Track testing, the DMU fry-up and other mistakes

Tested the track this weekend, uncovered one problem in that I have put the two main tracks too close in one section of the fiddle yard (I did wonder, but I hoped I was wrong!)



My solution (I hope) will be to ease the outer curve out. The other solution would be to make the inner curve tighter, but a, I don't want any more tight curves, and b, I'd have to cut more cork, and its rather neat at the moment!

A part from that little issue the new look fiddle yard is a success! Even the radius one curve into the station sidings works nicely. In spite of its tightness all the locos traverse it with ease. It may not look pretty but, hey, its a fiddle yard, so who cares?!

I've also started on making space on the fiddle yard board for controllers and (eventually) transformers (and possibly switches?) to control and power the layout. When I say start, I mean I drilled a hole in the base board and frame to feed through the power cables and wiring to the track! Small acorns and all that...

And onto the DMU... The DMU dummy car's lights had stopped functioning. I assumed this may be a loose connection, but in fact I found that the Bachmann DCC decoder had died. I replaced it with another from a different loco and hey presto it lit up again.... sort of - during the period when the shell was off the lighting was changing colour randomly and flicking on and off and the merest movement. I put the shell back on and thankfully it did settle, but I'm now wondering if the dummy car has a short somewhere that fired the chip.

Anyway, I am now looking at getting a new chip, and I have been recommended to get a TCS or Lenz chip due to the excellent manufactures guarantee. Its like my mother always says, buy cheap, buy twice!

Other mistakes...

I have realised my judgement of scale for n gauge is way off in some cases. Take the upper town level for example, its far too high, about twice the height it should be. So that is the thing to be changed, along with the fiddle yard back scene as I have changed my mind about the dual hieght look, and the portals are far to big.