Casulties

My little 08 green BR diesel shunter died during testing. Just stopped for no reason! Gutted. I'll have to get it checked out at some point. Another diesel seems to be on its way out as well, seizing up when running.



Not happy!

Board 4 & 5

Boards 4 and 5 are the most recent boards to be constructed, and at time of writing are still be constructed! Board 4 is wired correctly, and once that had been achieved testing of the track power supply and control could begin properly.



Board 4 is the simplest track layout to date, although it must be stressed the return loops and the top of the branch needs to be added. The power is supplied either directly from board 1 or via the three isolation switches mounted on the frame. These switches will control power flow for this entire side of the layout.



Board 5 begins the loop back whilst the front of the board maintains the track gap scale the back of the board has to be narrower to get it on. As this won't be seen it doesn't overly matter. There is no power wired into board 5 at time of writing, but there will be. Board 5 also shows the 'junction' where the branch crosses the mainline. The rest of the branch line track after this point is not laid and will be altered.



Finally here are the two boards together and joined to board one. As you can see the photo features my Mallard test loco! I thought it would be apt! :)

Board 2

Sometime in June/July I commenced building board 2. Due to the yard area there is a fair bit of track on this board. However, the wiring is very simple. As it turned out the yard track layout didn't quite fit as xtrk had said it would, which is probably nothing to do with xtrkcad and everything to do with me! It took some time but I eventually fitted in what I wanted.

Here you can see it in situ with board 1. The power is wired in directly from board 1, but this will be converted to run through isolation switches - a decision I made later when I was thinking about how to control the layout in more detail. To connect the two boards together power wise I have salvaged old computer hard drive power couplings as shown...

As you can see the yard has three long sidings for rolling stock, and 4 lanes for an engine shed. I could have included more lanes but for two reasons. Firstly, engines over points can be notoriously unreliable, and secondly, I didn't want to over crowd the area with track. The two back tracks ending in the coffee stain (oops, paint will hide!) are the two main lines.

The power for the yard is taken through the track connections. The power for the main line is provided through wires.

Board 1

Back in march/april time the first baseboard was built and track was laid for board 1!

Here it is sitting on the dining room table! From this I started to get an idea of the true scale and how everything would fit together. For the most part the track appeared to just about follow the xtrkcad diagram.

The MDF turned out to be a decent baseboard material. Easy to drill, and strong, but soft enough to be able to pin the tracks to. From the picture you can see the to main lines in the center(ish) of the board, the branch line entrance at the top right/front towards the edge of the board, and the yard entrance at the bottom right/front of the board. Note however, the return loop tracks are not yet present - they will be on the far left/back of the board.
The track (Peco set and flexi-track) and was laid using standard Peco track pins. Pins do tend to bend when hammering, so care is needed, and plenty of spare pins are useful as well! To scale the track to the right distance I use a Peco scale tool, available from any good n-gauge stockist. I got mine from e-bay a good while ago. The larger spacing is British gauge, the shorter is European.

A few weeks (months!?) later the wiring commenced. Board one is the most complex board to wire, with power routing to the two boards either side, plus through the cross-over section switches and onto the track. The two adjacent boards require some connections straight from the supply, and some controlled via the switches.

To keep things simple the wires connect through connection blocks. This allows for modification if need be - and I'm sure modification will be needed when the mistakes start to appear! Three switches are crudely mounted on the side of the frame, a partially temporary measure and in time will be enclosed properly. These switches control the power to the cross-over section; (1/4), (2/4) and (3/4).

To keep the wires in place I decided to tension the wires against the board frame. To tension the wires I used connection blocks and ran the wires all the way through in pairs. The screw was tighten up and the wires were then held in place. This turned out to be a fairly expensive mistake!... what I had failed to realise was that the screws had gone straight through both wires in the pair, connecting them together and thus causing a short circuit - in every single wire to every single track!. This inturn seem to fry my HF cleaner unit. When I realised that every track was reporting 0 resistance between each rail I immediately switched off the power. After some investigation with the multimeter I found the problem and had to remove every single tensioner I had put in, and re-insolate the wires. Funnily enough the track worked after that and I managed to run the first loco over the short piece of track that was powered.

Success! Although it was to late for the cleaner unit :(

Xtrkcad

Xtrkcad is a model railway design tool. It is free to download and is very useful for scale design. I have used it in a limited form but once you have got the hang of the interface it is very good, and you will find it very easy to produce track diagrams quickly.

It has multiple scale options, set track packs for download, flexitrack drawing (including calculation of possible curves), incline calculation and many more features.

There are also online tutorials available on the web which are a must see.

It is available from http://www.xtrkcad.org.

Wiring Design

The track will be wired in the traditional manor... ie, I am not using DCC. I'm not using DCC on a couple of grounds. The first and main reason is cost. The engines I currently own would need to be converted, and I'm not convinced all of them would be able to be converted. Not to mention all the new controller kit. The second reason is to do with not being able to use HF track cleaners with DCC, although, admittedly it is not a major reason. I might convert to DCC one day, when good British n gauge engines are common place, with all the bells, whistles and lights included.

The power is supplied over four tracks. Three tracks are actually tracks in their own right. The forth is a special supply allowing for loco transfer between the other three tracks, and for control of the yard.

The two main line tracks are split into three basic sections; the main station area, left side and right side. The branch line is split into two sections; main station and right side.



Each section will be isolated from each other and switch controlled.

Flow of power in any section is controlled either by switch, or by flow of power through the points. In effect the layout is designed to use points to isolate local areas of track, such as sidings etc.

The most complicated part of the wiring is the cross over at the main station. This allows locos to move from one track to another with the track four controller. The section is switched from the line controller to the yard controller, and is isolated from the rest of the track.

Track Design

The initial design for the layout looked like this...



In the middle of the U you can see the main station. 'Above' the station is the yard and to the left of the yards is a hill under which the main line disappears, to reemerge on the other side of the U after going behind the scenery boards. The branch line crosses over the main line on the bottom half of the U, 'below the main station. From this point it goes up a gradual incline leveling off at places for stations. It loops back around the board behind the scenes until it re-emerges at the top of the hill on the other side of the layout, terminating at an industry and/or village station.

When building commenced a few things became apparent about this layout plan. Firstly, with the amount and length of tracks and inclines I was in danger of once again being slightly over ambitious! Secondly, the space the track took up on the board didn't seem to relate entirely with the xtrk cad design and trying to fit so many tracks on one board meant there wouldn't be much room for scenery. Thirdly, connecting the boards would become increasing difficult with large hills and inclines in the way.

So a design revision was needed to simplify the layout, and create more space for scenery.



Out goes the full length branch line, and the large hill. This allows the entire upper section of the U to be given over to Port Mallard, with a potential harbour/seaside scene and far more town given that the incline structure and branch line track doesn't have to be accommodated. Another plan will be to cut out a section of this upper board to create sea scape at a lower level to the layout.

The branch line now terminates on the lower boards and allows a small village station and scene on the end board, and the industry at the terminus. There will be a slight incline on the branch for effect from the crossover to the terminus.

What remains the same is the main station design, yard area and branch main line crossover 'junction'. This revision also allows the the electrics to remain the same.

Next time - wiring...

Baseboard Design

Port Mallard is a U shaped layout consisting of five modular baseboards. Each board is a sheet of MDF, measuring (L)1220 x (W)606 x (T)9mm. The sheet is mounted of a timber frame (square 44mm thickness) to allow space for wiring, motors or anything else that may be required. I am also considering using this height to be able to embed features into the wood, such as a river, harbour or beach.

In my previous attempt I tried to go for the cheap option of reusing old parts of flat pack furniture. I soon became apparent that it was virtually impossible to get the track pins in to such a hard board, especially when the board is coated. MDF is much easier in that regard, although it often takes me two attempts to get the pin in the board without bending. However, with experience I am getting better at this!

The wiring connects from board to board using old hard drive power connectors to link. The track itself also passes power from board to board. Currently each board needs to be slotted together carefully, making sure all the track fish plates are correctly linked. With many tracks (between 4 and 5 for most boards) this is a very tricky affair. I have discovered it can be made slightly easier by widening the ends of the fish plates to allow for extra movement. I have also found that leaving the edge track with minimum pinning also helps as the track can be moved into place. Finally, it also helps if the track ends are flexitrack, allowing for more manoeuvrability. There is a chance I may change this method of connection in the future if this way becomes to cumbersome.

To secure the boards in place I have used spare latches used for doors etc. This may be a temporary measure until I find something better. A mechanism that would pull the boards together would be superior.

My Modeling History

...Don't worry, I don't mean topless!

As a child, and growing up, I have always been interested in model railways. My parents built be one for a Christmas present one year which I remember fondly. Then my dad had a complicated and large layout in the loft for a number of years which we both worked on... well, I probably "assisted", whilst Dad did all the work! It was a fantastic layout and always something that has inspired me to build my own one day.

I first decided to create a layout about 5-6 years ago. Due to the space available at the time (or lack of) I decided to opt for N gauge. That way I would get a decent length of track whilst still using a workable gauge and keeping the space needed to a minimum. I begun collecting engines, track, rolling stock and building kits, but unfortunately I never seemed to get started. After moving house space was no longer a problem to some extent, but I decided nevertheless to keep to the N gauge.

I created the garage work space and tables for the layout to sit on, designed the layout for the space provided and set about constructing. I have now come to the two words that describe this attempted layout...

EPIC FAIL!

Looking back I can say it was far to ambitious for someone with minimal experience - the electrics were incredibly complicated, the track layout design was 'adventurous' with its use of inclines, points and crossovers. Add to that poor base boards and miscalculation on a mammoth scale, it was doomed to failure. The unnamed layout had reach a dead end and I left model railway building alone for a couple more years due to personal issues.

At the beginning of the year, with the encouragment of my wife to be, I decided to give it another go, on a simpler scale, with new base boards and a new design with simpler electrics. And so Port Mallard was born!

Next time - Designs!

Introduction

Hi, I'm Simon, and welcome to my blog. With this blog I intend to chart the progress, successes, mistakes or complete cock ups of building my first to-be-completed layout that I have nick named Port Mallard. I actually started the layout around March 2009 but I hope the entries in this blog will reflect the (slow) progress up to this point, in chronological order. In reality it has only been in the last two months that much progress has been made.

Port Mallard is to be a modular layout consisting of five boards in a U-shape. The modular system allows me to build the boards in the warmth and comfort of the house, rather than the cold of the garage where the workspace is!

For the track itself, the mainline will be a complete loop with the back of the loop hidden by scenery back boards. There will also be a single branch line, and sidings and an engine shed. It will be wired and powered in the traditional method, but should be able to be converted to DCC if wished. The set up requires four controllers in the form of two mainlines (track 1 & 2), one branch (track 3) and one for line transfer and the sidings and shed (track 4).

The layout theme will be loosely based around the early BR era/1960s/diesel - steam crossover era. I say loosely as I'm not one for being a stickler for historic detail. If there is something I like then I'll use it. That said, I will try and stay within 20 year... the Flying Scotsman won't be waiting in the station for the arrival of the 10:15am Virgin Pendolino service!

To be honest the layout design and ideas are still fluid, in other words, I have not entirely decided what will appear on it. But I have (90%) decided on the following - Port Mallard, as the name suggests, is by the sea. There will be a dock or harbour with siding/loading access, and a sea side scene, either as a small fishing harbour or beach, or estuary/river mouth. The branch line disappears off in land and there will be a small village station on the line, and the branch will terminate at some sort of industry - either a quarry or colliery. I particularly like the idea of a colliery, especially as an article appeared in a recent addition of 'Model Rail' about constructing a mining scene, albeit in OO gauge.

I hope whomever finds this blog finds it interesting and informative at the very least, and that you enjoy following my progress! Next time... History!