Track Template is ready for construction

After finishing the prep in the house for the arrival of our Au Pair and a bit of a chill afterwards, the last few evenings have been taken up by preparing a more detailed and thorough track template onto which I am going to build my track work.

This is the track template as it stands. I have tidied up the geometry of most of the curves and have added 3.3mm regular sleepers in black and 4mm turnout timbers in green.

I am planning to get it done in one hit and hopefully build it as the lengths bullhead rail come thus keeping track joins to a minimum to increase the rigidity of the track work, well that's the plan anyway! Being a DCC controlled layout there will be a minimum of cuts in the rail, as there will be no isolating sections, just the ones needed at the baseboard joins and on the point work.

The only experience I have had of making any track work is at Cardiff MES, of which I am a member, and have assisted in producing a couple of points on a complicated section of track on the approach to the station on the layout that is currently under construction.

I am a bit of a perfectionist and with the aid of my template I'm sure I will be able to produce some good quality results if I take it one step at a time and don't rush things.

All I need to do now is persuade my find to print it out full size as he did with the track plan and the building will commence!

The track layout of Tower Street station can be found here.

A new home for Tower Street and the arrival of a small package

The lack of recent posts is due to the imminent arrival of an au pair to our family, we have an Italian girl arriving to help with the kids on the 2nd of November and thus, most of our house has been changed around. The kids have moved from a small bedroom and seperate playroom into a what was the hobbies / office space, we have moved into what was the playroom, which always had our wardrobes in it. Our bedroom will be for the au pair and what was the small kids room is now the office and hobbie space. I was fearing that I would have to loose the ability to keep the layout permanently setup, it is a little crampt in the room but there is enough space for the desk and layout plus a small beuro and a storage unit for paperwork. The room already had a sliding door which means we don't need to keep a space for the door to swing open. Of course, there won't be enough room to have the fiddle yard attached but it doesn't need to be while I am building the track and scenery. 

At long last, arriving today, came my order of 1000 SMP copper clad sleepers and two packs of turnout timbers. I say at long last because like with most things on my todo list I manage to procrastinate and put off what I should be tackling next. It mostly happens with stuff that I have yet to try. Being a perfectionist, I don't like messing things up and I hate the thought of messing on the layout, even though it is my first try and shouldn't worry about making mistakes. It was the same with spraying the first batch of models I had started and the first attempt at applying transfers. Well, they have arrived and with the pack of code 75 bullhead rail I purchased from C&L at the Bristol show, I have no excuse not to start track laying!