bazzanoid

...and yes the track is compatible / same code. Peco actually recommend the Marklin turnouts since Peco don't make any, and they produce foam underlay to support them as well!

Very interesting....... This is my first foray into Z, and I was thinking about doing a forced perspective cityscape (all illuminated of course) to the back half / quarter - i've never seen it done before even on a N or OO layout of any real size.... I've got 36" x 17" to play with, so i'm going to do a double track loop of some description, and a single station, which for operational interest will be four platform, two of which will be passing loops for the main track. I'm going to use Marklin electric points so once in place i can control everything from outside the layout, especially if i do go with a city getting my hand in to flick a lever might be a bit tricky. I'm also wondering if Marklin track is the same code as Peco, since Peco do 22" flexitrack in Z, and it's a damn sight cheaper than buying lots of static Marklin....

I've just placed a bid for a glass-topped coffee table, and I'm going to put a Z Gauge model inside it. I'm currently awaiting the interior dimensions (it has a slide out drawer the full width and depth of the table) so I can work out the plan..... What should I model? I know I want a double continuous loop, probably a multi-level convoluted spaghetti lol... For those not familiar with Z, there is no UK outline stuff available, so it'll be Euro. Flexitrack is available from Peco, but they don't do points, so i'm trying to find out if it's compatible with Marklin's track system. If not, then it'll be marklin fixed track all the way.

Kind of puts things in perspective - you're holding out for a cool, non-sunny day, while over here in the UK we're holding out hope that the sun hasn't gone on vacation for the summer!!!

I am loving the terminus, we are looking to doing something similar on jaybee's railway after the major earthworks (removing the redundant hedge) are completed, although it would be permanently out.

And it will fit on the windowsill Oh, you mean a model tram.....

Having let the glue settle, we returned today to that most important task: Testing the fresh track. After some electrical teething problems and a short time bashing the track with the soldering iron later, we had success, and encouraged by this, hooked up the second track and ran trains back and forth on both lines at the same time. Very satisfying... and we even managed to get the 4-6-6 hauling 6 carriages comfortably. Now we can't wait to get the loop completed so they can just run around to their heart's content! http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1050215.jpg' alt='URL>'> d-yfj9XCjv4 The ballast has held nicely in place and is set fast, so more of that to be done as time goes by.... http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1050211.jpg' alt='URL>'>

There's a lot of unused space in the middle there - seems a shame to let it go to waste Looking good, would be great to see the spur lead off to a big terminus or a loop round the front garden!!

Looks great! Only one problem though - it will spark off a debate on new vs old sleepers - yours is a new one, many would argue that the 'best' kind of sleeper is an older one that's a little worn around the edges! As long as it looks natural I don't care - wood or concrete!

Two foot of wire is quite reasonable and they are quite sensitive panels, it's possible they are programmed to read a voltage drop of x amount as "it's dark, we need to turn on" since most solar lights come on a little after dusk. Try unsoldering the wires from the solar panel and the board entirely and use a single thick piece instead of what is now effectively three sections for each wire, it is more likely one of your joints is dirty (electrically speaking) for whatever reason causing a fluctuation in the voltage and falsely telling the light it is night. Just take care not to damage the board or panel when you unsolder and re-solder, and be sure to 'tin' the wires before soldering them on to make life easier. And most importantly, make sure you connect the right wire to the right terminal! I take it the wires to the battery are all intact ok?

It's an algae - our weather is sufficiently damp that algae can green the surface of wood given a little dampness and a lot of sunlight!! Left untreated, the repeated soaking and drying of wood either rots it if it is a softwood or warps it if it is a hardwood (or both in some cases), both are not great for garden railways! The only way around it would be to use solid oak planks of more than two inches thick and already 'cooked' in a kiln to make them completely solid and un-warpable, but the cost of a single length of around 5 metres is about the same as 100 metres of pressure-treated decking board AND the felt to cover them. Decking boards are designed and treated to be long lasting but they still require painting every few years to maximise their life, hence why we cover them with felt as you can't very well spray or brush on boards with tracks attached to them! Of course it's also arguable that the felt provides a natural ballast style look to the trackbed

The way we've discussed is light filters cut to fit over the windows on sealed buildings but that's an excellent suggestion - i have a healthy supply of humbrol translucents from painting up various clear parts on my model starships, sure i'll have something suitable May well get some more solar lights to use as platform lights, this would likely involve creating an array of charging panels and batteries in serial or parallel so one unit conveniently disguised as something like a gas storage cylinder could be put nearby and one set of cabling run to the platforms. Our bricks were laid on a thick bed of sharp sand, but of course it still moved a bit - concrete would definitely be a good way to go especially on longer sections, our only real trouble is up the back of the bushes on the gradient curve as one brick had dropped on one edge, and we used the excess mortar from correcting that to smooth over slight imperfections elsewhere. That said, the ballasting is taking care of any gaps under the tracks to provide an excellent, and realistic running surface

It's definitely a good way to go - we've been using it successfully for months now. The only thing we've found is that it's a little reluctant to bond to paving block, but this may well be because they are very porous, and since you are supposed to dampen each surface before gluing, it may be drying before it can 'catch'. Every other patch of concrete seems to be perfect however, including in reasonably fresh mortar as we found out yesterday! Echoing traingeekboy's sentiments, we need photos!!

As it was largely an experiment, a handful of solar garden lights from the local pound shop were picked up for the purpose, and it would seem they do the job very well! The engine shed is lit by just the one bulb, so we will be able to do the same for the other buildings

Thought I would go into this in a little more detail, should anyone wish to have a crack themselves. Solar lights operate on a simple principle: When the battery is receiving a charge (i.e. daylight), the light circuit is off. As soon as the battery stops receiving that charge, the light circuit turns on. You can see on the little circuit board the terminals are marked B+, S+ and S- B-. Completely logically, this is Solar and Battery, they share a common ground. Simply removing the existing short wire from the solar panel and replacing with a longer one (remembering which way round the wires go on the panel as it is not marked) is all that's needed. No More Nails Sticky pads to hold the circuit and battery in place where it's wanted, and pva to fix the wires out of sight. In our case the engine shed is Skaledale so polyresin, so I filed a small channel out of the bottom edge where the wires 'go outside' so the shed will still sit dead level and the wires can be buried out of view once the solar panel is re-painted (maybe a small storage tank of some sort?) and permanently housed. Do bear in mind that the terminals are now exposed on the solar panel, albeit under cover - for peace of mind it would be best to put a blob of non-conductive sealant on the terminals to protect them, and similarly with the circuit board - but do not cover the board or battery entirely as it will cause small heat problems and potentially blow the LED's diode. As an aside, if you need a daytime only light rather than night for whatever reason, simply disconnecting the battery and attaching the solar panel to B+ and B- will provide permanent power while their is available daylight, although this would be best on the larger more expensive solars with higher Wattage as the light produced by these small LEDs is a pinpoint of white, and short of seeing it on during the day, there's no noticeable glow or ebb from the bulb.

Jaybee reports that the light works very well..... http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/DSC02081.jpg' alt='URL>'> http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/DSC02091.jpg' alt='URL>'>

This afternoon, the ridiculous hot weather continued, as did our construction.... we finished the track off to the edge of the garage ready for the next overpass section, fixed the tunnel mouths in place, glued some more platform down..... and two other things..... http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1050204.jpg' alt='URL>'> Taking the engine shed, we lined the interior of the roof with tin foil to provide a nice reflective surface, and proceeded to dismantle a solar garden light... having lengthened the wires between the circuitry and the panel itself, we glued the wiring into place and left it out in it's place in the sun to gather light ahead of tonight.... hopefully it will be bright enough to shine nicely, jaybee will be checking late tonight! http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1050202.jpg' alt='URL>'> http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1050203.jpg' alt='URL>'> Having little else to do that could be done in the short time we had remaining, we broke out the ballast and started ballasting a small section of track, being careful to fill in the gaps where the ground dipped but the track didn't, providing an impressively level section of trackwork!! This is one of those "spare 5 minute" jobs where it can be done little and often to avoid the risk of it getting tedious, although i'm sure it still will but be worth it for the end result. http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1050207.jpg' alt='URL>'>

Wow! Talk about a scorcher here! It's made way for some steaming progress this morning..... a few rough patches have been smoothed over with concrete, the outer loop has been finished off at the top, the sidings have been laid, and the garage side of the tunnel has had a block 'n' concrete trackbed laid! Busy morning... and jaybee also laid the country station in place so we can get a feel for where things will be. The glue won't take long to set in this weather, so this afternoon will hopefully provide for an opportunity to get the Engine Shed fixed in place, the tunnel mouths on, and who knows what else! Sadly the photos are a little thin on the ground today - Wifey took the camera out on thursday to the harry potter studio tour and didn't charge the camera on return...... http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1050196.jpg' alt='URL>'> http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1050197.jpg' alt='URL>'> http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1050198.jpg' alt='URL>'> http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1050199.jpg' alt='URL>'> http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1050200.jpg' alt='URL>'>

Bad luck seems to strike you a lot lately Ian!! We are out in the garden in temperature that feels around 26-27, absolutely glorious sunshine and hardly and wind round here!

Brick wall, hardcore and concrete - none of this ply baseboard stuff mr Seriously though, if water is going to be there, it will have to be done properly, even external grade ply would get moist and warp sooner or later, especially once its buried under scenery. My thinking is getting hold of bricks that match the existing low level walls around the edges, then building properly from there with some hardcore, concrete 'shelfs' on top for the trackbed, dirt, weedmat, gravel, pondliner... most are available free from my various sources, very handy having family in the outdoor and construction trades

Well you know me. I have some.... interesting ideas. But to be fair, they're always backed up with the practicalities on how to do it, and as we are proving on jaybee's railway, they work. As I am moving all my rabbit cages up off the garden onto the patio area, i am left with a nice 30' x 12' square of garden.... since the kind of garden railway i want to do would be permanent, and as we rent here i'm not about to spend the money on making a permanent one here, i got to thinking.... .....and here's the crazy bit..... ....it's worth the wait, keep reading.... ....honestly.... ....since it would have to be dead flat and only on wood to be sure of this,and therefore easily removable.... ....N gauge. There. I said it. N gauge. In the garden. Let the uproar begin

So, ahead of tomorrow's construction, jaybee sent me a message earlier telling me he's thinking about removing the hedge that runs along the garage wall and 'open up a whole new area for railway'. Until this point, the plan was to cut the hedge back on one corner to accommodate the curve of the track as it comes away from the wall. Now however there is a whole new idea....... since i'm not seeing jaybee till tomorrow, i've knocked up a quick n dirty artist's impression for everyone, including jaybee (apologies for the scrappiness, my drawings are normally a lot better, but this was ten minutes' "get it down on paper before you forget it" work!) We had planned a suspension bridge somewhere anyway, so where better than over water so it has a genuine purpose? Waterfall in the background, serves two purposes - first, and most importantly, a great scenic backdrop for the trains passing over the bridge, and secondly, to filter and refresh the water in the pond. Maybe even keep a few fish Those black-brown blocks on the left are random-height cut real sleepers positioned in the ground upright between the two lines, providing scenic interest with the outer loop going behind the sleepers, exposed for a short distance then into the tunnel under the waterfall's header pool. Thoughts welcome as always http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1050195.jpg' alt='URL>'>

Our next day of construction is planned for this sunday, weather permitting. In the meantime, jaybee is holidaying up in norfolk and getting lots of inspiration from the model village in Yarmouth, and is visiting a couple of railway shops tomorrow including one specialising in garden railway landscaping, so who knows what he will come back with!! I've got hold of some good quality ply so am going to start carefully cutting sections for casting a modular concrete viaduct - the idea is to invest a great deal of time and effort in carving the bricks etc into the mould so the finished article will just need painting, and if it comes out good enough then you may well see OO gauge concrete viaducts pop up on ebay, cast to order

After lunch we started to think about platform positioning for the island station at the top of the garden, since the other track would need to be laid in the right place to accommodate it. http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1040756.jpg' alt='URL>'> With the weather coming down, we secured some platform into place and ran the trackwork up from the points to meet it. Say hello to Brickhenge http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1040757.jpg' alt='URL>'> While that was setting in place we ran the track through the tunnel, so the tunnel track is now complete and ready for tunnel mouth on either end! http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/bazzanoid/P1040758.jpg' alt='URL>'> Leaving everything to set, we've called it a day (a productive one at that!) We also had a thought about a possible branch line to run separate from the main loop to add interest... but that's for another time!!

Despite the gloomy outlook today brought another opportunity to get together and do some more construction. We cleaned up the tracks, soldered some bridging wire across the plastic joiners (it'll be a while till DCC makes a proper appearance), and spent the morning 'testing' the trains on the track. Filmed another short video of the 4-6-6 hauling carriages for the first time along the current full length. As long as it doesn't rain this afternoon will bring more track laying on the other line, hopefully matching what's been laid on this line so far. l_IY_fU9_3I