Layout Update: August 2018 – Baseboards, Track Plan & Cataloguing Rolling Stock

It’s been just over two months since I posted a layout update. Despite the incredibly hot weather and other distractions of the Summer, I’ve still managed to make some reasonable progress up in the loft.

In this layout update video, I take a look at the track plan for the Strathpeffer Junction layout, as well as where I’ve got to with the baseboards, my initial thoughts for DCC busses and some sorting and cataloguing of rolling stock and locomotives.

I’ve had to jettison the idea of a two level layout with large fiddle yard below due to space constraints, so now it’ll be mainly one scenic level, albeit with an upper level TMD at one end with a small fiddle yard below that.

The station layout is loosely informed by Dingwall station during its heyday (click the map below for a larger image). There’s also a great thread on RMweb that looks at Dingwall’s layout in years gone by. You can read it by clicking here.

The plans show what I’ll be working towards, but are by no means set in stone. I’d love to know what you think about my plans and ideas, so please feel free to leave any thoughts, comments, suggestions and questions in YouTube’s comments section.

EDIT: In the video I put up text on the screen mentioning two booster units for my two power districts. I should have written one booster. The one district will be run run from the DCC controller itself (in my case, a Z21 black), and the one from a booster.

Installing a flashing tail (EOT) lamp on your model railway coach or wagon

When the Model Railway YouTube Community Group coach tour visited Strathpeffer Junction, we took the opportunity to drop the coach into Fodderty TMD for a quick once-over and flashing tail lamp installation.

This in-depth, two-part how-to series takes you through the installation process, step-by-step. Part A looks at designing and building a small rectifier and stay-alive/keep-alive circuit, from component selection to soldering.

Part B looks at adding a switch, installing the red tail lamp itself and, because the flasher unit used requires a specific voltage, the design and build of a small rectifier circuit.

The circuitry used in this video series is just as applicable for coach lighting circuits or most other situations where you need to get power from the tracks into a coach or wagon to power a light.

You can download the schematic for the circuitry here:

 

#StrathpefferJunction #MRYCG #NetworkYouTube

You can buy items similar to/the same as some of the consumables featured in this how-to via these Amazon affiliate links:

Prototyping circuit board: https://amzn.to/2OzU2Ez
Bridge rectifiers: https://amzn.to/2NYMQRq
Electrolytic capacitors (1000uf 25V): https://amzn.to/2n4Jm45
Electrolytic capacitors (mixed box): https://amzn.to/2v727bB
+5V 150mA voltage regulator: https://amzn.to/2n2KWDy

Please note: If you choose to follow any of the steps or suggestions outlined in the video, you do so at your own risk and any damage or injury to yourself, your models, your equipment or others is your own responsibility.

Model Railway YouTube Community Group Coach Tour 2018

Mark Chapman over at Galgorm Hall OO Gauge Model Railway, in partnership with the Model Railway YouTube Community Group on Facebook, has organised a special coach tour of model railway layouts across the British Isles (and a wee bit further afield too) for summer 2018.

We were delighted for Strathpeffer Junction to be one of the first stops on the tour and the coach spent a week here, undergoing a little work at Fodderty TMD and having a quick run on the emerging layout. We’ve lots of footage to get through and edit down into a video, but we also took some photos too…

The coach has now headed off down the Highland Mainline, hauled by Class 37 An Comunn Gàidhealach, in the direction of Kirkton Road Junction in the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland.