"Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Sat Oct 30, 2021 6:10 am

On May 20th 2014, the first track was laid on this section; the branch line, because that runs under the main line. The track bed for the main line wouldn't be attached until the branch was down on the board.

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The track was pinned in a few places, then a thin layer of ballast added and glued down to hold the track firmly.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Sat Oct 30, 2021 6:12 am

Once the branch was laid, at least where it passes under the main line, then the main line track bed was glued and clamped down.

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On the curved turnouts, the spring that holds the rails one way or the other was rather tight. Once the motor and accessory switch was added, it was a bit much for the motor to switch. To fix this, I cut the plastic between the spring plate and the end sleepers, allowing the spring holding plate to slide along the rails slightly, reducing the tension on the spring.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Sat Oct 30, 2021 6:17 am

May 23rd 2014

Main lines starting to be laid, showing the crossing where the main line loops back and also turns off the front of the board. Originally, the track was only going to exit the board to the next section, but a worsening exchange rate resulted in a redesign. I left the tracks exiting the board at this point, to allow for future expansion, but turned the main lines back around to the rear of the airfield and station sections, so they could join up at the far end of the station. This would provide a continuous loop on both main lines.

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At the other end of the section, the cork track bed was glued down. These are the three tracks from the country station which reduce to the two main lines, and behind is the branch line leading to the upper level.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Sat Oct 30, 2021 6:18 am

On the lower branch line, the pump house had an MDF base made to lift it to the correct height, and the siding had two coal drops added, giving a reason for the siding at the pump house!

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Sat Oct 30, 2021 6:19 am

The MDF front fascia was added at the same time as the pump house base. This would help to tie in the ends of the track beds where they exit the section as well as being the support for the board with the airfield surface.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:39 am

The rear fascia was fitted and the base board had additional holes cut in to allow access from below to get at derailments. There will only be about two inches of height between the main line track bed and the bottom of the airfield surface.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:42 am

May 24th 2014

I got the country station section out from the garage and began the process of mating it to the airfield. After the legs were fitted, it was clamped to the airfield, and both sections were levelled. I needed to make some small adjustments to the end panel angle to get them to match, as it was leaning towards the station by a millimeter or two too much. At this stage, that end panel wasn't glued to the airfield. Once the angles were corrected, the sections were clamped together again, then drilled through and bolted to keep them tight together. The track beds were then aligned and glued. Any final adjustments to get the rails the same height, can be done by sanding the cork track bed.

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At about 16 feet long, the two sections were almost a scale half mile and filled most of the length of my workshop. If it were built, there may have been just enough room to fit the four feet long mine section on the other end of the station, but it would be close!

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:43 am

It looks very long, looking down the main line. Will be nice to see a long passenger train running along here before vanishing into the tunnel under the airfield.

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Here's the MDF base for the road, linking up the two stretches of road climbing to the station. All the trackwork will need to be fitted and tested before the airfield can be added to the top.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Tue Nov 09, 2021 8:44 am

On the morning of the 25th, I removed all the clamps and weights for a clear picture.

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Next the airfield top was placed on top to see what adjustments were needed. Some of the supports under the dispersals needed cutting away to clear the tracks, the length was trimmed a little and the openings at the side cut where the track turns off this section.

This picture shows it before any trimming.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Dec 03, 2021 11:14 am

The hillside would be built up a little more in height above the tunnels so it wouldn't look like the tracks were barely under the ground.

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It was starting to take shape, but posing problems for photography and just getting around the workshop!

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This is where the tracks would curve out of the airfield section side, towards a possible future section. I planned to cut some additional inspection windows in the front face of this section to allow monitoring of trains within the tunnels, but hadn't got around to it at this point.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Dec 03, 2021 11:35 am

Once all the track was laid, all the visible areas were ballasted, plus a few stretches that were hidden in order to help hold the track in place. The 'Modroc' substructure was also added to the hillside around the road.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Dec 03, 2021 11:36 am

The tracks that lead off the board are secured at the ends by copper clad board, glued down with the rails soldered to them. The turnout solenoid wiring is also attached to copper clad board, to allow easy wiring to the decoder later.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Fri Dec 03, 2021 11:45 am

By this time, it was early June 2014.

At the back of the layout, the tracks exit the boards at a very shallow angle. I didn't think I would be able to get a good alignment of the rails in the usual manner, especially as they would have to be finely tapered. Instead, I stopped the tracks short of the board, leaving a short length of rail overhanging the copper board, to allow a rail joiner to be fitted. A short length of track will be cut to bridge the gap onto the rear section.

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It was time for wiring next, and the section was tipped on its back to allow the cables to be run below.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Mon Dec 20, 2021 10:53 am

The DAC20 decoder was screwed to the bottom of the layout and that allowed the turnout wiring to start. Each decoder output was labelled with the address, as was each point motor, according to a pre-designed diagram. Masking tape was wrapped tight around each cable to allow it to be glued in place, and further strips held it while the glue dried. I try to run the wires horizontally or vertically along the boards as much as possible. It uses a bit more wire, but makes it so much more tidy and easier to track down faults by easy tracing of wire paths. With DCC, there were far more wires than I've ever had on a DC layout!!

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At the other end of the wire, they were soldered to the copper clad pads by each turnout.

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Re: "Somewhere in England" N Scale World War 2 Railroad

Post by armyairforce » Mon Dec 20, 2021 10:55 am

A combination of tape and clamps hold wiring in place while the glue dries in this shot. Much of the wiring is complete, although the terminals still need to be added where the tracks curve off the other end of the board.

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Back on the top of the section, small wooden walls were built where tracks run close to the edge, to prevent derailments from falling from the layout. This is the lower branch line.

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