An excess of water

A week ago I awoke to a slow drip of water landing on my pillow. I did wake a couple of time in the night noticing a damp pillow, only to past it off to a bad case of the night time dribbles. On rushing downstairs to grab a set of step ladder to check what was happening in the roof I walked into a small stream in the hallway. This was not coming through the ceiling but the front door...

This was surprising as we are not next to a river or stream. I suppose still being half awake, it was still dark and not thinking through what the consequences might be, I open the front door. A small wall of water greeted me and I very sharply slammed the door shut. The door seals were doing an excellent job of holding most of the water back. On looking out I could see that the water was above floor level of the log cabin that is my Man Cave/Railway room.

The water had drain away by mid-morning but left us mopping up in the house and surveying the damage to the Man Cave. The carpet in the Man Cave was like a sponge, and anything that was on the floor and not in a plastic box was also sodden. During the next couple of days, a neighbour and I emptied the contents of the Man Cave into the neighbour's shed. We removed the sodden carpet. I bought a dehumidifier, set it up, and then left it running all week, emptying plenty of water each day. I'll be keeping it running all winter.

All now seems relatively dry so I've started to move stuff back into the log cabin. On the plus-side I'm taking the chance to sort thought and decide what needs selling or throwing away and luckily, nothing of great value has been damaged. On the downside I have lost valuable time on the Rospeath Lane build. 

Oh well I've still just over nine months to catch up...

Installing the wiring

I've had few thoughts about the wiring for the new incarnation of Rospeath Lane. It is a much reduced track plane compared to the original but it will be an exhibition layout which I doubt the previous one would have been. So in an attempt to reduce the possibility of not being able to solve a short circuit quickly during an exhibition, rendering the whole inactive, I've split the track plan into five power districts.

So far I have all rail power droppers in place along with all turnouts droppers. As a trial I decided on installing the first rail dropper to power bus connection on the left hand cassette board. 

Needs a little tidying up but that is the template I'll be using for the rest of the layout

The wiring I'm using are32/0.2 (22 AWG) for the droppers which I believe is rated at 3 amps and 32/0.2 (17 AWG) .for the power bus which I believe is rated at 6 amps. These might be ratings might be overkill but I'm learning as I go along.

Though my diagram above indicates one "common return" for all power districts, I'm contemplating if this might hinder solving a difficult to find short circuit so may well keep the districts totally separate. As I said, I'm trying to learn and evaluate many options as much as I can while progressing with this project.

All trackwork laid

At last, all track laid in place, with turnout wiring installed and a start made on installing power droppers to the rest of the track. The only section not fully in place is the coaling road approach to the turntable. My thought is to lay this in place once the turntable is working to help get the track aligned correctly with the turntable's rotational steps (if that makes sense?).

That said I've also been working on a design for the Shed Offices. A little off-the-cuff design with an attempt to come up with a building that looks and feels along with complementing the Timber Tracks Buildings. In discussions its construction there has been a suggestion that it is laser cut rather than built using plasticard. A laser cut building should be a better fit with the other buildings.

Initial design 

I've not drawn a plan of a building before let alone one for laser cutting so have much to learn. On another duplicate drawing I've started to create a brick pattern and colour the cut lines blue and etch lines red. The windows have been drawn to match the etched windows available from London Road Models. At the moment I'm unsure whether to etched windows or use laser cut ones but will have the option to use either.

The whole layout was being built on top of some Ikea Ivar shelving units which were also being used for storage. While this has been convenient I started to think this is was not ideal especially as there was no convenient access underneath the layout without moving the boards elsewhere. Thinking it would be better to complete the build on its own support structure I spent last weekend reorganising the 'Man Cave. Rospeath Lane is now self-supporting, giving access underneath. This should also help with ironing out any issues with the supports as far as stability and construction.

Rospeath Lane's current state

What helped in the reorganising of the Man Cave is my decision to scrap Heath End, the roundy-roundy P4 layout that I acquired. In re-evaluating what would be involved correcting baseboard alignments, improving the wiring and bring the scenic areas up to a standard I would be happy with,it would distract me from what I'd really like to achieve over the next few years. On top of that it did fill one end of the Man Cave making it a tad awkward to access and making the room look untidy.

What do I want to achieve in the next few years?

The primary objective is of course completeing Rospeath Lane. 

In hindsight I might have been a litttle hasty thinking about scrapping Tredethy Wharf. I’ve had many comments that I should not scrap Tredethy Wharf. Including a a lady who went out of her way to let me know she'd voted it best in show at Scalefour Crewe 2024. Having it out on display with give me the opportunity to evaluate my feelings for the layout and where I can improve the scenic area. Before I can exhibited it again there will have to be new cassette boards along with transport case and lighting boxes in the same style as those built for Rospeath Lane.

Tredethy Wharf now on top of the Ivar shelving units

I purchased the EM gauge Fiddlers Wharf layout from Paul Gregory earlier in this year. It’s a slight twist on the Inglenook Sidings Shunting Puzzle track plan. Having really enjoyed operating Gordon Luck's P4 Dock Road layout at a number of  exhibitions I can envisge getting the same enjoyment out of this layout. It is a layout that can bring hours of quiet enjoyment at home but also at exhibitions for the public to operate solving the puzzle. My intention is to, again, construct an enclosed transport, lighting box along with converting it to being operated from the front. Having this layout on display will help with these tasks.

Fiddlers Wharf also on Ivar shelving units

Finally I come to what will possible be my final project, Boscarne Junction.The desire is still there to build this layout. Whether it will be permanently fix in the ‘Man Cave’ or exhibitable remains to be seen.

I'm a little behind schedule with Rospeath Lane but should still have locos moving around the shed by Christmas...

Sad News

I received some very sad and unexpected news today: Allan Smith passed away yesterday morning.

This is very upsetting news. My wife and I visited him only a few weeks ago. When we left, he said he was looking forward to seeing Rospeath Lane at a show sometime, along with his locomotives he'd converted running once more.

I had only known him for a few years, but I quickly recognized that he was one of the good guys—unassuming, generous, and always willing to share his passion for model railways with a novice Scalefour member like myself. I have benefited immensely from the short time I knew him, and I only wish I had known him longer.

RIP Allan. Rest assured, your locomotives will be well cared for and given a new life on Rospeath Lane.

12th July - Darlington

A little late posting this entry, as we hosted our first full-on Writer’s Retreat at Longthwaite the following weekend. Much time spent cooking, baking and getting the house ready for the six people attending. After all the effort we received very positive feedback and all six want to return.

Anyway back to the main subjet of this blog...

I'd not achieved all I had intended to complete for the Scalefour Society AGM but at least some progress has been made. Eleven turnout were constructed, the hope was to have them all installed unfortunately only five along with the trap at the bottom of the coaling stage road were in place. I'd also rushed laying some of the plain track which on inspecting some sections need to be improved. In hindsight the deadline of the AGM was a big incentive which resulted in many steps forward with possibly, due to rushing, only one backwards.

At the AGM there were four other layouts, all worth seeing in their own right. It was good to see Richard Spratt's Challenge entry, The Bridge, and to understand the insperation and thought process behind the project. Another layout under construction was part of Rob Ward's model of Whitby. This is one layout that we might not get to see again due it it really being designed as home layout. I'd seen Duncan Willcox's Croft Bank and Chris Michell's West end before but there's always an unseen detail to catch the eye.

I was initially concerned about the just-under-two-hour trek to Darlington for a one-day show. But meeting some Society members for the first time, catching up with others, receiving encouragement for Rospeath Lane, getting help from Neil Smith with setting up and dismantling the layout, and once again proving that it all fits in the car with Neil as a passenger — all made it a very worthwhile day out.

All set up 

View from the back.
Did wonder if this is a better view of the layout
rather than from the front...?

A break from turnouts

Today may have been the last guaranteed day of  no rain for sometime. With this in mind, I decided to to erect the layout outside and look at solving two issues with the setup  that surfaced at Workington.

• First being why the the support beams sagged at one end
• Second is to solve the sagging top and pelmet

I'm hopeful that I've solved both. The beams seemed to be OK, so don't know why they sagged at one end at the Workington show...but I did tighten some connections. The addition of the cantilever cable has definitely helped with the sagging top/pelmet.

It's been an excellent exercise erecting the layout in its exhibition format again. Has given m chance to hone my skill in putting it all together. While I continue with constructing the track, I now have to give some thought to the back screen. Not just to which material to use but how easy or difficult it will be to hang it from the rear pelmet. Besides the back screen, there is the lighting to consider...