Hectors End

by Barry Cossins

Latest Goings On March 2018:

Hectors End a Year On

Hectors End has now moved on considerably with lot of progress having been made. All the major electronics are finally in place so have added full block detection, end of track sensors and then integrated everything into JRMI I did quite a lot of hunting around for the signals for the layout and settled on Absolute Aspects as the supplier everything else I looked at was nowhere as near as good. Expensive but worth it IMO, they come complete with plug in mount and connector, 12v ready to use having resistors built in mount
All the signals, 25 assorted types, have been mounted configured and added and logically work under JRMI control. As you can see from the pictures I have added a back to the layout to mount a large PC monitor, which is permanently coupled to a PC under the layout to run JRMI, and some overhead LED lighting I have also reworked the control panel face with 2 layers of acrylic with the track lines sandwiched in between them I have 2 last pieces of electronics to finish off, the level crossing and a station announcer.

I got feed up with trucks being left behind on the track due to vagaries of hook and bar couplings so I have switched to Kadee couplings which are way more reliable so I have changed /modified all of my rolling stock and locos to use these. I have also been sorting through all of my rolling stock and locos, and discarding and renewing and adding as necessary and finally then going through the locos and adding sound to the last few that need it. The landscaping has finally started so all of the track is now ballasted, weathered and detailed. The terrain is roughed out and largely in placed the tunnel and bridges are done at least. A few of the buildings are in place which all have internal lights and, in some cases, external ones as well.

Currently I have been fettling the track after the ballasting but have trains running again at last. I do however keep getting issues servo’s mounts for the points but just found some far better aluminium ones to replace the plastic 3D printed ones I have been using, so after replacing all the servo mounts the next phase is to decide on what structures and buildings to have on the layout and where they should be and finalise the basic shaping of the terrain then its landscape and then more landscape.

Latest Goings On March 2017:

So my Layout is New

This started this September 2016 and is 00 scale will be set loosely around 1960 with all BR steam locomotives and Diesel shunters Its called Hectors End by way and measures 12ft x 5ft and use Peco code 75 track and points, all the electronics are from MERG kits which I have built and is about half way done. The basic layout functions well, points etc. but the ultimate plan is to have it capable of being fully automated via JRMI so the next phase is to add train on track detection and start adding in some linked signals which will add be LED type. The layout is a copy of one we saw in the National Railway Museum and liked so its a very near copy with some additional point work, loops and sidings.

Two views of the layout

The Control Panel