Mount Wilson construction progress

As promised, here's the next installment discussing the construction of the my Mount Wilson Layout.

By the end of the Easter long weekend, the layout frame, baseboard, legs, supports, and backboards were connected and we had cut all of the remaining timber. All up, around 20 hours of effort produced this:

Thanks again to my brother for getting this far. Reaching this stage has been quicker than the same phase of construction of Rozelle Street and it's impossible to do by one's self.

I've replicated the baseboard, folding leg and leg bracing design I developed for Rozelle Street, mainly because they work and in three years and two exhibitions I've never had a problem with them. 

The biggest change to the design on this layout has been having a fixed backboard and fixed uprights made out of timber instead of aluminium. This is mainly because I want to transport the layout as a in a state that requires as little assembly and disassembly as possible. I couldn't figure out a way to get the uprights holding up the backboard to be permanently fixed to the timber without getting some heavy-duty fastenings around the back, so I've stuck with timber. I'm very aware that paralysis by analysis has preventing me from making a start to some jobs in the past, so the KISS principle is being followed as much as possible.

Once I got the layout home I mocked up the basic track plan to get an idea of how everything looks before I start making irreversible changes to the boards. While I'm painting the boards and until I receive all of the components for the LED light strips, I've decided to leave the roof of the module off, as well as the front pelmet and left-hand side backboard that will also eventually be attached. 

Mocking up the layout with the turnouts and rollingstock I'm going to use has given me really useful indications of things that don't come up in the track planning software, like whether the radius of the curve on the platform road needs to be smoothed out so that the MUB set cars won't look toy-like as they arrive into the station. Ultimately the platform will hide the curve from view, but it's worthwhile marking out where everything is.

The other thing I wanted to check was whether the run around is long enough to fit 4x CH or CTS coal hoppers plus a guards van without fouling the adjacant tracks.

                                                

So far it looks as though this will worth, and there's still a comfortable 220mm at either end for running a loco around. The 46 class measures just over 180mm long (I've rounded this down and measured over the loco's headstocks), and the soon-to-arrive 85 class measures just over 200mm long (also rounded down and over headstocks). The biggest loco in my fleet will be an 81 class, and while it will clear the nose of the turnout on the headshunt at the far end of the layout on the rare occasions I can find an excuse to bring it out, it's going to be very tight at 230mm long. The 48, 73 and 49 class are all smaller than a 46 and will have no trouble.

Other projects

I'm also currently looking into developing an on/off uncoupler using magnets. Not an electromagnet, but a system of shifting the uncoupling magnet out of the way when not in use. The neodymium magnets I have on Rozelle Street work well, but they are constantly 'on' and can uncouple wagons in the middle of a train as you're trying to drag the completed shunting puzzle out to the fiddle yard. Very embarrassing at exhibitions or when you have friends over to run the layout. At the same time, that spot on the main line is exactly where I want an uncoupler too, particularly for Mount Wilson when operating coal trains.

Rapido Trains developed their RailCrew uncoupler system a few years ago which works on the principle of shifting the magnet off-alignment from the track when you don't want to use the uncoupler. I haven't seen them for sale here in Australia, but here's their promo video in case you haven't heard of this product before either:

The only thing I don't like about the Rapido RailCrew uncoupler design is the LED in the middle of the track, however you could probably paint it black to blend it in with the ballast. I'm sure I can come up with a device that rotates two neodymium magnets to align perpendicular to the sleepers and parallel to the track, controlled by a cog or rod linked to the fascia to achieve the same thing.

I may just end up throwing money at Rapido if it gets too hard, but we'll see.

Haven't figured out how to replicate overhead wires strung from telegraph poles yet either, but that's on the cards too after I've got the track wired and basic scenery down.

Whistle out

Next job is to paint the structure so far and then paint the backboard sky blue. I'll get to that job after the Modelling the Railways of NSW convention at Loftus later this month, and will spend the rest of that weekend working on the layout. At the very least, I want to have the painting and lighting installation complete before the June long weekend so that I can make the most of the extra day off tracking and wiring. Blogging will be slow until then but I'll add photos as the layout progresses.

Until then!

Cheers,

Ben