Project 303

[Cen]

A 6x4 layout. Intended as a fun project for my son (5) and myself. Track plan here :

http://www.kato-unitrack.co.uk/images/Kato_Track/layout_303.jpg

The intention is to reproduce it as faithfully as possible, buildings, scenery, the lot, just to see how it would look compared to the artist's impression shown.

So far, baseboard and track are mostly complete. The recent switch from #4 Kato points to #6 Kato points means I need some new photos, which I'll upload shortly.

Cen.

[Bernard]

Has the new #6 switches solved the derailment problem with the 700 Shinkansen?

[Cen]

Bernard,
  Yup, seems to.

I had some problems with the 700 bashing the diesel trucks on the top right corner, so I moved the track. I think it's going to have to be pinned or glued or it's going to drift.

Now adding the buildings so I can get a feel for where the road has to go. Then, in theory, a faller car system lorry will be purchased and the faller road kit used to build the road surface.

Cen.

[Bernard]

Cen - I really don't use Unitrack but some modelers I know have used a "hot glue gun" to fasten down their track.
But let the members here speak out if they don't recommend it.

[Cen]

Still playing with the track. Even with the #6, trains still hate a curve going into the point so I'm having to add short straights whilst still keeping the stations etc in place.

Due to the size of the new points, a bit of the sidings had to go, so I lost the steam engine maintenance track and associated buildings.

I think I finally have the two loops running properly, including points. The Shinkansen seems to have no issues on the outer and the Diesel runs ok on the inner. Sadly, the scotsman being an older train runs rough and gets hot very quickly. I think scotty is going to go to ebay and be replaced with something more in keeping with a Japanese suburban setting.

Cen.

[Cen]

The E531 from Plaza showed up, and it appears it has a simpler mechanism for installing the EM13 decoder. CaptOblivious' picture guide to installation looks straightforward, so once the EM13 shows up I'll have a go.

After much debate and research, I decided to start the scenery by working out how to do 'water'. Now, the ethos of 303 is that everything needs to be simple so I started with 'real water'. It's not simple and it doesn't look very real. It's messy as hell.

I found some blue tinted 3mm plastic 25cm squared on Ebay. WIth some green-ish paint on the underside it should give a reasonable facsimile of water.

The other problem was what to put around it. I found some 5mm high flexible 'granite' walling from Javis. It's not really walling. It seems to be their hedging painted grey instead of green. Fail.

So plan B : I found some skirting board edging that has a right-angle triangle cross-section 15mm high. In theory, painted grey with some scatter grass on the slope it might pass for banking. We shall see.

Cen.

[Cen]

MG Sharp sent the EM13 decoder. I weighed it up, and decided to have a go. I used Capt's pictures, unhooked the undercarriage and then pulled off the truck - you need to pull the truck *away* from the body not try to slide it left/right/top/bottom.

I inserted the decoder, reassembled the truck, floor back on. Railed the car...dead.

AAAAAARGHHHHHH.

Ok, remembering that my N700 died and I needed to poke the decoder to get it to work, I disassembled the floor/truck, pushed the decoder very, very firmly into place and reassembled.

Lo and behold, it worked!! We now have two Japanese trains!

Now to wait for that plastic to show up and see if I can get the water working.

Cen.

[CaptOblivious]

I don't recall if I mentioned this in my post, but after taking my E231 apart to take those pictures, it died too! Turns out, it wasn't making contact with the pickup rails anymore, and I had to devise a couple small plastic shims to press the pickup rails against the decoder. Grr indeed, but it worked. You may run into this issue with your E531 in the future, so be warned.

[Cen]

The water problem.

I decided, based on the plan, that the water in the layout is a man-made water channel. The walls are concrete blocks, with earth banks reinforcing them. The water is not deep, but still needs to show some depth.

As per standing orders, assembly of this water piece should be as simple as possible. However, it turned out that this wasn't to be. I ended up going complicated to make it work.

Water surface - 20cm square of blue tinted plastic, from ebay.
Underneath - some semi-transparent paper with a vaguely wavy pattern
Under that - some dirt/earth pattern print paper (it helps that the other half is a scrapbooker).

For the sides,  I spent ages looking for prefab walls. Whilst you can buy concrete retaining walls they are not really what I wanted.

So, I bought some wooden edge molding - the type that holds wooden flooring in place. It has two straight edges and one vaguely curved, which would be the banking.

I painted the flat side with a concrete-like colour.

I painted the curved edge with military 'earth' paint, then layered sprinkle grass on top, with a couple of different types of foliage on top - this is my worst area so it won't look great. However, this piece will be under the bridges so it won't be *that* exposed and laughable.

I intend to buy some fencing and put that along the top edge to prevent any ramblers falling in.

Also, there will be a few sailboats using the water for recreation as if often seen on lakes and some reservoirs.

Pictures to follow shortly.

Cen.

[Bernard]

Cen - Any Updates on your layout?