The trials and tribulations of model railroading.

[Blackcloud Railways]

I dug San Vince de Rey out of the railway cupboard this morning...

It is a while since I've run anything on the micro layout and I actually just wanted to have a very quick session with it to see if my new six axle locos will fit on the cassette with a pair of freight cars, but this was not to be.

First off the back road was dead, obviously just a broken wire somewhere but where? All the wiring is buried in the scenery because the layout is built on a small tray so there's no protection for anything underneath it. Easy thinks I, just add feeds to the cassette and it will power the rear track when it's plugged in to it. Which I did, and it worked.

So, back to the original plan and test the layout with the SD7s. That's when the second problem arose. The track on the cassette is very slightly narrow to gauge where the clips are attached. No problem thinks I. Relay the track on the cassette.

That's when the third problem arose. There appear to be two types of metal paper clip in the world. The sort that will solder to nickel silver rails and the sort that I have! So, after destroying a couple of feet of track trying I gave up. The cassette has been relayed without the clips on the end and now simply butts up to the layout.

I tried it on the front tracks first and the loco ran smoothly over the join and the points and into the sidings... Then I tried it on the back track... Which reminded me that the back track was dead. Having ascertained which rail was unpowered I soldered a jumper lead between it and the connection block at the rear of the layout to bypass the broken wire.

While attaching the new jumper to the connection block at the rear of the layout I discovered where the original wire was broken... At the connection block!

Anyway - Having relayed the track on the cassette and partially rewired the layout everything now runs smoothly and the new locos are fine for working on San Vince de Rey as well as Sand Creek.

SD7 and 2 cars on the cassette.


Big loco...


... Little layout.