Hi everyone,

We went to a exhibition yesterday and bought some things for the layout so we did a little bit of work.

Firstly, we got a length of flexi-track just to finish off some sidings which go behind the tunnel. We also got a deal on some Ballast, 4 200g bags for £5, which was quite good as one bag of ballast cost £1.75, so some money was knocked off. So after the track is weathered we'll be able to start ballasting. On the note of weathering, we've decided to buy a weathering pen designed for weathering tracks, this supposedly makes it alot easier to do it.

Finally, we got a cutting mat just to help with doing some cutting work, before we was just using a little work bench type thing we built for soldering.

We did a little bit of work on the layout yesterday as well. First, we tidyed up our soldering work on the switches a bit to try and stop any arching of the electricity which would cause a short circuit but also to make it look a bit tidier. To stop further arching, we decided it was best to put some small insulting strips to put on the solder This should stop any arching.

Thanks for reading,

Jacob

Hi everyone,

I felt that I should only post one picture on as the others would be a bit boring, they are just some wires and I don't think many people would be interested in them. If you are, I'll put them up.

There was one picture though, and that's the start of the tunnel construction.



One of these structures will be put on the start of each entrance to make it look more realistic when looking down into the tunnel and also to make it darker. Its simply two templates of the tunnel entrance with a piece of card with bricks on the inside between them both.

I'm not sure when the next update will be, it should be within the next two weeks.

Jacob

Hi everyone,
Sorry for not updating in a while, but alot of progress has been made!

Firstly, we managed to lay the lengths of wire from the points to where the control panel is going to be built. We need to fit the point moters to the wires now. We also put tails onto the switches to make it easier to solder the other wires on. We then Fitted some bits of wood to avoid any locos falling off the board. We also managed to put some of the wood edges onto the side of the control panel.

Yesterday, we started to do a small amount of work on the tunnel. We got some wooden templates just to go a bit into the tunnel to make it look more realistic and like its not actually open in the back. It also makes the tunnel darker and therefore more realistic.

Video here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBUU089U2VI Pictures coming soon!

Jacob

Hi everyone,
Quite a bit has been done this week.

Firstly we have bought all of the point moters and switches needed to put moters on all the extensions points. We also bought the CDU which is needed for points then points . We temporarily wired up one point just to see if we had the technique right, and after a while of experimenting we got it working. We only had enough wire to do the wiring for two points. We did not put the point moters on, but we just put the wiring for two in. We are going to need to get some more wire before doing anymore.

I'll put a link to the video version of the update later today once it has uploaded.

Jacob

Hi everyone,
Some more work on the layout has been done this weekend. Some temporary wiring work has been done on the layout, as we bought some scale lighting into the station. It looks really good and when all of the buildings are in place, and they are fitted with lighting, more permeant wiring for it will be put in place.

Also, we have built the other Metcalfe tunnel entrances so soon work on the tunnel can commence.

Jacob

Hi Everyone,
Some more work has been made on the layout. We have managed to pin down the entire branch line to the extension and most of the extension itself. We did not pin the flexi track down, as it may need some slight changes once all of the buildings are on.

Also, we have the wood for the remaining extension work, it just needs to be fitted.

Withing a few weeks, I will have enough money to buy all of the moters and equipment needed to make all of the points on the extension moterised, so look out for work on that within a few weeks.

A Video version of the update is available here- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts1CJoWI5rY

Jacob

Hi everyone,
We have made some progress on the layout. We managed to pain all of the outer bits of the baseboard, just the inner bits to go now. Pictures coming soon.

Jacob

Just a quick update,
We measured up for a extension at the weekend, just a small one behind the tunnel to make sure that no locos fall off! More to come soon.

Video version- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT9P0lG0S3g...mp;feature=plcp

Jacob

Hi everyone,
Here are the pictures of the control panel:

This one is of the track plan on the control panel.



This one of the other plan, its a bit hard to see.


Jacob

Hi everyone,
Another update, this one with pictures (Coming soon!)
Today bit of progress has been made on the control panel. We got the perspex for the main box of it, two pieces and some wood, but with the back open for wiring.

Also, the vinal with the track plan for the extension on it has also been made, and soon the switches or studs will be fitted.

From the exhbition we went to today, I bought a set of screw drivers for smaller things, possibly loco maintanece and things like that.

Hopefully a bit of work will be done tomorrow, just sorting about a power problem, which I think has been caused by dirty track so I'm going to get the track cleaning fluid on it!

Pictures should be up tommorow or Monday, and also a video version of the update will be edited into the post.

Jacob