[user=2170]Colin W[/user] wrote:

Just checking! Mind you £8,000 is not a bad effort given the current rolling stock/ track already accounted for!

 

In my defence Colin, the budget also includes insulation and lining for the shed, electrical installation of lighting and power, a uPVC door for the building, baseboards, carpet and a couple of stools.  Hopefully a kettle, small fridge and a few cans of something refreshing will find their way onto the shopping list!!

 :cheers

Head very excited

Wallet truly tired

All I need now is a house and the shed!!

Good grief Barry - when are you opening your shop ?

That's quite a delivery - not surprised your wallet is in shock but how's your bank manager ?

I get excited when I buy a pack of track pins ……………………………..

Hi Peter

If you promise not to tell anyone I'll let you into a little secret.

Until I retired at the age of 50 I was a Bank Manager……

Keep it to yourself!!

Barry

Ah right Barry - now I understand.  So it's actually my money you're spending ……………………….. ;-) ;-) ;-)

My lips are sealed.  :thumbs

Saw the picture and immediately thought the same as Peter, good grief  :shock:

Of course, the downside is all the wiring you going to have to do  


Ed

Apologies for the delay in replying - family issues.

A number of aspects of this project continue to appear, from the outside at least, to be somewhat daunting.  However, it might be worth me reminding folk that this layout is an "extension" of all the other layouts I have built.  Most of the experimental or pioneering work has been done and I am able to call on experience/mistakes/good ideas from a number of previous attempts.

The plan is simply a smaller plan exploded into a big space and the wiring is no different.  Yes, there is a lot of it but it will be very simple - I prefer simple as I am no electronics wizard - and if it breaks, I need to be able to understand it to fix it.

I am also blessed by having a number of friends, mostly non-railway, who have contributed.  My ex-BBC engineer has done sterling work investigating relays and we have spent many (happy) hours measuring resistances through various cable types over 20 metre runs.  On most layouts, you dont have point motors sited 40-odd feet away from the CDU and switch.  The power losses are an important factor!!

The final, and key, element in all this is that I am the sort of person who, generally, gets what he wants.  I don't mean that in a malicious or bullying way, I have a history of strong determination.  I am fortunate that my vision of this shed is shared by my wonderful wife and I am in a position to bring this dream into reality.  I am also fortunate that contributors to this forum have raised questions and issues about the layout that have made me think about aspects that I had previously missed.  Surely that is the greatest support of all.

Oh and no offence taken Peter but after nearly 30 years of working my backside off in the HQ of a Global Corporate bank, where I never saw customers, money or cheques and my rewards came from my own efforts rather than the misfortune of others, Bank Manager jokes wear a bit thin.  Fortunately, early in my banking career I had my skin grafted over with an extra layer from a rhinocerous  

A bit of fun

The layout will consume;

937 feet of track (according to Anyrail)
113 point units
120 point motors
35 buffer stops
845 metres of wire (best estimate)
50 packets of rail joiners
20 packets of track pins
several kilos of ballast (I dread to think actually)
about 120 trees
5 CDU's
6 controllers
133 switches of various types
57 trains
60 locomotives
124 coaches
706 wagons

The shed is 426 square feet and will accommodate
4 stations
3 storage yards
4 control panels
1 workbench
5 bar stools
1 mini fridge full of beer
5 mates
1 electric fuse board feeding
2 electric ring-mains and 1 lighting circuit
20 plug sockets
16 downlighters
4 oil-filled radiators

By the time it is finished I will be:
old
skint
a very happy man   

With 5 mates and only 5 bar stools, I take it you'll be standing behind the bar Barry ………………..

What I can't get my head around is that, with all that track, rolling stock and locos, you can only run to a "mini" fridge !!  What's wrong with a full sized one ?

Peter

You would not believe how much stuff has been allocated to "the shed" once we get into the house.  We have agreed not to use the loft for anything and therein lies the problem  

Barry

Hi Barry,

Only one workbench? Might be useful to have 2 - one for "clean" work (electronics, soldering, and the like), one for messy stuff (scenery, painting, plaster). One of the things I miss after downsizing was the loss of my two workbenches. One had the lathe, mill, drill press, sander and soldering station on, the other had the "messy stuff" including the spray booth (simple frame with a bathroom fan handing the exhaust through a clothes dryer flexi tube to the outside). .

Any chance you can squeeze in a small sink and running water?

Nigel

Hi Nigel

No chance of the sink and running water but thank you for the idea of 2 benches for messy and clean work. 

I was considering having the bench next to Middle Junction and having duplicate controllers there for the main up and down lines so that I could work and play trains at the same time.  I decided to locate the bench next to Yarslow so I could do both and not require additional controllers. 

However, your point is well made and I am now considering using a couple of older control units next to the messy bench - I would not fancy getting dirty stuff all over a new pair of Gaugemaster Feedback units!!

Kind regards

Barry

I have today loaded onto YouTube, the first 2 of a series of videos aimed at explaining how I went about designing the layout - going from initial thoughts through to detailed planning.  Its a process that everybody goes through when designing a new layout but the process gets seriously stretched out and detailed when you are trying to design something that covers 400 square feet.


Introduction


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I will post Part 2 on the next post as it appears I cannot post 2 videos together

Barry

Part 2 : The Vision

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So far, you have kept me interested Barry.

Sol

Thanks for your interest
I hope its not predatory but I was thinking that whilst I was "social distancing", others in the same position might want something to watch.

Barry

Hi Barry.        Well done,nothing wrong with that. If only I had the space, the enthusiasm, and the where with all. But I will plod on.   Best wishes Kevin 

Wow! I've only just seen that delivery back in Feb! How amazing is that! Good luck!

Thanks Chris

It will be emotional!!!!

Barry

I'm going to say this very quietly for fear of firing up my expectations but we have a provisional date to complete on the house purchase and have identified a week during which the shed-of-all-sheds could be delivered

 :chicken :chicken :chicken :chicken

I am reluctant to crack open a beer in celebration just yet because there are a few hurdles yet to overcome but we are somewhat further forward than we were 2 months ago.  Even the local Building Control Officer seems happy with my proposals - especially when I blinded him with the science of Building Control Fire-Proofing requirements - I'm a bit of a closet nerdy ferrett when it comes to small print I'm afraid.

This has been a difficult time, not only for the reasons that everyone else has been suffering (and heaven knows many have been suffering much much worse than we!!) but because I have been dealing with the loss of my father and the implications of that.  My father and I were never close but he was still my father.  Luckily, his solicitor is also my solicitor so I have just sorted through the inevitable mounds of paperwork and left it to the experts to sort out Probate and do all the legals.  That's not easy and me being 200 miles away now has made it even harder - especially when I can't just jump on a train and go down there for a few days to deal with stuff.

In the meantime the railway has taken a back-seat and I have just been tinkering around with power supplies, relays and LEDS to prove that my hair-brained schemes for frog polarity and mimic board lighting might actually work.  So far so good but its still in the development stage.  Luckily, my local model railway club have been chatting using WhatsApp and "meeting" on a Friday evening through Zoom.  We have a number of 16/32mm garden boys so they have been posting "train of the day" - various weird and wonderful contraptions pootling round the garden hauling wagons full of beer and cheese rolls!!  A bit bonkers but somehow quite fitting at present.

Being house-bound and a bit of an eBay addict, I have added about 30 wagons to the fleet over the past few weeks although I confess they are all RTR.  I have promised myself to dive into the Peco/Parkside range when I see my modelling tools again - even, for no other reason, to prove to myself that I am a modeller not just a collector.  I allow myself a "train fund" allowance from my pension each month and over the last 6 months, the lack of modelling activity has resulted in a nice little pile of pennies I am looking forward to spending on shed insulation, lining plywood and baseboard tops.  Happy days!!