flexible_coupling
Western Thunderer
I fall into the category of railway modellers that I believe the 'Scattergun' metaphor was coined to describe - short attention span, easily distracted, finds it difficult to complete something. At any point of time, there's approximately five other things I ought to be doing (including the dishes!). I set a challenge to build up a small roundy-roundy trainset style layout for my young boys on relocating to Brisbane, Queensland (some 2,000km's north of my previous home in Melbourne, Victoria). Armed with a pile of Setrack and Hornby trainset trackage, some 4mm ply and pine stud, I planned out on the living room floor over the space of a week then set about constructing a layout. At this junction, it's partly wired and trains are running smoothly - in a two-week turnaround time. This is the kind of forward momentum that will lead to this layout being functionally ready for Christmas - scenically incomplete deliberately (as this is designed as an ongoing project to have something to share with the boys experience-wise, and to subtly foster and develop my eldest's fine-motor skills as his teachers have noted that they're lacking a little) but wired, tested, running and "made safe" for them to use.
Planning - using books, DVD's and tape measures to set up working boundaries.
Piles of timber in the cutting process
Framing - having two drills handy made this a breeze!! My last (aborted) layout project was painful having to forever change pilot-hole drill and phillips head driver! Note - if you can make them out - I'd thought ahead far enough to get a spade bit and drill cable routing holes through the bearers.... slowly learning from past mistakes!!
Test placement of the track (some of it may have been nailed down at this point - the inner oval I think?). The large central 'access area' is a big must-have.... for no other reason than to be able to pass along the very fond childhood memories of me poking my nose up through the access hatch in my dad's layout when I was about 5 years old. Nothing like being able to watch the trains rush around you. Plus it's been a godsend during construction, and makes handling the layout solo a LOT easier!! I've done everything you see solo - including carting the wood home from the hardware shop about 2km on a hand-trolley in the absence of owning a car!
Action shot with all track nailed down, basic wiring in place and trains successfully and quite smoothly running.
One of the important things to me was keeping everything simple. Regular Peco solenoid turnout motors are mounted directly to the Setrack turnouts, and all control will be by four momentary switches - on the outer circuit, "main" and "loop". The inner (completely isolated) circuit is main and siding. When the outer circuit is set to "main", a Peco clip-on DPDT switch on one of the motors permits a 3rd controller to run a train independantly from the loop around the outer branch line, allowing a 3rd train to be in operation on the layout for a bit of variety. I only have two working locos here at present, a pair of bulletproof little Caley tanks (one strategically and carefully repainted red!) - my dad has temporary custody of my Hornby (ex Dapol, etc.) J94 in LMR blue livery, my BR black pug and very early Bachmann '03', which will eventually be repatriated. I need to make a CDU and a third throttle (which will be panel-mounted) for the branch line - I have two sturdy walkabout handsets that the kids will be able to handle for the two main circuits. I will make up a small permanent "control panel" to tuck into the corner of the layout with the minimal number of switches and knobs.
I also wanted to make things safe - the underside of the layout at present is a death-trap of track pins. I plan to cut corflute board and staple it in place everywhere when everything has been thoroughly "shaken down" to keep wandering little fingers away.
Little video clip of the second "running session", about half an hour ago. You may need to click the thumbnail for it to work? I had a ceremonial first-run a few nights earlier on the inner circuit as it was the first thing nailed down... ceremony is important! No golden spike though, I'm afraid!!
I know this project doesn't fit with the norm of this forum.... but since it's the nearest I've come to a complete and operational layout in the last four years - I'm pretty chuffed, and it's nice to get the creative juices flowing!
Planning - using books, DVD's and tape measures to set up working boundaries.
Piles of timber in the cutting process
Framing - having two drills handy made this a breeze!! My last (aborted) layout project was painful having to forever change pilot-hole drill and phillips head driver! Note - if you can make them out - I'd thought ahead far enough to get a spade bit and drill cable routing holes through the bearers.... slowly learning from past mistakes!!
Test placement of the track (some of it may have been nailed down at this point - the inner oval I think?). The large central 'access area' is a big must-have.... for no other reason than to be able to pass along the very fond childhood memories of me poking my nose up through the access hatch in my dad's layout when I was about 5 years old. Nothing like being able to watch the trains rush around you. Plus it's been a godsend during construction, and makes handling the layout solo a LOT easier!! I've done everything you see solo - including carting the wood home from the hardware shop about 2km on a hand-trolley in the absence of owning a car!
Action shot with all track nailed down, basic wiring in place and trains successfully and quite smoothly running.
One of the important things to me was keeping everything simple. Regular Peco solenoid turnout motors are mounted directly to the Setrack turnouts, and all control will be by four momentary switches - on the outer circuit, "main" and "loop". The inner (completely isolated) circuit is main and siding. When the outer circuit is set to "main", a Peco clip-on DPDT switch on one of the motors permits a 3rd controller to run a train independantly from the loop around the outer branch line, allowing a 3rd train to be in operation on the layout for a bit of variety. I only have two working locos here at present, a pair of bulletproof little Caley tanks (one strategically and carefully repainted red!) - my dad has temporary custody of my Hornby (ex Dapol, etc.) J94 in LMR blue livery, my BR black pug and very early Bachmann '03', which will eventually be repatriated. I need to make a CDU and a third throttle (which will be panel-mounted) for the branch line - I have two sturdy walkabout handsets that the kids will be able to handle for the two main circuits. I will make up a small permanent "control panel" to tuck into the corner of the layout with the minimal number of switches and knobs.
I also wanted to make things safe - the underside of the layout at present is a death-trap of track pins. I plan to cut corflute board and staple it in place everywhere when everything has been thoroughly "shaken down" to keep wandering little fingers away.
Little video clip of the second "running session", about half an hour ago. You may need to click the thumbnail for it to work? I had a ceremonial first-run a few nights earlier on the inner circuit as it was the first thing nailed down... ceremony is important! No golden spike though, I'm afraid!!
I know this project doesn't fit with the norm of this forum.... but since it's the nearest I've come to a complete and operational layout in the last four years - I'm pretty chuffed, and it's nice to get the creative juices flowing!