The Layout

The photos were taken in april this year, and the operation under way was removing the ceiling of the tunnel. Why is this being done ? Well, multiple things led to this - first, the track "hidden" by the tunnel is unacceptably long - about 2 metres, second, one portal was double-track (exit on the left on the right photo), while the other one was single-track (the exit on the upper right on the same photo) - this means a switch is somewhere in there, more precisely, under the track traversing the tunnel on the right side - and fishing derailed locos and cars deep inside a tunnel is a definite no-no, third, I installed a primitive form of catenary on the tunnel's ceiling, as I wanted to have the option to add catenary to the whole layout later; unfortunately the copper wire used as the contact wire was never smooth, always presenting bumps to the oncoming pantograph; fourth, the wire was soldered to small pieces of wire that were fixed to the plywood ceiling - but the soldering points proved too weak for the task, and the wire would just snap, and resoldering under the already fixed ceiling was next to impossible.

A close-up also shows the tin-like track. Unfornately this was the standard back when all the track was bought, and there was nothing to do about it without purchasing new track. Beside the unrealistic appearance, there are several problems with this type of track - the mechanical contacts between the pieces oxidize quickly, and track conductivity becomes a nightmare, so struggling locomotives are a common site. The fix is to solder each piece to the next one, using thin wires, that are hidden under the track itself atferworks. Actually this was done for the whole layout, and combined with good and regular cleaning of the track (I used R-10 contact cleaner, and then wipe again with a clean cloth) proved to be successfull. Not so easy to fix is the next glitch - the pieces themselves don't have exactly the same height, so you'll get bumps as the train crosses from a piece to the next one. It gets worse when a cleaning car is used, as they tend to be very sensitive to this irregularities, often derailing. At least my TRIX 24050, but more about this in later posts. But the fatal problem is that in special configurations, involving a switch right after a curve, some locos will hit the side part of the switch. On the left, the PIKO switch, on which the locos will stumble with their front axle on the plastic part (this is the housing of the electromagnetic mechanism). The point of contact is always the tip of the plastic part, right next to the switch entry on the right side. Of course, a solution had to be found, and because trimming the loco's front axles or cutting away a part of the switches' plastic part was out of the question, I emailed PIKO, asking if there is some replacement for this type of switch. The reply was that the products they made back in those days have little to do with the newer ones - specifically, the A-track that PIKO produces nowdays - but that there are pieces that connect the old kind of track to the new one. Unfortunately none of the current PIKO switches have the same dimension as the old one, and there are already 5 switches of this kind on the layout. It was basically back to the drawing board, and in one of the following posts we'll see the fix.