Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Slow progress

With Christmas, new year and continuing wedding plans and busy at work, progress has been slow. Not to mention the snow and cold weather making the garage a very inhospitable place to be!

But some progress has been made!

The rewiring and relaying of the modular boards is now complete on the existing boards. The yard section has been removed in favour of a future industry and sidings. This will either be a brewery or harbour (more likely a brewery).

Each board how butts up to each other and is held firmly in place with latches. The power to each section is soldered directly onto the track on a board by board basis. This means I ma no longer reliant on power being passed via track joins.

The power connectors between the central board and the two side sections have been replaced with 24 pin power connectors, putting all tracks together in one single connector and leaving room from expansion (lighting circuits, point motors etc). The connectors they have replaced will be reused as controller power plugs and power connectors on the final board.

The plan for the final board is that it may not now be the final board! I am considering redesigning the layout in that section to allow for a fiddle yard to be added on the end. The fiddle yard would be accessed via a single track that connected to both main line tracks. This would allow for a scenic bridge over water next to the sea side scene I'm planning.

Finally, the return loop on the four existing boards is beginning to take shape. Just need to get my finger out one day and finish it. Then its onto the 5th board.