New 009 Layout- tracklaying.

Tracklaying continues with the first couple of  turnouts located.

I have altered the way I am laying the track on this layout. Usually I pin the track in place but this time I am using glue to lay the track.

Firstly the point is placed in position and one of the holes in the tie bar is marked, drilled and filed out so the resultant slot is clear. A hole is also drilled for the frog wire to make it's way under the board.

PECO turnout motors are going to be used and already have the mounting base and changeover switch fitted.. Also ready is the switch panel and a supply of very short screws to fit the point motors. Two down- four to go!
The great thing with these boards is that once the rails have been cut each board is small so can be turned over to easily be worked on without a large lump having to be wrestled with.

St Mewan Control Panel!

A grand name for something so small!

Apart from the handheld controller which plugs in, this is the nerve centre of St Mewan.

Five point levers and one isolating lever and three section switches and that's it.

Everything on St Mewan is operated from a double 16V AC outlet transformer the leads of which just clip in. And- at long last it all works!

East Boldre point operation.

KISS- keep it simple silly- Is a phrase I try to adhere to.

Yes, I know I have electrically operated points on other layouts but in the main I like good old fashioned wire in tube with changing polarity enabled by a simple slide switch.

To the left is a close up of the business end with the lower pic showing  a couple mounted and with holes through the backscene to enable grubby fingers to actually change (slide) the things!

3mm- East Boldre. Progress update.

 This is the control panel for East Boldre. The panel comes from Model Railway Solutions which I purchased some time ago.

I am not sure if I have overdone it with such a simple track layout.

the section switches have been fitted together with the control DIN plug.

Below are the fitted point control slide switches which change polarity at the point frog.

The handbuilt points- or turnouts- are by Hugh Martin and are superb!

3mm New Layout- EastBoldre.

 I am extremely lucky to have a friend that can advise me of the electrical isolators and feeds.

A complete drawing of the scenic board is pictured showing feeds and isolating locations.

Once this weekends exhibition at Pewsey is over, work can commence in earnest on East Boldre.

Dapol O gauge LBSCR Terrier.

 This was too good to miss- I always shied away from O gauge believing, wrongly, that a beefier transformer would be needed.

However, I have been convinced that this isn't the case and indeed when testing at home found it operated perfectly with a selection of Gaugemaster  and the Morley Vector controllers in my possession.

So, another scale and another region- this time SE England.

Morley Vector Controller.

I had been looking for a controll system to save having multitudinous transformers and hand held controllers for each layout.

The Morley site answered my questions and so for just under £80 a Vector was ordered. This was delivered, neatly and securely wrapped and, most importantly ready to use. Usually it means wiring a DIN socket to the layout, wiring up a hand held controller, attaching to a transformer- but this- this is truly two wire operation to each track. It has a built in CDU so no extras to buy.

You may guess from the foregoing that I am impressed- I am and it has saved a lot in terms of both time and money.