Busy busy...

I have taken a slight break from my modelling due to being incredibly busy, and having a bad back... I'd like to find the person who has the voodoo doll of me and keeps stabbing me in the back!

However, I'm hoping to get on with fixing the wiring on the station board [1] (the main control board) this weekend, and expanding the control of the yard board [2] as well as piping the power onto board 5. If I just get the power on board 1 fixed I'll be happy. I came to realise when testing the tracks that I had made two major mistakes on board 1.

Firstly the 'cross over' set up with controller 4 and one of the main lines was in fact reversed, causing a short when the loco crossed the insulators. Not sure how I managed that, but it's easy to fix by swapping the two supply wires underneath the board.

Secondly, when the points are set to move the loco from the mainline siding to the yard there is no power on one rail. Doh! To solve this I have decided to rearrange the power in the station and extend the scope of controller 4 by removing some of the isolators. This unwittingly solves another problem - it means I can use the switches that change power from the line controllers (1-3, mainlines and branch) to controller 4 as power isolators for the entire station.

During my break I have also been and bought myself a woodlandscenics incline set for the branch line. I have come to the decision that a height change would look far more effective for the layout than it being totally flat. I may incline the main line on the other side if this works. We'll see.