Model Forum / General / Railroads / November 2008

Thought some of you might like to see the problems we residents of the
UK have in finding space to put our model railroad.

After many months of construction work my loft layout, the Becaton,
Michaelsberg and Williamstown Railroad (BMWR) had its first running
session on Wednesday 26 Nov.

I had intended the pervious week to be the first session but Sod's Law
intervened and the point operating switches which had been running well
before my visitors arrived failed! I felt embarrassed in front of my two
visitors.

This time with just one visitor everything worked perfectly in the
'main' area. The temporary yard area that I'd laid to give us a point to
point layout also worked for the most part but there were a few times
when the uneven track caused the couplers to come undone and the odd
derailment.

I managed to take some photos which are at
http://mikehughes627.fotopic.net/p55116716.html

Taking the rolling stock out from the boxes and then replacing them
seemed to take longer than the actual running time - I've spent a couple
of hours putting it away tonight (Thursday). I wondered how others of
you manage this chore.
Do you -
leave the stock on the layout,
pack it away
have some form of covered storage,
cover it over on the layout
or what?

I was pleased that I'd tried out the layout as it is and found that it
all worked - that is except when one of my visitors was present two
weeks ago. I discovered one wire had come loose on the Lenz buss but
couldn't find why the darned points wouldn't work. I can't get the fault
to occur again. I can only think that everything has settled into place
since I've been round checking every plug and socket. Whatever we tried
this week it all worked OK!

Putting in the temporary section has helped me finalise the track layout
for that area - it'll be different to the temporary part! It has also
shown me the importance of making sure that any gradients you have are
gradual - the temporary part had some gradients that made the long locos
couplings go to a different height to the following rolling stock
causing them to uncouple. Thankfully a problem that can be easily solved
when the final track work is laid down.

One thing this has brought home to me is that keeping records of what
you've done as you go along is far easier than trying to remember how
you wired something up over a year ago. That's why the red folder and
the small notebooks (relics from the time I had my printing business)
are kept close to hand - see
http://mikehughes627.fotopic.net/p55116708.html

If you look at the photo you will also see a long piece of 6mm wood
about 3.5" high screwed to the rafters. I put this in originally to show
me the maximum distance I could go inwards with the track since this
marks the height of a double stack container train. Now that I'm
thinking more about scenery I'll probably take this out and put scenery
behind the track and up to the rafters

As I said before, apart from the 'test train' consisting of a GP40 and 5
mixed cars I've put everything away until I've constructed the next
stage of benchwork. When that's completed I'll have a complete circuit I
can use to test and run in trains. Now there's an incentive to get going
if ever there was one! It'll have to wait until January now as I'm
coming up to what is usually the busy time of year - and I'll be working
all over the holiday times (extra money).

That's the joy and the pain of our hobby. So much to do and never enough
time. Now if there are any carpenters out there who want to build some
benchwork I can supply copious quantities of tea and coffee - you'll
have to pay your own travelling expenses though :-)