Making a start in O gauge

[4COR]

Nice job @Cowley - it just looks much more natural or blended if that's the right word.

 

[Cowley]

Things are happening
(slowly)

Well things have been moving on bit by bit…

I suppose it’s best to do this in order so the first thing to say is that I’ve had the 37 fitted with sound by Lee’s Locos.

Lees Locoshttps://www.leeslocos.co.ukLees Locos

He did a great job and has also fitted a bass speaker so it’s got a bit of oomph!

I’m going to send the 26 away next, as I’ve wired the layout up for DCC, so even though I can swap the controllers over and run on DC there’s no isolating sections anywhere, so I can only have one loco on the layout at a time.

While the 37 was away I built the two main boards (no point having a loco and nowhere to run it ) and also a wraparound board for the shed scene so that I could incorporate it into the plan. As shown below.




I’ve acquired various points by various means over the last few months and some of them have been robbed to make good the others. But at £80 odd quid for a set of O gauge points, mine cost me a grand total of around £60 for all seven, plus a few extra bits and bobs like the polarity switches for the frogs.

I also managed to get hold of a load of free Peco point motors and switches. So not bad going really. The points fried my brain, as with the motor and frog wiring there’s something like seven wires coming off each point!


I’d more or less worked out what I wanted to do with the track I had and because my friend Paul is also doing an O gauge project at the moment we’ve been able to swap the odd thing that each other has needed.
Also though, it’s useful to have someone to bounce ideas off.

This is the track layout I’ve settled on.



The track behind the old shed wall will eventually go into the garden.

Looking the other way here towards the station. The main platform will be on the left with another wall behind it.


The idea being that it’s a small Thurso/Ballachulish type terminus, with the remains of a steam shed which has been repurposed as a loading area and stabling point.

I’ve built in bridges over a stream which will eventually run under the platform. One of the bridges will be disused but originally ran to a water tower. There’s the remains of a set of points just before the bridge which would once have led to a turntable. All of that area will be abandoned and overgrown though.

I’ve laid all of the track on cork and it’s now pinned down, with everything tested and running properly.

Here’s some of the spaghetti wiring for the control board with the point switches.




Underneath the board there’s three separate buss routes for the wiring, all colour coded - orange, blue and Green for the point motors, black and red for the track and yellow and pink for the lights.


Everything seems to working but I’m not going to do anything like ballasting until I’ve used it for a few weeks!

The whole layout is in three sections, if I ever did want to take it to a show it comes apart reasonably easily as I’ve designed it to be moved.

Thanks for reading.

 

[hexagon789]

Things are happening
(slowly)

Well things have been moving on bit by bit…

I suppose it’s best to do this in order so the first thing to say is that I’ve had the 37 fitted with sound by Lee’s Locos.

Lees Locoshttps://www.leeslocos.co.ukLees Locos

He did a great job and has also fitted a bass speaker so it’s got a bit of oomph!

I’m going to send the 26 away next, as I’ve wired the layout up for DCC, so even though I can swap the controllers over and run on DC there’s no isolating sections anywhere, so I can only have one loco on the layout at a time.

While the 37 was away I built the two main boards (no point having a loco and nowhere to run it ) and also a wraparound board for the shed scene so that I could incorporate it into the plan. As shown below.
View attachment 210126

View attachment 210127

I’ve acquired various points by various means over the last few months and some of them have been robbed to make good the others. But at £80 odd quid for a set of O gauge points, mine cost me a grand total of around £60 for all seven, plus a few extra bits and bobs like the polarity switches for the frogs.

I also managed to get hold of a load of free Peco point motors and switches. So not bad going really. The points fried my brain, as with the motor and frog wiring there’s something like seven wires coming off each point!
View attachment 210133

I’d more or less worked out what I wanted to do with the track I had and because my friend Paul is also doing an O gauge project at the moment we’ve been able to swap the odd thing that each other has needed.
Also though, it’s useful to have someone to bounce ideas off.

This is the track layout I’ve settled on.
View attachment 210128

View attachment 210125
The track behind the old shed wall will eventually go into the garden.

Looking the other way here towards the station. The main platform will be on the left with another wall behind it.


The idea being that it’s a small Thurso/Ballachulish type terminus, with the remains of a steam shed which has been repurposed as a loading area and stabling point.

I’ve built in bridges over a stream which will eventually run under the platform. One of the bridges will be disused but originally ran to a water tower. There’s the remains of a set of points just before the bridge which would once have led to a turntable. All of that area will be abandoned and overgrown though.

I’ve laid all of the track on cork and it’s now pinned down, with everything tested and running properly.

Here’s some of the spaghetti wiring for the control board with the point switches.
View attachment 210130

View attachment 210131

Underneath the board there’s three separate buss routes for the wiring, all colour coded - orange, blue and Green for the point motors, black and red for the track and yellow and pink for the lights.
View attachment 210132

Everything seems to working but I’m not going to do anything like ballasting until I’ve used it for a few weeks!

The whole layout is in three sections, if I ever did want to take it to a show it comes apart reasonably easily as I’ve designed it to be moved.

Thanks for reading.

Thanks for sharing the update with us, that wiring would just scare me I have to say - I admire anyone that can wire a layout with complexity, it's rather beyond me I have to say!

 

[Iskra]

At least it was your brain which was fried and not any loco’s

Great work, and I’m glad you’ve gone for DCC sound I think it works really well in O!

 

[4COR]

Looking great - presumably the run out to the garden will be some kind of out and back arrangement?

The point motors I guess are feeds for the solenoids, and then switched output for indicators or for switching frog polarity?

 

[Cowley]

Thanks for sharing the update with us, that wiring would just scare me I have to say - I admire anyone that can wire a layout with complexity, it's rather beyond me I have to say!

Ah you’d be alright. As long as you colour code it you can work out what does what fairly easily.

Also, it only ends up looking like that once you’ve added each circuit. So I only had the black and red for the track at first. Once you’ve done that you move onto the next thing and forget about what you’ve already done.

Or at least try. You might find yourself going to bed and dreaming about different colour wires for a few nights…

At least it was your brain which was fried and not any loco’s

Well. I did fry a couple of lights the other day. “Brighter Brighter Brighter. Pop!”

I’ve had to learn how to wire resisters in. Of which more later.

Great work, and I’m glad you’ve gone for DCC sound I think it works really well in O!

You’ve actually seen a video of it. I want to record something a bit better before I post it publicly though.

Looking great - presumably the run out to the garden will be some kind of out and back arrangement?

Yes I’ve not completely settled on that yet, but probably a big loop to a pond and back into the shed.
It really depends on what I get away with at the time @4COR.

Mrs C is sympathetic, and has been known to enjoy a bit of 37 action. However, I’m going to have to stay within the realms of the garden not looking utterly ridiculous…

The point motors I guess are feeds for the solenoids, and then switched output for indicators or for switching frog polarity?

Yes. Without looking at one, there’s two live plus one negative feed for the solenoids, plus one to the switch, then feeds to the polarity switch that supplies the frog with positive and negative depending on which way they’re thrown.
Also feeds to the track - which aren’t essential, but definitely improve the running.

I think the newer unifrog ones are much easier to wire up.

 

[Iskra]

You’ve actually seen a video of it. I want to record something a bit better before I post it publicly though.

Ah yes, that was mega already in my book!