what are people doing on their layout right now

Started by B1 61126, August 16, 2011, 07:59:35 PM

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Trainfish

John

In April 2024 I will be raising money for Cancer Research UK by doing at least 100 press-ups every day.  Feel free to click on the picture to go to the donations page if you would like to help me to reach my target.



To follow the construction of my layout "Longcroft" from day 1, you'll have to catch the fish below first by clicking on it which isn't difficult right now as it's frozen!

<*))))><

daveg

Nothing really new on Hurst Hill to share as for the last few weeks I've been working on ideas for the mimic boards and after loads of advice and help, have now got the Hurst Hill branch line platform 3, Brewery siding and the Eddingford branch line operational complete with several isolated sections.

This gives me the excuse chance to have a practice with shunting a few wagons around and having a 2 coach local train while running the two mainlines.

The main yard has still to be wired up properly but having now got the hang of things (no doubt I shall rue the day!) I can hopefully make a start on that quite busy area fairly soon.

I still have to finalise how I actually make up the mimic board(s) but found using PowerPoint quite good for the 'simple' job just completed. There I used 3 DPDT centre off mini toggle switches that work well.

I think the big challenge for me, being a DC layout, will be how I go about transferring from say the main Up line to the main Down line. Changing the points is a manual operation, there are no point motors.

I'm more than happy to take advice on the best method. Please do ask if you have an idea but need more info.

Controllers currently are a GM Dual for the main lines and a GM Combi used for the branch.

Dave G


Newportnobby

There are some very simple but effective ways of 'wire in tube', Dave.
Have you considered them?

daveg

Thanks Mick.

I'm quite happy changing the points manually although I did actually have a WiT kit that I returned for refund some months later.

I decided that the few times that I would need to reach over and change the most distant points, it wasn't worth the cash or effort involved.

Like a few others I suspect, if I'd realised how the original plan of a 'small budget layout' would turn into a major investment, I would have stopped, rewound a bit and gone down the DCC route. No regrets though and if I have to compromise along the way I shall do that and still have fun.

Dave G


Mike Hamilton

Me, I'm sorting out the wiring on my new (first) layout - 5' x 2'.  A real spiders nest of wires, but hopefully it'll all get tidied up.
"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes" - Oscar Wilde

Les1952

Planning stage with the next one - "Croft Spa".

Problem is that it is a prototype location, which gives two difficulties-


  • The line at the location is straight and level between the bridges at both ends of the layout.



  • There is a 4 foot length that is just a pair of fields- i.e the whole of the right-hand baseboard as the village fits comfortably on the other one.


I'm probably going to angle the main line slightly so it isn't parallel to the baseboard edge, which in part will help the first difficulty.

The solution to the second might involve a cricket match, and also the fact that one Charles Lutwig Dodgson spent his formative years in Croft Spa, where his father was the vicar. The local squire had had white rabbits released in the locality as they were easier to see when he was out with his gun......

Les

Nick

1. Checking that everything is working so that I can operate play trains over Christmas.

2. Wondering:
a) why I've never noticed that one of my colour light signals operates backwards, and
b) whether there's a complex and valid reason why that's the case, that I once knew but which will take me days to work out again...
Nick

The perfect is the enemy of the good - Voltaire

DELETED

Very small signs of progress for me ('scuse the pun!) :-[  Powerpoint is a great tool!!!!

Rich


grumbeast

Getting ready to put all my stock back in boxes and plan demolishing this  :confused1:  so we can get the house ready to go on the market before the big move




austinbob

Size matters - especially if you don't have a lot of space - and N gauge is the answer!

Bob Austin

Webbo

Must be very disheartening to have to break up your efforts so far, Graham. But starting from the beginning on a new layout is pretty exciting. What is your moving schedule?

Webbo

DELETED

Another very small couple of signs of moving forwards.  Made a couple of boards to go under my station canopy.  Timetable and ticket machine on one side, and adverts on the back side.  They still need a coat of lacquer but happy with them so far considering the size of them...





...No idea whether it's prototypical or not but for the era I'm modelling I always remember from my youth the Scotch VHS skeleton "re-record, not write away" and the "Hello Boys" Wonderbra adverts.

Cheers,

Rich

hst

Hst shed I am blasting the hole layout once done I will video the layout with new stock and will be on you tube hst shed

hst

Hi I am blasting the hole of my layout now I will putting on you tube once I finished with new stock hst shed

DELETED

So I'm doing nothing again aprt from little tiny details instead of progressing to a fully running layout.  Family visits over festive season put pay to work on the proper layout BUT I went up on the line to Kyle from Inverness on the 2nd Jan and back -purely to fill a day-in with nothing else open.  I have this effort to show for it as table-top modelling.....





....It's such a compressed variation but close enough I feel "Kyle of Loch-ish" or something like that sounds appropriate.

I am in Kyle often enough through work and there is nothing of note there at all.  We just stayed on the train this time but 10mins in the station was enough to photo a panorama for the back-scene.

Rich

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