Fiddling while something something

Today I tackled laying the track on the new fiddle yard. I don't especially enjoy track laying but it seemed to go well and as it doesn't have to look great it came out quite well.

The old fiddle cupboard with track removed.

PCB sleepers Araldited for the baseboard join.

Progress being made

Track laying complete

I finished the track laying and now all that remains is to wire it up. The points will be manually controlled at least at first. I may add motors later but I suspect it won't be necessary. The isolating sections will have a switch mounted alongside them to keep wiring to a minimum and make it simple to understand. The only slightly tricky bit is the join between the baseboards, I think I have a locking 4 pin XLR connector which should do the trick.

I revamped the lighthouse too

Woodwork and lighthouse

Today was my day off so I started work constructing the new fiddle yard. Not a complicated bit of woodwork so hopefully I won't bugger it up. I'm using another plank of 18mm furniture board which will attach at right angles to the current fiddle cupboard.

The current two sidings will now curve round onto the new board and bifurcate into probably four sidings. I haven't cut the board to length yet as I want to make sure that the sidings are a suitable length to accommodate at least two bogie coaches, a bogie wagon and loco. This will be the new length of the platform at Underhill when that gets extended.

The other new thing is the resiting of the lighthouse from StRuth. I'm gradually demolishing the old layout and this was one of my favourite features and the other night I realised that it would just about fit behind the halt on the new bit. It will need some ground work but I think it will look OK.

It needs some things sorting out bit this gives the idea.

The Baldwin with weathering

The Kerr Stuart

Rolling along

As part of my sorting things out project I've been going through my rolling stock and I've bought some more boxes from the Range so that it can all be stored at the same time. Part of the plan is to thin things out and hopefully make a few bob for the family holiday fund. One thing I decided was to standardise on the larger size stock like the VoR and L&B coaches, this means I have a surplus rake of FR loading gauge coaches to add to the pile.

More positively I found some stock which I thought was sub-standard but actually which only needs a little fettling up.

The L&B open came from 009 sales

I also sorted out the running of the Krauss seen here with part of the cattle train.

My NWNG Pickering coach, my only brass kit.

Grace Alice with an IoSR mainline train.

The other thing I've done is to sort out a couple of locos which had issues at the exhibition. Namely the Krauss which had suffered from my big hands during conversion. Secondly I added some weight to the side tanks of the Minitrains Baldwin, it has also been subjected to weathering. I have tried to make it look unloved but not like scrap.

The little Kerr Stuart is also progressing.