Well, its nearly two years since I last posted and all my model railroad stuff has been in our storage unit all that time. I have had a lot of fun building scale plastic models see Gentle Scale Models. I have also taught myself to play the Tin Whistle and am now struggling with a soprano saxophone! One thing we don't have under ordinary circumstances is a television. We are one of those strange couples who can live without one. We did succumb almost at the same time as the railroad went. We even took out a subscription to Sky satellite feed - for 18 months. Well, the 18 months was up about a month ago and guess what, we don't have a TV again!
Our evenings are nice and quiet or we are listening to our superb Naim Uniti-Atom hi-fi. Being old fashioned, I love paying vinyl records of the jazz I grew up with. However, reading from 7 pm to 10pm can get a bit boring and, at 77 years old, I get tired in the evenings. I get too tired to make scale models and no-one wants me playing a sax in the evenings. I got to thinking and realised that, if I had a model railroad, I could spend some evenings running trains. So, we are off again.
Here is my desk.
You might wonder how I can get a railroad on here. Well, you see, it just has to sit here when I am using it. I make my railroad benchwork from 5mm foam core, which, when properly structured, is plenty strong for an N scale pike (to use an old expression). The plan is to build a base that is 1600mm long and 350mm wide. When not it use, it will stand vertically next to the desk - when we move the bookcase that is just 400mm across. Fortunately, there is sufficient space. This will be the main board. In addition there will be a dismountable storage yard of about 800mm x 80mm coming off to provide a destination. This is the first pass.
The plan is supposed to represent a branch line terminus with a small freight yard and an engine facility. I have a whole pile of Kato Unitrack left over from my previous desktop layout so that is what this is using. I like Unitrack because I don't have to ballast the track (OK maybe I should but...). Also, I like the way that the points (switches) are all set up with motors and only require a two wire connection to work with my
ECoS 50210 DCC controller. It is a bit of a fiddle getting all the track lengths correct so that it goes together properly. I have to admit that there are a couple of tiny gaps that will probably be OK with little bit of fettling.
Back to the layout. Well, there is a lot wrong with this. Firstly, a small terminus in the USA wouldn't require double track. It is there because I have a Unitrack double crossover which I would like to use. I did think of making it a through station but then a small engine terminal wouldn't look right. I would like a turntable as I dislike having low hood locos running in "reverse". I know that they do but... As it happens, the turntable is very expensive - circa £270 - so I may have to forego that and put a bit more yard and industry track work in. We shall see.
The river is there because, from my last layout, I have both a single and a double track girder bridge and it seems silly not to use them. This is as far as I have got. I am hoping that a regular annual payment from the USA will be agreed in December - I do some programming work for them and this is an annual retainer. If that is agreed, the turntable will not be an issue but we are waiting.
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