Monday, October 31, 2011

Fitting the track - Part 1

Tracklaying Part 1

Because I'm rubbish at scale drawing stuff, even with the aid of a program to do it for me, I didn't actually know for certain if the track plan I hoped to use, would fit on the baseboard. No matter, with a micro layout and nice, easy to build PCB track, you can just make up your points and try it out !

The major piece of pointwork is a crossover and my Dad had already built this for Foxdale so we just plonked it on the new board to see how it looked.

The answer is, not bad at all.

Of course it helps to have sensible (read: easy to meet) design criteria. This is a test track so there needs to be enough space for a loco to traverse all the track. Headshunts capable to holding Caledonia and a wagon will be fine. The runround loop needs to be long enough for a coach and perhaps a wagon as well. In real life, Manx stations are surprisingly long with 12 coach trains being common in the heyday of the line, not here. If you really want to go all prototype then I'll point out we are on the Foxdale line where single coach trains were more the thing.

Or I'll point out that this is a test track. More to the point, it's MY test track. So if you aren't happy, clear off and annoy someone else before I stab you with a soldering iron.

Sorry, back to the trackwork.

I think I'll move the siding point back to the other side of the board joint. Then we just need another point for the near end of the model and some track to join everything up. And some method of operating the points. Then I can start testing rolling stock !

2 comments:

Chris Nevard Model Railways & Photography said...

I like your quote "clear off and annoy someone else before I stab you with a soldering iron". May I borro it at some stage? I'll give due credit of course!

Phil Parker said...

Help yourself. It's good to let the punters know that they can argue with us all they like, but when it comes to a fight, we're the ones who are tooled up !