[Savage GT]

Well its taken a while to get this far, so this could be a slow burner 

But after cutting the slot car track boards up, I discovered  there was an amount of droop on the MDF, nothing to worry a Slot car, but 00 scale Loco's are more fickle !
So I doubled up on the bracing, forcing the  droops into something close to flat again, of course the bracing means more timber underneath where I may want to put point motors, we will cross that bridge later   

But most of the boards are in place now, the slot car backscene will likely be able to be re-used for part of the layout. The gap at the end will have a removable section so I can get access to the middle without crawling under the boards. This in turn will eventually h be filled in with foam boards and lightweight removable scenery.
I have yet to fill in the slots and tidy up the shed !

It will be DCC with sound.

Currently it will be based on a fictional area in South Wales where GWR and LMS were seen circa 1945, and I hope to eventually get rolling stock and locos for early BR set a few years later as an option.

   

   

The plan is for a double height layout, effectively a separate lower level branch line and shunting/goods yard with access to the dock, a small station and a station by pass for the freight trains. This is shown as grey track on the plan. Both end curves will be hidden in tunnel or behind a false backscene.


The blue upper level is a dual mainline mainly passenger, but with provision for the odd express freight. It will feature a viaduct before the station and a metal bow bridge over the river entrance to the port.

No curve is tighter than an equivalent R4 except one in a siding. Obviously the plan will be tweaked to allow for point motors where these would be obstructed by an underboard batten, but I hope to be able to remain fairly close to the planned layout. all the roads etc are currently just for ideas and are likely to change.

   

[Savage GT]

A slow burner for sure, but starting to make some progress now.
The shunting yard and dock area track cut, shaped and temporarily thumb tacked, very therapeutic that was, despite the fiddly track joiners testing both my eyesight and my fine dexterity 
Mind you, I am not looking forward to soldering the dropper wires on this lot, in particular the points. one false move and a very expensive bit of track becomes toast 

   

   

   

[Fluff]

Looking very interesting Tel

[Anthony B]

Looks awesome - will be watching with interest - TT I take it?

And I guess this one is not for Dad

[Savage GT]

No Anthony this is OO, all the track is Peco bullhead, a much closer representation of British steam era track, in terms of rail profile and sleeper spacing.
The joiner plates are made to look a lot closer to real rail joiners, and are also much smaller than the TT ones !

[Savage GT]

The rest of the lower level now cut and temp pinned in place.

   

   

The lift out section, I was going to use the loose pin hinges, to join, but this seemed a bit "clunky" to me, so I have some flight case catches on the way to try instead.

   

I bought these to help line up the joins, cut back a couple of sleepers and solder the rail to these .. fine on the square join, not sure how they will work out for the angled one !

   

A close up of the joiners with detail to represent RL fishplates.

   

As per my plan, the tightest bend on the main track is a 24 inch radius, a little over Hornby's biggest radius set track they sell which is approx 22.5 inches.

[Savage GT]

It has been a while and not a lot to add, but I have 3DP myself some point jigs for frog wires, point motor and dropper wire holes.

I also had time to contemplate th growing collection of Loco's, and so I decided the lower level branch line will now become a dual line too.
This obviously compromises on scenic plans a little but I think I have it sorted in my head now !

So the new layout will closely resemble this: Upper in blue, lower in grey.