AllScales

I agree with Sasquatch, make sure you tin both sides well, it is amazing what a huge difference it makes. Also make sure that you get a good connection onto the switch. Don't be afraid to undo it and try again if you think the wire gets too close to an adjacent one. If you have wire poking out beyond what is required, don't be afraid to cut it off. I've also found that underboard wiring should be kept very tidy, so as I'm using 12mm MDF as my baseboard, I've been using little plastic cable clips like this: http://www.maplin.co.uk/50-cable-clips-33012 They stop the wires from moving and keep things quite trackable. Just make sure you get the right length pin so they don't poke through! These might also work for you, if you board is quite thin: http://www.maplin.co.uk/adjustable-self-adhesive-cable-clamps-26845 Note: I don't work for them, the web-site was simply close at hand! Good luck and don't worry, you'll be thinking what all the fuss was about in a couple of weeks!

Thanks for the encouragement, the milestones really do help, I agree! The other great help was saying to a friend that I'd bring it over the weekend before easter. My intention was to have only the outer complete at that stage, but I did the whole thing. The only regret with rushing so much is that I didn't quite do all the testing I should have done, so only the shorter loco's will run on it and not the big 0-8-0's. Nor the railcar.... I'm particularly proud of the transition piece at the base of the ramp. It's built from a pizza box, there are three little piles of ever higher squares glued together with super glue. Track pins in the middle of each square help to keep the pile in place while at the same time easing the track into the curve. My earlier coupling problems at the base of the climb, I've solved by bending the loops on the coupling slightly downwards on some wagons (e.g. the white van), this prevents it nicely. The flip side is that you may have to couple the train together by hand, but then this is not a shunting layout! The next few weeks will see a little less work being done on it, mainly trying to get the running qualities better a slow process. At the same time I need to go shopping for some things so I can start to do the scenery. Initially this was just a test track, but I feel it would look a lot better landscaped, and at the same time it will give me a chance to practice ahead of doing the main layout which it is resting on. As you can see there are a few items on there already, I picked those up over the weekend. Standing on my chair was the only way of getting the height required to take the photo, I should have gotten a proper chair from elsewhere, but it's cramped enough in the train room already with the train table and my work bench (an old Ikea dining table), which was so full of tools and stuff that I couldn't stand on that either!

After some measuring, chopping, glueing and general noise, dust and everything, the last piece of track has now been completed! This is a big milestone in the development of "Linksuberdorf". The track at the top of the incline has a 51mm gap under it, just enough for a big Gmeinder diesel to pass underneath (or a ZB U 1, they have very tall chimneys). I found some bus stops and station name signs on Saturday, so I've put them on now. At the top of the incline by one of the shelters is little Liliput D11, which arrived there under its own steam (though stopping for little breaks on the way up as it lost power), towing a whole three goods vans. Quite remarkable given the slope is between 1 in 20 and 1 in 25. The U 1 also made it up the slope with those vans, so the coaches must be just a bit less free-running. However the coaches are newer (the three goods wagons comprise an old "Stiegl", a Liliput 40th anniversary and a new "Zillertaler Bier"), so should go better! Never mind, I some things I can possibly melt into the axle boxes to give lighter running. I have a scrap coach so I might give that a go sometime. Next on the list is to stop the loco's from waddling across the points, this is because the piece of rail on the frog side of the point has an insulated rail joiner on it, which lifts the rail a fraction when inserted (my track is now about 6 years old so Peco may have fixed it, I hope they have), I will do this by sanding the railhead down a fraction. The other thing that needs improving is the wires up against the outside of the rails. If they rise above the railhead even a fraction, it can cause the valve gear to snag and stop them dead or (in the case of D11) lose power. Here's an areal shot of the layout, taken precariously from a wheeled and swivelling chair:

A rare chance to do some testing after dinner. Three trains on the circuit: HF 110 number 4 (with tender) and three two axles coaches: Made it to the top no problem HF 110 number 23 (no tender) and two bogie goods wagons: A bit of a struggle... ZB U. 1 plus three two axles coaches: A failure, all wagons made it onto the incline, but that's all she wrote! Even reducing the slope slightly didn't get U 1 up the hill, funny because when I did some tests earlier U 1 carried more than the HF 110's.... Here you can see the victors of tonight's mountain challenge: And here is the measure by which they were vetted: At least this lot didn't have problems keeping hold of the train they were towing!

After a particularly productive day, the test track now looks like this: At the top is little HF110 loco No. 23, towing a bogie bicycle van. The top of the incline is at a height of just over 5cm, so it is doing well. The ramp is built from 3 mm MDF, which has a nice combination of flexibility and strength. There are only three supports along the way, at the moment, and there is no noticeable movement in the track. As usual the loco unhooks from the van at the start of the hill, I'll see if I can do something to sort that out. It doesn't help that ROCO don't put loops on the loco couplers, so in effect you are relying on the loop of whatever it's towing to keep the two together. You can seen from the picture that the siding on the inside of the loop is now on the outside. It's more convenient, but also a little shorter. Oh well, you can't have everything! So the list for tomorrow is: Try and fix the start of the incline so the loco no longer loses its train. Work out the correct gain in altitude. The point where the climb reverses the turn direction is about the end of the initial piece of flex-track (36"). For the main layout I need to climb just over 5cm in 130cm. So I want to simulate it. Start thinking about scenery, if I can get up high enough, then I'll extend the ramp over the "main" line, with it passing underneath in a short tunnel. On the negative side, there are several curves which are slightly tighter than the Roco set-track curves, so there is no hope of the Mh's (an 0-8-0) going around it. Nor will the Halling 5090 do that. The big Gmeinder diesels don't mind though. 2095 class loco's need to run fastish through two particular points (on the left in the picture above) as they will short the system if run too slowly. This would appear to be down to the huge amount of play on the wheels.... Now, time for dinner!

I've found two almost downtown (one near Hamburg Hbf), and one just two stops with a change from U-bahn to S-bahn. So in that respect we're sorted! Our German is up to speed (Dutch & Austrian/Kiwi) and we can translate for the third (French, with a little German), so we're going to bother... Meanwhile I've figured out why the Mh6 keeps shorting. It's a combination of laying the track quickly and the length of the 0-8-0. I should have used the grinding disc to make sure the track is completely level. I hope to have some footage of the problem on the weekend!

Your URL looks a bit broken but I followed it and quite agree! I had a similar problem in the past and managed to cut off the offending part (using a little grinding disc) and glueing that half onto the board. Does that sound like a viable solution?

This years summer (whenever that might arrive) has on it two important items: A visit to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg Visit most of the main narrow gauge lines in Wales Currently the plan is to visit the Miniatur Wunderland shortly after Easter. I'm getting my shopping list ready now, and a list of Hamburg Model shops... I'm well aware of the shop opening hours too... ;-) So we are flying out on Thursday night...

I'm envious! About the biggest I could ever possibly hope to achieve is 19x12 feet by doing an almighty loft conversion. Not only do I have the misfortune of living in London (Orpington is labelled as "Kent", but that is only because Brits don't accept change very readily, It was absorbed into London in 1965). On top of that I live in what's called a "Conservation Area", which means that the kind of extensions you can do is limited. So the front appearance of the house must remain largely the same or you're in trouble. All the same I'm lucky, I could still be living in the shoebox flat I used to live in (and if you know Monty Python's Yorkshireman's sketch it was almost in "middle o' road"), so having a 3 bedroom semi-detached house is quite good! On the plus side, having a 112 foot garden should allow for a neat garden railway (and I already have a Deadwood Central Consolidation to run in it). Anyway over the weekend I happened to have an HPA (Horrendous Purchasing Accident) of a Bachmann 0N30 Forney, this goes with a Bachmann Porter 0-4-2, I had acquired earlier. All I need is some log carriers now and maybe a caboose. Not knowing very much about American Railroads, I was hoping you might know a good place to start to find out more about modelling Narrow gauge logging operations? Cheers, Friso

So now LinksUberDorf has had a private outing to be seen by some friends. The big 0-8-0 Mh.6 won't go around one of the curves, this means the back to back points may need shifting The inside of the loop storage track is a bit short The rolling stock waddles a bit in places, maybe a little solder filler, or some girding disc required As this weekend was also the Ally Pally show, I had an HPA (Horrendous Purchasing Accident). In this case an On30 Forney 2-4-4 with DCC and sound at a very nice price... Meanwhile today we built a board for my mate's test track. Took longer to go get and the bits than it did to build the board, the things we learn from experience!

Another heavy bout of track laying and another lesson learned: Don't restrict the amount of tools you're using! I had tried to use only hand tools (and soldering iron), but today I decided to get out the Rotacraft Grinding disc, it's quicker and more effective than doing it by hand. So the track ends of the piece leading up to the Y point but on exactly! So the result is that I now only need to put in two pieces of track, with two evenings to go! Here is the progress upto now: I had been glueing track to the board using superglue and using track pins to guide the curves, now I've found it's better just to drill holes in the sleepers and put the pins through there... Much quicker, simpler and more accurate (i.e. it doesn't require three hands). Anyway, just two pieces of track left in the top left, all other parts have been tested and are working well.... The long black line inside all the other track, will become an incline to test hill climbs, That will be put down over Easter I hope, it was outside of scope for this week, and the actual solution depends on the scenic design and if my loco's can run over Fleischmann rack N gauge track.... Good night! P.S. Major damage was to my right thumb: I managed to touch the soldering iron... You would have thought I had learned that by now!

That looks absolutely superb! I admire your bravery in repainting a loco. The most I have attempted is painting a 3D printed body, but that lacks any kind lettering, it's just a paint job so far. I can see from some of your other photos that it's running on a fairly big layout with mixed gauge track, I wish I had the room for something like that!

Hi All, Well tonight was a bit of a Brucie bonus, the target was to complete the main circuit, but then being a roll I got as far as this: All the track has been tested and guinea pig number one (a.k.a. Roco loco Nicki and Frank) has trundled around the loop very nicely! No hiccups at all, which is quite surprising given this is my first major flex-track project! The two sidings work nicely as well... So for tomorrow is the other passing loop, in the top right, there's another point to go onto the one you can see but facing the other way for another siding.... If that goes well, then I'll start on the two sidings on the outside of the loop! I feel at this point, the track will be finished by the end of Friday! Goodnight!!!!

After managing to lay some more track on the test track last night, I have set myself a challenge: Complete the laying of all track before Saturday... This is a bit ambituous, but should be entirely do-able as long as I can keep to this schedule: Tonight: Complete the main loop (one point and two pieces of track), celebrate by running some trains... Wednesday: Finish the two passing loops (one point and two pieces of track), celebrate by running two trains at once... Thursday: Add the sidings (5 pieces of track and the final point), celebrate by having a railway festival: i.e. cram on more stock than is reasonbale Friday: Add buffer stops and pin down the track in strategic places (at the moment it's glued down with superglue) celebrate with a well deserved drink (no drinking and driving remember!) Why the sudden rush? I intend to also use the test track as an expirementation/practice board for doing scenery, and as the main layout will be getting to the point where I can start on work such things as ballasting, I will need somewhere to practice. Luckily as the layout is DCC, I simply need to ensure that every piece of track has power all the time, so all I've had to do is make sure droppers have been added in the correct places. So once all the track is down, that's it. No wiring of switch panels... I had thought of adding a programming track, but it's probably easier to take all the loco's off the track when changing a loco's address and for the rest the controller supports Programming On the Main, so it shouldn't be neccessary.

Very interesting, I never realised until just now that HOn3 was a different track gauge yet again! I really should have known reading you earlier post. Have you kept the body as well? I guess they aren't really 100% American as they do tend to prefer some kind of bonnet in front of the cab. I guess this would be as a kind of crumple zone?

Well the replacement for the faulty point hadn't come in, so after a trip down to the Haywards Heath OO9 show yesterday (at which items were bought ), it was back to work on the test track. This is now trundling along nicely: Today, given the weather, I managed to lay another four points and the intermediate track, together with any wires required. As you can see above the main loop is starting to take shape. While the track looks somewhat angular, it is no worse than the standard curves in the Roco set-track. The only piece of any worry is the very short piece of track between the two points in the lower right corner. it is difficult laying a short piece of curved track. Does anyone have any hints on how to get this right? Luckily there aren't any more pieces quite like that.....

This side of things has remained a bit quiet of late but is in no way completely inactive. It is a long term project and I have concentrated on accumulating stock, track planning and other research. As Graham Farish have been releasing new "Blue Riband" Mk. 1 stock that's been high on my list. On top of that I've been on the lookout for some typical freight stock, and heritage stock. On the freight side, I now have a good rake of gravel hoppers, container flats and a pair of nuclear flask wagons. I had found a pair of class 20's in DRS colours, but they both ate their gears as does happen with old Grafars. So i sent one off to BR Lines and today it came back. A quick test has shown that it runs almost as well as an all new design. Congrats guys! So now number two is going off for the same treatment. At the same time I sent an old "5 pole motor" Poole flying banana to be fixed as well. This has also come back working better than ever before. Now the only problem is: what kind of white should I use to fix up some minor damage on the roof? Some of the paint has chipped clear off, so it needs to be redone... I'm not going to attempt to repair the minor damage to the gold stripes.

The remainder of the motors and the last point came in during the week, so this weekend was devoted to getting the station and fiddle yard finished off. Of course it would have to be that the last remaining point is faulty! The arm that is supposed to connect to the point motor is too short. Back again and another week to wait for that part can be said to be completed. Today I have spent wiring up the point motors. I noticed a nice safety feature on the Lenz points decoders: they need to be programmed first time. This can be done live on the system with others connected. It goes like this: 1. Wire up the decoder exactly as it should be 2. Power up the whole system (both the DCC & AC power) 3. Press the button on the decoder until the LED comes on 4. Send a command to the turnout address of the lowest point Done! There are other things that you can adjust but in my case there is no need... I also had a bit of a brainwave on another front: A mimic panel to show fiddle yard occupancy. As the fiddle yard is going to under the hillside, at the back, against the wall, I had originally thought of mounting a little camera and use that to stop the trains in the right place. However now that option B is the only way to go there isn't enough room to use a camera, so instead I've drilled holes in the baseboard at the critical locations ready to be fitted with IRDOT modules. The modules are to be linked to a little panel with LED's, which light up when rolling stock passes over it. When the LED comes on I can stop the train using the "individual emergency stop" feature on the multi-mouse. Of course you need little panel! So I wondered around the local DIY mega store thinking that this was going to be a lot of hard work.... Later I thought: It's just like a picture frame. A quick stop at Wilko's turned up a £1.40, 6" x 8" picture frame... Hello display panel! Pictures will follow once I've hacked it about a bit more... Enjoy your week! Next weekend is the Haywards Heath NG Show on Saturday, so I don't expect huge amounts of progress and as the 009 Society shop is going to be there too, I may well be poor again!

To be honest not much work done this weekend, I'm still waiting for a point and large quantity of point motors. The points and motors I have received already are now mounted and ready for a weekend with the board on its side to do the wiring (it's just so much easier!). I did escape to the country for a little jaunt to the Tenterden Model Railway show. Nice event guys! Well done! However (and you probably knew that was coming), as this is very much a family show, why invite layouts where nothing seems to happen??? There are a lot of parents at such a show, with young children. The children want to see things move, they don't care about timetables, or proper signalling. A high speed line with trains nose to tail would be more fun than a Playstation (possibly). OK, rant over.... On a side note, I have some leftover PECO 009 track, a piece of 3x3 foot MDF, so here is LinksÜberdorf (Left over village), since this picture was taken, I've managed to find a spot for the remaining two points that I had left as well. The idea is that this will be a test bed for new loco's so there are lots of points and curves of varying radii. It is impossible to do a whole circuit without going through a diverging point. Initially the points will all be manually operated, but all points will have holes pre-drilled for motors, just in case. I already have a tiny board, that I built as a test of how to lay HOe/009 flex track, so that and the new test track, will act as guinea pigs for things such as ballasting. So who knows? It might become a little portable layout, especially as the big layout will require 2-3 people at least an hour to get out of its room. Anyway, I managed to get some wiring done on the test track this afternoon, in preparation for track laying, which might start this week!

I too have been over that pass, and yes it would require a rack system pretty much the entire way. However it was proposed when the ZB was built, and I have a pile of OBB and ZB stock, so it seemed like a good idea!

As suggested by "buffalo" in response to my last post I set up a bit of a jury rigged climb to test the locos. So I have jury rigged a piece of 4 foot long by 8 inch wide piece of ply, with a bit of a run-up... The end is at just over 5 cm so that over 4 feet is just a bit steeper than the required slope! First I put a completely straight track along the incline, and 4 four wheeled coaches as the train. The I tried in turn: U2 (0-6-2T), Mh6 (0-8-0), HF 110 (0-6-0), and ZB D11 (0-4-0). All made it up the slope, although D11 (a tiny shunter) did slip a bit. All of them managed a stop part way up the hill. Next I replaced the straights with sequence of curves to simulate a track snaking up the hill. The results with the same rake were encouraging but not as good: U2 - Managed the slope well (with minor slippage) Mh6 - Incline? What Incline? HF110 - I think I can, but only with three coaches! D11 - Sorry, I'm not built for this! The performance of the U2 was a surprise, I really did not expect it to do so well. Lastly I decided to put a rake of 4 Mariazeller coaches on the windy slope, this is an old 4 coach Liliput set I got from the German Railway Society years ago and not something I've seen since! To test these coaches on the incline, I tried two locos: Mh.6 and an old Liliput 2095 loco. Both of these didn't even know the slope was there. The bogie coaches do look rather entertaining on the windy slope: Anyway, I think possibly with fiddling (i.e. improving the bearings on the coaches) both the D11 and the HF 110's should be able to get up the slope with a rake of 4 (remember this was a bit steeper than required). So all good!