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.