle service to Headcorn's platform. The little shunter is used to pull rakes of stock out of platform 2 and push them into either the sidings or back to platform 2. So I have given my vision, what do you think? Realistic (enough)? So where do I find station building (kit or ready built) that would suit this size of station? Most stations I see in N seem to be suited to Settle and Carlisle or GWR branch line... This is surprising as N is a superb scale to build something big (my heritage trains are 10 coaches, K&ESR 6). My eyes (and skills) aren't up to building something from scratch.

I'd say version 4 is my favourite!

I promised a photo of the wiring after installation of the point decoders, so here it is: As you can see the two decoders are simply screwed to the bottom of the board and all the wires from the points around it simply head towards it, in the end only two wires lead into the central hub where it connects to the central distribution point. Simples.... Yesterday when I went to try the layout right way up, one point motor failed to switch it's point properly. It fired, and you could see the point blades move but they failed to flick... So today, the layout went on upside once more, a bigger drill was used and now it seems to flick every time... This is a bit finicky and you need a drill with a rod to make sure you don't drill through the arm of point motor. At this point I have to say that the point decoders I bought are superb. They are simple to program: press a button to set the base address, send a command to flick a point. Job done! There's a built in CDU, which recharges off the DCC bus, which is not my preference, but the unit does wait until it's fully recharged before flicking a point. I don't know if it waits when it receives multiple requests, but then I can't send the signals fast enough! They can also drive a pair of Seeps from a single output (at least in Hoe/OO9) if the motors are well aligned. Of course it then takes a bit longer longer than if you're driving a single point. These are the new Tran-Tech decoders... Next is the landscaping, so: 1. Mountain construction, or: 2. Ballasting ?? Which should I start first? My instinct says to build the mountain first. Views welcome...

It's electricity innit? Not magic! Having done some electrical/electronic courses at uni, I can't even imagine why you would need to, unless you wanted to make your life difficult! DCC makes life easier in my humble opinion...

I was meant to be doing this during the week, but as so often other things got in the way or I just didn't feel like it... Anyway today I managed to finish my chores on time and as the clouds looked a bit threatening figured I might as well do the point wiring. Two and half hours later and victory! All points wired and working. The two places where there are two points on one output also looks to be working well (at least upside down). Tomorrow I will flip the layout over again to test it right way up. I may need to swap some wires to make sure the crossovers fire the right way round, but the wiring should now be done... Then it's on to the scenery... A new adventure awaits!

Hi Peter, They are possibility, al though I shouldn't need for a wee while now! Thanks, Friso

Thanks Lisa, I'll take a look next time I'm in one, my nearest is fairly small but there is a Warehouse version not too far away. I drilled the holes out last night and used my standard 3.5mm x 9mm screws to fix them on. It actually was easier then I had first thought but with the price of the decoders being

The decoders are being fitted to the underside of the MDF board, and normally I drill a 1 mm diameter pilot hole, to make it easier (and not knacker the screw head). What I have been using are pretty bog standard 3.5 mm wood screws with a length just under 10 mm. These work on the Seeps, but only just as the thread catches on the board, meaning you need to hold it tightly in position to prevent it moving out of position. It does have the advantage of meaning there is absolutely no play on the point motor once it's screwed down. These decoders seem to have holes which are just a tiny bit smaller, and the board is quite a bit thinner than those on the Seeps so my concern is that the board might crack. Another suggestion is simply to drill out the holes a fraction and there is probably just enough room to do this, but space is quite tight.... Thanks, Friso

Hi All, I didn't expect this weekend to amount to much in terms of progress, but when your expectations are low they can only go up! I was visiting some friends to help with their test track, it's a basic three loop track all N-gauge using set track (Fleischmann). As an aside we visited a train shop, where I found some new DCC point decoders of a type I've been looking for my test track, so bought those. We tested them this morning and found they work with a Fleischmann ProfiBoss (made by Uhlenbrock I believe). So all good so far! Once home I put them on the layout and all is looking good! Just one snag: fixing them to the board! I'm using 12mm MDF, and would like to screw the decoders to the bottom of the board. Of all the small screws I have, even the smallest don't seem to small enough. I have a similar problem with mounting point motors... The difference is only about 0.5mm, I need 2mm screws I believe. So my question is: Where to get small screws? The ones being sold retail all seem to be just a tad on the large side! I have tried everywhere, the home improvement chains the common trade sellers, but there still seem to be screws that you can get in things such as curtains that are of a size you can't find anywhere! All help greatly appreciated! Thanks, Friso

Well things are on a ham sandwich (or roll if you prefer)! I had managed to get six out of the ten point motors right on the first go, so this afternoon I spent some time to get the last four in place. In most cases all that was needed was to drill out the hole (carefully!) from underneath, one motor with slightly bent pin needed to be put in place in reverse to my usual convention and on a different point than where it was previously. As I went along I tested each point motor first by hand, then with one screw in place and using the power supply, then with both of them and so on.... So at intermediate stage three, this what the layout looks like from below and this time I used a proper solid chair without wheels or swivel function: Please ignore the white wires, they are for the future.. Each red and black wire you can see is wired to two pieces of stripboard in the middle, red is outer rail, black is inner.... No wires going back to a control panel, no hassle.... I have deliberately channeled the wires to leave space for point decoders. I'm in the middle of selecting some decoders now and hope to wire them up in the next few weeks (after they've been purchased and delivered). Meanwhile, my second 2095 class loco has come back from being 'borged' and is running better than ever... It now runs better than it ever did as an analogue loco... Good night!

No we didn't, they were pretty much all fully booked it being the easter holidays in Germany. Some of the scenes were very good, such as the burning truck. Which then causes the entire fire brigade to turn up... I need to put the few photos I did take on the computer and see if any are worth posting.

Sorry but no massive number of photos to attach to this, however Miniatur Wunderland was amazing! The only problem is that it is also very busy, so it is difficult to get anything other than narrow shots of specific scenes. So even though we came loaded with video camera and several cameras, we only took photos of the little HSB part of the layout. One of the most spectacular parts of the whole thing is the Swiss section, this is a two storey section with narrow gauge trains running all the way from the bottom to the top! The next morning we hit a number of model shops to stock up on kits, then we went downtown and did the shops there. Hamburg has a number of very good department stores so everyone was happy. When we arrived at the airport on Sunday we found out that the total weight of our purchases was 11kg, which put our suitcase over the limit! Some quick stuffing into hand luggage and our shared suitcase was back within limits. So if you get a chance to go to Hamburg, then take a WHOLE day to visit the layout... We got there at 10 and left about 4:30... I have pretty much everything to finish LUD, so tonight I put two point motors in place and tested them upside down and they work, only eight more to go! The hunt for DCC point controllers is almost over, I have a likely candidate, just checking dimensions... As there are two single track sections I may add some signals to indicate direction of travel. These will be strictly non-functional without train control... Again details to follow!

Hi Andy, Key question is: What do you want to model? Make a list of all the things that you want, and order them into two: Must have and would like to have. Then prioritise the things in each list. Next is start to look at each piece in turn, for example if a locoshed with a turntable is a must have, then try and draw a basic plan without looking at where it's going to go on the boards. Try to play with the design on paper to see how well it will work. For example, in a locomotive depot, an engine will arrive, take on coal, move over an ash pit and drop the ashes, then it will move to shed for a clean etc... Try and make it so the engines can move as freely as possible without having to move everything around constantly. Similarly, the stations, keep an eye on where the trains come from and where they need to go. Try and avoid blocking through lines for any longer than you need to. I can really reccomend trying to find track plans of real station, real sheds, real goods yards, etc. to see how it's done. But you need to start at the top: What do you want to build? Good luck!

Hi Vonzack, That's a good idea, I like it! I also had another idea to turn the base board upside down, and then put the point motor through from the top. Once I've managed that, move the point blades from underneath (i.e. by moving the blades) watching way the the point motor moves. Turn the motor slowly until you can hold the motor in place with minimal pressure only. I'm trying this now and will report success if that's the result, more curses if not! There are two holes which will need some enlargement, my fault for not fitting point motors as I went along! I think I will be putting together a list of do's and don'ts at the end of this excercise! Turning over the layout is a bit awkward giving that there is now a ramp on it... So I managed to find some 4x2 in the loft to hold it up. Thanks!

Like I mentioned last week, there wouldn't be quite such a hive of activity this week, for starters there was work to contend with, and then the house needs looking after as well! I did do a little rail grinding, but not much... I also decided that it would be best to fit point motors before going far down the scenic route.... So on Saturday it was off to see Andy at KGR and the builders merchants. The result? One sheet of 50mm polystyrene cut into four chunks four ease of handling, a rock starter kit, some n-gauge track crossings, a bus shelter, light coloured ballast and some fence posts. Anyway, I put the board on its side and have attempted fitting three motors, and it's not been a great success. I just don't seem to be able to get it right. The lest time I fitted some the points were parallel with the edge of the board which helps in terms of orientation, this time they're not! Any suggestions on how to make it easier? I think turning the board properly upside down will help but this will require a jig due to ramp and the buffer stops. Any advice greatly appreciated! Now lunch first, then it's time to mow the lawn!

Hiya, What reason were you given for not using a siding as a programming track? I had a thought to do that on my layout, and would have wired it via a DPDT switch to use either mainline or programming track power. In the end I didn't as I already have a dedicated test track, but I'd like to know why others have suggested this is a bad idea. Good luck in your search for soldering iron tips!