This was to be a quick project to allow me to run stock whilst my other projects continue to be planned and built, and was inspired by a thread on RMweb by Graham (shanks522). It also allowed me to try out some of my WWScenics products that had remained untested since purchase. The plan is a simple inverted figure of eight with a tunnel to disguise the rather long overlap of the two radii, and was to have the scenic form built up to a central hill, but keeping the overall height reasonably low for storage and handling purposes.
Construction
The baseboard consists of a circle of 12mm ply with 25 x 50mm bracing, and a 3mm MDF double skin for the surrounding contour board. The track was raised on Woodlands Scenics inclines and risers to allow a speedier build, with the tunnel section built up from foam-core board. The original tunnel section was later extended to provide suitable clearance to install the tunnel mouths, the latter being from the Scalescenes range, but printed at 113.2% size. The tunnel mouths were printed over-size to accommodate the additional width of the Kato super-elevated double track curve sections, and a circle of the smallest and largest radii were used to form the two loops.
Scenics
The basic scenic shape was formed using expanding foam, which was subsequently carved before covering with layers of plaster. This was then covered with WWScenics Static Grass using the layering techniques shown on the WWScenics website.
Electrics
This was probably the simplest part of the project, there are two droppers on each rail which are wired to tag strips. These tag strips are then connected to a pair of pluggable 'chocolate block' connectors, which then allow me to connect a combination of DC or DCC controls to either or both tracks.