Wolpertinger Hauptbahnhof - Era VI Spur N 'Bavaria in Minature'

A short photo update showing the layout as it stands in December 2014. Many smaller details have been added recently, including populating the station and town with around 80 more passengers and pedestrians, lots more vehicles including a rather nice Rietze single-decker coach, plus numerous additional trees, planters and details such as litter bins  and bus stops etc.

Bahnland Bayern - December Update

Some more progress to update on the Bavarian HO layout; the overhead catenary (by Viessmann) has been installed over the rive bridge and towards the eastern end on the first large scenic board. The campsite at the 'country' end of the layout is largely complete, just some hedging to fit between the caravan pitches. I've now begun the main Bavarian riverside tavern, on the eastern bank of the river. I'm also planning a small loco fuelling point to the rear of where the two electric locos are stabled to the rear of the second photo.

Brief European layout update

A lot of work has taken place on my main European layout in the last few months, but much has not been particularly worthy of photography, such as wiring and fitting point motors and point decoders. The main work has been in what will become the station, with the through lines and two bays now laid, and the pointwork for the station throat largely complete.Further time was spent reworking the baseboards, hopefully for the last time, particularly in the station approach area, allowing more space for the 'frontscene' (as opposed to a backscene) as I am  keen to see the trains running through a town-scape on the approach to the station, rather than all the railway infrastructure in the foreground. I've also widened the station itself to allow a few carriage sidings to be laid in front of the column that will by necessity have to act as a scenic break roughly two-thirds of the way along the station. As a consequence of this compromise which results from the structural challenges of building a large layout in a cellar, I will only be modelling part of the station, the through platforms will allow a loco and up to 5-6 coaches to appear from off scene, into the station, while the rest is still in the fiddle yard. The front bay platform end in a blind tunnel to allow five coaches and a loco to be accommodated.

All pointwork on the visible part of the layout is the latest Tillig Elite code 83, which in my opinion is the finest ready to run track available, and once ballasted and weathered is close to handlaid in both look and performance. It also has the advantage of being quite flexible so can be laid with some curves to avoid the jointed look that ready-made points can suffer from.

The main lines are laid with Roco Code 83 concrete sleepered flexi-track, which has a finer sleeper profile than most other proprietary HO track, whilst the sidings are to be Tillig elite, which matches the turnouts.

The point motors are generally DCC Concepts Cobalt, which seem to be better put together these days. I had quite a lot of issues with some of the early batches I used on Widnes Road, and they were replaced by the more robust but far chunkier Tortoise motors for exhibition use, after two cobalts failed at an exhibition.

The motors are wired from the outset for full DCC operation, this being accomplished with NCE 'Switch-8's' which are a very cost-effective solution to turnout conversion.   

I've also made the most of the fine weather to start on detailing and renumbering stock, the first completed is a pair of 111's in Bavarian advertising livery. These are the recent Roco models, with full buffer beam detailing fitted and painted, and they are now awaiting some light weathering.

European Layout - Update

I had originally planned to spend this weekend adding DCC turnout decoders to Widnes Road, which would have meant dragging it all upstairs from the dungeon and setting up in the dining room in order to wire the boards up to test the installation.  

I tested the first decoder before committing to rewiring the whole layout, and lo and behold, a DCC 'funny' occurred. It worked OK on my old ZTC system, but the much newer ECoS would not recognise the decoder (an NCE Switch-it). 

Much head-scratching and consultation the internet later and I was not much further forward, so abandoned that idea while I waited on the font of much of this black art, Kevin from Coastal DCC to get back to me. So instead, I roped Alice, my better half, into helping (well, more accurately, do-ing) the emerging scenery on my permanent HO European layout.

It turned out that the decoder issue is a clash with Railcom on an earlier firmware installed on the ECoS, and it all works fine now, but by then it was too late to put Widnes Road up and it can wait until another weekend. As it is, really good progress has been made with the base layer of scenery; namely the river bed, and hills which form a scenic break between the layout and fiddle yard.

The grey area next to the river wall is where the large pub will go, with beer garden on both sides of the railway line. On the other side of the river will be a camp site, running up the hillside.

Photos from Tolworth Showtrain

This weekend Malcolm and I spent a very enjoyable two days at the exhibition of the Hampton Court Model Railway Club. About the right size for a show with a nice balance of trade stands and exhibitors; and a decent mix of UK and continental layouts.

I was particularly impressed by a Swiss layout, Rhatia, last years Showtrain Cup winner, which I spent a fair while watching.

I have uploaded a few snaps taken of Widnes Road in action over the weekend as well as a couple of shots of Rhatia.

Hello to all the people who stopped for a chat, it was good to meet so many genuinely interested modelers. For those who were asking about the frog polarity changing power supply device; its called a 'Hex Frog Juicer', available from the people at Tam Valley Depot, and sold online by Fast Tracks (not Making Tracks as I mistakenly told someone).