New mini layout

[Dublo]

Hi Hunslet
This is looking good and coming together nice and quickly. May I ask what size is you layout ?

[hunslet]

Hi all.
Yes the layout is coming along nicely thanks
The board is 40 " x 30" ( 1020 x 760 mm) and was sized for fitting in my car to possibly take to exhibitions locally.
The brickpaper has arrived and the viaduct is nearly finished. The missing parts for the points servos turned up today but there are still parts missing so another delay. I don't want to ballast the track or fit buildings until the point servos are fitted and the board does not have to be turned over again.
I have a spare servo so am trying to motorise the wagon turntable so that it rotates 90 degrees with a wagon on it. A lash-up seems to work.
The viaduct is intended to add interest and provide an area where I can change trains out of sight - not room for a proper "fiddle yard".
I got the idea of a mixed road and rail layout from one I saw at a Train Collectors Society meeting which was a Minic Motorways and Triang layout but I have only Trolley busses and H0e items which will fit the space available.
The layout is so small that the level crossings should not be a problem and the busses are very controllable.
Incidentally the busses have AC motors but will work on AC or DC current - the reason is so that they cannot reverse because this would damage the trolley poles and overhead. It means that even if the DC current is reversed they will still only run forwards.
Regards, Colin.

[Chops]

Great that you would be able to take this to exhibit. I think it would
spur on some space limited folks to try a hand at it. I rather like
those vintage trolley buses, had thought to try them myself, but
went with an outmoded brand of Tyco "Highway One" for the
American deal. I would be grateful if you can find the time
to shoot a spot of video of this ingenious little layout.

[hunslet]

Hi all.
No word form the suppliers on the missing servo parts so decided to make them myself.
They are the "Servo bracket overlays" for underboard mounting so found a piece of brass strip and made some.



As the weather was so good yesterday my wife and I went to Kingsbury Water park where there is the "Echills Wood" railway.
This is a 7.1/4" gauge line which is fairly large. Only a couple of trains hauled by battery locos were running but was too scared to take a trip -see below


Will have a go at fitting the servos to the board tomorrow.
Regards, Colin.

[teedoubleudee]

Interesting looking servo brackets there. I use a fair few of these servos and yet to find a really good universal bracket for them, and end up making something up myself to suit the particular job.

[RogerB]

There are a few laser cut versions on eBay. I found these easy to put together and they seem robust enough to cope with the torque the servos produce, unlike a brass version I got some time ago and long consigned to the bin.

- As they arrive "flat packed"

- Assembled and glued.

- Motor mounted.

In the shadow of the horn is the pinhole that provides the point of fulcrum. Motors shown here upside down to installed orientation.

R-

[RogerB]

No word form the suppliers on the missing servo parts so decided to make them myself.

If you are taking those bolts through the baseboard I'd have thought they will interfere with the point uptop. Or perhaps you have a very thick baseboard?

R-

[teedoubleudee]

There are a few laser cut versions on eBay. I found these easy to put together and they seem robust enough to cope with the torque the servos produce, unlike a brass version I got some time ago and long consigned to the bin.

Thanks Roger, I think you mentioned them before. I will give them a try.
TWD

[hunslet]

The brackets came in the Peco PLS-100 kit and the screws are only there for testing -the brackets will be screwed to the underside of the baseboard with wood screws.
This is the first time I have used servos and am impressed . My main layout was built before servos were widely used and used twin coil motors.
I don't intend to change them as I use an IR handset and receiver to control all points and routes from anywhere in the room and works very well.
Regards, Colin.

[RogerB]

Yes, I like the action they produce as well Colin. I got some from Hobbyking and they are very variable with regard to noise. Most are very quiet in operation but two make a terrible din. What motor do you use? R-