Model Railway Forum

Exceptional work Artur, the time, effort and skill put in to your layout is now showing remarkable results.

Thank you, Brian, it's nice to finally see wheels turning again, even if it's still only backwards and forwards.

Cheers,
Artur

Incredible work, but all those hidden tracks scare the bejayzus out of me.

Did you mention wiring the track for 3 rail? Is that to run Hornby Dublo locos as well? Wiring points is easy. Use single strand wire soldered on top of track pins. Drill a hole near the frog on each side as required. Drop the wire down through the hole and up the other side.
Wiring for 2 or 3 rail operation was easy. Use one outer rail as a common. Then have a 2 way switch so one either feeds the centre rail or the other outer rail. Job done. (My last layout was DC cab control common return. It was simple to add the third rail electrically speaking. As I didn't run HD locos that often, the wire method was ideal as it is partly hidden on the scenic sections and the behind the scenes sections I laid a 3rd rail from Peco track to save time of soldreing on top of all those track pins. The wire really blended in well as it turned black on the sides as it aged, and I only gently cleaned the top surface with a Peco track cleaning rubber. The track pins were black anyway which I had cleaned the paint off the top surface so I could solder to them. I would stretch the wire slightly as I soldered so the wire was taught. It worked ok. The wire was just under the rail height, but only just. I raised the wire height at the pointwork to avoid slamming the centre pickups into the rails.

Your account of a successful installation of a centre 3rd rail is interesting and enviable, MG. I also tried to do what you describe but got nowhere. I tried to lay wire and rail on pins in the middle of the track but couldn't get the solder to take for love nor money. Must've been my soldering technique. I tried to adapt the points with individual studs (for tracks in the open) but couldn't avoid short circuits. It's well plausible that I just wasn't working accurately enough. The pix on flickr illustrate the fiasco. I finally gave up (perhaps too soon) as the problem was holding up the work on rest of the layout. Having said that, it would still, in theory, be possible to install a centre 3rd rail retrospectively, but the priority would be low.

The hidden tracks, Steve, are monitored by webcams (or will be) connected to a cheapo 2nd-hand computer acquired for the purpose. It's OK if you can look and see where everything is and not have to rely on memory (my memory, anyway).

Cheers,
Artur

Finally got the contrun2 section done. The tracks are laid, the point motors installed, everything wired up and tested. Also got the power supply sorted, apart from bits of tidying up here and there. I'd be interested to read about other members' stud-and-probe control panels.

The work is, as usual, documented on flickr (pix 455-66): https://www.flickr.com/photos/53775591@ ... 9557116553

Cheers,
Artur

Amazing work!

That looks like it has been a mamoth task. I know that te last time I wired up a large control panel on my last layout it took me a month and a half of evenings to wire it up. Your project is much larger as I only had 46 points to wire up along with the various DC track sections and panel indication lamps (Using the second pole of a double throw changeover switch as common return oeft one pole of the switches free.
Love the old H&M point solenoids. Those last years and years!
You are highly organized.

There seems to be more track than at Lamesley Yard. Gateshead.

Looking great. Well done.

Glencairn

In regards to the track pins for the wire method of laying third rail, I was using flathead pins that needed to have the paint sanded off the top. It could be the sanding allowed the solder something to key onto. I was using a gun type of resistance soldering iron in those days. Also, the solder was the old leaded type which may have helped.