Some Progress is being made

Things have been a bit quiet around the Train Room. Life got in the way, we used the cooler weather to get things done around the house, and there generally was limited time to dedicate to this. But that's not to say nothing has happened at all in the past two months.

For one, the extended table is now standing on its own legs. I made this decision after it became clear that the old desks holding up the tabletops would cause more issues than they were worth. It was possible to work below the tables, but it was hard. Also, the arrangement stopped me from using some devices that would mount below the baseboard, such as slow-action point motors, which can be quite big - bigger than the 64mm clearance my tabletops allow for. 

Speaking of point motors, I have not yet made a decision on which models I am going to use in the future, though it seems likely that it will be the DCCConcepts Cobalt models. I have tested some of their surface-mounted motors and am quite happy with them, but I won't be able to use them everywhere on the layout I have planned. That's where below-baseboard motors will be necessary.

The Track Tester has turned out to be a dud and been returned to sender. Unfortunately the shop didn't have any similar models in stock, so it was a reversal of the original exchange of cash against wares. At the moment it doesn't really matter, because the table is in no condition to run anything yet, and by the time it is, hopefully my QR 2300 Class will have arrived.

After a bit of brainstorming, placing track and trying to maximise the space usage, we have finally come up with a track plan. I will elaborate on it more in another post. We have all the required track pieces, and have laid them out on the baseboard to ensure everything fits. After marking out the track, I have started laying track bed. This job is almost finished, and would be already if I hadn't run out of material over the weekend...

So much for this quick progress update. Watch this space.

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Some things are worth collecting

It has been five years since, in a quest to assemble a specific train, I acquired a model of an East German dining car in the then typical red Mitropa livery. At the time, I didn't really know what I had bought - only that the model had been produced in the GDR. But I was surprised at the condition of the model and the still working interior lighting. Subsequently I learned a bit more about the providence of it.

The New Train Room: A Modicum Of Progress

Things aren't progressing quite as fast as I would like, but progress is being made nonetheless. The last two weekends were spent painting the ceiling panels and cross beams (as well as doing a few other, unrelated things around the house - cracked drain pipes don't wait). The intent was to put the ceiling in next, but while putting up the first panel, we realised that the wall panels were just a few millimetres longer than the height of the wall frames, and would therefore be difficult to mount with the ceiling in place.

Layout Progress

A while ago I posted the track plan, which itself had taken some time to finalise. At the time, building the layout was a work in progress. The bottom layer was completed without too many difficulties, but the top section posed some challenges.