allegheny1600
Western Thunderer
Hi All,
May I introduce my club's (Leigh MRS) layout, Bickersleigh Colliery!?!
This layout was originally started as an EM gauge layout and was progressing nicely, several years ago.
The baseboards had been built and the track built and laid, ballasted even though that was not without it’s problems as at one point, we discovered one section of track was shorting out. After numerous headaches and much testing, a happy accident found it was the ballast itself that was causing the short! There was much fettling of track and wiring when for various reasons (not these incidents!) certain members moved on leaving the society without any members actively modelling in that particular scale/gauge.
It was felt beyond the realms of possibility or reason for some or any of the members to convert from 00 gauge modelling so the decision was taken to rip up the EM gauge and relay everything with 00 using standard Peco components so that all the remaining members could get involved.
While this was going on, the opportunity was taken to extend the scope of the layout’s operation somewhat to make it more realistic in operation and more entertaining for the viewer.
Here are a couple of views;
Overall view of layout
Long view
Father & son team shunting
I shall return in due course with more on the story.
Cheers,
John.
May I introduce my club's (Leigh MRS) layout, Bickersleigh Colliery!?!
This layout was originally started as an EM gauge layout and was progressing nicely, several years ago.
The baseboards had been built and the track built and laid, ballasted even though that was not without it’s problems as at one point, we discovered one section of track was shorting out. After numerous headaches and much testing, a happy accident found it was the ballast itself that was causing the short! There was much fettling of track and wiring when for various reasons (not these incidents!) certain members moved on leaving the society without any members actively modelling in that particular scale/gauge.
It was felt beyond the realms of possibility or reason for some or any of the members to convert from 00 gauge modelling so the decision was taken to rip up the EM gauge and relay everything with 00 using standard Peco components so that all the remaining members could get involved.
While this was going on, the opportunity was taken to extend the scope of the layout’s operation somewhat to make it more realistic in operation and more entertaining for the viewer.
Here are a couple of views;
Overall view of layout
Long view
Father & son team shunting
I shall return in due course with more on the story.
Cheers,
John.