General Discussion

I've finally been making some progress on my layout. I kept getting side tracked, playing with trains instead of working on the track or scenery, so in an attempt to force myself to work on it, I removed the controllers! Then I decided it was time I got electric fitted in to the shed, rather than using an extension lead. That was delayed a few times due to Covid, and then I suddenly realised that it would be unreasonable to expect the electrician to crawl into the shed, under the layout, every time he needed to go inside, so I removed the section across the door.

So that seemed like the perfect opportunity to rewire the layout, different colours wires for different tracks, and fitting the switches to switch between LS and DC. It's now 2 months later and I'm finally able to run trains again. I've hinged the section over the door now, so no longer need to crawl in to the shed, I've wired up the 4 controllers to the 2 tracks, and fitted the switches to control this, as well as to isolate sections of track at the station so I can stop 1 engine and run another. All that's left now is to wire up the goods yard, to run off a 5th control, and be switched to also run off one of the other DC controls.

Space was limited under the boards, could only have a shelf a certain length to fit between the legs of the boards, but also had to be high enough that I could push my chair in under it. So I only had room for the 2 Live steam controls, and my H&M Duette DC control, leaving a small space for the switch panel. So I had to hide the LS control power supplies away somewhere. Simple solution was to remove the rubber feet from the power supply and hang it from a couple of screws on the framework of the boards. I didn't have time to test it, that'll come tomorrow, but hopefully it's all working now, except for the goods yard and a couple of alterations to the pointwork around the station area.