Why do I have so many points?

So I now have 17 SEEP point motors with dropper wires soldered onto them.  The next task is to fix them to the baseboard.  This turns out to be harder than I imagined.

The problem with using SEEP motors with N-gauge points is that the points have a very small throw as they switch.  Not a problem if you're just using them as a motor but if you're using the inbuilt switch to change track feed polarity or operate indicator LEDs you can be in for a rough time.  The switching operates by a sprung metal disc moving along the surface of the PCB making and breaking contact between different tracks on the circuit board.  Of necessity there is a small dead area in the centre.  For the switch to operate reliably the motor has to be positioned with pinpoint accuracy otherwise the disc will be in the dead area at one end of the throw or another.

One often suggested method to ensure accuracy is to make a small jig out of cardboard or a carefully cut and filed clothes peg to ensure that the motor is at the centre of its throw.  Hold the point in the centre of its throw with a little Blu-Tack, fit the point motor pin through the point and screw the motor into place.

This didn't work too well for me.

The method I came up with instead involved creating a portable switch/LED circuit. I attached this to the point motor which I then held in place under the baseboard as I carefully adjusted its position to ensure that the point changed properly and the switch operated reliably.  I marked this position on the baseboard and screwed the motor in place, checking again to ensure that the switch still operated.  For some motors, the act of screwing it down changed the operation of the switch.  This turned out to be a very fiddly process.  Nonetheless all point motors apart from those in the as yet unlaid siding area are now fitted to the baseboard.

I'm hoping the switches will be working by the time I've constructed the control panel.

Soldering Sunday

Having Seep point motors on all 17 points (barring the catch point leaving the sidings) seemed like such a good idea.  I've just spent a large part of Sunday afternoon trimming 5cm lengths of wire, stripping the ends and tinning them with solder.  For 16 point motors that's 96 pieces of wire.

A packet of glass & ceramic tile drill bits arrived during the week.  I hoped to use these to drill holes in the acrylic that will form the surface of the control panel.  Having just tested them on an off-cut of 3mm perspex sheet I can confirm that they work well, certainly much better than the normal HSS bits that cracked the acrylic without fail.

Of course, now that I know that the control panel construction to go ahead, I will need to solder dropper wires to the 17 point switches and solder resistors and dropper wires to the 34 indicator LEDs.

When is a semicircle not a semicircle?

If it all works as intended, four long curved pieces of Peco code 80 Setrack should form a semicircle.  The pieces that I have don't.

Tightly assembled, the ends of the curves don't line up.  The curve isn't quite of the right radius and when you do pull it to radius, the ends aren't quite parallel to the diameter of the circle.  This has made track laying more of a trial than it should be with Setrack.

Laying Track

My plan for laying track is to use Copydex latex-based glue.  I'm told it's just right, and it seems to be working well so far.

Here the first curve has been laid, the dropper wires passing through a hole in the baseboard.  The books are weighing it down while the Copydex sets.

Melting Sleepers

My soldering skills aren't really up to precision work, and anything plastic in the vicinity of the target tends to suffer from collateral melting.  Real railway modellers solder dropper wires to the sides or base of the track to get power into their layout.  I decided to solder to the rail joiners.  I'm assured by the forums that this will cause me endless problems with dodgy connections in the future.  At the moment, I'd rather have a possible future problem than the immediate disaster of sleepers forming pools of runny plastic.

I've experimented with soldering dropper wires to joiners both in situ and away from the track.  The latter is better if I want my sleepers to remain whole.

Track Arrives

Thursday working from home meant that I could be there when the courier arrived with a bumper package of track and assorted model railway bits and pieces.  A little fiddling with a soldering iron and I had enough track assembled and connected to run in a train.

My only train at the moment is the Graham Farish class 411 (4-CEP) EMU in BR Blue.  It may not be very exciting, but it brings a nostalgic frisson to people of a certain age.  Not only that, but the quality of modern N-gauge models is stunning when compared to what was produced 25 years ago.

I'm happy to report that everything is running well.

Making the Baseboard

As I struggled to get a 6' by 2'8" sheet of 9mm plywood into the back of my car, I realised why people make their exhibition layouts in easy to carry 4' by 2' form.  Fortunately my car at the moment is a second hand London black cab so there was space enough, just about.  At one point it looked like I might have to leave my son at the timber merchant's but he squeezed in and the journey home was punctuated by cries of "The wood just slid onto me again, Daddy!".

So, yes, a timber merchants.  One of the things you pick up from any article or thread on building baseboards is "Don't go to B&Q".  Having been there recently I looked at their wood and the complaints are true, if a little over-exaggerated.  Some of their ply would be good for a curved backscene but not a baseboard.  Thus I found myself at Catford Timber who were very helpful.  I came back with the baseboard itself, the two offcuts of the 8' by 4' sheet of 9mm birch ply it was sawn from and several lengths of 2" by 1" planed softwood.  The offcuts are surplus to requirements at the moment, but I'm sure I'll find a use for them in my next layout...

First, measure your baseboard.  Any small child will do.  Next, cut the frame sides and bracing to size and form the outside of the frame.  I used 40mm number 8 screws and a thin smear of PVA wood glue to hold the frame together.  It was only after much swearing (and after the frame was assembled) that I remembered that Stanley make excellent corner clamps.  I should have bought some.

The frame has cross-braces irregularly spaced.  I was cautious about placing them because I still hadn't finalised my track plan when I built the baseboard and didn't want to put braces where the point motors will sit.

I've since read in a couple of threads that people recommend placing the braces at most 12" apart. to avoid sagging.  If this is true, I'm in trouble because I should have a couple more braces going across the width of the board and one going the length of the board.

The braces all have 10mm holes drilled into them at either end and in the middle for running cables through.  Hopefully this will be enough.

As this layout will live under a bed and be played with on the floor I added furniture carpet slides and handles to  it.  It already weighs quite a lot, so this will help getting it in and out from under the bed.

Overall, I'm rather pleased with it at the moment.  It's square and flat, and the frame matches the board to within a mm or so all the way around.  Next stop track laying.

The Layout

The design of the layout took about six months. That's not to say I was working hard on it all this time, more that it oscillated wildly between grandiose over-complexity and cautious simplicity with alarming rapidity.  On the one hand were sweeping curves of code 55 track, on the other hand simple designs from the Setrack Planbook.

I had a fairly simple set of features I wanted in the plan.  The size was constrained by that of my son's bed, under which the layout will live, and at its biggest it could be 6' by 2'8". Don't ask me why that's not in metric.  I think in metric for almost everything apart from long distances and model railway design.

It also had to be a roundy-roundy design.  I can't see my son getting much enjoyment from a shunting plank.  Until you hit 40, trains have to go past at speed.  For the same reason, it also needed to have a station.  I added a few private sidings behind the station to create operational interest.  These will serve a small factory.  All of this will be in N gauge, as it would be quite a squeeze to fit OO in the space available.

The layout will be set in the post-TOPS BR blue era, just at the start of the 1980s.  Like a lot of modellers, I'm modelling what I remember from my youth. Having said that, my son will probably choose a steam loco as his first engine...

As you can see, it mostly uses code 80 setrack.  This is the first modelling I've done for at least 25 years, so I'm conscious of the need not to get too adventurous.  The longer straight sections in the fiddle yard and on the main line will be flexitrack.  Surely that can't be too hard for me?

Making a Start

Well, here we go.

Inspired by a visit to Pecorama when we were on holiday a year ago, I started reading Railway Modeller.  An innocent enough habit, I thought, and one I could give up any time.  I was wrong, and my consumption spiralled: Model Rail, Hornby Magazine, Model Railway Journal.  Soon I was on the hard stuff, a subscription to the excellent Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Modelling.

I was fairly far down the route to becoming an armchair modeller, so something had to be done.  Fortunately I had everything I needed to become a proper modeller: vague memories of helping my father build a layout 30 years ago, a 5 year old son, and a blossoming mid-life crisis.

Chudleigh Road was born.