Garden works, part 3: creating the track bed

Having the layout components already arrived, I've decided to spend the weekend working in the garden. And since no real work was done so far, the first steps were to match the track pieces and start working on laying the ballast.

I consider careful planning as important as the work itself, so before doing anything I printed out my plans. Those included several variants, even though I had everything well measured and designed:

Step one: put the track on the garden surface and check that it fits as planned. The most obvious approach for me here was to start from the corner and place the track in a defined distance from the garden's fence. This is what it looked like at that stage:

While working in this area, I've noticed that the soil was very wet in the corner. This seems like a potential source of problems for the future.

I've used the track pins provided by PIKO to make the connection between the track pieces more reliable and continued around the planned layout:

Very soon I've found out that even with all the careful planning I've done, it didn't really fit. There was a gap of around 5cm and I couldn't close the loop.

Whose fault was that? The manufacturer of the track? The retailer? The authors of the SCARM software? Well, none of those, of course!

Turns out my garden isn't really that flat. And a track placed on an uneven surface doesn't behave as imagined. Once I dug a ditch to allow the track to lay really flat, the problem was gone.

And from here I just continued digging until all of the track could be easily placed in the ditch.

As you can see, I'm placing the curve on the far left still on the grass surface. I consider this part temporary. As I'll be getting more track to extend my layout I will be moving this curve farther to the left.

I remember writing about how I did not know how much ballast 200kg of grit was. So now I do know that and it's not really that much. As I started filling the ditch I quickly ran out the rocks and wasn't able to finish my work.

Most of the ditch is filled but it's way below the needed level in many places. So I'll be buying 200kg more this week.

***

I had one interesting idea concerning the electrical connection of the garden layout. After all the track needs to be powered (somehow).

At first I just wanted to run the cabling from the tracks to my flat straight through the garden. But this of course required, first: a lot of digging and then: repairing the lawn.

Fortunately I realized that I can use the elements I'm working on currently to hide the cable. So in addition to the work on the track bed, I'm also working on placing a border that will split the garden into daddy's area and the children's area. I'm using some paving stones for that and of course they need an additional ditch, too. And exactly that ditch is perfect for running the cable.

This really simplifies my work now and will lower the effort needed for any future maintenance.

That's all for this weekend. My next steps are:

• buy more grit and fill the gaps
• let the ballast "settle down"
• continue digging for the future track

Piko 37130, G-Scale Starter Set

My second PIKO 37130 train arrived a few days ago, so maybe it's time to write some words about my first impressions of the set. The set cost me 191,98€ which is 20€ less than the PIKO's recommended retail price. It was purchased at MSL and the delivery cost was none even though it was an international shipping which is really, really cool.

Let's start with the things that we get that are not the train itself. Here's the content of the box:

Going from the top-left we have:

• 22V power supply rated 32VA
• train speed controller
• 12 pieces of 30° curve track, radius 60cm
• alternative buffers for the locomotive and the cars
• train separator tool (simple but handy uncoupler)
• track connection cables
• 14 track clips that go between the track pieces and keep them together

It's everything you need to start enjoying your train. Although it needs to be mentioned that the amount of track you get is not really that much if you consider how long the train is (it's a large scale!). When running on the default oval layout it does look like a dog chasing its tail, so more track is the first thing you're going to need.

Let's move onto the locomotive. This one is really colourful and pretty:

I'm not really sure how realistic that look is. Perhaps trains used to look like that but it must have been before the colour photography became popular, since I wasn't able to google up the original. So, yes it does look very nice but it also looks a little... toyish? kiddish? or perhaps fairytalish?

The locomotive feels heavy indicating some serious stuff inside. It definitely does not hold like a toy and you have to use both hands when putting it in and out of the box. It feels like it could have some significant pulling power which is a nice surprise for a cheap starter set.

The outside is all plastic. It does not feel cheap although there are elements that could have been metal, since they look like they might break off easily. The most important example here would be the wheel rods which feel very fragile. And some details that are sticking out - the bell, the whistle and the golden railing. We'll see how long those survive in a garden full of children. And yes, you can always order replacement parts from PIKO.

The locomotive is of course analogue and it does not offer any sound or smoke effects. It can be upgraded for those which I'm planning to do in the future. But if you want sound and smoke without going digital, other PIKO starter sets might be a better choice for you.

The front and back lights are of course functional and they switch on/off with the direction of travel. They're both white.

Let's move onto the cars. Those look really nice. There's a red car:

And a blue car:

I have to say I really love the colours on those cars. The beige top is subtle and the bottom red/blue stands out nicely. They really look great on the green garden background and are definitely a great choice if you want a train that looks nice. On the other hand, they might be a poor choice for people who care about realistic/weathered look.

The cars are of course all plastic and again they do have parts that look like they might break. BUT the plastic in the cars feels sturdier than the one in the locomotive details so I'm less worried. The cars definitely do not have a toy-feel and they give the impression like your money was well spent.

The doors and the windows do not open/close. The windows that are half-open are half-open for good. This is of course to be expected in a relatively cheap starter set.

The bottom of the cars has some details, too:

I do not know how realistic that bottom is but it's always nice to have something to look at when you pick up your cars. The wheels are of course made of plastic:

which is disappointing but again - expected in a starter set. My personal feeling is that they don't drive that well. Of course the locomotive can pull them all right but just pushing them on the floor does not make them run that far. I was planning to replace them with something that can pick up power for the internal lighting, so I don't really care that much.

Speaking about the internal lighting, the really nice surprise is that the cars have some rest-rooms modelled inside. This is what it looks like:

I'm not sure what you're seeing here but I'm seeing a place to put my electronics in and to hide the cabling running from the wheels. It is perfect. And the space the G-scale gives will be just enough for a laaaaarge flicker-free capacitor :)

The train runs just fine. The 60cm radius seems tight: there's no real problem here but it does not look very natural. I really wish I had the space to build a larger radius curves but I don't.

The locomotive did seem loud at first but I think it got quieter after running for about an hour. And of course it did seem loud when running indoors, outdoors the engine noise is fully acceptable. Here's my first garden test drive:

Final opinion:

• What I liked most? The cars with their beautiful colours.
• What I liked least? The fragile parts in the locomotive.
• Price? Seems just about right. 
• Buy? Definitely yes.

Garden works, part 2: bigger and smaller rocks

Yesterday I've purchased 200kg of grit for my track ballast. I really had no idea how much rocks I needed so I just bought as much as I could easily fit in my car. And even now, looking at the 200kg I already have, I'm unable to say whether this will be enough for my layout.

As a side note, I highly recommend finding a direct seller for the grit. High profile stores with garden equipment sell the same materials for 2x or 3x the price, so by googling a little you can save some money.

Today I've tried how my new rocks will fit my PIKO track:

Looks good to me although the rocks are a little big. Actually I had some problems fitting the ones that go between the sleepers. Seems that laying my track would be much easier if I had some finer-grained rocks for the top layer. Maybe I can filter out the bigger rocks?

Obviously I don't have a collection of sieves in all sizes waiting for the opportunity to be used. So I had to improvise...

The old grill net I have seemed like a perfect choice. So I tried that:

The result? Nope... Did not work. The spaces between the bars are too big and 90% of the rocks went through. I needed an another idea...

How about this old trash bin. The holes seem to be smaller:

Guess what... It did work perfectly. I have to say that separating the rocks using this poor sieve replacement is a hard labour. And I was not able to finish the entire 200kg in one ago. But the results are really promising and I'm able to extract the smaller stones pretty well.

So I'm going to continue that unless I get a better idea. Anyone?

***

As another side note, I'm planning to use some cement when laying the track to make the entire structure more rigid. Just as shown in this video:

My own interior lighting for coaches - electrical aspect

I remember very well that the moment I bought my first N-scale coach, I immediately thought: I have to have some light inside it. I've been trying to get that since then, applying several different solutions. Surprisingly I got to a satisfactory result just recently.

My first attempt was of course to buy and use a ready-to-install lighting kits from my coaches' manufacturers. I tried that for two coaches and was not really impressed with the outcome:

• the kits did not provide a nice lighting effect - they were just a light bulb with a light diffuser so the brightness was not constant throughout the entire car's length
• the cars from different manufacturers could not be used together, since the colour of the light and its brightness were completely different in each of the kits
• the kits were flickering a lot, unless the track was completely clean
• the price...

And then I started working on my own solution. There were several goals I wanted to achieve. My own lighting kit had to:

• be DC and DCC compatible
• be safe for the cars (no heat)
• be safe for the power supply (low power usage)
• work regardless of the tracks polarity
• be flicker-free
• use as little electrical components as possible (so that it could fit into the N-scale coaches)

The scary thing is that I'm an electronic engineer by profession and it still took me several tries to create a kit I was happy with. The very first attempts were promising as can be seen in this video:

but it was still a long way before I was happy with the outcome. Let's skip however all the failed attempts here and just show the final (for now) electrical circuit:

My lighting solution works on LEDs. This way:

• it produces no heat
• it uses very little power
• I have the freedom to space the LEDs the way I want and have the brightness I need (both in terms of intensity and distribution)
• I have the freedom to choose the colour of the light, since LEDs are available as both "warm" and "cold"

Other than the LEDs, there are just four electrical components:

• Bridge - ensures correct polarity on the LEDs and makes the solution compatible with any DC or DCC layout
• C1 - keeps a little bit of electrical charge to allow flicker-free operation. The bigger the better. I'm getting good results starting at 100uF.
• R1 - lowers the electrical current during start-up when the capacitor is completely discharged. I had no problem running my coaches without R1 but better safe than sorry. Especially considering my growing collection of cars.
• R2 - lowers the current flowing through the LEDs and ensures a proper level of brightness. I'm using 4.7kOhm currently but it's slightly too bright for the N-scale. I might be using a higher rated resistor in the future.

All those components are available in very small packages so it all fits into an N-scale coach. The capacitor was the biggest challenge and the solution was using a tantalum SMD one. But how exactly I fit that into my cars is a topic for another story...

Garden trains - elevated or ground level?

The main decision when you start thinking about the garden railway is how you're going to build it. There are two main options here.

Option #1 - you build it at the ground level.

This is fairly simple - you just lay the track in the garden you have. The ground needs some preparation of course but this could be fairly simple as shown in this tutorial:

 

Seems easy - some digging, some crushed stones and it's ready!

Option #2 - you build it on an elevated structure

This requires a lot more effort. You can make it simpler by building "train lanes" from concrete blocks as shown in some videos but ideally you would raise the entire "world" as shown in this great documentary:

 

That is a lot more work and of course a much more significant investment.

Personally I like the "elevated world" idea very much. There are several reasons to go for it:

• you have your layout at a much more convenient level to work on it (no back problems)
• you have your layout at a much more convenient level to enjoy it (your parents' backs are important, too)
• the train is less likely to get kicked or hit with a ball by your children playing around
• you have more control of the greenery on your layout since the plants from the ground level do not easily spread there
• ...and so on

Unfortunately my funds, my time and my commitment, too, are rather limited. And on the other hand, I'd like to have some visible results as soon as possible. So this year, for my first attempt I'm going to be building at the ground level and I'll see how that works out. And in the next years... who knows..

Garden works, part 1: Kill that grass!

The weather is getting better so it's time to start some garden works...

Step 1: define the layout border and start killing the unwanted grass.

And this is what my garden looks like before any track is there and right after marking the layout area with a blue string and then spraying it with lots of Roundup.

DCC - stranded or solid core wire?

My N-scale layouts have been running DCC for some time now. The experience is so much superior to analogue control that my G scale layout is going to be DCC controlled, too (sooner or later). At the same time garden trains require much longer cables. Can the choice of cabling affect the performance?

At first I thought that for my garden I simply needed a heavy duty cable - one that I can put into the ground and not worry about it too much. But then I heard of the skin effect and started thinking - perhaps the choice is not that obvious?

Taking the skin effect into account we end up with two main choices of cabling: solid core and stranded core. I've decided to buy them both and perform a test...

stranded core wire

solid core wire

I purchased 25 meters of each type. Both come from the same manufacturer and both are described as 2x2.5mm². I connected my N-scale layout using those cables and put one locomotive on which produced around 150mA of current. The result?

The difference isn't big but it's measurable. The stranded core wire gave ~0.15V more on the track compared to the solid core wire. In other words: seems the solid core wire gave more resistance to the DCC signal and caused a bigger voltage loss.

Is that much? Of course not. But this loss was measured for a really low current and in a G scale I'm expecting much more. And since the resistance of the cable is constant, the bigger the current the more loss there will be.

Is this really the skin effect? I have no idea... I know however that my stranded core wire gives better results in a test, so I'll use that for my garden trains.

Kato turnout #4 short circuit

I'm a huge, huge fan of the Kato N-scale Unitrack. I used it exclusively for my second layout and I'm very happy with it. It's relatively cheap (when bought on Ebay), works well and looks good especially in a temporary layout.
Unfortunately there are issues as well. I've recently purchased a new loco - pretty long BR52 steam engine from Fleischmann - just to find out that it cannot pass the Kato turnouts #4 most of the time. And the problem is not a derailment but a simple short circuit that occurs depending on the turnout unit and the loco's speed.
After looking at the issue closely, I've discovered the problem to be located in this part of the switch:

Seems that depending on the wheel profile (and the BR52 has definitely different wheels than my previous locos) it can - for a very short moment - touch both rails at the same time and cause a short circuit. How close that is to happening for a regular wheel, can be seen in this picture:

This very short malfunction is long enough for my Z21 to detect it (good!) and shut down the layout for good (bad...). It does break the fun...

Unfortunately I could not find a non-intrusive solution for the issue. I tried bending the rails slightly and it did help but only for a while. Seems the rails do come back to their original shape pretty quickly, as the problem is coming back, too.
So I ended up grinding the rails. I treated the first switch with a very small manual file. It worked. So I bought a diamond coated bit for my multi-tool and fixed the other turnouts as well. The effect is the following:

Does not really look that nice, does it? Especially up-close... And I'm also worried that I removed a significant portion of the outer layer of the metal. It does work however very well. My BR52 passes all the switches flawlessly now and the fun can continue...

***

The issue seems to apply only to turnouts #4. Turnouts #6 offer a much wider gap between those two rails and I don't think any locomotive could have a problem on those.

Garden layout plan

I started thinking about the G scale layout back in winter when the weather wouldn't allow me to do anything really. So I had quite some time to think and plan.

My garden is rectangular (and flat) around 13 meters by 11 meters. One side of the garden is adjacent to the house and there are two exits there, so using that side for laying the track might meet some resistance from my family :) And of course I want to keep some grass area, so that my kids can still play in the garden. All in all I ended up with a desire to build a U-shaped layout (marked in orange):

That idea however has (at least) two weak points:

• the garden has another exit that is heavily used by my kids (who visit the neighbour kids that way) and I'm not really sure (yet) how that affects laying the track there 
• it requires a lot of track (which I simply cannot afford in one shot)

I'll start with something simpler then. I'll just use the left side of the garden for now. This will be cheaper and I don't have to tackle the "exit problem" right away.

***

Planning the track layout is easy when you have the right tools. Being a Linux user my choices are limited. Fortunately SCARM works really nice on Linux and it allowed me to do everything I needed.

The plan for the first year is to make just a nice loop on the garden's left side:

I can make it as long as the budget will allow me and by adding an additional twist, I'll make it more interesting. I'll use PIKO's G scale track - seems to be as good as LGB and slightly cheaper.

And in the next years (and if the idea works out at all) I can easily extend it to the other side of the garden. Maybe there's even a potential for two independent tracks there - one on the left and one on the right side of the garden:

But for now it's going to be just one train and one loop...

G scale layout idea

So where did the "G scale idea" come from? Let's see...

• my small N scale layout is really small (40x90cm) so there's not much to play with and not much more can be done (it's full!)
• my bigger N scale layout is cool (it has 3 independent tracks) but I do not have a permanent place for it, so there's no real point in working on it...
• doing anything in N scale requires patience, good eyes, skilful hands and above all - mental strength to keep going when nothing works the way you expect it to...
• I have a garden next to my apartment which is 150 square meters big but not really used that much...

So - why not try something in a large scale? I have the space, everything is bigger, so certain things should be easier, and last but not least - maybe the garden will start looking better as a side effect?

There are challenges, too. Polish climate allows normal garden usage perhaps 5 months a year, somebody might steal the tracks from the garden that cost a fortune, etc. But let's stay positive...