Thriftwood Parva Part 5 (Track Laying & Wiring)

Track laying was relatively easy.  The full-scale plan assisted this and as we knew none of the curves were under our set radius it was soon completed.

All track was tacked down to the baseboard and mounted on cork.  

We were nearly ready to run the first train.

This being a club layout the boards would be taken apart for transporting, frequently. At the board joins the plastic sleepers were removed and copper clad sleepers fixed in their place.  These were glued and tacked to the baseboard.  Then when the glue was dry the track was cut at the join.  Remember, cut through the copper, at the centre between the tracks, to prevent a short circuit!

Next came point fitting and wiring.

This being a DCC layout there is no complicated wiring.  Just drop wires, where the track needs power, connected to a bus wire which runs all around the layout.  The bus wire was a thick copper, single core, uninsulated wire run through connection blocks which were screwed to the baseboard.  You can put as many of these blocks as you need along the bus wire to accommodate the drop wires.

A test locomotive was run around the layout and ran without fault first attempt.

Look out for Part 6