HO Layout Progress

Garry West showing how pleased he is with progress!

Main line track laying on the HO Layout is progressing at a great pace! The guys have found cans of soft drink make the perfect weights for holding the track in position while the glue dries. Fortunately we have many full cans on hand in the storeroom as we sell soft drinks when open ot public on Sunday afternoons (and Wednesdays during school holidays).

All photos in this update courtesy of Garry West.

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Locos Running on New HO Layout

Test loco running around the storage track layer of the new HO layout. President John Kinson (l) and Vice-President Keith Millward visible in the background.

Another significant milestone in construction of the new HO layout was achieved this evening with the successful running of a test loco all the way around the storage track layer of the new HO layout!

Construction of this layout is being done quite differently to club layouts in the past. Until now, track and point motor wiring was very much an afterthought — inevitably leading to problems with access and obstructions making the job much harder. This layout is being designed and built progressively with all electrical wiring and point motors being installed at the same time the track is laid. Theory is this should lead to a much more reliable result in the end!

The bottom layer of each helix is actually a run-around loop allowing a train to transfer from the ‘Up’ storage tracks to the ‘Down’ storage tracks — and vice-versa.