Introducing The PistonBroke Line

[OBJack]

Hi all, I'm Back :hey:

This episode of "The Pistonbroke Line" may not interest those of us who can't read 'cause I don't have many pictures to show, but never mind we will press on

OK so where were we? Ah yes, we had some foam board down and a revised trackplan printed at a 1:1 ratio from Xtrackcad laid out on the bench.
Now I didn't know how to get the actual track down onto the foamboard ( after overlaying it onto the the printed trackplan which I have just pinned to the foam )
Envisage this.............All I need to do is pin the track on top of the printed plan and everything should be in its place. Right?
YEP!! Did that .......... looks good ............
Now all I needed to do was get the track plan out from under, without moving the flexitrack , so that the rail may be glued to the foamboard.... Whoops.
I tried to pull the plan out from under., but it just pulled the pins out, dislodging the rail which had been painstakingly just put in place.
I tried many variations on a theme and all were about as succesful as each other, which they were NOT. :cry:
I have since been told by a very experienced fellow RR that you use a ponce wheel along the center line of the plan which then transposes lots of little holes onto the board underneath. Simple ... all you have to do is ask.
This is getting right boring, but I don't have any photos of this drama.

So to backtrack a little

I decided to go with code 100 flextrack as it seemed to be more robust and could handle a bit more of the rough stuff that was sure to come its way.
Now the wiring was a different matter. DC or DCC? Now I know nothing about electric circuitry, but I was, (and still am ) fascinated in knowing how to wire up a fairly large layout with block control, in DC.
I think I liked the complexities of wiring up, say, an automatic route control circuit for yard control. or the wiring needed for Ys and turntables and reverse loops and multiple cabs and the like,
But reality soon hit home and I realised that if I wanted a RR running before next century I had better shelve plans to teach myself layout wiring 101. and go DCC and have most of that done for me. And maybe with Digital I might be able to foray into computer control. True!!
I am still very intrigued as to how DC layouts are wired, and I know that the only way for me to learn, is to do it. So maybe something for the future.

So DCC it was.............and we purchsed a lenz 100 system.

and so for all of us who only read the pictures

and the whole family of a 16volt 5 amp transformer, and the Lenz Brains and cab

I decided to go with electrofrog turnouts for a couple of reasons
one is that they looked a bit more real
two is that a train will usually cause a short and stop, and not derail by entering a turnout if it is thrown the wrong way
and I understand that some modifications can be carried out to enhance the electrical connections thru the closure rails, I know its early days yet but I have not had any trouble so far
And to keep with the

KISS

principle I gaped both rails at the frog ends of the turnouts and dropped feeder wires from every block of rail to a main bus wire and learned how to solder without melting lots of rail ties (well nearly )

For what it's worth here is some wire

So I thought I had a layout that would run a train with DCC

Here are early photos of some of the track laid down

and

Crickey I must be ahead of myself I see some sky in the background.

but we had a minor problem .....

NO TRAIN

Well we did have a little shunter you can see it in the last picture if you really are taking notice, but it had no decoder so that was one of the next challenges for this intrepid Railroader.

And Finally if you are still with me here is the poor little shunter who is going to be my first decoder patient

Anyway enough of the talk, back to reality, have to go and find the War Office and see if she will sponser another Loco for the Pistonbroke Line.

Cheers
See you all next time
Jack............... (of all trades master of None )