Paddy Mac Namara

sorry photos arent great they looked better on the phone. So what lessons learned from trial run. countersink holes for screws a bit cos mdf rises up a bit when you screw into it.Oh yeah my soldering iron had a rather sharp tip and never really transfered heat to rail that well...so i just cut the tip off to make it more blunt and now i find it easy to solder to rail. and copper clad needs sanding before you try to solder to it. i had considered sticking the copper clad down with glue but screws are better if adjustment required. also one screw on copper clad is easier than 2 and also allows for adjustment (rotation if) needed later. solder is surprisingly strong strong for small joins. more pics to follow of finished job

Some progress over the winter. so i needed to tackle the lifting flap and cutting track etc so i did a trial with some spare track. see photos below

thanks and sorry for delay in replying....i know there is some way to set up so that i get an email to tell me if someone has replied to my post, but i dont know how. might be able to make it up on the monday, sure if i do i do thanks.

looking for some old/scrap oo straight track for cutting, doing a trial run across a gap in the baseboard. cheers paddy

cheers derry

thanks

A bit of progress. I’ve laid down the track according to plan to see how it all works, check electrics and get an idea of any problems. One thing was, I needed a lot more track than my existing stocks, hardly surprising says you. Anyhow some mistakes made getting flexible rather than long straights….but Marks were very good and exchanged no problem. I must say really enjoyed running trains around the track, I’ve never had a complete circuit of this length before. The diamond crossings are an obvious collision hazard and I’m investigating solutions. Heathcote do a module for this and at £15 it’s not too bad, although with a bit of help from my electronics consultant (cheers martin) I may do one myself……thing is I could be faffing around with a soldering iron and breadboard for several hours and only save myself a few €. Any ideas on this are welcome. So the lifting flap and cutting the rails is a big job, I can’t keep crawling under. For the moment its ok. Next I’m going to lift all the track in stages and paint it and then re-lay it. I will not be ballasting but am looking around for suitable colour to paint on the board under the track to have some cosmetic ballast tone. I don’t really expect to get much done over the summer, with gardening and golf, and I enjoy modelling in the winter months.

I like it billy, really 6/7 years! you do need to get a move on, but hey "festina lente". i'm more of a build it quick'ish, get bored and want to do a new layout, have you a track plan that you can post, just to see the overall picture. cheers paddy mac ps whats with the dancing bananas?

thanks dave

thanks dave

thanks j i suppose i'm looking for strong more than invisible....but is this asking too much..maybe an allowance for some adjustment if tracks get mis-aligned in the future

dave, i'm not sure how this works, how will you know i've re-activated the thread. but here's my question, your solder to screws looks simple and effective, but what about the more usual solder rail to copper clad board i see in the modelling press...is either method as effective, the screws i presume should be brass thanks paddy

no idea what thread its on. anyway some photos of current project.

hi derry ? only just started having a good look around the forum, love the layout. how did you make your platforms? i noticed you left painting of the track till the end, so how did you do that, air brush or just brush and what colour would you reccommend? cheers paddy mac

it was scratchbuilt, a bit faded now. my sallins layout was on the old forum

when browsing the forum if i'm AFK for a while i keep getting logged out and have to login again. any ideas whats happening? cheers paddy mac

Thanks for your comments barl. Its all a bit at an experimental stage at the moment nothing set in stone, so all comments/suggestions welcome. So you remember my Sallins station building from the old forum, thats a few years back now....2010??? anyway heres a photo as a reminder. Its all packed away at the moment wouldn't have a spot for it on this l

So, I am fortunate enough to have a shed/office out the back that I can now dedicate to a layout, in the past I only had enough space for 8’ x 4’ approx. The shed is 3.4 m x 2.2 m and the layout is to run around the circumference. Depth of layout is 500mm all the way round. I have it set at a height of around 760mm so that I can sit comfortably in the chair and work away at it. Most recent track plan is below. As you can see the idea is to run trains, I haven’t really given must thought to scenics, lifting flap is at the front so I’ve kept it simple there. The station area is on the other side. Why celbridge, well the idea is that the station will have up/down mainline and a commuter line, going up/down depending on “timetable” but the mainline will always have up/down. I’ll run dmu type stuff on the commuter line and diesel locos on the mainline. I suppose its kinda one big fiddle yard. The boards are installed and I’ve started laying track to get a feel for how it all fits. Photos soon. Cheers Paddy mac.

So here's the track plan for my new layout. Just doing a quick post to make sure the image comes out OK more details soon.

thanks a mill for the help guys, photo's very very helpful dave, cheers

Hi all I need some help with the alignment of cut track across a gap, as in baseboard join or in this case a lifting section. I’ve seen people talk about soldering the track to copper-clad board either side to secure the track firmly. All very well but…where do you get copper clad board, also surely the track will short out across the copper plate….do you cut it…seems to defeat the purpose. Anyway any help appreciated. Cheers Paddy mac

Sold

Sold

thanks dave, i will certainly get back to you very soon. just need to sort out the space first

thanks