Paddy Mac Namara

We all know the one about making plans and the gods will laugh. Having finally settled on a layout configuration, did the wiring, numerous test runs to iron out electrical glitches…etc etc etc. Turns out I don’t have enough room in station area for platforms, without putting my passengers at serious risk. The mech eng in me was thinking only of operation and not the actual passengers, should have consulted a civil eng or god forbid an architect. Would Dermot Bannon have missed something so obvious, maybe not, but the budget would have gone €50 k over. So its back to the drawing board, not a major setback but i will have to lift track and do not a small amount of re-wiring.

i like long trains Vid Long Train.mp4

Update: NOCH ballast mat.

Test runs in progress. All wiring is temporary for the moment. I can just about manage 4 carriages in some platforms, which is still not close to reality, I got on the Galway train from Sallins this morning and there must have been 9 carriages, that’s railway modelling, not reality but modelling The isolated sections at the end of each platform have been connected through the “choc block” to a prototype breadboard and I’m using push buttons to electrify them as required. Handy, I have rocker button switches but don’t have correct tools for wiring up spade connectors properly. So, this solution works quite well for test runs

Thanks to all for comments, advice and suggestions. It has really helped me develope a much better layout than I had originally planned, so here is the current plan. well not quite finished, but you get the idea Work in progress.

Thanks for comment, it could be an option, i'm playing around with movements of locos and carriages to get a feel for things, nothing set in stone yet

Turning 60 has some advantages.

thanks for advice very helpful, i am going to have a separate power supply to the up line, fed from track nearest the wall. With down line power supply isolated ,as noted earlier, i can perform shunting operations on these tracks as a down loco leaves the station.

I have included a cross-over from up to down as suggested (thanks). The return loop has isolation gaps on both rails, shown in red. Power is fed to down from red curved track. I can isolate the up part of the return shown yellow. Switch the points at the cross-over and bring loco onto downline without any shorts via the green tracks.

Thanks

Thanks, very useful. I'll have to investigate some options.

thanks

when is next model fair? Ta

Any suggestions how to re-attach these railings, superglue? Fiddly little feckers and i am careful taking them out of box,

This gives me 4 platforms at station. However when i did a few test runs with locos and carriages, i realised that at best i'll only get about three carriages to fit. So ive gone with 3 platforms in this new iteration.