Sven-E

I am building my attic layout with operation in mind. Only got a small station and a fiddle yard at the moment so not that much opportunities yet. But the plan is to have two more stations and a few industrial sidings. You mention space and yes, I am doing this in N gauge. My main focus with the hobby is operations which involves time tables and shunting. I go to FREMO meetings in Sweden where we have a huge layout that requires 20 people to operate. 10-15 stations, comprehensive time tables that cover a week's operations. Freight that is delivered between goods producers and consumers. It can take up to half an hour to run one train from start to end. This my kind of fun. Run the trains, do operations, solve problems, and work together with like minded people. My layout will be designed to give me something interesting to do between these FREMO meetings. As mentioned earlier, such operations on a layout doesn't work well at exhibitions. There is a lot of dead time where the operators are sorting out what to do next. I have seen FREMO layouts at major shows in Birmingham and Dortmund. They aren't given enough space to show its potential. Usually only 2 or 3 stations which doesn't provide much action. And the public typically stand still and expect trains to pass the point where they stand. They would get more out of it if they followed a train from end to end and observed the operations that happen along the route.

Thanks Jack for tquick visit and impressed with the setup and progress made since last meet-up. An overview of the layout. A flyby over one half of the layout. 20260621_121436.mp4

Don't know about that decoder. The problem with the Dapol semaphores is the momentary switching as you mention. There are some fixes for this. MERG has a replacement PCB that changes the operation so you can use a toggle switch. You need to be a MERG member for this and capable of soldering SMD components. I have converted two of these signals so I can testify that it is not too hard to build. I have seen a kit that uses a toggle switch as input and does the momentary connection for the signal when the switch changes. I think this was from Heathcode, but I am not sure. Problem here is that the unit can get out of sync with the switch. Dave Fenton of Megapoints produced a Youtube video where he replaced the motor part of the semaphore with a servo. Then he could control the semaphore from his servo controlers and get a nice bounce effect.

I have used break fluid to great effect. However some other people have reported that it affected the plastic. As mentioned above, different models need different treatment. Start with something weak to be on the safe side and if that doesn't work, go to stronger liquids. Sorry I don't have enough experience to rank the various liquids.

Thanks for all the pictures from my original country. You mention the passport control at the Danish border. This came about during the mass immigration wave a few years ago. There were lots of screams when Sweden and Denmark wanted to introduce passport control and thus violate the Schengen rules. I was actually surprised about the passport control at the Danish border as I thought the passport control was only at the Swedish border. Interestingly there is no check when you go from Sweden to Denmark.

This industry practice seems to have changed over the years and not recommended anymore. The problem is possible breakage at the end of the tinning, as you already mentioned for soldering cables together. There is also a potential problem with the tinned copper that it shrinks over time, thus making screw terminal loose. Retighten now and then, just like IKEA furniture.

Thanks Robert. One tip is this video from Megapoints Dave who converted a Dapol semaphore to servo. I like his simple method of just gluing the servo to the bottom of the semaphore base. Makes it a single unit so you can lift it off the layout easily. Join the MERG Irish Area Group on Sunday for some more advice.

Nice! What do you use to move the wing? If servo, what servo controller do you use?

DC or DCC?

Great stuff Nick. This is how I want to see operations on an exhibition layout.

Great to see Paddy. Have you decided which sensor to use? Have you tried them on real track to see how they work? I had the same problem as you describe with black under sides that didn't reflect the IR beam. A problem with the photo transistor is that you may want to adjust the threshold in case you have extreme brightness in your room or if the room is dark.

Thanks again for sharing. Sounds reliable. Looking forward to the real thing.

Thanks for sharing this clever thing Paddy. Just a thought on this now that I understand your circuitry. What if one of one of the reed switches misses a contact. Say that the entry switch doesn't register the magnet when a loco comes in? Then when the train passes the second reed-switch it will turn off power at this point. Then you are out-of-sync and when the next train comes over the entry reed-switch it turns on power on the crossing track. I do hope your modern magnets are more reliable than the ones I used in the past so you don't get into this situation.

Much better to connect the wire from the frog (the V) to the point motor polarity switch. This guarantees that the polarity is switched correctly. If you use a separate switch and your point blades start to work again you run a risk of short-circuit if you don't flick the switch exactly as the point changes.

Excellent. Lots of activities for the viewers and more to come when you get further. What software do you use to control the layout?