Hellier Train Care

Now this is what you call frustration, I purchased 1 roll of woodland scenics track bed, purely because from looking at the length I thought it would be enough, clearly though, it wasn't enough, leaving me with gaps under the left side curve. Fortunately though I got all the other track bed down without too much of a problem. So my next step is to get another pack of track bed, which I will need for the yards anyway so most of is should get used up. Then I'll wire in the power to the bus lead under the board to send a test train round on, this will pick up on any possible problems I may encounter before I take up all the track, go over it all with a track rubber and stick it down. I'll then test it all again to be sure everything is fine before installing the point motors which will be controlled via dcc, I know some people don't like the idea of dcc points but I have no room for a control box and sometimes I'd like to sit down and watch trains go round, c

So this is how it looks for now, of course nothing is actually fixed in place as most of it will be risen up (thought I'm not sure how some of my locos will manage the inclines so I guess I'll have to see when it comes to it. Now on the left side I'll be using some wood to rise up the track to the required hight, but of course to have motors under the track I'll need to leave gaps in the wood as well as putting a thin sheet over the top to conceal the gap. Despite this I have been temped to use some of the woodland scenics inclines and risers to do the same thing, my only issue with the wood at the moment is that they are not wide enough to fully conceal the under board motors though I can remedy this when it comes to adding the scenery. Initially I was going to make the passing loop removable in one section, though I now believe that that will make things more difficult for me and perhaps my better option would be to forgo that idea. Instead I'm tempted to

Not quite sure how I will manage this, but my plan is to make it as modular as I can, mainly so if I ever get extra room for it I can just add extra boards in between the existing ones. So my first thought is to make areas of track simple to remove, now I've seen this done with scenery which is easy enough, but with track that includes a bundle of points is going to be tricky and at the moment I'm not sure how I'm going to overcome this purely because of the wiring needed and my concern is where is this heap of wiring going to go and how am I going to make it easy to connect up without going through dozens of wires and connecting them appropriately. I am sure there are ways of doing this without creating obtrusive wires and maybe my decision to use dcc for points as well could help. Now as you may be able to tell, the coloured bits of the plan need to be easily removed, although it requires a little testing, one thought is to scratch build a building, maybe a signal

So of course, the first main thing to go when creating a model railway is to plan the track. And this is my plan for my track, now put away your plan books, you won't find it in there, because like most railways I've come up with this myself. Now I know what your thinking, little boring isn't it? A few loops and sidings? Well yes it may very well be but it will be enough to keep me busy for some time to come yet, what with all the track laying, wiring and everything else that ends up in it. Oh and for anyone thats wondering I used a piece of software called Anyrail , its a great bit of software, and worth paying for the full version (trial only allows 50 pieces which you will reach very quickly), though for some reason Norton doesn't like it from what I've heard. Anyway, there will be pictures in a few days time of the work in progress, so keep an eye out.

Not much for now. Though this will be the first post of many to come as I work on creating my first model railway layout in 00. There's no specific era so I will run what I feel like on it, and its not modelled after anywhere specific, so we will see how it goes. As for now I haven't given it any kind of name but I'm open to suggestions, for names for the entire layout, Station and the two yards. I'll be adding a design drawing quite soon.