Modelling progress

A typical Saturday afternoon spent at my best friends. Incidentally, they are godparents to my son such is their close friendship. Each visit involves me giving 2 or 3 hours to the model railway I'm building. As mentioned previously, I've spent many years getting it to where it is now and I estimate another couple of years to get it anywhere near complete.

A particular problem hindering progress has been the track elevations and gradients. What works fine for one loco won't work for another so I've had to do a huge amount of tweaking and testing. I've decided to use fine ballast to mimmic the real thing and I'm using this to hold the track in position  rather than track pins. I have found these rather too severe and 'final' making any adjustments to track almost impossible. An area causing me considerable grief is at the north end of the layout - north being furthest from the camera in the above photo. The line turns into a bend which then elevates on a steady gradient. A slight tilt to the track has been necessary to prevent derailments and after several re-lays, I think I'm just about there. The ballast incidentally is sprayed with PVA mixed with water. When dry, this sets the ballast solid holding the track firm. I normally place a large weight onto 'troublesome track' and remove when the ballast is dry.

Up to a few weeks ago, track condition had been a real problem. As the layout is in a large shed, weather can play havoc with condensation the worst culprit. I read somewhere on the Net that operators of large model railway layouts swear by Wahl Oil. Apparently, despite being an 'oil', it has remarkable cleaning properties and leaves a ultra fine conductive layer which drastically improves transfer of current from track to wheel. So, I duly ordered a bottle or two and I've been amazed at the result after applying just one drop to each rail. Locos now run smoothly and without hesitation on all parts of the layout. I've also noticed the oil has managed to clean the loco wheels. Wahl Oil has to be the most essential accessory for any model railway and I thoroughly recommend it. Do though be careful with steep gradients. The oil can cause increased slippage on drive wheels, as I've found. In such cases, I've double-headed and run continuously for about an hour or so to disperse the oil.

I'll update on progress again next Saturday.