Small Sodor Display

[Len]

Frustration, they name is 'Sodor'. The extension pieces for the Trix turnouts finally came in from backorder, so I started laying the track out on the foam to mark where streams, etc., would go. Wouldn't you know it? Just as I'm getting ready to pull the temporary Thomas track and move it to the 'Sodor' area, I'm told to leave it in place until Labor Day weekend, after school is well and truly started. Argh!

At any rate, here are a couple of pics of where I got to before being called off...

With the turnout extenstion pieces installed it's easier to get an idea of what Brendam Docks will be like. Cranky will sit between the standard gauge and narrow gauge tracks:


The narrow gauge line needs to move closer to the access opening, and there should be a curve from the temporary Thomas loop at the start of the 'interchange' spur:


Len

[Len]

Went in to work on 'Sodor' this morning, and was told to shut down the entire layout because the shopping center is going into "Florence Prep" mode, and they don't want to take any chances with the electrical in the event of flooding. So it looks like everything is on hold until sometime next week, after the storm passes. If there's anything left to work on.

At least we're not in a storm surge flooding area. All we have to worry about is possible damage to the shopping center skylights, flooding from heavy rains, and trees going over from high winds and saturated ground.

If anyone's on the VA/NC/SC coast, listen to the evacuation orders, stay safe, and get the heck out of there. The coastal flooding on this one is going to be really bad. Way worse than 'Floyd', which was bad enough.

Len

[Captain Crutch]

Stay safe, the worst in my area right now is flooding, and even that's starting to go down. Better to be safe than sorry.

[Len]

Now that Florence has moved on, it's back to work on 'Sodor'. Since they're apparently let free accounts 'hot link' again, I'm back to using Photobucket. Much easier to get the links than Flickr.

Laying out the standard gauge track on the foam to mark power feed and switch wire locations. This is an overall shot showing where the station will go:



The Brendam Docks area, with power feeds and gaps for the reversing unit that will make Salty shunt back and forth between the two spurs. The white area above the spurs is actually 3 inches below the top of the foam, and will become the "ocean" for the cargo ship:



And the standard and narrow gauge interchange spur. There will be a narrow dock and shed between the standard and narrow gauge tracks:



Tomorrow I lift it all up, drill some holes, smooth a couple of rough places out, and start on the base scenery. Then it's drop some wires and put all the track back in place. With a bit of luck, and no more storms, trains should be running by Halloween!

Len

[Len]

Moving along. Everyone's tired of looking at pink foam, so I put some paint down to give folks an idea where the 'Brendam Docks' area will be when they look at the diagram. And I figured out what to do with the corner in front of the narrow gauge interchange area. And, believe it or not, I even managed to track down a 'Brendam Warehouse' for the docks! It should be here later this week.

I added some grey paint to mark out the dock area, and some blue for the water. The water level will actually be around 3/4" higher, and muddier looking, when it's done.


The triangle shaped area to the right of the water will be for dock offices and such. I'll be facing the vertical face of the dock with Scale Scenes T016 concrete 'Dock Edge': https://scalescenes.com/product/t016-dock-edge/  It's the second one from the left of the small pics, click to enlarge.


I added some more foam to create terraces in the corner in front of the narrow gauge interchange area. I plan to add a canal, with a couple of Scale Scenes T018 Narrow Boats and Locks https://scalescenes.com/product/t018-narrowboats-and-lock/


Along with the locks, the T018a Lock Keepers Cottage https://scalescenes.com/product/t018a-lock-keepers-cottage/ and a T018b Canal Bridge https://scalescenes.com/product/t018b-canal-bridge/ will go in this area. The bridge will go on the upper terrace, and the cottage on the lower area.


I can't remember if any of the Thomas & Friends episodes had canals and narrow boats, but I think the kids will get a kick out of them anyway.

Next step is laying out the grass mat and cutting it to size for the main 'Sodor' area. If things go smoothly (knock on wood) Thomas and Percy should be running before Halloween.

Len

[Chaz]

The paint always makes a nice difference. Glad you were able to locate the Brendam warehouse, that is easily one of Bachmann's best resin buildings!

[Len]

Progress, of sorts. Thought I'd be able to start cutting the grass mat to size, but it's still too curly from being rolled up. Spread it out in an unused storage room to flatten out, so hopefully I'll be able to get on with that Saturday. In the mean time, Brendam Warehouse arrived, so it placed it, and some other key buildings, in place to make sure everything will fit okay.

One problem with Brendam Warehouse, it has a track side dock, but nothing for lorries on the other side. This might not be a problem on a layout where only one side is seen, but in this version of Sodor both sides are visible. As can be seen here, in this view of the back side:


So what I did was use some scrap cardstock to make a template for the rest of the interior floor and a lorry loading dock at the back. I'll glue some printable planking for ship decks to make the flooring, and brick sheets for the vertical walls, to heavy cardstock for the back side dock. The template is the grey thing leaning against the seawall:


Here you can see some of the key buildings. Brendam Warehouse and Cranky are Bachmann, the Station, Switch Tower, and Water Tower are by Hornby, and the canal Lock Keepers Cottage is a cardstock mockup that will eventually be replaced by the Scale Scenes model. The Water Tower stand pipe is placed to service both the Standard and Narrow Gauge lines. Cranky is also placed to reach the Standard Gauge track closest to the seawall, the Narrow Gauge line, and the ship:


I also did a quick mark out of where the Narrow Boat Canal and Lock Keepers Cottage will go:


Speaking of which, in pictures I've seen those canals don't look wide enough for two way traffic in a lot of places, especially at locks. Do any of our UK friends know if signage giving 'Upstream/Downstream Hours' are posted along these canals?

If everything goes well, and I get the grass mat down, next week the track goes back in place and I start dropping power feeders.

Len

[Len]

Got the grass mats placed and glued down. A bit of edge work to finish up, but that's minor and will keep for a while. The white things are chunks of 12 gauge house wire marking the location of feeder wire holes, so I can find them again next week. Next week I drop the feeder wires, put the track back, and start hooking things up. Trains will be running soon!




Len

[Len]

Next week is here, so I've dropped the feeder wires and put most of the track in place. Trix C-Track is essentially Marklin C-Track without the center rail, and uses the same power connectors and power isolators. Marklin makes prebuilt power feeders, but I'd have to make splices to extend them to the power packs. Plus they're all the same color, and I wanted to color code each sections wiring. So I got some Marklin crimp on power terminals, and spools of 'Wire Works' 2-conductor stranded wire in different colors. This lets me run continuous feeders to the power packs, without an splices.

Here you can see one set of the primary loop feeders, with a couple of crimp on connectors just in front of them. The yellow & blue pair is the inside loop, the red & black pair is the outside loop. A Marklin prebuilt feeder is in front of them for comparison.


There are two sets of tabs on the power terminal that have to be crimped. After stripping 1/4" of insulation, one goes around the insulation as a strain relief, the other goes around the bare wire. The is one of those jobs where a real crimping tool, rather than a pair of pliars, is really needed. I picked this pair up at a local 'Home Improvement' store:


Here you can see a set of brown & green feeders installed on what will be the interchange spur with the narrow gauge line. Both this spur and 'Brendam Docks' will be wired to an Aristo-Craft reversing unit I had laying around. So when one button is pushed, trains on both spurs will go back and forth. The special wiring for that will be covered in the next update.


In order to isolate the interchange and 'Brendam Docks' special plastic "boots" slide over the under the roadbed electrical contacts. They are the red things seen here. You can also see the removable piece of roadbed that goes between the turnout and turnout extension piece.


And it's starting to look like something. I temporarily hooked one feeder from each loop to a power pack, and let Thomas and Percy have a run, to make sure bent contacts under the roadbed weren't creating any dead spots. Each loop will have two feeders in actual operation. The brown & green wires between the narrow gauge loop and outter standard gauge loop is the feeder for 'Brendam Dock' tracks. The narrow gauge loop uses three standard Kato power feeders. They are "plug & play" with Kato extension wires, so splicing isn't an issue.


Next will be getting the 'Brendam Docks' tracks in place and wired for auto-reverse operation in tandem with the interchange spur. Once I'm sure the trains are operational, it will be on to buildings and scenery.

Len

[Len]

Things are starting to come together. The main ovals are in place, and Thomas and Percy made test runs lasting a bit over an hour with no problems. Since the narrow gauge locos may be working on the mainland until next year, I used an 'N' scale loco to test the narrow gauge line So now I can start adding the wiring to the buttons that will let the kids control the trains. There are still a few kinks to work out with the Brendam Docks automatic reversing set up though. The sea wall and cargo ship are still under construction, but here's the rough set up of the Brendam Docks area:


Here it is looking from another angle, with Thomas and Percy under way. You can see the lorry loading dock I added to the Brendam warehouse:


A better view of the station area. Once I get the reversing track kinks resolved, I be able to start adding buildings, road, and other scenery to this small version of 'Sodor':


Once everything is up and running, I'll have to see about borrowing something to make a video with. Maybe after Christmas.

Len

[Len]

Major milestone today! Thomas and Percy's loops are wired to the relays and have power. Little fingers were putting the 'really useful engines' to work while I was still tie-wrapping wires. I don't have video capability, so you'll just have to imagine the trains in the pic above running around their loops.

I should get the rest of the parts I need to set up the reversing circuit for Brendam Docks some time next week. If I can track down a Salty to go with it, he should be able to get Cranky cranking soon after.

Len