JR-Chiisai

[Martijn Meerts]

Picture time!

 

 

Used a Brother label printer to make some labels. Initially I wanted to put them in between the 2 rails as seen on this picture, but decided against it.

 

 

 

This is the yard fully labelled on the top. The reason I labelled the top is that it just makes it easier to quickly see what's what. Many of the track are just 1 long section, so those were obvious, but the right most track in this picture is divided into 8 blocks, and each block has 2 feedback sections, so in that case the labels definitely help.

 

 

 

Bottom of the middle section. I used the same label here to label the red and blue wires. I also made some custom lengths ethernet cables to connect the S88 occupancy detectors.

 

 

 

Started working on the main station for the shikansen and express line. The shinkansen line is just 2 tracks and 1 additional spur. For some visual difference, these tracks use concrete sleepers. The express line is basically a 4 track station, with a 5th track being a track specifically for freight. This track is slightly longer then the station tracks, which I partially did so that I have a track that can hold the entire Morning Daylight train 🙂

 

 

 

Everything I have built so far in place and connected as far as possible. I also did some setup in iTrain so I could test some of the automation. As already said, still plenty to do, but this Fleischmann BR E10 Rheingold with Minitrix 1962 Rheingold coaches has been doing a few loops around the "layout" fully automated. The reason I went with this train, it that it's the only one for which I have speed measurements set up in iTrain for some reason. I have also ran the GG1 at the same time as the E10, which works fine, but the GG1 runs a bit awkward due to not having speed measurements.

 

 

 

The foreman also arrived on site to check on progress and to make sure everything was being done correctly and to make sure no one was in danger during construction. I may or may not have bribed him with some nuts ...

 

 

 

[cteno4]

That sure is purty! Nice work martijn! Now that is a yard!

 

forman looks mighty fierce, would not mess with him at all. Good to know he can be bribed for peanuts…

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

No visual changes again, but I've been trying to set up multiple trains with some basic motor control, speed measurements and lengths. By now I've got about 7 trains that can run fully automated. There are some trains with issues though, for example, the Broadway Limited articulated coach sometimes derails on a rather tight curve. I could try to fix that, but in the end that train will never run on that curve once more of the layout is done.

 

I also have an old release of the Kato C57-180 with the cream and red SL Banetsu Monogatari coaches. The loco has a really weird speed curve which I can't adjust with the decoder it has. Also, it seems the traction tires have gone bad, since it's not really able to pull much of anything at all 😄

 

Getting the trains to run well is going to take a lot of time, and quite a few will need their decoders replaced (I have a lot of them with old Lenz decoders, and much of the stuff my father used to run is Selectrix), but it's nice to finally see some stuff run through the yard, fully automated.

 

Next steps now from a layout building perspective, is to connect the final 4 tracks from the helix to the station, and then get some wood to build another 2 section bases, 1 to finish of the station, and another that will initially serve as a temporary section for a couple of return loops.

 

 

(Also, IMON is apparently going to release an 8620 kit in H0j sometime in the coming months, so there's still this internal nagging voice going on about focussing more on the H0j stuff, even with there being actual progress on the N stuff o.O)

 

[Martijn Meerts]

There is movement going on 🙂

 

 

 

 

[JR 500系]

Oh WOW you have a helix storage yard as well!!! NEAT!! Are those DCC controlled by a software? 

[Martijn Meerts]

5 minutes ago, JR 500系 said:

Oh WOW you have a helix storage yard as well!!! NEAT!! Are those DCC controlled by a software? 

 

The helix has several blocks in it, so theoretically I guess it could sort of be a yard of sorts 😄 

 

And yes, everything is controlled by iTrain, although it's not all set up correctly yet. Some trains run a bit too far into certain blocks for example, and some blocks have very low speed limits set, which causes the flow of the trains to get messed up. Still plenty optimising to do there.

[MeTheSwede]

8 hours ago, Martijn Meerts said:

 

The helix has several blocks in it, so theoretically I guess it could sort of be a yard of sorts 😄

 

 

If you install a few curve turnouts in the helix, you could do shunting in that yard too. 🙃

[cteno4]

Ohh a spiral shunting yard, that could make for some interesting puzzles!

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Just go for quality curved turnouts, otherwise most of the puzzling you’ll be doing is finding out where all the derailed rolling stock went 🙂

[Martijn Meerts]

So, an update on this ...

 

Last weekend I was visiting a model train club in Germany, where they were running some fairly long trains. Seeing this made me realise that I just don't have the space to build a large station for long trains without making it look silly and forced. Several people have already warned me about this fact, but me being the stubborn idiot that I am, it took a while to finally come to the same conclusion.

 

So, for now at least the project will be on hold for a while. I will keep the yard and helix intact of course, but the 2 sections I made that were the start of the large station I will dismantle. The yard will be split up into its separate sections and put into storage. The helix is too big to put in storage, but luckily I made it in such a way that I can cover it up with some wooden sheets, so I can use it as a sort of workbench / test space for other things.

 

In the meantime, I'll be more focussing on the H0 project, as well as finally working on a bunch of various model kits I have lying around. Some of these are unnecessarily taking up quite a bit of space.

 

I may at some point pick 1 of the Kunihiko Ikeda designed layouts and build that, but only after I've managed to create enough space to be able to comfortably work on it.

 

 

[Yavaris Forge]

Maybe this is the way. Have an Ikeda-style layout at home (maybe including the helix at some point and a small yard for some diversity), and sometimes visits to this club you mentioned. Running trains together is always more fun imo.

[Martijn Meerts]

Been a while since I've had an update on this. Of course, most my model train time has been spent on the H0 stuff. At one point I considered not doing anything with the N layout anymore at all, but taking down the yard and helix didn't feel right either. I've been thinking about a multi-deck layout with the lower deck for the N layout, and the upper deck for the H0 layout.

 

Recently, I was at Intermodellbau in Dortmund, where they had a layout / diorama that was around 140cm above floor level, so for me that would be just below eye level. This height (give or take a few cm) really struck me as a really good option for the H0 layout. It's low enough to still get a good view over the layout, but also high enough to really be able to get sucked into small scenes in the layout.

 

With this in mind, I did some testing at home. I took the first section of the yard back out of storage and put it in place. Then I took a temporary frame and suspended that above the yard at about the height I would want it to be at, and then checked clearance between the N layout and the H0 layout if that would be at around 140 height. The N scale layout will be quite low, but I always designed that to be optimally viewable when sitting in a chair (this was because my father wasn't able to stand for long periods.)

 

So, anyway, I will continue on the N layout, while at the same time working on the H0 layout above it. I hope to be able to get some plywood cut soon to build the new frame for the N layout, which will also get some supports for the yard. That way I can slide out the entire section with part of the yard included. Currently the yard is on its own legs, and the main layout sections above it were of different lengths, which made things really awkward.

 

I will also get some smaller plywood sheets so I can experiment a bit with a frame for the H0 layout which I can then temporarily mount to the wall above the N layout.

 

A revised track plan for the N layout is already being worked on. Once I have something presentable, I'll post it here 🙂

 

[Martijn Meerts]

Improved the track plan a bit, and added some colours to indicate the various lines. This is obviously not final, since a large part of the layout is still missing completely 🙂

 

 

 

The plum / pink line is the shinkansen line. This is just a simple double track line staying on the same height throughout, and has no really interesting visuals. It's really just a line to show some shinkansen running. To the right, the line will enter a tunnel and probably go into a small hidden yard before looping back on itself. To the left, the line will go down the helix and into the main hidden yard.

 

The green line is the express line. Much like the shinkansen line, there's nothing really visually spectacular here, just a double track line going through some tunnels. Also, like the shinkansen line, the express line will go into a small hidden yard. However, it won't loop back on itself, but instead continue on a section of the layout at the bottom of this screenshot. To the left it will also enter the main hidden yard via the helix. The express line will have an incline, which means that at the left side it's about the same height as the shinkansen line, and it'll gradually go down towards the right.

 

The yellow line is an urban line. I haven't quite decided what to do with this exactly. The idea was to have a small station just before where the double track merges into a single track, but I might extend the double track a bit more, and have it merge around where the 180 degree curve is. I'll then also place the station there. The urban line is quite a bit lower than the other 2 lines, especially on the left side. And like the shinkansen and express lines, the urban line will also have access to the hidden yard on the left.

 

The blue line is an additional local line which I want to go through the mountains and have some switchbacks in it. Currently it goes below the yellow urban line, but I might switch that to going over the urban line. Depends a bit on where I want to go with the rest of that line. There's also a small service yard there, with 4 tracks in the current design, but might cut that down a bit. The totally misaligned grey rectangle here is some sort of loco shed most likely.

 

The dark grey area is an approximation of where taller mountains / hills will be, the lighter grey area is some lower hills. The long rectangle in the bottom right is a divider backdrop so I can visually split the scenery on both sides of the layout.

 

Also, on the bottom, just to the left of the middle, is a little bit of benchwork sticking out with no tracks yet. The idea here is to create a rather large mountain that starts on the N layout, and just keeps on going up so the H0 layout will make use of the same mountain. It doesn't really make sense, but I thought it might be a nice idea. I do need to check how I can keep things accessible in and around the mountain though, but that's rather far into the future. I also want to try and integrate some of the Sankei Ghibli kits I have into this mountain, mainly the Spirited Away bath house kit.