Gerald Road: Baseboard and track...

As the late evening sun shines through the workshop window and falls upon the shelf where previously Pont-y-dulais resided it catches not an industrial OO steam locomotive, rather a mundane British Rail Class 03...

This is the genesis of Gerald Road, the moment that sketch becomes reality and in short order over the past few weekends the MDF board has been cut and we have track. Despite frustrations with the servo drive point motors and the longer throw bars I survived (I hate this stage of a project) and as things stand they work, track is all laid, the wiring is all in and ready for connecting up. Gosh I even ran a train!

The character of the real Avonside Wharf branch will hopefully be captured in this much cameo caricatured version - which will be viewed just below eye level (so I can see over the structures in the foreground when operating) but high enough to stoop just a little to watch the 03 roll across the level crossing on Gerald Road*. Looking along the layout, just 1m long, the track flows nicely through the turnouts and across the level crossing (where a pair of tracks will be buried, telling the story of a busier past).

In my usual 'shelf' style all wiring is surface mounted on a sandwich of two pieces of 6mm MDF. This construction is stiff enough for use on a shelf, and means there is nothing to be damaged on the underside of the layout. Wiring is chased into trenches to allow the surface of the yard to be smooth, these have been sealed with primer before track was glued down, to protect from moisture during later scenic work - the beauty of MDF being these can be carved easily with a craft knife. The 6mm sandwich means the turnout motors are mounted on the lower level, which means I can cover them over and hide them in the scenery. The sandwich also allows the uncoupling magnet boxes to be buried easily below the track. In each white rectangle a magnet is mounted and can be slid out of the trackbed when not required - this has worked very well on Paxton Road - so has been carried over for the new project.

 

I would normally lay the track AFTER the cameo box was complete, but due to the extra complication of turnout control and wiring I will now add the ends, back and front wings before finishing off the wiring and moving onto some basic scenic work. 

It is really great to have a larger project under way alongside Beaverbrook and I am looking forward to sharing this as it develops - with you all on the blog. Until next time, more soon...

* In real life Gerald Road, the street my Dad grew up on, is across the new cut in Ashton Gate - but in my faux reality I've chopped and changed moving inspirations around to create a believable slice of Bristol in a small space. 

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