Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Change of plan (another one)

After a considerable time last night playing with the hidden sidings I have come to the conclusion that traversers will not be reliable enough for exhibition running.  Aligning 6 lots of tracks up reliably with <1mm gaps is proving very troublesome and the extra strong magnets are not strong enough to align the tracks vertically, although they do a great job horizontally.  Also the magnets as currently designed wouldn’t let the widest stock through, so a redesign would be necessary anyway, probably meaning the removal of one track from each 6 track traverser and realigning all the other roads further apart.  ouch.

Thus, with just days to go until expoNG, a change of direction has been enacted:

I will exhibit Rhyd Ddu as a continuous run with a set of marshalling yards at the rear, one central hidden sidings if you like, rather than two traversers.  This requires the construction of two new boards, 6 foot long each (which avoids the silly 2 foot square board and means the siding points will all be contained on one board).  I’ve got all the legs I need and most of the wire so today I’ll start the woodwork and the track and points will be ordered soon (probably second hand N gauge stuff as it’s cheaper and it doesn’t matter when out of view). 

The new layout of the layout will look something like this quickly drawn example…

RHYD DDU LAYOUTnw extra boards

Boards a and b will eventually become scenic. c is the new marshalling yard and d exists already.

3 comments:

Rob Waller said...

Sorry to hear the traversers didn't work out for you Colin. Bit of a nightmare having to build new boards so close to your deadline.

We've had 18 years completely untroubled operation with ours on Dduallt so they can be made to work.

But perhaps continuous run is a better idea for the layout anyway -that's what we've decided on for Bron Hebog.

I guess if you knew you were going to do this all along you might have made a few design tweaks - that joint on the corner of board D doesn't look ideal. I hope that isn't going to give you headaches over time.

Colin Lea said...

Thanks Rob, I guess Dduallt's traversers are a different design entirely, from what I remember they are 'just' for loco release at the end of the sidings and work using an under baseboard motor, sliding part of the baseboard along. this would take too long to do given how little time there is left for RD. It is also not lost on me that County Gate and indeed Bron Hebog are using 'marshalling yards' - indeed CG removed their traverser too.

the new setup will also solve a few other niggles along the way, and if it's ever quiet at exhibitions, it means we can set a continuous train off and watch it go!

not sure what you mean about the board D join, it's ab fab, no problems there and it has to be that way to allow me to model Ffridd Isaf.

anyway, better get back to it...

Colin Lea said...

ah rob, i see what you mean now - the drawing is not accurate, the join is straight to the board edge, not angles as shown in the quick and nasty drawing!