Drakelow v17

[IanB3174]

Having loitered on forums and in model shops for many years and instigated many a layout in many a scale I still haven't constructed a full, operating layout.
I love making handbuilt track and always thought that would be the beginnings of something brilliant. But I forgot that is only one part of the model railway picture. I still have no clue about electrics or locos for that matter, weathering is a mystery, never having got that far. I can do basic scratchbuilding and kit building and that's about it.
So after a discussion with my brother, who's an inverterate planner, doer and finisher, I decided (he decided for me) that I should knock together a layout and get it to work rather than be a theoretical modeller. He has a point.
I have recently joined the S Scale Society and enjoy building in 1/64, but my output, barring trackwork, is painfully slow. I know I lack some skills which is why I'm building a practice layout.
It's a simple shunting layout, in OO, with commercial track for the most part (i'll be building one turnout) and using tried and tested techniques to prevent me wasting time on dead end experiments. It'll be DCC, because I have a Roco Z21.
The board I'm using was part of an older, larger project and is 1200x460mm Celotex edged with 6mm ply. Quite robust as it hasn't sagged or twisted in the 4 years since I made it. Trackbed follows my standard method of 5mm foamboard base with track glued down. I'm using Peco Bullhead turnouts and track.
The two photos show the first two turnouts in place, joined with standard BH fishplates/joiners. This equates to 3 hours work so far.
They will be operated by linear servos and wire in tube. That's the plan. That's also an experiment, which I previously said I'd try to avoid. We'll see how the first one works before commiting to the others. They might just end up wire in tube with a manual lever. There's four turnouts plus one on the additional fiddle plank that I plan to add to the one end to form a runround.
There's no specific period or region at this point but it will likely be military/ex quarry/mine siding sort of thing. There's a lot of superb modelling on here that is both inspiring and seemingly unachievable. Time to learn more.
You can all watch in disbelief as I muddle myself into holes without a shovel.

 

[IanB3174]

Whilst the on scene trackwork will be Peco BH the fiddle plank needed a Y turnout so I utilised some odd ply sleepers and chairs to throw together this. The black snake between the sleepers is a wire to the crossing in shrink wrap, except it's a little too large for the wire. This will be off stage anyway so not concerned about looks. I laid it my usual way, assembling the V, forming wing rails, setting flange gap, fixing on sleepers and then gauging the check rails. Stock rails, closures, tiebars and switchblades go in after.
The crossing will be wired to change polarity with the blades using a switch, probably manually operated for simplicity.

 

[Flaxfield]

Hi Ian,

This all looks pretty good and seemingly up this particular sheep's street.

Adding images is a bit tricky to start. I stand to be corrected but simply tapping 'full' will add it as a linky type thing into the text which will add the image in full to the post when you 'post reply'.

I'm sure someone will be along to help if I've got it wrong........


Rob.

 

[IanB3174]

Sorted.

 

[Flaxfield]

Tidy.

 

[IanB3174]

Can't beat a bit of track building last thing at night. Switches done with a bit of guilding to finish and a fettle of the tiebar action. I 'think' I may have some S scale chairs mixed up with my 4mm stock. Can you spot them?

 

[IanB3174]

The turnout is hooked up using the following arrangement. It's not unique to me but I can't remember where I first saw this idea, other than it was years ago, likely in Railway Modeller or MRJ.
Two short lengths of brass wire soldered to the underside of the switchblades and bent 90° down, before fitting to the sleepers (yes, I've fitted them before from underneath because I forgot that bit).
The tiebar is a double sided coppercald sleeper on edge, gapped both sides and has two short lengths of brass tube soldered vertically at 15.5mm centres. This isn't that critical as there is some option to adjust throw of the switches with the wire droppers.
The droppers are left loose in the tubes as this reduces any operating stress on the soldered joint.
I've had to file away some of the droppers under the rail to clear the slide chairs to prevent them rising up above the level of the stock rail. I'm intending to fashion a plastic cosmetic tiebar between the switches to further hold them. As is, it all lines up and works. I might have the sleeper run in a U section plastic channel which will help locate it more securely within the 5mm foamboard trackbase.
It's a nice unobtrusive system that can be totally hidden once installed, and my effort here could certainly be further refined.
Wire in tube connected to the sleeper and frog polarity controlled by dpdt switch for now.