Model Railway Forum

Installed the points to replace the TT at the yard entrance. Had to put a little bit of cork underlay in to help with a slight level change across the board joint. The real compromise will be the use of surface mounted point motors as there is a thumping great cross brace right underneath two of the points.

20190915_150714 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

Nothing worse than a "thumpng great cross brace'. Looks as though you have sorted it out though with the surface mounted motors. I am struggling to find a way to disguise the micro switches for point postition. What do you do for the surface mounts? R-

I have one inside a resin building - that was easy. For ages I ignored them but now I give them a coat of sleeper grime and glue some clump foliage around them but keeping the moving arm clear.

Microswitches get the same paint treatment but I will even put flock powder and static grass on them. The latter is quite easy as you can be very selective where you put the glue and once it dries a quick hoover and anything in the wrong place disappears.
After that the switches and motors become invisible.

In fact if you look at the old point nearest the point levers in the last picture, there is a camouflaged microswitch to the left.

Static grass - great idea. Thanks. R-

I think the revised layout in the engine yard is coming together. The turntable has been moved from the yard entrance to alongside the coal drops. I had thought about putting it where the coal drops are but again baseboard crossmembers get in the way.

The original position of the TT now houses a fan of points making access to the yard much easier. Point motors are all fitted and working. I will need to add a few track feeds in this area though.

20190918_150218 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

This morning I finished fitting a couple of relocated point motors and tidying up the switches into a single bank on the control panel. And yes, I couldn’t resist adding a couple of small storage sidings alongside the mainline on the old West Orton board - essentially a small fiddleyard hidden in plain sight. Also added droppers to the new track sections.

I also spotted a small change that may benefit the ‘look’ of the shuttle route - might get done this weekend before we go off on hols for a week.

And when I come back I have a small repaint project to attend to.

Today saw the branch shuttle line brought in to run alongside a section of the mainline and the start of some changes to the small harbour sidings. The headshunt is very short so this may end up being purely cosmetic.

2019-10-14_05-01-26 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

Solved the headshunt problem - joined it to the mainline and suddenly the harbour is usable again.

729846AE-A330-481C-8409-9BDF42D52A79 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

Patched in new ‘concrete’ in the harbour where I made the track changes, also started what will be a small wagon loading chute next to the mainline - I’m going to think about a length of Z gauge track up the hill for cable drawn wagons.

2019-10-17_10-27-45 by Steve Mumford, on Flickr

Some early work on the wagon track and ore drop. Maybe some plaster bandage work tomorrow.

F7A231BE-42D2-4A2D-BB02-3976818CD75A by Steve Mumford, on Flickr