ThomasI

Hello Tony! The beginning of the year was good, but on the flight to Bangkok I caught a cold and now I'm sitting in the tropics in a sweater and shivering. The annex becomes more of a kind of glazed pergola. I want it dry inside so the plan right now. Thomas from the principally hot Bangkok ... 😂

It's inside my house and the upper levels is going to be sceniced in the future. I also have a shed, but currently I'm thinking about replacing it with a conservatory-style annex.

Hello! Since the attachment of the higher levels to the concrete walls proved to be very tedious, I have now covered these walls with 20 mm wood panels. In March, it will continue, because tomorrow I will fly for three weeks to Thailand and Cambodia. Best Regards Thomas

Hello Tony! So the fauna in Down Under is not so nice. I wish you a speedy recovery !!! Best Regards Thomas

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and for 2019 always enough ballast under the track!

Hello Tony! I was able to drive a little further to the points. But since I had fed only DC and not DCC, I could not drive over the points, because the frog juicer were not active. Planned is everything as far as the train stations, but until I can start building one of the two major stations will certainly pass some time. Regards Thomas

Today in Game of Trains: Winter is coming!

Hello Tony This helix does not get higher, it is just to lift the track over the other tracks to the right, it then continues along the wall. On top of this helix comes another ans bigger helix that will be multi-lane later. But I was not so lazy, have already mounted the drives on 16 turnouts and connected them with decoders and programmed them. I also follow your progress carefully.👍👍 Regards Thomas

Hello everybody! Somehow I am so lazy at the moment and just got through the first helix with a lot of effort ... Outside, however, it has frozen for the first time really strong and stormed and rained pretty strong and, to my great joy, my layout has survived very well except for very small losses on gravel. But I suspect that are the places where too little ballast adhesive has arrived. Regards Thomas

Hi Tony! The radius of the first, single-track helix is 25.5 inches, the other two helixes will be multi-lane with radii between 26 and 34 inches. Regards Thomas

Hello Tony This first helix only needs 2.5 turns to go up about 8.5 inches. There will then be a second helix that has to overcome about 18 inches and from the level a third who goes up another 15 inches. That's the top level. Regards Thomas

I started with the first track helix from the upper parking yard to the lower parking yard. It struck me that I should first assemble the turnout drives before I build the helix over the points...😎

Yes, I just say catenary wire and young sparrows ... ... they thought it was funny, the poles did not ...😎😂

Hello Tony! How many circuits it will be in the end is difficult to say, because the individual circuits are so interconnected that one can divide them into many small circuits on the one hand, but on the other hand can be used as a single very large circuit. A fast train with a Vmax of 160km/h (100mph) should take more than 20min for a tour if everything is ready, stops not included. At the moment I think again how I control the layout. The provider of the previously favored control with DCC and localization via a kind of "model GPS" offers the new small position transmitter only in combination with a DCC radio remote control. And I do not want and need this radio remote control and I do not want to have to buy it. Because the system does not work so well on the layout part in the house, because you can not equip things like a track spiral or different levels in a row with radio transmitters so that there is no gap. Only to determine the position you can live with dead spots, but not at the steering. With regards Thomas

Hello Tony! To be quite honest Ottersberg will only be an intermediate station. There is also the western half of the garden with the shed! There will then be one of the two terminus stations, the other will be in the house. But if I finished the green dotted marked routes, then with the parking yard in the house a first circuit is finished and the trains can run.👍 It seems I'm little bit crazy. Regards Thomas