Continuing from the last post. I mentioned a revision to the lead in from the cassettes to the layout. Below is a quick video of a bit of a drastic test.
In reality no trains will inter the layout at this speed and aside from the industrial entrance behind the warehouse none of them will be pushed.
The cassettes are finally done. This is the long ones in their storage position in the station end fiddleyard.
And the DMU and loco ones in the Dudley end fiddleyard. Im not usually one for counting parts but including the 5 connectors on the layout thats a total of 86 ends, 172 springs and just over 6 meters of copper strip. Ive had better projects to do before now!
On to the tweaks on the layout itself. Just a few of these. Those at the show may have seen the odd derailment of stuff coming into the Stourbridge platform. The Derby lightweight seeming particularly susceptible to this. Turns out the barrow crossing on the left hand rail has become loose and was higher than the rail head. The crossing on the Dudley line was also a tad high but not loose so I’ve removed both to get a better fit. The Derby lightweight will be checked too to see if theres any problems on the stock side.
I noticed when cleaning the track that one of the smaller sections of track on the threeway was a little low. I don’t recall anything coming off on this particular bit but I’ve fixed it anyway. There were a few tight spots that have been amended too. My mint block would go through but with a bit more resistance than I liked. One of the tight spots was between the running rail and the check rail. Just need to put new half chairs in place and cosmetic fishplates. Then paint the rail and blend it all back in.
Finally the check rail coming in to the yard was originally an after thought on normal flexi-track. It wasn’t as neat as it could have been and being normal track there was no gauge widening on what it the tightest curve on the layout. The far rail was removed with the moulded chairs smoothed away and the rail replaced with proper check rail chairs.