So excited!

Nothing to show pictorially yet, but I've finally started getting the layout into proper shape. Instead of a couple of short loops mabye

35ft long I'm laying down a double road (with some four road sections) which will give a continuous loop of twice round a 12ft x 15ft rectangle, plus branch lines, a decent sized station, works and loads of sidings. There are tunnels! There are bridges! There are 1 in 60 gradients! (should be OK, as long as I re-wheel some of the older stock with Hornby metal wheels).

I think it will be a couple of weeks before I can run a train over the track - getting the gradients right is painstaking but worht doing right. I might even treat myself to some catch points.

For noise abatement reasons I'm using foam underlay, which is a bit naff. Bits of the layout go over Pete's room, and he's only seven, so there is a need to keep things quiet. In a few years I'll ballast properly, though.

I've found a supply of very fine 1.5A wire which I'm using to put power on every 1 yard length of track, and of course the points will all be powered. Not got the diagram for a mimic yet, thobut; maybe I'll have to work it out myself. It'll do me good, resurrecting knowledge from my degree.

I can hardly wait to get it all running :-)

Guy

Reply to
Just zis Guy, you know?
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Guy,

If it is very fine wire, you might start getting voltage drop problems when the resistance of the wire starts to matter over a longer length, or if you use DCC and thecurrent flowing through the wire might be a lot higher than you would get with more traditional forms of control.

You are better using as heavy a cable as you can get away with to do the feeding of rails - something like the single core cable used for house mains wiring which is reasonably cheap and readily available from most DIY stores. Buy the twin and earth and strip the two covered wires and the bare earth wire from the grey outer sheath - you can use the bare earth wire for droppers from your rails.

Jim.

Reply to
Jim Guthrie

The drops are only a couple of inches long and it's connected to a 2.5mm^2 ring running round the track. Oi thought of thaat, oi did ;-)

Guy

Reply to
Just zis Guy, you know?

Guy,

Sorry, I read your message as though you were using the fine wire to do all the wiring :-)

Jim.

Reply to
Jim Guthrie

You can get reels of tinned copper wire from electronics suppliers, I use lengths of this soldered to the fishplates, these just drop through the baseboard to connect to the heavy wire underneath. Where I was not able to drop the wires to the underside (such as when using concrete expansion felt on top of contiboard shelf) the feeder wires need to be set into the surface but if the 'dropper' has to pass under the track just running an empty biro across makes a big enough dent for the fine unsheathed witre.

Good luck with the layout

Mike

Reply to
Mike

Good notion. I'm soldering to the track not the fishplates, because past experience indicates that the fishplates can develop poor contact over time. With the number of drops I'm running it would probably never be a problem again, of course...

Guy

Reply to
Just zis Guy, you know?

"Just zis Guy, you know?" wrote

Just read your bit on potential helmet legislation, really interesting. I wish you'd be around when they were pushing the same sort of nonsense with motorcycle helmets.

John.

Reply to
John Turner

Have you read "Risk" by John Adams? A very interesting book; points out that motorcycle helmet legislation actually failed. Risk should be compulsory reading for all politicians active in any field involving safety.

Guy

Reply to
Just zis Guy, you know?

"Just zis Guy, you know?" wrote

No, but I'll see if I can find a copy!

John.

Reply to
John Turner

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