Track & Electrics

The main line track will be old fashioned timber sleepers with the more recent quarry addition in Hudson ‘Jubilee’. I have always built track using copper clad sleeper strip with the rail soldered on.  As this layout has been in the planning for some considerable time, and because I had already bought the copper clad sleeper strip, the timber track has followed this practice.

The sleeper strip and PECO code 82 flat bottom rail came from the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association sales – a very useful source of goods.  The track gauges came from KB Scale.  I used the PECO rail as much of it had been purchased 20 odd years ago when the layout was first conceived!

I know it seems excessive to fill the insulating gap but it is something that I have always done as I think it looks better. I also check each sleeper with my multi-meter to ensure they really are insulated. I have a resistance setting which beeps if there is a circuit and I just move the probes down a row of sleepers so it is quite quick and it saves on heart ache later when you have to check a whole section of track to locate the short! Guess how I found that one out!

Although I am not making a huge amount of track I did want a degree of uniformity with the sleepers so I knocked-up a simple cutting jig.  I also  knocked-up a sketch of the sleeper spacing and held the sleepers in place with double-sided tape while I soldered on one rail. This ‘half-track’ was held in position on the track bed with drawing pins while I soldered on the other rail. The whole section was lifted for cleaning, spraying and wires added to the underside of the rails as required for electrical sections. All individual lengths of rail had its own wire as I didn’t want to rely on soldered connections between rails.

My brother taught me a fool-proof way to solder track when I was a teenager and I have used it ever since. I start by applying flux to the underside of the rail and then ‘tin’ this with a small amount of solder. The solder is carried by the iron and not applied to the rail as you might do with an electrical joint. The sleepers are also coated with a thin smear of flux and the tip of the iron is applied to the sleeper at the foot of the rail for a short period until you see a very small fillet of solder appear between the sleeper and rail on the inside. The tip of the iron is drawn away from the rail off the end of the sleeper and should result in no unsightly ‘blob’. I have found it useful to give each sleeper a quick flick to check that it is firmly soldered when I have lifted a completed length of ‘half-track’.

As with my previous layout Ashcross, I decided that the track looks much better it cosmetic track spikes are added after the track sections have been glued down.  This may sound time consuming as each sleeper needs to have four 0.7mm diameter holes drilled into it – but I think it is worth it.  I also found that they helped level up track joints across the two baseboards or where section breaks had been cut.  Some of the cross-baseboard joints needed more secure retention and I drilled the outside of the sleepers to take small brass wood screws.  The heads of these will be filled and where necessary disguised with ballast.

I have not built a point for over 20 years as my good friend Roger Brown built all the points for Ashcross.  He offered to do the same for Tony’s Wood and has produced four superb main line points for the station passing loop.  However, I knew that the quarry track points had to be built in-situ and I practiced with the point from the main line to the quarry.  As this had to take main line locomotives I used full sized sleeper strip on a KB Scale template for the radius.

Overall I was very pleased with the result until I saw Roger’s efforts!

All these points use a short length of thin nickel-silver strip as the hinge or pivot for the switch rails which is soldered into the web of each rail.  I used this for Ashcross and it has proved reliable for the past 15 years so it should be okay.  This helps with electrical continuity and smooth running.  The tie bars are thin Paxolin strip with two holes drilled to take short copper rivets which have a step filed in the top to locate the switch blade.  This gives a reasonable area to solder the rail to and also allows the rivet to rotate in the tie bar so nothing should be too stressed.

The construction of my first point for 20 years meant that I could start on the bit I feared most – the Quarry siding.

This was to be based on Hudson ‘Jubilee’ track components produced by KB Scale (which were originally produced by Roy C Link when I purchased them). Initially this system used moulded plastic sleepers any tiny rail clips which were applied individually to retain the rail. I found the application of tiny black clips to black sleepers extremely taxing and was very glad when Roy adopted track spikes instead. What I hadn’t realised (or had forgotten) is that the spikes worked best if the track was built on Sundeala. Originally I had just laid a 6mm plywood base but this didn’t work so I tried to patch in an additional layer of Sundeale.

Whilst this worked with the track laying the resultant change in grade over the curved section just didn’t give me the running that I wanted. So I cut it all out and built a new section on a sub-base. This meant that I could do a fair bit of the track laying on the work bench away from the layout.

If my memory serves me correctly, I think the original track spikes were beautifully crafted with a nicely flattened head that fitted into the foot of the rail with little effort.  Unknowingly, I wasted these on Ashcross and only later realised that the second generation of spikes didn’t seem so good!  The ones that I have used here still have a flattened head, though not so spread out, however the head is much longer and each one needed trimming with side-cutters to suit the holes moulded in the sleepers.  I picked-up this trick on the Narrow Gauge Railway Modellers Forum which has provided me with loads of help, ideas and inspiration.

Progress was much better, but I was still worried over my capabilities to build a point using the plastic sleepers and track spikes. I experimented with some old 4mm scale sleeper strip and cut a groove down the middle with a junior hacksaw. This gave me a pretty good representation of the Hudson pressed steel sleepers so I have used this to build soldered points.

Overall I am pretty pleased with the result and have started wiring it all up ready for testing.

This is the underside of the quarry board. The sector plate is on the bottom right with the common return wires looped to allow the sector plate to rotate. The quarry siding is at the top and each of the track dropper wires is connected into a screw connector block. The track section wires and common returns are routed down the center of the board and will be connected to a tag strip at the bottom.

The point control loom is separate as I can’t decide where to route it yet. It will probably go to the right where I might mount the control board within the fiddle yard area.

Points are currently going to be servo controlled using a Meggapoints system.

This is set up as per the Meggapoints web site videos with the servo set in aluminium channel where a hole in the channel forms the pivot point for the operating wire. I still have to fit the frog polarity micro-switch which will screw to the block of wood next the servo arm.

I think I will mount the servo control board in a box near the sector plate where I can easily get to it to adjust the point travel if needed. This needs a separate power supply (which I have) but I would like to have all of the points wired in before I start programming them. Initial trials look promising so far.

A brief period of free time in July allowed progress to lay track on the station board.

Then I got to “play trains” by pushing a coach around to test it.

Thoughts then turned to wiring following the same principle applied to the Quarry board.

Which is when I realised that I had problems fitting the servos for the points – ahh!  Despite all my planning my eventual positioning of the points was sufficiently different so that three of them coincided with the baseboard cross-bracing.  However, a few saw cuts later – and some new bracing and I was back on track (pun intended). I progressed with the wiring which didn’t look quite as neat as on the Quarry board, especially as I missed a wire to an isolating section so there is a loose wire following the bundle (I wasn’t going to unwind all that cable wrap!).

For a variety of reasons, I was not able to assemble the boards together, or to progress further with the electrics, so I made a start on drilling the holes in the sleepers for the track spikes.

This took most of the August Bank Holiday as I had to drill them by hand since I couldn’t control the mini-drill well enough to stop the drill from breaking.  The following weekend saw the completion of spiking operations using some purchased some time ago!

Not only are these spikes now available from KB Scale, but I don’t think Roy has been in East Harling for quite a few years!

The finished job looks a bit rough, but I am sure it will all look a lot better when painted, weathered and ballasted.

I need to progress with the wiring as I want to test the whole layout before ballasting the track and starting on the scenic treatment.

Quite a lot of other calls on my time have limited my progress and the layout itself hasn’t helped!  I have been making slow progress with the wiring and have made a start on the control panel.

The top of the panel is 2mm thick aluminium sheet which came with a protective layer. I thought I could sketch out the track plan and cut out the protective layer to leave a stencil.

Which looked okay when the track sections were removed, ready for paint.  The finished panel doesn’t look too bad but I think I will need to protect it somehow. I am not sure if a spray varnish might work?  I need to drill the switch mounting holes and build a frame for the panel before I can start wiring it all up.  I have realised that the quarry loop is a bit cramped (top left corner) and I will have to make sure I space the switches far enough apart so the will fit. Oh well, the best laid plans….

Here is the control panel with its box which will protect all the wiring.  The big hole in the left side is for the power input socket, the two on the base are for the sockets to the layout.

Now I just need to get on with the Quarry board wiring. I done all the track and points but I have decided to mount the MeggaPoints servo controller board within easy reach (inside the fiddle yard) just in case I need to make any adjustments during a show. With three wires per point (8 off) and the possible future loading bank using 4 more servos, plus the power wires and the switch wires, I have a fairly complex job ahead of me – made harder by the fact that I only have ten different colours of wire!

Quarry board wired-up and tested and I have wired-up the Meggapoints servo controller board. This looked a bit of a mess of spaghetti initially!

After all, why use one wire when twenty will do! However it looks a lot neater when the cover is fitted (and I am NOT going to show the inside of it).

Hmmm, a day of mixed emotions and heartache!  I worried myself when I realised that Ashcross had not been out for 5 years so I thought I should set it up and test it. It is stored in the garage workshop which has no heating so it is subjected to quite a wide variety of atmospheric conditions. However, I need not have worried as it performed well after a bit of cleaning.

This spurred me on to set up Tony’s Forest which is when it all started going wrong.  This is the first time I have been able to join the two boards together since completing the wiring. The track works fine but I am struggling with the points which are servo operated. I can get the servos to work without the micro switches but they just don’t like the additional load to operate the switches. There is nothing special about the switches and they don’t take much to operate – but my servos don’t like it.   I am not sure what to do as I don’t have a lot of clearance below the baseboards for Tortoise type motors and any change would mean a major re-wire.

I had a long chat with my brother (who is an electronics genius) and I concluded that servos were not likely to work as I had hoped for this particular application as all the wiring is way too close together.  So, I really needed to go down a more conventional route for point operation.

Luckily another there was a thread on point motors on the Narrow Gauge Modellers Forum which was very helpful and I decided to try the Hoffmann point motors.

This meant some pretty major changes, some creative thinking and some major re-wiring of both boards and control panel. These are all pretty much finished and initial testing was encouraging. I am now struggling with finding the right stiffness of wire to ensure reliable throw as some of the motors are some distance (depth wise) from the points. I think for the next layout I will build or get the track first, lay it out and then design the baseboards to suit the points and their operation!

Most of the points work fine. A couple (exhibit A above) work depending on the weather! Due to the incompetence of the designer/builder (me – I think I have forgotten more that I thought I knew about building a layout), there is no room for a direct drive from the Hoffmann motor from the lower machine and I needed to fabricate a drive arm/pivot (the aluminium bracket) this works well in cold weather but doesn’t like warm weather. There is nothing wrong with the upper motor – it is just too far away from the point for a direct drive and all my efforts at fitting a pivot have not worked. This point works fine in warm weather, but (yes you’ve guessed it) not in cold weather. Both are fundamental to the operation of the layout and I can’t afford for them to be unreliable.

I have decided to bite the bullet and install Tortoise point motors.  I think the pivot action of the Tortoise will be far more effective in throwing the points whatever the weather and as the Hoffmann points are ac and the Tortoise dc I think I will have to change all of them (cos i am bound to get the wiring wrong and power the Tortoise motors with ac).

Up to now my problem has been that my baseboards are not deep enough for Tortoise motors. I did investigate the right angle drive but wasn’t happy about the fulcrum adjustment facing the underside of the track where I couldn’t easily adjust it.

So:

Some rudimentary woodwork and a new, additional 70 mm deep lower frame has been added to each board.  The layout is now 70 mm taller and a bit difficult to look over from the back – a bit critical when you are looking for the uncoupling magnets!  I’ve also checked and it just (just) fits in the car – which was on reason why the original frames were so shallow.  Time will tell is this is further madness or creative genius (I suspect the former).

I feel that I am getting back on track (pun intended). The baseboards are deeper, the Tortoise point motors have been installed and wired up and the control panel wiring changed to suit the DC requirements of the Tortoise point motors. After a few issues like forgetting to solder the wires on to one switch and getting the frog polarity wrong, I finally got to test it:

Now all the track was working as reliably as I wanted I could start with ballasting.  Then I suddenly realised I needed to work out what couplings I was going to use and which magnets to use and where to place them.

After many trials with different couplings I decided to adopt the Greenwich coupling system used on many OO9 layouts.  I used their ‘button’ magnets which needed a shallow hole drilling into the cork track base between the sleepers.

These were glued in using rapid epoxy.

The ballast was a mixture of Woodland Scenics and Green Scene, mixed to try to simulate a tired, decrepit and poorly maintained ballast. It was laid dry, sprayed with a ‘wetting’ agent (Shower clear I think) and then soaked in matte medium from Green Scene using a pipette.

I wasn’t satisfied with the overall effect so toned it down with some acrylic paints through the airbrush.

Now I could start on the scenery, something that I find particularly satisfying.

Click here to move on to the Scenery page.

There are more construction photos on the Track Gallery page.

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