peco | Accumulative Junkie

With the track down, time for some very basic testing. I used my old Lima class 66 and a Lima class 156 Super Sprinter, both running in DC. First issue I encountered was not really a surprise, but not having a way to get between all 3 tracks was a bit a pain for testing, so I used some old short set track points across the 3 lines. These are quite short and tight when curved but I didn’t expect the super sprinter to derail – even when at a crawl. It seems these are just too tight when put back to back, so I’ll need to order some new peco streamline points, I’ll go for the large radius electrofrog and eventually put them near the station.

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No major problems at this stage from the track tests, but this is just flat level and all new track. I’m expecting the real issues to happen later when inclines are added. I do also need to test my US HO locos and trains as the curves might be an issue for some of them. As the initial track worked ok, I decided to run some more trains for a bit. Videos are below.

With some good testing, and a lot of learning from the test layout and its problems, I’m now anxious to start on the real thing. That of course means I need more space. For this I have two options, one is to convert the loft space and build in there and the other is to use an old storage area. The loft is much bigger, but its going to cost a lot to convert it and that will take time. I want to make something while I have spare time, but I don’t want to have to re-do everything if I do get the loft sorted out in a year or so. Therefore, I’m going to try to make something partially modular in the currently available space. The first set of pictures shows the new area that I have to work with – its basically an existing bench along one side of the room, it was once used as some sort of office by the previous owner, and we have not really used it for much, except for a previous railway layout or too.

The intention is to build some extension boards to go on top of the existing bench and extend it out, there will be 2 large boards and 1 small board which will fill the gap in the middle. I’ll be using 12mm MDF for the boards with 34mmx34mm pine softwood beams to provide around the edge support, 2 cross-braces and also make the legs. The beams are cut into sections and secured to the MDF with screws from the top down. The beams are then secured together at the corners as well. The legs are positioned inside the support beams in the corners and secured to the beams with screws from the sides. The legs are not secured from the top of the MDF as I want to be able to remove them later without having to disturb the layout on top.

Below are some pictures but in addition I have decided to record a short video and decided to call it ‘Weekend Engineering’, you can now watch my updates to see how it progresses into a layout (hopefully).