Had a visit today from Barry Aldous (Bazza), we had not met up since September 2019, when he helped us operate a couple of layouts at an Exhibition.
We had lots to talk about and time went by so quickly. Before he went I weathered a pair of OO Bachmann Class 20/3 Locos that Barry intends to run on both RHTT and Flask trains on his Layout.
They are weathered to a light to medium standard.
It has been a very busy two days. I have been adding the polystyrene to the MDF formers that appeared in the previous post. I have started to add a path that runs the whole length of the layout and I have also made a start forming the river banks in 1/4″ Cork. I have used polyfilla to fill any spaces in the polystyrene and to ensure a nice gentle slope down to the track.
Yet another busy day on the layout. First job today was to chamfer all the cork edging on the outside of the tracks, very happy with the result, well worth the effort.
I have sketched out various embankments around the layout and today I started to form the outside MDF boundary. The below photos show the work done so far on the first board.
I am posting every move I make with the Kato track as it may be useful to others. Today I am preparing the track on the scenic sections for ballasting or should it be ballasting between the tracks and on the edges. I have purchased two packets of compatible Kato ballast to use, but at £7 a pack for such a small amount I decided to put a further layer of cork in all places that will be ballasted later to save on the amount of ballast needed. The below photographs show how I cut the cork to size, glued it and temporarily pinned it down, the pins are Peco and all are salvageable.
I intend to do a small section to see what is the best way to glue the Kato ballast down. I will use sandpaper to make a chamfer on all the cork on the edge of the track, this should help the finished appearance. You will note that I have started to disguise the wiring for the board joins.
I have now finished all the wiring on the layout. All track is now pinned and glued, I have tested all options and the whole layout runs extremely well.
I really hope I can disguise the KATO oddities on the scenic sections.
As John is on holiday next week, I hope to do some renumbering and weathering in 16mm, 7mm and 4mm, quite a change from my last few weeks.
Today John came down and we had a massive running session to ensure all was to his satisfaction. So that we could now start on the scenic section, we split the layout and turned it to make more room.
After turning we tested all tracks to ensure the move had not upset anything – all was fine – let scenic detailing commence.
Test Loco
This post brings everything up to date on the layout. Much progress has been made over the last four days, the Fiddle Yard ends have been added, the four isolating sections have now been wired in, the scenic area track has now been corked and partially pinned, the points on the scenic section are now fully wired.
This afternoon I had a two hour running session testing all track with all options, again thankfully all worked extremely well. My Son John is bringing a few more Loco’s and stock down on Thursday of this week so that we can check the capacity of each Fiddle Yard loop and the sidings.
We will need to cut and wire the sections for the baseboard break and then turn the whole layout around so that the scenic section can be designed. I am very much looking forward to doing the scenic work.
Another very busy day and the fiddle yard is now finished apart from the four isolating sections on the sidings. All track in the fiddle yard is now pinned and cut for board separation. The two controllers are fully wired apart from the new loop on the scenic section.
We ran lots of trains this afternoon to prove all the points and sections worked OK, and happy to say it runs very well.
I will say it a again, its a shame that KATO do not make curved points!
Another day of work on the layout and all the cork in the fiddle yard is down, all holes for points and feeds drilled and all cords put through.
The next task is to connect the cords to the controller and point switches. What to do with all the extra cord under the layout will be a problem. Sadly KATO only do cords in one size and it is inevitable that there is a lot of surplus. To cut and rejoin or just coil and store under the layout has to be decided. After that all the pin holes in the track will be drilled out and track alignment checked one more time, all track pins will then be added.
After a lot of thought is was decided that a loop will be added to the inner track on the scenic area. The track arrived today and it will be worked on shortly.
Another busy day yesterday, the backscenes have been painted and glued down, the first board fiddle yard has been corked.
I have also drilled the holes to accept the point wires and plug, in the end I used a 13mm drill bit. I have done a few tests on how to put the KATO track down and I have decided that Peco track pins are the best option, although I will not actually pin it down until both boards are corked.
