A toe in the water (OO steam DC)

[fourtytwo]

Hello all, I am a new member here and it was suggested I post my layout so here goes! First the trackplan

gyreworkb-1.png

And then some post ballasting pictures

P1170164.JPG

P1170166.JPG

It seems to have had enough of my pictures now so I will try again in another post (could be my finger trouble).

This is my first outing in OO for 35 years having given it up and moved to N (more in a smaller space) however after many struggles I finally sold up over a year ago now, then I realised I still had the bug!! So this is somewhat of an experiment to see what I could do in OO.

My scenic abilities are very poor, I am certainly no artist, things have moved on a little since these pictures so I will try to take some more and add in the next week or so.

I should mention all the stock is 2nd hand deliberately to keep costs down and I am finding my way when it comes to manufacturers vs quality, I use code 100 rail so i am able to run all but the worst daisy cutters from the 60's (elderly Triang & Dublo) although I have had some success using a file on the flanges

Points are operated by servo's using my own micro-controller and have so far proved fairly reliable, a pleasant reduction in complexity from the solenoids I have always used previously and I am looking forwards to the challenge of motorising the semaphore signals, these being robust diecast s/h Hornby.

That's it for now folks, please be gentle

[glencairn]

An interesting plan, fourtytwo. Progress is very good. A layout to watch. Is it of any area or freelance?

Glencairn

[fourtytwo]

An interesting plan, fourtytwo. Progress is very good. A layout to watch. Is it of any area or freelance?

Glencairn

Thank you, It's freelance but maybe leaning towards northern England hence the stone structures. I am trying to capture many things in one layout I guess, some excuse for two passenger platforms and a fairly large MPD but no turntable so the line is operated by tanks together with a reasonable goods yard as one of my pastimes is shunting goods
I have a great fear of naming a prototype as that inevitably draws comparisons, especially regarding the stock. I am open minded to these things so it is more like a heritage railway with an extensive goods operation thrown in!
Here is the traverser I could not post earlier

P1160921.JPG

[RogerB]

Nice layout. You are clearly a skilled carpenter as well as an electronic whizz. Look forward to seeing more. R-

[bulleidboy]

I agree - it's a nice layout. Looking forward to seeing how it progresses. BB

[Carl L]

‘A toe in the water’ - its a cracking start I’d say, looking very , very good. I’ll be watching with interest.

[Chops]

Yet another British point-to-point. With a traversing yard, no less. No have no idea how rare this concept is in North America.

I rather appreciate the pizza cutter flanges; they compensate for my poor track laying and baseboard skills.

[fourtytwo]

I agree - it's a nice layout. Looking forward to seeing how it progresses. BB

‘A toe in the water’ - its a cracking start I’d say, looking very , very good. I’ll be watching with interest.

Yet another British point-to-point. With a traversing yard, no less. No have no idea how rare this concept is in North America.
I rather appreciate the pizza cutter flanges; they compensate for my poor track laying and baseboard skills.

Nice layout. You are clearly a skilled carpenter as well as an electronic whizz. Look forward to seeing more. R-

Thank you so much for all your kind comments, I am really enjoying OO as I almost never have to clean the track or loco wheels even if I don't run for a week, this was completely unheard of in N and was the main reason I gave up. I do make sure I clean new additions while checking the BB, just IPA and a cotton bud. As for track I use a scrap piece of MDF and sometimes wet it with IPA if shifting something hard like solder flux. Nearly all my loco's are Bachmann that have a heavy chassis and pickup on all driven & some bogie wheels, I made the mistake (IMOP) of buying one Hornby and apart from being very light it only picked up on 4 drivers, the others being fitted with traction tyres (what for ??) and it's very light (guess that answers my own question ), it's likely to remain in the shed forever as the locomotive stock grows.
The one item of stock that causes real trouble ATM is a rake of Triang/Hornby GWR coaches, these have weird wheels consisting of a square plastic axle moulded with the wheel centres in one piece with metal tyres. The problem is the BB's are to narrow for PECO code100 points resulting in the flange bumping into the tip of the frog, so far it's nuisance value as they rarely actually derail but with the price of new wheels being so high it might be better to exchange the rake for something else. This is one of the joy's of buying s/h as you can rarely see the wheels & axles clearly in pictures but slowly like loco's you build up a picture of good & bad makes & ability to identify era's of manufacturing. Sorry I am waffling to much, here are some more recent pictures, the green paint I hope is temporary but at least the sun won't bleach it like it does the sawdust grass etc.

P1170204.JPG

P1170205.JPG

P1170208.JPG

Ahh right I see it's a 3 picture/post limit

[fourtytwo]

Just one more picture of the traverser to illustrate the length, when I first started planning (with no stock) I had to search all over the web just to discover the length of an OO coach! Anyway the difficulty was to fit the station throat, platforms, run-around crossover and reasonable radius curve into the length of one wall and the traverser capable of accommodating the same length trains along the other wall. I was aiming for 2-3 coaches but ended up with four so I am very happy
Since actually operating the traverser I have found extra stubs at the station end unnecessary allowing the scenery to but up to the moving part and really only one is required at the other end (but the others come in handy for dumping crocks). The only hand of god activity required is transferring brake vans from one end to the other of goods trains, locomotives can run around there train whilst remaining firmly on the rails (saving transfer damage).

P1170211.JPG

[fourtytwo]

Had a go today at the long outstanding task of mechanising the semaphore signals, once again with the ubiquitous SG90 servo. The results in the pics seem quite promising requiring about 60 degrees of servo movement from on to off. These are Hornby diecast signals and the stroke of the operating wire is about 6mm.

P1170213.JPG

P1170214.JPG

P1170215.JPG

This is just a prototype to check out the mechanics so now on to the actual layout where at present I have a double platform starter, an outer and inner home that all require servo's fitted.
Then will come the humongous task of overhauling the original electronics that uses a PIC16F877 to drive all the points, not only is it completely full with this task but another PIC to drive the signals will require access to many of the point statuses known by the other!!