The PIR-fect Valley Railway

[diesel]

No maintenance lift outs?

 

[Smudge617]

No maintenance lift outs?

No, the baseboard is 20mm thick too heavy for me to lift, and I can't get under the layout at all.
I've tried to get all the track joiners over the individual PIR boards, I'll have to slide joiners to one side and either lift the offending piece of track or the entire board.
All the point motors will be fitted to the track not under the board and they will have minimal adhesive so I should be ok.

 

[Smudge617]

Finally, after a lot of words were spoken that no child should hear. I got a train to run on the new layout.
The gentleman in the Video is John, who came and paid a visit to help me cure a short-circuit that for the life of me I couldn't find, It seems one of the 3-way frogs I have was an Electrofrog, I thought they were only code 75, apparently not.
But we did find a use for it, if only temporarily.

New Layout with John.mp4

 

[Smudge617]

And I will be adding underlay, it's very quiet when travelling on the main board, but over the open frame extension, the volume increases.

 

[migalyto]

Very nice!

 

[Smudge617]

Had to replace some sections of track as I had a joint halfway through a curve, and replace the inner track, as the frog that was supposed to be there simply won't work.

Trains.mp4

Trains2.mp4

 

[Smudge617]

Made some progress, I was advised to move the droppers from under the track to the side of the rail, as if I had a broken wire, I wouldn't need to lift the track to repair it. Despite various heat-sink methods, I still managed to destroy a dozen rail ties.

NOTE TO SELF: Wire droppers BEFORE laying track, damn sight easier.

I don't have enough cork underlay for the entire circuit, and I'm not convinced cork is the right material to use over foam boards anyway, but I'll give it a try. If this makes no appreciable difference, I'll look at some other form of undelay, such as Woodland Scenics.

Also had a tidy up, literally, I couldn't see the board because I had so much stuff on it.

I'll have to rethink the industry locations, the loco shed isn't going to work there.

Reverse loop installed.

 

[Jaz avalley]

Well that was easier than I expected.

View attachment 235607


View attachment 235608

Although I think this is the way that end sheet needs to go to avoid needing to add anymore batons to support the remaining pieces.

View attachment 235609


Now all I need to do is finish this off, take the boards outside, and paint them.

If you take off the metal sheet, do BOTH ‘sides because when it gets warm (in my day in the loft but nowadays!) one side warps if not stabilised by the other side being the same!

 

[Jaz avalley]

Other than that all I can think about is, HE is going to do DERELICT buildings, my favourite, any old plastic junk will do, I can throw some examples up on Arboretum Valley…..Derelict buildings….sighs. if you fancy a derelict loco as well….grins

 

[westtexjohn]

Auto reverser for reverse loop ?

Good to see you are making progress.

John

 

[Smudge617]

Auto reverser for reverse loop ?

Good to see you are making progress.

John

Still have to get one, at the moment the reverse track is totally isolated so I don't have any shorts.

 

[migalyto]

Made some progress,

Better slow down some, your going to pass me up!

Great progress by the way!

 

[PNKFLOYD]

I don't have enough cork underlay for the entire circuit, and I'm not convinced cork is the right material to use over foam boards anyway, but I'll give it a try. If this makes no appreciable difference, I'll look at some other form of undelay, such as Woodland Scenics.

Anther unsolicited comment. I think you will find that cork roadbed will be the cheapest, easiest to install material you can use for roadbed. IMO
Our club is building another large (3rd) HO layout and we are using lots of cork roadbed. See below.

BTW, YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB!

 

[Smudge617]

Anther unsolicited comment. I think you will find that cork roadbed will be the cheapest, easiest to install material you can use for roadbed. IMO
Our club is building another large (3rd) HO layout and we are using lots of cork roadbed. See below.
View attachment 237139
BTW, YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB!

A member on another forum who lives quite close has offered me a half dozen large sheets of cork, (6' X 2 1/2'). Cut into strips, I think that'll be enough

 

[Smudge617]

Managed a bit more, the rat's nest of wires I had previously to provide track power is now in some semblance of order, only wires essential for track testing are now powered, but it's enough for the two main tracks.

I'm looking at the industrial area, just to see where the tracks might go. The buildings are simply placeholders, but they give me something to work on.

 

[logandsawman]

Your layout really maximizes your space, great to see it come together.

Unable to watch your videos, however, I get prompted to sign in first...

 

[Smudge617]

Your layout really maximizes your space, great to see it come together.

Unable to watch your videos, however, I get prompted to sign in first...

Don't know why, I use MS OneDrive, so it should be on your computer by default.

 

[westtexjohn]

A member on another forum who lives quite close has offered me a half dozen large sheets of cork, (6' X 2 1/2'). Cut into strips, I think that'll be enough

Now that is a GOOD friend offering up the cork. That stuff is crazy expensive these days.

John

 

[Smudge617]

Now that is a GOOD friend offering up the cork. That stuff is crazy expensive these days.

John

Yes, he's very generous, especially with his time and expertise. He's also volunteered to connect the droppers for the buss wire, which he's also installing for me.

I can't make up my mind, do I number these or colour code

These are/were 8' X 2'6" cork sheets. I've worked out that 1 sheet will give me 120' of 2" cork track underlay, and I need about 70' of it.

 

[Smudge617]

A little more progress has been made, presently I'm glueing only the underlay as I still have the turnouts and motors to sort out. The gentleman who donated the cork sheets has kindly run a buss wire under the layout, so I no longer have the rats' nest of wiring showing.

A rather crude but effective method of keeping everything straight.

The track itself is not yet glued, once all the underlay and turnout motors are fixed, I can work on the track.