Finally the track for my small OO9 Christmas layout has been laid. The day after Christmas! Still, I was thankful for the few spare hours on Boxing Day to glue the final sections of track in place that had been teasing me over the course of the past two weeks. I was supposed to have this layout ready for Christmas. But in sticking with my plan, I now have a 12 month head start on completing this layout in ready in time for Christmas 2024.
The track was glued into position using some extra strength Tarzan's Grip wood glue, I simply ran two thin beads along the outline of my track plan I had drawn onto the plywood layout top.
The set track curve and two small turnouts were clicked together to form one piece, and the the glue was spread evenly with an old flat artists paint brush, not left as you can see in the accompanying picture.
Over the Christmas holiday period I worked on one section at a time. The first curved section to be glued into place included the two turnouts, and I pressed these down firmly to ensure they were embedded in the glue and sitting flush and level on the layout surface.
While waiting for it to dry, I tore a sheet of baking paper to lay across the section...
...and weighed it down using my trusty Michael Portillo Great British Railway Journeys hardcover books. [Insert free, not-paid-for Michael Portillo plug here. You're welcome and I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!]
The books kept the section in place while the glue dried overnight, and once the section was dry and firm, I could repeat the process with the opposite end curve.
Once both of the end curves were anchored firmly in place, I could then join the two curves using some PECO OO-9 flextrack, and follow the wiggly outline of my track plan to create a gentle, winding transition from one end of the layout to the other.
The gently winding flextrack section between each curve will add a lot of visual interest.
The outer passing loop curve shows the difference between the PECO flextrack (outside) and set track.
So with another Christmas in Australia now come and gone, my thoughts now turn to having this layout ready for next year. With a few busy weekends infront of me, I'm not sure exactly when I will be able to wire up the layout and get a train trundling around Bryn Nadolig. Especially given that I am frantically trying to complete the final Philden Model Railway book before I commence full-time study in January. Whether I do or not will determine whether the book's release will be in February, or August 2024.
Too late for Christmas 2023... but I now have a 12 month head start on having this layout ready for next year!
So, if you like what you read, please leave a comment below, or better still... show your support for this blog through any of the suggestions to the right. Come 2024, this blog (and my writer's life), is going to powered solely by your generosity. So, shout me a cup of coffee...
One of the trickier tasks I faced with transforming the setting of my inner-Melbourne HO Scale shelf layout to the NSW North Coast, was removing the tram tracks that once ran down the middle of the Philden Street overpass. They were anchored down to the bare MDF board good and well using Super Glue, meaning they were always going to call for the road to be completely resurfaced. So long as I didn't damage the MDF board base of my road bridge in the process.
I removed one track at a time to first assess what the damage was going to be.
Using a pair of small long nosed pliers, I was able to wiggle the strips of rail using a little bit of force until they came free from the base of the road structure. Lifting them directly upwards as they pulled free limited the damage, but they did leave a deep indent in the surface of the road that needed to be filled with some wood putty and then sanded.
With the footpaths and bridge structure built in place, I needed to be super careful not to damage the bridge sides. Fortunately the Jetty Hotel and Haunted Bookstore structures were not yet anchored into place, so I could remove the buildings and see to all the messy work while the layout was still resting downstairs on the garage floor following its last exhibition outing at the Sunshine Coast in early September.
Once the patched-up tram track cavities were dry, I could sand them smooth using a small square of sandpaper and wipe the surface clean with a damp disposable cloth before trying to match the paint colour of the road surface.
I next painted some darker grey highlights over the patched-up strips of now removed rails using acrylics. As the road surface was originally brush painted using a stippling effect rather than long continual brush strokes, it was a whole lot easier to match the paint to the original colours I used on the overpass. A hodge-podge array of grey colours was achieved simply by mixing some black and white acrylics onto an artists palette, and then stippled over the top of the darker highlights I'd just used to paint over the now removed tram tracks.
I highlighted the old tram tracks using some darker paint before repainting the road surface.
The finished effect was made by stippling, (using a dab-dab dot painting method), rather than applying brush strokes.
Stippling a road surface is an easy way to blend worn tyre track highlights and achieve a patchy road surface, as opposed to painting an all-over single colour of grey. As you can see in the photo above, I was able to curve the worn tyre lines towards the bottom right of the scene. This is where the Haunted Bookstore will stand and will help the road appear to curve down and behind the structure when viewed from the front of the layout rather than just ending hard against a blue ocean backdrop.
This is just another example of what has been involved behind the scenes of revamping this layout over the course of 2023. Consider it a preview of what you can expect to find in my final Australian Philden Model Railway book, which will be available sometime next year.
For a small and simple layout such as this, it wasn't really necessary to draw a track plan on paper before I started constructing the layout. All I needed to do was draw the track plan directly onto the sheet of 596 mm x 1200 mm x 7 mm plywood, and mark where I was going to cut the board down to size.
As you can see above, the board will now be cut down to a size of 550 mm x 1150 mm.
After already writing about the reasons for my needing to keep this layout within the confines of 1st Radius curves, (see previous post here), I still had to decide how much of my twin IKEA Eket cabinets' length could be taken up by my small model railway. Although I had a total length of 1400 mm to play with, as it is going to sit beneath the staging shelf of my Philden Beach layout, there were a few key issues which led me to sacrifice the layout's length for some added functionality.
I'd already promised my wife there would be room for a Grandbuby photo to go on display beside the layout.
As you can see in the above photo, the throttle cable from the layout above it dangles down at around the 1150 mm mark, and I didn't want it getting in the way or damaging the corner scenery.
Without leaving 250 mm of space clear, there would be nowhere to put anything down when operating either layouts without placing it directly across the staging tracks above it. Think of the 2nd DCC throttle whenever a friend calls around to run some trains, that cup of coffee or glass of wine your wife hands you when you've got the control throttle in your hand, or a set of operating cards.
See point one again, because life's just so much better when you keep your spouse happy.
Once again, I marked a 40 mm buffer from the edge of the layout board to the outside sleepers of the track, and as promised, I traced around each sleeper profile so that you could see the track outline better in the photos.
As I'm using flextrack for the long straights at the front and back of the layout, I incorporated a slight wiggle over the 500 mm length before the line met with the next 1st Radius curve. It will provide some interesting modelling opportunities with things such as slate retaining walls and lineside fences, compared to simply leaving it as a straight line.
The compact layout leaves me with a final size of 550 mm x 1150 mm. It's the layout's width rather than length that is going to limit what I can do scenery wise, but it does leave me enough space to model a few village buildings to create my Christmas scene, which is the sole purpose of this layout build. I'll just work within the space I have available and be confident in the knowledge that the extra 250 mm of length I had just sacrificed wasn't going to make that much of a difference anyway.
The layout board will now get 50 mm trimmed from both the front and end closest to the decor plant.
As you can see, this isn't a layout for those dreaming of a room size empire! Also, this Christmas layout definitely won't be ready in time for Christmas this year! However, if time does permit between now and the end of the year, I can get to building the framework for the layout board now that I have the dimensions locked in place.
For some modellers the sight of a 600 mm x 1200 mm x 7 mm sheet of plywood isn't going to do much to excite the senses or go too far towards completing the benchwork in your walk around model railway plans. So when the sheet measured only 596 mm wide x 1208 mm long and I was already wondering how much I could trim the board down to and still keep within 1st Radius curves on my new OO9 layout, its fair to say that this series of posts isn't going to be about building a large model railway...
While my idea isn't to build the smallest layout possible, the space I have available to keep my little model railway on permanent display, is sitting atop a pair of IKEA 700 mm long x 350 mm deep x 800 mm tall EKET display cabinets. These inturn stand beneath the staging shelf portion of my HO Scale shelf layout. And the reason for me to construct this layout using OO9 Scale HOe 9 mm track, is to simply enjoy watching some trains running continual laps of the layout.
The success of any small layout utilizing a loop of track comes down to one thing... being able to accommodate the curvature within the width available. As you can see in the image to the right, to keep the OO9 layout sitting flush with the front of my HO Scale shelf layout, it would need to overhang from the rear of the IKEA display cabinets. With the framework of my shelf layout free-standing 10 mm off the wall behind it, that gave me an availble width of 550 mm to play with.
So, how much room do you really need for a 1st Radius, 228 mm curve in OO9 Scale?
Here is a 1st Radius curve centred between the minimum recommended layout width of 500 mm. (See pencil lines). This doesn't leave any room to accommodate the overhang from your longest carriage and would leave your models running right along the edge of the layout board.
Here is the same 1st Radius curve, only this time centred between a layout width of 550 mm, (see pencil lines). Note how this does accommodate the overhang from the longest carriage while still leaving a 30 mm buffer to the edge of the layout.
I outlined in my book Model Railway Trackside Tips the reasons why it is important to include a minimum 40 mm buffer from the outside of the track to edge of the layout. So being my first time modelling in OO9 Scale, it was a pleasant surprise to discover that the 9 mm HOe gauge track could actually yield a tighter radius (228 mm or 9" inch), than what I would recommend for today's N Scale 9 mm counterpart, (249 mm or 9 3/4" inch).
I find that incredible, given that I am able to model scenery and structures in OO 1:76 Scale, within the confines of what has traditionally been considered N 1:160 Scale track curvature.
The longest carriage that will see action on my OO9 layout, is a PECO 160 mm long Ffestiniog passenger coach. It is actually longer than my largest Double Fairlie steam locomotive. So a 40 mm buffer from the edge of the sleepers on the track to the edge of the layout, still provides a 30 mm gap as the passenger coach swings around the curve. I can live with that.
The next step was to draw the station scene and passing loop on a curve at one end of the layout.
While for this project I could have been happy to have just modelled a small oval of track running around a Christmas Village scene, I went as far as including a short passing loop as part of the station scene at one end of the layout. There are plenty of examples of these rail height island platforms on the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways, and it simply allows me to park a short train running in a clockwise direction and release a second train running in an anti-clockwise direction. The simple track plan calls only for a 1 x right hand PST405 set track turnout, 1 x left hand PST406 set track turnout, 2 x PST402 1st Radius Double Curve packs, (enough to make a full circle so that I can trace the track plan), while the missing sections will be modelled using 3 lengths of PSL400 Code 80 irregular flextrack.
The station building is the Bachmann Scenecraft Harbour Station Office and Gents building, which is one of three sections they released based on the Ffestiniog's Harbour Station at Porthmadog in Wales. I purchased the ready-made station building, the Ffestiniog passenger coach and both of my sound equipped locomotives along with a book directly online from the Festrail Shop at Harbour Station. It is my way of supporting a Welsh heritage railway from the other side of the world. All profits go towards the operation of the Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways, and their service saw my parcel arrive in Australia within two weeks!
Once again, using the longest carriage I was able to pencil draw the platform clearances from both the centre of the passenger coach (for the inside clearance), and the end of the same coach (for the outside clearance).
With the curved platform, passing loop and station building positioned so that I had optimum viewing angles of the scene, I could then trace around the pencil lines with a fine tipped felt pen, and move onto playing with pencil sketches for the locations of houses, village lanes and rising hills. Not only will this make it easier to see the track plan in future blog posts, but I can use an eraser a thousand times for all my other sketchy ideas, without erasing any of my track plan.
There's no need to trace each sleeper with a felt-tip pen! I'm just doing this so that you can see the track outline better in my future blog posts.
And there you have it. You'll now be able to see my track configuration better across my next updates.
So there you have it. I'm up, up and away and now tasked with making this Christmas scene as interesting a story as possible, all while keeping within 1st Radius curves. 550 mm wide by.... umm, something long. I guess you'll have to tune in next time to find out.
Over the coming weeks I'm going to start transferring some premium model railway pictures over onto that platform as a way of helping put myself through full-time study next year, (it's either that or starting an OnlyFans channel...) So I sure appreciate any support, be it through purchasing one of my books or browsing my eBay fundraiser. Until next time...
Another video update from my YouTube channel. This time I give a walk through on how to clean your model railway track using a method straight from my own book Model Railway Trackside Tips.
And before I get inundated with comments on why I don't use this particular product, or didn't mention that one... Let me just say yes, I know there are a myriad of different track cleaning chemicals, solutions and under carriage felt pads on the market. But here's the thing. I'm not getting paid to endorse anyone's product, recieving sponsorship of any kind or being paid for advertising on my blog or books. So why not just show people a cheap do-it-yourself method instead, that for the past decade has provided me with ultra reliable operation on all of my layouts? Sounds simple enough to me.
...or the one about leaving room to expand my track at a later date, and how a year like 2020 and COVID-19 has changed my plans for this layout and the next.
All the track is down, and I'm waiting only on some LED lights to arrive to begin wiring everything up beneath the layout. Just when they'll get here is anybody's guess. It is after all 2020. For a year that I think we all wish would hurry up and end, we've at least made it through to October. Even though the promise of brighter days being just around the corner is beginning to sound like a broken record.
This week I happened to re-read an old post I wrote back in March, sounding a warning to prepare for modelling lockdown, expecting to cringe as I sometimes do. Only it turned out I was right. While we're fortunate up here in Queensland to be enjoying something that resembles a normal life, both my sisters in Victoria have been in lockdown since July 8. Its no lean feat considering they've each been homeschooling three kids while working from home.
By comparison, my wife and I have had it pretty good. We run a local small business on the Sunshine Coast and have been fortunate enough to have continued to work right through the COVID pandemic while qualifying for some Australian Government Jobkeeper assistance in the process. It enabled me to have an unprecendented amount of spare time between jobs to work on my layout while we waited for things to return to normal. This week we found out what the 'new normal' is. Our business has recovered enough to no longer need any Government assistance going forward, which is great news in a way. But still being down some 15-20% compared to last years' figures means you need to look at where you can make cuts and compromises somewhere in your household budget. Turns out that hobbies are a luxury.
Laying track is the very last moment to decide what to omit, and what to include for the future.
While I was happily working away on Philden Road and feeling grateful for the list of models I have been able to purchase for the new layout this year, the reality of what is going to be the new normal for the forseeable future does make you stop and evaluate your hobby. How much do you get out of it? And how much time and money do you put into it? I'm sure I'm not the only one asking myself these questions this year.
I'd reached the point where I had laid all the track for the rationalised Phills Harbour yard arrangement that I talked about in Part Fifteen, when I stopped and thought about what next year may bring for our hobby. In some ways 2020 has been kind to Aussie modellers, with new models still being released, a plethora of still available models to choose from, and a host of sales being offered over the course of the year. It will probably go down as the year that I spent the most on my hobby, ever!
But for someone who usually only wants one or two of the same type of wagons or rollingstock on his modest layout roster, having to buy freight rollingstock in packs of four and be bothered listing, selling, packing and posting the rest on eBay has long been an expensive and rather annoying way of going about it. By the time you deduct postage costs, eBay fees and PayPal fees from the sale price of the models you move on, it often ends up to be a rather uneconomical way of going about it. I for one much prefer the individual wagon approach that everyone else in the world seems to be able to do except for Australia. Although I did snap up a few of the repackaged individual wagons that Australian Modeller had released during one of their 20% off sales. When I read that Auscision Models were having to put their prices up because of cost increases from their China factories, any thoughts of taking the same approach in the future went out the window. If a $260 4 pack of freight rollingstock has gone up $40 to $300 per pack, its a big risk to take on just to get the one new wagon you're after! And if that's the case, you can rest assured that in 2021 a $335 locomotive is going to increase at least $40 also to somewhere around $375. It seems that in 2020, plastic has just become the new brass.
One switch or turnout, if installed now, was going to future-proof any expansion plans.
I never started constructing this layout with a budget in mind, but 2020 will ensure that I now finish within budget just the same. Prices going up when household income has come down, became my jumping-off point in the hobby.
So... the solution to future-proof my hobby should I get the opportunity to expand it in the years to come, was to take one of my omitted left hand PECO turnouts and cut it into the jetty siding at an angle that steered the track towards the layout edge. As you can see below, the position will allow for a sharp right hand curved turnout should I eventually expand Philden Road into an L-shaped layout. Its a feature I didn't incorporate into my last layout Philden, and one that if I didn't incorporate now would be an opportunity lost. I can then build the jetty to the shape of the future track extension, and simply leave the rails off from the straight section of the turnout to resemble an old wharf that has had part of its' rails removed. The rails will simply join to the existing turnout if I do proceed with an extension at some point in the future.
It is a much more budget friendly outcome than planning for another layout post this one. Building materials would be minimal, as would track, and it won't require any further rollingstock or locomotives other than the ones I have now.
For now I'll cut the rails at the edge of the layout, but the switch is there should I extend in the future.
The rationalised and COVID-influenced track arrangement then came together rather quickly, and I next soldered the rail joins and wired the toggle switches to the blocks I'd created within each insulated track section. The narrow gauge tracks will operate independently from the standard gauge, with the standard gauge blocks being divided into a platform/yard precinct, a jetty precinct, (wired for both present and future) and the Saw Point visible mainline staging at the other end of the layout. I could then paint the rails up and continue with construction once more.
I airbrushed the track with 3 shades of Model Master acrylics. I'm starting to love my airbrish!
I stuck blue painters tape over every pair of point blades before airbrushing.
Finally I airbrushed the sides of the cork tiles in aged concrete
The completed Phills Harbour track arrangement, with a split-level QLD and NSW yard.
With the track configuration completed, I next looked at what I could recycle from my old layout. As you can see, with the platform track now flipped to face the front of the layout, there was room for me to place Philden's old station building from the August 2018 cover of Australian Model Railway Magazine beside the modern Countrylink Travel Centre that I'd built as part of my Beach Extension. I think they'll look great together as some sort of 1990's station upgrade program, and although the detailed interiors will face away from the viewer, I can still see most of it when I peer through the windows. Recycling quickly became the theme for 2020, and the signal box from Philden will soon occupy the area to the left of photo between the NSW and QLD lines.
Next up, I had to come up with something that would future-proof my interest in the layout long after it is finished. The track arrangement had already been simplified to the point where the operational aspect was effected also. So I turned to YouTube and an excellent video put together by Steve's Trains. If you haven't seen his small layout videos or the 21 part series on building the Tulsa Spur, check it out. It's a track plan I would gladly have copied if it wasn't for me trying to incorporate two layouts in one.
Instead of just having a 3 track yard alongside Phills Harbour station, Steve's warehouse idea would give my QLD line a sense of purpose, by moving loaded fruit wagons from the siding at the Saw Point end of the layout to the refrigerated warehouse at the Phills Harbour end. By delivering each loaded wagon to the correctly specified door, I could extend switching moves for each carded running session by as long as I'd like. The Wuiske Models QLX wagons have two doors on each model, and the Walthers Modern Cold Storage kit that features in the Tulsa Spur video above, has a modular approach to make positioning the doors easier. More importantly, I only have about 15 mm of space between the back drop and the rear siding to play with, so the kit could be built as a flat to run the full 520 mm along the rear siding, with only the rubber door seals protruding from the buildings' wall. I could construct it to have the 6 warehouse doors line up with the 3 QLX wagons that would occupy the siding, while the track beside becomes the workable siding while positioning each wagon at the correct door.
I couldn't track down this specific kit anywhere in Australia, so I had to order it direct from Walthers website and get it posted from the other side of the world. There will also be enough leftover components from the kit to kitbash a modern addition to the side of my recycled goods shed for the Saw Point siding, and whatever I decide to build as part of my jetty extension in the future. In doing so, this became my very last purchase for this HO scale bookshelf layout....ever!
With 2021 indicating that a move back to a small apartment is going to be on the cards for my wife and I following our Son's wedding, I don't know when, or even if for that matter, I'll ever get around to building the jetty extension. But at least I've included a provision to do so. 2020 on the other hand has probably killed off any plans or ideas for another Australian outline layout. At least for the next few years.
Thoughts now turn to the N scale layout that I've been constructing to sit beneath Philden Road. To future-proof my interests with it, I've moved the setting from Canada's canyons to an urban scene on the fringe of Chicago. Modelling an urban scene with a lot of structures is going to take a lot longer to complete. And I find building structures is a more enjoyable aspect of the hobby compared to building benchwork or wiring. So with my existing fleet of Canadian Pacific locomotives and modern-era rollingstock, I've gone and aquired a Chicago Metra passenger set and an armful of N scale Walthers kits. That little bit of spending now, will need to justify a whole lot of non-spending in the years to come! Especially considering N scale prices in America are now jumping through the roof also! However, I was lucky enough to find online a Metra Operation North Pole Christmas set marked down by 40% and buy the last one.
It will be nice to rekindle my fascination with Chicago railroading, given that my first exhibition quality layout was my C&NW Overton Subdivision back in 2002! And as a whole, My QLD/NSW Philden Road layout, and the CP/Metra as yet unamed Chicago layout beneath it, will provide me with a whole lot of fun in the years to come, without taking up any more space or budget. But as usual, I'll let that be a story for another day!
Here is a look at Philden's final track plan that I will be taking to the Brisbane Model Train Show on the 6th and 7th May, 2017. As you can see, the layout design for the first level is nothing too extravagant, (neither is the drawing itself for that matter). But at the request of Peter, (this one's for you Peter), I thought it about time that I added some kind of track plan to show the overall view of a HO scale layout that had its beginnings 2 years ago at the 2015 Brisbane Model Train Show. Of course, in the year to come a second level will go on top, so I have shown the space allocated for the upper level staging shelf support on the right, with another 6 cm of shelf to protrude out over the lower shelf staging area.
The entire layout is 260 cm (8 feet 6 inch) long and just 32 cm (1 foot and 1/2 inch) wide. With the modeled portion being 188 cm (6 foot 2 and 1/2 inch) long and the staging shelf beyond the view block adding another 72 cm (2 foot 4 inch) of track. As you can see, the staging shelf tracks fan out slightly at the right to allow a little extra room when placing trains on and off the track. The rail height now stands at 112 cm (3 foot 8 inch) from the floor. As readers can tell, it was designed to stand above my desk and somehow inspire me to write my next novel. As readers can also tell, this layout has distracted me to the point where there is no next novel in the foreseeable future.
The entire layout is simple DC operation, and required the following HO scale track to complete;
1 x SL-90 PECO medium radius insulfrog double slip
2 x right hand SL-95 PECO medium radius insulfrog turnouts
2 x left hand SL-96 PECO medium radius insulfrog turnouts
2 x lengths PECO code 100 concrete tie flextrack
6 x lengths PECO code 100 black timber tie flextrack
Two years after visiting the Brisbane Model Train Show and purchasing the above track (along with a throng of other products), it will be nice to place my layout on public display for the first time at the same venue. On another side note, it will also be 15 years since I last exhibited at the Brisbane Show. I'm hoping to have my layout accepted in at least one more model train show in south east Queensland in 2017, before adding the second level to the layout and taking it to even more exhibitions in 2018 and traveling further afield. My goal was always to make Philden a layout capable of travelling to model train shows, and as nice as it looks sitting above my desk, I'm planning to add just one last touch to the display side of my layout to give it that finished 'wow' factor in time for its' first exhibition. Just what is it? Well, I might just save that as a surprise for the Brisbane Show.
If there's one thing I struggle with greatly in this hobby, it is wiring. No sooner does the soldering iron come out than my wife invariably grabs the car keys and head to the shops, and I generally find myself quitting the hobby 14 times within the next hour! So this post isn't designed to enlighten the minds of the DCC savvy circuit breaking, record making masters of electrical wizardry. It is purely for the simple DC modellers, like myself, who struggle when it comes to the thought of which wire goes where and would like to master the basic concept of creating an isolated block of track that is controlled by a simple switch. Because, let's be honest, we all have to start somewhere before we stretch our imaginations to the next level.
As you can see by the above diagram that I drew up on a piece of paper, all I wanted to do was create an small set of isolated blocks of track on my staging shelf, that by means of throwing a simple switch would cut the power to one locomotive at a time. I could then throw a switch to the other track to make that track live and bring a different locomotive into view on my bookshelf layout. The problem was, whenever I Googled anything like DC block wiring for a model railroad, the result was a series of diagrams popping up on my screen that resembled the wiring schematics of a Collins Class submarine. Thankfully, model railway wiring and I have reached a peaceful truce. I call it the KISS treaty, short for keep it simple stupid. So this little project had a simple outcome, that simply works.
Visiting my local Jaycar Electronics store, I purchased 5 toggle switches with the simple on/off lever frame, making sure that they were the version that had the on/off marked boldly in red and black. Not only do they look better in my opinion, but eliminating which way was on from which way was off made it a lot easier for me to understand what I was doing. These switches are known as SPST, or single pole single throw switches, and a good run down explaining the differences between SPST, SPDT and DPDT can be found on the website Sparkfun.
The single throw switch simply acts as a current break for the positive wire that feeds from the control pack to the rail. The block of track that will be isolated is of course defined from where you use a plastic insulator join (or carefully cut gap in the track) as shown in the above drawing, or between two insulated breaks in the rail if creating a block section on a continuous stretch of track. The negative wire is then connected to the negative rail, bypassing the toggle switch altogether. On is on, off is off, and a better explanation of how it works can be found on the website Learning About Electronics. The term common rail wiring simply means that the negative wire power feed is already connected to the negative rail (providing a common rail and negative grounding). So wiring a toggle switch using common rail wiring will only require the positive wire feed into the toggle switch and a positive wire out of the toggle switch to the positive rail. I still connected the negative wire to each section I was wanting to isolate simply because of the joins on each track where my staging shelf connected with my layout.
Mounting the toggle switches at the front of my staging shelf kept each one within easy reach.
Looking at my layout I wanted to create five isolated blocks of track. Two for each siding on the layout, two for each siding on the staging shelf and 1 for the main platform road at the station. So to keep the toggle switches reachable from a single operator's point-of-view, I drilled 5 holes centered at the front of the staging shelf, wide enough for the body of each toggle switch to sit flush with the surface.
Underneath the layout, the positive wires went in at one end of the switch and out on the other to the track above.
The wires to each switch are connected from underneath my layout. As you can see in the above photo, the single positive (red) wire has a join that connects with 2 wires that lead to the positive 'in' on both toggle switches. Each switch then has a positive 'out' wire that leads through the holes drilled to the left of picture to the two tracks above on my staging shelf. One is joined the positive rail on track A, the other is joined to the positive rail on track B. On the other hand, the negative (yellow) wire has a join that connects with 2 wires that bypass the toggle switches altogether, they lead directly through the holes drilled to the left of picture to the negative rail on track A and the negative rail on track B. It doesn't matter which negative wire connects with which negative rail above, as they both join beneath the layout and become the same wire below that feeds back to the control pack.
These simple on/off switches will control each block of track I wish to isolate.
The toggle switches I purchased from Jaycar are positioned in place from underneath the layout and secured above by a screw-on washer that tensions down on the face plate. The 9 mm plywood base on my staging shelf proved too thick however for the small clearance on the thread between the washer and face plate, so I had to make a backing plate using some scrap 3 mm MDF board. I then covered the MDF board using some leftover adhesive vinyl wrap, keeping with the same steel checker-plate pattern that I used on the back panels of my layout. I glued the backing plate in place using some craft glue and then tensioned the washers on the toggle switches until the whole assembly was held firmly in position.
Mounting the switches neatly didn't detract from the overall appearance of my layout's staging shelf.
The finished panel looks stylish, but is really, really simple. The simple switches provide simple operation on a simple block wiring section of staging tracks.
While I am still no expert at model railway wiring, sitting down to write a how-to article such as this really makes the lessons I've learned stick. For those that argue that DC control should be referred to as Dinosaur Control in this digital age of model railroading, this simple block wiring technique has stood the test of time in this hobby. With Philden now wired and ready to handle the coming-and-going of two different trains on an up-and-back layout, I feel a lot more confident that this simple project will add a lot more visual operating fun to a small layout such as mine. Now all I have to do is send in my exhibition applications and see how my new layout handles some model railway show appearances this year.
If you have, or are planning, on building a small HO scale bookshelf layout like mine, then chances are the last thing you want to do is build a staging yard that is as large, if not larger than your layout itself. If a bookshelf layout with point-to-point operation is the only layout design that lends itself to your present living environment, then not only do you have to get creative when planning your layout, but you need to be extra creative when planning your staging yard to maintain the illusion that your model railroad tracks are imaginatively connected beyond the borders of your bookshelf. That can be as simple as hiding a siding within a warehouse, or like I have, extending the tracks through a mouse-hole door beneath an overpass, to a hidden shelf that will store the train from view. Chances are, if your bookshelf layout is around 6 feet long, you'll only be running relatively short trains anyway. But turnouts, switches, points.... whatever you like to call them, sap up huge amounts of space.
So after paying close attention to what goes on behind the scenes on some great pint-sized model railway layouts at some recent model train shows here in South Queensland, I set out to design a staging yard that wouldn't impose too much in my living room. As you can see from the above photo, I really only needed to park a 2 car Countrylink Xplorer train that measures 580 mm long away from the public's view anyway. In trying to contain my entire staging area to less than 750 mm in length, I needed to explore options such as sector plates, traversers and cassettes, something that in a small apartment will prove to be a huge space-saver!
My staging extension will match the timber frame of my layout, while the tracks need to line up with the mouse-hole door.
After once more drawing a life-sized plan to see what was possible, I drew a track plan on a separate piece of paper to see if there would be enough room for a three track traverser shelf. A train arriving on track 1 would need to be able to slide across to depart on track 2, and vice versa. The third track comes into play as a storage track, and the geometries of the track work needs to ensure that any of the 3 tracks on the staging shelf will always line up with the 2 tracks exiting the layout through the mouse hole door.
While this would have been brilliant, it just wasn't possible given the dimensions of the timber framework, rather than the dimensions of the space I had avaialble. So once more having to compromise my grand ideas on account of a lack of layout space, I arrived at a plan for a 750 mm long removable staging area. The framework will measure 730 mm long x 320 mm wide.
My focus is now to get Philden finished to an exhibition standard, and the staging area is paramount to my layout operating as I originally intended it to. So with my best laid plans in hand, and all the timber I need to complete this project at the ready, it's back to the garage for another weekend of sweat and sawdust. Only this time I plan to use the two panels that I incorrectly stained when replacing the legs on my layout. After all, they're just sitting there, ready and waiting, (although stained in the wrong colour varnish). But as usual, that's a story for another day.
Recently I had someone ask how I drew up the track plan for my layout. The answer was; I downloaded and printed out the Peco track templates that are available on their website. Designing the track plan for Philden was the subject of my first blog post back in May 2015, (setting plans in concrete). Using Peco code 100 rail and medium radius turnouts enabled me to design a fully self-contained layout in just 6 x 1 feet. So when thinking about adding an upper level extension to my bookshelf layout, I once more turned to Peco's website, printed out their HO scale turnout plans, and got to work designing a track configuration that hopefully when finished will resemble a Sydney suburban railway station.
When using Peco's track templates, making sure you print out the turnouts at the actual size is paramount. Really its as simple as un-checking the 'fit to page' option on your printer's settings. The scale ruler printed on each template easily allows you to check that your printer has printed this correctly. Cutting each turnout to shape with a pair of scissors then enables you to try as many different configurations as you like, without having to first purchase the actual turnouts.
What I needed was a track configuration that would route passenger trains through the neck of the yard to either platform 1 or 2 as needed, while still allowing access to a freight siding. I also wanted to use large radius turnouts instead of the medium radius turnouts that are in place on the bottom level. An island-type platform was also a prerequisite as it enabled trains to be viewed on the bookshelf from both sides. However, when you're working within the confines of 6 foot by 1 foot, it soon becomes evident that there are only so many combinations of left and right turnouts that are possible. So below are three of the best that I was able to come up with.
Playing cut n' paste with Peco's track templates shows exactly what will fit into your layout space.
Back-to-back large radius Y turnouts were one option, but I didn't like the single track neck that this created. A single Y turnout would work however if you were modelling a single track Sydney suburban line.
I just kept fiddling around to see how many track configurations I could come up with.
With the curved platform in the distance, arranging a right hand large radius turnout as the centrepiece of the station throat gave the track approaching the staging end a centralized position. It was about this time that I came across a British OO trackplan called Trewartha Quay that was posted on a model railway forum. It was essentially the above design, only reversed. It seems there's no beating the Poms, and British modelers are surely the masters of small layout design.
This track plan would work if I could fit 3 tracks leading to staging, and all with just 4 turnouts!
No matter how much I tried to tinker with the track plan, it soon became a case of trying to reinvent the wheel. Reversing the crossover points gave what will be the dedicated passenger track to the right, access to both platforms 1 and 2. While the track to the left would provide freight access to small industrial siding and ensure that the locomotive would have to travel the full length of the layout and utilise the platform road to gain access to the siding.
Moving the right hand turnout also enabled a short siding.
The curved platform gives the 1 foot wide bookshelf layout some character while opening up a large portion in the middle of the layout to the right for modelling some sizable structures. Adding another right hand large radius turnout to the throat of the yard allows for another short siding. I am extremely grateful to have used Peco's printable track templates. When it comes to layout design, they make life just that little bit easier for us modelers.
Small pencil lines between the sleepers give you a dot-to-dot pattern to fill in later with pen.
To draw the life-size track plan, I first sticky-taped the turnouts into position before slightly offsetting a stretch of flextrack in the shape of where I wanted the track to flow, and placing pencil lines between each sleeper. After taking the flextrack away, it was just a case of joining the dots.
This design ended up being the winner, and with just 3 turnouts! So I taped it into position.
Creating a double-decker layout in such a small space would be a challenge. Although I didn't end up proceeding with the upper level addition in the year that followed me writing this post, showing you how I use the printed track templates is perhaps the best way of discovering for yourself what works and what doesn't. Until next time...
