RAILMASTER LAYOUT PLANS - share yours here

[BagEndJct]

As reported elsewhere, I have been working on resurrecting my old DCC setup which had fallen into disuse and disrepair.

 

I have been working with a test layout to get familiar with Railmaster etc and tested points with Hornby surface mounted motors and Hornby uncouplers, also powered by surface mounted motors. I have also treated myself to a couple of Dapol semaphor signals along with a Train-Tech SC3 decoder/power unit to drive those.

 

I wanted a long enough platform track to accommodate my A4 Gadwell with three coaches plus sidings for storing locos as well as shunting. After much pleasurable work on my laptop during the evenings I have come up with the following layout along with associated track plan for Railmaster.

 

Any suggestions or ideas would be very welcome. I have tested my locos and carriages etc on a Radius 1 oval and all was fine with that. 

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[RB51]

Looks fine to me BEJ. Have you tried operating the points?  I just wonder if your dog leg could be straightened out to avoid that green point icon? Like this in white. R-

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[BagEndJct]

Thanks RB! I have not yet allocated ports to points. All that fun to come as I lay it out. I have first a box of my recovered rails to clean up. Yes, will straighten out the dog leg as you suggest.

[BagEndJct]

Help please! Re my new layout, above. I have now found to my cost that my R3285TTS Gadwall A4 does not like coming off an R605 straight onto a set of points. The bogeys derail. (I have laid out the track just to bring to light this sort of a problem).

 

 I can move the "mainline" crossovers OK without penalty, but by having to insert R600 straights between R605s and the 2 sets of points from the inner loop into my sidings, I am going to significantly shorten the siding lengths. Any ideas, please?

 

AC

[96RAF]

R605 is first radius so Gadwell will struggle with it. You need second radius at least and preferably the short straight.

 

Maybe you can rejig the affected siding so that a second point comes off the first one then runs to each siding, maybe even putting the sidings as a curve to get max length.

[BagEndJct]

I've had another look. I first of all tried my other locos and none of them had a problem. I then tried Gadwall the other way round. Even though it still encountered a set of points directly from an R605, this time it did not derail. I need to look at the set of points that was causing the derailment.

 

Sorry to have panicked and I know there could well be issues with this set up but fingers crossed, provided they're run at low speed, I think I may get away with it. Gadwall would normally run, according to my plans, on the outer circuits but would need to access the centre depot when locos have to be changed.

 

Thank you RAF for the suggestion and info but I'm hoping I can leave my plan as is. I had put a lot of time and effort into the planning of this. My space is limited so I cannot go beyond the 6x4 board size. I wanted a long enough "platform straight" to accommodate Gadwall plus 3 coaches and the upper loop does manage that.

 

And I wanted to squeeze in as much siding and depot track as possible. I press on... much wiring and crawling about to be done. Thanks for the support, guys!

[RB51]

Have a look at the back to back measurements on the wheels of the suspect bogie just in case. R-

[BagEndJct]

Thanks Roger. I have to admit to being a bit ignorant on this subject. I have read about it before and will do some searching. This is a new loco. Is it possible this is wrong?

[RB51]

It is a possibility. Gauges are very cheap as are digital Vernier calipers. Let us know if you need any further help. R-

[BagEndJct]

I checked the back to back measurements with a cheap set of calipers I have but they seemed OK (I'm going to get some better ones tomorrow).

 

I also tried a different set of points and eliminated that as a problem as the bogey wheels still derail. No problems at all with the other sets of points, also off R605 curves so it has to be something to do with the geometry. The track is still losely laid as I lay it all out. I must then check the geometry of it all and that rails are properly joined before tacking it all down. Hopefully at that stage, the problem will cure itself!

 

Since then, Gadwall has developed a fault on its sound, as shared on the DCC forum. It never rains.....

[NormanQ4]

I believe that you are referring to the top left and right points.

It looks to me that you are using two first radius curves, one second radius curve and a straight to create a quarter circle.

I'm pretty sure that will create distorted joints.

I'd suggest  that you recreate this layout using SCARM to see if this works and creates 90degees, I very much doubt it but I may be wrong.

Locos with front bogies generally require fairly direct run-ins to points.

You seem to suggest that you have not yet fixed the track in place and that will not be helping. 

[Nick_]

Though your locos may run on an circle of R1 curves, it is quite likely that they could have problems entering into or exiting out of a R1 curve. Apart from 0-4-0s most Hornby locos are rated for R2 or above. To be honest, unless you are only running 0-4-0s I wouldn't use R1 curves on a layout.

[BagEndJct]

Norman, no not there. It's happening when Gadwall is travelling anti-clockwise on the inner loop and approaching the points at the top right forming part of the crossover between the platforms.

 

I designed this in Railmaster and that top loop does fit OK and does not cause any problems. I borrowed a good deal of bits and pieces of this layout from other layouts after quite a bit of research. I did try and avoid R1 curves but, as stated before, I am trying this to get as much as possible into limited space. Only that one set of points is causing problems so I'm hoping I can improve things there when I fix it all down. Thanks for the suggestions which are much appreciated.

[96RAF]

In the case I would try moving that pair of points left by one R600 length to give you a short straight off the inner loop before hitting the points. You should be able to do it by shuffling the R600s and R601s in that area.

Rob

[BagEndJct]

Yes of course! I will do that, RAF, thank you.

[NormanQ4]

RAF's suggestion should fix that problem since that location is currently giving you a quick left right change of direction.

I'd like to point out an issue I had using a 1 year old 2-6-2 tank on first radius curves.

I noticed over a period of some months that the loco was becoming slower until it was barely moving and eventually stopping. This was originally more obvious on the curves than on the straights.

Did all the usual - clean track, wheels, lubricate, all to no avail.

On getting desperate I checked the quartering of the driving wheels, and bingo, the quartering was out of kilter on the side of the loco on the inside of the curve.

I can only assume that the constant stress on the wheels caused by the tight curves gradually caused them to move on the axles.

When I reset the quartering the loco was back running as normal.

[BagEndJct]

I'm about to go out to BE Jct and swap those points.

 

Thanks for the observations, Norman. Quartering is new to me, again, so some more research to do tonight. I bought a decent set of calipers yesterday and will be checking back to back measurements again. 

 

I do not plan to run Gadwall (or other express locos) much on that loop but Norman's points will be worth remembering should there be a decline in performance on other locos. 

 

Much to do and so little time (where does it go?) so better get on!

[Nick_]

Here is the RailMaster mimic of the layout I am in the process of building in my office (which is an insulated summerhouse in the garden):

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and here it is drawn in anyRail:

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It is 9'3" per side with varying widths to allow me to still use my office as an office. The narrow section to the left is across outward opening double doors and is removable for access, normally it is left in place and I duck under. The yellow sections are scenic, the rest is either hidden or storage yard. The station at the top has a track plan loosly based on Ashburton with a platform long enough to take a loco and two or three coaches. The sidings at the bottom can be used as an Inglenook shunting puzzle and has a platform long enough to take a loco and autocoach or a 143 pacer. Points are all Peco electrofrog with frog switching, I've given up on insu-frog points. The track is a mixture of hornby settrack and semi-flex track from a previous test layout. Point motors are DCC concept IP digital except where they need to be surface mounted when they are Peco PL11s driven from DCC concepts ADS-2fx solenoid decoders. So far the shunting puzzle section is track and electrically complete including point motors and can be run from RailMaster. Next stage is to complete the two outer loops.

[Britannia Builder]

Here's my RM track plan, and the layout in XTrkCAD. It's 8ft square overall, with a 1 in 30 gradient up to a high-level station on the left, and engine sheds and sidings on the right. There's a double outer loop, a passing loop through the main station, and a reverse loop to turn trains round.

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Regards, John

[stevieedge]

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click on front of train for slow speed middle for fast and tender for slow revese, light shows green when train running, sound start sound for that train

goods trains have have 5 speeds

[96RAF]

Nice Stevie.

You may like to add an expanded write up as to how you made that train icon facility happen for the interest of other RM users.

Rob

[Chrissaf]

Stevie, echo Rob's reply.

.

Just goes to show that whilst some members struggle to just get the basics in RM working. The more lateral 'outside of the box' thinking user, can manipulate RM to do more than what the developers intended.

[stevieedge]

You need to create a gif image . railmaster have used gifs as they can have transparent backgrounds. each gif can only be 50 x 50 pixels and must be named begiining with Button_

so to make up say the flying scotsman I made 3 gifs each 50 x 50 and named as follows Button_scotsman1    Button_scotsman2 and Button_scotsman3 you then need to put these in the railmaster folder which is normally under cdrive programme files. once you open railmaster folder place the 3 new gifs in their you will see a number of other gifs with similiar names,

you then run railmaster and on the track design page see page 93 of guide you can load the new images as buttons which you can then attach a programme to. This option is only available in the pro pack

hope that makes sense if you need any further information please let me know

[37lover]

Button gifs,

Many thanks Stevieedge, this clever idea just about swings me to buy the Pro pack!

[96RAF]

Thanks Stevie, makes it much clearer as to how it works.

I presume the associated lights are called up in each program.