Model Railway Forum

Looking good, Steve.

You say you can duck under. May I suggest you pad the underneath. There are times you will not duck under low enough. Believe me it hurts when that happens.

Glencairn

And it seems to hurt more now there is less ‘padding’ up top.

I did finish laying the track but wiring is for another day. Having said that, the first loco passed through when I bridged the gaps in the track at the board joints with a couple of screwdrivers.

Like that a lot Steve,,,,,,It is working out very well indeed...........John

The bulk of the work is done! Locos are now able to run on a complete loop while each lane in the truncated fiddleyard has had indicator lights added to show if the points are open or not.
A few tweaks needed: add a Perspex wall to the front of the ‘bridge’, just in case. I can add a hinged flap to the end of the board to slightly lengthen the board - it has to hinge out of the way as its in the doorway. I also need to ‘refine’ the system for stopping vertical movement of the lift out section - lateral movement is taken care of by metal dowels.
I will get some more PCB at the weekend to tidy up the rail ends and at some time I may add point motors but for the time being it will be digital (Mk.1 finger).

20190320_171623 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

Seen a couple of posts recently about poor runningover points - well here is the latest example.
I used a length of flexitrack to link the branch line to the bridge but the test loco was snagging, apperntly on the check Rail on the Y point.
It was actually the flexi trying to straighten at the joint that created the slightest kink - almost invisible to the eye.
Replaced the section adjacent to the point with two preformed Streamline sections (R2 and R3) and the problem disappeared.

20190320_171623 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

I had the same challenge myself, Steve. I thought it was my lousy tracklaying. (Most probably was anyway.) Preformed track sorted it out.

Glencairn

Flexi is an excellent product but sometimes set track is far better.

99% of the time I will not have a point lead directly onto a curve, I will always have a straight section first. But in this case I had no option due to the extremely small space I was working in.

Strangely enough, when I originally mocked it up I used Setrack sections but for some reason I did the final fix with flexi. I may find the answer in the date on my birth certificate.

I have now finished the flap-down extension and it’s wiring, just the cross board joints to finish tidying up. Photo to follow.

Completed the ‘flap down’ extension and added a microswitch so that when lowered power to the whole board is cut as a safety precaution.
Tested and tweaked the board joints - the rolling stock hardly notices the cuts in the track.
Time now to tidy up the workspace before starting on the next additions - could involve some real modelling for a change. And I have to repair an A3 that just mangled its valve gear.

20190326_113055 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr