Model Railway Forum

IanS wrote: ↑Wed Feb 06, 2019 10:12 am Lot's of work in that too - when is your 'planned' finish date for the whole project, 2020?

Are they ever really finished?

Yes RSR I was thinking of putting a short piece of Drain pipe through the wall to make it tidy and fix a piece of wood to put track on, You should be able to get double track through it. I did some thing similar to that from a brick shed years ago and it worked well and double track went through it. I did not bother with cat flap on out side I just extended the pipe out about a foot from the wall and had a piece of foam on the inside. In the garden I just used nickle silver oo gauge track and it worked well. Stood up to the weather OK
If you go ahead with that idea suggest when putting track in pipe through the wall you fix the track to the wood then insert complete piece into pipe already in place in the wall,,,and stick it down with contact adhesive on base of pipe. Much easier than trying to fix the track inside the pipe.

You're right, footplate, that's pretty much how I would have done it but, as I say, the idea has been overtaken by more recent events and I don't see it coming to pass. The indoor layout will keep me busy enough.

A finish date, as Ian puts it, is only pencilled in, but I am reasonably confident of having the whole layout ready for operation by the end of this year, barring unforeseen incidents, of course. But as you say, John, these things are never really finished.

Cheers,
Artur

They are never finnished RSR...........

The original question was tongue in cheek, knowing the answer is 'never'..... It will always require tweaking, even after 10 years or 20 years!

Quire right, Ian, quite right, footplate. If I might point out, though, my name on the Forum is Artur Gorote. The RSR is my employer.
http://www.kropplenburg.de/rsr/pages/rsrhome.html

Cheers,
Artur

To compose an up-to-date track section diagram, with all the points etc. marked in, I had to unpack the control panels from the old layout and read off the details. The design and construction of the old control panels, which are to be used again on the new layout, is documented on flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/53775591@ ... 9557116553.

The uncouplers were added at a later date and are not included in the control panels, but were operated from separate banks of pushbuttons along the edge of the mainframe.

Cheers,
Artur

The northern sidings points have been wired up. They still have to be tested. There are also various details to be seen to, like tightening, trimming and anchoring the cable binders, and trimming and labelling the wire ends where they are to be attached to the control panel. I Intend to use scart connectors for this. Had a small problem with the labels. Normally I fold these double round the wire, but the ones I have now refuse to stick and many have fallen off. So it's back to the stationers' and I'll have to identify the points during testing and label the wires accordingly.

The work is documented on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/53775591@ ... 9557116553.

Cheers,
Artur

The third new control panel has been built. This was quite a comedy of errors (although I was cursing more than laughing). The main reason was that I wasn't prepared to make the northern sidings panel by the same method as the other two, nor to pay for it to be done, so I tried to adapt the work in progress I had. Bad idea. The holes were too close together for the pushbuttons I'd used before and the clear top sheet was too thick anyway, so the whole thing had to be abandoned. It was a total waste of materials and time. I reverted to the classical aluminium plate construction that served very well for the old layout and I'm reasonably satisfied with the result. Trouble is, I'm not much of a metal worker, be it at marking out or cutting/drilling, but it'll have to do. I'm not submitting it to the Royal Academy.

The work is documented on flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/53775591@ ... 9557116553

Cheers,
Artur

Looks fine to me.
Enjoy it and run some trains