E-Day (the day after D-Day!!)

Today, I finished painting, clearing, brushing and sorting out all of the junk in the garage. The layout is now up, not all in one piece, but in three pieces. The only two boards together are the harbor boards. The idea is that I have enough room to store 'the cob' at the end of the harbor boards, but if I want to connect it too B lodge, I can just move it to where I’ve made a 'working area'. Everything I need I
have kept under the BL board and workbench

My Workbench with various GEM kits


Both of the pictures below are what i did today





B lodge Board


Cob Board


Harbor Station enterance Board


Harbor Station Board

D-Day!

Today, I made good progress in the garage. Dad said he would let me put up the layout if I get 'my half' of the garage painted and sorted, so I did! I've only got little more to do tomorrow then the layout can be assembled!! Pictures will be posted as promised. Hopefully I will be able to put up a set of shelves and a few drawer units I have to keep most of my stuff. So tomorrow evening, pictures will be posted of the layout (hopefully fully assembled).
Also, after thinking what I can do with a small approximately 30cmx30cm patch on the harbor board, I’ve decided to build a P.W yard (like Minffordd) which includes...
1) 'Polly tunnel' (like Minffordd) to store the P.W train (pictured below)
2) Piles of raw material, gravel, ballast etc
3) Lengths of rail piled up
4) P.W shed (no rail access)

First set of carriages

The first set of carriages i needed where a basic FR set, which include a observation carriage, guards van and two 3rd class carriges. The first (number 100) is currently being built over at Boston Largs Works
http://bostonlargsworks.blogspot.com/
This is the first carriage to be built.



Followed by the 124, the buffet/guards van.

The plan for the next two years!!!

I’m the kind that likes to plan what I’m doing with the layout. And, I have made a list of things I would like to do for the Porthmadog and Warley shows. Here’s the list of thing I need to do before the shows.

+ Fiddle Yard
-make the board
-lay track
-wire up
-add blocks of wood that a top sheet of wood screws on to protect the track
-paint

+Boston Lodge
-Wire up too DCC
-Relay some of the track
-Make buildings
-Add trees, bushes etc

+ Cob
-add some sand
-Add seaweed, old boats etc
-detail track

+Harbour Station Board(s)
-finish laying track
-wire up
-add point motors
-Scenics
-Buildings
-Signals

+Other
-Make a control panel
-Re-paint the back scene
-make test track at back
-make board protectors and fold down display boards
-buy lights (long reach desktop variety) and a IKEA ‘Dimma’ to control the intensity and figure out a way to hold them in position.

Also the layout is still in pieces around the house. Hopefully soon my aunt will collect a freezer from the garage, and the layout will go up after new windows (that don't have 1/2 a inch gap around the frame for 'ventilation') are installed.

DCC Friendly Points

For the last couple of days I have been wondering what to do with my points. I want reliable running of locomotives, which means no shorting on points, but I’m unsure what to do with them. I have had a look at sites such as John's www.009.cd2.com, he has an amazing 'how to' section.
I'm pondering of buying the new 'Mainline' Peco points, but it has a different angle from the old ones :(.
It's obvious that I need to do something with them. Can anyone help? Just leave a comment with any suggestions; it will help a lot :)

Ffestiniog Railway Gravity Train

Nothing to do with the layout this time, just posting some pictures of the FRs gravity train. We started at Dduallt, and stopped half way accross the cob, when we ran out of gradient.

1 down, 4 to go!

Tonight I’ve just finished converting the harbor station board 2, to DCC. I wired the DCC system to a bus bar that runs the length of the board. Track feeds where then connected to the bus bar at various points. I then tested it with an n gauge chassis I have for testing, it worked fine, even on the points. The other boards will be wired in similar fashion. Here are a few pictures.



The copper tape



copper tape fixed in place



Copper tape wired up ready for...


The Bachmann Dynamis DCC controller!