Today I didn’t do all that much, but to me it looks like so so much. I’ve started the village board! I didn’t take any pictures of the process since it is so incredibly simple… It is a piece of rectangular ply that I’ve cut a bit off at an angle. I measured the distance to the wall on the left and right side of the station platform back wall, and marked that on my ply (I calculated the length as well, but the difference with the diagional was negligible at 5mm, as expected), clamped a piece of sacrificial 1×4 to the ply to act as a guide between these two points.. and simply sawed it off with a hand saw. Who needs fancy tools eh?
The buildings I put up there aren’t going to be the buildings I will eventually put up there. But they do show what I had in mind with this station platform when I started working on it (I built the platform before I even had the materials for my benchwork). And I have to admit, it is so inspiring to see that image I had in my head in real life. The board is still just clamped in place and not fixed down, I just wanted to be able to see what I have to work with before I continue.
Next up is going to be the two bridges for the platform tracks to continue past my signal box, and the road underneath that leads down to the harbour. I have quite a ramp to build… But I’m sure it’ll be delightful to work on it.
So continueing from where I left off; to add the two tracks to the fiddleyard to store trains, and to put in the reversing loop. Even though I don’t have a reversing module yet, I wanted to get the track in so it is easy to put in the module and have it operational, without the need to put in more track when the time comes. The reversing loop is intended to be used with my future harbour (of which the board with track is candidly visible sometime, though I’ll write that up once I can actually start work on it in earnest).
Time for a little Review
There isn’t much to say about installing this track, it was similar to the other track I put in. But that does lead onto my experiences putting this track in so far. There are a million tutorials online on how to lay track and flexitrack, but I find that the vast majority of them use Peco track. However, since I already had some Fleischmann track and points, and already being familiar with their track system, I continued using that. A shame there aren’t any tutorials that use Fleischmann flexitrack!
I wonder why…
It is lovely track, it comes with a decent looking trackbed and the flexitrack uses a type of rubber for it which I reckon actually helps reduce noise transmission into the baseboard. The points are high quality and no fuss really, plus their propietary point motors handily slot into them ensuring a perfect placement.
But… it isn’t all good. If a point is faulty, like the one shown in the previous post, it is very difficult to repair. I didn’t manage. There is a small spring inside of the point that is extremely finicky to place, and it has a strong tendency to come out when removing and fitting the underside of the point. The flexitrack, while the rubber ballast makes it look pretty with no additional effort, is a double edged sword. The majority looks good, but where you have to join it to points or other track, you’ll have to cut it back, and you will have to sort that area out yourself. Try getting those areas to look the same as the rest of the pre-formed ballast. On top of this the flexi-track, while flexible, actually doesn’t flex all that easily. I find it difficult to even approach 2nd/9″ radius curves, so difficult I had to resort to using a piece of curved set-track in the above reversing loop. And just to add insult to injury, Fleischmann track is 2 to 3 times as expensive as Peco track.
Putting the upsides next to the downsides of Fleischmann track; it is no wonder most tutorials use Peco track. Their range is more extensive, cheaper and just a guess based on the number of people I’ve found to speak ill of their track products, far easier to use.
Think I won’t be using Fleischmann track on my next layout. And as bad as it may come out in this review, I’ll continue to use it for this layout. The majority of the track is already down after all.
The plan for my layout doesn’t include a fiddleyard, but they’re handy to have to store trains and rolling stock off-scene. Since I don’t intend to run a whole lot simultaneously, I figured I put in a small hidden fiddleyard. Normally you’d have to accessible to swap out rolling stock, but again, I don’t intend to run a whole lot of variety on this layout, so a hidden inaccessible one should be fine for my needs.
So the board is a simple rectangle, so I didn’t take additional photographs on how it is constructed. It sits upon 4 supports attached to the benchwork, which have been fixed in place with the board sitting on-top (without being fixed down to these supports) to make sure that it sits level. Test placing the points on top of this board made it obvious that I didn’t have enough length to store my intended trains (the longest I’ll run is a 2-6-2 tank engine with 4 4-wheel coaches in tow, which comes in at roughly 45cm). So the points on the left have been moved further to the left and unto the loopback board. Incidentally this means that I need 3 points on the left as the last one will connect back to the loop to be able to use it as a reversing loop for my harbour board (more on this board later, you can occassionally see it in some photos though!)
Fixing the points down, and putting the first piece of track of the fiddleyard in, it was time for a test. Not shown in the photos is a small S-bend right before the points on the left. While it is absolutely delightful to see my 2-6-2 Jeep run, the test running made it painfully obvious that one point was faulty. Circled in the red you can clearly see that it doesn’t switch all the way… I’ve tried repairing this point, but sadly enough it didn’t work. The arm that throws the blades of the point simply didn’t have the right angle to throw it far enough, and bending it enough so that it did just moved the problem to the other side…So I did the only proper thing I could do; take up these 3 points, replace the faulty point… and take out the S-bend by using a left-hand point instead of a right-hand point to go into the far-track of the fiddleyard.
So there is still work to be done on the fiddleyard. There is more track to be put down, put terminal blocks in to wire these tracks up to my controller and ofcourse, run more trains!
So a problem I’ve had is that I put my station platform in the middle of my table. While that is a nice focal point, trying to fit any sort of loopback in proved to be very difficult.. maybe impossible? The only realistic solution was to move the station platform over to the right. The benefits of this change were just too many to ignore; I can fit a loopback on the lefthand side, I can remove the loopback from sight with the backscene which coincidentally reduces the amount of resin I need for the water as well as making it easier to put in the illusion that the cliffs don’t protect the pier too much from the ocean.
I didn’t get a shot in of the platform after I moved it, but here is a pretty boring? view of the loopback board. I could’ve made a curved platform a bit wider than the track to better use the open frame benchwork, but that space always comes in handy to store something… and it has other benefits for someone like me whose plans are still evolving, more on that later.The 2mm thick cork trackbed was glued down using copydex; smells dreadful but surprisingly good for the job as it is a rubberised glue. The cork was roughly fitted to fit the curve of the track (9″ radius fleischmann set-track that I already had) with the idea that it will be trimmed around the track later on.
And once more with the track fitted. The track had its fishplates removed and new ones fitted, to which I’ve soldered the dropper wires. There is a pair of dropper wires between two curves, and those two sets are connected together with metal fishplates. The point is powered solely through the fishplates and isn’t directly connected to dropper wires, this is partly due to where it sits on the loopback board and a sense that I’m alright relying on the lesser electrical connection there. The track to the right of the point is flexi-track. As you can see in the photo’s, it sticks out from the baseboard to connect to the station platform. This was planned, and while the connection and wires may look fairly weak, because both boards are firmly mounted to the bench there isn’t any stress in this joint; despite this, moreso to mount a small covered section over the track to model the tunnel, I’ve mounted a support piece in between the two boards.
I use these terminal blocks underneath the boards to wire in the dropper wires from the track. I’m not a 100% sure yet how I want to wire things exactly, and it never hurts to give yourself options down the line. So here I made a couple of wires with crimped on connectors to easily connect the station platform and the loopback board to my DCC controller. Because, after all, it is about running a train, even if it is a small stretch and you have to reverse back!
So the third and final woodworking project is… something that I’ve wanted to do for probably 10 or so years now. Benchwork for my trains! I’ve decided to go for the L-Girder technique, as I like the idea of having full control and having access to everything from the bottom. That, and it’s easy enough to construct.
As you can see, the drop trap I built to start of the woodworking projects is in the background. And despite the look of it, it’s really sturdy! Just one slight problem, even though it fits through the door, turns out that the doors upstairs are 1″ slimmer… and it just barely doesn’t fit through them. So… lets break out the saw and try again…
Decided to make it 20cm slimmer, and to be honest, I’m happier that the top cross-bars are lower so I can more easily connect wires to another bench in the future.
Top bars were shortened slightly (by 10cm) so it’ll still fit through the (slightly slimmer!) upstairs doors, for when I eventually move.
Aaand that’s half of the bench already covered. Plus I’ll need to turn it a bit to be able to make the track of the station be able to loop back. But I reckon that’ll be fine and add a bit more interest to the whole thing. The track in the foreground is a slightly altered version of Glenderg’s design from the IrishRailwayModeller.com forums. I moved the engine shed and added a goods shed to add a bit more scenic interest to the design, with the doors facing the front instead of hiding it in the back of the building facing the station.
Oh, and the storage space underneath? Yeah, funny how quickly that fills up with all sorts of stuff.
So I’ve finally made a start at a model railway, or at least trying. Big plans of having most buildings light up, and having as much as possible “functioning” (read: moving) is one thing, but first and foremost I’d just like to build an idyllic railway that one could mistake for perhaps being Irish. I’ll try my best, and due to budget and availability of kits and time, I will be using kits of structures that would be at home in different parts of the world, but I’m going to try and make them feel as much at home on my layout. My first problem though, I’m technically inclined.. not historically, so I have no idea what kind of a trackplan would suit!
Trackplan designed and drawn by Glenderg from IrishRailwayModeller.com
So I asked for help on the Irish Railway Modeller forum, and a user by the name of Glenderg drew a plan that immediately captured my imagination. I had a plan for a station platform before, but his drawing instantly formed a 3D rendition in my head, and I could see my platform idea fitting in somehow as well, so.. bingo! Brilliant!
The idea formed on a drive on the Wild Atlantic Way, specifically the area around Connemera and the Cliffs of Dunneen. The roads and houses are kinda sloped in those areas, each building kind of has its own terrace. I wondered what it’d be like for a railway to be built in such areas, and with some bits and pieces I had that I’d hope to include somewhere, this idea formed. Having to carve out a straight section through a steep enough slope to suit the tracks with the station building above it leading passengers straight to the footbridge. Not wheelchair accessible maybe, but I’ll be going for early 1950’s, and I have a feeling I can get away with it.
Glenderg also made a smaller version of the original trackplan, to suit the available space more. I will be combining this smaller trackplan with the grander feel of the first one.
Now Glendergs trackplan was drawn for a Harbour scene, as I want to have a harbour (I wonder if the Wild Atlantic Way inspiration gave it away?). And I feel like this platform would fit in nice enough. My mind travels back to a trip to Portree on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, and thinking back to the harbour there. Having the tracks a bit higher will protect the tracks from particularly high swells, and it will allow me to let the road that crosses the track to come down (even steeply) to the right of it, going undernearth the tracks. Which hits another thing I’d like to see on my layout: a couple of bridges!
So next steps: Figure out what kind of signals make sense to include in this platform scene, and transcribe Glendergs wonderful trackplan into tracks on the board, and see which buildings will go where.
