Control Panel construction

A few days ago I ordered 50 on-off-on switches for £14. Thursday in the mail there was a few guitar parts! So we emailed the seller and he said that he can’t deal with anything until the 21st. But Friday, the switches arrived :) I think he just out the wrong address on the guitar bits. Anyway over the weekend I was in Kinmel Camp with the Army Cadet Force doing some training and shooting the L85 Light Support Weapon (Automatic 600 rounds every 60 seconds!) so no progress was done. But I’ve just arrived home and planning to work on the control panel later on today. Tomorrow, I’m off to Boston Lodge (the real one) to try to fit some axle boxes to the bottom end of Earl of Merioneth.

Half Term Progress

Over the next week almost nothing will probably get done. I've decided to go to work on the real Ffestiniog Railway at Boston Lodge. The only time something might get done is Saturday and Sunday, but if I could help dad to get the wiring of the garage done over the weekend I could then work a bit later in the night on the layout! Decisions, decisions!!

Update

There’s been almost no progress since the last update; the only difference is that I’ve had to disassemble it to allow access to re wire the garage. I'm planning to help dad re wire the garage so I could spend more time on the layout. I have made a list of things that I need to do to get it operational.
1) Drill the holes between the boards to 7mm to allow the bolts to go in and out easily.

2) Make the control board, wire the control board and make the connections (out of D plugs) including all of the connections between the boards.

3) Wire up the track and points.

Pictures and a update

I went to the garage Sunday morning about 9 to do a quick 10 mins on the boards, I was there till 10:30, and so, I just carried on!
I got all of the boards screwed down, except for the Boston Lodge board, which didn't align up with the frame, I found out that the miniature band saw I used to cut the board wasn't at 90 degrees, so when I went to align it up, it didn’t fit :( oh well, nothing a jigsaw won't fix!
I also managed to sort out the slopes and levels on the layout. I need to lower the track level form 3cm high in the front to meet the boards in the back so I can have storage sidings there. So I got some off cuts of the MDF and 70mm x 18mm timber and made a few rough levels to see what needs to be done, I’m glad that I did this because I could use these pieces I used as the actual level.
The only construction I have left is the control board module, when I first constructed it I used a few off cuts. I couldn’t remember why I cut it off, but I know now! It was bent! So another frame for the control board will be made.
Also I need to cut a piece of MDF about 13 1/2 inches long to fit into a 'Hole' at the end of the back fiddle yard, and put two horizontal braces across two legs to hold them steady.
The second from bottom picture shows the position of the backscene (the small 3x1 on the back side of the boards)

Frame and Baseboards

Today, I’ve finished measuring and cutting the legs and baseboards. I started at about 10am and worked at a steady pace and finished about 4pm. I clamped the baseboards together, drilled the screw holes, attached the legs and started to make the control panel. Now, it's in the garage standing up on its legs! The only thing that needs to be done is to attach and adjust some of the boards, find long enough screws to go through the legs (the current ones just barely fit through to the other side) and finally put the backboard up in place.
Also I’ve bought 50 new on-off-on switched for the points for only £14! Considering the cheapest I could find was £0.69 each, and I needed 17 (Some of these will be used as on-off switches too!).
The plan for the next week is to raise the track bed on the Harbor Station and cob boards and also to possibly start laying the rest of the track!
I tried too take pictures to upload but it was too dark, I will take and upload some tomorrow.

Frame and Legs

For the last three days, every time I moved my neck it caused pain and I had a really painful headache... I went to the doctors and after the classic 'say ahh' and feeling my neck he said that I had an infection of the Lynch glands, so he said for me not to go to school, and have a day of resting. In my dictionary 'resting' means modeling!
So instead of school I had a good 5 hours of working on the framework of the layout until the sun disappeared. I managed to measure out all of the boards ready to be cut, adjusted the harbor station board, drilled all of the screw holes (to hold the baseboard together), cut the wood for the legs to a height of 42 inches and glued the leg 'bracket' type things to the frame of harbor station and fiddle yard board 1, but I was limited to do only 6 due to a shortage of clamps!
Tomorrow I have a list of things to do which include
1) Attach the legs to the harbor station and fiddle yard board l, plus attach them together if dad remembers to get the screws from work.

2) Try to attach the scenic backboard to the harbor station board.

3) Glue more of the leg 'brackets' into place on the Workshop and on the fiddle yard board 3 boards.

Pictures will be posted sometime tomorrow.

George England and frame progress

Over the weekend my mum and dad took me to Llandudno to buy some wood for the frame from B&Q and some bits and bobs from Maplin. I've got 70mm x 18mm for the frame and 9mm MDF for the baseboard, I will soon get some 7mm MDF for the backboards. Due to the electricity not working in the garage (we where greeted with the lack of power and the smell of rotting fish from the freezer when coming home from our holidays!). So I’ve been measuring the wood in the kitchen when it's dark and cutting the wood the second I come home from school!

In other stuff, I’ve just won a George England 'Prince' on eBay. I'm not sure what to do with it either build it and put it on a dead Arnold 0-4-0 or Iberten Cuckoo and use it as 'Welsh Pony' at harbor station OR as a running locomotive not sure yet.

The link

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=120521583678&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=002&autorefresh=true