Redesign

Did some redesign this morning. This way I have only 2 staging tracks but with very long capacity. The first will be 5 meters, the second 4,5. It should fit the overall look better.

Drawing in the living room:

The new design:

In detail:

More to come!

More drawings

Little update about the way I want to build the benchwork:

Drawings

Bought some stuff and made the first 2 drawings. The first one is the pure plan with the rail geometrie:

The second one is with the only visible rail. In the bottom the showpiece of the layout, above the staging:

The plan is still named project unnamed.

Later!

Grtz, Ronald.

Still running!

Did some testing today on this lazy afternoon (have my free days between shifts). Downloaded some track templates from Fast Tracks (http://www.handlaidtrack.com) to experiment with. Took the #10 and #8, printed them and cut them out (above two #10, below the #8):

And found that the #10's would fit:

Above is the #10 28/24 (28 inch outer radius, 24 inner radius), below the #10 24/20. Together they would fit nicely.

Problem; nobody makes them commercially. I could take the #8 from Walthers/Shinohara but a other option is that I build them myself. I already handlaid track on my 0N30 exhibition layout and on my 1:55n3 exhibition layout. So I do have practice enough to handle this task I hope.,

Soon more to come!

Grtz, Ronald.

On the planning highway!

To get myself going I started the Walthers watertower. The kit is well done and pretty easy to build. Fit is good.

Kit:

Tank:

Ready:

Parts:

First coat of paint:

Till so far:

I already try to plan a new layout and going a whole other way. Instead of going lenghtwise I try to do it circular. The idea came from two layouts, one is Beautiful British Columbia from the builders Evan Daes and Erik Block:

 The second one came from the internet:

 This is what I think I will build. In doing so I made a sketch with simple pen and paper:

The layout will be 160 or 170 centimeters in diameter. That is based on the lenght that will fit in my Mazda 5 van. 

As seen it contains two halves which will be build as one. The staging part will be folded under the scenicked part. Then the layout can be transported on the side, resting on the middle of the layout parts.

To visualize it I use some wood pieces which I had and are suitable for building. The parts are 4 inch high (10 centimeters). The standing part(s) are 60cm high, about 24 inches. That will be for the light valance that has to build over the layout:

It's a quarter circle:

Trying with some equipment:

I like the shorter cars better, even if the outer radius will be 70cm or 28 inches:

 Well, first plans are born. Stay with me!

Grtz, Ronald.

Extended lenz set

I extended my existing Lenz case this week. What I had:

Left the existing case with LZ100 central, LV101 booster and LI100 interface. That one will be replaced.

Here a test of the new case:

From the old one I removed the interface and some other stuff, and connected the central and booster in a better way than before:

Here the new situation. Now in the new case I have 2 extra LV101 boosters and there power supplies. Further a LA152 adapter which connects the new LI-USB interface to the system through XPressNet. The whole is connected with a special connecting cabel that uses 15 pin Sub-D connectors.

I also have a programming central in the second case. It can be used as-is without interupting the operating central:

Enough to power a bigger layout that the ones I currently own.

Later more!

Greetz, Ronald.

Progress?

Well, still little progress. Yes, this blog is still active!

I'm considering to take the theme to a home layout instead of a exhibition one. That way it can stay permantly in place so that I always have the opportunity to ride my trains.

Also bought some stuff to ride trains off-the-wire. A new Lenz USB interface and a Asus router. Also workig on a train-related pc that will run JMRI (http://jmri.sourceforge.net/) needed for running wireless throttles, They will be provided in the form of Android phones running special apps as throttle.

I keep you posted!

Ronald.