Making progress

Although its been over a month since I updated this site, the layout has been progressing at a slow but steady pace. After the change of plan, the fiddle yard has been reduced to 5 tracks and completed successfully. In front of the fiddle yard, I have started the up and down main lines. These will have two island platforms in between the four tracks.

Figure 68 - South West corner. Entrance to fiddle yard.
Crossover added

Figure 69 - South West corner, fiddle yard entrance.
Main lines in foreground.

Figure 70 - Fiddle yard leading into South West corner.
Four tracks from the right are main lines.

Figure 71 - Fiddle yard leading into South East corner.

During the process progress had to be halted for a short while as the stock of flexi-track was exhausted. As there wasn't much left to complete the circuits, I decided to source some used track from eBay. My initial purchase was of a very poor quality and made me wish I had just ordered new track instead. However, I then made another purchase that proved to be just what I required. Progress has once again been halted due to running out of rail-joiners (fishplates). Once these have been purchased, I intend to complete the main lines and the track laying will be complete (at least for the time being).

Almost a tragedy

After the amount of time it was taking to lay the track for the fiddle yard, I was very keen to get some trains running. Therefore I postponed completing the fiddle yard after laying 4 lanes/roads and decided to complete a circuit of track so that I could see some trains running. The following images show the track that has been laid around the perimeter of the loft (although it still requires fixing to the baseboards).

Figure 58 - South West corner
entrance to fiddle yard

Figure 59 - West side leading
into South East corner

Figure 60 - North West corner

Figure 61 - North side

Figure 62 - North East corner

Figure 63 - East side

Figure 64 - East side entrance
 into fiddle yard

Figure 65 - South East corner
 fiddle yard entrance

Figure 66 - South side

Figure 67 - South side length
 of fiddle yard

The track shown in Figures 59 to 63 was quickly connected to get some trains running and is not pinned down to the baseboards yet. I avoided cutting flexitrack for these sections and made use of 3rd radius curves on the North East and North West corners with some existing set-track lengths to fill the gaps.
All the track in the fiddle yard was made live by linking the feeder wires in series. The track not pinned down has no feeder wires and currently relies on rail joiners to supply the power. As the DCC system has not been purchased yet, the track is DC and powered through the Hornby power clip as visible in Figure 60.

The first loco to test the track was Thomas the Tank Engine and it ran very smoothly through all the points too. Then I got excited and tried out my Bachmann Class 57 Freightliner loco. As it went round the track I hadn't realised that some of the track in the North West corner (Figure 60) had moved and was resting on the edge of the green underlay. As the Class 57 came round the weight of the loco made it topple on its side and take a 1 metre plunge to the floor with a loud thud! It was a heart stopping moment as I thought I had just destroyed one of my favourite locos. To my amazement, the loco was undamaged. After pondering on my foolishness and how my haste nearly proved very costly, I decided that I need to fix the track down and provide barriers on the baseboard edges along the West, North and East sides to prevent accidents of this nature in the future.

It so happens that the postponing of the fiddle yard came at the right time as by the time I laid the track for the circuit, I had run out of rail joiners! So track laying will now be delayed  until I can source some more rail joiners.

Change of plan

As progress on the layout had been very slow and looking ahead there may be a house move on the way, it was unlikely that I would be able to complete the layout in sufficient time. Furthermore, if we moved house then I'd like to be able to take as much of the layout with me as possible. Therefore, I have decided to reduce the scope of the layout to allow myself to enjoy running some trains.

Consequently, the layout will now consist of a single level with the fiddle yard reduced from 11 tracks to 4 tracks to accommodate a station near the front of the baseboard. The North side of the layout (opposite the fiddle yard) provides a good area for some backdrop scenery.

Track laying update October 2013

Progress has been steady with the track laying as shown in these photos. The fiddle yard has a number of tracks that connect from one set of points on the East to the West side.

Figure 51

Figure 52

Figure 53

Figure 53 shows how 5 roads have been laid in the fiddle yard.

Figure 54

Figure 55

Figure 56

Figure 57 - Panoramic View

Figure 57 shows how much track has been laid. I've actually exhausted my stock of the GT-Italy brand of flexi-track (16 lengths). I've now started to use the Peco SL-100 flexi-track and what a difference in quality. The GT-Italy track only had cuts in the sleepers along one rail, the track was quite difficult to bend and the ends of the rails always required filing. The Peco track on the other hand, has cuts in the sleepers along both rails and it is so much easier to bend. The sleepers also seem to be much easier to cut when needing to attach fishplates (joiners).

Track laying in progress

Once the first flexitrack was laid, subsequent tracks became easier. The points have just been installed without motors at present as the space constraints make it too difficult and I wanted to make some progress. If time permits I'll revisit this area, otherwise point control will have to wait till the next layout.

Figure 44 - Fiddle yard entrance

The east side of the fiddle yard is accessed through Peco 3 left-handed small radius points, each of which has a Peco left-handed curved point attached. This causes the single track to fork into 7 tracks, five of which can be seen in Figure 45 to 48.

Figure 45

Figure 46

Figure 47

Some rolling stock on show. The coaches and driving trailers were used to check clearances on the curves.

Figure 48 - South side leading
into South East corner

Figure 49

Figure 50 - South East corner

To lay the straight track I purchased a cheap laser level to guide the line and used the tracksetta template to pin down sections.

Black-Decker-BDL120-Manual-Laser

First attempt at flexitrack

So after spending many hours planning and designing, watching countless videos on YouTube and reading many websites, but still the thought of laying flexitrack seemed a daunting task. I realised I just had to make a start, and I might make many mistakes and perhaps waste some track, but that is the only way I'd learn and gain experience. I started with laying out point work leading into the staging/fiddle yard. To identify where the track should be laid, I printed out 1:1 scale of the relevant section from the XTrakCad plan. Once the plan was taped to the the boards, I used a trimming knife to cut slits along the track centre-line. I then used a pen to draw over the slits so that marks were made on the board underneath. Lifting the track plan, it was then a matter of joining the lines together.

Figure 35 - First point in position.

Figure 36

Figure 37

Figure 38

I used some left over laminate floor underlay (green) as a track underlay to provide some sound insulation. I also laid my first piece of flexi-track as seen in Figures 38-40. It begins from the left-handed point and bends left along the perimiter of the base board. 

Figure 39

Figure 40

Due to the length of the curve I had to join two pieces of flexi-track to complete the curve. I first curved one piece of track and then joined another to it such that the rail joiners (fishplates) were offset to each other (Figure 41). This produced a nice curve without any kinks as shown in Figure 40.

Figure 41

Figure 42

With the help of tracksetta templates, a straight length of flexi-track was added to the exit of the curve. A hole was drilled through the baseboard under the track to pass the dropper wires soldered to the flexi-track. 

The result has so far been very pleasing after conducting some tests using two Hornby MK3 inter-city coaches

Soldering 2nd Attempt

Figure 34 - droppers

A much better result this time without having to remove sleepers or melting ties. After some advice from the modelrailforum, I cut the webbing between sleepers adjacent to where I wanted to solder and slid the sleepers to create space. After attaching the droppers, I slid the sleepers back into position.