Part Three: Turntable and wiring

The only turntable that's realistically affordable for a casual model railer like me is the Hornby one. But the main problem with it is the bizarre colours that it's been produced in for the past 30 years!

Shiny plastic and a purple base for yellow shed??

So I bought one off eBay and then contacted the UK's premier model weathering specialists The Model Centre (who happen to be based about 8 miles from me) and they weathered it for me for £50. As you can see from the video, they did a cracking job.

Now, if you do your homework on the Hornby turntable you will see it isn't entirely straightforward wiring it up on DCC. There's a handy guide on the Hornby website with wiring diagrams which is helpful, but then all the forums witter on about it not working. What I'd recommend is following the Hornby guide; taking the bottom off the turntable so you understand what's happening with regards polarity (when the train's pointing the opposite way to what it was) and fiddle about with your turntable. Don't worry about some expert on the web who'd probably wired everything up wrong. Mine works fine (most of the time).

WIRING
As I said in an earlier post, my whole layout worked just from being connected to the controller by two wires. However, this would be bad practice when it's all fully powered up. As I've already mentioned all of my points have got the electro-clips in them to help with current, but I've ran a bus under the whole layout with sprigs going off to every section- not to every rail as is recommended in many guides and magazines- and it seems to work fine.

In the rear of the picture below you can see that I've used 3M Scotchlock wire joiners to connect my dropper wires from the track to the bus. I've had no problems with this method at all. In the foreground you can see that I've joined the droppers from the inspection pit lights to the auxiliary bus by exposing the wire and soldering and insulating. This method comes recommended in guides and although it is a guaranteed connection it is fiddly.

Part Two: The Next Step...

...Was to actually do a bit of model rail building after four years of planning and preparation. 

In that four years I've read umpteen articles and web posts and been to many shows, and in that time I've learnt there's no such thing as an expert in model railways on the internet (there are some who write for magazines and who own model-related businesses) but there are none who post to forums and answer problems; they witter on as if they're experts which, in my opinion, is dangerous. Anyway, more about that in a later post...

The first thing I did was lay the track out without pinning it down. Before I went any further I had to include the two Inspection Pits (free download from Scalescenes- I used them as a trial to see what their stuff was like; really good, so good I bought the Lock and Canal Boat as I'm going to have two locks and a basin on the layout). This involved borrowing the father-in-law's jigsaw to cut the recess into the baseboard (which, incidentally, I did at 10.30pm, so I don't know what the neighbour thought when he put the dog to bed). I'd also bought the Black Cat Technology lighting kits designed for the pits (£12.50 a set from eBay): it's been about 20 years since I soldered in GCSE Electronics and DT, so it was a bit fiddly but I plugged it in... and it worked first time.

One of the Scalescenes Inspection Pits in situ- I'd already weathered the track.

I was surprised it worked, so I thought I'd give an engine a run. I'd fitted a decoder to one of my engines a while ago, but wasn't sure it'd work. So I got the controller out of its box (Hornby Select) and wired it up to the track, put the engine on... and that worked too. In fact, it ran around most of the layout (I'm using insul-frog points, so it obviously only ran where current could reach).
You will see from the above photo I laid cork underlay (1/16") under the track:

Underlaying in progress.

This was a bit of a tedious job, but it'll give it a good ballast shoulder and it's the right thing to do. What made it a little more tricky was I had to lay the track exactly where I wanted it, then cut the cork underneath and then lift it all again to drill a 1cm hole under every point for the point motor arms to go through and then lay it all again and secure it.
The next jobs were to wire the main feed so that I could switch between a small siding which I will use as the programming track and into the DCC power bus, wire up the lights on the inspection pit with a button to turn them on and off and convert the turntable to DCC (in fact, I'll do a whole post about the turntable).

Part One: The beginning

The Beginning

In February half term 2011 I took my then 18 month old daughter up to Grosmont to see the trains. This is when the seeds were planted for my model railway project.

I'd had a small layout as a child but never really did much with it scenically, so I bought some books, subscribed to a magazine and began to plan what I was going to do.

I bought the Hornby Trackplans book and picked a layout that I thought was achievable, but had a lot of scope for scenery and train operation.

We lived in a terraced house then which had a loft room, but I knew we'd be moving so I didn't want to start building the layout itself so I began to gather the track, some buildings (such as the Hornby Skaledale Coal Drop) and I began building Metcalfe card kits.

We moved in summer 2012, but we had a bit to do in the house so the train room (which at that point was going to be a shed down the garden) was on hold. Then in 2013 I had a brain wave and thought about building a room at the back of my garage. 

In February half term 2014 Kev Howard spent three days installing the double glazed window, building the partitioning wall and fitting the doorway- all of this he insisted he would do out of the kindness of his heart. I then fitted shelving all over the outside of the partition wall (so you open the garage door and are faced with a wall full of shelves); I painted the walls and I put the ceiling up and insulated above. In October 2014 Aimee's Uncle Martin came and completely rewired the garage and sorted the lighting out as well as putting in plug sockets where I'd need them.

Kev begins the work converting the garage into the model railway room. (Feb 14)

Kev's help was greatly appreciated and the project would've ended before it had started if he hadn't built the room. (Feb 14)

The window in place, all we need now is a wall and door. (Feb 14)

Finally in the construction phase Aimee's dad came in February 2015- almost 4 years after the initial idea- and constructed the baseboard.

On the right it sits above the trunking, and on the left it sits below the light switch, whilst being high enough to both work on and get underneath to do wiring -which was the plan. The cross supports are positioned so they aren't below where the points will be. The dropped section on the left is where the lower lock gate for the canal will be. (Feb 15)

Although it has been a long time getting to this stage I'm glad I haven't rushed it as I've been able to familiarize myself with DCC, wiring, build up my scenic gear, hone my model making skills, collect some model making tools I'll need and do the job correctly without breaking the bank- although the project will be well into the upper hundreds and I haven't ran a train yet!