All change.... new start

[jerseycentraluk]

After a gap of several weeks I thought it was about time I gave an update on the progress of the layout.

Things have been held up waiting for the turnouts and crossings. The guy making them is based in New Jersey and production was delayed because of the effects of Hurricane Sandy, he had no power for about a week and with trying to get things back to normal I’m sure finishing Fast-Tracks turnouts was the least of his worries! They have been dispatched now, but I am still waiting for them to arrive. Fingers crossed they get here soon.

In the meantime I have covered the ply surface with cork tiles, as the area is mainly industrial track there is no need to build the track level up. I could have laid the track straight onto the plywood, but I always think the cork reduces the drumming noise you get running trains on track laid directly onto the wood.

The track plan was printed out from XtrkCad using 1:1 scale and glued to the cork using spray adhesive. Bus wiring is now in place ready to be connected to the final track once it has been laid.
I had invited friends to come over before Christmas for a social get together, to see our new house and see how the new layout was progressing.

Knowing that the turnouts would not arrive in time, I decided to mock up some of the proposed track plan using old turnouts and track salvaged from the last layout, mainly Peco code 75 and a few bits of Code 83.


So the track was temporarily laid using track pins to follow the plan, but only the facing turnouts as not enough turnouts or crossings to complete, so that at least there was something to run on and switch.
I also made temporary storage sidings to have somewhere to run from and to, but I wont be able to make anything permanent before the turnouts arrive.


I rigged up my NCE DCC system to run the locos and added decoders to two of the newly acquired locos to enable them to be used. All the new cars have had scale couplers added and trip pins removed, which makes a marked improvement in the look.


I added a few details to help the operators’ imagination as to what will eventually be there.


Everyone said they enjoyed operating the layout even in this truncated version, as well as providing useful suggestions for improvements.
Here's Leigh, Brian and Kathy mulling over the next switch.


Roll on the arrival of the turnouts....