willos railway

[willo]

Well ive finally got the shed in place and with the warm weather got the incentive to start my track layout, ive decided to use decking boards and im planning a small track and add to it as and when i can.ive made the engine storage area and started the base on the exit side of the shed outside, im really looking forward to getting a train running on the track but obviously it will be quite a while before that happens the rate i go at, anyway my fellow modellers I thought I would let you know were im at,so I could be picking your brains again

[mick]

Good to see a start has been made Dave. Your decision to start small and add to later is a wise one. I found it was important to get something running as quickly as possible, even if it's only end to end until a complete circuit can be made. At least it looks like you've got plenty of spare land to the side of the shed for when you decide to expand

Take things easy and ensure everything's as level as can be - it'll make everything much more enjoyable later. Keep us all informed!

[cleanerg6e]

ive decided to use decking boards and im planning a small track and add to it as and when i can:D

G'day Dave welcome to the fun of making a start. May I be so bold as to say I think you should give very serious consideration to painting those decking boards before installing them on your new railway. The reason being that it doesn't matter if your using roofing felt to cover them and attach your track, moisture will still find a way of penetrating those boards and if they warp your permanent way will be thrown out of alignment.

Although I live on the other side of the world if I'd done it originally I wouldn't be rebuilding now. It is of course up to you, I think better to be safe than sorry.

Good luck with your endeavors.

Roy.

[willo]

cheers guys, i think your right about painting roy,already considerd.

mick i think you could be looking at the farmers field in my pics a bit deceiving, i do have a bit of room spare though

[willo]

a few more snaps to show my slow progression, i found you learn a lot just by tinkering,

couldnt resist putting a train on it

[mick]

Steady on Dave, you'll be putting my slower efforts to shame!

I agree, you do learn a lot through trial and error. No matter how much advise you are given it's always nice to discover things for yourself even if it means additional work later. Even those who have the knowledge and experience had to start at the very beginning.

I knew it wouldn't be too long before we saw some motive power!

[IanR]

Well done!

Excellent work and hope you've enjoyed doing it too.

[willo]

Hi all I went out this morning to do a bit of track building and of all the elements ive thought off I didn’t recon on bird muck

The track I had left out over night a foot of it looked like an avalanche had hit it (scale mind), didn’t think about the cherry tree over looking

The railway, not sure what to do yet: anyway ive put the rest of the pegs in that support the base after deciding were I need to put in points

For future additions then removing the track to get the base level to make sure the pegs are in the right place and so on but all good fun in

Achieving what you want,

[cleanerg6e]

Can't wait to see some more photos of your progress Dave and remember it's a hobby, just take your time and think every think through. I agree with others on here that get a certain amount of track down so you can run trains is almost imperative, (after all that's what all the effort's for) but there's no gold medal for finishing quickly.

As for the Cherry tree problem have you thought of a removable cover over the railway at that point. Even Trevor Jones has come to the opinion that you need to cover some areas, although he said in a DVD that frogs had damaged some of his signals and a bridge was damaged by a hedge hog that got stuck in it.

I've had to cover all of mine as a large amount of the local wildlife is very intent on destroying my line and all my effort.

[mick]

I'm pestered with bird droppings too Dave. In fact almost exactly one year ago (11th April 2010) this is what I was faced with:

http://www.selbygardenrailway.co.uk/images/views/IMG_3490.jpg' alt='URL>'>

The birds perch on the conifers that run alongside the boundary fence but at least it's not quite as bad this year.

If I remember correctly I had to take a bucket of warm water and swill it all off. Perhaps lopping off any overhanging branches might help or failing that you might have to resort to some kind of cover as Roy suggests.

[willo]

Hey guys just a quick question, on a dc track do you wire up from either end of the track to get a better continuity, i thought i saw

it somwere on someones railway but now cant find it

[willo]

Hi all Ive soldered all the joints and cleaned the track all be it with a sponge and water haven’t got a proper cleaner yet, must get one

I took out one set of points which was giving me quite a problem, which improved it somewhat but seems to slow on too

Pieces of flex track which are also soldered, also the vans I have just derail, all the track is smooth and flush on top

And the inner rail is also good, same old story you might say but I would like to Here your input, I try and keep up with the threads on here but I might have

Missed something

[mick]

Hi Dave, you having a few problems?

I've just tried to look back at the photographs you added to your gallery to try see exactly what you've done but they're no longer there apart from one - have you deleted the others?

To begin with could you explain fully what you mean by 'I've soldered all the joints'. Have you soldered a bonding wire across the join or actually soldered the join itself? What problems were you having with the troublesome points and what points are they? (make etc)

Do the vans derail only at a certain place or are they coming off the rails at random places? It might be helpful to carefully watch as you manually push a wagon slowly along the track and try to see just where it's coming off and why.

Start right back at the beginning and look for the obvious things. Are your feed and return wires from your controller to the track correctly wired to the opposite rails? There's always the possibility that you might get them mixed up if you aren't using colour coded wires. What sort of controller are you using and is it up to the job? Do you have a 'multimeter' or similar tool that will allow you to check for continuity along the track?

See if you can add some photos to help us get a better picture of what's going on. I'll help as much as I can.

Mick

[cleanerg6e]

Perhaps lopping off any overhanging branches might help or failing that you might have to resort to some kind of cover as Roy suggests.

I've not only found the covers are good for keeping the bird "poo" off the railway but also keep the track pretty clean. I had a look at my track today ( in between showers of rain) and found although I haven't cleaned it since the beginning of this month, the rail surfaces are still almost silver, just a slight tarnishing so silver to gold.

Roy.

[willo]

Well theirs a lot of info their to be getting on with, just by this I think I can solve some issues thanks

I took off some photos to make room for some others but didn’t get to put them on; I shall sort that out,

I have soldered wires from one track piece around the fish to the other track; I am using a bachmann12v transformer

Which I had with my set, most of the track is peco but the points in question are hornby, there seems to be a lot of

Sticking and power loss on straight runs, which I found odd, looking back on the railway I found some of my soldered wires

Have come undone I think I will have another go at soldering them up.[album][/album]

dave

[mick]

Well it's good to hear that some of your problems have been eased. You'll no doubt run into others along the way which will all add to the fun!

I think the more you do the more you'll learn just what you need to keep on doing in order to keep things running smoothly. You'll learn how important it is to ensure reliable electrical continuity between your controller, the rails, and your locos, and how frustrating it can become if something's not quite right. You'll need to obtain a decent track rubber to keep the rails clean - if possible go for the 'Garryflex' ones mentioned elsewhere on this forum, and don't forget the loco wheels too. Yes, I'm speaking from my own sorry experiences with all those recommendations

Finally with regards the 'gallery' section, don't worry too much about saving space. The forum is set up to handle images that are overlarge and which would take up large amouts of storage but we have plenty of space available to us and I'll sort things out if it does ever become critical.

[cleanerg6e]

looking back on the railway I found some of my soldered wires

Have come undone I think I will have another go at soldering them up.

dave

Dave I have found that even on 'new' Peco track there's a need to clean the spot on the rail side with a jewelers screwdriver or an electrical screwdriver until you get a shiny silver surface. You may need extra flux such a Carr's green or red label flux. If you do need extra flux decant the Carr's flux into an old glass jam jar with a screw lid. Take it from me when I started soldering up my rail joints on my railway I'd only done half a dozen when in full flight with the hot iron I knocked the Carr's bottle over and flux went everywhere.

The modeller Michael Adamson said to solder successfully "you must get the work hot. If you don't get the work hot the solder won't flow properly and you end up with a dry joint".

Cleanliness is also very important. If the joint isn't clean the molecules in the solder can't bind with the molecules in the rail.

You may still find that some solder bonds "drop off" during winter due to a migration of those molecules.

I use a soldering station ( but with no hot passengers ) and for soldering the rails I have the "bit" temperature at about 450 degrees centigrade.

Although you fingers may suffer a little with the temperature you soon get used to it.

The way I do it is to first scrape the rail side between two sleepers with the screwdriver, then apply a small drop of flux to that rail side. I then put a blob of solder on that fluxed rail side. Next I "tin the copper wire by first wiping it with the same flux on a modellers paint brush and with a small amount of solder I rub the solder coated iron over the copper wire. I then place that wire onto the previously tinned rail and using the modellers paint brush, brush more flux onto the tinned wire and rail side.

With the soldering iron tip cleaned on the damp sponge on the soldering station I hold the iron against both the tinned copper wire and rail side.

The flux boils and the solder now heated up flows easily and removing the iron I return it to the holder on the soldering station the soldered joint cools quickly and the jobs done. . I hope this is of help to you.

Roy.

[willo]

Thanks Roy I haven’t got back to it yet but some good tips will be taken on board, all this info from everybody is extremely

Helpful.

Dave.

[willo]

Hi all ive been trying to keep up on the forum but only managing to view and not contribute, you all seem very busy while my railway has been put aside a little trying to find the time to do, I re painted my track base with a grey paint or that’s what it said on the tin, I did thought it would maybe dry grey (you know as you do ), anyway ive enjoyed making a bridge and now im trying to attempt a tunnel, bearing in mind i may need to remove it or get access and pass a camera through it,havent come up with the right answer yet, the train (my only train I might add)runs very nicely now after a resolder of joints and a clean down every run, something mike said and ive not forgot, it works every time, the only thing that wont stay on the line is my brake van I came to the conclusion it was to light on the back ,ive added some more photos of my progress all be it small but take a look and please comment on does and don’ts, keep up the good work all.

Dave

[drmalesis]

Hi Dave,

Seems to be coming along nicely. The construction of your trackbed seems to be exactly what I had in mind, although mine will need to be on 3 foot stilts in places. I like the bridge you've constructed, it's very convincing and has given me a couple of ideas I may well include on my own line.

Keep up the good work, and keep the photo's coming...

Duncan